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 Cornell University Library 
 BX4818.3 .C97 1860 
 
 Hammersmith Protestant discussion :beln 
 
 olin 
 
 1924 029 438 029 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of tliis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924029438029 
 
THE 
 
 BEINa 
 
 AN AUTHENTICATED EEPOKT 
 
 OF 
 
 THE CONTROVERSIAL DISCUSSION 
 
 REV. JOHN GUMMING, D.D. 
 
 or THE SCOTTISH NATIOJTAL OHTIHOH, CROWN COURT, COVENT GARDEN, 
 AND 
 
 DANIEL FEENCH, ESQ. 
 
 BARRISTER-AT-LAW, 
 ON TnE 
 
 WFFEEENCES BETWEEN" PROTESTANTISM AND POPERY; 
 
 HELD AT HAMMERSMITH, 
 
 DTTKING THE MOKTHS OF AFB.IL AND HAT, MSCCCXXXIZ. 
 FROM THE SHOET-HAND BOTES OF ' 
 
 CHARLES MATBURY ARCHER, ESQ. 
 
 jaetD IBIritton, tnit]^ a copious IFntrex. 
 
 TWEIFTB THOUSAND.}, 
 
 LONDON: ' 
 ARTHUR HALL, VIRTUE & Co., 25, PATERNOSTER ROW. 
 
 1860. 
 
This Edition is given verbafim from the Reporter's notes ; improvements, both 
 in expression and in reasoning, might, I am conscious, have been introduced into my 
 portion of the work ; but such a course would have been inconsistent with my desire 
 to retain this Volume as a strict report of the Speeches as delivered, I have been 
 deterred from altering Mr. Prench's portion by the fear of criticism, and the probable 
 imputation of an unworthy motive. It should be remembered, that the- Speeches were 
 strictly extemporaneous. 
 
 I have read the sheets as they passed through the press, and can therefore attest 
 the faithfulness and accuracy of this reprint, " 
 
 JOHN GUMMING, D.D. 
 London, April, 1846. 
 
A-DVERTISllMENT. 
 
 ' This celebrated Discussion has excited the greatest interest 
 both among Roman Catholics and Protestants — one proof of 
 which is the rapid sale of upwards of 2,000 copies, though pub- 
 lished at 14s. each, and the constant demand for a New Edition. 
 
 There were selected for discussion five great subjects ; there 
 were two Chairmen at each Meeting, Geo. Finch, Esq. M.P 
 on the Protestant side, and C. Weld, Esq., and subsequently 
 J. Kendall, Esq., on the Roman Catholic side. The audiences 
 — half Protestant and half Roman Catholic — were admitted by 
 tickets. The Discussion lasted eleven nights. The speeches 
 were taken down verbatim by an able reporter, and are pre- 
 sented in this edition precisely as delivered. It is universally 
 allowed to be the most masterly discussion of the whole subject 
 in modern times. Mr. French displayed greater leading 
 and acuteness than any controversialist on the same side; 
 for a century and upwards ; but nothing can be more powerful 
 and complete than the replies of his Reverend opponent, 
 
IV ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 whose perfect command of himself and his language con- 
 trasted most favourably with ]Mr. French, who occasionally 
 displayed a lamentable want of temper. 
 
 The Publishers express the opinion of the most competent 
 judges, when they state that this book ought to be in the hands 
 of every Protestant in Britain, more particularly of Clergymen, 
 Ministers, and Teachers : a more thorough acquaintance with 
 the great Controversy may be acquired from this volume than 
 from any other source. 
 
HAMMERSMITH DISCUSSION. 
 
 PiEST Evening, Ttjesdat, Apeil 2, 1839. 
 
 SUBJECT : 
 
 TEANSUBSTA NTI ATION. 
 
 B,ET. John Gumming. — Let it be 
 distinctly imderstopd, in opening 
 the following discussion, that I have 
 no political or party ends to sub- 
 serve — no personal animosities to 
 indulge — no end, save the glory of 
 HiK. whose I am, and whom I serve. 
 My adversary appeared at one of 
 our meetings, and then, and twice 
 since, challenged me to discuss the 
 awfully momentous points that are 
 at issue between us. As he is a 
 member of the Committee of the 
 Roman CathoKc Institute, officially 
 sanctioned, and, ie facto, an expo- 
 sitor of his faith, I have this day 
 met him, to contend, not for victory, 
 nor in a display of mere gladiator- 
 ship, but for the faith once deli- 
 vered to the saiuts. 
 
 The doctrine of Transubstantia- 
 tion is so extravagant to my mind, 
 that I could have wished my anta- 
 gonist had opened the discussion. 
 To be sure of the very words, the 
 ipsisdma verba of both Churches in 
 reference to the Eucharist, as I" 
 - mean to repeat and adhere to these 
 words, I wiU quote from the autho- 
 rized and recognised canons, arti- 
 cles, and formtdaries of either com- 
 munion. 
 
 Council of Trent, Holy Saorameri; 
 of the Eucharist : — 
 
 Canon I. " If any. shall deny 
 that in the sacrament of the most 
 holy Eucharist, there is contained 
 truly,, really, and substantially the 
 hoSy and, blood, together with the 
 soul and divinity of pur Lord Jesus 
 Christ, but shall say that he is only 
 in it in sign or figure, or power, let 
 him be accursed." 
 
 Canon II. ' " If any shall say, 
 that in the holy sacrament of the 
 Eucharist there remains the sub- 
 stance of bread and wine, together 
 with the body and blood of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ, and shall deny 
 that wonderful and remarkable con- 
 version of the whole substance of 
 the bread into the body, and the 
 whole substance of the wine into 
 the blood, while oid.y the appearance 
 of bread and wine remains, which 
 conversion the Catholic Church most 
 aptly calls Transubstantiation, let 
 hun be accursed." 
 
 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, and therefore that he 
 ought neither to be venerated by any 
 especial festive celebration, nor car- 
 rid solemnly about in processions, 
 according to the universal and Iftud- 
 
TKANSUBSTANIIATION. 
 
 able rite and custom of the Churoli, 
 or that he ought not publicly to be 
 exhibited to the people that he may 
 be worshipped, ana that the wor- 
 shippers of him are idolaters, let 
 him be accursed." 
 
 Canon YIII. — "If any one 
 jhaU say, that Christ, as exhibited 
 in the Eucharist, is only spiritually 
 eaten, and not also mcramentalh/ 
 and really, let him be accursed." 
 
 After these authentic and bind- 
 ing documents from the canons of 
 the Council of Trent, I beg leave to 
 add an extract from the creed of 
 Pope Pius IV., which my learned 
 opponent professes : — " Aid that in 
 the most holy sacrifice of the Eucha- 
 rist there is truly, really, and sub- 
 stantially, the body and blood, toge- 
 ther with the soul and divinity of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ, and that there 
 is made a conversion of the whole 
 substance of the bread into the 
 body, and of the whole substance of 
 the wine into the blood, which con- 
 version the Catholic Church calls 
 Transubstantiation." 
 
 The nest authorized document of 
 the Cliuxch of Rome from which I 
 shall quote is The Catechism or 
 THE Council oe Tebnt. On this 
 document Dr. Poyle, in his '•' Essay 
 on the Catholic Claims," makes the 
 following remarks : — " This Cate- 
 chism is a most authentic exposition 
 of our faith, inasmuch as it em- 
 bodies and explains not only the 
 doctrinal decisions of that Council, 
 out also the several articles of the 
 creed commonly called the Apostles' 
 Creed — the commandments of the 
 decalogue ^ the precepts of the 
 Church, the mass, and the sacra- 
 ments as they are received and 
 understood by all Catholics. This 
 catechism has also been approved of 
 and published by the Pope, and 
 assented to by dl the bishops in 
 communion with the see of Borne, 
 so that it mav be considered an 
 
 [Ist E:yemng. 
 
 epitome of Catholic doctrine and 
 belief." p. 145. Coyne, Dublin., 1826. 
 
 " Jam vero hoc loco a pastoribus 
 expKeandum est non solum verum 
 Christi corpus et quidquid ad veram 
 corporis rationem pertinet vbluii 
 ossA ET NEBVos scd ctiam totum 
 Christum in hoc Sacramento conti- 
 neri." — De Sacramento Eucharistia, 
 p. 241. Venetiis,apudAldum, 1582. 
 
 " It is also in this place to be 
 explained by the pastors, that there 
 is contained not only the true body 
 of Christ and whatever belongs to 
 a true condition (or» definition) of a 
 body, such as bones and neeves, 
 but also a whole Christ." 
 . In these documents we have the 
 fuH and unshrinking explanation of 
 Transubstantiation. In my refer- 
 ences to the doctrine, therefore, I 
 will adhere to these authorized terms 
 as closely as possible, in order that, 
 if offence maybe taken at my phrase- 
 ology, the Church of Home may 
 have, as is most justly due, the 
 credit or discredit of it. 
 
 I now extract from the Confes- 
 sions of the Keformed Catholic 
 Churches of England and Scotland 
 our views of the Eucharist : — 
 
 Thirty-nine Articles. — " The sup- 
 per of the Lord is not only a sign 
 of the love that Christians ought 
 to have among' themselves one to 
 another ; but rather is a sacrament 
 of our redemption by Christ's death : 
 insomuch that to such as rightly, 
 worthily, and with faith, receive the 
 same, the bread which we break is 
 a partaking of the body of Christ ; 
 and likewise the cup of blessing is 
 a partaking of the blood of Christ. 
 
 "Transubstantiation (orthechange 
 of the substance of bread and wine) 
 in the supper of the Lord, cannot be 
 proved by holy writ, but is repug- 
 nant to the plain words of Scripture, 
 overthroweth the nature of a sacra- 
 ment, and hath given occasion to 
 many ' superstitions. The body of 
 
Rev. J. Cumminff,'\ 
 
 Clirist is given, taken, and eaten, in 
 the supper, only after a heavenly and 
 spiritual manner. And the mean 
 whereby the body of Christ is re- 
 ceived and eaten in the supper is 
 faith. The sacrament of the Lord's 
 supper was not by Christ's ordi- 
 nance reserved, carried about, lifted 
 up, or worshipped. 
 
 " The wicked, and such as be Void 
 of a lively faith, although they 'do 
 carnally and visibly press vrith their 
 teeth (as St. Augustine saith) the 
 sacrament of the body and blood of 
 Christ, yet in nowise are they par- 
 takers of Christ, but rather, to their 
 condemnation, do eat and drink the 
 sign or sacrament of so great a 
 thmg." 
 
 Confession of the Church of Scot- 
 land. — " In the supper, rightly used, 
 Jesus Christ is so joined with us, 
 that he becometh the very nourish- 
 ment and food of our souls. Not 
 that we imagine any Transubstan- 
 tiation of the bread into Christ's 
 natural body, and of wine into liis 
 natural blood, as the Papists have 
 perniciously taught and damnably 
 believed; but this union and con- 
 junction which we have with the 
 body and blood of Christ Jesus, in 
 the right use of the sacrament, is 
 .wrought by the operation of the 
 Holy Ghost, who, by true faith, 
 carrieth us above aU things that are 
 visible and carnal and earthly, and 
 maketh us to feed upon the body 
 and blood of Jesus, wliich was once 
 broken and shed for us, which now 
 is in heaven and appeareth in the 
 presence of his Father for us." 
 
 Westminster Confession, q,iopted by 
 the Church of Scotland,. — " Worthy 
 receivers outwardly partaking of the 
 visible elements in this sacrament, 
 do then also inwardly by faith, really 
 and indeed, yet not carnally, and 
 corporeally, but spiritually receive 
 ana feed upon Christ crucified, and 
 aU the benefits of his death. That 
 
 TBAlfSTJBSIAMTIATION, 
 
 doctrine which maintains a change 
 of the substance of bread and wine 
 into the substance of Christ's body 
 and blood (commonly called Tran- 
 substantiation) by consecration of 
 a priest, or by any other way, is re- 
 pugnant not to Scripture alone, but 
 even to common sense and reason, 
 overthroweth the nature of a sacra- 
 ment, and hath been, and is the 
 cause of manifold superstitions, yea 
 of gross idolatries." 
 
 'Thus I have laid before you the 
 bane and antidote. Let me now 
 proceed a step further towards the 
 discussion of this question, and 
 glance at what I expect to be a 
 favourite field with my opponent. 
 I am perfectly persuaded that my 
 learned opponent, too conscious 
 of there bemg no proofs for Tran- 
 substantiation in the Scriptures, 
 win have recourse to what are 
 called the Fathers, and amid their 
 mutilated and^contradictory frag- 
 ments, he win fish up, as from 
 muddy waters, many a specious 
 pretext. It is, therefore, most im- 
 portant, in the outset of this dis- 
 cussion, to lay down the precise 
 amount of authority due to the 
 Fathers, in order that my oppo- 
 nent's quotations may always go for 
 what they are worth. 
 
 1. These writers of the third, 
 fourth, and fifth centuries, are not 
 the fathers strictly so-caUed. The 
 apostles and evangehsts are the 
 fathers of the Christian Church. 
 The so-called fathers were mere 
 voluntary recipients and distributors 
 of the waters of life received from 
 the original fountain, and, most un- 
 fortunately, the contents have not 
 only caught the taint and flavour of 
 the earthen vessels, but have be- 
 come miserably ' diluted by human 
 speculations, coloured by Eastern 
 philosophy, and, ere they reach us, 
 filtered of their more vital and pre- 
 cious ingredients. 
 
TEAHSBBSTAUTIATION. 
 
 2. Eie fathers are vmiversally ad- 
 mitted to be fallible. Botli the 
 Church of Rome and the Protestant 
 Church admit this. 
 
 3. Many of them have erred, and 
 that too on fundamental points, ia 
 the opinion of the Church of Rome. 
 
 I call the most serious attention 
 of every Roman Catholic in the room 
 to the following extract of one of 
 their own chief doctors, Delahogue, 
 in proof of this : — " In order that 
 one may be called by the name of 
 father, it is not required, indeed, 
 that he shall have committed no 
 errors; since St. Justia holds an 
 honourable place among them, who 
 thought that the happiness of the 
 pious "dead was to be postponed till 
 the day of the final judgment. St. 
 Irenaeus, who patronized the error 
 of the MiUennarians ; St. Cyprian, 
 who believed that the baptism con- 
 ferred by heretics was to be re- 
 peated. Moreover, Origen and Ter- 
 tuUian, who have erred in so many 
 soints,ha,'ve been constantlyreokoned 
 among the fatliers." — Treatise on 
 Oh. 3d edit. 1829. 
 
 This opinion of Delahogue i§ of 
 itself sufficient to shake the pro- 
 fessed confidence of Roman Catho- 
 lics in writings partly mutilated — 
 partly corrupted—partly erroneous, 
 and wholly uninspired and fallible. 
 
 4. The fathers contradict each 
 other. The Council of Trent, ch. 
 i. sess. 21, admits that they give 
 various interpretations on the 54th 
 verse of the 6th ' chapter of John ; 
 and BeUarmine {De Sac. Euch. lib. 
 i. ch. V.) gives a catalogue of doc- 
 tors and learned Romanists who give 
 the Protestant interpretation to 
 the above verse. 
 
 5. The fathers ««ere never deputed 
 to give forth the voice of the church 
 on Transubstantiation, or on any 
 other dogma. They were neither 
 Buthorizea nor delegated to do so. 
 
 6. In the next place, all the fathers 
 
 that can be quoted, or appealed to, 
 are a mei-e fragment of the writings 
 of those who actually composed on 
 doctrinal subjects, or who were 
 better employed. Those lost may 
 have held opinions contrarf to those 
 that are left, so that if all the fathers 
 that remain were, as they are not, 
 unanimous in favour of Transub- 
 stantiation, it would not avail. The 
 opinions of the remaining fathers 
 on this doctrinal point, even if un- 
 animous, would not, from these facts, 
 weigh a feather with me ; for what 
 are the opinions of a thousand _^//8- 
 ble books against the contrary judg- 
 ment of one inspired and itifallible 
 penman? 
 
 On this tenet of Transubstan- 
 tiation, the fact is, the fathers 
 held three distinct and antagonist 
 opinions. This I am ready to prove 
 by references, the moment my oppo- 
 nent requires them. One section 
 holds the opinion of the thirty-nine 
 articles and the "Westminster Con- 
 fession, A second section holds con- 
 substantiation — and a third section, 
 partly from scholastic mutilation — 
 partly from hyperbolic phraseology 
 — partly from their application of 
 the name of the thing signified to 
 the symbol, is twisted by the Church 
 of Rome to the countenance of a 
 dogma of the ninth century^Tran- 
 substantiation. 
 
 I am prepared, this evening, if 
 required, to show that Augustine, 
 Ignatius, Clemens Alexandrinus, 
 Tertullian, and Theodoret, main- 
 tain the doctrine of the Reformed 
 churchcf on the Eucharist ; in other 
 words, 1 am prepared to quote pas- 
 sages from each of these fathers, in 
 wmch they pi:oclaim the doctrine of 
 the Protestant Church in reference 
 to the Lord's Supper. This is my 
 first position. In the second place, 
 I am ready to prove that others of 
 the fathers maintained Consubstam- 
 tiation. 'Ircnseus and Chrvaostom 
 
Rev. J'. Cumming.] tuanstobstantiation. 
 
 9 
 
 are the advocates of Consubstantia- 
 tion, if their language be taken 
 literally. And, in. the third place, 
 I candidly admit that a remnant of 
 the fathers, whose sentiments my 
 learned antagonist wiU quote to- 
 day, employ language which may be 
 pleaded as strongly in favonr of 
 Transnbstantiation. At the same 
 time, I would add, tliat BeUarmine, 
 a distinguished advocate of the 
 Church of Rome, says, it is not 
 wholly improbable that there is not 
 a passage in the Word of Ood so 
 express as to compel the admission of 
 Transubstantiation, and he quotes 
 several distinguished scholastic di- 
 vines, who admit that it may not be 
 in the Word of God, and, that there 
 is not, in the Word of God, a pas- 
 sage that goes to compel the doc- 
 trme of Transubstantiation. 
 
 Again, I may also repeat that the 
 Council of Trent admits that, on the 
 54th verse of the 6th chapter of St. 
 John, which probably my learned 
 friend vriH bring forward this even- 
 ing, and which I will require him 
 to prove to be descriptive of the 
 Lord's supper at all, there are vari- 
 ous interpretations. I may mention 
 en passant, that Justin Martyr did 
 not know of certain ceremonies 
 essential to the worship of Koman 
 Catholics, such as the ringing of 
 bells, the elevation, and the adora- 
 tion of the Host, and many other 
 similar rites. I am prepared to show, 
 in the next place, that the Church 
 of Eome has, contrary to the prac- 
 tice of the fathers, withdrawn the 
 cup from the laity, maintaining that 
 the officiating priest alone ought to 
 partake of the cup, and that it is 
 quite sufficient for the rest to par- 
 take of the bread alone, as contain- 
 ing the whole body and blood, soul 
 and divinity of the Son of Ood. 
 
 lam prepared to show, from docu- 
 ments, that the Church of Home, 
 who professedly makes much of the 
 
 fathers, has positively anathema- 
 tized the opimons of some of the 
 most distinguished of them. Cy- 
 prian holds that aU the apostles 
 were equal in power, but the Church 
 of Rome ]xo\as the man anathema- 
 tized that does not give to Peter 
 the supremacy. St. Jerome excludes 
 the Apocrypha, and therefore he 
 comes under the anathema of the 
 Church of Rome. Augustine oppo- 
 ses appeals to Rome, and therefore 
 HE comes under the anathema of 
 the Church of Rome. Ambrose 
 deprecates ^& judicial power which 
 the Church of Rome assumes for 
 her priests, and therefore he is ana- 
 thematized by the Church of Rome. 
 Irenseus gives the creed as the only 
 tradition. St. Chrysostom advo- 
 cates the iudisoriminate reading of 
 the Word of God. St. Athanasius 
 holds the sentiments of the Protes- 
 tant Church, and not of the Church 
 of Rome, iu reference to the sacred 
 canon. These fathers all come under 
 the curses of Trent. The fathers 
 hold sometimes, some of them, the 
 doctrines of the reformed churches ; 
 sometimes, some of them, the doc- 
 trine of Consubstantiation, and are 
 by the Tridentine fathers anathema- 
 tized for it ; and sometimes, some 
 of them, in different passages, are so 
 highly oriental and figurative, that 
 they have given occasion to the 
 doctors of the Church of Rome to 
 deduce from them the doctrine of 
 Transubstantiation. 
 
 Now, I ask, what does this impiy ? 
 Why it amounts to this : that if these 
 fathers are so contradictory of each 
 other, and of themselves — if they 
 are admitted on both sides not to be 
 inspired, and by the Church of Rome 
 not only to be fallible, but also to 
 have erred, and thereby are virtually 
 under the anathemas of Trent, — ^if 
 it has been admitted by the Roman 
 Catholic Church that they have erred 
 in points that go directly to tho 
 b2 ■ 
 
10 
 
 TIULlfSTreSTAlfllATION. 
 
 foiuidation of the whole system of 
 papal supremacy — then I do say it 
 IS time that we should have done 
 with secondary and contradictory 
 testimony, and have recourse to the 
 ^fii-rffifeandonlyhaimonious source, 
 — ^the OKACLES or the living God. 
 I say it is time that we should have 
 done with writers who constitute 
 together but a nose of wax, that may 
 be turned and twisted to every and 
 any side that a skilful controver- 
 si^st pleases; and that we should go 
 to those pure fountains which both 
 of us acknowledge to he the inspira- 
 tion of the Almighty, to those words 
 •which the Holy Ghost teacheth, and 
 not to the words which man's wisdom 
 teacheth. 
 
 Having shown you the conflict- 
 ing sentiments of the fathers — 
 having explained to you the doc- 
 trine of the Church of Home in 
 reference to Transubstantiation, I 
 have now to ohserve that this doc- 
 trine involves iirst the following 
 important and momentous position: 
 — If Transubstantiation be true, 
 then observe, last Sunday, our Lord's 
 soul and divinity, body and blood, 
 hones and nerves, were oh every 
 altar and every chapel of the Church 
 of Rome ; or, in other words, last 
 Sunday our Lord" was corporeally 
 and substantially ^reseat on the ten 
 thousand altars of the Church of 
 Rome ; and again at the Mass, cele- 
 brated this morning in any chapel 
 of the Roman Catholic Church, our 
 Lord Jesus was present on the altar, 
 soul and divinity, body and blood, 
 BONES and neeves, — all, in fact, 
 that is required to constitute a true 
 body. This is the first position in- 
 volved in this tenet. 1 shall pro- 
 ceed, therefore, to show, at the very 
 outset of my remarks, that the Word 
 of God most distinctly declares, that 
 while our Lord is spiritually present 
 with his Church, — " Lo ! I am with 
 vou always, eijen unto the end of 
 
 [1st M>enittg. 
 
 the world,"— it most distinotfy de- 
 clares, that our Lord Jesus Christ 
 IS not any longer present corporeally. 
 You observe, therefore, that fee 
 position which I am ready to prove 
 to you, is that our Lord is not cor- 
 poreally in the midst of us. The 
 first passage which I shall quote is 
 contained m Acts iii. 21:—" Whom 
 the heaven must receive until the 
 times of the restitution of all things, 
 which God hath spoken by the 
 mouth of aU his holy prophets since 
 the world began." Whenever my 
 learned antagonist may wish it, my 
 rev. friend behind me will read from 
 the Douay Bible, for in both the 
 versions these passages are substan- 
 tially if not verbatim the same. 
 
 This passage says, that the heavens 
 must receive bur Lord " until the 
 times of the restitutionof all things;" 
 but, according to the Church of 
 Rome, he leaves heaven, and, bodA/ 
 and blood, soul and divinity, bones 
 and nerves, appears upon the altar, 
 after the priest has pronounced the 
 words, " JIoc est enin corpus meum" 
 Again (Matt. xxvi. 11), "Ye have the 
 poor always with you, but me ye 
 have not always." Observe, the 
 reference was here made to an 
 act of beneficence. We read that, 
 " When the disciples saw it they 
 were indignant, saying, To what pur- 
 pose is this waste." Jesus an- 
 swered, " Ye have the poor always 
 with you, but me ye have not 
 always." But if Christ was to be 
 corporeally in the midst of his peo- 
 ple, then his disciples would have 
 said, " We have thee always with 
 us;" whereas our Lord said, No, 
 " me ye have not always :" that is 
 to say, he is not always corporeally 
 present with his Church. Again, I 
 refer you to 2 Cor. v. 16 : "Where- 
 fore henceforth know we no man 
 after the flesh : yea, though we 
 have known Christ-after the flesh, 
 yet nmt henceforth know we him no 
 
' Rev. J. Cumminff.'] 
 
 TIliN S trBSTANIIATION. 
 
 11 
 
 more after the flesh." " Heiice- 
 fortli," says the apostle, " we know 
 Mm no more after the flesh." 
 Though we have known him after 
 the flesh, that is, though we have 
 personally seen him, and gazed 
 on that countenance which was 
 "more marred than any man's," 
 and beheld those tears which roUed 
 down his cheeks, yet now " we know 
 him no more after the flesh ;" and, 
 therefore, if Transuhstantiaiion be 
 correct, the apostle must be wrong ; 
 but both sides adinit that the apo- 
 stle must be indubitably right, and 
 therefore the inference must be, 
 that the Church of Rome is neces- 
 
 . sarily and fatally wrong. 
 
 My next quotation is taken from 
 the epistle to the Colossians, 
 ch. ni. yer. 1 : " If ye then be risen 
 with Christ, seek those things which 
 are abore, where Christ sitteth at the 
 right hard of Ood." ' Now, observe, 
 here is the statement Ljost distinctly 
 and plainly announced, that our 
 Lord "sitteth at the right hand 
 of God;" but the Church of Rome 
 says, according to canons of the 
 Council of Trent, according to the 
 creed of Pope Pius the 4th, according 
 to the Catechism of the Council of 
 Trent, that our Lord is substantially 
 and corporeally present, tp the whole 
 extent which I have repeatedly 
 stated, upon every altar, at every 
 chapel, and' at every cathedral of the 
 Roman Catholic Church. Now, 
 then, the Scriptures say, "He sitteth 
 at the right hand of God" — bodily, at 
 the right hand of God. The Church 
 of Rome says, he is upon the altar 
 when the pnest has said, "Hoc enim 
 est corpus meum." I ask, then, whe- 
 ther I am to beHeve the one or the 
 other ? for I maintain, that if the 
 canons of the Council of Trent be 
 true, the Word of God must be un- 
 
 ' true ; but, on the other hand, if the 
 Word of God be truth, then I main- 
 tain that the canons of the Council 
 
 of Trent ought to be cast " to the 
 moles and to the bats." I say, " Let 
 God be true, but every man a liar." 
 
 Again, I quote another passage, 
 demonstrative of the untruthful- 
 ness of Transubstantiation, Matt, 
 xxiv. 36 : " Wherefore if they 
 shall say unto you. Behold, he is in 
 the desert; go not forth: Behold, he 
 is in the secret chambers, believe 
 it 7iot." Now the Greek word here 
 rendered " secret chambers," de- 
 notes literally " boxes, cupboards, 
 comers," &o. The Gospel says, " If 
 they shall say unto you. Behold, he 
 is in the secret chambers," or the 
 comers, or pixes, or cupboards, ye 
 " are not to beUeve it." Is it not, 
 then, infatuation and foUy to teach 
 that oui Lord is present in the con- 
 secrated wafer ; that he is put into 
 a pix, and carried about, and pre- 
 sented to the adoration of the peo- 
 ple for worship ? which the Cliurch 
 of Rome herself owns to be the 
 worship of Latria, the supreme wor- 
 ship given to God. This, then, is 
 my first position. Whenever my 
 antagonist shall bring forward his 
 arguments, I shall be prepared, in 
 the strength of God, and by the aid 
 of his Holy Sphit; to reply to them. 
 Transubstantiation wfll be placed be- 
 fore you in the course of this import- 
 ant discussion, and then, if the wa^er 
 "be God, then you ai'e to worship it." 
 I use the words in a figurative sense, 
 and add, " If the Lord be God, then 
 follow him ; but if Baal, then follow 
 him." If Protestantism have truth 
 on it& side, it is, my friends, at the - 
 peril of your precious and immortal 
 souls that you reject it ; but if the 
 Roman Catholic Church have truth 
 on her side, then it is equally at the 
 peril of your immortal souls that 
 you reject it. 
 
 I say, the matter now before us is 
 to be fairly, fully, and impartially 
 discussed. I am, therefore, prepared 
 io demonsi rate, that the position of , 
 
12 
 
 TBANStrBSTAMTIATION. 
 
 the Church of Eome is no sacred 
 position — a position not warranted 
 by the word of the litiog God. My 
 Roman CathoKc antagonist will 
 reply, "Very true; but may not the 
 body of Christ be in many places at 
 once ; so that while that "body is, in 
 a sense, now ' seated at the right 
 hand of God,' may it not also be 
 strictly true that it is also to be 
 .found upon the altars of the^L/man 
 Catholic Church?" Now, in the 
 first place, this destroys the nature 
 of a true body. Is it not the cha- 
 racteristic of our blessedjRedeemer 
 that " in all things it behoved him 
 to be made like unto his brethren;" 
 that is, in every peculiarity and fea- 
 ture, and characteristic of real huma- 
 nity, " sin only excepted," of which 
 he was clearly and utterly void; yet 
 in all other poiats, observe, it be- 
 came a necessary characteristic of 
 our blessed Lord that he should be 
 " Kke unto his brethren." Now, if 
 that be the case, he cannot be cor- 
 poreally here and be corporeally at 
 London, and at Edinburgh, and at 
 Paris, all at the same instant. It is 
 a necessary characteristic of a true 
 lod/y to be only present, as far as 
 we know, in one spot at once. 
 
 To show you that this is not a 
 mere idea of my own, I wiU quote 
 from the sacred penman these words 
 (Matthew xxvid. 5, 6) : — " And 
 the angel answered and said unto 
 the women, Pear not ye; for I 
 know that ye seek Jesus, who was 
 crucified. He is not here ; for he 
 is risen, as he said." The words 
 are substantially the same in the 
 Douay Bible. Now observe what 
 is admitted in ■ this ? The angel 
 most distinctly said, " He is not 
 here;" why? because "he is risen." 
 What, then, is the inference ? That 
 he cannot be here bodily, and yet 
 risen, and bodily at the right hand 
 of God at one and the same mo- 
 ment. The Scriptures plainly and 
 
 \\.st Hvening 
 
 pointedly declare that our Lord " is 
 not here;" but that " he is risen;" 
 and, if risen corporeally, that he is 
 necessarily not here corporeally. 
 
 The next quotation is from the 
 Gospel of St. Luke, xxiv. 39: 
 " 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." Now 
 to what did our Lord appeal ? He 
 says, see me vrith your^ eyes, behold 
 me and see, that a spirit hath not 
 flesh and bones as ye see me have ; 
 but the Church of Rome says, that 
 his BONES are present 'on the altar of 
 every chapel in the Roman Catholic 
 Church ; yet our Lord delares, that 
 unless ye see his wounds, unless ye 
 behold his flesh, ye do not behold 
 his bodily presence, and, therefore, 
 he is not bodily and substantially 
 present on the altar. The host that 
 the priest holds has neither hands 
 nor feet, nor (I use the words of the 
 Roman Church) bones, nor nerves, 
 nor body, nor blood ; ergo, it is not 
 the bodily presence of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ. I quote another pas- 
 sage from St. Jolm, xx. 27 : " Then 
 saith he to Thomas, Reach hither ihy 
 finger and behold my hands, and 
 reach hither thy hand and thrust it 
 into my side, and be not faithless, 
 but believing." Now, observe, our 
 Lord, after his resurrection, retained 
 upon his body the marks of the 
 nails on his sacred hands and of 
 the thorns about his once bleeding 
 brows, and of the spear that 
 wounded his holy side. And, ob- 
 serve, when Thomas doubted that 
 he was present — thought that Christ 
 had not risen, and that he was not 
 bodily present among them, what 
 did our Lord say ? Our Lord put 
 it to the test in this most decisive 
 manner, — "Handle me and see; 
 thrust thy hand mto my side, believe 
 the marks of the nails,, and see that 
 it is I myself." Now, if you take 
 
Sev. J. Cummin^.'] 
 
 the wafer on the altar of the Ghureh 
 of Rome, has that any trace of the 
 ■wounds ? Has that any features 
 demonstratiTe of the characteristics 
 of a natural hody ? If I speak to 
 it, will it reply ? If I ask it a ques- 
 tion, win it say, " Handle me, and 
 see, and believe; that a spirit has 
 not flesh and bones ?" What then 
 must be the inference, if we take 
 the eriteria of our Lord's presence 
 as given in the Gospels — if we take 
 the plain and explicit testimony of 
 sacred writ? The inference must be, 
 that our Lord is not present in his 
 body and blood, soul and divinity, 
 -bones and nerves — 
 
 TUMfSUBSTAIfTIATIOtr. 
 
 13 
 
 on the altars of the Roman CathoKc 
 Church. , 
 
 I know my friend will fashion 
 most ingenious and subtle dis- 
 criminations about the existence 
 of species and accidents; but, re- 
 member, we must have a decisive 
 declaration. It is either a simple 
 piece of flour and water, or it is 
 what the Church of Rome calls it, 
 — the body and blood, soul and divi- 
 nity, bones and nerves of the Son 
 of God. No scholastic discrimina- 
 tion as to accidents and species will 
 satisfy your judgments on the point, 
 especially as there seems to be an 
 overwhelming torrent of inspiration 
 to bring contempt and odium on the 
 awful notion by which the minds 
 of our Roman Catholic friends are 
 blinded and deceived. It vnll re- 
 quire the most oiroumstantial and 
 Y lucid demonstration to show-^in the 
 very teeth of such a volume of 
 sacred disproofs — that Christ is 
 present, in the way in which he is 
 explained to be in the Catechism of 
 the Council of Trent, on the altars 
 of the Roman CathoHo Church. 
 
 I quote next, Matthew xxiv. 27: — 
 " Por as the lightning cometh out 
 of the east, and shineth even unto 
 the west, so shall the coming of the 
 Son of Man be." Now here is an 
 
 express declaration that our Lord, 
 when he cometh to us in his bodily 
 presence, he comes like the light- 
 ning that streams amidst splendour 
 and amidst beauty from the east 
 even unto the west. And there- 
 fore, my learned adversary will be 
 prepared to show, that when the 
 priest has pronounced the words of 
 consecration, oui Lord comes down 
 upon the altar amid the corusca- 
 tions and the glory wherevrith the 
 lightning shines and buries itse\f in 
 the far distant west. But since 
 we know that we behold no such 
 rays or splendour accompanying the 
 assumed bodily presence of Christ 
 on the altar of the Church of Rome, 
 we justly infer that he is not bodily, 
 -substantially, and corporeally there. 
 I quote the Acts of the Apostles, 
 i. 10, 11: " And whUst they (the 
 apostles) looked stedfastly toward 
 heaven, as he went up, behold two 
 men stood by them in white apparel; 
 which also said. Ye men of Galilee, 
 why stand yegazing up into heaven? 
 This same Jesus, which is taken up 
 from you into heaven, shall so come 
 in like manner as ye have seen him go 
 into heaven." How did he go into 
 heaven ? He rose in an impres- 
 sive, beautiful, and gloripJis manner. 
 Well, the Holy Spirit says, when he 
 comes again, he is to come pre- 
 cisely in the same way. Now we 
 have seen him go into heaven one 
 way, i. e. amid glory and splendour : 
 then, we ask, is it the fact in the 
 experience of the Church of Rome 
 that he thus comes to their altars ? 
 Will my Roman Catholic antago- 
 nist, or any Roman Catholic priest, 
 maintain that the moment the words 
 are syllabled. Hoc est enim corpus 
 meum, that our Lord comes down 
 from heaven amid beams of glory 
 and of sp^ondour, when he appears 
 upon the altars of the Church of 
 Rome ? And yet, I must .believe, 
 if God's word be true, that " he 
 
TKANSUBSIAlfTIATION. 
 
 [Isi Ecemng. 
 
 shall so come i» like manner" as 
 the apdstles beheld him retire from 
 this dismaiitled, evil, and sia-stained 
 world. The iiiference mast be so ; 
 and I know not how any one, with 
 this blessed book in his hand, can 
 venture to affirm otherwise, — ^Iknow 
 not how the Church of Rome can 
 pronounce her anathema ou me for 
 believing what the Holy Spirit de 
 dares— I repeat, the inference must 
 be, that our Lord is not corporeally 
 present upon the altars of the Roman 
 Catholic Church, as far as I can find 
 the evidences of that presence, as 
 these are here distinctly and empha- 
 tically proclaimed. The last pas- 
 sage wmoh I shall quote, is from 
 Revelations i. 7 : " Behold he 
 eometh with clouds, and every eye 
 shall see him, and they also which 
 pierced him ; and all kindreds of the 
 earth shall wail because of him." 
 I then ask, if he thus " eometh with 
 clouds," is there any evidence of it, 
 is there any semblance of it in the 
 Roman Catholic Church when the 
 wafer is turned into the body and 
 blood, the soul and divinity, bones 
 and nerves, of the Son of God ? 
 
 I shaU. not, on the present occa- 
 sion, bring forward other disproofs 
 of this most extraordinary dogma, 
 i. e. that our Lord is present cor- 
 poreally on the altars of the Church 
 of Rome. But I would just men- 
 tion one simple fact respecting the 
 origin of this notion, which, indeed, 
 I ought to have done before. The 
 doctrine of the corporeal presence of 
 Christ in the Eucharist was first 
 started on the occasion of a dispute 
 as to the worship of images, in 
 opposition to which the, Council of 
 Constantinople, in 754, contended 
 that Christ had left us no other 
 image than the bread — the image 
 of his body. Rhadbert Pasohasius, 
 a monk of the ninth century, accord- 
 ing to Belarmine, was the first who 
 had seriously and copiously written 
 
 concerning the truth ,of Christ's 
 body and blood in the Eucharist. 
 This monk, by Bellarmiae's admis- 
 sion, was the first author who vrrote 
 seriously and copiously concerning 
 it ; so that 800 years passed away 
 before any author wrote seriously 
 and copiously about the bodily pre- 
 sence, and yet, during these 800 
 years, the fathers and other doctors 
 had written copiously and seriously 
 on almost every doctrine and duty. 
 Again, Duns Scotus, Eellow and 
 Professor of Divinity at Merton 
 College, Oxford, in the beginning of 
 the fourteenth century, allows that 
 Ti'ansubstantiation was not always 
 necessary to be believed, and that 
 the necessity of believing it was 
 consequent on the declaration of 
 the Church, miiie at the sanguinary 
 fourth Comjcfl of Lateran, in 1315, 
 under Innocent in. Durandus, 
 Bishop of Meaux, acknowledges his 
 inclination to believe the contrary of 
 Transubstantiation,iftheChurchhad 
 not obliged men to beKeve it. [Here 
 the rev. gentleman's hour expired.] 
 
 Mr.PKBNCH. — ^Ladies and gentle- 
 men, it is to me, I candidly con- 
 fess, in rising to address you, a 
 most pleasing and delightful spec- 
 tacle to behold so many persons, of 
 either sex, this evening, assembled 
 together, for the noble, the exalted 
 purpose of hearing, in solemn si- 
 lence, and with the calm composure 
 of minds open to conviction, the 
 cause of sacred .truth lununously 
 explained, and, with the help of 
 Ahnighty God, which I believe both 
 my reverend friend and myself have 
 with fervour implored before our 
 entrance into this room, not only 
 luminouslyexijlained, but vigorously 
 as well as copiously defended. Yes, 
 my friends, truth, sacred truth, will 
 this day, by the efforts of the suc- 
 cessful combatant, be placed before 
 you, in all its native majesty and 
 
Mr. French.'] 
 
 lEANSUBSTANIIATION. 
 
 15 
 
 oiarms ; whilst on tlie other hand, 
 error, on whichever side it may be 
 found to be — for I have no right to 
 assnme that it is on mine — error 
 will be, by this same energetic 
 power of argument on the part of 
 him that shall prevail, stripped of 
 all its false pretensions, and exposed 
 to every eye, ia all its native de- 
 formity. In other words, by one of 
 these our conflicting labours, that 
 will come to pass this day, which 
 our blessed Saviour has uttered, 
 "Every plant which my heavenly 
 Father hath not planted shall be 
 rooted up." St. Matt. xv. 13. 
 
 Yes, my respected friends, this 
 day, I confidently trust, wiU arouse 
 many a slumbering soul to deep and 
 solemn meditation on that most 
 vital, most important of all subjects 
 for the mind of a Ghristiau to re- 
 volve, namely, whether it be iudeed 
 true, or whether it be but an idle 
 fiction, a mere empty sound, that 
 " Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of 
 Man, and d/rink his blood, ye have 
 no life in you" St. John vi. 53. 
 And here permit me to say, what I 
 most sanguinely anticipate, namely, 
 that some persons who have entered 
 this room this evening (though I am 
 aware that many have entered it 
 without leaving their prejudices 
 behiud them), wiU go out of it 
 entirely altered men or women, as to 
 the whole texture of their religious 
 sentiments, firmly and unconquer- 
 ably resolved to obey the operations 
 of Divine grace beaming upon their 
 hearts, so soon as I shaU have 
 placed the truth in fuH blaze before 
 them. Yes, I repeat it, so soon as 
 their understandings shall have been 
 3onvinced by the force of irresistible 
 and unanswerable arguments, that 
 when the Lord Jesus Christ said, 
 some time before the Last Supper, 
 to his disciples, preparing them for 
 that grand and august sacrament 
 which he was about to institute, — 
 
 " The bread that I will give you is 
 my flesh," St. John vi. 51; and 
 that when afterwards at the Last 
 Supper he said, with clear, solemn, 
 testamentary emphasis, " This is my 
 body, this is my blood," St. Matt, 
 xxvi. 26-38, that he meant it to be 
 understood, as is expounded by his 
 own words, " Verily, verily" and not 
 as expounded'by the tongues of 'Sxo- 
 i&sid.rAs,"Figuratively, figuratively." 
 The gentleman who, is this day 
 opposed to me has, more than 
 once during his address to you, 
 deprecated any introduction, on ray 
 part, of the glorious fathers of the 
 church. My reverend opponent, I 
 must also remark, has boasted more 
 than once, in his endeavours to 
 subvert or to disprove the doctrine 
 of the Catholic Eucharist, which 
 doctrine is, as he has properly de- 
 fined it, though in other words, — 
 the real presence of our Lord's 
 glorious and blessed body, under 
 the species of corruptible elements ; 
 he has boasted, I say, that, in ac- 
 complishing this, the sphere of his 
 argumentation shall principally be 
 the Bible, a book upon which he 
 defies me to support my prhiciple. 
 Now the Bible, I reply, or the New 
 Testament, shall also he my prime 
 bulwark in defending it. xes, my 
 friends, I wiH meet him, foot to 
 foot, on that hallowed ground : nay 
 more, I will encounter him at the 
 very entrance of it, as it were, with 
 the four flaming swords of the 
 cherubim to guard the stand I take : 
 I mean, my friends, the express 
 texts of the four Evangelists, and, 
 added to them, that powerful body 
 of auxiliaries, the texts of Saint 
 Paul to Ihe Corinthians. But, my 
 friends, whilst I also glory in claim- 
 ing the Bible as my chief prop, I 
 caimot consent to deprive myself, ■ 
 in corroborating my deductions 
 from that inspired volume, of the 
 benefit to be derived to me from de- 
 
16 
 
 TEANSirBSTANIIATION. 
 
 ductions precisely similar to my own, 
 made in every a^e, since the foun- 
 dation of Ckcistianity, by the re- 
 nowned and glorions fathers of the 
 Chnrch. I cannot — ^I will not con- 
 sent, in accommodation to modem 
 dictators ia theoloCT, to break 
 asunder that sacred linV of tradition 
 which hands down to^me, in. one 
 regular, harmonious, Keautiful Une 
 of unbroken succession, froin age to 
 age, and from father to father, the 
 dogma of the Catholic Eucharist : 
 namely, that in this sacrament 
 Christ gave unto us his blessed 
 body ;. yes, his very flesh to eat, 
 and Ms ve^ryj blood to drink. 
 
 No, my friehds, I do notwonder at 
 this his earnest deprecation against 
 my introducing the fathers of' the 
 Church, on the part of my learned 
 opponent. Were I in his situation, 
 Ishould have made a similar aippeal 
 to my antagonist. But no, gentle- 
 men, I miist hav;e recourse to them; 
 such an overwhelming argument 
 cannot be passed by, by the CathoKc 
 who is solicitous to do fuU justice 
 , to the glorious cause he has under- 
 taken to defend. It is an argument, 
 my friends, that of itself, without 
 the necessity of any close, scruti- 
 nizing inspection into the inspired 
 pages, wii for ever enable the^ 
 Catholic, 1 will not say to frown, 
 but to snule defiance on his Pro- 
 testant antagonist ; who vainly en- 
 deavours, by his feeble outcry, to 
 silence the loud voice that issues 
 forth from the depth of ages — a 
 voice, my friends, which has never 
 ceased to re-echo, uninterruptedly, 
 for now nearly nineteen centuries, 
 from clime to clime, and from one 
 end of Christendom to the other — 
 ike doctrine of Tranaubstantiation. 
 
 I shall, therefore, gentlemen, in 
 my view of things (for I wiU never 
 permit any one to prescribe to me 
 me Mne which I think proper to 
 adopt in my disputation} — ^I sha'. 
 
 [Is* Ihenmg. 
 
 therefore place before you, in the 
 very front of this discussion, a 
 quotation from one of those glorious 
 fathers, in order to render the course 
 which I am about to pursue more 
 simple and easy. I shaU lay before 
 you one ever-memorable, ever-daz- 
 zKng extract : and I shall content 
 myself, probably, with this, or at 
 most one or two more, during the 
 course of the Mmited time now pre- 
 scribed to me. It is a quotation 
 from St. Ignatius Martyr, who was 
 a disciple, as Archbishop Wake, a 
 Protestant archbishop, tells us, of 
 St. John the Evangelist, and who 
 was appointed, as the same arch- 
 bishop tells us, to the see of Antioch, 
 by the apostle St. Peter. Ee, there- 
 fore, (St. Ignatius,) as I humbly 
 conceive, ought to have known 
 something, at least, of genuine 
 Christiamty, having had the benefit 
 of such tuition, under such tran- 
 soendently holy and incontrovertibly 
 inspired masters. He laid his very 
 life down in the cause of his blessed 
 Redeemer, facing with undaunted 
 f6rtitude the fierce and hungry Hon 
 in the amphitheatre at Home, and 
 idying with joy and gladness, in order 
 to drink fuIL streams of joy and 
 gladness for ever in the presence of 
 the immaculate Lamb. Such a per- 
 son, sxirely, wiU not be spoken of 
 slightly by my eloquent and my 
 pious iriend. He, surely, can never 
 undervalue Ignatius, the disciple of 
 St. John the Evangelist ; and if, in 
 the warmth of discussion, he should 
 call him "oriental, metaphorical," 
 or " figurative," — ^which, I believe, 
 were the epithets he ascribes to the 
 language of the fathers, I shall beg 
 of him, in an argumentative, not 
 orientalizing manner, when he arises 
 to answer me, to do away, if he can, 
 or to invalidate the strength of this 
 infrangible passage in our favour 
 iflid to show me wherein the orient' 
 alism and figurativeness of tho 
 
Mr. French.] 
 
 TBANSUBSIANTIATION. 
 
 n 
 
 expression consists. I shall hand it 
 over to him, in order that he may 
 see that I quote it fairly, and ex- 
 plain it to you with the utmost 
 accuracy and the utmost precision. 
 {Hand it over, if you please, Mr. 
 Weld, to Mr. Finch, the Chairman on 
 the other side.'] Bear in mind, my 
 friends, that this Ignatius, who 
 lived ia the earliest ages of Chris- 
 tianity, as I told you, ought most 
 unquestionably to know what was 
 pure and unadulterated Christianity, 
 As these words are most important, 
 I shall quote them in Greek, as I 
 have not the book now in haiid; 
 do not alarm yourselves, however, 
 for I shall translate them immedi- 
 ately into English. He is talking 
 of certaiu persons whom he calls 
 heretics, and he says of these here- 
 tics,' — •" They abstain from, the Fk- 
 charist and prayer, lecause they 
 do not helieve the Fucharist to be 
 the flesh of our Saviour Jesus Christ, 
 which flesh suffered for our sins, and 
 which flesh, in his goodness, theFather 
 resuscitated." — Ed. Pears, et Smith, 
 Oxon. 1709. [Mr. Erench having 
 parted with the book, repeated and 
 construed the Greek from memory.] 
 Now, you see, my friends, in 
 the first place, that there were 
 certain heretics that absented them- 
 selves from the Eucharist in those 
 days. And why, let me ask, did 
 they thus absent themselves from 
 a participation of that heavenly 
 food? Why, Ignatius teUs you, 
 that they absented themselves be- 
 cause they would not believe that it 
 was " the fl.esh of our Saviour Jesus 
 Christ ;" and, mark the accuracy of 
 the expression ! — ^meaning to show 
 what flesh, and that you might not 
 imagine it to be an oriental expres- 
 sion, he says, " which flesh," not 
 which bread " suffered for our sins." 
 It goes on ; the passage goes on to 
 show, that it is not mere inanimate 
 flesh, whiuh the Protestant, unac- 
 
 quainted with the subject, miagines 
 the Cathoho to take ; namely, a bit 
 of flesh, or so many drops of blood ; 
 but he says, "which flesh the 
 Eather, in his goodness, resus- 
 citated," or raised up, that is to 
 say, the flesh of Chnst, animated 
 vnth his immortal soid, with his 
 eternal Spirit ; in other words, 
 " Christ," as the Council of Trent 
 has it, and as my learned friend, 
 with the utmost accuracy has ex- 
 pressed it, " Christ truly God, ana 
 truly man, whole and entire." 
 
 Such, gentlemen, is the Catholic 
 doctrine. Wlether accurate or not, 
 we shall examine when we come to 
 notice my learned friend's observa- 
 tions. Bat yon have here, already, 
 my friends, the demonstration of a 
 fact, which, in my ovm humble 
 opinion, supersedes the necessity of 
 any further inspection into the fa- 
 thers of the Church at all ; not that 
 I shall limit myself to this one 
 solitary quotation, but I say it is so 
 powerful a quotation as to admit of 
 no dispute as to its force andinviui 
 cibHity. It will be in vain for my 
 learned friend" to say he is not a true 
 father of the Church, because he is 
 not an inspired apostle. What ! a 
 man educated by St. John the Evan- 
 gelist, — a man appointed Bishop of 
 Antioch, by St. Peter, not a father ■ 
 aye, and a grandfather, too, if I may 
 use an illustrative expression of the 
 learned gentleman. [Applause and 
 hisses from different parts of the 
 room, and cries of "Order!"] 
 
 Thus you see, my friends, that 
 even in the days of the apostles the 
 loud, bold voice of Protestantism 
 was already heardresounding. There 
 were men, even in those bright- 
 davraing days, as St. Ignatius tells 
 us, — there were men vmo absented 
 themselves from the holy Eucharist, 
 because they could not make up 
 their minds to believe in that doc- 
 trine which the CathoKc so firmlf 
 
18 
 
 TBAMSITBSTANTIATION. 
 
 believes in. [Here the learned gen- 
 tleman was interrupted, and the 
 meeting was called to "Order."] 
 Silence being obtained, the learned 
 gentleman continued: I must re- 
 quest my Catholic fiiends not to set 
 so bad an example. It is disgi-ace- 
 ful in the extreme. It does not 
 animate me ; it rather depresses 
 me, to hear such bursts of acclama- 
 tion. It confuses me — destroys the 
 thread of my disputation, and does 
 no good to yourselves. Yes, there 
 were men (says St. Ignatius) who 
 lived and died aliens and strangers 
 to those heavenly rays which illu- 
 minated the eyes of the beUeving 
 and the adoring Catholic. 
 
 But, my friends, why should this 
 excite our wonder and astonishment, 
 when we reflect, that scarcely had 
 the sacred lips of a Man-God (when 
 here upon earth) announced the 
 grand sacrament which he was 
 about to institute, when murmur- 
 ings arose and spread around him 
 from mouth to mouth, questioning 
 its possibility, even in his blessed 
 presence. " How can this man give 
 us his flesh to eat ? " exclaimed the 
 first Protestants of whom history 
 makes mention. "How can this 
 man give'm his flesh to eat ?" St. 
 John vi. 52. Here, my friends, it 
 occurs to me, that I may, perchance, 
 have given some assistance to my 
 learned friend and opponent, in 
 tracing the existence of his Church 
 up to the apostolical days. How- 
 ever, gentlemen, I am generous 
 enough to give him all the advan- 
 tage he can possibly reap from this 
 concession on my part ; suffice it for 
 me to call his attention, and your 
 attention, to this one undeniable 
 fact:— that "from that time for- 
 ward," it is said, " they (the first 
 Protestants) walked no more with 
 him." St. John vi. 66. No, they 
 left the teaching of our blessed 
 Saviour, in order to dogmatize for 
 
 [Is^ Eoemnff. 
 
 themselves ; " their ears," to use the 
 language of the apostle, " could not 
 endme sound doctrine;" they con- 
 tinued wandering in their _ vain 
 imaginations, through all the inter- 
 minable mazes of infidelity and scep- 
 ticism, instead of aoquiesciug vrith 
 lowly and implicit confidence in tho 
 unerring words of Him who is " the 
 way, the truth, and the life :" " in 
 whose Hps was no guile," in whose 
 words was no possibility of decep- 
 tion; instead of crying out with 
 Peter — the rock upon which Christ 
 built his church — in reply to his 
 Divine Master, "Lord, to whom 
 shall we go ? thou hast the words 
 of eternal Ufe," St. John vi. 68; 
 thou hast said unto me, and said 
 unto aU thy followers, that " unless 
 we eat thy flesh and drink thy blood, 
 we have no life withui us." 
 
 I must iure observe, that I shall 
 be very willing, in imitation of the 
 example set by my learned friend, to 
 refer immediatelyto the.pages of the 
 Bible and of the New Testament, 
 chiefly in order to prove the doctrine 
 of Transubstantiation ; but, at the 
 same time, I hope that you wiH not 
 deem it a departure from the system 
 pointed out, to which I shall, in 
 some respects, be very willing to 
 adhere, — -I say, I hope you wiU not 
 deem it a deviation from that sys- 
 tem, if, whilst I refer to particular 
 parts of Scripture, I likewise refer 
 to the fathers of the Church, who, 
 inthe respective ages of that Church, 
 explained these passages and these 
 texts precisely iii the same manner 
 as we Catholics do at the present 
 day. My reverend opponent has 
 told you, that he is prepared, this 
 evening, to adduce St. Augustine, 
 and St. Jerome, with other fathers, 
 as evidence against the doctrine of 
 Transubstantiation. 
 
 Kev. Dr. Cumming. — No; not 
 St. Jerome : St. Augustine and 
 others. 
 
Mr. French^ 
 
 TBANSirBSTAlJTIATION, 
 
 19 
 
 Mr. Ebench. — Oh ! he says, aot 
 St. Jerome : St. Augustine and 
 others. Now, if there be one of all 
 the fathers more copious than an- 
 other, and more nervous in explain- 
 ing this doctrine, so that a child 
 may understand him, it is the 
 
 florious St. Augustine. And before 
 come to confine myself solely to 
 the books of the New Testament, I 
 'cust beg leave to quote one or two 
 passages from that renowned father 
 of the Church, especially as the 
 learned gentleman has lighted upon 
 him. I shaE merely observe, before 
 I cite, that Calvin has panegyrized 
 this father, the great St. Augustine, 
 above all others that ever took pen 
 in hand. The quotations which are 
 brought against me by my learned 
 friend from this saint, I am prepared 
 to meet, and to show the meaning 
 of them to be in our favour ; but 
 I donbt very much whether the 
 learned gentleman, with all the ver- 
 satility of his genius, wiU be able to 
 give a different interpretation to the 
 passage I am about to cite from 
 than that which I and all Catholics 
 deduce from it. 
 
 St. Augustine, speaking of that 
 text in which is recorded the mur- 
 muring of the Jews, i. c. " This is 
 a hard saying, who can hear it?" 
 has this remarkable passage : — 
 " Durus est hie sermo quis potest 
 eum audire." "Yes," says St. 
 Augustine, "Durus est, sed duris, 
 incredibile est sed incredulis." That 
 is, " It ^s hard, — aye, but to those 
 only who are themselves hard. It 
 is moredible, aye, but to those 
 only who are themselves incredu- 
 lous." (De Verb. Bvmig. Johan,. vol. 
 V. p. 640, edit. Bened.) "Why, every 
 one must here ,see, without any 
 comment of mine, the plain meaning 
 of St. Augustine's words. This 
 aUilsion' of the father must most 
 unquestionably have refen-ed to the 
 difficulty of believing in Transub- 
 
 stantiation on the part of those 
 whose hearts are too hard to be 
 penetrated by the beams of heavenly 
 grace. But is he the only father 
 Qiat has done this ? No, my friends, 
 there are about nine or ten fathers 
 who have referred to this very pas- 
 sage, viz. " This is a hard saymg." 
 I have given you St. Augustine ; 
 we will now take St. Cyril of Alexan- 
 dria, who flourished m the year of 
 our Lord ilZ. I have the Greek, 
 if my learned opponent wishes to . 
 see it. I shall give you the English 
 of it : — " But if thou persist, oh 
 Jew ! in urging this, how, I will, in 
 Kke manner, ask you how was the 
 rod of Moses tran§formed into a 
 serpent ? howwas the water changed 
 into the nature of blood ?" (Tom. 
 iv. p. 359, edit. Aiibert, Lutetis, 
 1638.) The next father to whom I 
 shall refer lived in the year 369, 
 viz., the illustrious St. BasU, who 
 observes : — " We must not indulge 
 in doubts or disputes^ concerning 
 what our Lord has said, but cherish 
 a full conviction that every word of 
 his is true and possible of effect. 
 
 ity ; for it is in this very 
 point in which the struggle of faith 
 consists. The Jews, therefore, strug- 
 gled with one another, saying, 'IJow 
 can this man give us his liesh to 
 eat ?' Therefore he said to them, 
 ' Verily, verily I say unto you, ex- 
 cept ye eat the flesh of the Son of 
 Man, and drini his blood, ye have no 
 life in you.'" (1 John vi. 53.) Begul. 
 8. Moral, tom. ii. p,'*240, edit. Ben. 
 Now, I see no " oriental " cast 
 of expression in these passages ; 
 and, if there be none, then I affirm 
 that these fathers of the Church 
 were all genuine Papists ; and how- 
 ever the learned gentleman may 
 think it fashionable, in the nine- 
 teenth century, to lian down these 
 fathers of the Church, and cast, aa 
 it were, a contemptuous eye upon 
 
20 
 
 TRANSTJBSIANTIATION. 
 
 them, I would have him to know, 
 that whole volumes of praises have 
 been written upon their veracity by 
 the most distmguished doctors of 
 the Church of England. It is only 
 in this niueteenth century that the 
 fashion has arisen of decrying these 
 renowned, these celebrated fothers. 
 They have ever been claimed by the 
 doctors of the Church of England 
 as their fathers, speaking their lan- 
 guage, enforcing their tenets, and 
 overtumiog ours. Strange infatu- 
 ation on their part! one is apt to 
 exclaim, when I bring such pas- 
 sages to confront them ; and I 
 gr^it it is an iaoonsistenoy which I 
 nave never been able to account 
 for. But so it is; and it is for 
 them to reconcile it to sense and 
 logic : all I shall say is, that the 
 more you are iutroduced, my friends, 
 to the knowledge of these fathers, 
 the more will you be persuaded 
 that you. have been deceived in 
 your deductions. 
 
 The grand dispute between you 
 Protestants and us Cathohcs is this : 
 which is the primitive Church? 
 Wow, 'we have a Church, existing ia 
 the present day, that assimilates 
 itself, by demonstrable proof, not by 
 mere assertion, to the Church of 
 pure, unadulterated antiquity. I 
 take you up to the earKest fathers of 
 the Church ; or, as my learned friend 
 facetiously called them, the grand- 
 fathers of the Church, the apostles 
 snd the evangelists, and they will 
 confound you. Again ; I take you 
 next to St. Ignatius, their disciple, 
 and the passage I have read you 
 from St. Ignatius is equally con- 
 founding to all your pretensions. I 
 nope my rev. opponent will be able 
 to answer that passage ; for mark, 
 my friends, the diflicmty of answer- 
 ing it. Ignatius, a man educated 
 among evangelists and apostles, de- 
 daies, that "it is the flesh of Jesus, 
 which flesh the Father, in his good- 
 
 ness, resuscitated." The rev. gen- 
 tleman has quoted Justin Martyr: 
 I, therefore, in turn, shaE in due 
 time take up Justin Martyr into 
 my hands. I shall quote a passage 
 from Justin Martyr, and a most 
 important quotation it is. But I 
 would merely observe before I 
 begin, and that must be deferred 
 until I rise a second time to ad- 
 dress you, that Archbishop TiUot- 
 son, who wrote the first elaiborate 
 treatise, as he calls it — I call it 
 mere declamation — against our doc- 
 trines, professes to begin with the 
 earliest father, and takes this very 
 identical passage of Justin Martyr 
 to which my friend has alluded; 
 but he does not say one single wcrd 
 on the above-quoted passage of th"; 
 stiU earlier Ignatius ; no, he makes 
 Justin to be the first father, and 
 has not the candour to tell his 
 Protestant brethren, that such a 
 man as Imatius ever lived — ever 
 existed. But he takes Justin Mar- 
 tyr, and he attempts to prove his 
 position to you, from the passage 
 in question, which wiU compel you 
 all, in my humble opinion, to cry 
 out, that Justin Martyr is a decided 
 Koman Catholic. 
 
 And now permit me to make one 
 or two observations on my reverend 
 opponent's method of proceeding 
 in this discussion. I am sure my 
 reverend opponent has no intention, 
 in the course of his comments, to 
 wound the feelings of his Catholic 
 brethren. I acquit him of any in- 
 tention of that kind; but I must 
 say he has dwelt on some things in 
 a manner that appears to me ex- 
 tremely indecorous ; and my friend 
 must know, that it would be a verv 
 powerful engine of ridicule on thii; 
 part of a Pagan or an unbeliever 
 if, when alluding tc Christ, oitr 
 blessed and adorable E«deemer, he 
 were to talk of his bones and 
 nerves when he appeared to his 
 
Mr. French. 
 
 TKAilSUBSTAllTIATION. 
 
 31 
 
 disciples. How would he relish 
 such a question, put to him by the 
 disciples of Tom Paine, or any other 
 person who blasphemes the Chris- 
 tian religion, if they asked him 
 whether, in the ascension of our 
 Lord's glorious body, he took his 
 nerves and Ms bones along with 
 him ? It appears to me to be an 
 extremely unproper style of argu- 
 ment and language; indeed, I would, 
 in my turn, ask my reverend oppo- 
 nent, wnen he asks me if we Catho- 
 lics hold, that when our blessed 
 Saviour is taken in the sacramental 
 manner in which he is taken, — if 
 we, I say, hold that the nerves and 
 bones are there; I would ask my 
 friend, would he not be rather 
 shocked if a Deist, or any of the 
 disciples of those philosophers or 
 Deists whom I have just men- 
 tioned, were to ask him, — when 
 our Saviour came, without disturb- 
 ing the waUs or the doors, and ap- 
 peared in the midst of his disciples 
 after death, — if he had his nerves 
 and his bones with him? He would 
 be perfectly shocked, I say, at such^ 
 a question being put to lum on the' 
 part of the unbehever, which he, as 
 a believer, puts to the Catholic. 
 
 There is no propriety, therefore, 
 nor is there any necessity for such 
 language. When we say that we 
 receive our Saviour's body, soul, 
 and divinity, we think that we state 
 our meaning with sufficient clear- 
 ness, without descending into any 
 minutia. Again, you say that there 
 is no improbability in our Saviour's 
 appearing, when the doors were 
 shut, in the midst of his disciples, 
 after he had been dead and buried, 
 and had risen. You say there is no 
 improbability in that, but you reject 
 Transnbstantiation, because by this 
 your common sense or notion of 
 things is subverted, your senses are 
 begmled, — ^because it is not in uni- 
 f on with the laws of nature. Can 
 
 you not be sufficiently spiritualized 
 to see your blessed Saviour's glori- 
 ous and celestiaUzed body come 
 with the same facility as that with 
 which it penetrated stone walls and 
 communicated itself, without re- 
 serve, to each htimble believer, in 
 every part, of the whole habitable 
 world? My learned friend sees a 
 great objection, in this, on the 
 ground of philosophical impossi- 
 bihty ; but neither the learned doc- 
 tors of the Church of England nor 
 the original reformers saw any such 
 impossibility. Luther says, " They 
 that deny the presence of Christ in 
 the sacrament, what means have 
 they (the Sacramentarians — ^that is, 
 the deniers of the Real Presence 
 in the sacrament) to prove these 
 propositiohs contradi(;tory, — Christ 
 is in heaven, and Christ is in the 
 supper? The. contradiction is in 
 their own carnal imagination, not 
 in faith, nor in the word of God." 
 —Be/ens. Verb. Ccena, 388. Wit- 
 temberg, 1557. 
 
 John Calvin says, "We do not 
 dispute what God can do, but wha.t 
 he wills." — Init. Inst. ■ 
 
 Jewel confesses that " God is 
 able, by his omnipotent power, "to 
 make Christ's body present without 
 place or quantity." — Reply to Br. 
 JSariing, p. 352. 
 
 Crannier confesses "that Christ 
 may be in the bread and wine, as 
 also in the doors. that were shut, 
 and the stones of the sepulchre." — ■ 
 Answer to Gardiner and Smith, p. 
 454. 
 
 John Pox says, " Christ, abiding 
 in heaven, may be in the sacrament 
 also." — Acts and Monum. p. 998. 
 
 Melanothon says, " I had rather 
 die than affirm vnth the Zuinglians, 
 that Christ's body can be but in 
 one place." — Fpist. ad Martina 
 Geroid. 
 
 Dr. Jeremy Taylor says, "God 
 cm do what he pleases. He. can 
 
TBANSUBSTANTIATION. 
 
 change or aimiHlatt. every creatine, 
 and alter their manner or essence." 
 — Of the real and spiritual Presence 
 of Chriafs body in the Sacrament, 
 ,). 213. 
 
 And again, the same Dr. Jeremy 
 Taylor says, "Let it appear that 
 God hath affirmed Transubstantia- 
 tion, and I, for my part, wUl bum 
 aU my arguments - against it, and 
 make public amends." — P. 240. 
 
 After this, gentlemen, I can only 
 say, I, who am not acquainted with 
 the primary, as well as the second-, 
 ary qualities of matter, which my 
 learned friend has so scientifically 
 argued upon, (should this long list 
 of authorities not satisfy him,) ask 
 him to show me wherein those 
 qualities consist, and I wiH, should 
 he do so, withdraw aU these argu- 
 ments in favour of Transubstantisi- 
 tion. I have hitherto made state- 
 ments from the sacred volume 
 which ought to convince you of 
 the verity of Christ's real pre- 
 sence in the sacrament; his own 
 words in that memorable chapter, 
 the 6th of John, ought at this time 
 to be sufficiently impressed on your 
 minds : "Verily, veiily, I say imto 
 you, except ye eat my flesh, and 
 drink my blood, ye have no life in 
 you." " Por my flesh is meat in- 
 deed, and my blood is drink in- 
 deed." (St. John, vi. 53.) "He 
 that eateth my flesh, and drinketh 
 my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in 
 him." (Id. 66.) Then comes that 
 awful, that solenm oath : " As the 
 living Father hath sent me, and I 
 live by the Pather, so he that eat- 
 eth me, even he, shall live by me." 
 (Id. 57.) I cannot conceive, gentle- 
 men, stronger language to enforce 
 the doctrine of Transubstantiation. 
 What says he? "This is my body, 
 this is my blood." Now, had he 
 meant to say merely. This bread is 
 my body, then it might have fa- 
 voured the doctrine of Consubstan- 
 
 \\st Enenitiff. 
 
 tiation; it would then have been, 
 not TovTo, but ovTor apros, or "this 
 dread is my body." 'But he did 
 not thus speak, and so Transub- 
 stantiation is clearly, indubitably 
 proved, unless our blessed Saviour 
 meant to speak orientally, as mj 
 friend asserts; if so, the whole 
 question is at an end ,between us 
 CathoKos and Protestants. But as 
 far as the scriptural words go, my 
 reverend opponent must admit that, 
 apart from his oriental imagination, 
 they are in favour of the doctrine 
 to which Roman Catholios still in- 
 flexibly adhere. >' 
 
 Nowl am put upon orientalism by 
 my learned friend, 'I must give him 
 some assistance. " It argues," says 
 the grave Dr. Adam Clarke (in refe- 
 rence to Transubstantiation), " it 
 argues gross stupidity on the part of 
 the Catholic in oravriug such a de- 
 duction from the words of our Sa- 
 viour, and it requires something like 
 spiritual aouteness to knowwhat the 
 Saviour meant." But, my friends, 
 how is the intellect of man to dis- 
 cover orientalism, when it hears, in 
 that divine 6th chapter of John, 
 before the last supper, the blessed 
 Saviour affirm, "Verily, verily, unless 
 ye eat the flesh, and drink the blood 
 of the Son of jSIan, ye have no life in 
 yon ? " (Id. 53.) EspeciaUy after 
 having told them before that sup- 
 per, that he would talk to them no 
 more in parables, how is he to de- 
 duce from such words that he 
 means stiU to parabolize ? What 
 are we to say to our Divine Mas- 
 ter, when he affirms in solemn 
 words before the Last Supper: 
 "The time cometh when I shall no 
 more S'peak unto you in proverbs," 
 St. John xvi. ; what, but respond 
 with his own disciples, " Lo ! now 
 speakest thou plainly, and speakest 
 no proverbs," St. John xvi. 19 ; 
 thou teUest us what thou meanest, 
 and it is thy flesh which thou givest 
 
Mr. French.^ 
 
 TEANSUBSTAUTIiTION. 
 
 23 
 
 us to eat,-rit is thy blood whicli 
 thou givest us to drink. I' main- 
 tain, therefore, in. accordance with 
 all ages, from the day on which our 
 Saviour pronounced these words, 
 these emphatic words, down to the 
 present moment, that the Church 
 of God has uniformly taught that 
 doctrine; and I am prepared to 
 disprove the assertion that Pasca- 
 sius Eadbert was the first who 
 wrote a treatise on Transuhstanti- 
 ation. That he was the first who 
 wrote copiously on the doctrine (as 
 far as ancient manuscripts have 
 come down to us), I readily admit ; 
 but Paseasius lladbert himself says, 
 "that he is not writing anything 
 new, — that he is writing on what 
 the world always beheved since 
 Christ uttered those words." The 
 sentence of Paseasius Kadbert is, 
 " what is believed and confessed by 
 aU the world." " Quod totus orbis 
 credit et confiteiur." (Epist. ad 
 Prudegarum.) These are the words 
 of Piscasius Eadbert. He was not 
 preaching any new doctrine, but a 
 doctrine known and professed from 
 age to age before his time. I have 
 here the fathers before Paseasius 
 Radbert. He, I think, wrote in 
 the eighth century, in 754. My 
 learned friend must have forgotten 
 to read his history — his Treatise on 
 Transubstantiation. Now I happen 
 — very unluckily for my learned 
 friend — ^to have a father in each 
 century from the time of Christ, 
 and if it be needful to prove it, they 
 can be quoted, all resounding as they 
 do most strenuously and most loudly 
 Ihe doctrine of Transubstantiation. 
 St. Gregory of Nyssa, who flou- 
 rished in 372, says, "Now we must 
 consider, how it can be possible 
 that one body, for ever distri- 
 buted to so many myriads of the 
 faithful over the whole world, should 
 be in the distribution whole in each 
 receiver, and should itself remain in 
 
 itself whole." — St. Oreg. Nygs. 
 Catecheiic Orat. vol. iii. Edit. Bene- 
 dict, p. 102. 
 
 Here you see that, in the year 
 373, the doctrine is spoken of which 
 my reverend friend has endeavoured 
 to impress on you is the invention 
 of Paseasius Radbert, about the 
 eighth century. Such are the in- 
 consistencies of our opponents, 
 when they are confronted by the 
 illustrious fathers of the Church! 
 When they adhere to the Bible they 
 can enforce their OAvn interpreta- 
 tion ; but I hope they will leave me 
 the liberty of dravring my deduc- 
 tions from the same hallowed so'crce. 
 I learn from them (the Protestant 
 commentators) that all the Saviour 
 said on this subject was figurative ; 
 and it is this same oriental hoense 
 that induces the Quakers to teU 
 me that the water to be used in 
 baptism is also figurative, and that 
 there is no necessity for baptism. I 
 believe that Calvin asserts the same 
 thing : " Baptism," he says, " may 
 be demanded as a sign, or a seal ; 
 but it is not necessary to salvation." 
 
 According ' to my friend, you 
 may render everything figurative ; 
 anything may be reduced to figure. 
 But I long to know what my 
 learned opponent will say to the 
 following words of Martin Luther. 
 He declares most positively, that, 
 in order to give annoyance to the 
 Pope, he struggled on, day after , 
 day, for a long series of years, to 
 do away with the doctrine of Tran- 
 substantiation, or at least of Con- 
 substantiation. "But," he says, 
 " the words were too strong ; I was 
 inextricably bound in fetters by the 
 words of the gospel, 'Take, eat, 
 this is my body ; and drink, this is 
 my blood.'" To come now to an 
 observation of my reverend friend. 
 He complained bitterly of the Coun- 
 cil of Trent, for laying those under 
 an anathema that do not believe in 
 
TRAUSUBSTASTIATION. 
 
 this sacred doctrine of all ages ; 
 but he should reooUect that his own 
 Church is equally vehement, in itS 
 expressions against us, when it de- 
 clares that we have been " perni- 
 ciously taught and have iamnably 
 believed." The learned gentleman 
 endeavoured to soften down and 
 explaia away the harsh word 
 " damnably," but he could not do it. 
 I believe that the Church of 
 England, and the Church of which 
 my rev. friend is a member, both 
 lay down in their Articles, that out 
 of their Church no man can be 
 saved. We soften not only the 
 words, but the drift of them, much 
 more than Calvin does ; because we 
 say that no inan that leads a pure 
 life, and has had no opportunity of 
 enlightenment, can be lost : we say, 
 -it is only obstinate heretics who are 
 condemned ; we do not exclude 
 from the pale of salvation those 
 who have n» opportunity of en- 
 lightening themselves, but only 
 those who have an opportunity; 
 those who are thoroughly convinced 
 that, from age to age, and Without 
 interruption, the doctrine of Tran- 
 substantiation has been taught by 
 the Church of God, and yet believe 
 it not to be true, and wUl not come 
 into our Church. Of such we 
 entertain no very sanguine hopes 
 as to their i salvation. Gentlemen, 
 before I sit down, I will merely put 
 one more question for my learned 
 friend to answer, viz. — How it, 
 happens that, while he announces 
 Transubstantiation to be the pro- 
 duct of one of the dark ages, how 
 it happens that the Eutyohiaus and 
 Nestorians, who separated from the 
 Catholic Church about fourteen 
 hundred years since, and who now 
 flourish numerously in the east — 
 how happens it, that they stiU ad- 
 here to the doctrine of Transub- 
 stantiation to the present day; and, 
 whilst Protestants call it an error 
 
 [Is^ Eeemng, 
 
 of the Church of Eome, the Nes- 
 torians and Eutychians cry out with 
 one voice, " We received the doc- 
 trine of Transubstantiation from 
 the times of the apostles." This is 
 an argument which all the advo- 
 cates of the- Church of England and 
 Scotland will never be able to an- 
 swer satisfactorily. It may be 
 attempted, but the answer wiU be 
 sure to draw upon him that ^ves it 
 a loud laugh from all the nations ot 
 the world. I have read all their 
 doctors, and prime controversialists, 
 and they aU endeavour to elude the 
 question. It is, I must confess, 
 one of the most considerable diffi- 
 culties that I can possibly propose 
 to my learned friend this evening, 
 to give scope to his ingenuity. 
 [Mr. French's hour here termi 
 nated.] 
 
 Eev. J. CTTMiirNe. — I must con 
 fess I had formed a very high esti 
 mate of the talents of my learned 
 friend, and was really prepared to 
 hear something like a lucid and 
 conclusive exposition, not only of 
 Transubstantiation, but alsO' argu- 
 ments in favo-ur of it which it would 
 taie time to refute, and ingenuity 
 to repel. This audience is by this 
 time no mean judge both; of the 
 number and the weight of the argu- 
 ments of my learned friend. Let 
 me, in the outset, just touch upon a 
 few of the remarks which he made, 
 and then come more closely to the 
 subject under discussion. Let me, 
 before doing so, correct one mis- 
 uiiderstanding. My learned friend 
 said, that the Church of Rome does 
 not assert that none can be saved 
 who are without her communion. 
 I hold in my hand the creed of 
 Pope Pius the Fourth, to which 
 every Roman Catholic subscribes. 
 The last clause of this document 
 is, " This true CathoKc faith, ov,t of 
 none can be saved. Haao 
 
Bev. J. Oumming.\ 
 
 veram Catholicam Mem extra quam 
 nemo salv as esse potest." 
 
 My opponent commenced Ms dis- 
 course by stating, that whilst our 
 Lord was preparing for the cele- 
 bration of the supper, in the 6th 
 chapter of John, he said, " Unless 
 yp ?at tho flesn and drink the Hood 
 of the Son ol God, ye have no life 
 in you." I shall reply to this when 
 I come to this chapter by-and-by. 
 In the mean time, let me ask, by 
 what authority it is that he makes 
 this chapter refer to the Eucharist ? 
 I call on him to explain his reasons 
 for beheving that the 6th chapter of 
 John refers to the Lord's supper at 
 all. For my part, I am ready to Dring 
 forward proofs and extracts from 
 the most distinguished doctors of 
 the Church of Rome, declaring that 
 it has been a question whether the 
 54th verse of the 6th chapter of John 
 refers to the Lord's supper at aJl. 
 
 In his next remark, he quoted 
 the Gospel of Luke, 22d chapter, 
 "This is my blood." Now I beg 
 to coiTect the quotation, if.it be 
 taken from Luke. Our Lord's lan- 
 guage in that Gospel is not, "This 
 IS my blood," biit, " This aup is the 
 new testament in my blood." My 
 opponent's next remark was, that 
 he would not give up the fathers. 
 Wow I maintaitt that the fathers 
 give up him, again and again ; and 
 if he do not give up the fathers, 
 he win have to contend with the 
 most heterogeneous elements, and 
 to cling to sentiments the most 
 contradictory. Nay, I wiU show 
 that the very fathers, to whom he 
 has referred with such an air of 
 triumph, as favourable to Tran- 
 substautiation, contain other pas- 
 sages distinctly and deliberately 
 the reverse of xransubstantiation. 
 
 Now I stated, at the outset of my 
 remarks, first, that the fathers were 
 not infaliible; secondly, that the 
 ta,thers were never deputed to give 
 
 TRANSUBSTANTIATIOS . 
 
 25 
 
 infaUible expressions to the Chris- 
 tian faith ; and, in the next place, 
 Delahogue, professor of theology at 
 Maynooth, and a laborious advocate 
 of the Church of Eome, distinctly 
 states, " In order that any one Tnay 
 be called by the name of father, it 
 is not required, indeed, that he shall 
 have committed no errors, since St. 
 Justin holds an honourable place 
 among them, who thought that the 
 happiness of the pious dead was to 
 be postponed till the day of final 
 judgment. St. Irenseus, who pa- 
 tronized the error of the MiHena- 
 rians; St. Cyprian, who believed that 
 the baptism conferred by heretics 
 was to be repeated ; moreover, Ori- 
 gen and TertuUian, who have erred 
 in so many points, have been con- 
 stantly reckoned among the fa. 
 thers." — Delahogue' s Treatise on the 
 Church of Christ, 3d edit. 1829. 
 
 Delahogue has taught hundreds 
 of the Irish priests, that " the 
 fathers have erred in many points." 
 My opponent made another curious 
 remark, viz. that they were fathers 
 and grandfathers too. By what 
 logic does he make this out ? How 
 can a inanbe father and grandfather 
 at one and the same time of the same 
 child? If I have a child, I cannot 
 be the father of that child and the 
 grandfather too. Now my solemn 
 and well-weighed convictionrespect- 
 ing the fathers is this, — that they 
 are at best but second-rate autho- 
 rities; that they do not convey 
 unadulterated the pure and the 
 living waters of truth; that they 
 are out " earthen vessels," the 
 waters of which have become more 
 or less tainted after then- leaving 
 the foimtaius of primseval inspi- 
 ration. I expected my learned 
 friend would have departed from 
 these " earthen vessels," tainted 
 and polluted with all the imper- 
 fections of humanity, and have 
 made a manly and deliberate appeal 
 
36 
 
 TBjmSCTBSTANTIATlOS. 
 
 to those living streams, to which. 
 Christ has invited us in language 
 the most earnest and impressive : — 
 " Ho every one that thirsteth, come 
 ye to the waters !" and again, " The 
 Spirit and the Bride say. Come;" 
 and again, " Search the Scriptures, 
 for these are they which testify of 
 me." Since, however, he is deter- 
 mined to exhume the fathers, I wfll 
 for a little follow him. 
 
 The first father my learned oppo- 
 nent quoted is St. Ignatius, from 
 whom he extracted a passage in proof 
 of Transubstantiation. He certainly 
 read to you figurative language, 
 which he considers favourable to 
 Transubstantiation. Let me also 
 show how easy it is to neutralize the 
 testimony of Ignatius. Ignatius, in 
 the Epistle to the Trilesians, dis- 
 tinctly disclaims all reoognitiou of 
 Transubstantiation : "Do you, there- 
 tore, resuming long-suffering, re- 
 establish yourselves in taiIh, which 
 IS THE FLESH of the Lord, and in 
 
 LOVE, WHICH IS THE BLOOD of JesUS 
 Christ;" ev Tna-Tct ?) eoti ij (rap^, Kai 
 ev ayaTTTj tj eart ro alfia TouXptorou. 
 These are the ipsissima ve;-ba of 
 St. Ignatius. Now I grant that, 
 in the passage quoted by my learned 
 friend, this father holds language 
 expressive of Transubstantiation; 
 but here I quote another passage 
 from the same father, in which he 
 holds distinctly the reverse, or gives 
 such an expl?.nation of his language 
 as proves his employment of it to 
 have been figurative, and that he 
 calls the sign by the thirw signified. 
 But if there be downright contra- 
 diction, as my opponent may hold, 
 what must be the inference ? That 
 we are to leave ^t fathers, and go 
 to \)ii& grandfathers, the apostles and 
 evangdists, whose writings are con- 
 tained in the Word of God. My 
 learned friend tells me that St. 
 Ignatius " stares me in the face." 
 I show that he stares us both in the 
 
 Wst JEvenrng, 
 
 face, and that the apostles and evaji- 
 geKsts stare Ignatius in the face, it 
 the latter can be saddled vrith Tran- 
 substantiation. 
 
 As to my opponent's remark, 
 that Peter was " the rock, or corner- 
 stone," my reply is simply from the 
 word of God: " To whom coming" 
 — speaking of Christ — " as unto a 
 living stone, disallowed indeed of 
 men, but chosen of God and pre- 
 cious, ye also, as lively stones; are 
 bmlt up a spiritual house, an holy 
 priesthood, to offer up spiritual sa- 
 crifices, acceptable to God by Jesus 
 Christ;" and St. Paul says, " And 
 are built upon the foundation of the 
 apostfe and prophe/s" (plural num- 
 ber) — " Jesus, Christ himself being 
 tjie chief corner-stone!' Yea, the 
 Council o'f Trent declaires that 
 " i-aith" in the truths of the Gospel 
 is the foundation "against which 
 the gates of hell shall not prevail." 
 
 My opponent next quoted from 
 Augustme a passage which seems 
 to favour Transubstantiation. Now 
 I treat Augustine as impai'tially as 
 Ignatius, and I therefore quote a 
 passage from Augustine's 3d book 
 upon " Christian Doctrine," vol. iii. 
 p. 630. Ed.Bened. Paris, 1685: 
 " If a passage is preceptive, and 
 either forbids a crime or wicked- 
 ness, or enjoins usefulness, or cha- 
 rity, it is not figurative. But if 
 it seems to command a crime or 
 wickedness, or to forbid usefulness ■ 
 or kindness, it is figurative. Un- 
 less ye shall eat, he says, the 
 flesh of the Son of Man, and 
 drink his blood, ye shall not have 
 life in you. He appears to enjoin 
 wickedness, or a crime. It is a 
 PiGUEE, therefore, teaching us that 
 we partake of the benefits 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." 
 
 I next quote from Augustine's 
 
Ret. J. 
 
 i-KANSUBSTAUTIATION. 
 
 27 
 
 25tli Treatise upoa the 6th chap, of 
 John, vol. iii. p. 490, (Ed. Ben. 
 Paris, 1685,) " Jesus answered and 
 said to him, ' This is the work of 
 God, that ye believe m him whom 
 he has sent. To do this is to eat 
 the flesh which perishes not, but en- 
 dures to eternal Ufe. Why do yov, 
 prepare your teeth and your stomach ? 
 Believe only, and you will have 
 eaten.' " 
 
 One would almost imagine that 
 Augustiae anticipates the monstrous 
 dogma of Koman Catholicism. No 
 language can be more contrary to 
 the doctrine of Transubstantiation. 
 My opponent must either admit 
 that his favourite father contradicts 
 himself, or that, by my Kteral ex- 
 tract, he explains the meaning of 
 the figurative. I quote another to 
 this effect from the same author — 
 part only of which my opponent has 
 thought proper to quote : " It 
 seemed a hard saying to them when 
 he said, 'Except any man eat my 
 flesh, he shall not have eternal hfe.' 
 They received it foolishly, and they 
 meditated upon it carnally, and 
 thought that the Lord was about to 
 cut off oertaui little pieces from his 
 ■ body and to give them to them ; and 
 they said. This is a hard saying. 
 They were hard, and not the saying. 
 Eor if they had not been hard, but 
 meek, they would have , said within 
 themselves. He does not say this 
 for nothing." 
 
 These are the words of Augus- 
 tine on the 98th Psabn, and though 
 anv thing but favourable to Tran- 
 substantiation, myopponent stopped 
 short at the wor'ds, " for nothing," 
 wA forgot to quote the rest of the 
 passage, and I will therefore refresh 
 his memory, and do justice to Au- 
 gustine, by quoting the remainder : 
 " There is some hidden sacrament 
 in it. When his twelve disciples 
 remfced with him, the others hav- 
 ing departed, they addressed him 
 
 as if lamenting their death, because, 
 being offended at his word, they 
 had departed. But he taught them, 
 and said to them, ' It is the Spirit 
 that quiokeneth, the flesh profiieth 
 nothing. The words that I have 
 spoken to you, they are spirit, and 
 they are life. Understand spiki- 
 TUAlXiT what I have spoken. YoTJ 
 
 ABE NOT ABCTTT TO EAT THIS BODY 
 
 WHICH TOir SEE, and to drink that 
 blood which they shall shed who 
 shall crucify me. I have recom- 
 mended to you a certain sacrament, 
 which, if spiritually understood, 
 shall quicken you.' " (Ps. xcviii.) 
 
 You see how the passages my 
 opponent reads make the otherway, 
 if he win allow the father to explam 
 his own meaning. The next re- 
 mark that my opponent made was 
 to the efl'eot, that Protestants differ 
 from each other in fundamentals. 
 If we exclude from the range of 
 Protestants those who deny the 
 deity of Christ, — and if my friend 
 was present at the discussion at 
 Downside, he may remember that, 
 both on the Protestant and the 
 Roman Catholic side, it_ was nem. 
 con. admitted that Socinians are 
 not Ckistians — they do not. Soci- 
 nians are excluded because they 
 deny a fundamental and essential 
 truth ; whereas, the Church of Scot- 
 land and the Ohur'ch of England 
 differ in circumstantials, but are 
 agreed in essentials on the great 
 doctrine of the Trinity, on the com- 
 pleteness of the sacrifice of Jesus, 
 on the personality and deity of the 
 Holy Spirit — in aU essentials, in 
 short, we are one ; — in ciroumstan- 
 tiais, or non-essentials, I admit we 
 agree to differ. But let me tell my 
 opponent, if he feel at all anxious 
 to alter his position, on hearing a 
 clear confutation of the doctrine of 
 Transubstantiation, let him go to 
 any one of the churches or deno- 
 mindtions he refers to (Socinianism 
 
28 
 
 TKANSUBSTANTIATION. 
 
 excepted), and he will have made a 
 most happy and delightful exchange. 
 
 In his next remark he complained 
 most bitterly that I had used lan- 
 guage and terms offensive and irre- 
 verent, when I spoke of the " bones 
 and the nerves, the body and the 
 blood, the soul and divinity" of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ, being assumed 
 by him to be present on tie Roman 
 Catholi* altais. Now, the question 
 is, who invented the words? who 
 authprized the use of these words ? 
 It was not I. Have I not quoted 
 verbatim from the canons of the 
 Council •of Trent, which says the 
 bread and wine are " changed into 
 the body and blood, soul and divi- 
 nity, of the Son of God?" Have 
 I not quoted the Catechism of the 
 Council of Trent, which says that 
 the priests are diligently to instruct 
 the people that " the bones and the 
 nerves," the " body and the blood," 
 and " all that belongs to a true 
 body," are really and actually pre- 
 sent on the altar ? And, therefore, 
 if I have used these offensive and 
 irreverent words, " the bones and 
 the nerves, the flesh and the blood," 
 I have neither invented them nor 
 taken them from any Protestant 
 work. I have used the recognised 
 and authorized documents of the 
 Church of Rome ; and I call on my 
 friend, if he pleases, to find fault 
 with the phraseology of his own 
 Church, but not to find fault with 
 me for using her ipsissima verba. 
 
 My opponent's next remark bore 
 the resemblance of an argument for 
 once, viz. that our Lord came into 
 the midst of his disciples with the 
 doors shut ; from which he seemed 
 to infer that our Lord can corpo- 
 really and substantially be present 
 in one and two places at one and 
 the same time. He may, says he, 
 have come through the door, the 
 walls, or the window, or some other 
 passage, without the door, the win- 
 
 [Isi Ihening. 
 
 dow, or the wall being broken 
 through. My reply is, ^how me, 
 from Scripture, that he either passed 
 through door, window, or wall, with- 
 out aperture of any kind. He was 
 seen outside the one minute, and 
 inside the other. Is the wafer seen 
 to be bread one minute, and flesh 
 the next? There is no parallel. 
 He appealed to the senses of his 
 disciples, when he stood in the 
 midst of them and said, " Handle 
 me and see, for a spirit hath not flesh 
 and bones as ye see me have," mak- 
 ing the senses arbiters of corporeal 
 presence: and, therefore, the very 
 passage which my learned friend 
 quotes, to vindicate the doctrine of 
 Transubstantiation, is one of those 
 very passages that triumphantly 
 show that our Lord appeals to the 
 senses for a verdict on his corporeal 
 presence. 
 
 The next passage quoted by my 
 opponent was, " This is my body," 
 which, says he, denotes, " This is my 
 body." He holds that the moment 
 the priest. pronounces these words, 
 Hoc enim est meum corpus, the wafer, 
 lying on the altar, is transubstantia- 
 ted mto " the body and blood, soul 
 and divinity, bones and nerves, of 
 the Lord Jesus Christ." With this 
 extraordinary assertion before me, I 
 may have the curiosity to look at the 
 Host, and I see that still it is a piece 
 of paste, or flour and water. I have 
 seen a consecrated wafer in the hands 
 of one of us heretics, and I have 
 examined it minutely, and I could 
 discover nothing but flour and water. 
 "But no," says my opponent, "it is 
 not, you are mistaken: it is actually 
 ' the flesh and blood, the soul and 
 divinity, bones and nerves, of the 
 Son of God.' " Then, if my oppo- 
 nent be correct, what is the result ? 
 My senses have deceived me ; and 
 if m one point, it may be in a dozen. 
 May not my senses be deoifved 
 when I look at Mr. Prench ? Sup- 
 
«w. 7. 
 
 ■J 
 
 TKANSUBSIIN TIAIIOIf . 
 
 S9 
 
 pose I foUov out his own principle, 
 ,and maintain he has no, voice, hut 
 only "the accidents" of a voice; 
 that if Iwelreto smite him, he would 
 not feel it ; that if I were to call 
 him, he would not answer ; that if 
 I were to treat him in the harshest 
 manner, I should be doing: him no 
 mischief, because he is not present, 
 hut has, only "the accidents and 
 the species" of presence. But 
 my opponent is substantially pre- 
 •«ent, and is what he looks. So I 
 say of the wafer ; it smells like a 
 wafer, it tastes like a , wafer, it 
 weighs like a wafer, iti corrupts like 
 a wafer, — from first to last, it is 
 precisely a flour and water »«/%;•. 
 And, therefore, if my senses do so 
 declare it is a wafer, I cannot deny 
 my senses, any more than when my 
 senses declare that Mr. Trenoh, on 
 my left, is my Roman Catholic oppo- 
 nent. I may contradict them, and 
 say it is the Pope, or any " airy 
 nothing,", a phantom and a frenzy. 
 
 I ask Mr. French if my senses 
 deceive me when I see the wafer 
 on the altar, which, instead of 
 being flesh and blood, I perceive 
 to be mere flour and water — I ask 
 him how he knows that the words 
 of the 24th verse of the 11th ch. of 
 ICor. are, " This is my body?" I ata 
 at full hberty to say, on Mr. French's 
 principle, that the words of that 
 text are, " These are the bricks 
 with which Babylon was built." 
 He cannot repudiate, or deny this 
 statement, for he declares the senses 
 are not to decide ; on the contrary, 
 that all five deceive me. If my 
 senses deceive me when I look at 
 the wafer, so my senses may deceive 
 me when I look at the words, " This 
 is my body." I may assert, if 
 Transnbstantiation is right, these 
 are the gates of Solomon's temple ; 
 these are the bricks with which 
 Babylon was bmlt ; this is _ Nebu- 
 chadnezzar's palace ; " this is great 
 
 Babvlon." I have just the same 
 righ i to say so, as Mr. French has 
 to assert that the wafer that lies 
 upon the altar is the " body and 
 blood, and the soul and divinity, the 
 bones and nerves of the Son of 
 God." On the Roman Catholic 
 principle of interpretation, no mem- 
 ber of that Church knows the words 
 to be in the Bible at all. Therefore, 
 if my senses are capable of decep- 
 tion in this matter, the same decep- 
 tion may prevail on every side; and, 
 instead of looking around me on 
 worldly reaUties, and living in a 
 world of substantial and solid 
 things, I may he the tenant of an 
 " airy nothing," and I myself may he 
 but the baseless fabric of a vision. 
 But if the senses deceive in 
 this matter, may not the senses 
 have deceived when the Son of 
 God rose from the dead; and the 
 apostles have been utterly cheated, 
 when he said, "Handle me and see, 
 and know that a spirit has not flesh 
 and bones as ye see me have?" May 
 not the senses have deceived all the 
 witnesses of this momentous and 
 cardinal occurrence ? If so, Christ 
 may not be risen, and all our 
 preaching is vain ; and your faith is 
 m vain, "if Christ be not risen 
 from the dead." May not the in- 
 fidel take powerful hold of T'ran- 
 substantiation, and say to my oppo- 
 nent, "You have no evidence that 
 Christ rose from the dead : you ad- 
 mit that your senses are deceived 
 when you look on bread and wine, 
 and that though they protest that 
 this is flour and water, nevertheless 
 they deceive you, for in verity it is 
 flesh and blood; — so the senses of 
 the apostles, when they saw and 
 handled and spoke with Christ, may 
 have been also deceived, aad he may 
 not have risen from the dead, and 
 all the history of tha resurrection 
 may be but a beautiful romance. 
 Again, with reference to the words 
 
30 
 
 TEANSU BSI ANTIATION. 
 
 of the institution of the Eucharist, 
 I maintain that the Church of Rome 
 herself does not adhere to the literal 
 larwnage. My opponent has talked, 
 in high terms, about my use of the 
 worcfe oriental, figurative, and me- 
 taphorical. I can show that the 
 Church of Rome herself, when it 
 suits her purpose to twist a pas- 
 sage, ahandons the literal and takes 
 up this figurative, this same ori- 
 ental, and so much scouted prin- 
 ciple of iuterpretation on my part. 
 These very words, "this is my 
 body," she 'does not take up lite- 
 rally : she says, " this is my body," 
 means, "this is tranmbstantiated 
 into my body;" not even so Kte- 
 raUy as this, but she says, "this is 
 'transubstantiated into the body and 
 blood, the soul and divinity of the 
 Son of God." And, therefore, in- 
 stead of taking these words in their 
 literal sense, for which she so 
 strenuously and perseveringly con- 
 tends, we find that the Church of 
 Rome, iu the very passage she 
 quotes as the stronghold of Tran- 
 Eubstantiation, departs, because it 
 suits her object, from the literal, 
 and assumes the figurative ; and 
 yet we Protestants alone are guilty 
 of "oriental" interpretations. 
 
 But these are not all the oriental- 
 isms and figures of which this advo- 
 cate of literality is guilty; for when 
 she comes to interpret the passage, 
 "this cup is the new testament in 
 my blood," the Church abandons 
 her principle, and has recourse to 
 our principle of figurative interpre- 
 tation. Ji "this is my body," 
 means, this is transubstantiated into 
 my body and blood, then, by the 
 same process, " this cup is the new 
 testament in my blood," means, 
 this cup is transubstantiated into 
 the new testament, and the cup 
 instantly becomes the New Testa- 
 ment! It is the necessary result of 
 such a plan. If " this is my body" 
 
 list Sventitff, 
 
 means, this is transubstantiated into 
 my body, then " this cup is the 
 new testament in my blood" must 
 mean this cup is transubstantiated 
 into the New Testament. If we 
 take this literal interpretation which 
 is thus contended for, — "this is my 
 body, this is my blood," then let us 
 honestly and impartially carry out 
 the prmciple through all smiilar 
 passages of Scripture. Let us 
 maintain this homogeneous inter- 
 pretation throughout. What then 
 does it lead to? "lam the true 
 vine," said our Lord. Now if he 
 had said, "this is my true body," 
 then, you observe, there would 
 have been stronger ground for the 
 Church of Rome's saying, that it 
 is turned into his very flesh and 
 his blood. He does not say so, 
 however ; but he does say, "I am 
 the true vine." Now if the Church 
 of Rome holds that, when our Lord 
 said " this is my body," the bread 
 was turned into flesh, or that he 
 meant " my flesh7' then she must 
 hold, by a parity of reasoning, that 
 when Christ said, " I am the true 
 vine," he was really transubstan- 
 tiated into a vine, whose roots were 
 to strike into the hiDs, whose 
 boughs were to spread forth over 
 the valleys, and whose branches 
 were to be covered with clusters of 
 ■ripe and pendant grapes. Now, is 
 the Church of Rome prepared to 
 go this monstrous length ? Again, 
 our Lord says, "I am the door." 
 She must be prepared, therefore, to 
 show, either that our Lord was 
 actually transubstantiated into "a 
 door," or to give some decisive 
 reason why, she should depart from 
 the literal interpretation. 
 
 Again, the Apostle says, "that 
 rod was Christ." The Church of 
 Rome must be prepared to demon- 
 strate that Christ, on her mode of 
 interpretation, was changed into a 
 rock, or to give reasons if otherwise. 
 
Bev.J. 
 
 ■■] 
 
 TRANS UBSTAIf TIATION. 
 
 31 
 
 Again, Christ said, "The field is 
 the world" — "the reapers are the 
 . angels." Is the Church of Kome 
 ■willing to adopt the children of her 
 own principle of interpretation, and 
 to assert with consistency, if not 
 with common -sense, that the field 
 was transubstantiated into the 
 world, and the reapers into angels ? 
 Again, " The seven heads are seven 
 mountains," that is, according to 
 this magic process, seven heads 
 were really and actually transub- 
 stantiated into seven mountains. 
 Again, " ye are the sheep," " ye are 
 the branches," and " the seven ears 
 of com are seven years," " the seven 
 candlesticks are seven churches." 
 
 Of course my opponent, if 
 he insists on the literal inter- 
 pretation of the words, "this is 
 my body," must insist also on a 
 literal interpretation of aU these 
 passages ; viz., that our Lord was 
 transubstantiated into " a vine ; " 
 that "the seven candlesticks" were 
 transubstantiated into " seven 
 churches;" that "the seven ears of 
 com" were transubstantiated into 
 "seven years ;" that beUevers were 
 transubstantiated into " sheep," 
 and, anon, into "branches," &c. 
 &c. ; and, in short, if his principle 
 be adhered to, and carried out, it 
 wfll plunge him into the most re- 
 volting and disastrous whims that 
 were ever entertained in the imagi- 
 nation of the most wild and irre- 
 claimable monomaniac. But, on 
 the other hand, if he admit with 
 me, that "this is my body" means, 
 this represents mv body, or is a 
 symbol, or sign oi my body, then 
 the interpretation of aU the pas- 
 sages I have referred to comes to 
 be most harmonious and beautiful. 
 " Ye are tht, branches," i.e. ye are 
 represented by the branches in 
 their relation to the stem and the 
 root; "ye are the sheep," i.e. ye 
 are represented by the various 
 
 beautiful characteristics of the 
 habits of sheep ; " I am tne door," 
 that is, a door is a beautiful symbol 
 or emblem of the way by which, or 
 through which, believers enter into 
 heaven ; and, "I am the true vine," 
 i.e. I am the supporter, or the nou- 
 risher of aU those living branches, 
 or believers, who have been grafted 
 on to me by the Holy Spirit. 
 Now then, if the Church of Rome 
 does not hold the literal inter- 
 pretation of these passages, what 
 mubt be the inference ? that she ' 
 plays fast and loose with the word 
 of God : when the figurative suits, 
 she adopts it — when the literal in- 
 terpretation suits her purpose, she 
 keeps it. The fact is, she adopts 
 the figurative interpretation in 
 twenty passages, and takes the lite- 
 ral in one. ■ " She strains at a gnat, 
 and she swallows a camel." 
 
 Still farther to illustrate the con- 
 sistency of the Protestant interpre- 
 tation, suppose I take you to the 
 British Museum: you sec, just as 
 you enter the statuairroom, a beau 
 tiful bust of the celebrated Homer, 
 the finest in the whole collection. I 
 say to you, this is Homer; do you 
 understand that it is the living ori- 
 ginal? or that it is transubstantiated 
 mto the flesh of the blind Mceonian? 
 Aeain, in the quotation from Isaiah, 
 "all flesh is grass," if the literal 
 iaterpretation is to be insisted on, 
 I must believe that all flesh is 
 actually and literally grass, and 1 
 must beheve that my opponent is 
 merely a bundle of grass ; and by 
 no means what he actually appears 
 — a substantial and reasonable man, 
 teazing the fathers for those proofs 
 which the apostles, the grandfathers, 
 refuse to give him. 
 
 This figurative language is quite 
 usual in the Scriptures, when refer- 
 ence is made to the Jevrish Sacra- 
 ments. For instance, it is said of 
 circumcision, in Genesis xvii. and 
 
32 
 
 TEANSUBSTANTIATION. 
 
 10th, " This IS my eovenaiit,-which ye 
 shall keep between me and yon, and 
 thy seed alter thee; every man child 
 among you shall be cu-cnmcised.". 
 Again, it is declared of the Pass- 
 over, "this Lamb is the Passover." 
 Now, the word "Passover" literally 
 laeans the transit of the destroyins 
 angel, throughout the length and 
 the breadth of Egypt, when he dealt 
 destruction on all the first-born of 
 the children of the Egyptians, " from 
 the first-born of Pharaoh on the 
 throne, unto the first-born of the 
 captive in the dungeon," and when 
 the first-bom of the Israelites, and 
 the children of God, were mercifully 
 spared. When, therefore, the Israel- 
 ites of old were told of this calamity, 
 and that this lamb was to be skm 
 and sacrificed as a Passover, did they 
 understand that it was no longer a 
 lamb, but bond fide the angel passing 
 through the length and nreadth of 
 Egypt, destroying the first-bom of 
 the Egyptians, -ancl spariag the first- 
 bom of the Israelites, awakening 
 the helpless wail of Rahab, but 
 causing songs of joy to burst from 
 the dweUings of mercifuUy-spared 
 ,and happy Israel ? No, every Is- 
 raelite understood that this lamb 
 was a symbol, a sign, or memorial 
 of the Passover, and not that it 
 was actually transubstantiated, and 
 turned into the Passover. 
 
 Let me now call your attention to 
 the institution of the Lord's Supper. 
 Our Lord sat at atable, and had just 
 celebrated the Passover, where I 
 have shown you that this figurative 
 lac^age was usual; he took bread, 
 a piece of bread, and looking at his 
 disciples, as you may see faithfully 
 portrayed in the pictures drawn by 
 the artists of the Church of Rome, 
 though these are no proofs — ^he 
 took bread, and gave thanks, and 
 holding that bread in his hand, he 
 added, " This is my body," and then, 
 taking the cup, he said, " This cup 
 
 [1»^ Ihemng. 
 
 is the new testament in my blood, 
 shed for many for the remission of 
 sins ; drink ye all of it. But I say 
 unto you, I will not drink hence- 
 forth of this fn.it of the vine uatil 
 that day when I drmk it new with 
 you in my Father's kingdom." Now, 
 if the disciples had understood that 
 he gave tnem his own flesh and 
 blood, from all their past conduct 
 we may safely infer they would 
 have said, "Lord, what does this 
 mean? Thou art sitting at the table, 
 and not giving us thy flesh; thou art 
 speaking to us, and art not ' broken:' 
 thy body is not ' broken into pieces,' 
 but whole, and seated at the table : 
 what does this mean ; what are we 
 to understand by this?" "Is it not," 
 they would have said, "forbidden 
 us to drink blood in the rescripts of 
 Levi ? May we violate this law ?" 
 
 Again, if this literal interpre- 
 tation is to be adhered to, then 
 mark the monstrous absurdities • 
 which it necessarily entails : — 
 I must suppose that our Lord, 
 though he was sitting at the table, 
 yet held his body in his hand. I 
 must suppose that our Lord's body 
 was seated at the table, and yet 
 that he gave his whole body to 
 Peter, his whole body to John, his 
 whole body to every one of the 
 twelve who sat with lum in the first 
 celebration of the Eucharist. Now, 
 you perceive, it must require an 
 extraordinary amount of scriptural 
 argument to convince one that these 
 most anomalous and most extrava- 
 gant things actually and circum- 
 stantially took place on this occasion. 
 Again, my opponent made some 
 remarks about what God can do- 
 that "nothing," he said, "is im- 
 possible to God," and, therefore, 
 all this may be possible with him. 
 I say, "aU things are possible with 
 God," is a scriptural text ; but 
 mark you, it is not God's omnipo- 
 tence that is the rule of faith, but 
 
Rev. J Oumminff.'] 
 
 Qoi!s written, word ; and moreover, 
 "whilst all things are possible with 
 God," it is also wntten, " God 
 cannot lie" There are certain 
 things — we speak of it with re- 
 verence—that cannot be possible 
 with God ; such as that a son should 
 be the father of his father — ^that is 
 an absurdity, that is not possible; 
 " God cannot He," is another text 
 for our guidance ; but if it be pos- 
 sible that Christ's whole bodj is 
 contained in every part of the Host 
 flt Rome, his whole body in every 
 part of the Host at London, and 
 Christ's whole body in every part of 
 the Host at Paris, then, aocordiuglj, 
 on the same principle, it follows, 
 that Peter may be at Paris, and yet 
 at Londonr-that Peter may set out 
 from Paris to London and meet 
 Peter half-way coming from London 
 to Paris, and should Tie be startled 
 at meeting himself, he may merely 
 quote Transubstantiation as ar pa- 
 rallel case. Peter may be at Paris, 
 at London, and at E-ome, and at 
 Edinburgh, at one and the same 
 moment. Peter may sleep in a 
 whole skin at Paris, have a broken 
 leg at Edinburgh, and a broken head 
 in London. He may, at one and 
 the same moment, be feasting in 
 Edinburgh, fasting at Rome, and 
 drunk at Paris. AH these contra- 
 dictions of common sense, reason 
 and experience, and scriptural pre- 
 cedent, are vindicated on the mis- 
 applied text, that "all things are 
 possible with God." My opponent 
 said, and said justly, reason is not 
 the arbiter of truth. Now I admit 
 that neither the omnipotence of 
 God, nor the reason of man, is the 
 rule of faith ; but the revealed will, 
 the written word of the Almighty 
 Om : and though reason should re- 
 coil from the doctrine of Transub- 
 stantiation, though sense should 
 Kcoil from it, yet if I could see a 
 plain. exBress, and irrefragable de- 
 
 TRANSTJ BSTANWATION . 
 
 33 
 
 claration in the Word of God, that 
 the doctrine of Transubstantiation, 
 as defined in the Catechism of the 
 CounoU of Trent, and in the Canons 
 of the Council of Trent, is true. 
 I shodd say, "Let God be true, 
 and every man a liar ;" but I find 
 that this blessed Word of God, 
 when I refer to its parallel passages, 
 and construe them according to the 
 whole analogy of inspiration, declares 
 that these words, " this is my body," 
 which are distorted into the mon- 
 strous dogma of the Church of 
 Rome, are a simple and beautiful 
 expression, denoting, this is the 
 symbol, or sign, or representative 
 memorial of my body, which is 
 broken for you. This holy volume 
 asserts that our Lord's body is now 
 glorified, but the Church of Rome 
 says that his body is present on the 
 altar every day, nay, not only pre- 
 sent on the altar, but that it is 
 liable to the most awful and horrible 
 outrages that can be perpetrated 
 upon any creature. We say Christ's 
 body is glorified, and far beyond 
 suffering and death, in heaven ; but 
 the Church of Rome presumes that 
 she brings down that gloriiied body, 
 and makes it to be broken again, 
 and the blood to be shed again; and 
 if it be a true body, we might infer, 
 that there must be pain and grief, 
 and other proofs of keen sensibility, 
 during the breaking of the Host, 
 were it not that the Church of 
 Rome shiehis herself from ,the 
 charge, by another inconsistency, 
 that there is offering without suffer- 
 ing. To show you the awful de- 
 gradation to which the Church of 
 Ilome conceives the body of Christ 
 to be liable, I quote from the pre- 
 liminary remarks to the "Missale 
 Romanum," entitled "DeDefecti- 
 bus MissK," the authority of which 
 no Roman Catholic dare dispute. 
 It is in Latin, but I will give you it 
 in faithful English : — 
 
 
 
M 
 
 TEANSUBSTANTIATION. 
 
 [Ist Eoemtig. 
 
 On the defect of the Bread. — " If 
 tlie bread be not of wheat, or if of 
 wheat, it should be mixed with 
 grain of another kind, in so great a 
 quantity that it does not remain 
 wheaten bread, or if otherwise cor- 
 rupted, the sacrament is not formed. 
 
 " If the Hpst, when consecrated, 
 should disappear, either by some 
 accident,, as by wind, or by a miracle, 
 or be taken by some animal, and 
 cannot be found, then let another 
 be consecrated." 
 
 Defects of the Wine.—"'ii the 
 wme have become altogether vine- 
 gar, or altogether putrid, or be made 
 from sour or unripe grapes, or if so 
 much water has oeen mixed with 
 it that the wine is corrupted, the 
 sacrament is not formed. 
 
 6. " If something poisonous have 
 fallen into the chaiioe, or what is 
 calculated to excite siclmess of the 
 stomach, the consecrated wine is to 
 be placed in another cup, and other 
 wine, with water, is to be placed 
 again to be consecrated." 
 
 " 7.— "If 
 
 a flr, or a spider, or somethmg else, 
 shall have fallen into the chalice be- 
 fore consecration, let him throw the 
 \vine into a suitable place, and place 
 other vrine in the cnalioe ; let him 
 mix a little water, offer it as above, 
 and continue the mass ; if a fly, or 
 bomething of the kind, shall have 
 fallen after consecration, and nausea 
 arise in the priest, let him take it 
 out and wash it with wine ; at the 
 end of the mass let him bum it, and 
 let the combustion and lotion of this 
 kind be thrown into the sacrarium. 
 
 7. " If something poisonous shall 
 have touched the <!onseorated Host, 
 then let him oonstjrate another, and 
 take it in the w«t that has been 
 said, and let that be preserved in 
 the tabernacle, in a separate place, 
 until the species be completed. 
 
 13. "If, through carelessness, 
 some of the blood of Christ shall 
 
 have fallen, if indeed on the earth, or 
 on the board, let it be hoked with 
 the tongue, and lei the place itself 
 be scraped as much as is sufficient, 
 and let what has been scraped off 
 be burned." 
 
 How awful the degradation to 
 which such superstition must sub- 
 ject the body of Christ in the minds 
 of its votaries! The Host, when 
 the words of the priest have been 
 pronounced, "the body and blood, 
 soul and divinity of the Son ' of 
 God," — an ahimal may run away 
 with ; the wind may blow it away ! 
 Yet further, is it not nearly ap- 
 proaching to the "omciiying the 
 Son of God afresh, and putting him' 
 to an open shame," when the awful 
 dogma is declared, that the " soul 
 and divinity, the body and the 
 blood" of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
 assumed to be upon the altar of the 
 Church of Home, a rat, or a mouse, 
 or a dog, may eat up, and " put it 
 once more to an open shame ? " 
 Again, it is stated, among the de- 
 fects which may occur on the part 
 of the minister, as recorded in this 
 " Missale Bomanum," " If any one 
 does not intend to form, but do 
 something deceitfully ; likevrise, if 
 some Hosts, from forgetfulness, re- 
 main on the altar, or some part of 
 the wine or some Host is concealed, 
 when he does not intend to conse- 
 crate any but those which he sees ; 
 likewise, if any one have before 
 him eleven Hosts, and intends to con- 
 secrate only ten, not determining 
 which are the ten he intends, iii 
 these cases he does not consecrate, 
 because intention is required." 
 
 The last is illustrated by a refer- 
 ence to a canon of Trent, which 
 declares intention to be essentially 
 requisite in the administration of aJl 
 the sacraments. 
 
 Now, observe, — ^the Church of 
 Rome says, if the priest, when he 
 consecrates the Host, does not 
 
Bev.J. 
 
 TKANSTIBSW NTIAIION. 
 
 36 
 
 " intend " to do it, then there is no 
 Transubstantiation ; it remains flour 
 and water. Then mark the peril- 
 ousness of such a dootriae ! Suppose 
 the priest shonld be an iiifidel at 
 heart, the poor Eoman Catholic 
 flock are giving the worship of 
 " latria," the supreme worship, to 
 a piece of floui and water, even on 
 their own principle, instead of to 
 the liviag God. I will show you, 
 by an instance at hand, that this is 
 not rare. The Rev. Mr. Nolan, 
 now a minister of the Church of 
 England, and formerly a priest of the 
 Church of Rome, stated, that during 
 his mioistry he could not bring his 
 mind to believe, and did not bebeve, 
 that the flour and the water were 
 turned into the flesh and blood of 
 the Son of God. Then what must 
 be the consequence ? Why, all the 
 Komau Catholic hearers of » his 
 chapel, who took the sacrament of 
 the altar at his hands, have given 
 " the supreme worship " to a piece 
 of flour and water, instead of God, 
 and had no Mass during his ministry. 
 Such are some of the monstrous and 
 extraordinary consequences which 
 this doctrine necessarily involves. 
 This is not all. I read again from 
 the "De Defectibus," v. 14 :— "If 
 the priest vomit forth theEucharist ; 
 if the species appear entire, let them 
 be reverently taken, unless nausea 
 arise, for in that case, let the conse- 
 crated species be caiefuJly sepa- 
 rated, and let them be replaced in 
 some sacred place ui^til they are 
 corrupted, and afterwards let them 
 be thrown into the sacrarium. But 
 if the species do not appear, let the 
 vomit be burned, and the ashes be 
 thrown into the sacrarium." I read 
 them — not to ridicule the Roman 
 CathoKcs ; God forbid ! I read 
 them — ^not to cast one untrue or 
 random aspersion on my Roman 
 Catholic countrymen : but as it is 
 my painful dutv — ^to show the mon- 
 
 strous consequences, the blasphem- 
 ous results, to which the dogma of 
 Transubstantiation neoessaruy and 
 inevitably leads. If I were quoting 
 these extracts from documents 
 drawn up or worded only by Pro- 
 testants, or even composed by pri- 
 vate doctors, not recognised by the 
 Church of Rome, I should not lay 
 i stress on them ; I should class 
 them amongst the wild, extravagant 
 vagaries of hermits, monks, and 
 infatuated men : but when I find 
 these statements in the " Missale 
 Romanum," admitted and acted on 
 by every Roman Catholic priest, 
 and by my learned opponent, then I 
 do say that the guilt of those dread- 
 ful and awful consequences is to be 
 fathered on the Church of Rome and 
 her doctrine of Transubstantiation. 
 The next subject to which 1 
 call your attention (for I have 
 very little time left) is the sixth 
 chapter of St. John, from which my 
 opponent has quoted these words : — 
 "verily, verily, I say unto you, 
 except ye eat the flesh of the Son of 
 man, and drink his blood, ye have 
 no life in you." That, I admit, is^ 
 very strong, but most Protestant 
 language. Now let us see what one 
 of tlw most distinguished rndivi- 
 duak «< the Church of Rome says 
 about it ; I refer again to Bel- 
 larmine on the 54th verse of 
 the sixth chapter of St. John. 
 BeUarmine enumerates several Ro- 
 man Catholic doctors, who give the 
 Protestant interpretation of this 
 text, while Can. 1, Sess. of Trent, de- 
 clares that there " are various inter- 
 pretations of the hoVy fathers." So 
 much for unanimity ! In Bellar- 
 mine's number of those who give 
 the Protestant interpretation, are 
 Gabriel, Nicolas Cusan, Thomas 
 Cajetan, Richard Tapper, John 
 Hessel, ComeMns Jansenns; Roman 
 doctors, who admit in plain and 
 explicit terms the Protestant mter- 
 
S6 
 
 TBANSTreS r ANTU TION. 
 
 prelation of the passage, yiz., that 
 faith or coming to Christ is all that 
 is meaat by " eating his ilesh and 
 drinking his blood." Now, in re- 
 ference to the 6 th chapter of John, 
 let me repeat my call on Mr. French 
 to prove that it refers to the Lord's 
 supper at all. It is his business to 
 prove an affirmative, it is not my 
 provimce to prove a negative. 
 
 In the next place, what can be 
 more natural than that our Lord, in 
 discoursing with the unconverted 
 inhabitants of Capenmum, who fol- 
 lowed because of " the loaves and 
 the fishes," should take occasion 
 to speak of faith in him in a figu- 
 rative manner ; just in the same 
 way as when he met the woman of 
 Samaria at the well ; when she 
 came to draw water, he instantly 
 began to speak to her of - that 
 " living water, of which whoso 
 drinketh thirsteth no more." More 
 over, if the 6th chapter of John is 
 to be referred to the Lord's supper, 
 then I ask the Church of Eome, 
 what explanation she gives of the 
 fact of her having taken a portion 
 of the sacrament, namely, the cup, 
 from the laity, with the announce- 
 ment iu this chapter before her, 
 that " unless ye eat the flesh and 
 drink the blood of the Son' of God, 
 ye have no life in you." Does the 
 Church of Rome give the cup to 
 the laity ? Does she allow her 
 poor devotees to drink the blood of 
 the Son of God ? If my opponent 
 reply, the blood is contamed in the 
 flesh, I answer, the language (and 
 my opponent is a stickler for lite- 
 raJity) is, " drink my blood." Pro- 
 fessing and protesting that the 6th 
 chapterof John relates totheEucha- 
 rist, and with these words clearly 
 written: "unless ye eat my flesh and 
 drinh my blood," yet she withholds 
 ths sine qua non of salvation. Again, 
 if my opponent says this passage 
 refers to the Lord's supper, then 
 
 \\st Eveninff. 
 
 the consequence is, that eve:^ man 
 who eats the flesh of the Son of 
 God, or in other words, partakes of 
 the sacrament of the supper, has 
 eternal life. Observe the expression, 
 " Whoso,"— any man (54th verse), 
 " whoso eateth my flesh and drink- 
 eth my blood hath eternal hfe." 
 But if eating the flesh and drinking 
 the blood means taking the sacra- 
 ment of the supper, then every one, 
 whatever his weakness of faith, his 
 unbelief, his previous disposition or 
 preparation — every one, whatever 
 he may be, who " eats and drinks 
 the flesh and blood of the Son of 
 God, has, ex necessitate rei, eternal 
 life;" and, therefore, as Judas 
 " ate the flesh and drank the blood" 
 of the Son of God, he, the traitor 
 and the suicide, has eternal life; 
 and every murderer who can run 
 from his victim to the Eucharist 
 secures eternal life. My opponent 
 insists on the literal : let it be so, 
 and the consequences lie with him. 
 Again, we readin verse 53, "Except 
 ye eat the flesh and drink the blood 
 of the Son of GoA, ye have no life ;" 
 ergo, no one can be saved unless he 
 partake of the Eucharist. Did the 
 thief upon the cross, in this sense, 
 eat the flesh of the Son of Grod? 
 The Church of fiome wil admit 
 with me, that he, without ever hav- 
 ing received the Eucharist, was 
 saved and admitted into glory. Yet 
 the 53d verse, as understood by 
 Romanists, is absolute : — " Except 
 ye eat the flesh and drink the blood 
 of the Son of God, ye have no 
 life." Infants, who die after bap- 
 tism, according to the Church of 
 Rome, are saved ; but infants do not 
 " eat the flesh, and drink the blood 
 of the Son of God ;" and therefore, 
 if this passage is referred by my 
 opponent to the Lord's supper, he 
 must differ from his Churdi, and 
 hold that infants, though baptized, 
 yet not having eaten the flesh of 
 
Mr. Fmick'] 
 
 the Son of God, have no life. These 
 are not all the extravagant results 
 of referring this chapter to the 
 communion. Our Lord says (verse 
 41), " I am the bread which came 
 down from heaven;" and that bread 
 tie calls his flesh. Now mark, "it 
 came down from heaven ;" but did 
 our Lord's flesh come down from 
 heaven ? . No : it came from the 
 Virgin Mary. But this flesh which 
 is given us is described as having 
 come down from heaven, and there- 
 fore, the passage cannot refer to 
 his literal humanity. Tiiough I 
 am not bound to present an ex: 
 planation of the chapter, yet as 
 our Lord expounds his meaning, 1 
 may refer to it. Verse 35 : — " He 
 that believeth in me shall never 
 thirst." Verse 35 :— " He that be- 
 lieveth in me hath everlasting life." 
 Verse 47 : — '' He that cometh to 
 me shall never hunger." " No man 
 crmeth unto me, except the Father, 
 who hath sent me, draw him," and, 
 lastly, I call your special attention 
 to the key of the whole chapter 
 (68d verse) : " It is the Spirit that 
 quiokeneth; the flesh proeiteth 
 nothing : the "wouds," says our 
 Lord, "tha,tl speak unto you, they 
 are spirit, and thex are liee." 
 Now, I feel sure you are pre- 
 pared to coincide with me, that all 
 these extraordinary and contradic- 
 tory results must ensue, as I have 
 enumerated, viz. that every one who 
 partakes of the Eucharist is saved, 
 and that no one is saved who does 
 not, &c. ; or that you are to attach 
 to them a spiritual meaning and 
 import, and that our Lord was using 
 5gurative language, to which he had 
 accustomed his disciples beforej 
 when he said that " a man must be 
 bom again." "When we adopt the 
 Protestant principle, all is beautiful 
 harmony. Christ was that rock : 
 that is, we rest on him, and are 
 sustained by him; as by a rock. 
 
 TEAlJi>UBfjTA.,-TIAI10N. 
 
 37 
 
 Christ is " the liviug water :" that 
 is, faith in him is fuU'of refresh- 
 ment. Again, Christ is described 
 as bread, and we are nourished 
 by it. Believers are set forth as 
 "being born again," "grovring in 
 grace," and "members of his body," 
 to denote the close sympathy they 
 realize from communion and fel- 
 lowship with him. Would Eom^n 
 Catholics read their Bibles more, 
 they would see that the whole chap- 
 ter is in keeping with the rest of 
 our blessed Lord's discourses ; and 
 that this chapter does not refer to 
 the Lord's supper as a specific insti- 
 tution, but to those truths of which 
 the Lord's Supper is tue seal and 
 symbol. I now call on my opponent 
 to demonstrate, by such scriptural 
 and satisfactory reasons as this audi- 
 ence shall be contented with — not 
 flat ipse dixits — that the 6th chapter 
 of John is descriptive of the Lord's 
 supper. Wben he has tried this, 
 and complacently satisfied himself, 
 I next call on him for an explanation 
 of those consequences which neces- 
 sarily result from such an applica- 
 tion of this chapter, viz. that everv 
 one who eats the Eucharist is saved, 
 and that no one is saved who does 
 not; and I call on him to prove 
 how it is, that this " bread which 
 came down from heaven" can be the 
 flesh of the Son of God, which the 
 Bible teaches us was taken fi'om 
 the Virgin Mary. " Not discern- 
 ing the Lord's body," cannot surelv 
 imply the presence of Christ's flesh 
 and blood ? If taken as translated, I 
 ask, do the Roman Catholics " dis- 
 cern" that body on the altar? — [The 
 rev. gentleman's hour here expired.] 
 
 Mb. rEENCH. — ^My learned _ and 
 rev. opponent has pursued precisely 
 the course which I anticipated, and 
 which I specifically predicted to- 
 night, viz. that he would occupy the 
 greatest portion of his time in giv- 
 
3S 
 
 IBANSUBSTANl'lATION. 
 
 ing US his peculiar, his own infallible 
 interpretation of those texts which 
 he quoted from theNewTestament. 
 But the grand arguments by which 
 I have proved the existence of the 
 doctrine of Transubstantiation from 
 age to age — these, I contend, remain 
 not only totally unanswered, bat 
 totally unalluded to. In the course 
 of my address to you, at the present 
 moment, though I had intended 
 principally to^expatiate most amply 
 on the 6th chapter of John, and 
 then to demonstrate to you, that our 
 blessed Lord and Saviour meant 
 literally to give as his body and his 
 blood, — I say that was my original 
 inteiltion ; but as I have been accu- 
 sed by my learned friend of a little 
 incoherence in my first address to 
 you, I shall be particularly careful, 
 at tlie present moment, to observe a 
 strictline of adherence to regularity 
 and order ; so that I cannot wander 
 much, at least in the estiination of 
 my reverend opponent, if I follow 
 him step by step, and answer him 
 paragraph by paragraph. The first 
 observation which the learned gen- 
 tleman made was in reference to our 
 Church, wherelmaintained that the 
 Catholic Church does not, as it has 
 been falsely accused by its calumnia- 
 ■ torSj damn all those who differ from 
 her in opinion on religious subjects; 
 but those only who are hardened 
 and disobedient, — who refuse to 
 admit the rays of divine light ; in 
 one word, those who are not invin- 
 cibly ignorant. Why does the learned 
 gentleman endeavour to falsify my 
 assertion, by stating that the creed of 
 Pope Pius positively excludes from 
 the possibility of salvation those 
 who are out of the true Church? 
 Why, I grant, in one respect, that 
 it does so, and we beHeve that creed 
 to be true : but that creed does not 
 enter into a partioulax expositioii 
 of the various circumstances by 
 which it must necessarily be modi- 
 
 j 1st Beentnff. 
 
 fied; it only lays dovra the broad 
 principle, just as in the Testament^ 
 our blessed Saviour, in the Evange- 
 list, says, " He that believeth shal 
 be saved ; " and, " He that believeth 
 not shall be damned." When it 
 is said, in the New Testament, " he 
 that believeth shall be saved," does 
 not my reverend opponent ajgree 
 with me, that a man may beKeve, 
 but, if he pass his life in vice and 
 in iniquity, he may be lost, what- 
 ever may be the strength of his 
 belief? The Gospel upon this 
 point only lays down the broad 
 principle, and so does the Church 
 of Rome. The learned gentleman 
 asks, by what authority I pronounce . 
 that St. John the Evangehst, in that 
 divine 6th chapter, refers to Tran 
 substantiation — ^refers to the flesh 
 and to the blood of Christ? Why, 
 that authority by which the learned 
 gentleman interprets for himself, 
 but which he denies to the Homan 
 Catholic, appropriating it, as he does, 
 solely to tne Pi-otestant, namely, of 
 using my own spiritual penetration 
 or acumen in reading the Holy 
 Scriptures. I take the chapter in 
 hand this evening, neither as a Ca- 
 tholic, nor as a Protestant, but as a 
 mah endowed with the powers of 
 pursuing a train of common argu- 
 ment, and common reasoning. Aid . 
 what is the result? If I take it up 
 with a mind free from prejudice, and 
 in the application of common sense, 
 I solemnly declare that I come to 
 this conclusion, in the exercise of 
 those faculties with which, the Al- 
 mighty has endowed me, — ^I come to 
 this inevitable conclusion : that it is 
 all an idle and an empty waste of 
 words, a most absurd squandering 
 of speech, a most enormous abuse of 
 language, if Christ does not mean 
 to rive me his " flesh to eat, and 
 hisolood to drink." It is perfectly 
 intelligible from beginning to end, 
 without any recourse to metaphor. 
 
Mr. French.] 
 
 My faculties may not be so vigo- 
 rous by nature, so acute in con- 
 ception, or so perfect in memory, as 
 those of my learned friend; but 
 I give you the conclusion that I 
 come to in this their exertion, — 
 and that is my authority. But is 
 not this my conclusion firmly backed 
 by the opinions and authorities of 
 men fully equal, as to all the powers 
 of penetrative genius, to my reverend 
 opponent? Have I not veith me 
 some of the greatest men that adorn 
 the annals of history, drawing the 
 same identical deduction from that 
 chapter ? Have I not men of the 
 most brilliant capacity and sound 
 judgment, who disbefieved Chris- 
 tianity, and only looked at this 
 chapter as a matter of curiosity and 
 interest, and who, the moment that 
 they read it, exclaimed, Wliat ad- 
 vantage must not the Papist neces- 
 sarily have over his Protestant 
 antagonist, when he confronts him 
 with this chapter? What can be 
 said in the way of rationality to do 
 away this strength of evidence in 
 favour of the Catholic ? Why, aU 
 that can be said and shown on the 
 subject is such a traui of shallow 
 argument as my learned friend has 
 had recourse to this evening. Tor 
 instance, " I am the door," " I am 
 the vine," and so on. What analogy 
 do we. find here ? Had there been 
 any possibility of their thinking he 
 meant to speak Kterally here, they 
 would have cried out on that occa- 
 sion, " How can this man be a door 
 and a vine," as they did when he 
 said, " Verily, verily, this is my flesh, 
 this is my blood ?" But what autho- 
 rity, you ask, have we for stating 
 that that 6th chapter was the foun- 
 dation on which to ground the sacra- 
 ment of the Eucharist ? I answer, 
 that our Lord, in my conception of 
 things, was then preparing the minds 
 of ma disciples to receive that 
 mysterious dogma, which has been 
 
 TBANSUBSTANTUTION. 
 
 39 
 
 the belief of harmonizing mUlions 
 for so many centuries, — the doc- 
 trine of Transubstantiation, I there- 
 fore spurn the question with ineffa- 
 ble disdain, and come to my own 
 deduction, deliberately made by exer- 
 cising my reasoning faculties, and 
 solemnly declare that that man must 
 voluntarily distort his own faculties, 
 who maintains that the Saviour did 
 not mean in that chapter to impress 
 upon his disciples that his intention 
 was to give them "his own flesh to 
 eat, and his blood to drink." St. 
 Austin tells you that "the carnally- 
 minded Jews understood it ' as flesh 
 sold in the market;'" but we do 
 not for a moment mean it in that 
 way — not dead and inanimate flesh, 
 but the body quickened and ani- 
 mated by his immortal soul, and by 
 his eternal, almighty, and life-giving 
 Spirit. The learned gentleman 
 throws ridicule upon it, at the same 
 time that he declares it to be his 
 wish to avoid every expression bor- 
 dering on offence to the Catholic. 
 And yet the reverend gentleman 
 cannot but know that nothing can be 
 more galling to a Catholic, than to 
 hear the Sacrament oontemptuously 
 spoken of, and called a wafer. Does 
 he meet in our books with any 
 thing, of the wafer? Is that a 
 known or faimliar phrase in use 
 among Catholics ? The learned gen- 
 tleman goes on then to state, — for I 
 follow mm from the beginning, step 
 by step, — he goes on to state, that 
 the fathers are not infallible. What 
 then! Catholics acknowledge that 
 they are not infallible. There was 
 no necessity whatever for wasting 
 time and breath on a subject of this 
 nature ; all we want to know is this : 
 whether there is to be found an 
 harmonious consent between them 
 on the doctrine of the Eucharist. 
 Let us investigate : and to begin, 
 what says the great St. Augustme on 
 this subject ? I shall not quote the 
 
40 
 
 TEAHStJBSTASTIATICW, 
 
 Latin, as I wish to make the most of 
 mv time. (Si. Aug. contr. Adv. Legit. 
 et Prophet, lib. li, cap. 9, vol. Tiii. 
 p. 599.) "As we receive, with a faith- 
 tul heart and mouth, the Mediator 
 of God and of men, Christ Jesus, 
 who tells us that his bodg is to be 
 eaten, and his blood is to be drunh ; 
 although it may appear more horri- 
 ble to'ea^ the flesh of a man than to 
 destroy it, and to dritik human Hood 
 than to slied it. Again, they (some 
 of the Jews) were converted; they 
 were converted and baptized. They 
 approached to the table of the Lord, 
 and now, beliemng, they drank that 
 blood which, in their ungovernable 
 fury, they themselves had shed." 
 
 Now, gentlemen, methinks my 
 facetious orientalist is preparing al- 
 ready to open his ears to take ad- 
 vantage of it, [laughter.] " Christ 
 took earth from earth, inasmuch as 
 flesh is from earth, and this ilesh he 
 took from the flesh of Mary ; and, 
 because he conversed with us in the 
 flesh, he gave us this same flesh to 
 
 eat for our salvation But no 
 
 one eats that flesh without adoring it 
 flrst; — ^not only is it no sin to adore 
 it, — but we sia if we adore it not." 
 {St. Aug. Enarr. in Psalm. Opera, 
 Bened. Edit. vol. iv. pars 2 ) 
 
 Is not now my reverend friend 
 
 Erepared to banish St. Angustitie 
 :om the code of Calvin, when he 
 addresses the consecrated bread, 
 and adores Christ in the Sacra- 
 ment ? Win he admit him to be a 
 member of his Church ? Is it not 
 high time that he should anathema,- 
 tize St. Augustine, as being idola- 
 trous in the object of his worship ? 
 If I am not mistaken, we shall hear 
 very little from the works of St. 
 Augastine on future occasions, 
 quoted by my reverend opponent. 
 With regard to the "bones and 
 nerves of the Son of God," a sub- 
 ject to which the reverend gentle- 
 man alluded, I acknowledge it is in 
 
 \l»t Evening, 
 
 the Council of Trent; I acknow- 
 ledge that the words are used ; but 
 why endeavour to bring the whole 
 subject into ridicule? If this be 
 permissible in his treatment of a 
 subject so awful, let him reflect 
 whether the sanction of his ex- 
 ample will not afford justification 
 for ridicule to the followers of Cai-- 
 Ksle, and all those men who blas- 
 pheme Cliristianity? When he sets 
 the example, will they not be quite 
 ready to foUow ? Again, then, the 
 reverend gentleman alluded to our 
 Saviour appeariog in the midst of 
 his disciples, when the doors were 
 shut; but can the learned gentle- 
 man possibly account for the ap- 
 pearance of our Saviour after he 
 had been dead? Can the learned 
 gentleman tell me by what tran- 
 scendant miracle it was that our 
 blessed Lord was transfigured ? If 
 he cannot tell me how it was he 
 appeared in the midst of his disci- 
 ples when the doors were shut; 
 and if he cannot, we are not bound 
 to give him an answer when he asks 
 us, how the Lord of heaven and 
 earth is received by the faithful in 
 every region of the globe, or how 
 he appears at the same time on all 
 our altars. All we know is, that 
 we have his unerring word for it : 
 — "this is my body, this is my 
 blood." The apostles were hidden 
 to do the same, "in remembrance 
 of him ; " that is, to consecrate as 
 he .consecrated. They consecrated 
 after him — as I am prepared to 
 prove when that subject is ..dis- 
 cussed — the successors of the apo- 
 stles consecrated successively after 
 them, the consecration has been 
 going on from apostolic times to 
 the present day, and aU the nations 
 of the earth cry out with one voice 
 in testimony of the sacred fact. 
 The learned gentleman gravely pre- 
 tends to prove that it interferes 
 with God's government, — those are 
 
Mr. Vreneh,.\ 
 
 his words, which 1 do not well 
 comprehend; but I ask what he 
 can easily comprehend — viz. how 
 he accounts for this harmonious 
 consent of nations, for that tra- 
 dition which is uninterruptedly 
 handed down from age to age. I 
 challenge him to answer me, — 
 When did Transubstantiation arise 
 in the world — when was the doc- 
 trine first preached ? Sometimes 
 he tells us that it was in the eighth 
 century, and that Pascasius Sad- 
 bert wrote the first treatise on it. 
 But I have already told him that 
 Pascasius only wrote copiously, on 
 what others had written less exten- 
 sively. I wish it to be thoroughly 
 elucidated this night, and I shall 
 now proceed to give you my ideas 
 on that diviae sixth chapter of 
 John, and leave you to draw your 
 own inference from our respective 
 interpretations, so soon as you shall 
 have heard me. This, then, is what 
 I am most desirous to hear 
 thoroughly elucidated, — to know 
 which IS the primitive doctrine, the 
 primitive rehgion, — the body and 
 the blood, or mere bread and wine? 
 I fiud that England was converted 
 to Christianity m the sixtn century. 
 Was the doctrine of Transubstan- 
 tiation brought over by those holy, 
 those immortal men, who came to 
 rescue -this island from the depths 
 of blasphemy and idolatry? Was 
 Protestantism, or w^ Catholicity 
 believed by those sainted, those 
 illustrious men — by St. Augustine 
 'and others ? Read the monuments 
 of antiquity to ascertain the truth 
 of it ; look at the letters of Gregory 
 the Great, which are still quoted in 
 many of your histories ; look at the 
 letters of Gregory the Great, I say, 
 bidding Augustine to wear the pall 
 during the celebration of Mass ; 
 look at all the histories which in- 
 form us on the subject; look at the 
 Protestant Dean Mjlner, in his 
 
 TEAU S DBSTAUTLiTION. 
 
 41 
 
 History of the Church: he tells 
 you that St. Austin brought over aU 
 those usages and practices, which 
 are known and adhered to in the 
 Roman Church ; and will any one 
 deny that the doctrine of Transub- 
 stantiation was likewise included? 
 I would, moreover, ask this ques- 
 tion:— JDid Protestants introduce 
 Christianity into every nation of 
 the earth ? Read, agam, upon this 
 point, the pages of your own his- 
 torian, Milner, and you wiH find 
 that in every age the only way in 
 which he proves the visibility and 
 the sanctity of the Church, in the 
 sis first centuries, in the seventh, 
 eighth, nay in the ninth, is by 
 bringing forward on the scene some 
 illustrious Catholic saints ; for there 
 were no Protestants in existence to 
 attract his notice. I say, therefore, 
 here I must fling back the compli- 
 ment to my reverend antagonist; 
 when he opposes me with the 
 Gospel, the Gospel " stares him in 
 the face" — the Gospel cries out 
 loudly for the doctrine of Catholics. 
 I think the rev. gentleman himself 
 win not hesitate to acknowledge, 
 that, as far as the hterahty of the 
 words go, it is in our favour. All 
 that the learned gentleman can do 
 or say, is to draw a fine and figurar 
 tive distinction from all these pas- 
 sages. The words, I have before 
 said, are strong, aye, infrangibly 
 strong, strong enough to delude, u 
 we Catholics labour under error, 
 many centuries, to believe in Tran ■ 
 substantiation; strong enough to 
 make those "falKble" fathers, as 
 my opponent calls them, — and I 
 acknowledge they are fallible, — to 
 make them aU with one voice agree 
 that Christ did not intend to be 
 understood figuratively, but lite- 
 rally, and that he meant in reality 
 his flesh and his blood. St. Maru- 
 thus, who wrote in the Syriac Ian- 
 ays, " Christ called it not 
 c3 
 
42 
 
 TIlANStrBSTA2JTIA.H0N. 
 
 [1*; Evening. 
 
 Van figure of liis body, but said, this 
 is my body, this is my blood." The 
 learned gentleman then introduces 
 another subject, ■vyhich I defer to 
 the end, until I have answered 
 some remarks of his, taken, if I 
 mistake not, from Dr. Adam Clarke. 
 Dr. Adam Clarke, I beKere, from 
 whom my learned friend has culled 
 all those ingenious pass^es, such 
 as, "I am the door," "I am the 
 viae," came into contact, some 
 years ago, as I dare say my friend 
 very well remembers, with a most 
 powerful giant in polemics of our 
 Church, of the name of Dr. Wise- 
 man. Dr. Adam Clarke, who 
 brought up all those strange objec- 
 tions against the doctrine of Tran- 
 substantiation, was, as it appeared, 
 not quite satisfied with the long 
 string of parabolic expressions, such 
 as, " I am the door," " I am the 
 vine," &c. &c. ; but he thought to 
 overturn the doctrine of Transub- 
 stantiation, by declaring, that our 
 blessed Lord and Saviour said, 
 "This is mj body, this is my 
 blood," because, forsooth, there 
 was such a penury of expression ia 
 the language in which he spoke — 
 that there was no word to express 
 the idea, " this is figurative of, this 
 is representative of, or this stands 
 for my body," and thai therefore 
 our blessed Saviour, according to 
 him, was necessitated to ha^e re- 
 course to, ia order, to express his 
 g, the substantive "to be," 
 
 and said, "This is my body, this is 
 my blood." This accordingly was 
 soon spread all over England, and 
 the Rev. Mr. Home, who had 
 written rather a virulent mmphlet 
 against the doctrine of Transub- 
 stantiation, immediately took up, 
 and disseminated far and wide, the 
 grand discovery. Protestants nar 
 turally enough began to say, " Now 
 we can account for the belief of 
 those poor deluded Komaa Catho- 
 
 lics in Transubstantiation ; now, at 
 least, they surely will see that our 
 Lord and Saviour meant to convey 
 the idea, that it was to be represen- 
 tative of his body; surely this isi 
 sufficient to open the eyes of those 
 poor, benighted Roman Catholics." 
 Well, my friends, what did Dr. 
 Wiseman do in the midst of the 
 tumult ? Why he proved, demon- 
 strativelyj that so far from that 
 language labouring under any pen- 
 ury of expression as to painting the 
 idea in question, that it was the 
 most potent, the most copious lan- 
 guage ever spoken by the mouth of 
 man ; that there were actually ybrif^- 
 one modes of expressing that idea 
 in that very language, all of which 
 he has written down, and presented 
 to the learned, and all the learned 
 have approved of them, and have 
 declared, that Dr. Adam Clarke is 
 torotig ; that he had no ground, no 
 right to make the assertion, — in 
 one word, that it was rank im- 
 posture practised on the British 
 public. 
 
 But what did the followers of 
 Dr. Adam Clarke say ? What did 
 the Rev. Mr. Home say? Wliy, 
 in the next pamphlet that he pub- 
 lished, he artfully omitted the mat- 
 ter, without ever making the least 
 apology for the thousands of Chris- 
 tians whom he had been deluding 
 by such a false, though plausible 
 argument. Forty-one well-proved 
 words to express this idea! many 
 more one might introduce like- 
 wise, but there were forty-one, 
 most fittingly squaring with the 
 expression of the idea. Subse- 
 quently, as a dernier ressort on the 
 part of the baffled theologians, Dr. 
 Lee, Professor of Hebrew in the 
 University of Cambridge, and ol 
 the oriental_ lajiguages, was applied 
 to, who delivered ms' opinion that 
 Dr. Wiseman was undoubtedly 
 right; that there were so many ui" 
 
Mr. French.] 
 
 contested -words to correspond to 
 the expression of the sentiment; 
 that it was a copious language, in- 
 stead of being one, as Dr. Adam 
 Clarke wished to insinuate, desti- 
 tute of phrases to express common 
 
 TEAMSUBSTANTIATION. 
 
 43 
 
 _ am sorry to make an ob- 
 servation of this kind on a learned 
 man; but when that learned man 
 calls Cathohcs " the most stupid of 
 mortals," and wonders, to use his 
 own expression, " how we can be- 
 lieve such a congeries of absurdities 
 as the dogmas of our creed, I can- 
 not refram from exclaiming — Thus 
 it is, my friends, that, ia the nine- 
 teenth century, the enemy of Catho- 
 licity retires to his gloomy cell, in 
 order to forge a new thunderbolt 
 against the immortal dogma of 
 Transubstantiation, and comds out 
 of it, if I may use a poetical simile, 
 on the occasion, like Salmoneus, 
 gKttering and flashing for awhile, 
 and dazzling all eyes with the mimie 
 splendour of his invention, till at 
 length the " non imitabile ^ulmen" 
 of a Wiseman dashes the impostor 
 to the ground, and exposes him to 
 every eye, an object of pity, of 
 derision, and contempt ! But what 
 has he in reality done ? Why he 
 has given an additional strength to 
 the argument of Transubstantiation; 
 he has adorned it with a greater 
 lustre than that vrith which it ever 
 shone before. Again, he little 
 knew, also, that, ia urging such an 
 argument against the doctrine of 
 Transubstantiation, he was aidiug, 
 materially aiding the Unitarians m 
 their views of our doctrine as to 
 the divinity of Christ. If such a 
 theory had once been admitted into 
 modem theology, in the schools of 
 Calvin or Luther, the Unitarian 
 would immediately have exclaimed, 
 "In the beginning was the word, 
 and4he word was with God, and 
 the word was God," — ^he would 
 then have said, according to your 
 
 doctrine, "was God," means "the 
 representative of God," and nothing 
 else; and he would- have thus ar- 
 gued much more plaasibly ana 
 felicitously than Dr. Adam Clarke 
 pged his argument, inasmuch as, 
 in St. Paul's epistles, Christ is 
 called the imai^i of God. Yes, he 
 would have afforded a strong argu- 
 ment by which the Unitarians might 
 fortify themselves with redoubled 
 obstinacy in their mibelief. The 
 learned gentleman has insiauated — 
 and it is a stale argument used by 
 the divines of the Church of Eng- 
 land, though not so usual now as in 
 former days, that adoring Clurist in 
 the Eucharist overturns the chief 
 evidence of Christianity, which is 
 the senses. 
 
 But the learned gentleman should 
 know, if he has read the fathers, as 
 I am sure he has — he should know, 
 that almost all the fathers have al- 
 luded to the frequency with which 
 our senses are deluded, and to that 
 frequency with which in the Bible 
 we find they have been deluded. 
 We read of it in Luke xxiv. 16, 31 : 
 " But their eyes were holden, that 
 they should not know lum." Again, 
 "And their eyes were opened, and 
 they knew him; and he vanished 
 out of their sight." Again, St. 
 John, XX. 14 — 16 : — " And when 
 she had thus said, she turned her- 
 self back, and saw Jesus standing, 
 and knew not that it was Jesus. 
 Jesus saith unto her. Woman, why 
 weepest thou ? whom seekest thoj ? 
 She, supposing him to be the gai^ 
 doner, saith unto him. Sir, if thou 
 have borne him hence", tell me 
 where thou hast laid him, and I will 
 take him away. Jesus saith unto 
 her, Mary. She turned herself, and 
 saith unto him, Eabboni ; which is 
 to say. Master." Again, St. Mat- 
 thew, xxvui. 9 : "And as they went 
 to tell his disciples, behold, Jesus 
 met them, saying. All hail. And 
 
4A 
 
 ■tEANSTraSTAJTIIATrOlf. 
 
 they came and ield him hy the feet, 
 and worshipped him." Again, St. 
 John, ii. 18 : "Then answered the 
 Jews and said imto him. What sign 
 shewest thou unto us, seeing that 
 thou doest these things ? " Then, 
 when "Jacob wrestled with the 
 angel," were not his senses de- 
 ceived? But I say, in answfer to 
 the learned gentleman, that I would 
 much rather disregard my senses 
 than disbelieve the words of the 
 Omnipotent God. His word cannot 
 deceive me, my senses may possibly 
 be deceived, «>•« frequently deceived; 
 nay, in common material Hfe they 
 are deceived. The eye is frequently 
 deceived : put a stick in the water 
 that is straight, and it wiU appear 
 crooked; the senses can be deceived. 
 The learned gentleman, in his 
 sterility of anything like solid argu- 
 ment agaiust us, has endeavoured 
 to draw an argument from the pic- 
 tures painted by Roman Catholic 
 artists of the Church of Rome, where 
 the Saviour is looking up. But that 
 does not furnish any argument as to 
 the posture of the Saviour at the last 
 supper. The artist, whoever he may 
 be, can know nothing on that awful 
 sirbjeet, except that Christ was 
 seated at a table, with his twelve 
 disciples, and took bread and blessed 
 it, and did not say, " this is the 
 fiaare of my body," as St. Maruthus 
 observes, but "this m my body, this 
 is my blood." And I would rather 
 believe his divine word, than believe 
 the infallibility of my senses. But 
 I am astonished that the learned 
 gentleman should have inquired into 
 our doctrine of the Eucharist so 
 superficially. I do not mean to say 
 that he is superficial in any of the 
 branches of learning, except in the 
 tenets of my own Church. As to 
 these, I must own, and sure I am 
 that the learned gentleman will not 
 contradict me, he has manifested 
 some degree of ignorance this night; 
 
 \lst Eoening. 
 
 and I believe, that if I were called 
 on to explain all the novum drpu- 
 mentum congeries of ideas in Calvin's 
 Catechism, I should be much more 
 ignorant. But in order that he may 
 have more solid ground to go upon, 
 I shall prove to fim that the species, 
 or the host — that is the proper word, 
 and not "wafer" — after the words 
 of consecration, become really the 
 body and blood of our Lord : that 
 is, they become our blessed Lord's 
 body, soul and divinity, and that the 
 blessed Lord of heaven and of earth 
 iu this sacrament is not liable to 
 those outrages, those corporeal con- 
 tingencies of which he has so feel- 
 inglv complained. 
 
 tfood God ! such a strain of argu- 
 ment is really astonishing ! It gives 
 an opportunity to Deists to ridicule 
 the whole fabric of the Christian 
 reKgion. It might be said by them, 
 if you believe Christ to have been 
 thus liable to accident, and that he 
 was " truly God and truly man," 
 how was it that, when a little child 
 going into Egypt, he was secure 
 from accident ? Suppose a wild 
 beast of the desert had darted upon 
 him and devoured liitin ? Let me 
 tell you, my friends, if the Lord 
 of heaven • and earth is where the 
 Host is supposed to be, he is as able 
 to protect himself now by bis own 
 divinity, as he was when in the arms 
 of Maryandof Joseph. "We find even 
 a poet, St. Thomas Aquinas, who 
 wrote long before the Reformation, 
 who wrote long before Protestants 
 arose to declaim against the doc- 
 trine of Transubstautiation, express- 
 ing in that immortal hymn, which 
 Sir Walter Scott says " is one of the 
 finest that ever flowed from the pen 
 of man," expressing himself on the 
 subject with more accuracy that my 
 theological opponent. He wiU in- 
 form my learned friend on this sub- 
 ject. _ It is not for the sake of my 
 poetry, or mode of translating it, 
 
Mr. French.'] 
 
 TBANSTJESTANTIATION. 
 
 46 
 
 but it is for the sake of tie accu- 
 rate eiplication it contains, that I 
 take the liberty of reading it to the 
 learned gentleman as a kind of 
 theological lesson. Speaking of 
 Transubstantiation, he says — 
 
 " Unshaken tenet I sacred creed ! 
 Eiiioll'd in faith's eternal deed^ 
 Unchang'd hy Time's all-changing flood ! 
 Bread turns to flesh, wine turns to blood 1 
 What far transcends the mind of man, 
 "With all its pow'rs to sound or scan ; 
 What to the eye of mortal shroud, 
 Seems one impenetrable cloud. 
 Is clear'd by faith's bright beaming eye, 
 Though Nature and her laws defy. 
 
 What lies before the visual rays 
 Is but appearance — Faith displays 
 The glorious form, what signs conceal. 
 The vivid eyes of faith reveal. 
 Whate'er th' incredulous may think, 
 The flesh is food, the blood is drink, 
 yes, Christ is in each species whole, 
 Body, Divinity, and Soull 
 
 Whoe'er this sacred feast partake. 
 Their food they neither cut nor break. 
 Nor yet divide ; — but oh ! admire ! 
 East ■guest receives it whole entire ! 
 Let one alone, let millions eat. 
 Alike each takes the self-same meat. 
 This way, and that, though crowds repair. 
 Each owns an undiminish'd share. 
 
 The good, the Tiad, alike are fed ; — 
 Oh! how unlike the self-same bread 
 In the sweet graces it bestows ! 
 'Tis death to these, 'tis life to those. 
 Death to the bad its sources give. 
 The good participate and live. 
 Behold what sweets, what bitters flow 
 From the same fountain, bliss or woe. 
 
 Whene'er the sacrament is broken 
 
 'Tis but fraction of a token ; 
 
 Let not then Arm faith be shaken, 
 
 But remember what is taken ! 
 
 That in each fragment there remains 
 
 Whate'er th' unbroken whole contains. 
 
 A sign, that in the hands is borne. 
 
 No substance is asunder torn ; 
 
 No ; that which symbols represent. 
 
 Is undiminish'd, isunrent; 
 
 Lo ! then the bread of angels made 
 Th' ethereal food for sons of sbade ; 
 The sons of earth, like sons of heaven. 
 Eat bread of true celestial leaven ; 
 Sweet food that never knows decay, "J 
 Of mortal man the prop and stay, [ 
 To dogs not to be cast away. ) 
 
 This sacred mystery to unfold, 
 Was Isaac sacritlced of old ; 
 'Tis this the paschal lamb foreshow'd. 
 For this from heav'n the manna flow'd." 
 
 Now to these verses I call the 
 learned gentleman's attention, that 
 he may now know how to reason 
 
 for the future more correctly, more 
 substantially, when he touches upon 
 this hallowed, this mysterious sub- 
 ject. Two of them I shall repeat, 
 in order to snow that the poet is a 
 sound theologian, if St. Gregory of 
 Nyssa, who wrote nearly five cen- 
 turies before Pasoasius Rhadbert, 
 knew anything of the matter, viz. 
 
 '* That in each fragment there remains 
 Whate'er th' unbroken whole contains." 
 
 — Zetier to St. Gregory of Nvssa, 
 A.D. 372. 
 
 St. Greg. Ni/ss. Catechetica Orat. 
 vol. iii. Edit. Bened. p. 132 : " Now 
 we must consider how it can be 
 possible that one body, for ever dis- 
 tributed to so many myriads of the 
 faithful, over thewhole world, should 
 be in the distribution whole in each 
 receiver, and should itself remain 
 in itself whole." 
 
 Theleamed gentleman continued : 
 — The reverend gentleman says, as 
 if itwere a concession, that all things 
 are possible with God, yet in the 
 very same breath he Kmits the power 
 of God, and declares that reason 
 insists that Transubstantiation is 
 not possible to God. I do not say he 
 has uttered those very words, but 
 his reasoning tended to that point 
 to-night, notwithstanding all these 
 learned men I have quoted have de- 
 clared that it is possible. Luther 
 does not believe it to^be Transub- 
 stantiation, but he maintains consul- 
 stantiation ; that Christ is there— 
 that the bread remains there ; and 
 the Catholic believes Transubstan- 
 tiation. But what kind of rule of 
 faith must that be among Protes- 
 tants, I ask, when the father of 
 Protestantism, Luther, thus expli- 
 citly states his opinion, and when all 
 other Protestants of the present day, 
 men and women among you, take 
 the Bible in hand, and are enabled 
 to draw their own inference, one 
 saying that it is purely spiritnal. 
 
46 
 
 TRANStTBSTANTIATION. 
 
 that Christ is not there, and that 
 they are merely taking it inremem- 
 brance of his death and passion, 
 another, that it is his body together 
 with the bread ? What kind of rtJe 
 of faith is that which says, " the 
 Bible without tradition ?" what kind 
 of rnle of faith can that be, where 
 the Protestants of this country 
 differ, as J have said, on such funda- 
 mental tenets ? where we flndCalvin 
 positiyely excluding, by a meroUess 
 decree, Protestants of the Church 
 of England from the kingdom of 
 heaven, as he does the Catholic ? [In 
 consequence of a murmur, Mr. P. 
 said. That is Calvin's Catechism.] 
 Those, are his own words, and I can 
 prove it. Well, but what I wish to 
 snow is, if the words of Christ are 
 so plain, how is it that a man of 
 Luther's acuteness and discrimina- 
 tion was unable to draw a figurative 
 deduction ? That is the point I wish 
 the learned gentleman to answer. 
 
 Again, to come a Httle to tradi- 
 tion. Let not the learned gentle- 
 man spend his time in quibbling 
 on particular passages, and intro- 
 ducing parallels where no parallels 
 exist ; but let him grapple with me 
 at once like a genuine theologian, 
 and tell me how it is that Transub- 
 stantiation arose in the world? Does 
 he deny that I can deduce it, in 
 regular succession, from age to- age? 
 He quotes another passage from St. 
 [gnatius, to do away with that ever- 
 memorable extract. But what says 
 it P Why it proves only that Igna- 
 tius uses some figurative expressions 
 afterwards, which, as he conceives, 
 totally annildlate the great original. 
 Why, in the Evangelist St. John, 
 we see the very same definition 
 given of God, namely, " God is 
 love;" but it is not to be taken 
 literally, and it is just the same 
 when St. Ignatius happens to say 
 "the Sacrament is love." Now, if 
 \ou tie me to the literalitj, then I 
 
 [Isl Ikemng 
 
 say, love is God, since the Evangelist 
 afhrms that God is love. Again, when 
 it is said that " God is love," is that 
 to reduce the Supreme B.uler of the 
 universe to the level of theLucretian 
 god, who exercised of old so great a 
 dominion over the whole heathen 
 world? Is it to do that ? No; and 
 if the sentiment is.not implied in the 
 expression of the Evangelist, neither 
 is it in that of St. Ignatius, when 
 he says " the Sacrament is love." 
 
 The Catholic feels and knows 
 that it is " love " — ay, unbounded 
 love, when he comes, — after hav- 
 ing approached with a pure heart, 
 and abstaining from all that is irre- 
 verent and all that is impure in 
 thought, in word, and in deed — 
 ■when he comes away, after having 
 approached that holy, that consoling 
 table — ^when he Qomes away from 
 it, oh ! I would appeal to my Ca- 
 tholic brethren, if they do not feel 
 their hearts glowing with an un- 
 bounded and meffable love for their 
 blessed and adorable Saviour— their 
 sweet Redeemer ! We believe 
 most firmly that Scriptural doc- 
 trine ; and if we labour under a 
 deception as to the doctrine, I ex- 
 claim again — for I cannot repeat it 
 too frequently — let any of our 
 learned theologians of the nine- 
 teenth century point out the time 
 when it first arose in the world; 
 the time, I say, when men were 
 first deluded by conspiring priests. 
 K they can do it, we will, then 
 acknowledge that we have been 
 labouring under gross delusion 
 and error. But he talis of the 
 " perilousness of the doctrine," on 
 the supposition that our Lord is 
 not there. I see no danger at all. 
 There is no idolatry in it, even if 
 the Host is not consecrated. I am 
 adoring Christ, whom I believe to 
 be there. The I lost is consecrated, 
 as the reverend gentleman knows 
 it is, and I believe Christ to be tlieie 
 
Mr. Vfeneh.^ 
 
 THANSUBSTANTIAIION, 
 
 47 
 
 You, cannot, you tell me, conceive 
 this. Can you conceive the way in 
 whicli the floly Ghost appeared in 
 the form of a dove ? I ask you, 
 •was it tanrible, was it matter ? lou 
 wiU, of course, reply no ; and there- 
 fore I say, that m our sacrament, 
 which we caJl the Eucharist, the 
 bread, which has all the properties 
 of bread after the words of conse- 
 cration are pronounced, is no longer 
 bread; but according to our doc- 
 trine, Christ, our Saviour, is there 
 in the Sacrament. Here the learned 
 gentleman, in the uncontrolled exer- 
 cise' of his reason, calls us idolaters 
 in adoring this. Why, the Unitar 
 rian calls you idolaters for adoring 
 Christ as God, they believinff him 
 to be only man. The Umtarian 
 and Socinian say so. But a man, 
 quite as learned as my reverend- 
 ftiend, and gifted with at least as 
 much keenness and penetration 
 as my reverend friend can lay claim 
 to, has acquitted us of idolatry, 
 even if Christ be not there. ' 
 
 Dr. Johnson, as you all know, in 
 BosweU's life of him, is recorded to 
 have said, that " The Roman Ca- 
 tholic, even if Christ be not there, 
 is not guilty of idolatry." Again, 
 my learned opponent talks about a 
 CathoHc priest, who has come over 
 to his Church, and a bright orna,- 
 ment of his Church he is, [laughter] 
 " one of those dead weeds thrown 
 over into your garden," as the face- 
 tious Svrirt expresses it. The rev. 
 fentleman says this Nolan did not 
 eheve in the consecration of the 
 Host, and, as a' consequence, uifers 
 that he could not consecrate. I 
 maintain that, as a priest, though 
 bad, he stiU could consecrate. As I 
 said before, the Catholic believes 
 that Christ is present, and I would 
 refer my friend to the learned Dr. 
 Lingard, who has the following 
 observation, which may serve to 
 illustrate tny meaning. " A man 
 
 goes and falls down at the feet of a 
 fellow-warrior of a king, taking him 
 for the king, and pays worship to 
 him; I mean, what is called worship 
 in Scripture, to a great man. Does 
 he therefore offend his Majesty, as 
 committing a disloyal act? His 
 Majesty knows very well he is 
 labouring under a mistake; andvrill 
 Christ be offended by our thinking 
 him present, and adoring him, 
 when he is not present i The 
 learned gentleman has observed 
 very triumphantly, that "the Spirit 
 quickeneth." les, I say, and that 
 is a subject which occupies many 
 laborious pages of the great St. 
 Augustine, in order to prove that 
 it is not the body and the blood 
 alone ithat we take in the sacra- 
 ment, unanimated by the immortc! 
 Spirit of Christ, but that it is the 
 Spirit of Christ wMch renders the 
 Sacrament which we take so effica- 
 cious ; it is that glorified, that ce]es- 
 tialized, that spiritualized body, as 
 receivf,d in the Sacrament, which 
 renders it so efficacious, so over- 
 flowing in its effects, upon the soul 
 of its receivers. 
 
 An observation made by the 
 learned gentleman, with regard to 
 BeUarmine, I must positively con- 
 tradict, as never having come from 
 his pen, and I defy him to prove it. 
 It is, that that learned theologian 
 ever doubted for a moment of Tran- 
 substantiation. 
 
 fiev. J. CxjMMiNG. — I did not 
 say so ! What were the words ? 
 
 Mr. Pebnoh.— You said that on 
 the 54th verse of the sixth chapter 
 of St. John, he held the Protestant 
 interpretation of that text, according 
 to the opinions of certain divines, 
 &c. You mentioned Jansenius too. 
 
 Eev. J. Cotoong. — ^Read the 
 words, if you please. 
 
 Mr. Pkench. — While he is look- 
 ing out the words, I will make a 
 few observations. Gentlemen, I am 
 
TRANSUBSTANTIAIION. 
 
 extremely sorry to be under the 
 necessity, as I have been this even- 
 ing, of following out my friend's ar- 
 guments, so as to have been unable 
 to expatiate on that divine sixth 
 chapter of John, in. reference to the 
 CathoKo doctrine of Transubstantia- 
 tion. I should have pointed out to 
 you most clearly, as I read verse by 
 verse, that either our blessed Saviour 
 was an idle, ay, an incomprehensible 
 squanderer of words, in misusing 
 and torturing human language, or 
 that he meant verily to impress on 
 his disciples, that he was about to 
 leave us that divine legacy of his 
 love, his flesh to eat andhis blood to 
 drink. Were not the disciples of the 
 divine Saviour, who must have known 
 his language much better than Dr. 
 Adam Clarke did, whose- arguments 
 my learned opponent copies — ^were 
 not they (the disciples) suppressed 
 [impressed] vrith the idea, that he 
 did mean what he said ? Of many 
 it is said, " they walked Ho more 
 with him ; " that is, that they lapsed 
 into Protestantism, they lived and 
 died Protestants : protestii^ against 
 the possibility of our Saviour's 
 turning the bread into his body 
 I 
 
 [2(? Wvening. 
 
 and the wine into his blood. " They 
 walked no more with him ! " Christ 
 was no longer their divine Master. 
 They could not brook the idea of a. 
 man, even a man-god, telling them 
 that he would give them his flesh to 
 eat and his blood to drink. " They, 
 therefore, walked no more with 
 him." He then turned to Peter, 
 and said, " Wilt thou also go away ? " 
 and Peter rephed, "Lord, to whom 
 should we go ? thou hast the words 
 of eternal hfe." It was that same 
 Peter who was the first bishop of 
 the Catholic Church. It is that 
 CathoKc Choroh wMch has handed 
 down to you the Bible, from age to 
 age, together with the immortal doc- 
 trine of Transubstantiation. Gen- 
 tlemen, I believe I must close 
 abruptly — ^not for want of matter, 
 but for want of time. — [Here termi- 
 nated the first evening's discussion.] 
 
 We certify that this Report is faith- 
 fully and correctly given. 
 
 Bj5v. J. Gumming, M.A. 
 D. Pkench, Esq. 
 
 Barrister-ai-LaWt 
 ChA.S. MiTBTiaT AHOHBB, 
 Reporter. 
 
 Second Evening, Thuksdat, Apeil 4, 1839. 
 
 TRANSUBSTANTIATION. 
 
 {.Continued^ 
 
 Rev. J. CuMrMlNG. — ^Throughout 
 the past part of this important dis- 
 cussion in which we are engaged, I 
 have experienced, I confess, the 
 utmost courtesy from Mr. French, 
 and I think you will all acquiesce 
 in my opinion, when I say, that we 
 have been most fairly treated by the 
 Chairmen, The audience, also, has 
 conducted itself in the most exem 
 
 plary manner ; and I know that my 
 Roman Catholic feUow-oountrymeu 
 are too mtensely interested in the 
 decision of this question to give to 
 it any other treatment than that of 
 a profound, anxious, and prayerful 
 attention. During the course of my 
 quotations last evening, I had occa- 
 sion to extract a passage from Bel- 
 larmine. the distinguished cardinai 
 
Rev. J. 
 
 ■] 
 
 TEANSUBSTANTIATIOlf, 
 
 49 
 
 and advocate of the Church of Rome, 
 respecting the sacrament of the 
 Encharist ; and, in making that 
 quotation, I gave you the reference, 
 " book iii. ch. 23," which belonged 
 to another quotation, instead of 
 " book i. ch. 5, Be Sacramexto Eu- 
 ekarisiia." If the slight mis-state- 
 ment, in giving " book iii." instead 
 of " book i." has either misled Mr. 
 Prench, or occasioned him any un- 
 necessary trouble, I hope he will 
 attribute it to a mere lapsm lingutie. 
 
 Having made these remarks as to 
 the misquotation of figures, you will 
 observe that the passage is verbatim, 
 et literatim as I quoted it. I have 
 it here iu the original Latin ; and as 
 my opponent has BeUarmine in his 
 hands, he can accompany me, while 
 I give the translation from the 
 Latiu : — " Moreover," he says, " al- 
 most all Catholics will have the 
 words of John vi. understood of the 
 sacrament of the Eucharist or of the 
 sacramental eating of Christ's body 
 in the Eucharist. But there are 
 some.few who, the letter to disprove 
 theHussites and Lutherans, hold that 
 this chapter meddleth not with any 
 sacramental "eating of Christ's body 
 and drinking, of his blood, of which 
 sort are Gabriel, Nicolas Cusanus, 
 Thomas Cajetanus,]iuardus Tapper, 
 Joannes Hesselius and Cornelius 
 Jansenius. All these Catholics, with 
 great consent, teach that this chap- 
 ter intreateth of the sacramental 
 eating of Christ, which doubtless is 
 most true." — ^Book i. ch. v. 
 
 On the former evening I think I 
 irrefragably demonstrated, that John 
 vi. is not an account of the Eucha- 
 rist ; and my opponent, indeed, has 
 practically admitted that it was an 
 irrefragable demonstration; for he 
 has found it to be the most prudent 
 course to retreat from the arguments 
 which I adduced, and to leave them 
 untouched in aU their power and in 
 all their conclusiveness, I proved 
 
 on that occasion, that this chapter 
 (6th of John) could not refer to the 
 Eucharist directly, and I had occa- 
 sion to reiterate and to press the ar- 
 guments used on that point, until I 
 should extort from my friend, either 
 a direct declaration that the chapter 
 does not refer to the Lord's Supper 
 at all, unless in a spiritual sense, or, 
 on the other hand, a pledge to bring 
 forward such arguments as should 
 satisfy a dispassionate audience that 
 it does refer to the sacrament of the 
 Eucharist. Only, mark you, no 
 person is called to prove a nega- 
 tive ! — recollect, this is a principle 
 in logic. I am not called on to 
 prove that it does not — my learned 
 opponent is called on to prove that' 
 it does. Now, observe, BeUarmine 
 has admitted, in the extract which 
 I have given, that there are in the 
 Church of Rome, whose tongue is 
 ever so eloquent of uniti/, doctors 
 and dignitaries who allege that the 
 6th chapter of John does not refeir 
 to the Eucharist. 
 
 Illustrious and distinguished doc- 
 tors, in his own Church, declare 
 that it does not describe the Eucha- 
 rist. The question, therefore, is 
 resolved into this : — ^If Mr. French 
 be right, the distinguished doctors 
 of his own Church must be wrong. 
 It is true Cardinal BeUarmine says, 
 that these iUustrious Roman Ca- 
 tholic divines held this opinion on 
 the 6th of John the better to refute 
 
 but I never can be so un- 
 charitable as to believe, that these 
 illustrious names have studiously 
 concealed their real mind, and denied 
 that this chapter refers to the Eu- 
 charist ; or, in other words, told a 
 falsehood for the unworthy end of 
 refuting the heretics. Why, if it 
 be truth, let it stand on its own 
 eternal, immovable basis, — never 
 let it be sacrifced to any ulterior 
 ends. If untruth, then let us at 
 
50 
 
 TBAIfSUBSTAlITIATION. 
 
 once reject it, as not worthy of our 
 reception. I do not think that these 
 learned Roman Catholic doctors 
 would be guilty of such dishonour- 
 able, such disingenuous conduct, as 
 to assert what they did not believe, 
 for the sole purpose of overthrow- 
 ing the Lutherans and the Hussites. 
 I cannot believe it, — I cannot, I 
 repeat, be so uncharitable as to 
 believe that they assumed an inter- 
 pretation they did not believe, for 
 the sole and specific purpose of 
 overthrowing the sentiments of an 
 opponent. I will not allow this 
 opinion of Bellarmine to enter into 
 my mind. I give them the fullest 
 .and most implicit credit for inte- 
 grity and candour, and take their 
 declaration to be sincere, and that 
 they did beheve the chapter not to 
 pertain to the sacramental eating of 
 the body and drinking of the blood 
 of Christ. 
 
 You will remember my opponent, 
 among some quotations, to which 
 he specially called my attention, 
 read a very beautiful translation of 
 a piece of doggrel Latin by the 
 celebrated Thomas Ao[uinas, and 
 said he read this beautiful poem to 
 me to teach me a Kttle better theo- 
 logy, and to give me a somewhat 
 more correct notion of the real sen- 
 timents and principles of the Chuioh 
 of Rome than I seem hitherto to 
 have entertained or imagined. My 
 opponent has given us a consider- 
 able portion of Thomas Aquinas' 
 poetry; suppose I give you a small 
 portion of his prose. You observe, 
 he called my attention to t]i& poetry 
 of Thomas Aquinas, to teach me 
 better theology, and in order to give 
 me a clearer and a more compre- 
 hensive view of the real sentiments 
 of the Roman Catholic Church. 
 Having heard the poetry, I will give 
 you an extract from the prose of 
 Aquinas ; it is contained here in the 
 jecond part ol the Theological Sum- 
 
 mary of St. Thomas Aquinas, printed 
 at Rome, 1586. Question xi. 
 Article 3, p. 93. — Are heretics to be 
 tolerated? "Although heretics are 
 not to be tolerated, by reason of 
 their dehnquenoy, they are to be 
 waited for till the second reproof, 
 in order that they may return to the 
 sound faith of the Church; but 
 those wno continue obstinate in 
 their error, after the second reproof, 
 are not only to be consigned to the 
 sentence of excommunication, but 
 also to the secular princes, to be ex- 
 terminated. Hence, if the falsifiers 
 of money, or other malefactors, are 
 justly consigned to'immediate death, 
 by secular princes, much more do 
 heretics, immediately after they are 
 convicted of heresy, deserve, not' 
 only to be excommunicated, but also - 
 justly to be killed." 
 
 You have had the poetry of this 
 seraphic and scholastic doctor, and 
 you have now his prose. I ask, am 
 I to embrace this theology? are 
 these thesentiments of yourChuroh? 
 (to Mr. P.) Thomas Aquinas says 
 these are the sentiments of the 
 Church of Rome; that "heretics 
 are to -be consigned to the secular 
 power to be exterminated;" and 
 you desire me to go to that doctor 
 for her theology. I should never 
 have thought of calling your atten- 
 tion to this subject, simply because 
 it is irrelevant to the question under 
 disputation ; but observe, I was 
 directed by my opponent to the 
 theology of Aquinas, as embodied 
 in his poetry; and thinking it might 
 be more deliberate and exact in nis 
 prose, I referred to it, and I now 
 produce it. But let us have done 
 with these poetical appeals. We 
 are not to appeal to Helicon, from 
 which poets drank, but to those 
 fountains and to those " living 
 streams," the oracles of God, to 
 which Christians go. Our appeal, 
 I say, is not to be to Parnassus, 
 
IBANSiraSTAlITIATION. 
 
 £ev. J. Oummmg. 
 
 with its. fables and lying legends, 
 but to " Mount Zion, tne city of the 
 hving God," and to those sacred 
 and immortal rescripts which God 
 has sealed and sanctified with the 
 signatures and tokens of inspiration. 
 
 You may recollect my opponent 
 quoted a passage from Augustine, 
 couched in hyperbolic language, and 
 which seemed to go to establish the 
 tenet of Trausubstantiation ; but I 
 relieved and assisted my opponent's 
 memory, by reading the remainder 
 of the passage, which he forgot, and 
 which went dhectly to establish the 
 opposite conclusion.. He quoted the 
 first part of the passage, which 
 seemed strongly to uphold Trausub- 
 stantiation. I quoted the second 
 part, or remainder, which most dis- 
 - tinctly and clearly repudiated this 
 iogma. Now, conceding, for a mo- 
 ment, to Mr. French, that both 
 these contradictory sentiments had 
 been actually entertained by St. 
 Augustine, supposing that in one 
 passage he held the doctrine of 
 Transubstantiation as true — ^though 
 he does not use the word — and sup- 
 pose that in the next sentence he 
 states the very reverse as true, I 
 must then grant that St. Augus- 
 tine, inconsistently enough, asserts 
 both, and what must be the infe- 
 rence ? It proves the necessity of 
 appealing "fromOeesar unto Christ," 
 from the writings of the fathers to 
 ttie writings of the grandfathers, to 
 the apostles and evangelists ! 
 
 Mr. French, I know, is a candid 
 and honourable man, and would not 
 intentionally mutilate any part of 
 Augustine ; but observe, with the 
 fsilKbUity of individuals in general, 
 ue quoted a passage that just went 
 to prove his purpose, and then left 
 out — ^it might be by the merest ac- 
 cident— ^the remainder of the ex- 
 tract,' which went to prove exactly 
 the reverse ; and you, my Roman 
 CathoHo friends, when you went 
 
 51 
 
 home, could not go to the writings 
 of St. Augustine, and ascertain that 
 this father asserts the very opposite 
 to that which my opponent alleges ; 
 you can find no ^me to' go to the 
 British Museum, to ransack ifolios, 
 pore over the learned and the elabo- 
 rate writings of the fathers, and call 
 niy antagonist to account, when, 
 either through accident, misfortune, 
 or ignorance, he misquoted. It is 
 impossible you should be able to do 
 this ; but when I go to (jod's Word, 
 and quote a text from it, you can 
 follow me, you can read the next, 
 and the next, and the next, and so 
 on, to the close; and, therefore, 
 when we appeal to the Bible, we 
 appeal to one well known and com- 
 mon standard, wherein I and Mr. 
 ]?rench can be called to read on, if 
 we try to content ourselves with 
 reading only one particular clause, 
 which suits our own specific views. 
 My opponent, you recollect, brought 
 forward a series of texts, by which 
 he tried to show that the senses are 
 frequently deceived. Now, I feel 
 it right to state an important fact, — 
 that whenever a Homan Cathohc 
 refers to a text in favour of any one 
 of N his particular tenets, I always 
 find that the most overwhelmuig re- 
 futation of his views is given in the 
 very text that he quotes. 
 
 The first reference f or pro ving that 
 the senses are deceived which Mr. 
 French made, was to that of the dis- 
 ciples' journeying to Emmaus, to be 
 found ia Luke xxiv. 16, where it is 
 stated that our Lord appeared unto 
 them, and they " did not know him." 
 Now mark, it states the reason of 
 their not knowing Mm — " their eyes 
 were holden." They were under a 
 temporary and avowed restraint. 
 Therefore, the question is, are our 
 " eyes holden" miraculously also, so 
 that when the flour and water is 
 presented to our scrutiny, though we 
 see these elements, yet the real pre- 
 
52 
 
 TEANSTJBSTAS riATION. 
 
 senee is flesh ? Is Mr. rreneh pre- 
 pared to show that the thousand, or 
 two thousand eyes in this room are 
 all " holden," so that they cannot 
 "distinguish the things that differ," 
 or know whether the substance on 
 a Roman CathoKc altar he flesh, or 
 whether it be paste? But mark 
 ■what follows : the eyes of the dis- 
 ciples subsequently corrected the 
 momentaiy misapprehension, for it 
 is stated immediately afterwards, 
 that " as they thus spake" (ia the 
 31st verse) "their eyes were opened, 
 and they knew him," — observe, the 
 moment their " eyes were opened," 
 that moment they recognised their 
 Lord, and " knew" that it was 
 Christ. 
 
 The next passage that my learned 
 opponent quoted was from the'SOth 
 chapter of John, ver. 14, to which 
 I shaU accordingly refer; that 
 " when she had thus safid, she turned 
 herself back, and saw Jesus stand- 
 ing, and knew not that it was Jesus. 
 Jesus saith unto her. Woman, why 
 weepest thou ? whom seekest thou ? 
 She, supposing him to be the gar- 
 dener, saith unto him. Sir, if thou 
 have borne him hence, tell me where 
 thou hast laid him, and I will take 
 him away." Now, observe, did she 
 fancy that it was a tree and not a 
 man, that she saw, or that the gar- 
 dener was a mountain? No, she 
 saw a man, an individual, there ; 
 and, in her anxiety and excitement, 
 in one of the most intense and thrU- 
 Hng moments in the annals of the 
 human race, she could not believe 
 that it was very Jesus that stood 
 before her, but thought (a very fre- 
 quent occurrence) that it was some 
 one else. Now, supposing her eyes 
 deceived her, how dad she come to 
 correct them P v. 16, " Jesus saith 
 unto her, Mary. She turned her- 
 self, and saith unto him, Rabboni, 
 which is to say Master." 
 
 Observe, her- ear corrected the 
 
 \2dEeemttg. 
 
 deception of her ei/e, if deception it 
 might be called, for the moment that 
 Christ's voice was heard, [that mo- 
 ment the sense of hearing corrected 
 the momentary Imisconception of 
 sight, and she immediately recog- 
 nised her Lord. 
 
 The next quotation which my 
 opponent referred to was Christ 
 Jesus appearing among the disciples 
 " when the dodi's were shut." Now 
 I replied to that before, and I chal- 
 lenged Mr. French to show that he 
 passed through the doors or the 
 walls. There is no statement to 
 that effect. Suppose an individual 
 had come to " the British School- 
 room, Hammersmith," while we 
 were listening to the various state- 
 ments of the speakers on the plat- 
 form, and had appeared in the midst 
 of us, would any one dream, for a 
 moment, that he came through the 
 roof, or the walls, or the doors, 
 without an opening ? No, the com- 
 mon sense inference would be, he 
 opened the door and came in ; and 
 to cast some light on our Lord's 
 doings, in a not nnparallel case, I 
 find that when His blessed body lay 
 in the grave, there was a great stone 
 placed over and on the tomb : if 
 his body had been in the habit of 
 passing through solid and material 
 obstructions, liere was an instance 
 and an opportunity, in which it 
 might have passed through the solid 
 stone, without the necessity of re- 
 moving it. But so truly "was he 
 in all points like unto us," that an 
 angel came down from heaven to roll 
 away the massive rock from the en- 
 trance, that the Lord of glory might 
 ascend "to his Father and to our 
 Father, to his God and to our God." 
 
 The next illustration brought for- 
 ward by my learned antagomst, was 
 the instance of a stick in. the water. 
 He said that if you put a stick into 
 the water, from the eye, and a part 
 of the stick beuig amid atmospheric 
 
IBAUSTIBSTANTIAIIOIT. 
 
 Rev. J. Cummng.'] 
 
 air, and the rest of the stick being 
 in water, a denser medium, by the 
 laws of refraction and reflection, the 
 stick appears crooked. But how do 
 we ascertain, after all, that the stick 
 is straight ? By the senses. If I 
 put my hand down iuto the water, 
 I feel that the stick is straight, or 
 if I take the stick out of the water, 
 and look at it, I see that it is straight, 
 and find the reason of its apparent 
 crookedness in optics. But where 
 is the parallel ? The bread lies upon 
 the altar before consecration, and 
 the senses say that it is bread, as 
 the stick is in the hand before it is 
 in the water, and the eyes see it to 
 be straight. The bread lies upon 
 the altar after consecration, and the 
 senses see it to be bread, as the stick 
 is taken out of the water and the 
 eyes see it to be straight. Before 
 the stick is in the water, and after 
 it is out of the water, the senses tell 
 you that it is straight ; and before 
 the bread is consecrated, and after 
 it is consecrated, the senses also, 
 ever honest, pronounce it to be 
 bread. The illustration tells against 
 the dogma it was adduced to prop 
 up. I must now refer to a passage 
 from Bellarmine, respecting the. sa- 
 crament of the Eucharist, Dook iii. 
 ch. 33. " For Scotus, whom Cama- 
 raoensis follows, says three things : 
 he says there is no passage in Scrip- 
 tare so express as to compel the ad- 
 misdonofTransubstantiation without 
 the declaration of the Church. And 
 
 THIS IS NOT WHOLLY IJtPBOBASLB ; 
 
 for though the Scripture, above all, 
 seems to us sufficiently clear to con- 
 vince any man who is not self- 
 willed, yet whether this be so may 
 well be doubted, seeing that the 
 most learned and keen-sighted men, 
 such as was Scotus, tmnk differ- 
 ently." 
 
 Now, observe you, this distin- 
 guished advocate of the Church of 
 Rome plainly and explicitly asserts, j 
 
 53 
 
 that there is some probability that 
 there is no passage in the Bible so 
 express as to compel the necessity 
 of a belief in TVansubstantiation. 
 Mark, then, the conclusion, my Bo- 
 man CathoHc friends ! Here we find 
 distinguisheddoctors,profoundschO- 
 lars, the first of the literati of the 
 age, declaring it most deliberately, 
 and recording their sentiments m 
 their works, that the Scriptures do 
 not compel our belief in Thransub- 
 stantiation. 
 
 In the third place (Cardinal 
 BeUarmine adds), because the Ca- 
 tholic Church declared what is Scrip- 
 ture in a General Council, so from 
 Scripture, thus proclaimed, it as- 
 serted that Transuhstantiation is 
 proved. Eor it cannot but he the 
 true sense of Scripture which he 
 hands down who constructed the 
 Scripture. Tor it is the same He, 
 by His Spirit, who revealed the 
 Scripture to the apostles and pro- 
 phets, and who has explained it by 
 the Church. One thing Scotus adds, 
 which cannot be proved, — that, 
 " before the Council of Lateran, 
 Transuhstantiation was not a dogma 
 of the faith." Bellarmine here ad- 
 mits that Scotus held Transuhstan- 
 tiation not to have been a dogma of 
 the faith before the flat of the 
 sanguinary Council of the Lateran 
 persecution ; and Transuhstantia- 
 tion appearing under the same pa- 
 tronage. 
 
 Thw General Council — ^the fourth, 
 council of the Lateran — ^not only 
 broached this dogma of Transuh- 
 stantiation, but dso the idea, that 
 the secular power should extermi- 
 nate froni their lands all heretics 
 who shall be denounced by the 
 Church. We have thus arrived at 
 the most impressive admission from 
 the mouth of high Roman Catholic 
 authority, that the Scriptures do not 
 so plainly assert the doctrine of 
 Transuhstantiation as to compel our 
 
51 
 
 TBANSUBSTANTIATION. 
 
 [M Evening. 
 
 Belief in it : and this is not the 
 sentiment of one obscure doctor 
 alone, but of some of the most dis- 
 tinguished and most acute doctors 
 of the Roman Catholic Church. 
 Having discovered this most omi- 
 nous concession — having found 
 BeUarmine recognising the fourth 
 council of the Lateran as the voice 
 of the Church on this question ; a 
 reference and recognition very omi- 
 nous, for if Roman CathoKcs re- 
 ceive the decrees of the fourth 
 council of the Lateran, I shall 
 entertain a far worse conception 
 of my Roman Cathoho fellow 
 countrymen than, at this moment, 
 I am disposed to entertain ; — Hav- 
 ing found these things, I shall now 
 lay down hte peopqsitions on the 
 doctrine of Transubstantiation : — 
 
 I. We contend, and it wiE be 
 admitted by all thinking men, that 
 the miracle of Transubstantiation 
 is so anomalous, and so opposed to 
 experience, and so different from all 
 other miracles, that nothing but 
 
 THE MOST positive AND INEVI- 
 TABLE DECLABATION OE God's 
 WOED CAN NECESSITATE ITS BE- 
 
 LIBP. Nothing short of this — 
 neither the opimons nor traditions 
 of fallible men, nor even the voice 
 of a General Council, nor even the 
 Church — will suffice. 
 
 II. If God's "Word, by its inevita- 
 ble sense and interpretation, neces- 
 sitates the beKef of Transubstantiar 
 tion, all admit that we are bound 
 to believe the positive and express 
 declarations oi God's Word, in 
 contradiction even to the evidence 
 of our senses. 
 
 ni. But so repugnant is Tran- 
 substantiation to the evidence of the 
 senses and to the nature of miracles, 
 that even if the obvious sense of 
 the passages declaring it coxild only 
 be avoided by a mode of interpreta- 
 tion occasionally made use of by 
 members of all churches, in very 
 
 extraordinary and rare instances, we 
 should feel that no passage of holy 
 writ demanded rt, recourse to these 
 extraordinary and unusual modes of 
 interpretation, more than the^ pas- 
 sages on which Transubstantiation 
 is foimded, and we should still feel 
 ourselves entitled to contend that 
 the Word of God, in that case, did 
 not imperatively require our assent 
 to the doctrine of Transubstantia- 
 tion. 
 
 IV. A fortiori, if it can be shown 
 that the ordinary and not the extra- 
 ordinary mode of interpreting simi- 
 lar passages, even by the Church of 
 Rome, is figurative, and that to 
 assign a literal interpretation to the 
 passage of the Gospel, adduced in 
 support of Transubstantiation, re- 
 quures an extramdinary mode of 
 interpretation, even on the part of 
 the Church of Rome, then we hold 
 it to be undeniable, that there is 
 nothing in the Word of God com- 
 manding our belief in Transubstan- 
 tiation, and that it can only rest on 
 the opinions and traditions of\ falli- 
 ble men, and the voice of the Roman 
 Catholic Church. 
 
 V. If these positions are esta- 
 blished, every rational person will 
 infer, we conceive, that the Churcli 
 which violates its usual mode of 
 interpretation, and adopts an urmsual 
 one, in order to infer a doctrine 
 monstrous, and attended with mon- 
 strous consequences, whether she 
 does so from olindness, or for the 
 sake of exalting the priesthood, 
 cannot be justly deemed the Church 
 of Christ, and at this point alone it 
 win be said, causa finita est. 
 
 In the thirty-seven, texts which I 
 shall quote from Old and New Tes- 
 tament Scripture, it will be seen, 
 tTiat, in order to avoid the most 
 absurd and ridiculous raving and 
 extravagance, the Church ofRome 
 does and must adopt the Jwurative 
 mode of interpretation, and, in one 
 
TEAKSTJBSTANTIATIOlf. 
 
 Heo. J. Cummtnff.\ 
 
 or two solitary texts relating to the 
 Lord's Sapper, she forgets her imi- 
 form treatment of all kindred and 
 homogeneous texts, and starts an 
 extraordinary, and, in reference to 
 these symbolic formulas of thought, 
 novel and literal mode of interpre- 
 tadon. If in all the thirty-seven 
 my opponent insist on the literal, I 
 promise to give it him, and leave 
 him to manage the products of his 
 own premises. If he do not insist 
 on the literal, he must, in consis- 
 tency, give up Transuhstantiation 
 and its patroness the Roman Church. 
 I quote, from the Roman Ca- 
 tholic version, from Gen. xli. 26. 
 " The seven good kine which 
 thou seest are seven full years of 
 plenty." Observe, my opponent 
 says, " This is my body" means, this 
 is changed, or transubstantiated into 
 my bo(fy ;' and that the host is, after 
 consecration, hondfide the body and 
 blood, soul and divinity, ossa et 
 nervos, of the Son of God, — ^that 
 the moment the priest has said, 
 " This is my body, this is my blood," 
 that then the nost is no longer 
 merely a piece of flour and water, 
 but " the soul and divinity, body and 
 blood, ossa et nervos, oi the Son of 
 God." I now ask, whether or not 
 this is the ordinary or extmordiiusm/ 
 mode of interpretation that is 
 adopted by the Church of Rome, 
 and if I am to attach the mode of 
 interpretation applied to the insti 
 tution of the Eucharist in the fol- 
 lowing passages ? Will my learned 
 opponent, on this principle, hold 
 that " the seven fall ears of com" 
 are actually and horn fide transub- 
 stantiated and changed into " seven 
 years of plenty V I presume my 
 opponent will not admit of such 
 monstrous construction. He will 
 surely say the seven full ears are 
 symbolic or representative of seven 
 years of plenty; and, if so, why 
 insist on another mode of inter- 
 
 55 
 
 pretation in another purely parallel 
 text ? — Gen. xlix. 9 : " Judah is a 
 lion's whelp." Now, as my oppo- 
 nent contends " this is my body" 
 means "this is changed into my 
 body," " the body and blood, sod 
 and divinity of the Son of God," 
 then, of course, he is fully prepared 
 to foUow out this principle of mter- 
 pretation, and to believe that Judah, 
 a tribe, or the head of a tribe, 
 ceased to be a man, or to have a 
 human body at all, and actually be- 
 came a " lion's whelp," having aL 
 the essential features, bones, mane, 
 beard, and other characteristics of a 
 Hon. I can see no other alternative. 
 He says, " this is my body" means 
 this is turned into " the body and 
 blood, soul and divinity, of the Son 
 of God;" then, I say, " Judah is a 
 lion's whelp" means, is changed into 
 a lion's whelp. If not, some reason 
 for the application of a new method 
 of interpretation in this passage 
 must be adduced. And, therefore, 
 I demand it most courteously and 
 kindly, but firmly, when he rises to 
 reply, at least some explanation why 
 I am to be debarred from the liters 
 -mode of interpretation in the one, 
 and tied dovm within the other pas- 
 sage ? why one mode of interpre- 
 tation is here, and another there ? 
 
 Gen. tHy . 14 : " Issaehar is a 
 strong ass" — "Issaehar," the tribe, 
 " is a strong ass." Now, on this 
 principle of interpretation, does my 
 opponent mean, to assert that Issa- 
 ehar became a Literal donkey, with 
 long ears and four feet ! (laughter.) 
 My ftiends, it is no laughing matter, 
 I assure you. I know that the soui 
 of Mr. trench is in jeopardy in 
 believing these monstrous positmns, 
 and, therefore, (for I speak plainly 
 and truly as becomes me, and as one 
 who sympathizes vrith the position 
 of our Roman Catholic friends,) 1 
 implore you rather to pray that the 
 Spirit of the living God would lead 
 
56 
 
 TRiS-STmSTAMTIATION. 
 
 him to abandon these unhappy and 
 untenable positions, and eome to 
 the religion of the, Bible, that hal- 
 lowed aad ho3,ry faith which the 
 Spirit of the living God taught and 
 inspired. 
 
 Bom. iii. 13 : " Their throat is an 
 open sepulchre." Now, my opponent 
 says, "this is my body" means, it is 
 turned into "the body and blood, 
 soul and divinity, bones and nerves 
 of the Son of God," as I showed you 
 from the documents of the Church 
 of Rome ; then, of eourse, he insists, 
 most consistently, on this, to me, 
 extraordinary interpretation, and 
 says, that their throat was actijally 
 turned into a pit sis feet long, in 
 the ehurch-yard, and become the 
 actual and circumstantial abode of 
 Hie mouldering dead; or else he 
 must abandon the literal princi- 
 ple, and come to the conclusion of 
 common sense, and admit that 
 " an open sepulchre" is the sign, 
 or the symbol ofvtheir spirit and 
 lamffnage, or that their throat is 
 weB and aptly represented by " an 
 open sepulolire." — Again, I qUote 
 from Psalm cxix. 5 : " Thy 'vrord 
 is a lamp unto my feet, and light 
 unto my path." Now my opponent, 
 on his pnnciple, must maintain that 
 God's word is transubstantiated into 
 " a lamp." I find that the Bible 
 says most expressly, " Thy word is 
 a fight, is a lamp ; and this is pre- 
 cisely parallel with " This is my 
 body, this is my blood." I protest I 
 can see no alternative, but either to; 
 believe that all these passages are 
 to be literally interpreted in the 
 way I am doing, or that we must 
 depart from this literal interpreta- 
 tion, and hold that " this is my 
 body" means that it is the sacred 
 symbol, or sign, or seal, or repre- 
 sentative of my body. 
 Again, I quote from another passage 
 in fiaiah, which I referred to before ; 
 and you observe, instead of my oppo- 
 
 [2(? Eoeninff. 
 
 nent having given a fair and candid 
 reply to the argument, he whoUy 
 passed it by. Now let us meet these 
 declarations of the word of Grod, 
 and I am prepared, as far as I know 
 my own heart, to acquiesce entirely 
 in the result, when it shall be clearly 
 proved from God's holy Word, and 
 brought home, with power, to my 
 understanding and my conscience. 
 The quotation from Isaiah is, " all 
 flesh is grass." (Isaiah xl. 6.) Ob- 
 serve, in the announcement, " this 
 is my body," there is nothing more 
 added, in the way of aSai'mation, but 
 here it is, " aU flesh is grass," "in- 
 (/eec?, the people, is grass." " Surely," 
 according to our version, " the peo- 
 ple is grass." 
 
 Now, suppose I proceed on the 
 supposition tnatmylearned opponent 
 is right in the assertion, that " this 
 is my body" means this is made my 
 flesh and blood, I must then proceed 
 to apply this " most ancient inter- 
 pretation" of the text to this pas- 
 sage now before us, " all flesh is 
 grass." I assert, therefore, that Mr. 
 French is neither a flsh of the sea, . 
 nor a fowl of the air, nor a beast of 
 the field, nor a member of earthly 
 society, — I assert that he is a biin~ 
 die of grass Qaughter, and cries of 
 "Order!"] I am driven to it — ^he 
 has brought me into this position by 
 insisting on a literal interpretation. 
 I assert that that voice, which is so 
 eloquent, and so earnest, in plead- 
 iig for what he conceives to be 
 truth, is not a man's voice, but the 
 whistling of the wind through the 
 leaves ra grass; I maintain that 
 those hands, so courageously uplifted 
 to defend his own views, are merely 
 the spiral leaflets of green grass. 
 I maintain that he has no animal 
 life ; that if you smite him, he will 
 not cry; that if you call to him he 
 will not answer ; that, unlike Shak- 
 speare's Jew, if you tickle him he 
 vrill not laugh; that he is nothing 
 
Uev.J. 
 
 TKANS UBSTANTIATIOIT, 
 
 57 
 
 but a bundle of " accidents and 
 species," instead of being versed in 
 scholastic subleties, — ^that, in fact, 
 lie is not, vitally and bond fide, tie 
 earnest pleader for tine Roman Ca- 
 tholic faith, but a pure vegetable 
 production. I am actually forced 
 mto this : I would I could extri- 
 cate myself. \ If Mr. Prench would 
 give up Transubstantiation, I could 
 do so ; but at present I am placed 
 in a position out of which I cannot 
 go, according to his literal mode of 
 interpretation. Again, I quote — (I 
 am quoting from the Douay Bible) 
 — ^from Jer. li. 7 - — " Babylon hath 
 been a golden cup in theLord's hand, 
 a golden cup that made all the earth 
 drunken." My friend is versed in 
 history; he has read the fathers: will 
 he be so kind as to bring forward the 
 precise passage which shews, that 
 that mighty city, Babylon, has been 
 onee in its history " a golden cup ■" 
 that instead of being Qie walls and 
 houses of a great city, it was actu- 
 ally a golden cup ? 
 
 Agam, I quote from Prov. xviii. 10 ; 
 " The name of the Lord is a strong 
 tower." Now, pursuing the same 
 literal method, for Roman Catholics 
 have no choice in the matter, I must 
 assert, that God's " name" is actu- 
 ally and bond fide transubstantiate"d 
 into a strong tower, and, instead of 
 adopting our Protestant interpreta- 
 tion, that " the name of the Lord is 
 symbohsed or represeated by the 
 shelter afforded by a strong tower," 
 must follow out the Roman Catholic 
 principle of interpretation, and insist 
 that "the name of the Lord is" 
 actually, "a strong tower." — Again, 
 I quote Dan. vii. 17 : These great 
 befists are four kingdoms." We 
 arc, therefore, to understand by 
 this, that the four beasts who are 
 described by the prophet, became 
 actually, on the pronunciation of 
 these words, four kingdoms, with 
 provinces and towns, with domes, 
 
 and spires, and minarets, and porti- 
 coes,, and halls, and. thrones and 
 kings, and that the animals ceased 
 to belong to zoological tribes, and 
 became vast poKtical confederacies. 
 Again, " The ram which thou 
 seest, is the king of the Medes and 
 the Persians." I must be disre- 
 spectful enough to believe, that the 
 " king of the Medes and Persians," 
 who I imagined to have sprung 
 from an ancient and a lofty lineage, 
 was originally " a ram" and thatj 
 when these words were pronounced, 
 that then this ram, by a magic leap, 
 jumped into the royal skin and 
 the imperial purple, assumed the 
 crown, became the king, and sat 
 upon the throne of a mighty em- 
 pire. Yet, observe, if this were 
 the, sportive fancies of an idle mind 
 they would deserve to be treated 
 with contempt; but these inter- 
 pretations are the legitimate re- 
 sults of a principle and mode of in- 
 terpretation which the Church of 
 Rome insists on and adheres to. She 
 must receive these interpretations, 
 or abandon the dogma of Transub- 
 stantiation. One or other, if she 
 would be consistent, she must do. 
 If she insists on the literal in " This 
 is my body," then I insist fully on 
 the Mteral in these texts, and if 1 
 may not, I demand that my oppo- 
 nent 'show cause. — Dan. ii. 38: 
 "Thou art the head of gold." 
 "Thou" Nebuchadnezzar, the king 
 of Babylon, "thou art a head of 
 gold?" Now, what a monstrous 
 compliment to Nebuchadnezzar, if 
 he understood it as Roman Catholics 
 must, to be consistent, that when 
 these words were uttered, his head, 
 instead of remaining, like the heads 
 of other people, a cranium more or - 
 less filled with brains— that useful 
 commodity in the discussion of 
 truth — became, actually became, 
 solid; massive gold ! I fear this 
 wouM not be a safe Transubstantia- 
 
58 
 
 TEANSrrBSTANTIATION. 
 
 tion, as too many would be exceed- 
 ingly anxious to cut off and appro- 
 priate the monarch's head ! 
 
 Again, I quote from Matt. xi. 14, 
 where it is said of John the Baptist, 
 that " He is Elias that is to come." 
 Now am I to beHeve that John was 
 actually changed into EUas, that he 
 actually became EUas ? My oppo- 
 nent must hold this extravagant 
 belief, or renounce the literal inter- 
 pretation of the parallel and homo- 
 geneous text on which Itansubstan- 
 tiation hangs ; and I wait with 
 profound anxiety for those state- 
 ments which my learned adversary 
 may bring forward to show why 
 this interpretation may not be 
 followed out, which he and his 
 Church insist on in the explanation 
 of the words, "This is my body." 
 — Again, I quote from Matt. xiii. 
 38 : " Tie field is the world," that 
 is, my opponent must consistently 
 believe, that this field was actually 
 transubstantiated into the wAole 
 world ! that this field, consisting of 
 so many acres, roods, and perches, 
 by the mcantation and the magic of 
 the words, "this is the world," — 
 became actually the solid globe, 
 "the whole world." Many farmers 
 would give thousands for these 
 alchymical, these magic powers, 
 which turn one field into a thousand 
 — one acre into the whole world. 
 
 John X. 7 : " Amen, I say unto 
 you, I am. the door of the sheep." 
 Now, you remember with what 
 indignation Mr. Erenoh repelled, 
 last evening, the necessary conse- 
 quence of Ms own principles — that 
 our Lord became a door. I thank 
 him for that indignation: it was 
 nobly exhibited ; it was every way 
 worthy an honest and ingenuous 
 mind, that listened with indignation 
 to the degrading hypothesis. But 
 win not my opponent sympathize 
 with me when I express a holy 
 indignation, that a piece of flour 
 
 and water should be declared to be 
 "the body and blood, soul and 
 divinity of the Son of God?" 
 Surely, if his indignation has mani- 
 fested itself with such ardour, and 
 been accompanied with so poweifol 
 a disclaimer at the gross and debas- 
 ing imputation, have not I some 
 cause for the same display of iadig 
 nation, and some apoloCT foi^ p 
 overflowing zeal, when I reclaim 
 against the monstrous sentiment, 
 that a piece of bread apd water 
 should be held up and adored as 
 "the body and blood, soul .and 
 divinity, ossa et nervos, of the Son 
 of God ?" But of course my learned 
 adversary must be prepared with 
 strong reasoning to repudiate the 
 inference which I feel to be inevita- 
 ble, and I crave for him your most 
 patient and courteous attention. 
 
 Again, in Romans, in. 13, "The 
 venom of asps is under their lips." 
 My opponent contends for this 
 literal interpretation; he abhors my 
 " orientalisms ;" he does not relish 
 that word ; he knows too well how 
 expressive it is of the sins of the 
 fathers. I repel it, too, for once, 
 and take my stand with him, and 
 say, "the poison of asps is under 
 the Hps" of tiie wicked; — perhaps a 
 physician could tell you how lon^ it 
 would be there without producing 
 any disastrous results, and the wicked 
 will be able to explain the taste and 
 flavour and sensation produced by a 
 deadly poison under their lips. I 
 must thos interpret these kindred 
 passages, or my adversary must give 
 me clear and conclusive reasons why 
 I should not do so. 
 
 Again, 1 Cor. x. 4 : " That rook was 
 Christ." Now observe, Mr. Erench 
 insists on a literal interpretation. 
 He cannot away with figures. I 
 therefore most honestly follow it out, 
 and accordingly Icome to the conclu- 
 sion, that "that rock" was actually 
 transubstantiated into " Christ,^' or 
 
Rev. J. 
 
 ■TUNSIIBSTANTIATION. 
 
 59 
 
 that "Christ" was transubstantiated 
 into " that rock ;" and therefore we 
 shall have our blessed Lord, not 
 merely under the species of " bread 
 I and wine," but under the species 
 also of a " rook," a literal " rock." 
 We, my Protestant friends, have 
 been accustomed to beheve that the 
 sacred sentiment, "that rock was 
 Christ," means that Christ alone 
 is the foundation, and that stability, 
 endurance, safety, and shelter, are 
 the blessings realised under that 
 great rock in a weary knd : and 
 that as Peter, or the character of 
 Peter, is. " a roUing stone," our 
 " rock," the epithet of Jesus Christ, 
 is "a stone," against which hell's 
 gates and hell's artillery never^ never 
 shall prevail. Antipathy to our 
 Church win not allow my opponent 
 to adopt this interpretation, and 
 consistency will not allow bim to 
 reject the other. He is either a 
 Protestant, or an extravagant be- 
 liever in most absurd things. 
 
 Again, Gal. ii. 30: — "With 
 Christ I am nailed to the cross." 
 In our translation it is, " I am cruci- 
 fied with Christ." -Now this literal 
 interpretation must be followed by 
 the Church of Rome, if she desires 
 to be consistent, and the necessary 
 result of it is that the apostle Paul 
 was abtually and bond fide "nailed 
 to the cross " along with our Lord 
 Jesus Christ himself. — Gal. iv. 24 : 
 " These are two covenants ; tie one 
 from Mount Sinai engendering bon- 
 dage, which is Agar." That is, 
 this "covenant" or testament, if 
 we adopt Mr. Freiich's patent pro- 
 cess of interpretation, is trMisub- 
 stantiated into a woman, whose 
 name was "Agar." — ^Eph. i. 23: 
 " He is head over all things to his 
 Church, which is his boeh." Ob- 
 serve, it is not only " the bread anc 
 wine" that became "the, body and 
 blood" pf Christ, but the Church 
 becomes his body also. If my op- 
 
 ponent assert, that when it is said, 
 "this is my body," the bread becomes 
 Christ's body and blood, then also, 
 when it is said of Christ, the Church 
 is Christ's body, it necessarily fol- 
 lows that the Church is transub- 
 stantiated into his body. 
 I These few quotations which 
 have already adduced may suffice, 
 and therefore I shall not pursue 
 them any further. I may merely 
 mention that I have here thiety- 
 SEVEN different texts, all of this 
 kind, which 1 might lay before you, 
 to all of which, let it be observed, 
 the Church of Home applies and 
 must apply the figurative and ordi- 
 nary mode of interpretation, while, 
 to the words, "this is my body," 
 without reason, without analogy, 
 without precedent, the Church of 
 Rome attaches an extraordinary 
 interpretation, fraught with foUy 
 and monstrosities. He must aban- 
 don Transubstantiation,orbe saddled 
 with the consequences I have in- 
 ferred. I was much surprised, by the 
 bye, at a quotation adduced by my 
 opponent on the previous evening, 
 VIZ. " God is love," or, as his trans- 
 lation has it, " God is charity." I 
 really thought he had actually be- 
 come a Protestant, and that he had 
 began to contend for those truths 
 to which he had been a stranger so 
 long : for if there be one text which 
 more beautifully proves the absurd- 
 ity of Transubstantiation, and the 
 truth of those sentiments which I 
 am now advocating, it is that very 
 text, for which I most kindly thauK 
 my learned oppenent. He said, we 
 Protestants make God thcLucretian 
 deity, that is, a god of that one 
 attribute — ^that we make God the 
 god of Lucretius. If the words are 
 to be taken in their literal meaning 
 and acceptation, that " God is love," 
 we must understand that theDeity is 
 transubstantiated into love. There- 
 fore, instead of my having the credit 
 
60 
 
 TKANSUBSTiNTlATIOlJ. 
 
 of this novel auid extraordinary con-' 
 struetion, I give it back to Mr. 
 IVenoh, and beg to assure him that 
 the method of interpretation adopted 
 by his Church is chargeable, and 
 ■justly, with the guilt of represent- 
 ing our God as the Lucretian deHy. 
 
 After having made these state- 
 ments, I insist on a fair and close 
 reply, for I am here, not to adduce 
 arguments and see, as heretofore, 
 my opponent run from them as far 
 as the east is distant from the west, 
 but to state great truths, which 
 must either be disproved or adopted. 
 I have opened the discussion,' and I 
 do now most candidly and cour- 
 teously insist that my opponent rise 
 and meet me, step by step, and 
 verse by verse, and demonstrate to 
 me that I am wrong in these mat- 
 ters, to our common and complete 
 satisfaction, or that he abjure his 
 creed and embrace that of the Bible. 
 
 I have several objections made by 
 my opponent, which I should like to 
 go over, but I find I liave but five 
 minutes more. An objection was 
 made to my quotation, " De Defect- 
 ibus Missis," that it gave a handle 
 to Deists. This (Bible) is my 
 standard of appeal: This book of 
 God is the store-house of my argu- 
 ments, — ^is thait Deism? Here is 
 my fount of %ht, and of laipwledge, 
 and of goodness,— am I a Deist? 
 I go to this blfessed book — ^I take 
 aU my sentiments from its pages, 
 and if this be Deism, oh! then, 
 " where thou goest I wUl go, where 
 thou lodgest I wiU. lodge ; thy peo- 
 ple shall be my people, and thy God 
 my God !" My opponent stated 
 that my quotation from the "De 
 Defectibus Missee" in which it is 
 stated that the host, after being 
 changed into Christ's body, and 
 blood, and divinity, may be carried 
 away by a mouse, or a cat, or any 
 other animal, gave a handle to 
 Deists. I am grieved, indeed, that 
 
 [2i Eveninffi 
 
 I was compeHed to use such ex- 
 pressions, but who .has the discredit 
 of the phraseology ? I never uv- 
 vented it — ^it never entered into my 
 mind, I solemnly assure you, till 1 
 read the passages in the " De Defect' 
 ibus Mimee." I never dreamt that 
 my Lord, "who dieth no more," 
 who is " at the right hand of the 
 rather,'' could be, in the imagination 
 of his professing Church, dragged 
 down by the incantations of a pnest, 
 and subjected to all the degraHation 
 and the ignominy, the iUs, the sor- 
 rows, and the ti;ials, through which 
 he once passed in hi.« earthly pil- 
 grimage among men ! I never be- 
 lieved the bare possibility of such a 
 thiag. It was reserved for the 
 Church of Rome to imagine and 
 record the possibility of such blas- 
 phemy. It is the Church that 
 records such abominations, which 
 gives a haajdle to Deists. 
 
 There is one point left I have 
 .time to notice beforelsit down. Mr. 
 Srench said, was not our Lord, when 
 a ehild, liable to be torn by wild 
 beasts ? I grant it. But is there not a 
 vast difference? Our Lord was then 
 in the flesh, liable to be spit upon, to 
 be buffeted, to want, to bleed, to 
 die, to be mocked, to be buried; 
 but what saiththe Scripture f Eom. 
 vi. 9 : "He dieth ne more." Mark 
 
 that ! — " no more ;" " Death hath no 
 more dominion over him;" and though 
 he was liable to every reproaMi, 
 insult, and ignominy — yea, liable to 
 death itself, when he was a babe 
 and a man of sorrow on the earth, 
 you know "that "he dieth no more; 
 death hath no more dominion over 
 him ;" you know that Jie is far, far 
 beyond the reach of every accident 
 and every insult^that "he ever 
 liveth," at God's hand, "to make 
 intercession for us ; " and, therefore, 
 the supposition that, because our 
 Lord was nursed in a manger, and 
 subject to sore and painful trials in 
 
IKANSUBSIANTIATION. 
 
 61 
 
 onr stead, and for our sins, on this 
 earth, the possibilities of the De 
 Defectibws are neither ■untrue nor 
 irreverent, is most iUogioal and 
 eminently absurd. I therefore call 
 on you, my dear Koman Catholic 
 friends, not to entertain such senti- 
 ments, but to abjure and abandon 
 them as dishonourable to God. 
 
 [Here the reverend gentleman's 
 hour terminated.] 
 
 Mr.PiiEircH. — Ladies andgentle- 
 men. Before I come to the subject 
 under discussion, I shall beg leave 
 to advert to one altogether extra- 
 neous to it, and sorry I am that it 
 was introduced by my rev. friend. 
 It vras a passage which he quoted 
 from St. Thomas of Aquia with 
 respect to heretics. I take it for 
 granted thatthe words in St.Thomas 
 of Aquin are dearly and accurately 
 recorded. Aquinas does give his 
 opinion, as a theologian, "that he- 
 retics, after certain admonitions, 
 may be handed over to the secular 
 power." That, I say, is an opinion 
 of his — ^it is not mine ; it is not an 
 article of the CathoKc faith, und has 
 nothing to do with the question. 
 As a private individual, and as a 
 Catholic, permitted by my Church 
 to indulge opinions of this kind, I 
 boldly state, that I am not only 
 against persecution for religion, but 
 also against the connexion of Church 
 and State in any country of the 
 universe. That is my opinion : but 
 since I have turned my eyes to the 
 politics of human bfe, I have never 
 been able to see one sect in religion, 
 in power, connected with the state, 
 that did not persecute for religion ; 
 all alike, Eoman Catholics, or Pro- 
 testants, or others, in this country; 
 all have persecuted for religion. 
 
 But as the learned gentleman told 
 you, also, that he wished, ex passant, 
 to show you some words in prose of 
 Aquinas, after a little bit of his 
 
 poetry with which I regaled you, I 
 win show him, in return, one of the 
 deeds of his celebrated Calvin, 
 namely, his burning Servetus at the 
 stake, because he did not believe in 
 the divinity of Jesus Christ. [Mur- 
 murs among the Catholics, and cries 
 of "Order ! "] Therefore, gentlemen, 
 this kind of. extrinsic argument is 
 totally at an end. And now, before 
 I proceed further, I should wish my 
 Protestant friends to entertain "a 
 clearer notion as to the way by 
 which Catholics mean that Christ is 
 received in the sacrament of the 
 Eucharist, for vou have not heard 
 one argument, though you have had 
 a copious out-pouring of words ; 
 you have not heard one solid argu- 
 ment to refute the verity of that 
 sacrament. The manner of Christ's 
 prespnce is thus laid down by our 
 sound tlieologians, and we Cathohcs 
 all acquiesce in it ; and what is thus 
 taught is to be found in the book 
 called "The Paith of Cathohcs :"— 
 " Christ is not present in this sacra- 
 ment according to his natural way." 
 
 Eev. J. CuMMiua. — What is the 
 boot? 
 
 Mr.PKENCH.— It is"TheI'aith of 
 Catholics," by Kirk andBerrington. 
 
 Rev. J. CuMMiNG.-Thatis enough. 
 
 Mr. Pkench. — "Christ is not pre- 
 sent in this sacrament according to 
 his natural mode of existence, nor 
 subject to corporeal contingencies." 
 That is the manner of receiving him ; 
 it is quite a different thing to what 
 my learned friend conceives. St. 
 Austin win stiU further illustrate it. 
 "What therefore means," says St, 
 Austin, "that phrase, 'the flesh 
 profiteth nothing /" It proflteth no- 
 thing in the manner in which they 
 understood it, for they understood 
 it to mean flesh as it is mangled in 
 a dead body, or as it is sold in the 
 market ; not as it is quickened by 
 the animating spirit of life." — St. 
 Aug. Tract 27, vol. iii. p. 503. 
 
TKANSUBSTASTIAIION . 
 
 And now, if I were in the pre-, 
 senoe of an assembly that knew not 
 how to discriminate, that is, that 
 was likely to be more content with 
 mere Tolubility of words and ele- 
 gantly flowing language than with 
 solidity of argument, I should not 
 be, on the present occasion, ani- 
 mated with that strength and tha,t 
 confidence which I feel in the glo- 
 rious cause which I have undertaken 
 to defend. On the contrary, in that 
 case, I should be dispirited and de- 
 
 i'ected in the extreme ; for certainly 
 ! have to contend with a most prac- 
 tised and expert orator, — a gentle- 
 man capable, beyond doubt, with the 
 atmost facility, of expressing him- 
 self on any subject that enters into 
 his mind, and of making the argu- 
 ment his own, or at least making it 
 appear so, by the vehemence and 
 the impressiveness with which he 
 speaks, and the seeming elegance 
 with which he clothes his ideas. 
 And yet, notwithstanding this ad- 
 vantage on his part, I candidly own 
 that I am full of favourable antici- 
 pation as to the result of this dis- 
 cussion, when I cast my eyes upon 
 the feebleness of my learned friend' s 
 arguments to subvert the grand 
 dogma of Transubstantiation. I 
 mean both those which were ad- 
 duced at our last meeting and those 
 which have been superadded to 
 then- this evening. If that is all 
 I have to contend with, I have, I 
 think, already said enough in .my 
 appeals to the Testament, that book 
 01 books, and in my appeals to the 
 fathers of the Church. 
 
 As specimens of the learned gen- 
 tleman's fragility of argument, on 
 the former eveningof thisdiscussiou, 
 1 shall beg leave to call his and your 
 attention to the mode in which he 
 endeavoured to invalidate that ever- 
 memorable text of the Gospel, 
 which appeared so strong to Martin 
 Luther that he defied a whole ge- 
 
 rSi/ TUmening, 
 
 neration of men to shake it ; namely, 
 " Take, eat, this is my body ; drink, 
 this is my blood." The mode in 
 which my friend endeavoured to 
 weaken that grand text, you may 
 remember, was by questioning the 
 accuracy of my quotation from 
 the New Testament, with which he 
 is so familiar; and then, when he 
 found himself foiled in his attempt, 
 he directed my attention to another 
 te^t, which he wished me to quote 
 in preference : — Luke x^ii. 19, 20. 
 " Tnis cup is the new testament in 
 my blood," This would have given 
 an opportunity to my learned friend 
 to say, what indeed he has said,, 
 though I avoided the text in order 
 to ward off siich nonsense — that if 
 Transubstantiation was to take effect 
 the moment that certain words were 
 pronounced, it would follow conse- 
 cutively, that the cup was also to 
 be transubstantiated. Now it ap- 
 peared to me to be a most extra- 
 ordinary argument, and not worthy 
 the dignity of his character, ac- 
 quainted as he is with the laws of 
 reasoning, inasmuch as every one 
 must know that if I say that I saw 
 a man drink a glass of wine, I do 
 not mean to make an impression 
 that he swallowed the glass with the 
 wine. And that the cup was not 
 an essential part of this doctrine, is 
 proved from the circumstance of 
 Matthew's not mentioning the cup, 
 but simply making Christ to say, 
 "Take, eat, this is my body, and 
 drink, this is my blood of the new 
 ^testament." But, gentlemen, it is 
 not my iiltention to permit the in- 
 vincibuity of this grand text to be 
 so slightly passed over. I shall 
 read you the words of Luther upon 
 it, — ^his own words. Luther, torn, 
 vii. 502 : — " I cannot deny, neither 
 do I vrish to do so, that had Car- 
 lostad, or any other person, been 
 able, five years ago, to persuade mc 
 that wine and bread alone consti- 
 
TKAUSUBSTANTIATION. 
 
 Mr. French!\ 
 
 tuted tte Sacrament, he woxild have 
 feonferred upon me an inestimahle 
 favour ; for, to tell ;^ou the truth, it 
 is a subject in the investigation of 
 which I was then most anxiously 
 and laboriously engaged. I strained 
 every nerve to extricate and disen- 
 tangle myself from the embarrass- 
 ment, knowing, as I did full vrell, 
 that it was a point that above all 
 others would enable me to give 
 the greatest aimoyanoe to the pa- 
 pacy ; but I find myself completely 
 bound ill fetters, without any pos- 
 sibility of eseaping ; the text of the 
 Gospel is too clear." 
 
 This text, therefore, I stiD. main- 
 tain, remains whole and entire, 
 totally unbroken by the oriental 
 weapons of my learned friend. 
 Such are the words of Luther, and 
 he acted up to the spirit of them to 
 the end of his- life, maintaining the 
 real corporeal presence, though dif- 
 fering from us in one respect. He 
 beUced in Cousubstantiation, we 
 believe in Trausubstantiation. Lu- 
 ther, therefore, the father of Pro- 
 testantism, maintains that that text 
 is too clear to be distorted by any 
 ingenuity, and of course to be proof 
 against that orientalism in which 
 my learned friend so much delights 
 and glories. 
 
 My rev. friend maintains, that, 
 instead of its beiag too clear in 
 favour of the corporeal- presence, 
 that all Catholic generations that 
 have gone by, vrith all the Catholic 
 world at present, nay, vrith Luther 
 himself, the father of Protestantism, 
 are all wholly inadequate to pass any 
 judgment whatever upon it. He 
 virtually maintains so. Luther was 
 persuaded that he saw an affirmative 
 m this text, " take, eat, this is my 
 body;" my learned friend is per- 
 suaded that he sees in it a negative : 
 " this is nof mj body." Luther de- 
 clares that all opponents of the 
 doctrine of the corporeal presence. 
 
 63 
 
 to use his own words, "are heretics 
 and aliens to the Church ;" my rev. 
 opponent affirms, that all the advo- 
 cates of the corporeal- presence are 
 rank idolaters, and, consequently, 
 with one wide, sweepin_g, one mer- 
 ciless anathema, excludes them all 
 from the kingdom of heaven; a 
 kingdom, thank God, of which my 
 reverend friend is not the possessor 
 of the keys. [Applause from the Ca- 
 tholic party, and cries of "Order!"] 
 Luther tells us that he was com- 
 pletely held in fetters by this strong- 
 binding, circumscriptive text; my 
 learned and ingenious rriend de- 
 clares that it is mere superstition 
 — mere enchantment in any one that 
 is thus bound, and immediately dis- 
 solves the chains of such deluded 
 mortals by the magic aU-potent 
 touch of his oriental wand. 
 
 Poor, unhappy Luther ! unversed 
 as he was in orientalism ! He lived 
 and died, alas, three iundred years 
 ago, maintaining to the end the doc- 
 trine of the real corporeal presence 
 of Christ in the sacred Eucharist, 
 instead of its being reserved for the 
 new-sprung lights of the nineteenth 
 century. But oh ! my friends, what 
 a contrast, what a striking contrast 
 do we not behold here, between the 
 simplicity of " the father, of the 
 Reformation" and the remarkable 
 ingenuity and acuteness of his de- 
 scendants ! What dulness, what 
 inaptitude, what stupidity in read- 
 ing this plain-speaking Gospel on the 
 part of Luther ; and what penetra- 
 tion, what keenness, what acute- 
 ness, and inteUigenoe, on the part 
 of all his sons ! Eeally, my friends, 
 notwithstanding the subbme soar 
 that my learned friend took the other 
 evening into the regions of natural 
 philosophy, when he very gravely 
 and methodically proved that a inan 
 could not be, with reference to him- 
 self, at once both grandfather and 
 grandson, it appears to me, not- 
 
61 
 
 TRANSOBSTASTTMATION. 
 
 withstanding, that such a character 
 can exist ; that is, a grandchild, in 
 poittt of age, who is a grandfather 
 at the same time in point of wisdom 
 and maturity of intellect. Such is 
 the preeidSsness of the present race 
 of readers of the Bible, that, in the 
 words of the poet,—" The text in- 
 spires not thcBi, but%they the text 
 inspire." 
 
 .They all see, at one glance, that 
 what Iiuther declared to be too 
 literal to be distorted into metaphor 
 and "orientalized," they all see, in 
 the present day, that it is too clearly 
 figurative to be distorted into Hte- 
 rality. But, I ask, what rule, what 
 standard (rf faith must that be, 
 where a man, sitting down to inter- 
 pret the Bible for himself, in a text 
 of such unspeakable importance, or, 
 as my reverend friend has frequently 
 said this evening, is of such "vital 
 importance that the salvation of your 
 soul hangs on it," — I say, what i-ule 
 of faith must that be where, whilst 
 the Bible is supposed to speak 
 plainly and intelligibly to all, the 
 veryfatherof theEeformation differs 
 in his deduction from all ? how is 
 it that each individual is enabled, in 
 the nineteenth century, to descry so 
 iutuitivdy, that these words, " Take, 
 eat, this is my body ; drink, this is 
 my blood," are positively figurative, 
 when such a mMi as Luther, though 
 he strained every nerve to pro- 
 duce [reduce^ it to figuratlveness, 
 in order to give annoyance to the 
 Papacy, declared that the text stared 
 him too strongly in the face, so that 
 he could never get over it. And yet 
 my learned friend ridicules my sim- 
 plicity (though he did not actually 
 use the word as Dr. Adam Clarke 
 has done) in not being able to see a 
 -negative in this text where Luther 
 saw an affirmative, and where I see 
 an affirmative, and where all Catho- 
 lics, to the end of the world, will 
 see an affirmative. I ask, then, is 
 
 this permission to every man to in- 
 terpret the Bible for himself, taking 
 it as the sole rule of faith, ever 
 Hkeiy to lead to " unity in the hand 
 of peace?" Is it the proper rule to 
 knit the minds of men in one har- 
 monious consent, in one and the 
 same doctrine or body of tenets, so 
 as to supersede the necessity of 
 the " one sheepfoid and the one 
 Shepherd," the ever-existing, never- 
 chan^ng CathoKc church, which 
 still cries out, in all ages, and in all 
 countries, in the language of the 
 apostle of the Geirtiles, " the cup of 
 blessing which we bless, is it not 
 the communion ,of the blood of 
 Christ? and the bread which we 
 break, is it not the communion of 
 the body of Christ ?" 
 
 I come now to make an observa- 
 tion or two with reference to com- 
 mum'on in one kiiid, which was 
 toudied upon by my learned friend 
 on the last evening, and which I had 
 no time to answer. My reverend 
 friend alleges that the cup, by which 
 expression the blood is commonly 
 meant, that is, "the thing contain- 
 ing for tie thing contained," is 
 taken away from the laity ; but when 
 we Catholics sot the.cup, we mean 
 the blood, and I maintain that the 
 cup is not taken away from the laity 
 any more than his sacred body is 
 taken away ; because it is an article 
 of our faith that from the body the 
 blood is inseparable, and he who 
 takes a drop of the consecrated 
 wine or bread takes the blessed, 
 glorified, and spiritualized body ot 
 'our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. 
 That is the doctrine which we pro- 
 fess, and which we sincerely believe 
 in. But, my friends, it shall not be 
 my bare assertion that communion 
 in one kind is lawful. I shall prove 
 it by four texts. The learned 
 gentleman, when I have read one, 
 will easily accredit me for the four, 
 though I have only one at present 
 
Mr. French.^ 
 
 Tlie first text is Luke xxiv. 30 : — 
 " And it came to pass, that, as they 
 sat at meat ■with him, that he took 
 bread, and blessed it, and brake it, 
 and gave unto them." This I con- 
 tend to be communion in one kind. 
 I have for it the authority of several 
 fathers of the Church, among others, 
 St. Augustine and the venerable 
 Bede. But the principal text I 
 wish to call your attention to is that 
 of St. Paul, first Cor. epistle first, 
 ■which I am compelled to read in 
 Greek, because it is vitiated — ^pur- 
 posely vitiated, and stripped of its 
 meamng by the English Protestant 
 translation. I should much rather 
 advert to the Protestant translation, 
 as being more familiar to the ma- 
 jority of my audience ; but wherever 
 it is deliberately, vvantonly, and inde- 
 fensibly vitiated, in order to delude 
 the people of this country, there 
 I am compelled to read the genuine 
 Greek. It is at the 37th verse ; 
 and I beg you to remark, that it is 
 only one Greek ■word that I am going 
 to teach you, viz. the letter " e," 
 which means " or" in Greek. 
 
 Novf I shaE. explain and con- 
 Mtrue it, and I beg perfect silence 
 ■whilst I give the interpretation : — 
 "Whoever shall eat this bread," 
 (e) " or shall drink this cup of the 
 Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of 
 the body and blood of thp Lord." 
 Such is the proper translation. 
 Now the Protestant translation is 
 abominable, and wicked, and false; 
 it is indefensibly false, because the 
 ■translators knew it to be so when 
 they put and for or. In order to 
 show that communion in one kind 
 was not available, they turned e 
 into kai, which means and, whilst e 
 means or. Is there not, my friends, 
 a curse denounced against any one 
 who shall either add or take from 
 that sacred book? 
 
 There you have commmuon in 
 one kind, and depend upon it the 
 
 tUAWSUBSTANTIAIION. 
 
 65 
 
 learned gentleman, when he rises, 
 ■wiU have to perspire a great deal, 
 before he give a lucid and satisfac- 
 tory answer to that identical text. 
 "Where does the Scripture," says 
 Bishop Montage, "oofljmand the 
 people to receive the sao:fament of 
 the Lord's supper in both kinds ? 
 The Scripture teaches no such 
 thing." And M'hy does a Protes- 
 tant bishop acknowledge this ? 
 Because he had studied Scripture 
 deeply ; because he knew that the 
 translation was false ; yes, he knew 
 that the text I have just now quoted 
 was false in the English. Can I 
 entertain a doubt, therefore, as to 
 this being communion in one kind ; 
 no, most undoubtedly I cannot ; 
 but if I did, much rather would I 
 light my little candle at the lamp of 
 the great St. Augustine, stiH vividly 
 burning in his immortal pages, and 
 who asseverates it to be such com- 
 munion, than I would ask the opinion 
 of my reverend friend oouoeming 
 that important text — such love, such 
 reverence, such admiration have I 
 for the orthodox doctors of sound 
 antiquity, when compared with the 
 conceited, the arrogant superficial^ 
 ists of the present day. 
 
 As to the question of my learned 
 friend, how was it that the gooa 
 thief was admitted into Paradise 
 ■without partaking of the Lord's 
 body, which I so much insisted" 
 on ? — ^I ask him, in my turn, since 
 " no man without baptism can 
 enter into the kingdom of heaven," 
 — how is it that the good thief, un- 
 baptized, was received into those 
 happy regions ? As I have not now 
 much time left, I shall beg leave 
 oelore I sit down — for I am very 
 loth to leave this te:^t, which is 
 commonly called Luther's invinci- 
 ble text, and which is hke^wise the 
 text by which OathoUcs of every age 
 before his existence clearly proved 
 their doctrine of Transubstantiation 
 
66 
 
 TaiNSDBSTAMTIATION. 
 
 — ^before I sit do^m, it 'wiU not be 
 unseasonable to corroborate it, by 
 one or two extracts from the fathers. 
 Speakiag of this very text, St. Chry- 
 sostom says, "This is my body." 
 This sentence effects a total trans- 
 mutation in what lies before: — 
 rovTO TO pTJfia fierappvd^i^ei ra 
 TTpoKcifieva. — 8i. GhrySt torn. ii. 
 p. 384. Edit. Benedict. 
 
 St. Gregory of Nyssa, A.r. 372, 
 says : " But now these tilings he 
 gives unto ns, irans-elemenlmg by the 
 force of the blessing the nature of the 
 visible species into that ~body: — 
 Tavra 8ij SiSoxrii' rjfuv rrj tt]S ev\o- 
 •yiaj dwajiei irpos iKciA /iera- 
 aTOi^ettjoaas rav <f}aiVOfiev(ov Tr}V 
 (j>v<rtii," torn. iii. p. 105, fol. edit. 
 Morell, Paris, 1638. 
 
 My reverend friend, who is weE 
 acnuaiated with the Greek language, 
 and not only my learned friend who 
 is arguing with me, but both my 
 learned friends in their respeotive 
 chairs, who are thoroughly ' ac- 
 quainted with the Greek language, 
 will be able to teU you that, m ■Qie 
 whole compass of that copious 
 tongue, there is not a stronger or 
 more expressive word than meta- 
 sfoikeiosas, that is, " trans-element- 
 ing ;" and shall I be told, after this, 
 by my learned friend, or by any 
 Protestant theologian whatever, that 
 the doctrine of Transubstantiation 
 was invented in the ninth centuir, 
 and that the first treatise was writ- 
 ten by Pascasiujs Rhadbert ? Wiy 
 this single sentence is worth whole 
 treatises on the doctrine of Transub- 
 stantiation, written with the utmost 
 copiousness and prolixity. Is it 
 possible for any man to find out a 
 word equal to it in the English lan- 
 guage P It would sink under the 
 weight of it ; there is no.possibility ; 
 it is not rich enough ; no modem 
 language is rich enough to con- 
 vey such a powerful idea, without 
 the coinage of a word of an ana- 
 
 logous nature, from the Greek or 
 Sjoman. 
 
 Now, gentlemen, let ns inves- 
 tigate caEnty which of the two, 
 OathoKc or Protestant, discerns the 
 teue meaning of this mystery with 
 the greater spiritual acuteness and 
 comprehension, as it is expounded 
 in the 6th chapter of John. And 
 here I must say, that whatever 
 the mighty BeDarmine might have 
 thought, who seems, by-the-by, a 
 great favourite with my learned 
 friend, — whatever, I say, BeHar- 
 mine might have thought vrith re- 
 ference to the said chapter, it wiU 
 not alter my opinion in any degree 
 whatever. I can read as well as 
 BeHarmine, I can understand as well 
 as Bellarmine, and there is no article 
 of my faith which forbids me to 
 interpret, on this occasion, accord- 
 ing to my own will and my own 
 fancy. " Our fathers did eat manna 
 in the desert, as it is written. He 
 gave them bread from heaven (John 
 vi. 31). Then Jesus said unto them. 
 Verily I say unto you, Moses gave 
 not bread from heaven, but my 
 Father gives you the true bread 
 which Cometh down from heaven." 
 
 Here I must observe, that it is im- 
 possible to read a single sentence in 
 this divine chapter that has not been 
 illustrated and enriched by some 
 valuable observations byone or other 
 of the fathers of the Gnuroh, which 
 tends to show you what was the 
 primitive belief on the subject in 
 discussion. This allusion to manna 
 is illiistrated by the following re- 
 mark from the great St. Ambrose : 
 he is cateohizii^ or instructing a 
 pnpU : — " You (he says to him) are 
 acquainted with far better things ; 
 inasmuch as light is preferable to 
 sha4e, truth to figure, the body of 
 the founder to manna from heaven. 
 Perhaps, ypu may say, I see a very 
 different thing before me : how do 
 you affirm to me that I see the body 
 
Mr. French.] 
 
 TBANSUBSTANTIATION. 
 
 fi7 
 
 of Christ ? This it is that remains 
 for me to prove. How many ex- 
 amples have we not at command to 
 prove that what is. here is not what 
 nature has formed, but what the 
 benediction has consecrated; and 
 that the efficacy of the benediction 
 preponderates over that of nature, 
 since by the benediction nature 
 itself is changed ! Moses held the 
 rod ; he cast it down, and it became 
 a serpent. Again, he seized the 
 serpent by the tail, and it resumed 
 the nature of the rod. See you not, 
 therefore, that, by the prophetic 
 grace, the nature of the serpent and 
 the rod was twice changed r" 
 
 St. Ambrose then enumerates 
 many other miraculous changes men- 
 tioned in the sacred writings, and 
 thus proceeds : — "Now, if the bless- 
 ing of man was so potent that it 
 could change nature, what say we of 
 the divine consecration, where the 
 very word themselves of the Lord 
 our Saviour operate ? for that Sa- 
 crament which you receive is accom- 
 plished by the word of Christ. If 
 the word of Elias had such power 
 that it could bring down fire from 
 heaven, shall not the word of Christ 
 have power to change the form of 
 the elements ? You nave read the 
 account of all the works of the crea- 
 tion. He said, and it was done ; he 
 commanded, and they were formed. 
 The word, therefore, of Christ which 
 had power to make from nothing 
 that which was not, is it not able to 
 change those things which actually 
 are mto things which they were 
 not ? for it is not a less exertion of > 
 power to give new existence to 
 things, than to change the nature of 
 things existing. But why have re- 
 course to illustrations ? Let us bring 
 forward examples appertaining to 
 the subject, and by the instance of the 
 incarnation, let ws substantiate the 
 truth of the mystery. Was it in 
 conformity to the ordinary course 
 
 of nature, that our Lord Jesus was 
 bom of Mary ? If it be nature that 
 we are in quest of, no other means 
 present themselves but the law of 
 matrimony. It is evident, there- 
 fore, that, in deviation from the 
 wonted course of nature, a virgin 
 brought forth a son, and it is thai 
 very body which' we produce. Why 
 here do you require the order of nature 
 as to the body of Christ, since, in op- 
 position to the wonted courseof nature, 
 the Lord Jesus himself was brought 
 forth by a virgin ? V erily, the true 
 flesh of Christ, which was crucified, 
 which was buried, of necessary con- 
 sequence, constitute the sacrament 
 of that flesh. Qwr Lord Jesus him- 
 self pronounces it. This is my body. 
 Before the benediction of the ce- 
 lestial words, it is called bread 
 (species) ; after the consecration, 
 the body of Christ is signified. He 
 himself calls it his blood. Before 
 the consecration it is called another 
 thing; after the consecration it is 
 caEed another thing : after the con- 
 secration it is called blood. And 
 you say, Amen ; that is, it is true. 
 What the mouth utters, let the mind 
 inwardly confess. What the word 
 resounds, let the heart inwardly re- 
 spond to" So says St. Ambrose. 
 Ajid are all these words idly and 
 profusely lavished in order to prove 
 that bread after the consecration 
 stiU remaias bread, and that wine 
 after consecration stiU remains 
 wine ? — St. Ambrosius, de Lnitiandis, 
 lib. viii. torn. iv. fol. 350. Parisiis, 
 1603. 
 
 Again, " 33. For the bread of 
 God is he which cometh- down from • 
 heaven and giveth Hfe unto the 
 world." 
 
 So that it is evident that our 
 blessed Lord alludes not to any 
 thing bordering on the Protestant 
 sacrament, but points to himself 
 directly. 
 "35. And Jesus said unto them, I 
 
68 
 
 THAHStJBSTAUTIATION'. 
 
 am the bread of life ; he that cometh 
 to me shall never hunger, and he 
 that believeth on me shall never 
 thirst." 
 
 Behold, a second time our blessed 
 Lord afDrms that the bread of life 
 is he himself; and vrhere is the 
 Christian who shall dare to contra- 
 dict him, and to exclaim. No, the 
 bread of life came not down from 
 heaven, but is the product of a ter- 
 restrial soil ? 
 
 "36. But I say also unto you. 
 That ye also have seen me, and be- 
 lieve not." 
 
 " 37. All that the lather giveth 
 to me shall come to me, and him 
 that Cometh to me I will no wise 
 cast out." 
 
 Is it not manifest that our blessed 
 Saviour here alludes, in the first 
 place, to those who were about to 
 murmur at him, and to reject the 
 bread from heaven, and to walk no 
 more with him ? and in the next 
 place, to those who were about to 
 tell him, in the words of Simon 
 Peter, " Lori, to whom shall we go ? 
 Thou hast the words of eternal life." 
 
 "41. The Jews then murmured 
 at him, because he said, I am the 
 bread which came down from hea- 
 ven." 
 
 Is it possible that these Jews 
 could have murmured at him had he 
 merely said, "The bread of life which 
 I am about to ^ve you is the com- 
 mon bread, wmch is eaten by you 
 all, and which, when I shall be no 
 more among you, it is my will that 
 ye should eat in remembrance of 
 me ?" No ; it would, methinks, re- 
 quire no peculiar assistance from the 
 Holy Spirit for a person to make up 
 his mnd to believe in the possibility 
 of a thing so very easy to be ac- 
 complished. However, after this 
 murmur, it is but natural to expect 
 that our blessed Lord would have 
 taken some pains to disabuse them 
 of their error, aa Protestants assert 
 
 \%d Eaeuinff. 
 
 the tenet to be, according to which 
 we believe that in this Sacrament 
 he gives us his own flesh to eat. 
 But no; the blessed Jesus affords 
 them new matter for discontent and 
 perplexity. 
 
 "43. Jesus therefore answered 
 and said unto them. Murmur not 
 among yourselves." 
 
 " 44. No man can come to me, ex- 
 cept the lather which hath sent me 
 draw liim : and I wiU raise him up at 
 the last day." 
 
 Had our Saviour meant to give 
 unto his followets nothing but mere 
 bread and wine, would he not here 
 have endeavoured to allay their 
 murmurs instead of studiously in- 
 creasing them ? Where would be the 
 necessity that theFaiher should draw 
 a man to believe a thing so easy as 
 the Protestant interpretation of the 
 Sacrament ? 
 
 But, to pursue the subject : We 
 hear our Saviour a third time re- 
 peating, that the bread which they 
 were about to eat is no other than 
 
 47. Verily, verily, I say unto 
 you, he that beHeveth on me hath 
 everlasting Hfe." 
 
 Notice here the solemnity of our 
 Saviour's diction : " Verily, verily !" 
 D6es this confirmatory asseveration, 
 redoubled, savour of figure or pa- 
 rable to the object that was to con- 
 stitute that bread? A third time he 
 says — 
 
 "50. This is the bread which 
 Cometh down from heaven, that a 
 man may eat therebf, and not die." 
 
 A fovurth time he says — 
 
 "51. I am the living bread which 
 came down from heaven : if any 
 man eat of this bread, he shall live 
 for ever ; and the bread that I will 
 give is my flesh, which I will give 
 for the life of the world." 
 
 Now is the time for tKe exertion 
 of a spiritual, a celestialized, not 
 a gross, carnal, and corrupted eye^ 
 
Mr. French-l 
 
 in examining the import of his 
 words. 
 
 The " living bread!" Can. this 
 expression be referred to the perish- 
 able, corruptible food, that passes 
 among men by the name of bread ? 
 But mark with slow and solemn pace 
 of understanding, the words that 
 follow — 
 
 "And the bread that I will give 
 is my flesh, which I will give for the 
 life of the world." 
 
 candid and impartial Protest- 
 ant ! let me here entreat thee, in 
 the name of that all-holy Personage 
 from whose lips these words were 
 uttered ; canst thou possibljpersuade 
 thyseK that our blessed Saviour 
 speaks but of the bread of earth, 
 that is kneaded with mere flour 
 and water ? What ! was that species 
 of bread given for the life of the 
 world ? Was that bread crucified ? 
 Or, was it not rather \!as flesh of Him 
 that suffered for our sius, the eating 
 of which, in his own language, was 
 to make a man live for ever ? 
 
 But, to leave awhile the soul- 
 reviving words of our adored B,e- 
 deemer, Hsten to the harsh, discor- 
 dant, and rebellious voice of the 
 first Protestants of whom history 
 makes mention. 
 
 " 52. The Jews therefore strove 
 among themselves, saying. How can 
 this man give us his flesh to eat ?" 
 
 Who can answer to this how? 
 Shall we too exclaim with those in- 
 credulous disciples who first pro- 
 tested against Ms divine words, and 
 vrith the host of incredulous Pro- 
 testants who have since followed 
 their example, How can this man, give 
 us his flesh to eat ? Shall we exclaim 
 with the philosophic Christian of 
 modem times, " Non credo, quia 
 contra naturam est" — (I believe 
 it not, because it is contrary to 
 nature) ; or with the simple-minded, 
 and yet infinitely moi'e philosophic 
 Catholio Christian, if the true mean- 
 
 TBANSXTBSTiNTIATION. 
 
 69 
 
 ing of words be weighed, " Crede, 
 quia ipse Domkus naturae dixit !" — 
 (I believe, because the Lord of 
 nature has himself averred it !) 
 
 Thus far, however, the Catholic 
 andProtestant may differ as to our 
 Saviour's real meaiung; one thing is 
 certain, and cannot be disputed — 
 that the natural meaning of our 
 Saviour's words led those murmur- 
 iug Jews to conclude that he wished 
 them to understand he intended 
 them to eat his flesh. Now let us 
 suppose for a moment that a modem 
 Protestant preacher, iu reading the 
 Testament to young persons whom 
 he was about to instruct in Chris- 
 tianity, and who previously had 
 heard nothing either of the Catholic 
 or the Protestant tenet on the sub- 
 ject — Itet us suppose, I say, that 
 the zealous preacher, by dint of era- 
 phatical repetition, had mvoluntarily 
 produced the same effect in the 
 minds of his pupils which Christ 
 produced in the minds of those 
 Jews, who, upon hearing him, ex- 
 claimed, " How can this man give 
 us his flesh to eat ?" Would not 
 the preacher, let me ask, hasten to 
 disabuse them of their error ? Of 
 course, you will reply, he would. 
 And is it not equally natural to 
 expect that the great Preacher of 
 preachers, the sacred Oracle, the 
 Pountain of truth, in whose lips there 
 was no guile, would have been soli- 
 citous to undeceive and enlighten 
 his disciple" as to his meaning, had 
 the taking of mere bread and wine 
 in remembrance of him been the 
 object to which all his language was 
 directed ? 
 
 Alas for the Protestant ! how 
 contrary to this is the mode pur- 
 sued upon the occasion by the great 
 Instructor ! Instead of softening or 
 qualifying his expression, he gives 
 it now, for the flfth time, redoubled 
 hardness — 
 
 " 53. Then Jesus said unto 
 
70 
 
 TKilfSTJBSIANTUIION. 
 
 them, Veri]y, verily, I say unto you, 
 Except ye eat the flesh of the Son 
 of Man, and drink his blood, ye have 
 no life in you." 
 
 Is language like this calculated 
 to inform the murmuring Jews that 
 he meant nothing by the solemn 
 emphasis of Verily, verily, but Kgu- 
 ratinely, figwaiively ; and by the 
 words, ^kmfienh and Hood, nothing 
 but mere bread and mine? 
 
 But again, a sixth time, he re- 
 peats : — 
 
 " 54. Whoso eateth my flesh, 
 and drinketh my blood, hath eternal 
 life ; and I wiU raise him up at the 
 last day." 
 
 Does our blessed Saviour in this 
 verse advance one single step nearer 
 to the Protestant interpretation — 
 namely, mere bread and wine P or, 
 is he about to do it the seventh 
 time, which the next verse has re- 
 corded ? 
 
 "65. Por my flesh is meat 
 indeed, and my blood is drink 
 indeed." 
 
 "What solemn language ! And is 
 it all intended for the sole purpose of 
 showing that there is vital nourish- 
 ment in earthly bread, and the same 
 In earthly wine ? 
 
 Now let us hear him for the 
 eighth time, and see whether w6 
 can make, at length, any nearer 
 approach to Protestantism? 
 
 "56. He that eateth my flesh, 
 and drinketh my blood, dweHeth in 
 me, and I in him." 
 
 Were not, let me ask, the poor 
 Jews excusable at least in mis- 
 apprehending his meaning, if all this 
 time nothing but bread and vrine 
 was meant by these constantly 
 reiterated sounds oi flesh and blood, 
 however inexcusable th^y were in 
 not remaining to learn with all 
 docility from their divine Master, 
 the ^irit of his words P 
 
 But perhaps the Protestant may 
 JTidn^^e some gleam of hope from 
 
 [id Evening. 
 
 the ninth time, in which our Saviour 
 explains the meaning : — 
 
 " 57. As the living Father hath 
 sent me, and I live by the Pather : 
 so he that eateth me, even he shall 
 live by me." 
 
 O Jesus, Jesus ! O my God ! 
 ever-blessed Bedeemer of my soul ! 
 is it possible that a disciple of thine, 
 after this solemn oath which thou 
 hast just pronounced, can stiU waver 
 in his thoughts, or delay one moment 
 in bowing down aU the faculties of 
 his soul, and in exclaiming aloud, 
 in the language of primitive un- 
 reformed Cbfistianity — nia-Ttva, 
 miTTiva, TTia-Tevo), Km ofioKoya 
 ems dTXtTi)! avatrvoTjs, on avrr] 
 fa-Tiv i; a-ap^ j; fmowoios, tJv eXafies, 
 XpL(TT€, o Qeos Tjiuov, (R Trjs dyias 
 Ae(Tnoivt]! ■qfiayv, BeoTOKOv, Kai 
 aieiirapdevov Maptai. — lAtiirgia 
 St. Basilii Alexandrina, ex Comce 
 Grseco, Arabic Edit. Benaudot, torn, 
 i. p. 123. "I believe, I believe, I 
 beheve, and I confess until my latest 
 breath, that this is the life-riving 
 flesh, which thou tookest, Christ, 
 our God, from our holy Lady Mother 
 of God, and ever- Virgin Mary." 
 
 Yes — So)/xa ayiov Kai al^a TtpAov, 
 aKTjdtvov 'Iijo-ov XpioTov vlov tov 
 eeov. Ajjajv. — Id. "The holy body 
 and the precious true blood of Jesus 
 Christ the Son of God. Amen." 
 
 2(»/xa Km aipa, E/ifiai»o«i;X tov 
 Qeov, TOVTO euTiv dKrjdas. A/ii/y. 
 —Id. " The body and blood of Em- 
 manuel our Grod, this is verily. 
 Amen," 
 
 Here, at least, the most stubborn 
 opponent of Catholicity vrill allow, 
 that, had our blessed Saviour in- 
 tended to convey the meaning of 
 flesh and blood, he could not have 
 used words of a stronger naturfe, 
 words more significant of that in 
 teiit, and, at the same time, words 
 more remote^ from Protestant con- 
 ception of what our Saviour in 
 tended to express. 
 
Mr. French.'] 
 
 But come we now to th.e tenth 
 time; perhaps the enigma, if our 
 Saviour was of deliberate purpose 
 dark and involved ia his expression, 
 may be at length explained. 
 
 " 58. This is the bread which 
 came down from heaven; not as 
 your fathers did eat manna, and are 
 dead : he that eateth of this bread 
 shall Mve for ever." 
 
 To what, or rather to whom, do 
 the words " th's bread" refer ? Is 
 it not to our Saviour himself ? If 
 so, wiU. it stiU be maintained by 
 Protestants that he had nothing in 
 view but mere bread aaid wine ; and 
 that over and over again he thought 
 it necessary to repeat, that that 
 bread came down from heaven? 
 After this solemn repetition of his 
 meaning, ten times, so as to exclude 
 all possibility of being misunder- 
 stood by those to whom he ad- 
 dressed his words, will it still be 
 contended that he meant by his 
 flesh bread, and by his blood wine ? 
 and by the bread that came down 
 from heaven, he meant the wheat 
 that grows on earth ? Why, really, 
 as a man endued with cnmmou sense 
 and common reasoning- powers, not 
 as either CathoKc or Protestant, if I 
 were desirous to know what our 
 Saviour meant, I would rather turn 
 my attention to the preceding and 
 succeeding verses of this said sixth 
 chapter, than to aU the doctors on 
 either side of the question, that ever 
 took the pen in hand to write either 
 pro or con on the doctrine of Tran- 
 substantiation. 
 
 " 60. Many, therefore, of his 
 disciples, when they had heard tAis, 
 said. This is a hard saying ; who 
 can hear it?" 
 
 It appears at last that after this 
 lengthy and persevering attempt of 
 our blessed Saviour to- convince the 
 stubborn Jews that he really meant 
 what he said, his Xvords had not the 
 due effect. If it be asked why, 
 
 TRiNSirBSTAlITUIlON. 
 
 71 
 
 the answer is obvious : " JVo man 
 can come to me, except tlie Father, 
 which hath sent me, draw him." 
 Well, but now at least we may 
 expect that our Saviour would con- 
 descend to gi\fe the Protestant 
 interpretation of the Sacrament, i£ 
 bread and wine was what he really 
 meant by flesh and blood ! Now 
 mark attentively the answer which 
 the lips of unerring Truth gave to 
 those sons of incredulity, those 
 Jews, or rather those Judaic Pro- 
 testants, that first murmured against 
 him ! 
 
 " 61. When Jesus knew in him- 
 self that his disciples murmured at 
 it, he said unto them, Doth this 
 offend you ? 
 
 "63. What and if ye shaU see 
 the Son of man ascend up where 
 he was before ?" 
 
 Had our blessed Saviour intended 
 to convey the meaning of bread 
 and wine taken in remembrance of 
 himself after his departure from 
 earth, is this, think ye, the mode 
 by which he would have explained 
 that meaning ? " What and if ye 
 shall see the Son of Man ascend up 
 where he was before?" — that is. 
 When ye shall see with your own 
 eyes the Son of M^n ascending to 
 heaven, will ye still doubt the possi- 
 bility of my words, which now seem 
 to you a hard saying, and which now 
 offend ytm, being true — ay, literally 
 true — even as shall be my ascent 
 to heaven? When ye shall have 
 seen me ascend,, and when ye shall 
 be persuaded by ocular demonstra- 
 tion that I have ascended, will ye 
 stiH require ocular demonstration to 
 be convinced that, when the words 
 of consecration have been pro- 
 nounced, the bread becomes my 
 flesh, and the wine becomes my 
 blood indeed? No, ye will not:, 
 no, ye cannot, if ye beheve indeed 
 that I have the words of eternal life. 
 
 During all this time that our 
 
7S 
 
 TEANSUBSTANTIATION. 
 
 blessed Savioui has been addressing 
 his disciples, we may observe, that, 
 as he never once diverted his words 
 from eating his flesh and drinking 
 Jris blood, so the Jews never could 
 divert their thoughts from that gross 
 carnal maimer of eating, which 
 contributes to the support of ani- 
 mal life. They most incontrovertibly 
 persuaded themselves that he meant 
 to inculcate that doctrine, and could 
 not prevail with their reason to 
 assent to its possibility. 
 
 The next verse, however, which 
 I am about to quote, is, according 
 to the inculcation of Protestants, 
 not only explanatory of all the pre- 
 ceding ones, but of all ths^, follow, 
 and sets iu their minds the whole- 
 question at rest for ever. It is 
 this: 
 
 " 63. It is the Spirit that quick- 
 eneth ; the flesh proflteth nothing : 
 the words that I speak unto you, 
 they are spirit, and they are hfe:" 
 
 Now, independently of the Ca- 
 tholic doctrine on this subject, 
 where the glorified body of our 
 blessed Saviour, though received by 
 the faithful, is still spiritual, not 
 corporeal food— rin the language of 
 St. Ambrose, "In illo saoramento 
 Christus est, quia corpus estChristi: 
 non ergo corporalis esca sed spiri- 
 tualis est" — (In that sacrament 
 Cluist is, because it is the body of 
 Christ : it is not therefore corporeal 
 but spiritual food;). — indepen- 
 dently, I say, of this immutable 
 doctnne of the Catholic Church, 
 Thosoever is versed in Scriptural 
 language will not fail to recollect 
 that the fiesh frequenbly bears the 
 meaning of the corporeal senses, in 
 contradistinction to ihe sprit, which 
 bears that of the grace of Gfod and 
 the illumination of the Holy Spirit. 
 Accordingly ia St.. Matthew we 
 find our blessed Saviour thus speak- 
 ing to Peter, who had just^ said to 
 him, "Thou art the Christ, the 
 
 \%dEBermg. 
 
 Son of the Hviag God." (Matt, 
 xvi. ] 6.) 
 
 "17. And Jesus answered and 
 said unto him. Blessed art thou, 
 Simon Bar-jona: for fiesh and 
 l/lood-hath. not revealed it unto thee, 
 but my Father which is in heaven." 
 
 Besides, as a Catholic writer has 
 before observed, if this speech were 
 spoken in the sense of the Saora- 
 mentarians, it would take away 
 Christ's incarnation, manhood and 
 death, no less than his corporeal 
 presence in the Sacrament ; for his 
 flesh were not profitable, if all these 
 were vaiu. 
 
 See ye not, then, my Protestant 
 brethren, that, in this sense of the 
 words ^esk and Hood, the, camal- 
 miuded Jews could not easily have 
 comprehended the ' spirituality of 
 such a banquet as that which has 
 just been described to yon by the 
 great St. Ambrose ? Most undoubt- 
 edly the flesh — that is, the carnally 
 enchained faculties of the mind in 
 men of such a description — profits 
 nothing iai penetrating the real 
 nature of tiiis ineffable mystery. It 
 is by the quicherdng spirit — that is, 
 by irradiation from above, by the 
 influx of Divine grace, that the 
 soul of man, if I may use the ex- 
 pression, becomes cured of all its 
 peccant humours, and enabled to 
 discern it, obeying the tradition of 
 that Church which has never ceased 
 to explain it to all her children. 
 Our Saviour, therefore, alluding 
 to those in whom he knew that this 
 flesh and blood predominated, says 
 (John vi. 64.) — " But there are 
 some of you that believe not. Por 
 Jesus knew from the beginning 
 who they were that believed not, 
 and who should betray him." 
 
 In explaining this passage accord- 
 ing to the Catholio doctrine, the 
 whole chapter is made to bear a 
 harmony and consent that renders it 
 [perfectly intelligible: all is order 
 
Hr. French.'\ 
 
 and coherence. Bat once admit the' 
 Protestant doctrine, and the ten- 
 dency of the whole chapter, however 
 particular verses may be plausibly 
 mterpreted, is perfectly irrecon- 
 cilable with the laws of sense, the 
 accordance of grammar, and the 
 rules of logic ; all is confusion and 
 irregularity. To prove this, let us 
 examine why our blessed Saviour 
 iu this place, (for nothing could pos- 
 sibly be more out of place, had he 
 simply alluded to the taking of 
 mere bread and wine,) exclaims, 
 " But there are some of you that 
 believe not." Is it not obvious 
 that, faith being a gratuitous gift 
 of God, he alludes to those whose 
 gross senses could no!, if I may 
 use a Scripture phrase, put on. in- 
 corruption, so as to be able to discern 
 in this sacrament the Lord of glory, 
 not the mere product of earth, and 
 perishable matter ? Accordmgly, 
 our Divine Instructor continues, m 
 the next verse, to show the impossi- 
 bility of obtaining belief by the 
 aid of flesh and blood — that is, of 
 our corrupted reason, whatever its 
 natural perspicacity may be, unen- 
 lightened by the presiding Spirit. 
 
 "65. Aid he said. Therefore 
 said I unto you, that no man can 
 come unto me, except it were given 
 unto him of my Father." 
 
 No, most indisputably, no man 
 in this awful sacrament can, in the 
 language of St. Paul, discern the 
 Lord's boAi/, who is himself a mere 
 compound of flesh and, blood uniUu- 
 minated by the eye of faith. 
 
 "66. Irom that time many of 
 his disciples went back, and walked 
 no more with him." 
 
 Why did they go back, and walk 
 no more with their Divine Master ? 
 Was it not because they had the 
 gross stupidity to imagine, that 
 wlien he said, " the bread that 
 I will give is my flesh, which I will 
 give for the life of the world," (John 
 
 TRANSUBSTAUTIATION. 
 
 7a 
 
 vi. 51,) he meant that they shoidd 
 eat his dead inanimate flesh, instead 
 of receiving him, who, iu the words 
 of St. Epiphanius, ev touto) toj 
 a-cofiaTi ava.\7j(j)6eis cvSo^cos, eKa- 
 6ia-ev fp Se^ia tov Harpos, ovk ajro 
 
 TOV OyKOV 7n€(ofJI,€VOS, OVK (KTOS 
 
 TOV (raniaros vnapxaiv, to 8e (rm/xa 
 Tti/evfiaTiKou eyeipas, (St. Miiph. 
 p. 1033. Ed. Pet.) " in that same 
 body magnificently uplifted into 
 heaven, sat down at the right hand 
 of the Father, unincumbered by 
 any corporeal clogs, though not 
 divested of the body which he 
 raised in his spiritualized glory." 
 
 " 67. Then said Jesus unto the 
 twelve, WiU ye also go away ?" 
 
 TeU me, ye Protestants, what 
 means this appeal of our blessed 
 Saviour ? Does it mean " WiU. ye 
 also abandon me, scandalized at the 
 harmless institution of taking a 
 little bread and wine in remem- 
 brance of me after my departure," 
 as Protestants interpret it? or does 
 it not rather mean, " WiU ye also 
 leave me, calling in question the 
 veracity of my words, Eor my 
 flesh is meat indeed, and my blood 
 is drink indeed?" — (John vi. 55.) 
 
 "68. Then Simon Peter an- 
 swered him. Lord, to whom shall 
 we go ? thou hast the words of 
 eternal Ufe." 
 
 Oh! how natural was it that the 
 sacred Head of the true Church 
 should speak, upon this occasion, 
 the language which that same Church 
 was destined to speak until the very 
 end of time, — " Lord, to whom 
 
 shall we go's 
 
 Yes, Peter an- 
 
 swered in the name of all Catholic 
 posterity, hearing the words uttered 
 from the Divine mouth, that " the 
 bread of God is He which oometh 
 down from heaven," (33); " I am 
 the bread of life," (35); and " the 
 bread that I will give is ray flesh, 
 which I win give for the lite of the 
 world," (51) — Is it possible that 1 
 d2 
 
74 
 
 TEANST/BSl'AUTIATION. 
 
 can ever go to anj new master, who 
 shall imteach me all thy heavenly 
 doctrine, persuading me that thou 
 meanest not v?hat mou sayest, but 
 that thou aUudest solely to "the 
 meat which perisheth," not to that 
 7neat "which eni/wreth to everlast- 
 ing life?" (John vi. 27.) 
 
 But listen. Peter decides at 
 once the whole point in contest 
 between Catholic and Protestant, 
 and in one half sentence speaks 
 more copiously than ten thousand 
 volumes. The words are (and they 
 are addressed to Christ) — "Thou 
 hast the words of eternal life." 
 
 We have only now, in conclusion, 
 to examine with methodical deduc- 
 tion what the words are, and all 
 disputes will vanish, no men striving 
 any longer among themselves, saying, 
 "How can this man give us his 
 flesh to eat ? " 
 
 The words are these — and oh, 
 m^y they sink deeply into the breast 
 of every Protestant that reads them ! 
 But, above all, let him bear in mind 
 that, if they appear irresistible in 
 support of Catholicity when read, 
 as below, abstractedly from the con- 
 text, their effulgence in illustrating 
 the same cause is overpowering in 
 a tenfold degree when read in con- 
 junction with the whole body of 
 evidence, as it stands in the sixth 
 chapter of the sacred volume of St. 
 Johu. 
 
 "51. T am the living bread which 
 came down fi'om heaven : if any 
 man eat of this bread, he shall live 
 for ever : and the bread that I will 
 give is ny flesh, which I wUl give 
 lor the life of the world." 
 
 T shall only, in the conclusion of 
 this chapter, observe, that to adapt 
 aH this to mere btead and wine, 
 were to gratify one's prejudices at 
 the expense of common sense and 
 sound understanding. 
 
 [Here the learned gentleman's 
 hoar terminated.] 
 
 Rev. J. Gumming.— It cannot 
 have escaped the penetratii^ dis- 
 cernment of this audience, that I 
 have not received one solitary reply 
 to the multitude of vital questions 
 which I reiterated and pressed upon 
 my learned and iogenious opponent; 
 I quoted passage after passage, and 
 told him I was placed in a serious 
 perplexity, that either I must con- 
 strue those words, "This is my 
 body,'' in a figurative sense — ^the 
 ordinary sense adopted by his own 
 Church — or I must infer, if he insists 
 on the literal interpretation, that 
 "Agar, a mountain," was turned 
 into a "woman," that "the seven 
 candlesticks" weretransubstantiated 
 into " seven churches," and that my 
 ingenious opponent is "grass," in- 
 stead of bemg flesh and blood. I 
 told him I was placed in this awkward 
 dilemma — that if I must retain the 
 words literally, and say, " This 2«my 
 body," means, this is transubstan- 
 tiated into my body, instead of 
 taking them in their flmrative 
 acceptation, and saying, this is a 
 sign or a symbol of my body, I must 
 also retain the literal interpretation 
 of all passages which I quoted, and 
 understand them as conveying acts 
 of transubtantiation also. But if I 
 maintain the figurative sense of 
 " This is my body," then all these 
 passages are harmonious and full of 
 meamng. 
 
 Whatever mode of interpretation 
 we adopt, must be carried out. My 
 question that I wish answered is. 
 Which am I to adopt ? Am I to 
 adopt the literal of " the Council of 
 Trent," and of "the Catechism of 
 the Council of Trent," and be thereby 
 plunged into aU those monstrous 
 imaginations and delusions which I 
 have supposed? or am I to adopt, 
 as the Church of Eome does herself 
 adopt, the figurative interpretation 
 of these thirty-seven passages, and 
 thereby of necessity and consistency 
 
Rev. J. 
 
 J 
 
 TEAUSCBSTANTIATION. 
 
 75 
 
 attacL. to the passage, "tUs is my 
 body," a figflrative interpretation 
 also ? I place Mr. French on the 
 horns of this dUemma ; if he leave 
 one, I catch him on the other : on 
 one, or the other, he now is. I have 
 not yet, however, got an answer on 
 which horn I am permitted to leave 
 him impaled. The Church of Rome 
 applies ^tjiguraiive to all the pas- 
 sages I quoted, and, but for some 
 mysterious reason, which nobody 
 knows, retains a literal and extra- 
 wdina/ry iuterpretation for these 
 words — " This is my body." If she 
 retain Transubstantiation, she must 
 hide herself ia inconsistencies, or 
 plunge into ten thousand momtra 
 
 My opponent commenced his 
 reply by some genealogical stemmata, 
 malmig our parentage, as- Pro- 
 testants, three himdred years old, 
 and giving us Luther as our father ; 
 but, Defore he had done, he, most 
 kindly and condescendingly, gave us 
 the sceptic Jews in the sixth of 
 John to be our fathers, making a 
 difference of some fifteen hundred 
 years in our lineage. Now, all I 
 wish to know is, whom he will have 
 to be our fathers? Luther, who 
 hfi said was our father, or the sceptic 
 Jews, on whom he conferred the 
 same title, or whether 1 am to con- 
 strue his words figuratively or lite- 
 rally, or what, in fact, I am to make 
 of them? On a former occasion, 
 he quoted Thomas Aquinas, and 
 treated us with an extract from the 
 poetic productions of that learned 
 and " seraphic doctor." I, on the 
 other hand, showed you a specimen 
 of the learned doctor's prose, in 
 order that, catching the doctor, not 
 in his rapt and elevated moods, 
 under the dominion of the Musss, 
 but in his calm, closet, and deliberate 
 cogitations ; we might the more 
 effectually ascertain what metal 
 this same Aquinas was made of. 
 
 and what was the theology of his 
 Church. My opponent, notwith- 
 standing his commending me to the 
 writings of Aquinas for pure Roman 
 Cathohc dootrmes, to my surprise re- 
 pudiated the sentiments of Aquinas, 
 as soon as I read his words. To 
 show, nevertheless, that Mr. French 
 was (juite correct in referring me to 
 the writings of Aquinas for the doc- 
 trines of his Church, notwithstand- 
 ing the doctor's insisting on the 
 extermination of heretics, I beg to 
 refer you to the Breviary, which 
 every Roman Catholic priest uses, 
 and not only to the Breviary, but 
 also to the " Missal for the use of the 
 laity," p. 560. iond. 1810. In these 
 two documents we find a prayer 
 referring to Aquinas. So that everi/ 
 Roman Catholic in this room prays, 
 on the oroper day, that he may un- 
 derstand and follow Aquinas, that 
 sanguinary exterminator of heretics. 
 
 " God, who, by the wonderful 
 learning of blessed Thomas^ thy con- 
 fessor, hast illustrated thy Church, 
 and by his virtues hast enlarged it, 
 grant, we beseech thee, that we may 
 understand what he taught, and in. 
 our lives follow what he practised." 
 — Missal for Laity, p. 560. 
 
 I told you what he taught — the 
 most intolerant, the most anti-social, 
 the most sanguinary extermination 
 of heretics. What did he practise, 
 or rather, what did he preach ? For 
 if ThomEis Aquinas was a consistent 
 man, surely, he would preach what 
 he practised, and practise what he 
 preached. But he taught "the exter- 
 mination of heretics ;" and now wiU 
 my learned opponent explain to me, 
 by what extraordinary sympathy it 
 is, that the recognition of this ex- 
 terminator by Are and faggot should 
 be found in the Missal, a book 
 which is intended for the sanctuary, 
 in which " mercy and peace ought to 
 meet together, and righteousness 
 and truth to kiss each other?" 
 
76 
 
 TEANSUBSTANTIATION. 
 
 ['id ^enihff. 
 
 How comes it to pass that, in the 
 centre of a public manual of prayers 
 for public worship, poor men should 
 be referred to so/dreadful an exam- 
 ple, and taught* to pray "that we 
 may be edified by what he, the per- 
 secutor, taught, and in our lives, 
 follow what he practised ?" — ^Thus 
 much for Aquinas. To what autho- 
 rity did the learned gentleman go 
 next, do you think ? JKight way to 
 Luther : I can also tell him some- 
 thing about Luther too. Li the 
 first place, he never worshipped 
 "bread and vrine," for he held the 
 doctrine of Consubstanttation, and 
 notTransubstaniiation,; in the second 
 place, for so doing he is placed under 
 the anathema of the Council of 
 Trent, so that my learned opponent 
 
 ' ought to have quoted very little 
 from Martin Luther, considering 
 the treatment he has received at the 
 hands of Rome; and, in the last 
 place, let me add, I hold no man to 
 be my pope — neither Luther, nor 
 Calvin, nor Knox. I am not re- 
 sponsible for their sentiments, nor 
 have they any authority over mine. 
 I appeal /»-o»« Litthei to Christ, from 
 the volumes of the reformers to the 
 pages of the Gospel — the ever-living 
 
 , truths of God ! All this ingenious 
 discussion respecting Aquinas, and 
 Luther, and Calvin, just goes for 
 what' it is worth in my estimate, and 
 I account it worth nothing. That 
 brought my friepdvrithin an inch of 
 the Bible. To the Bible, and the 
 Bible alone, I would appeal. The 
 Bible was his last reference, with 
 the exception of his closing remarks, 
 where he introduced a little sample 
 from his own, no doubt excellent 
 and very laudable writings. To the 
 Bible I win soon follow him with 
 the utmost pleasure and satisfaction. 
 The learned gentleman 'gave the 
 credit of all impressions of truth 
 that might be produced on your 
 minds, to cei'taia personal peouEaii- 
 
 ties. Now, I never like compliment: 
 I always recollect the words of the 
 poet, "" Fngidus latet unguis in 
 herba," when strong personal com- 
 pliments are paid me. I utterly 
 disclaim them, and I assure you, my 
 dear friends, that I am a most 
 defective and unpractised "special 
 pleader ;" I am not lilce my oppo- 
 nent, a " barrister-at-law," accus- 
 tomed to detect all the subtleties 
 and sophisms of an adversary, and to 
 bring out and expose sophisms in 
 the most clear, luoid, and convincing 
 analysis. To this detective work 
 my opponent is so accustomed, that 
 when you heard Ms statements, you 
 did n6t listen to. a rustic coming 
 forward to argue in a rugged and 
 illiterate style ; but you heard an 
 acute, subtle, and well-read lawyer 
 endeavour to vitidicate the doctrine 
 of Transubstantiation, where failure 
 niust be in the cause, not in the 
 man; whereas in me you see one 
 merely accustomed to address a 
 popular audience in plain and po- 
 pular language. I am not accus- 
 tomed to special pleading, to sub- 
 tleties, and ingenious warfare ; and, 
 therefore, if any result should be 
 produced on your minds, my dear 
 iloman Catholic friends,' or if any 
 has, been, I earnestly desire that 
 you may attribute it, not to me, nor 
 to "Paul, nor to Apollos, nor to, 
 Cephas," but to truth. I solemnly 
 assure you of the fact, that "the 
 victory is neither by might nor by 
 power, but by my Spirit, saith the 
 Lord of Hosts." (Applause, and 
 cries of " Order.") 
 
 ^ After my learned opponent had 
 discussed Aquinas, and other ex- 
 traneous subjects, into which I do 
 not -wish to foUow him, for the 
 question is "Transubstantiation," 
 and I do insist that we keep close 
 to our point, and discuss it fidly, 
 fairly, and impartially ; after he hail 
 introduced Aquinas, and kicked hiiai 
 
Bev.J. 
 
 ■TBAifSTIBSTANTIATIOir. 
 
 77 
 
 overboard, arid likewise Luther, and 
 treated Hm witli similar nonchalance, 
 as the Council of Trent had done 
 before him, he came^to Berrington 
 and Kirk — arcades umbo — ^who had 
 "written some defensive statements 
 on the Komau Catholic faith, and 
 from them he quoted a very plausible 
 exposition of Transubstantiation. 
 I do not regard Berrington and 
 Kirk, or Mr. Prench, as standards 
 of the B,oman Church ; they are not 
 of any authority in the Church of 
 Rome. My opponent will admit 
 that they are of no more authority 
 than he admits Dens to be : they 
 are able, but mere private, doctors, 
 ingenious men, pleased to deliver 
 their sentiments on Roman Catholic 
 tenets, and convey them to posterity 
 in type and letter-press, well bound, 
 and closely looked together. I can- 
 not take anyinterpretation of Messrs. 
 Berrington and Kirk; I must go 
 to the Catechism of the Council of 
 Trent, vrhich is declared to be an 
 authentic document of the Church 
 of Eome; my opponent must re- 
 member his own standards, for I 
 find that my friend is getting into 
 years, that his locks are silvered by 
 time, and his memory may very 
 naturally have failed him. I do not 
 speak it harshly : I do not speak it 
 insultingly — God forbid ! But his 
 memory must have failed him in 
 reference to the quotations which I 
 made from the documents of his own 
 Church. 
 
 I must recur to definitions again. 
 I find it stated in the Catechism of 
 the Council of Trent, that the pastors 
 must explain, that not only the true 
 body of Christ, and whatever apper- 
 tains to the true mode of existence 
 of a body, as the bones and nerves, 
 but also that entire Christ is con- 
 tained in this sacrament. This is 
 authentic doctrine. Berrington and 
 Kirk are of no weight, and Mr. 
 JFrench would properly call me to 
 
 account, were I to refer to private 
 for public standards. I read from 
 the "Canon of the Council of 
 Trent," where I am declared under 
 an anathema if I deny that "the body 
 and blood, soul and divinity of the 
 Son of God," are present on the 
 table and altar of the Church of 
 Home. And, therefore, appealing 
 to the Canons of the Council of 
 Trent, to the Catechism of the 
 Council of Trent, to the standard 
 and accredited documents of the 
 Church of Rome, I find that the 
 interpretation of "Berrington and 
 Kirk " is the interpretation of mere 
 private doctors, whose authority is 
 scouted by their Church, and worth 
 nothing. 
 
 You remember, my learned friend 
 seriously objected, that when he 
 was referring to the Gospel of St. 
 Matthew, I placed the Bible before 
 him, and referred him to the Gospel 
 of St. Luke. He has taken the 
 Gospel of St. Matthew, where it is 
 asserted, " This is my body, this is 
 my blood." Well, then, he shall 
 have my quotations from St. Mat- 
 thew, since he complains of my 
 talcing them from St. Luke. I go to 
 St. Matthew ; I take the challenge. 
 I read St. Matthew xxvi. 29. After, 
 mark you, after tlie prai/er of conse- 
 cration, I read, " I say unto you, I 
 wiU not drink henceforth of this 
 fruit of the vine, until that day when 
 I shall drink it new with you, in my 
 Father's kingdom." Mark you, it is 
 called "this fruit of the vine," after 
 consecration, after prayer, after tlie 
 transubstantiaiori/ act. " I wiU not 
 dxivik. oi this fruit of the vine." The 
 words are not of this blood, which, 
 according to Rome, it had become, 
 but " this fruit of the vine." The 
 learned gentleman has drawn me to. 
 the Gospel of St. Matthew in prefer- 
 ence to that of St. Luke, to which 
 he would not allow me to go. Well, 
 I have done it, and now p^claim 
 
78 
 
 TBANSTJBSTAMTIATIOM'. 
 
 that St, Matthew was not a beKever 
 in Transubstantiation, for by him 
 our Lord declares the contents of 
 the chalice, " the fruit of the vine," 
 WTNE, after the prayer which tran- 
 substantiates, according to the 
 Church of Rome, has been offered. 
 Now, if I ask the learned gentle- 
 man, or his Church, is it the blood 
 of Christ, or is it wine that remains 
 on the jitar after the consecrating 
 prayer? both teR me at once, 
 plainly and distiaotly, it is the blood 
 of Christ, it is not wine. I go to 
 the Gospel of Matthew, and I ask 
 the holy evangelist what it is after 
 consecration, and he teUs me it is 
 wine. Now, am I to believe the 
 Church of Rome, which says it is 
 "the blood of Christ," or am I to 
 believe the sacred evangelist, who 
 s^s it is " the frait of the vine ? " 
 What must I conclude? Most 
 surely truth compels the assertion, 
 however kindly cnarity may dictate 
 the expression, that the sacred Evan- 
 gelist is right, and my antagonist 
 with his Church fatally and awfully 
 wrong. 
 
 In the Gospel of Luke, it is 
 called " the fruit of the vine" before 
 the consecration of the elements, 
 and in the Gospel of Matthew, it is 
 called " the frait of the vine" after 
 consecration. Now, perhaps Mr. 
 IVench wiU say, Luke and Matthew 
 contradict each other ; this neither 
 he nor I wiU admit. We explain it 
 by a fact, perfectly true of all the 
 evangelists, that one relates one 
 occurrence more fully than another. 
 ThuS, for instance, St. Matthew and 
 St. Luke give narrations, undoubt- 
 edly, which St. John does not give ; 
 and all we infer from this is, that 
 one evangelist gives afuller narration 
 of particular circumstances, than 
 another feels it his call from heaven 
 to give. And therefore we say botii 
 are true ; it is perfectly true what 
 Luke asserts, that it was vrine 
 
 iij/bw consecration: land my oppo- 
 nent agree in this ;— the real ques- 
 tion is, what is it called «/if«>-.'' St. 
 Matthew says it is "the_^ifof the 
 vine." This is decisive against its 
 being the literal blood of Christ — 
 " it ^ the fruit of the vine." 
 
 I may here mention an allusion 
 I have "jotted down, according to 
 which my friend thanked God that I 
 had not "the keys of the kingdom 
 of heaven." Now I do not thank 
 God that he has not; I pray God 
 that he may know where these keys 
 are to be found, and that to him 
 may be revealed speedily those 
 glorious truths, which, like plough- 
 shares, win pass through the fan- 
 tastic imaginations of man, and 
 indicate the simple and ennobling 
 truth, as it is revealed in the 
 Gospel. 
 
 My opponent quoted, as proof of 
 Transubstantiation, another passage, 
 1 Cor. X. 16 : — " The cup of olessing 
 which we bless, is it not the com- 
 munion of the blood of Christ ? The 
 bread which we break, is it not the 
 communion of the body of Christ?" 
 He believes the words, " is it not 
 the communion of the body of 
 Christ ?" to prove that we actually 
 participate of Christ's literal body. 
 But let my opponent mark the ex- 
 pression which occurs in this quota- 
 tion, " we break." My opponent 
 holds there is a whole Christ in 
 every particle of the Host — that, if 
 divided into twenty thousand parts, 
 there would be a whole Christ in 
 every single part. But the apostle 
 says, " the bread which we break" 
 and if that bread be the corporeal 
 body of Chnst, we actually break 
 that body, and thus, the proofs of 
 Transubstantiation assumed by my 
 opponent, aje rfjsproofs on his own 
 showing. If he says that the expres- 
 sion, "thecommimionofthebodyof 
 Christ" denotes actual pa/rticipation 
 of his natural body, then must ths 
 
iSei. J. Oumrmng. 
 
 TSANSUBSTANTIATIOB. 
 
 79 
 
 apostle's ■wrorus, " fellowship with 
 devils," denote incorporation into 
 their nature. It means, evidently, 
 m the spiritual blessings of the 
 body of Christ, the precious benefits 
 of his love, peace, joy, holiness, 
 happiness, grace, faith; hope, and 
 full and eternal fruition of his 
 glory. Thus there are two texts 
 quoted by my friend which turn 
 out, when plainly met, examined, 
 and analyzed, to nuKtate most 
 powerfully against him, instead of 
 for him, confirming the position with 
 which I commenced, that when you 
 wish to crush the argument of a 
 Koman Catholic, you had best go to 
 the very texts he quotes, and you 
 win find the most complete extin- 
 guishers there. .[Laughter, and 
 cries of' " Order ! "] 
 
 My ingenious antagonist, after 
 these mistakes, entered into a dis- 
 cussion on the Rule of Paith. I 
 have the happiness to announce, 
 that, that question wiU. be discussed 
 on a subsequent evening, and I am 
 fuUy prepared, while God gives me 
 strength and grace, to meet him on 
 that subject; on this and every 
 other question I implore iny Roman 
 Cathokc friends, to think and weigh 
 the truth they hear. Oh, do not 
 let, either the variety or the beauty 
 of your forms and ceremonies, or 
 the loud pretensions of thp Church 
 of Rome, and her votaries, dazzle 
 and delude you ! These forms are 
 no evidence of her mercy or truth. 
 They are the gilding of death — ^the 
 drapery of ev2. 'Hiey remind one 
 of the vampire, which, when it 
 stings a person, flutters over and 
 fans him with its wings,, to prevent 
 him from feeling the power and 
 penetration of tie stii^, until at 
 last it enters into the quick and 
 destroys the principle of life ; so 
 the CWch of Rome beclouds with 
 incense, and daazles with ceremo- 
 nial splendour, to deceive ; but all 
 
 the while her stings pierce to the 
 heart, and " the issue is death." 
 After discussing the Rule of Paith — 
 which I shall not touch to-night,, 
 feeling that a subject, so extensive 
 and important, requires a separate 
 night — ^the next topic- of my anta- 
 gonist was Communion in One 
 Kind. 
 
 Now, we came to discuss Traur 
 substantiation; but he strikes off 
 from it to talk about communion in 
 one kind, and the merits of the 
 English translation, and the; pro- 
 priety of the translation of the 
 Greek words j; and xat. His church 
 contends for communion in one kind, 
 though both kinds are, on his own 
 principles, enjoiaed iu the 6th chap- 
 ter of John : — " Except ye eat the 
 flesh and drink the blood of the 
 Son of man," &c. ; but he says, 
 just now, if you eai the fiesh, the 
 blood is contamed in the flesh : but 
 " drinh^ii, blood" is the expression 
 used by the evangelist ; it is not, 
 you wiU. observe, eat the flesh that 
 contains the blood, but " deink." 
 What, now, vriU my learned friend 
 say ? Will he reply^ this is only a 
 figure ? Why then, let me ask, does 
 he so continually ply me vrith twits 
 and taunts as to " tropes and orien- 
 talisms," when he is so extrava- 
 gantly guilty of such orientalisms, 
 as to assert, that eating flesh means 
 I drinking blood, yet figurative, figu 
 ' rative, is the sin he has anathema- 
 tized and rejected every time he has 
 risen ? 
 
 Again, since the subject of 
 Communion in One Kind has been 
 introduced, I wiU, en passant,^ reply 
 to one or two of his points in this 
 di^ession. He quoted the passage: 
 — "Whosoever shall eat tliis bread 
 and drink this cup, unworthily, shall 
 be guilty of the Dody and blood of 
 the Lord," as a mis-translation in 
 our authorized version. I admit 
 that ij is more probably correct; nay 
 
80 
 
 TRANSUBSTANTIATION. 
 
 IjldMiening. 
 
 I give up this whole matter, if he 
 pleases, and say it is 17, " or," and 
 that our translators erroneously used 
 " and." I acknowledge that our 
 Enghsh translation, which Dr. Doyle 
 dedared to be " a noble production, 
 with all its faults," has imperfec- 
 tions, but if all its errors were cor- 
 rected, you would find they would 
 only tell more in favour of those 
 glorious, indubitable, and distinc- 
 tive truths — ^the deity of Christ, the 
 offices and personahty of the Holy 
 Spirit, expiation through the blood 
 of Christ, and through that alone, 
 and sanctiflcation by the Spirit. 
 But suppose I concede tliis to be a 
 mis-translation, and read, "whoso- 
 ever shall eat this bread, or (rf) 
 drink this cup of the Lord unwor- 
 thily, shall be guilty of the body 
 and blood of the Lord." I say this 
 proves not communion in one kind; 
 if I eat the bread " unworthily," I 
 am " guilty of the body and blood 
 of Christ." If I drink the cup 
 " unworthily," I am ■" guilty of the 
 body aid blood of Christ also," 
 just as if I break the law in one 
 point, I am giltilty of all. But I 
 go down the chapter to see the 
 apostle's explanation of his mean- 
 ing, and I read (as in the 36th) in 
 the 29th verse:— "Por he that 
 eateth and drinketh unworthily, 
 eateth and drinketh damnation to 
 himself." Now, if you eat the 
 bread unworthily, you are guilty of 
 bis body and blood, if you, drink 
 this cup unworthily, you are guilty 
 of both. And therefore we feel 
 that " eating and drinking" must 
 necessarily explain " eating or drink- 
 ing." But the Church of Rome 
 Says, "communion in one kind is 
 here proved." I call on my learned 
 antagonist to explain how this doc- 
 trine was never detected from this 
 text before, why, for eleven cent-uries 
 they permitted the laity to have the 
 cup, and then withdrew it ? I ask 
 
 this startling question, and pause 
 for a reply. 
 
 Mr. Pbench.— Shall I give you 
 a reply— do you vrish a reply now ? 
 If so, I will give you one. 
 
 B«v. J. CcMMiNG.— Tery weU. 
 
 Mr. Fbench then rose and said, 
 in explanation, — During the first 
 centuries of the Church, down to 
 the earliest period, we received, by 
 books and by tradition, from the 
 earliest times of the apostles, that 
 it (i. e. the Eucharist) was often 
 administered in liquid, and often 
 administered in dry, that is, the 
 Host alone. Several instances have 
 occurred of this kind. That of St. 
 Ambrose receiving only the Host 
 on his death-bed is an historica. 
 fact ; and we have 
 
 Rev. J: Ctjmming. — Is my state- 
 ment the fact ? 
 
 Mr. Erenoh. — Yes it is ; and in 
 consequence of spilling the wine, 
 and other indecorous things, such 
 as spilling what we call " the pre- 
 cious blood of the Saviour," it was 
 administered in this manner. It is 
 now generally administered in one 
 kind. The discipline of our Church 
 on that point is favourable, but it is 
 always an article of the CathoHo 
 faith, that he who receives it in one 
 kind, receives aU 
 
 Rev. J. Gumming. — Now am I 
 right ? 
 
 Mr. Ebench (in continuation). 
 — And in some countries, to this 
 day, it is received in both kinds. 
 _ Rev. J. CuMMiNG. — That is pre- 
 cisely aU I want. It is plain that" 
 the body and blood, the bread and 
 the cup, were formerly given to the 
 laity. _ It is equally plain both are 
 not given now. Delahogue says, 
 " It is evident that from the time 
 of the apostles till the 12th cen- 
 tury, the practice prevailed in the 
 Roman Church, that the laity re- 
 ceived the Eucharist in both kmds, 
 as is now the case in the Greek 
 
Bim.J. 
 
 TRAU STJBSTAH TIATION. 
 
 81 
 
 Churcli. But from the 13th cen- 
 tury the pfactioe ol the faithful 
 receiving only in one kind among 
 the Latins gradually crepi in." — 
 Traciat. de Eucharistia. Art. ii. 
 p. 314 
 
 Therefore, it is at once admitted, 
 that the custom prevailed of having 
 both the bread and the cup for 
 eleven centuries, until the Church 
 of Rome, for strange reasons, which 
 my learned friend has tried to ex- 
 plain, withdrew it. What was the 
 reason ? He says, their " spilling 
 the blood of the Son of God" — 
 " spilling the blood of the Son of 
 QodH!" It was withdrawn on 
 that account ! Strange reason ! 
 tha,t after for eleven, centuries the 
 CUP and the bkeab had been per 
 mitted, the cup should be with- 
 drawn in the twelfth, because "the 
 people spilled its contents," 'which 
 contents Protestanfs pronounce to 
 be wine, but which Roman Oatho- 
 Kcs pronounce to be the blood of 
 the Son of God ! Perhaps, my 
 learned friend will answer the ques- 
 tion, whether it is the practice now 
 to give the bread and wine both 
 together ? I am bold to say, not; 
 and this being the case, I proceed 
 to show, that there are some rea- 
 sons, and those not light reasons, 
 why the laiti as well as the 
 priests should be admitted to drink 
 of the cup, and no tribunal on earth 
 have power to debar. Our Lord, 
 according to Matthew, " took the 
 cup, and said, Drink ye all of it." 
 Matt. xxvi. 37. Now, the apostles, 
 ' I contend, at the Lord's Supper 
 drank xmder both kinds — for Christ 
 said, " Drink ye - all of it ;" but 
 the Church of Rome wiU not allow 
 aU to partake ; the ofioiating 
 priest alone, and it may be some- 
 times, the other priests, commu- 
 nicating with him, if I am not mis- 
 taken, are allowed to drink of it. 
 Again, our Lord says, m verse 
 
 38 :— " This is my blood of the New 
 Testament, which is shed for many 
 fbr the remission of sins — drink ye 
 ALL of it. (The Church of Rome has, 
 it ' shall be shed.') He has a reason 
 for giving this cup, because it 
 was representative of that blood, 
 through which we alone have re- 
 mission of sins." And is not re- 
 mission of sins a truth in which 
 the laity have as deep an interest 
 as the priest ; and if the cup be 
 the symool or seal of remission of 
 sins, then I do say I am bound, 
 not to make my charity the grave 
 of truth, but to assert fearlessly, 
 as well as faithfully, that the Church 
 which takes the eup from the laity 
 is guilty of sacrilege. 
 
 I quote Mark xiv. 33 : — " And 
 they ALL drank of it." Strange 
 that the evangelist should be so 
 particular in introducing the expres- 
 sion ALL. He took the cup, and 
 when he had given thanks he gave 
 it to .them; it is not enough 
 merely to say " they," but he adds 
 with characteristic emphasis, " they 
 ALL drank of it, and yet the cup 
 is taken away by the Roman Church, 
 and is not given to all. Again, 
 you are aware, my friend has made 
 an assertion, which I shall by-and- 
 by disprove to you, that the 6th of 
 John refers to the Eucharist. Now 
 I go to the 6th of John, to which 
 he has referred me, and which he 
 holds to refer to the Lord's Supper, 
 and in that chapter I find these 
 words : " Except ye eat the flesh of 
 the Son of Man and drink his 
 blood, ye have no Kfe." 
 
 Now observe, I do not refer this 
 to the Lord's Supper, but he does. 
 " Unless ye eat the flesh add drink" 
 — {rj) of course is not there, it is 
 the Greek conjunction, kai. I ask 
 Mr. Erenoh how he gets over this 
 dilemma? — " Except ye eat the flesh 
 AND drink the blood of the Son of 
 Man, ye have no life.'' Mark that! 
 
82 
 
 TKiNSUBSTANTIATIOK 
 
 His solution is, tnaL the blood is 
 contained in the flesh. I reply, 
 How can you say that Eating is 
 BBiNKiNS P It would be a strange 
 " orientaKsm" that could produce 
 this effect, and prove that eatiag is 
 drinking, and drinking is eating. 
 If so, it appears that Mr. French's 
 mode of interpretation is ten 
 thousand times more monstrously 
 oriental than we Protestants, "in 
 our philosophy, ever dreamt of." I 
 expect fuHy that, before this dis- 
 cussion is long closed, my opponent 
 win become a sound and consistent 
 Protestant [Laughter, and cries of 
 "Order!"] — there is a power and 
 simplicity in the Word of God, the 
 effect of which I am perfectly sure 
 will lead to- delightful results : and I 
 will not onlycongratulate my learned 
 friend on such a happy and auspi- 
 cious change, but, as well, those 
 many open and ingenuous counte- 
 nances of my Roman Catholic 
 friends that I see around me in this 
 room. I know they are persons of 
 a frank and generous nature, with 
 minds open to the truth, when 
 fairly and affectionately stated, and 
 especially when I teU them that I 
 come, not to take away their civil, 
 rights, or to advocate the repeal of 
 any of their immunities whatever ; 
 when I tell them that I come to 
 seek not theirs but them, as it is 
 my duty and my privilege to do ; 
 that there is a promise in the Word 
 of God which imposes on them a 
 tremendous weight of responsi- 
 bility. — " My words shall not re- 
 turn unto me void." Some effect 
 these words must produce. My 
 friends, we must all meet again at 
 the judgment-seat of Christ ; you, 
 my Soman Catholic friends, to give 
 an account of what you have heard, 
 and I to give an account of what I 
 have stated ; and I know that you 
 win be judged, not according to the 
 pretension or the profession of the 
 
 Church to which you belong, but 
 you will be judged "in righte- 
 ous jadgment," according as you 
 have either received or refused the 
 testimony of the Son of God; and 
 would it not be an awful thing, my 
 friends, (I pray that it may never 
 come to pass,) that my statements 
 should prove to you " the savour of 
 death unto death," instead of being 
 " the savour of life unto life !" 
 Only, I say, one or the other it 
 certainly must be : and I have so 
 knit myself with my dear Roman 
 Catholic friends, in this room, this 
 night — so connected myself with 
 their souls " by my testimony !" 
 that we must again confront each 
 other before God ; I therefore im- 
 plore you to dismiss from your minds 
 every thing that may prejudice you 
 against the truth — even the ties 
 connected with father and with 
 mother — for " he thaT loveth father 
 or mother more than me, 4s not 
 worthy of me." Look through every 
 thing merely splendid in a gorgeous 
 ritual, or proud in ancient hierarchy, 
 and bring your minds to the calm 
 and deliberate disquisition of this 
 matter, resolving, by God's grace, 
 that if my arguments, reasonings, 
 and expositions be right — and your 
 ovm judgments which God has given 
 you are fuUy competent to grasp 
 them — ^you will unalterably cling 
 to that side alone, " which has God 
 for its author, truth without any 
 mixture of error for its matter," 
 and eternal happiness for its final 
 and triumphant issue ! [Sensation.] 
 _ My opponent insists that the 
 sixth of John describes the Eucha- 
 fc. The Church of Rome believed 
 that infants baptized are univer- 
 sally saved, and yet these partake 
 not of the Lord's Supper ; but the 
 language is absolute on Mr.Prench's 
 own principle : " Except ye eat his 
 flesh and drink his blood" — "except 
 every one of you eat the flesh and 
 
Bev.J. 
 
 •] 
 
 TBiNSUBSTiNTIATIOlf. 
 
 S3 
 
 drink the blood of the Son of Man, 
 ye have no life in you ;" aiid there- 
 fore, if I say that this chapter refers 
 to the Lord's Supper, it renders the 
 salvation of infants impossible. He 
 brought forward several statements 
 about the fathers, which it would 
 be only a waste of time to repeat. 
 The fathers, my friend will concur 
 with me, are not infaUible. Dela- 
 hogue admits that they are guilty of 
 many errors; and I am prepared 
 fuUy to prove that the fathers con- 
 tradict each other, and each father 
 his neighbour over and over again, 
 whenever I am asked. But as he 
 has referred to the fathers, suppose 
 I quote from the fathers also — ^not, 
 mind you, to substantiate my views, 
 because I can substantiate them by 
 the Word of God, without the aid 
 of the fathers, but to neutralize 
 their testimony. 
 
 I therefore quote from Origen, 
 that you may see how he either 
 contradicts the Roman Church or 
 himself: — "The meat which is 
 sanctified by the Word of God and 
 prayer, as respects its material part, 
 goes into the stomach ; . . . . but 
 as regards the prayer, which is 
 added to it, according to the pro- 
 portion of faith, it profits', enlight- 
 ening the mind which beholds that 
 which is profitable. Neither is it 
 the matter of the bread, but the 
 words spoken over it, which profit 
 men that do eat not unworthily. 
 And these_, things I speak of the 
 typical and symbolical body." — 
 Origen. Com. on Matt. Rouen, 1668. 
 
 I have shown that Augustine is 
 expressly opposed to Transubstan- 
 tiation, and now here is Origen 
 uniting with him ia a kindred pro- 
 test against the obnoxious dogma. 
 I quote another father, viz. Euse- 
 bius. Bishop of Caesarea, a,d. 314 : 
 — " For he gave again to his dis- 
 ciples the symbols of the divine eco- 
 nomy, and he commanded them to 
 
 make the image of his own body." 
 — Evang. Bern, book viii. chap. i. 
 Paris, 154.4. 
 
 From the same : — " He appointed 
 them to eat bread as a symbol of his 
 own body." 
 
 I quote from St. Augustine : — 
 "If a passage is preceptive, and 
 either forbids a crime or wicked- 
 ness, or enjoins usefulness or charity, 
 it is not figurative. But if it seem 
 to command a crime or wickedness, 
 or to forbid usefulness or kindness, 
 it is figurative. 'Unless ye shall 
 eat,' he says, ' the flesh of the Son 
 of Man and drink his blood, ye shall 
 not have life in you.' He appears 
 to enjoin wickedness as a crime- 
 It is a figure, therefore, teaching us 
 that we partake of the benefits 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." 
 — Third Booh on Christian Doctrine, 
 vol. in. p. 53. Bened. Ed. Paris, 
 1685. 
 
 The same : — " How shall I put 
 forth my hand to heaven, and lay 
 hold of him who sitteth there ? Put 
 forth your faith, and you will have 
 laid hold of ]:am."— Fifth Trep-t. on 
 YVth and \%th chap, of St. John, 
 vol. iii. p. 630. . Ed. as above. 
 
 Again: — "Jesus answered and 
 said to him, ' 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 life. Why do 
 you prepare your teeth and your 
 stomach? Beneve only, and you 
 wiU have eaten." — ihth Treat, on 
 6th John, vol. iii. p! 490. Ed. ibid. 
 
 Again : — " This therefore is to 
 eat that food and to drink that cup, 
 viz. to abide in Christ, and to have 
 Christ abiding in you. And for 
 this reason he who does not abide 
 in Christ, and in whom Christ does 
 not abide, beyond all doubt does 
 
THAN S UBSTAUTIATION . 
 
 not spiritually eat his flesh or drink 
 his blood, although he oarnaJly 
 presses with his tfeeth the sacrament 
 of the body and blood of Christ." — 
 26M Treat, on John, vol. iii. p. 501. 
 I might extend similar extracts, 
 but for what end do I quote them ? 
 I repeat it, to neutralize the ex- 
 tracts of my opponent. I cast the 
 fathers overhoard, and can afford to 
 do so, with all these extracts and 
 testimonies in my favour. My op- 
 ponent quotes from the fathers 
 passages which seem to imply Tran- 
 substantiation, and I quote passages 
 which, if I am to adopt the uterality 
 of interpretation which he contends 
 for, plainly denounce the novel 
 tenet of Trausubstantiation. Now, 
 let me concede what is obvious, 
 that if construed on the principle 
 of my opponent, the fathers posi- 
 tively contradict each other, what 
 then is the alternative ? We just go 
 to the grandfathers, St. Paul, and 
 St. Matthew, and St. Mark, and 
 St. Luke, and St. John, aiid St.Peter, 
 and St. James, seeing that their 
 professing progeny, the fathers, so 
 contradict one another, that no 
 confidence is to be reposed in their 
 expositions of divinity. I go to 
 the infallible Ford of God. This 
 is the only oracle of truth, the sole 
 standard of perfection. To illus- 
 trate its superiority let me suppose, 
 that on looking into the Thames, as 
 it passes by Hammersmith, you 
 were to see a taint, or colouring 
 matter, of perhaps a poisonous 
 nature — you would be anxious to 
 know where that taint began, or 
 whether it proceeded from the foun- 
 tain-head. You begin to trace it 
 upwards, tiU. you come to Henley- 
 upon-Thames ; you go on stiU fur- 
 ther, tracing it upwards, and you 
 find the same taint as you proceed, 
 but becoming less and less discern- 
 ible, until it is scarcely perceptible, 
 except by a microscope, or subtle 
 
 [2(? Eoemng, 
 
 chemical ' analysis— a plain, blunt 
 peasant, on seeing the ingenious 
 and persevering inquirer, trying to 
 find the precise part of the river at 
 which this taint began, says, " Go 
 to the fountain-head, and if you 
 find the colour there, it belongs to 
 the river, but if you do not find it 
 there, it must have been added in 
 its course, and is therefore extra- 
 neous to it." So say I ; if, in ex- 
 ploring among the fathers, of whom 
 my learned friend is so fond, we find 
 Trausubstantiation here and Pur- 
 gatory there — Saint-worship in one, 
 and Relic- worship in another, surely 
 the plan for ascertaining if these 
 tenets (on the supposition that they 
 are to be found m the fathers) are 
 the original inspiration of God, is 
 to go to the primaeval fountains, the 
 oracles of heaven, and if there, they 
 are right, if not there, they are of 
 human birth and fallible authority. 
 Now, I say to my friend, Mr.Preneh, 
 Go to the fountain; if you find 
 Trausubstantiation there, I will ac- 
 quiesce in it at once, and embrace ' 
 it as a do^ma of faith; if you do 
 not, and I am prepared to show it 
 is not there, then let Mr. French 
 come over to me. 
 
 My opponent next quoted a pas- 
 sage in hjs own book about Aaron's 
 rod, and said it was seen to be a 
 rod tin Moses took hold of it, and 
 it became a serpent. He then took 
 the serpent by the tad, and it be- 
 came a rod. My opponent myste- 
 riously proves Trausubstantiation 
 by shaking alternately the rod and 
 the serpent before your eyes, and 
 perplexing where he cannot con- 
 vince. _ Moses saw it to be a rod 
 when it was a rod, and he saw it to 
 be a serpent when it was a serpent ; 
 and of course was convinced, by his 
 undeceived senses, that in the one 
 case it was a rod, and in the other 
 a serpent. 
 
 My opponent next transported us 
 
Rev. J. 
 
 TRAUSUBSTAKTIATION. 
 
 85 
 
 to the sixth chapter of the Gospel 
 of St. John. The oima probandi, 
 or the necessity of showing that 
 the sixth of John refers directly to 
 the Eucharist, belongs to my amta- 
 
 fonist. Krst, then, I call on Mr. 
 iench to prove that John vi. 
 does refer directly to the Lord's 
 Supper. He says, " my impression 
 is so and so." I do not want his 
 impressions ; I want arguments. 
 After he has done this, he wiH be 
 able to explain, for the honour of 
 the Church, the contradictory testi- 
 monies she contains on this point. 
 
 Cardinal -^Cameracensis : — " Tran- 
 substantiation cannot be proved 
 from Holy Writ."— /« 4, d. 11. q. 6. 
 Art. 1, 2. 
 
 Cardinal Roffensis, Cardinal Caje- 
 tan, and also Sootus, {in 4 setii. rf. 11. 
 J. 3,) all concur in the s^e thing. 
 
 It is clear these distinguished 
 names in the Roman Catholic Church 
 \fere not possessed of eyesight so 
 keen as my learned opponent, who 
 sees it plamly in the sixth chapter 
 of John. 
 
 Bellarmine enumerates the foL 
 lowing lioman Catholic doctors who 
 give the Protestant interpretation 
 of one of the most important texts, 
 (Johnvi. 54,) viz. Gabriel, Nicolas 
 Cusan, Thomas Cajetan, Tapper, 
 John Hessel, and Cornelius Jansen. 
 
 I now refer to a passage of the 
 Council of Trent, which contains 
 the sentiments of the Church of 
 Rome on the sixth of John : — 
 " Neither is it truly to be gathered 
 from that saying in the sixth of 
 John, that communion in both kinds 
 was taught by our Lord ; however 
 it be understood by us, accobding 
 
 TO THE VAUIOUS INTBKPBETATIONS 
 OP THE HOLT rATHEKS AND DOC- 
 TOES." — Chap. i. sess. 21. 
 
 " The various interpretations of the 
 fathers!" (I thought the fathers 
 were " unanimous .'") My friend 
 says he will " not interpret Scrip- 
 
 ture unless according to the unani- 
 mous consent of the fathers; but 
 the fathers have various opinions. 
 Mark that ! one holds one view at 
 one time, and another view at 
 another. Then I ask my learned 
 friend how he is to explain this 
 article of Pope Pius's Creed, that he 
 vriU "not interpret the Bible unless 
 according to the xmanimous consent 
 of the fathers?" Mr. French in 
 that creed has declared that he wfll 
 " not interpret Scripture, unless ac- 
 cording to the unanimous consent 
 of the lathers ." Now, when I show, 
 as I am showing at this moment, 
 that there is no such thing as " the 
 unanimous consent of the fathers," 
 what is it but an actual padlock on 
 my friend's powers of interpreta- 
 tion, so that he must not dare to 
 .interpret Scripture until he has got 
 what is not to be had — their unani- 
 mous consent. [Laughter, and cries 
 of " Order ! "] Here is the creed 
 of Pope Pius. The perplexity he- 
 longs to it and its possessors. Mr. 
 Prench knows that the Council of 
 Trent has said the opinions of the 
 fathers are "various" on the pas- 
 sage of John vi. referred to, and 
 jet he says he wiU not interpret 
 but according to "the unanirnaus 
 consent of the fathers !" I say then 
 that he is bound to shut his mouth 
 on the sixth of John. His own 
 Church, by the Council of Trent, 
 declares there are " various" inter- 
 pretations of the holy fathers, and 
 yet he says he will not interpret 
 without " the unanimous consent of 
 the fathers ;" and therefore I say, 
 Mr. Prenoh's interpretation of the 
 sixth of John is one of the most un- 
 warrantable liberties he ever took in 
 his Hfe. [Laughter,' and "Order." | 
 Let me go to the sixth of John, 
 (and I am sorry I have only five 
 minutes left to refer to it.) My 
 opponent says, this chapter refers 
 directly to tiie body and blood of 
 
86 
 
 TKANSUBSTAUTIATION. 
 
 our Saviour in the Lord's supper, 
 and proves Transubstantiation. 
 
 Now, in the first place, if it does 
 so, why says our Lord, " It is the 
 Spirit that quickeneth; the flesh 
 profiteth nothing ?" Our Lord says 
 IKE PLESH profiteth nothing — ^Mr. 
 !Prench says " it pbomteth" every 
 THING, and' the whole matter is, 
 whether the fiesh or the Spirit pro- 
 fiteth. That is the pomt of dis- 
 cussion between me and my friend. 
 The Bible says, " ihe fiesh profiteth 
 nothing ;" the Church of Rome says 
 it profiteth so much that you must 
 beueve it to be literally so, under 
 pain of anathema. I ask, then, 
 which am I to believe ? The Church 
 of Rome, which says the flesh pro- 
 fiteth every thing, or the Bible, 
 which says " it profiteth nqthinff ?" 
 But my learned friend often makes 
 mistakes, by leaving out the re- 
 mainder of passages. What I wish 
 Mr. Prench to do is, that the nest 
 time he quotes this text from the 
 Bible he would read the words which 
 follow, — "the WOKDS that I speak 
 unto you, they are spihit and 
 THEY are lipe." Our Lord says, 
 " It is the Spirit that quickeneth ; 
 the flesh profiteth nothing;" and 
 again, " the words which I speak 
 unto you, they are spirit, and they 
 are life ;" that is, the words that 
 1 speak unto you in the sixth chap- 
 ter of John, which is an inspired 
 report of my conversation, " they 
 are spirit, and they are life." 
 
 Again, our Lord asserts in this 
 chapter, "I am the bread of life;" 
 and mind you, if those words, "this 
 is my body," are to be taken lite- 
 rally, why not carry the iiiterm-eta- 
 tion out through the sixth of John, 
 and say, " I am that bread," means 
 I am transubstantiated into that 
 bread. " I am that bread of life" 
 is just as strong as "this is my 
 body." Why, are we not also to 
 infer that his flesh became " bread," 
 
 \^d Beetling. 
 
 if, by a kindred form of expression, 
 the Wad became flesh ? " Unless 
 ye eat this flesh and drink this blood 
 ye have no life;" therefore infants, 
 as I have before stated, (if this 
 chapter is descriptive of the Eucha- 
 rist,) cannot be saved. 
 
 Again, our Lord says, " whosoever 
 eateth my flesh and drinketh my 
 blood hath eternal life." Then I 
 presume that Luther, who came 
 under the heavy anathemas of the 
 Church of Rome, must, notwith- 
 standing Mr. French's bad character 
 of him, be saved, as he had eaten 
 that flesh. I must also presume, 
 that Judas must have been saved ; 
 that Cranmer, so much hated by the 
 Church of Rome, must have been 
 admitted to the same benefit. The 
 assertion, is, " whosoever eateth," 
 and therefore Calvin, who, as my 
 opponent observes, consented to the 
 burning of Servetus at the staie, to 
 the disgrace and discredit of Ms 
 memory — an act which our reformed 
 churches deplore and abhor — is also, 
 though excommunicated, saved. In 
 fact, if this chapter refers to the 
 sacrament -of the Eucharist, every 
 wild and irreclaimable character, 
 who has brought odium and con- 
 tempt on the Christian name, but 
 who gets access, per fas aut nefas, 
 to the Eucharist, must, necessarily 
 and eternally, be saved. [Sensa- 
 tion, and cries of " Order ! "] 
 
 But our Lord explains his mean- 
 ing very distinctly. "They said 
 unto him. Lord, evermore give us 
 this bread !" . Christ said unto 
 them, "I am the bread of life; he 
 that COMETH to me shall never 
 hunger, he that believeth in me 
 shall never thirst;" and again, 
 "Eveiy one which seeth the Son and 
 BELIEVETH in huQ, riiay have ever- 
 lasting Hfe, and I wHl raise him up 
 at the last day." You observe, 
 " eternal life " is attached to faith 
 in Christ. Mr. French quotes, "He 
 
Rev. J. 
 
 '•] 
 
 TKANSTJBSTANTIAIION, 
 
 87 
 
 that eateth this flesh has eternal 
 life," as a proof of Transubstantia- 
 tion; the Bible explains it, "he 
 that believeth in me has everlasting 
 life." Nay, more, the Kteral words 
 are, " whosoever eats this bread shall 
 never hunger." Now, Mr. French 
 says literally, literally. Then I ask 
 Mr. Prench, has he himgered since 
 he took the sacrament of the altar ? 
 If I am to pursue the literal iater- 
 pretation, I must conclude that the 
 participator shall Kterally never hun- 
 ger; that he shall never thirst. 
 Mr. I^enph has actually impEded 
 himself on the horns of many dilem- 
 mas, and he vriU prove himself to be 
 a far greater controversialist than 
 either the fllustrious Bellarmine or 
 the seraphic Aquinas, if he can 
 extricate himself, or procure a safe 
 and honourable deliverance. 
 
 This mode of illustrating divine 
 truths was common with our Saviour. 
 When he met the woman of Samaria, 
 and said, " Give me water to drink," 
 he turned the occurrence to a spi- 
 ritual end, and added, " Whosoever 
 drinketh of this water shall thirst 
 again; but whosoever drinketh of 
 the water that I shall give shaE 
 never thirst." Our Lord, as you 
 know, made a similar use of the 
 miracle at Capernaum, and drew, 
 from the subject of the loaves and 
 the fishes, a very beautiful discourse 
 on beheving in him ; just as when 
 he met the woman of Samaria, he 
 turned the incident to a similar 
 account. It is evident, from the 
 passage, that eating . his' flesh is 
 equivalent to beheving, and de- 
 scribes the appropriation, by faith, 
 of his wisdom, righteousness, sanc- 
 tiflcation, and redemption, or becom- 
 ing assimilated to him, and " made 
 meet for the inheritance of the saints 
 m light." Again, we read, " Do this 
 in remembrance of me." This de- 
 notes that Christ is absent. It 
 implies that he is not bodily present, 
 
 and therefore noTransubstantiation. 
 Again (1 Cor. xi. 23—26) the apos- 
 tle says, "He 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 m remembrance of me. After 
 the same manner also he took the 
 cup when he had supped, saying, 
 Tms cup is the new testament in 
 my blood; this do ye, as oft as ye 
 dnnk it, in remembrance of me. 
 For as often as ye eat this bread 
 and drink this cup, ye do shew the 
 Lord's death till he come" After 
 consecration, you observe! it is 
 written, " Whosoever shall eat this 
 BKEAD, and drink this cup unwor- 
 thily, shall be guilty of the Dody and 
 blood of the Lord;" or, in other 
 words, the apostle Paul calls it no 
 less than fouk times "bkead and 
 WINE," after consecration; but the 
 Church of Home says it is not 
 " bread and wine," but " the body 
 and blood, soul and divinity, bones 
 and nerves, of the Son of God," the 
 moment after consecration. 
 
 The next passage I adduce is 
 Mark xiv. 23 :r— " He took the cup, 
 and when he had given thanks he 
 gave it to them, and they-all drank 
 of it, and he said unto them. This is 
 my blood of the new testament." 
 Now mark, Transubstantiation takes 
 place when the words are pro- 
 nounced, " this is my body," out 
 here the wine is drank before the 
 transubstantiating accents are ut- 
 tered, and therefore it must have 
 been transubstantiated from wine to 
 blood in their bodies, and not on the 
 table. Such is the conclusion which 
 it necessarily leads to : if the words, 
 " this is my body, this is my blood," 
 denote Transubstantiaiion, then this 
 change necessarily, aeeoiding to this 
 text, took place in the stomach, 
 and not on the altar. The language 
 is atroiB; it cannot be otherwise. 
 
 As I have another minute, I will 
 
8S 
 
 TRAtlSUBSTAiralATION. 
 
 call your attention to another pas- 
 sage, (1 Cor. xi. 26:)— "For as 
 often as ye eat this bread and drink 
 this cup, ye do shew forth the Lord's 
 death, ■until he come." But, says 
 the Church of Rome, he is present 
 upon the altar, "body and blood, 
 soul and divinity;" yet says the 
 Word of God, "until he come;" 
 the words plainly implying that he 
 is yet to come, and that he is not 
 yet bodily present. Lastly, 1 Cor. 
 X. 17 : — " We beine many are one 
 bread ;" well, the Church of Rome, 
 in the strict literality of her inter- 
 pretation, must construe that, from 
 these words, we are all transubstan- 
 tiated into bread, and though your 
 eyes tell you you are really flesh 
 and blood, though reason tells you 
 you are flesh and blood, though your 
 touch tells you you are so, yet, 
 if Trausubstantiation be true, the 
 whole Christian Church were all 
 turned into a loaf, fairly transub- 
 stantiated into bread. My friends, 
 the design of the Gospel is to raise 
 man to the high dignity of God; 
 but this system of Rome seems to 
 bring down God below the corrup- 
 tion of man ! [Long and continued 
 sensation, and cries of " Order !"] 
 
 pSere the reverend gentleman's 
 hour terminated.] 
 
 Mr. Fkench. — Ladies and gen- 
 tlemen, I am rather too careful, 
 too parsimonious of my time — 
 (having much solid matter to pre- 
 sent to your minds) — to lavish it m 
 dwelling upon those arguments, if 
 arguments they can be called, upon 
 wmch my learned friend has laid so 
 much stress. I declare solemnly — 
 and I am sorry to be obliged to say 
 it in so poiated a manner — ^that 1 
 consider my rev. opponent to have 
 frittered away, most idly and unpro- 
 fitably to his cause, the greater part 
 of the time Umited to him by our 
 juutual stipi]Ia,tion, in descauting 
 
 upon passages in sacred writ which 
 he fondly imagines to be of similar 
 force to that invincible text which I 
 have repeatedly impressed upon you, 
 namely, " this is my body, this is my 
 blood;" a declaration made in the 
 most solemn, testamentary manner 
 by our Lord and Saviour Jesus 
 Christ, when about to quit his dis- 
 ciples, before he left this sin-polluted 
 world. 
 
 For my part, I can see no simili- 
 tude whatever between the texts 
 insisted upon by my adversary as 
 being of similar operation, if the 
 word to be, is to be taken literally, 
 viz. " the seven ears of corn," " the 
 field is the world," "the tares are 
 the children of wickedness, the 
 enemy that sowed them is the devil, 
 the harvest is the end of the world, 
 the angels are the reapers," &o. &c. 
 and a whole string more, occupying 
 one or two pages. Upon reading, 
 them, and analyzing their meaning, 
 no man can be under a momentary 
 delusion as to their proper intended 
 signification; but, after so many 
 solemn, emphatic, and reiterated 
 asseverations, as those which are 
 used by our Lord and Saviour, 
 in the sixth chapter of John, ex- 
 pounding to us plainly and unequi- 
 vocally, the meaning of the sacrament 
 which he was about to institute at 
 the last supper, I cannot beHeve, 
 I cannot make up my mind to be- 
 hove, that our Saviour had anything 
 in view of a less stupendous nature 
 than to bequeath unto us' the grand 
 sacrament of the CathoKo Church, 
 namely, Transubstantiation, — the 
 grand sacrament, I say, of that same 
 Church that has transmitted the 
 Bible to us; and without which 
 Church you -frould not know what 
 books were inspired and what apo- 
 cryphal ; yes, gentlemen, it cannot 
 be too frequently repeated, that 
 that same Church which has trans- 
 mitted the Bible, transmitted to ns, 
 
Mr. French^ 
 
 TKJLN SUBSIAUIIATION. 
 
 m 
 
 at the SEune time, the glorious doc- 
 trine of Transubstantiation ; and, 
 when I open the pages of the said 
 Bible, I find it most luminously 
 staring me in the face, so as not by 
 any possibility to be mistaken in its 
 meaning. No ; Christ, our blessed 
 Saviour, was not such an idle squan- 
 derer of words, as Protestants would 
 make him! 
 
 On the other hand, had the sacred 
 evangelist occupied a whole chapter 
 m. repeating " / am the door," " I 
 am ilie mne," and so on, in repeat- 
 ing it, I say, over and over again, 
 vrith ever-iacreasing force, and ear- 
 nestness' of inculcation, so as to 
 induce me to think for a moment 
 that Christ meant not to allegorize, 
 I candidly confess my senses would 
 be bewildered ; I should not know 
 the meaning of his words : I should 
 be totally at a loss to conjecture 
 their possible application to any 
 thing vrithin the gra^p of human 
 intelligence. "When our ■ blessed 
 Saviour says, " I ami the door," " I 
 am the vine," I understand the 
 meaning now as I understood when 
 I read it in my childhood; it is 
 still at one glance, as it was then — 
 too obvious to cause the hesitation 
 of a moment as to its reference and 
 intended analogy. To be short, it is 
 a trivial argument pompously and 
 verbosely insisted on by my learned 
 antagomst, but by no means worthy 
 of a grave and serious answer. 
 
 Let me, therefore, proceed to 
 matter, in my humble opinion, much 
 more worthy of our consideration. 
 I shall first, however, before I come 
 to enter upon it, endeavour to do 
 away with the force of an objection 
 urged against me by my learned 
 friend as to my mode of interpretiag 
 Scripture, which, as he contends, is 
 not to be allowed me, at least ac- 
 cording to the creed of Pope Pius. 
 I am not permitted, says my rev. 
 antagonist, " to interpret otherwise 
 
 than according to the unanimous 
 consent of the fathers." Now, with- 
 out the least dread of such a deiiun 
 ciation, or the least pause to consider 
 its force and validity, I have said 
 over and over agaia, that the fathers 
 are all unanimous on Transubstan- 
 tiation ; that all, without one single 
 exception, all unite, aU vie with one 
 another ia expressing in the most 
 clear, forcible, emphatic, energetic, 
 unambiguous language, the grand 
 tenet of Catholicity for which I am 
 contending ; and among these, none 
 more powerfully, none more signifi- 
 cantly, than the great St. Augustiae, 
 two extracts from whom my learned 
 friend has read to you ; and though, 
 from his knowledge of the classics, 
 he understands the words tho- 
 roughly, he does not seem to have 
 penetrated into the meaning, the 
 idea, to be conveyed by them. In- 
 deed, I will venture to assert, and I 
 hope to do it without giving offence, 
 that my rev. opponent is not deeply 
 conversant vrith the works of St. 
 Austin. I beg the gentleman's 
 pardon, but I cannot but suspect, 
 that he has not read him deeply, so 
 as to be able to. explain particular 
 passages^ by conferring them vrith 
 innumerable others clearly explica- 
 tive of their meaning. 
 
 Rev.J.CTJMMiNS. — ^lam quite sa- 
 tisfied with the passages I have read. 
 
 Mr. Pbench. — Now all those 
 passages I read to him, are perfectly 
 authentic, and perfectly reconeile- 
 able with those passages quoted by 
 my rev. opponent, so as to enable 
 them conjointly to uphold our tenet; 
 but the learned gentleman cannot 
 twist and distort my passages by 
 any ingenuity so as to render them 
 assistant to his purpose. What St. 
 Augustine constantly and repeatedly 
 inculcates is, " that we ought not to 
 eat the sacrament after the manner of 
 the Cvphemaites" His words I have 
 already quoted, but he ever maia- 
 
90 
 
 TRilfSUBSTANIIATION. , 
 
 tains, anbendingly, that it is "th.e 
 real body and blood of our Lord." 
 
 Listen to his words: — "As yre 
 receive, with a failhfid heart and 
 mouth, the Mediator of God and 
 man, Christ Jesus, who tells us that 
 his bod/y is to be eaten, and his blood 
 to be drunk: although it may ap- 
 pear more horrible to eat the flesh 
 of man, than to destroy it, and to 
 drink human blood than to shed it." 
 — St. Aim- contr. Advert. Legis et 
 Proph. lib. ii. cap. 9, vol. viii. p. 599. 
 
 "For he spoke to us of his body 
 and his blood: his body, he said, 
 was food; his blood drink." — Vol. v. 
 p. 640. 
 
 " Since they eat his very flesh, and 
 drink hisvery blood." — VoL v. p. 391. 
 
 When, therefore, St. 'Augustine 
 alludes to figure in eating, he argjues 
 not agaiust our belief, out against 
 the Oaphernaites ; of whom he says, 
 " As they understood flesh, not so 
 do I give my flesh to eat." — Tom. 
 ix. Tract 27. 
 
 " But how," continues he, " did 
 thCT understand flesh ?" 
 
 Listen again to his words : — 
 " What, therefore, means that phrase, 
 the flesh proflteth nothing ? It pro- 
 fiteth nothing, in the manner in 
 which they ■understood it ; for they 
 understood it to mean flesh as it is 
 mangled in a dead body, or as it is 
 sold m shambles, not as it is quick- 
 ened by the animating spirit of Ufe ; 
 non quo mode spiritu. ■oegetatur. — 
 Tract 27, vol. ifi. p. 403. 
 
 Again, " Sicut iUi iuteUeierunt 
 camem, non sic ego do ad mandu- 
 candum carnem meum." " As they 
 
 Understood it, not so do I give my 
 esh to eat." — St. Aug. torn. ix. 
 Tract 27 in Joann. 
 
 Again, " What means," says St. 
 Augustine, " this expression, of our 
 Saviour — 'Does this offend youP' 
 It means," says the Saint, " Ye 
 think that from this' body which ye 
 behold, I am about to make parts, 
 
 and to out up my limbs, and to give 
 them to jon.'— St. Aug. torn. v. in 
 Joann. c. 6, p. 643. 
 
 In such sense only, and with 
 reference to such distorters of the 
 sacrament, would St. Augustiae 
 have Christ's words to be deemed 
 figurative, alluding to the same 
 Caphernaites, whom St. Cyril desig- 
 nates when he says—" They sur- 
 mised that they were urged after 
 the manner of wild beasts to eat 
 man's raw flesh, and drink Ms gore 
 blood."— /Sif. Cyril, 4, in Joann. 322. 
 Whereas, our blessed Saviour in- 
 tended it far othervidse, viz. that 
 he would be eaten in the likeness 
 of bread and wine, which were 
 figures of his operations in our 
 souls. But to contend that his 
 substantial and real presence should 
 be excluded is most remote from 
 St. Augastine's intention, and from 
 the whole tenor of his writings. 
 What more palpable and infallible; 
 proof can be given of St. Augus- 
 tine's meaning," than in the cita+ion 
 which I have above presented to 
 you from his works ? where he 
 says, " We receive with, faithful 
 heart and mouth, Jesus Christ, 
 Man-Mediator between God and 
 man, giving his flesh to eat, and his 
 blood to drink, although it seems 
 more horrible to eat the flesh of man 
 than to kill, and to drink the blood 
 of man than to shed it." 
 
 These are the words of St. Augus- 
 tine. But now, my friends, I leave 
 for a while the 6th John, which, in 
 my humble conception, proves most 
 clearly that he intended to give us 
 " his body and his blood;" and I' 
 would ask my rev. friend whether 
 our Saviour — supposing, for a mo- 
 ment, if my friend will concede the 
 supposition — that our blessed Sa^' 
 viour meant in reality to give us 
 " his body and his blood," — will my 
 learned friend have the candour to 
 teU me, could he possibly have used 
 
Mr. French.'] 
 
 stronger words than those we find 
 noted do-wn by the evangelist, " this 
 e'i my body, this is my blood ?" 
 
 Eev. J. Gumming. — ^Do you wish 
 an answer now ? 
 
 Mr. rnjENCH. — Why really, gen- 
 tlemen, I have but little time ; I 
 speak so slow, and my friend so 
 rapidly, both ia his expressions and 
 quotations, that I must be very nig- 
 gardly as to the abandonment of my 
 time. [Laughter, and cries of 
 " Order ! "] But, my friends, leave 
 we for awMle the 6th of John, to 
 which I iutend to return this even- 
 ing, if I have time — that chapter iu 
 which the evangelist declares perpe- 
 tually, in words, whose strength and 
 significance iucrease m every sen- 
 tence which he utters, that he meant 
 to give us " his flesh to eat and his 
 blood di-ink." Let us now listen 
 to the language of one who came 
 after him, and who is deaominated 
 by the evangelist — " the vessel of 
 election," or, as the P^testant 
 version has it, "the chosen vessel." 
 What, then, says St. Paul, " the 
 vessel of election," iu elucidation 
 of our subject ? Before I cite his 
 words, I tmnk it proper to direct 
 your attention to Acts ix. 6. It is 
 m the relation of St. Paul's journey 
 to Damascus, where, in vei. 4, it is 
 ■ said, " And he fell to the earth, and 
 heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, 
 Saul, why persecutest thou me ? " 
 
 " 6. And he, trembling and asto- 
 nished, said. Lord, what wilt thou 
 have me to do? and the Lord said, 
 unto him, Arise, and go into the 
 city, and it shall be told thee what 
 thou must do." 
 
 Accordingly, as you all know, 
 Paul repaired to Ananias. 
 
 Paul goes to Ananias, and, I sup- 
 pose, learned fpom him the mam 
 body of the Christian tenets : but 
 it is here most extraordinarily ob^ 
 servable, that, although he had been 
 thus instructed by Ananias, yet 
 
 TBAUSUBSTANTIATION. 
 
 91 
 
 upon the stupendous mystery of the 
 Eucharist he was reserved to be 
 instructed bv the Lord Jesus Christ 
 himself; although my rev. friend, I 
 dare to say, will tell you, that after 
 his ascension to heaven Christ 
 never appeared upon the earth. 
 
 Now listen to the words of St. 
 Paul :— " Por I have received of the 
 Lord that which also I delivered 
 unto you. That the Lord Jesus 
 Christ, 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 often as ye 
 drink it, in remembrance of me. 
 For as often as ye eat this bread 
 and drink this cup, ye do shew the 
 Lord's death until, he come." 
 
 Now, gentlemen, what I ■would 
 ask is simply this : namely, what 
 necessity was there of the least en- 
 lightenment from his divineMaster, 
 on a subject so plain, so simple, so 
 totally unmysterious, as that of the 
 Lord's supper in the acceptation of 
 Protestants ? Could not Ananias 
 have been sufficient to teach him 
 this ? On the other hand, suppose 
 it to be the Catholic sacrament, we 
 can easily conceive, in that case,, 
 that our Saviour might have in- 
 tended to announce .and to enforce 
 still more indissolubly, and to ratify 
 stM more solemnlythe grand dogma, 
 by communicating it by his own 
 peculiar " vessel of election," who 
 not only tells us that Christ did so, 
 — ^mark, gentlemen, who not only 
 tells us that Christ did so, but 
 declares vrith an avirful warning 
 voice— that " whosoever shall eat 
 this bread, and drink- this cup of 
 the Lord, unworthily, shall be 
 guilty of the body and blood of 
 
TEA^JSTJBSTASTIAIIOS'. 
 
 the Lord;" and again, in anotlier 
 part, " for he that eateth or drink- 
 eth unworthily eateth and drinketh 
 damnation to himself, not discerning 
 the Lord's body" And here, ex- 
 claimed my rev. friend, ia his con- 
 cluding speech of the last eTening, 
 who discerns the Lord's body? 
 Can the Papist discern it ? can the 
 Catholic discern it ? I was asto- 
 nished to hear this, because I gave 
 the ^earned gentleman great credit 
 for insight into the Greek and Latin 
 languages. God forbid that I should 
 be so envious as to detract from 
 a fellow scholar! He is a man, 
 polished in all the learning of anti- 
 quity, and you are witnesses how 
 beautiful a displayer he is of all the 
 elegances of his own language; 
 but I was literally astonished that 
 he should say, who can discern the 
 body of our Lord ; can the Papist, 
 can the Catholic do it ? — applying, 
 as he did, the word " discern " to 
 the eye, whereas we know in the 
 original that it refers to the judg- 
 ment of the mind, not to the corpo- 
 real eye; BioKpivav is the word, 
 1 Cor. xi. 29: — "lor he that 
 eateth and drinketh unworthily, 
 eateth and drinketh damnation to 
 himself, not discerning the Lord's 
 body." Not having sufficient dis- 
 crimination of mind to apprehend 
 the mystery ; not having the sense, 
 the discrimination to see, as I have 
 told you over and over again, and as 
 the evangelist has told you over and 
 over agam, that it is actually " the 
 body of the Lord " — " not discern- 
 ing," "non dijadicans corpus Domini." 
 Now, I would ask, how are we 
 " guilty of eating and drinking the 
 body and blood of the Lord," if 
 they be not there? Why this 
 dreadful denunciation against the 
 desecrators of mere bread and wine, 
 in which there is not the remotest 
 similitude to the body and blood of 
 our Lord Jesus ClmstP When, 
 
 l2d Evemn^. 
 
 therefore, our Saviour, and _ his 
 evangelists, and apostles, and saints, 
 whom he sent to convert all nations, 
 teach me, with one unanimous and 
 according voice, that the flesh and 
 blood of our Saviour are veritably 
 received in the sacrament of the 
 Eucharist, who shall convince me, 
 and my friends here present, that 
 the whole of this inefrable mystery 
 consists in eating and drinking a 
 little bread and wine, reverentially 
 in remembrance of his death and of 
 his passion? If St. Paul meant 
 to teach me, as my learned friend, 
 forsooth, would teach me this even- 
 ing, that it is but " bread and wine," 
 by what invigoration of my facul- 
 ties am I to " discern" the Dody of 
 the Lord, where it neither exists 
 nor is supposed to exist ? But if I 
 am to speak as a Catholic, looking at 
 it steadfastly with the eye of celes- 
 tial faith, not with that of mere 
 terrestrial reason, I can just as 
 easily believe in Transubstantiation 
 as I can believe in the incarnation 
 of Christ in the womb of the Virgin! 
 Each of these two immortal tenets, 
 viewed by the narrowness of human 
 conception, staggers and confounds 
 me; viewed by the calm, celestial 
 eye of pondering faith, each of them 
 commands most irresistibly my un- 
 qualified assent. I will not exclaim 
 with the murmuring Jew, on the 
 one hand, nor with the murmuring 
 Protestant on the other, " How can 
 this man give us his flesh to eat, 
 ,and his blood to drink?" " this is 
 a hard saying, who can hear it?" 
 but I will simply ask, does this 
 man, or rather, does this Man-God, 
 say— repeating it over and over 
 again — ^that he wiH give his body 
 to eat, and his blood to drink? and 
 I beKeve that he wiU give them. 
 His solemn and emphatic words 
 can no more deceive me than his 
 power can deceive him by disap- 
 pointing ihsfiai of his divinity. 
 
Mr. French."] 
 
 TEAUSUBSTANTIATION. 
 
 93 
 
 The reality, therefore, of the 
 body and blood of Christ in the 
 Eucharist is most solidly esta- 
 blished by the word of Christ 
 himself; it is with equal soKdity 
 established by St. Paul, his "yessel 
 of election;" it is with equal soli- 
 dity established by the authoritatiTe 
 testimony of the Catholio church — 
 the Cathblic church, I say — ^that 
 church which Christ has com- 
 manded all nations to obey, under 
 pain of beiu^ considered as heathen- 
 men or pubhcans, that is, destitute 
 of eternal life, should they refuse 
 obedience, and presume, in the 
 pride of intellect, to instruct them- 
 selves. Yes, my friends, the dogma 
 of Transubstantiation has been pro- 
 claimed aloud by this ever-speakmg, 
 never-changing, Catholio church, in 
 every age and- in every chme, from 
 
 - the days of the apostles down to the 
 
 - times in which we live ; aye, my 
 friends, in every country and in 
 every clime, and in none more con- 
 spicuously than in the land we live 
 in ; and where the magnificent edi- 
 fices of our Catholic ancestors stni 
 
 . attest, by a sublimity and adaptation 
 of things not to be roisinterpreted, 
 the subEme purposes for which they 
 were originally destined. If I am 
 asked, why attach a literal and not 
 a figurative meaning to these words ? 
 my prompt answer is, because to 
 interpret them' figuratively would 
 be-acting in express contrariety to 
 my blessed Saviour, who prohibits 
 me so to do. Yes, our Saviour warns 
 us by his answer to the Jews, not to 
 entertain the least doubt on the 
 subject. Tliey (the Jew?) asked, 
 " How can this man give us his flesh 
 to eat?" He said, " Verily, verily, 
 I say unto you, unless ye eai the 
 
 flesh of the Son of man, and drink his 
 hlood, ye have no life in you." 
 
 Here, then, in these plain words, 
 i see an eternal ^e^o upon all those 
 faneifol excursions into the realms 
 
 of " orientalism," into which my 
 learned friend this evening would 
 willingly conduct us ; here I see 
 an indissoluble tie to bind me to 
 the Hterality of the text ; here I see 
 an explicit, a direct injunction to 
 proceed ui' interpretiug his words 
 by a straightforward way, not by 
 remote and wandering circumvolu- 
 tion. The light which illuminates 
 this mysterious dogma is the aU- 
 lumiaous word of Him who taught 
 it ; and, as to its credibility, I can 
 just as readily beHeve " the body 
 and blood," that is, Christ, whole 
 and entire, to be on the altar after 
 the words of consecration, as I 
 can believe that the water was 
 turned into wine at the marriage- 
 feast of Cana. He who said, " Let 
 light be," and " there was light," 
 said also, " this is my body, this is 
 my blood," and I maintain that it 
 became Ids body and his blood 
 instantaneously; and I maintain, 
 moreover, that it wiU become so, so 
 often as the words of consecration 
 are pronounced by duly consecrated 
 ordained priests m apostolical suc- 
 cession, xm.til the end of time. 
 
 And here, my friends, having 
 mentioned the necessity of regular 
 apostolic succession in the priest- 
 hood, in order to be able to conse- 
 crate, permit me to remind you 
 that there is in this countrv but one 
 universally acknowledged priest, 
 and that is the Catholic one. 
 Reflect, my friends, if a Catholic 
 priest turns Protestant, he is imme- 
 diately admitted into your pulpitsT- 
 his ordination is all right ! On 
 the other hand, should a Protestant 
 clergyman turn Catholic — even 
 should it be the Archbishop of Can- 
 terbury himself — we say tonim. No, 
 no, you are no priest. Before you 
 officiate- at our altars you must come 
 and be ordained. Now I have only 
 one word to observe in conclusion 
 of this subject. I vrish I were 
 
u 
 
 TRAMSUBSTANIIATION. 
 
 gifted witk tlie extemporaneous 
 powers of my friend, but I nave done 
 my utmost to develop the sacred, 
 the mysterious dogma, in which I 
 so thoroughly believe, so that all the 
 mountains of Protestantism in the 
 world would never be able to move 
 me, notwithstamding the fond anti- 
 cipation of my learned friend, that 
 I cun not unlikely to become a Pro- 
 testant. " Heaven and earth may 
 pass away," but my firm hope and 
 trust in Christ Jesus shall never 
 fade — that I shall live and die in the 
 bosom of the CathoKo Church ! 
 
 And now, my Protestant friends, 
 for whose salvation I so ardently 
 pant, as my learned friend tells 
 me also he pants for mine, vrill you 
 still continue to cry out, like the 
 murmuring and incredulous Jews, 
 "How can this man give us his 
 flesh to eat and blood to drink ? " 
 Win you still shake your heads and 
 say, " This is a hard saying, who can 
 hear it ? " and then " valk no more 
 with him ? " No, my friends, this 
 night, I pray you, let the hoUow 
 murmurings of your stubborn un- 
 believing hearts cease to rebel 
 within you ; let them sink, I 
 beseech you, into that calm, that 
 blessed, that unruffled serenity of 
 belief, which is to be found alone in 
 the bosom of the Catholic church. ; 
 But if my words and arguments be 
 not sufflcientlyemphatio, gentlemen, 
 to make some feeble impression on 
 
 Sour breasts, let me entreat you to 
 sten attentively whilst 1 read the 
 vvords of an eloquent pastor of our 
 Church, who wrote in the year 373. 
 He is addressing himself to a pupil 
 who was thoroughly persuaded of 
 the great mystery, but who was 
 too diffident of his own virtue to 
 approach the sacred table. Thus 
 writes St. Gregory Nazianzen, in 
 the year — and notice the date — 
 372 \^-" Nay, without shame, with- 
 out hesitation, eat the body, drink 
 
 [3<^ JSoemng, 
 
 the blood, if thou art really thirst- 
 ing after life ; neither incredalom 
 as to the words concerning the flesh, 
 nor offended at those concerning 
 the passion. Stand firmly propped, 
 fixed, unwavering, not to oe stag- 
 gered in thy belief by the force of 
 an antagonist, nor to be drawn 
 asunder from it by any plausibility 
 of speech. Stand upon the eleva- 
 tion thou hast seized; plant thy feet 
 in the courts of Jerusalem, in order 
 that thou mayest continue to move 
 onward to thy God vrith a firm, 
 untottering step."— /S?. Orecf. Naz. 
 Bened. tom. i. p. 690. 
 
 Now, gentlemen, I may boast of 
 being truly eloquent with these 
 words in my mouth, characterized 
 as they are by genuine eloquence as 
 well as genuine sanctity. They 
 were delivered in the year 372, a 
 little, methinks, before Pascasius 
 Rhadbert vrrote concemingTransub- 
 stantiation, who, if I believe my 
 learned friend, lived in the ninth 
 century — an'obscure monk, of Corby, 
 in Saxony. The first father of the 
 Church who wrote concerning Tran- 
 substantiation I have quoted to 
 you, viz. Ignatius Martyr; now 
 the second is Justin Martyr, who 
 fiourished a.d. 150 ; he, too, knew 
 as much, one would imagine, about 
 pure,. unadulterated Christianity, as 
 my learned friend, who sits at my 
 right hand side, and who has studied 
 the Gospel so very deeply. 
 
 Now, in the important passage I 
 am about to lay before you, he is 
 vmting to Antoninus, the Roman 
 emperor, at the time that the Chris- 
 tians were persecuted and put to 
 death for being Christians, and, 
 among other groundless charges, 
 "for eating human flesh," as the 
 learned gentleman well knows, 
 versed as he is in ecclesiastical his- 
 tory. In the first centuries of the 
 Church, I say, my learned fiiend 
 well knows that the cry against the 
 
TKANSUBSTANIIAIION. 
 
 itr. French.] 
 
 Christians -was, that at their sacri- 
 fices they ate human flesh ; he, 
 therefore (Justin Martyr), writes an 
 "Apology for the Christians," in 
 which are to be found these ever- 
 memorable words with reference to 
 the Eucharist : — " And this food, 
 with us, is called the Eucharist, of 
 which no one is permitted to par- 
 ticipate but he who believes that the 
 things which are taught hy us are 
 true, and who has been washed in 
 the laver of the remission of sins 
 and of regeneration, and who leads 
 a life conformable to the precepts of 
 Christ. Eor we do not receive these 
 as common bread, or as common 
 wine, but in the same manner as, 
 through the "Word of God, Jesus 
 Christ, having become incarnate, 
 had both flesh and blood for our 
 salvation; just so likewise we have 
 been taught, that the food by which, 
 through digestion, our flesh and 
 blood are nourished, being made the 
 Eucharist by the prayer of the Word 
 of God, is the flesh and blood of that 
 incarnate Jesus !" 
 
 That is our doctrine ; and no 
 doctor of divinity, no Council of 
 Trent, or any council in the world, 
 could express the Catholic doctrine 
 more circumstantially, more pithily 
 than that. And now, as I flatter 
 myself that I can write a little better 
 than I can speak, I beg leave to 
 read a few observations of mine, 
 which are to be found in a work 
 written some years ago upon this 
 identical extract : — 
 
 The reader will perceive, that in 
 the foregoing smau cluster of au- 
 thorities which I have gathered 
 from the works of the Greek 
 fathers, the last quotation which I 
 have presented to his notice, had 
 I consulted merely the order of time 
 in which they respectively lived, 
 should have been placed immedi- 
 ately after that of St. Ignatius, who 
 Nourished in the year of ourLord 68. 
 
 95 
 
 If it be asked, what reason has 
 induced me in this single instance 
 to deviate in so remarkable a man- 
 ner from the regular succession of 
 time in which these fathers respec- 
 tively flopished, my answer is 
 simply this. Of aU. the glorious 
 testimonies corroborative and illus- 
 trative of the doctrine of Transub- 
 stantiation, every one of which is 
 more than sufficient completely to 
 overwhelm the antagonist of the 
 Catholic, there is not one, from the 
 very beginning to the end, so un- 
 controllable as an authority in every 
 line, word, and syllable, as the pas- 
 sage in question. Yes, the very 
 sight of the glittering page dazzles 
 the eye of the beholder; it is in- 
 stantaneously destructive to the 
 whole causb of Protestantism. It 
 is a passage, I contend — and I say 
 it in the spirit of true charity — 
 which the enemies of truth among 
 men must behold with dismay, and 
 the devU with abhorrence. , There 
 is not in it one ambiguous word 
 capable of misleading the judgment 
 of a calm, rational, and dispassion- 
 ate inquirer. It is all clear and self- 
 evident. No lawgiver, of the deep- 
 est insight into the depravity of 
 human nature, and desirous ot an- 
 ticipating every species of quibble, 
 chicanery, and evasion, could, in the 
 profoundest reach of human wis- 
 dom, have penned a law so totally 
 unsusceptible of misconstruction in 
 all after ages, as is this exposition 
 of the doctrine of Transubstantia- 
 tion ; and, let me add, that it was 
 given by one who shed his blood in 
 the cause of its Divine Institutor, 
 so early as the year 166. 
 
 Eeflect then, most deeply, O sin- 
 cere inquirer into primitive Chris- 
 tianity ! thou, I say, who wouldst 
 deem it a cause of far greater ex- 
 ultation to be foiled in argument, 
 provided thou couldst but find out 
 that inestimable jewel, Truth, thai 
 
98 
 
 TBtNSUBSTA2ITIAII0». 
 
 to be applauded and crowned with 
 all the. garlands of genius by the 
 associates of thy early wanderings ! 
 What is it that St. Justin says, and 
 to whom is it that his words are 
 addressed? Know, then, that he is 
 writing to the Roman emperor, 
 Antomnus Pius; and that, at the 
 very time when he wrote it, a report 
 was prevalent throughout the whole 
 Roman empire, that the Christians 
 iu their sacrifices made it a part of 
 their sacred rites to murder mfauts 
 and to eat- human flesh. The se- 
 crecy with which the awfuUy tre- 
 mendous mysteries were veiled by 
 the Christians iu thosA early ages, 
 accompanied with iaoautious words, 
 sometimes uttered by true beKevers 
 in the hearing of Pagans, as well as 
 with confessions (sometimes extor- 
 ted by the violence of racks and 
 tortures,) that the Sacrament was 
 the real body and the real blood of 
 Jesus Christ, alone could and did 
 
 five rise to the dissemination of so 
 arbarous an opinion. 
 What a splendid opportunity had 
 not St. Justin upon this occasion, 
 had the doctrine of mere bread and 
 vrine I been known at that early 
 period, of allaying all the ferment 
 that had been excited against the 
 professors of Christianity, on the 
 
 f round of their being mere canni- 
 als ! The wayto proceed was plain 
 and obvious. He had ndthing to do 
 but, with aU the mildness of a Chris- 
 tian utterly averse to such a fero- 
 cious practice as that of eating 
 human flesh, to acquaint the Roman 
 emperor with the true circumstances 
 of the case — to account for the 
 origin of the report that had been 
 spread against them — namely, by as- 
 suring him that, although the priest 
 at the sacrifice said, " This is my 
 body," and "This is my blood," and 
 that the people cried out " Amen !" 
 yet that they meant it as a mere 
 type or figure of the precious body 
 
 [Id Evemng. 
 
 and blood — ^not as tli6 reality. He 
 had, I say, simply to state, had the 
 Lord's Supper, in the Protestant 
 acceptation, been then known, that 
 the harmless rite consisted merely 
 in eating bread and drinking wine, 
 in remembrance of their blessed 
 Master,(without indulging one single 
 thought of their being ckanged oy 
 the words of the blessing into real 
 flesh and real blood; although, by 
 a species of harmless misnomer, 
 (according to the Protestant doc- 
 trine,) the custom was to call them 
 by those respective names. This 
 explanation would, luethinks, have 
 been amply sufficient ; and had 
 St. Justin thus given it, I do own 
 that the Protestant might have had 
 some plausibility of argument in 
 declaiming against the doctrine of 
 Transubstantiation as being empty 
 and fallacious. But oh! if this was 
 really the intent of the holy father 
 in writing to a Pagan emperor upon 
 this mystery of Christian faith, what 
 language more mysterious in its 
 import could he pc|ssibly have used 
 as explanatory of the grand arcamtm, 
 than those words which are con- 
 tained in the passage above quoted ? 
 How could the words, " is the flesh 
 and blood of that incarnate Jesus," 
 have been intended by St. Justin to 
 convey to the Roman emperor the 
 doctrme of Protestantism on this 
 momentous subject ? 
 
 The answer to this question, which 
 in the eyes of a reader of a plain 
 ordinary capacity seems to present 
 difficulties of a most insurmount- 
 able nature, so far from causing the 
 least alarm in the breast of Arch- 
 bishop Ti^\)tson, furnishes, on the 
 contrary, m his grave opinion, a 
 most resistless argument against 
 us. Every line vrith him is strictly 
 orthodox, and easy to be accom- 
 modated to plain Protestantism, 
 without the slightest violence or 
 distortion of phrase. There is only 
 
Mr, French.] 
 
 TEANSTJBSTANTIATION. 
 
 97 
 
 one oversight in this the learned 
 Archbishop's powerful attempt to 
 overturn the ever-flourishing dogma 
 of Christianity in question, of which 
 liis lordship appears to have heen 
 guilty — and that is, of not present-- 
 ing to Ms Protestant reader the 
 passage of St. Justin at fuU length, 
 instead of ithe two or three Aors 
 d'wuvre expressions calculated to 
 answer the purpose which he had in 
 view. This, to be sure — and herein 
 he perfectly coincides with all the di- 
 vines of the Church of England since 
 its fomidation — would have been 
 a very dangerous experiment. What, 
 indeed, could aU arguments have 
 availed to those who have.hitherto 
 given up their understandings to be 
 guided by the learning of such a 
 divine as TiUotson, had he been 
 candid enough to give in the same 
 page which was graced with his 
 sonorous periods against the doc- 
 trine of Transnbstantiation, as being 
 repugnant' to the doctrine of the 
 fathers, merely one mflesimal part 
 of what those said fathers had de- 
 livered in testimony of its eternal 
 truth? What would have become 
 of the ductility of the scholar at 
 Oxford and Cambridge for nearly 
 three centuries past, had such a 
 practice been nnanimously adopted 
 by their Professors of Theology ? 
 Why, the manifest result would have 
 been most unquestionably to place 
 in substitution upon those very 
 shelves, where the fathers now repose 
 in their libraries covered with the 
 dust of ages that profusion of never- 
 ending volumes which have issued 
 from the British press every Jrear 
 since the days of the Reformation, 
 for the express purpose of misrepre- 
 senting the doctrine contained in 
 them. "Good God!" would the as- 
 tonished pupUhave exclaimed to his 
 instructor, "is it possible that the 
 fathers could have thus written, and 
 that you could have thus taught ?" 
 
 The next astounding objection 
 of Archbishop TiUotson against 
 Transttbstantiation is as follows : — 
 "There is," says his lordship, " an- 
 other remarkaljle testimony of Ire- 
 nseus, which, though it be not now 
 extant in those works of his which 
 remain, yet has been preserved by 
 CEcumenins ; and it is this : ' Whea 
 (says he) the Greeks had taken, 
 some servants of the Christian Caie- 
 chumeni (that is, such as had net 
 been admitted to the Sacrament), 
 and afterwards urged them, hy 
 violence to tell them some of the 
 secrets of the Christians, these ser- 
 vants, having nothing to say that 
 might gratify those who offered 
 violence to them, except only that they 
 had heard. from their masters that 
 the divine communion was the blood 
 and body of Christ ; they, thinking 
 that it was really blood and flesh, 
 declared as much to those that ques- 
 tioned them. The Greeks taking this 
 as if it were really done by the Chris- 
 tians, discovered it to others of the 
 Greeks, who hereupon put Sanctns 
 and Blandina to the torture, to make 
 them confess it' To whom Blan- 
 dina boldly answered. 'How could 
 they endure to do this who by way of 
 exercise (or abstinence) donot eatthat 
 flesh which may lawfully be eaten .<" 
 "By which it appears," says Arch- 
 bishop TiUotson very gravely, "thai 
 this which they would have charged 
 upon Christians, as if they had lite- 
 rally eaten the flesh and drank tho 
 blood of Christ in this Sacramait, 
 was a false accusation which these 
 martyrs denied, saying they were so 
 far from that, tha,t they, for their 
 part, did not eat any flesh at all." 
 
 Such, reader, is the very skilful 
 refuge by which the learned Arch- 
 bishop, m quotmg this memorable 
 extract from St. Irenseus, endeavours 
 to evade the force of those pregnant 
 words contained in it, namely, that 
 they (the slaves) had heard "from 
 
98 
 
 TRAUSTOBSTANTIATION. 
 
 [3rf Evemng. 
 
 their masters, that the dimne com- 
 munion was the hody and blood of 
 Christ. Now hear the answer, and 
 let me ohtaia the command of your 
 full attention whilst I give it. The 
 question expected to he spoken to 
 by Sauctus and Blandina, was 
 whether they ate human flesh, of 
 course according to a human mode 
 of eating, namely, being sensible 
 that it is flesh whilst one is eating 
 it ; and the answer of the martyrs 
 was precisely that which a Catholic 
 in the present century would be 
 obKged to give to a torturer who 
 Bhomd have the power of puttiug 
 such a question — namely, that he 
 did not ; and moreover would hq 
 add, that he shuddered at such an 
 action. St. Augustine, indeed, has 
 rejected from the Catholic faith such 
 a mode of eatiag, in describing that 
 which the first Protestants, the 
 carnal-minded Jews, who rose against 
 the words of our Saviour, conceived 
 that the meaning of his words tended 
 to inculcate. " Quid est ergo, No» 
 prodest quidquam caro? l^on prodest 
 quidquam, sed quomodo illi Intel- 
 lexerunt, quomodo in cadavere dila- 
 niatur, aut in macello venditur, non 
 quomodo spiritu cegetatur." — Tract. 
 27, vol. iii. p. 503. 
 
 "What, therefore, means that 
 phrase. The flesh profiteth nothing? 
 It profiteth nothing in the manner 
 in which they understood it ; for 
 they understood it to mean flesh as it 
 is mangled in a dead body, or as it is 
 sold in the market, not as it is quick- 
 ened by the animating spirit of life" 
 
 Now is it not precisely in this 
 manner that they (the Greeks) con- 
 ceiyqd;ihe Christians to eat human 
 flBsh ? And was not the answer of 
 Sanctus and Blandina, with the 
 atmost accuracy, correspondent to 
 the intention of those who put the' 
 (inestion, as to the mode in which 
 it was to be answered, viz. Tes, or 
 Ho, as t9 the carnality of the eatiag ? 
 
 But neither did St. Irenseus nor 
 St. Augustine mean to inculcate that 
 the flesh and blood of our Saviour 
 was not to be really eaten and drunk 
 in the sacramental manner in which 
 they are received by the Catholic : 
 to- prove which look to the words 
 of St. Irenseus, cited above, and 
 attend to the foUovring passage from 
 St. Augustine ; — 
 
 Conversi sunt ex ipso populo 
 Judseorum, conversi sunt et bapti- 
 zati sunt ; ad mensam Domini ac- 
 cesserunt, et sanguinem quern scevi- 
 
 They [some of the Jews,] were 
 converted ; they were converted 
 and baptized; they approached to 
 the table of the Lord; and now, 
 beliemng, they drank that blood which 
 
 their ungovernable fury tliey them- 
 
 The answer, therefore, of those 
 blessed martyrs, — to express myself 
 by this passage of the same St. 
 Augustine, — ^was given to men who, 
 in regard to the question, " spiri- 
 tualia carnaliter sapiebdnt" (vol. iii. 
 par. 3,) had ever conceived of spi- 
 ritual things in a manner whoHy 
 gross and temporal, and the answer 
 was, therefore, precisely that which 
 ought to have been given. 
 
 And here let me ask. Had the 
 learned Archbishop, in bringing 
 forth this passage of St. IrenEeus, 
 had nothing else in view but to dis- 
 charge a duty to his conscience, and 
 to his God, by explaining the re^ doc- 
 trine of primitive Christianity on this 
 contested point, would it not have 
 been natural for him to observe, 
 that fficumenius, instead of drawing 
 the same inference viith himself (the 
 Archbishop) from the extract which 
 he gives _ from Irenseus, actually 
 declscres himself a trite Papist, when, 
 m his own words, he attempts to 
 elucidate the same subject P Ex- 
 plaining the meaning of fliose words 
 of St. Paul, "He that eateth and 
 
Mr. I're/icL'} 
 
 drinketh iinwortliily, eateth and 
 drinketh damnation to liimself, not 
 discerning the Lord's body," CEcu- 
 ■menius says — 
 
 Mrj hiaKpivav TOVTe(rTi, fit] e^era- 
 ffflC, ^ijSe evvoav tcov irpoKUfiivav 
 TO ^eyedos. Ei yap fiadoifiev, ris 
 wore ea-Tiv o irpoiffifuurs, ov bfrjdri- 
 iTOfieBa irepov, aW avTO tovto jj^as 
 vricfieiv irapa<TK.fva(Tei. — (Bourn. Ed. 
 Morel. Paris, 1631, fol. vol. i. p. 
 523. " Not discerning : that is, not 
 accurately inquiring iato, nor sensi- 
 ble of, the grandeur of the things 
 that He before us. For, did we but 
 learn who it is that is there, never 
 should we be ia want of any other 
 incitement; this alone would be 
 sufficient to impress awe upon our 
 minds, and regulate our behaviour." 
 
 Tt yap effTi ^Y)tTiv o apros ; 
 brjXovoTt TO aaip.a Xptorou. — I&id. 
 "For what is," says he, " the bread ? 
 Why, it is the body of Christ." 
 
 Is it possible, therefore, let me 
 ask of aay impartial Christian, that 
 (Eeumenius, who has thus expressed 
 himself, could have preserve'd this 
 glorious extract from St. Irenseus 
 wrth the intention of wresting it 
 into evidence, as Archbishop Tiflot- 
 son has endeavoured to do, against 
 the doctrine of Transubstantiatio^ ? 
 Would he not, too, had he thought 
 like the Protestant archbishop, have 
 seized with avidity this very oppor- 
 tune occasion, of stigmatizing, with 
 vehemence equal to that o^his 
 lordship, the doctrine which we 
 Catholics profess, and at the same 
 time of developing that which is 
 upheld by the Church of England ? 
 
 But the most astonishing instance 
 of the Archbishop's want of candour 
 in making extracts from some few 
 fathers of the Church is exhibited in 
 those passages which he has ouUed 
 from the great St. Augustine., Who- 
 ever has the slightest tincture of 
 acquaintance with the works of this 
 holy father cannot but observe how 
 
 TBANSUBSTANTIATION. 
 
 99 
 
 very unsuitable his language is, 
 upon all occasions, whenever he 
 touches upon the sacrament of the 
 Euoliarist, to that mode of inter- 
 pretation in which the same subject 
 IS treated by Protestants. TiEotson, 
 however, instead of exerting the 
 vigour of his genius to disentangle 
 the Protestant from those embar- 
 rassments in which innumerable 
 passages from the works of St. 
 Augustine must of necessity involve 
 him, has the ai't, and at the same 
 time the imprudence, to repose the 
 whole strength of his cause upon 
 some detached sentences and loose 
 unconnected expressions of that 
 father, the meaning of which he evi- 
 dently shows that he does not, or 
 rathei- «iiat he wiU not understand. 
 
 The whole tendency of the pas- 
 sages in question goes to show that 
 the flesh and blood of Christ are 
 really received in the sacrament. 
 St. Augustine inculcates over and 
 over again, that although Christ's 
 body, according to the supposition 
 of its being eaten in a carnal and 
 temporal manner, bke other common 
 meats, profiteth nothing ; yet, eaten 
 in a spiritual and sacramental man- 
 ner, m opposition to the gross 
 dwelling of mere flesh and blood, is 
 the source of life and sanctification 
 to the soul. He affirms again and 
 again, that his words concerning his 
 flesh are not mere draughts of 
 fiction; but that he is present iu 
 the reality, in the substantiality, 
 though not after a visible, corporeal, 
 or carnal manner. 
 
 This is thS truly Catholic doctrine 
 which St. Augustine, with incessant 
 industry, in almost every page, in- 
 culcates. " Ye are not," he makes 
 Christ himself to say, interpreting 
 his words, " to eat this body as ye 
 now see it; hut this same body, 
 being in a spiritual and invisible 
 manner in the Sacrament, ye are ta 
 eat, or ?/« have no life in yon." 
 
100 
 
 TKiNSUBSTANIIATION'. 
 
 l^d Evening . 
 
 Before I conclude, I must not 
 omit to say that I had an answer to 
 give, if I had time, as to the cup or 
 ehalice, upon which my learned 
 friend has so ingeniously and so 
 sophistically argued. St. Luke xxii. 
 17 : — " And he took the cup and 
 gave thanks, and said. Take this and 
 divide it among yourselves :" (xxii. 
 18,) " Eor I say unto you, I will not 
 drink of the fruit of the vine until 
 the kingdom of God shall come." 
 Now, tms chalice, according to the 
 very evidence of the text ijiself, is 
 not the second part of the holy 
 Sacrament, but that solemn cup of 
 wine which belonged as a libation 
 to the offering and eatiag of the 
 Paschal Lamb, and which, oeiug an 
 especial figure of the holy chalice, 
 was there drunk of by our Saviour 
 and given to the apostles, with the 
 declaration that it should not be 
 drank of any more untilrit should be 
 drank anew in the kingdom of God ; 
 that is to say, in the celebration of 
 the blessed Sacrament of his blood 
 of the New Testament. And by 
 this place it seems to be confirmed 
 that the words in St. Matthew, xxvi. 
 29— "I will not drink of the fruit 
 of the vine," &c. had reference to 
 this cup of the old law, although 
 they are here, by repetition or reca- 
 pitulation, spoken after the holy 
 chalice. At all events, whatever may 
 be the allusion, I am sure my rev. 
 opponent is not inclined to maintain 
 seriously that mere wine, new or old, 
 IS dnmk inthe kingdom of heaven. 
 
 But to quit this subject. The 
 grand ontis, after all, that sits so 
 heavily on the shoulders of my 
 learned friend, is to explain away 
 all antiquity, and to tell us how the 
 doctrine of Transubstaatiation could 
 possibly have sprung up in the 
 world at any period subsequent to 
 the apostles ; now it is that all the 
 fathers of the Church should have 
 been themselves deceived, or should 
 
 have thus unanimously struggled by 
 their tongues to deceive others; 
 how it is that the Greek Church, 
 who separated from us so many cen- 
 turies ago, and the Nestorians and 
 Eutyohians, who separated from us 
 in the fourth or fifth century, still 
 with one accordant voice maintain 
 the doctrine of Trans ubstantiation. 
 I should Kke to hear the learned 
 gentleman for a whole week toge- 
 ther, if he would but attempt to give 
 a satisfactory answer to these en- 
 tanglements. Why, even on the 
 supposition that we could notprove 
 it from this argument ; if the books 
 of the New Testament had been 
 irrecoverably lost, as some of them 
 most inoontestably have been ; were 
 it so fully proved in Scripture, still 
 would 1 abide by the uninterrupted 
 doctrine of ages, and just as firmly 
 and truly beheve that doctrine as I 
 believe by tradition that the city of 
 Rome is placed on the very spot 
 where it formerly was, at least as 
 to some part of its building, which 
 plainly shows its antiquity. 
 
 Gentlemen, I have finished ; I aon 
 satisfied with my exertions, though 
 I am not satisfied with my feeble 
 efforts as of consequence when com- 
 pared with the splendid effusions, 
 the metaphorical flourishes of my 
 rev. opponent. 
 
 [The learned gentleman's hour 
 having elapsed, John Kendal, Esq. 
 the chairman on the part of the 
 Catholics, arose to announce that, on 
 the foRowrng Tuesday, a fresh sub- 
 ject would come under discussion, 
 namely, the Sacrifice of the Mass 
 and that Mr. Erench would make 
 the first speech on that occasion.] 
 
 We certify that this Report is faith- 
 fully and correctly given. 
 
 Rev. J. CuMMNG, M.A. 
 D. Ebench, Esq. 
 
 Barrisier-ai~h<UB, 
 CHAS. MiTBTJUY ABCHEB, 
 Iteporter 
 
101 
 
 Thibd Evening, Tuesday, Apkil 9, 1839. 
 
 SUBJECT : 
 
 SACIIIFICB OE THE MASS. 
 
 Mr. Ekbnch. — Ladies and gen- 
 tlemen, I rise once more with 
 alacrity to enter that arena iato 
 which I have been invited by my 
 learned and talented opponent ; and 
 [ must say, that I rise on this occa- 
 sion equafly pleased with the retro- 
 spect of my past exertions in this 
 glorious cause, as with my anticipa- 
 tions of those which I am about to 
 make this evening, with the assist- 
 ance of Almighty God, which I have 
 most fervently implored, — I say, 
 which I am about to make tms 
 evening, in tracing the Sacrifice of 
 the Mass, directly, from age to age, 
 up to the very times of the apostles. 
 Nay, 1 intend to do more; what- 
 ever surprise it may excite in my 
 learned friend, I intend to prove 
 that th«i Sacrifice of the Mass is 
 pointed out specifically in the New 
 Testament itself. Yes, gentlemen, 
 I once more raise my voice in this 
 assembly to combat my opponent, as 
 a fondly attached son of my Mother 
 Church— to combat for that Church, 
 which alone is covered with the hoar 
 of ages, amidst the innumerable 
 churches that, in this land of fickle- 
 ness and inconstancy, are perpetually 
 rising around her, all envymg her, 
 and vainly claiming her unpartici- 
 pated honours. But know, ladies 
 and gentlemen, these honours cUng 
 to her inseparably, and are not to be 
 wrang from her either by violence 
 or by fraud. The Catholic Church, 
 as we have seen, has been heard, in 
 every age since the time of the 
 apostles; and, as I shall prove to 
 you demonstrably this evening— in 
 every age by a duly ordained and 
 
 consecrated priesthood, descending 
 in one continued stream of succes- 
 sion from the days of the apostles ; 
 in every age, I say, by such a priest- 
 hood, has the Sacrifice of the Mass 
 been offered up in her majestic, 
 temples. > 
 
 If, on the other hand, my friend 
 say the Sacrifice of the. Mass, which 
 I am advocating, be, as my learned 
 friend wiU no doubt contend this 
 evening, if it be but an error and 
 corruption of Christianity, and not 
 of apostolic origin, 1 then must im- 
 pose on the shoulders of my learned 
 friend a burden that wiU be great 
 indeed; I must call upon him, in 
 that case, and I shall reiterate the 
 caUing until I have a satisfactory 
 reply — I shall call upon him to point 
 out in what age the Sacrifice of the 
 Mass did arise ; I shall request him, 
 by historical data, and not by wild • 
 conjectures, to specify some given 
 period, and I will allow him much 
 latitude in this investigation. If he 
 chooses, he may take any given 
 compass witliin fifty years ; if that 
 be not sufiicient, I will give him a 
 century ; if he is discontented with 
 that, I win give him any two cen- 
 turies, or any three centuries_, within 
 the compass of which he wiU most 
 indubitably be enabled to teE us, 
 with something like precision, when 
 it was that this imposition was first 
 practised upon the Christian world. 
 When, I say, did this sudden, 
 simultaneous act, mar and alter the 
 whole system of primitive behef 
 over all Christendom ? which pri- 
 mitive belief -wa wiU suppose, for the 
 sake of argument, however unlikely 
 
i02 
 
 SACBiriCiS OF THE MASS. 
 
 it may be, we will siippose to have 
 been the belief of Calviri. How, 
 then, I say, on such a supposition, 
 was the Sacrifice of the Mass intro- 
 duced into the world ? How, let 
 the learned gontleman tell rae, was 
 it finally established? Was there 
 no controyersy when it planted its 
 first foot, if I may use the expres- 
 sion ? Was there no man of common 
 education — no man, who, hke my 
 lesfcfled friend himself, loathing the 
 very shadow of such an institute, 
 was ready to dispute the contested 
 point, and to declaim, with all the 
 vehemence with which the learned 
 gentleman wiU thunder this erening, 
 against the Sacrifice of the Mass ? 
 Was there no Calvinist at his post 
 when that " abominable supersti- 
 tion," as it is called in Protestant 
 books, suddenly burst in upon the 
 world, or gradually crept mto it? 
 Was its progress through Christen- 
 dom unopposed, because it was un- 
 perceiTed ? or was it unobstructed, 
 because it was unblamed, or, if you 
 please, 'because it was encouraged 
 and applauded ? 
 
 What ingenious hypothesis of my 
 learned antagonist, indulging in all 
 the luxuriance of his " orientalism," 
 giving the loose reins to aU the 
 mventive powers of his genius, will 
 be able to account, either for the 
 sudden irruption of this Sacrifice of 
 the Mass into the Christian Church, 
 or for the slow, gradual, silent, 
 undermining pace with which it 
 gained ground, amidst the nations 
 of the earth, disfiguring, on all sides, 
 the pure fabric, the Cahinistic fabric, 
 of original Christianity ? taking it 
 for granted, for the sake of argument 
 I mean, that the primitive religion 
 was the Calviaistio creed. When, 
 I ask, and I caU. upon my learned 
 friend to answer, when were the 
 first Catholic altars erected — when 
 were the loud symphonious hosannas 
 of the Catholic Mass first -resounded 
 
 [Zd Evening . 
 
 in any country of the Christian 
 world ? Again, I ask, how will he 
 account for the harmonizing bond of 
 sympathy that exists between the 
 Catholics of the Western pan of the 
 world and the Eutychians and Nes- 
 torians — ^between the Catholics of 
 the Western part of the world and 
 the remote EuUchians and Nes- 
 torians in the East— those schis- 
 matioal churches who sundered from 
 the Eoman see fourteen hundred 
 years ago, and have never been on 
 the least terms of relationship with 
 it since that moment — I ask, and 
 it is a thundering and an appaUing 
 question for my learned friend, I 
 confess, which 1 hope he will an- 
 swer systematically this evening — 
 I ask, what bond of sympathy, let 
 him tell me, not by conjecture, but 
 by proof, was ever known to exist 
 between them that could induce 
 them to coalesce, and to unite with 
 emulating loudness of voice, in cry- 
 ing out to the nations of the world, 
 "We received the Sacrifice of the 
 Mass and the doctrine of Transub- 
 stantiation, by transmission, from 
 apostolic days ? " 
 
 My learned friend, during the 
 course of his eloquent address the 
 other evening, made frequent allu- 
 sion, in his metaphorical flights, to 
 the nature of a stream, and, if I re- 
 coEect rightly, he characterized that 
 pure and that pellucid stream, which, 
 upon the subject of the CathoUo 
 doctrine of Transubstantiation, runs 
 so equaEy through aU the pages of 
 the fathers, as a muddy stream ; but 
 the mad, in my humble opinion on 
 such a subject, is merely in the 
 learned gentleman's own confused 
 imagination. As far as I am able 
 to understand the fathers, there is 
 a most perfect consistency, a most 
 unvarying assertion in every one of 
 them, from beginning to end, as 
 to the "body and blood" of our 
 Lord being in the sacrament of 
 
Mr. French.'] 
 
 the Catholic Eucharist ; and I -wlU 
 defy him, turning over aJl the ptiges, 
 the voluminous pages of the fathers, 
 to show me where there is a nega- 
 tive to the assertion of the Catho- 
 lie Catechism, that it is really the 
 body and the blood of our blessed 
 Saviour. 
 
 There are many figurative ex- 
 pressions used, I grant, in Catholic 
 writers; nay, we use fignjative 
 expressions even in our Mass : we 
 call it the " partem, celestem," and 
 " calicem salutis teternm" the celes- 
 tial bread, &c., just as the rod of 
 Moses, after it became a serpent, 
 was stiU caEed a rod, and as the 
 woman, after having been created, 
 was stiU called the rib of Adam. So 
 that there are figurative expressions 
 we never deny; but what I contend 
 is, that every father, both Greek and 
 Roman, has always asserted, most 
 strenuously and most harmoniously, 
 that " the Dod.y and blood of Christ 
 are verily received in the sacrament 
 of the Eucharist, and that he who re- 
 ceives it not cannot inherit eternal 
 life." The learned gentleman would 
 111 vain look for such -an inconsis- 
 tency in our.liturgies, as that which 
 is to be found in the Enghsh Pro- 
 testant Liturgy. What can be — I 
 put it to yourselves, as men of com- 
 mon sense — ^what can be more in- 
 coherent than that which I read in 
 your Common Prayer-book, namely, 
 that'" the body and blood of Christ 
 are verily and indeed received by the 
 faithful in the Sacrament" wliilst it 
 is maintained by Protestants, most 
 clamorously, that they are not there ? 
 But I was going to ask the learned 
 
 fentleman, is a stream less likely to 
 e limpid and incorrupt in propor- 
 tion to its proximity to the fountain- , 
 head, than one which is wandering 
 from it at an immeasurable distance 
 of time and space ? The purport 
 of my metaphorical allusion, thus 
 founded on his own, is simply this 
 
 iACKiriCE OE THE MASS. 
 
 103 
 
 — If the doctrines of primitive an 
 tiquity are to be attested in tliis 
 our mutual endeavour after truth, 
 is that attestation, I ask, in the 
 name of equity and fairness of argu- 
 ment, to be sought for in the records 
 of the sixteenth century ? If you 
 are of opinion, my friends, or if 
 my reverend friend should be of 
 opinion, that to know the doctrines 
 of primitive antiquity, we ougbt'srith 
 more propriety to recur to the 
 writers of the sixteenth centuryj 
 than to the writers of earlier ages, 
 it must certainly be, in their esti- 
 mation, an idle waste of words, on 
 my part, to endeavour to trace 
 back, as I "shall do most lucidly, 
 this evening, the Sacrifice of the 
 Mass to the very days of the apos- 
 tles. 
 
 In furtherance of this object, 
 gentlemen, let me once more re- 
 mind my reverend opponent, that I 
 expect, before the conclusion of this 
 discussion, he will condescend to 
 give me the answer which I have so 
 frequently solicited in our former 
 discussions, — that is, to account, 
 satisfactorily, for this wonderful har- 
 mony and consent existing between 
 the Nestorians and the Eutychians, 
 and the Catholics of the world, as 
 to the doctrine of the Eucharist, and 
 also as -to the Sacrifice of the Mass. 
 Their liturgies are in existence ; we 
 have them here, and I shall open 
 them before you, and read to you 
 respective parts relating to that 
 sacred, that ineffably sacred doc- 
 trine, the body and blood of Christ 
 in the sacrament of the Lucha- 
 rist? 
 
 When was it, I ask, therefore — 
 for these questions have never been 
 answered by any of your Protestant 
 theologians, though so many have 
 endeavoured to extricate themselves 
 out of the entanglement by conjec- 
 tural hypothesis — when was it, 1 
 ask, that all the Calvinists iti the 
 
104 
 
 SAOBIPIOE OF THE MASS. 
 
 world — (for you are to suppress 
 •laughter, and to take it for granted 
 that theirs was the primitive faith) 
 — when was it that they all went to 
 bedj on one dark night, all orthodox, 
 all of sound behef — all sound Cal- 
 vinists — and awoke — oh, wonder of' 
 wonders ! on the following morning, 
 without even the warning notice of 
 a dream as to the coming, the im- 
 pending evil — awoke, 1 say, on the 
 foUowing morning, all rank Papists, 
 all prostrate at the feet of crucifixes 
 ana altars, all listening with solemn 
 and profound devotion to the cele- 
 bration of the Mass. Surely_ my 
 reverend friend, when he is rising 
 to harangue us to-night, cannot, he 
 cannot surely refrain, out of common 
 pity and humanity to his poor be- 
 nighted Uoman OathoUc brethren — ■ 
 he cannot refrain from throwing 
 some faint light, at least, upon the 
 dark involutions of this wondrous, 
 this mysterious tale ! The diffi- 
 culty, I must tell my reverend friend 
 before-hand — for I have been dis- 
 appointed before whenever I have 
 asked the question— the difficulty 
 nlust not be eluded by him this 
 evening, by any ingenious subtlety, 
 nor shrunk from by any pusiHani- 
 Biity. My reverend friend told us, 
 the other evening, in rather boastful 
 language, that he was "an undaunted- 
 son of Scotia," that he was not t-o 
 be intimidated, that he was not to 
 be appalled by any difficulty or dan- 
 ger in the polemical field ; he seemed 
 to exclaim — ^if I may use a classical 
 allusion familiar to the ears of my 
 learned and reverend opponent :— 
 " Talibus viris non labor ullus inso- 
 litus, non locus nUus asper aut ar- 
 duns ; non armatus hostis formido- 
 losus," — Sallust. 
 
 Such, I say, seemed, virtually, to 
 be the exclamation of my learned 
 antagonist — the plain English of 
 which is, paraphrastically at least, 
 no danger inthe polemical field, no 
 
 \%dlhemiig. 
 
 difficulty whatever can throw me 
 into a moment's consternation, or 
 deter me from giving a plain, instan- 
 taneous, unequivocal reply ! Well, 
 then, I say, since my reverend op- 
 ponent is so bold, so courageous, so 
 daring a polemic, I have now pro- 
 posed to him a. difficulty which wiU 
 require his utmost strength, and 
 agflity, and dexterity, to surmount. 
 But alas ! my friends, I am afraid 
 you win be disappointed — I am 
 afraid that it will meet with the 
 same result which the same question 
 met with on the last occasion that 
 I put it : namely, that it wiU either 
 be passed over in total silence, or 
 that, it win be referred to one of 
 those convenient " dark ages" for 
 an extrication from the entangle- 
 ment — which are the usual resorts 
 of our Protestant antagonists. Yes, 
 my friends, that it wiD. be referred\ 
 to that convenient cover ^and place 
 of exile for almost every event which 
 puzzles the investigation of Protes- 
 tants, when they are asked to'^ve 
 a satisfactory answer to the Catho- 
 lic cts to the first appearance of the 
 Eucharist or the Mass, which we 
 contend to be as old as Christianity 
 itself. 
 
 Now, my friends, I must intorm 
 you that the uniform answer we 
 receive from our theological anta- 
 
 fonists, either in places of public 
 iscussion or in private conversa- 
 tion, is uniformly, " Oh I it must 
 have sprung up in some of the dark 
 ages ; I am not obKged to point out 
 when it, sprang up, but most un- 
 doubtedly it was in one of those 
 dark ages that both the Sacrifice of 
 the Mass and the doctrine of Tran- 
 substautiation dated their origin." 
 And here, before I come to illus- 
 trate and explain what we mean by 
 the Sacrifice of the Mass, I shall beg 
 leave to use one argument, in corro- 
 boration of the perpetuity of this 
 Sacrifice since the days of the apos- 
 
Mr. French.'\ 
 
 SAOEmOE OF THE MASS. 
 
 105 
 
 ties, which I know will not be ad- 
 mitted by my Calvinistio friend, 
 but "which we always insist upon to 
 be one of the most incontrovertible 
 arguments — we always, as Catho- 
 lics, and most 'unanswerably, as we 
 contend, appeal to the voice of the 
 Church of God, which must be 
 granted to be our Chirrch, until the 
 existence in every age of some other 
 Church agreeing with Calvinism or 
 Luther be proved— and I am sorry 
 that we 'began this discussion by 
 first taiing Transubstantiation, and 
 then going to the Mass. , It appears 
 to me that we, both of us, have 
 committed an error, in not taking 
 the Rule of Faith first, for I should 
 there have proved to you, most un- 
 equivocally, that there is a Church — 
 founded by Christ — which Church 
 aU Christians are bound to obey, 
 and that that Church can be no other 
 but the Catholic church, because no 
 other Church has records to show 
 of its existence in aU ages. All the 
 chui*hes now in existence, not ex- 
 cepting that of Calvin, the sainted 
 instructor of my reverend friend, 
 every one of them sprang up, as you 
 weR know, at the pgriodof the Re- 
 formation, each of them maintain- 
 ing that theirs is the real Catholic 
 Church. But the great pity is, that 
 they can give no proof to the world 
 of their being Catholic, or persuade 
 others to think them Catholic, much 
 less to call them Catholic ; tbough 
 they say every day of their lives, 
 " I believe iu the holy Catholic 
 Church." But the Catholic church 
 has this advantage over them all: 
 it is called Cathoho by its friends as 
 well as by its enemies ; and the con- 
 sequence is, there is but one Catho- 
 lic church, speaking one language, 
 jn all ages; that is, holding one 
 tiniform system of tenets, and in- 
 culcating those tenets regularly and 
 faithfully ; and in the front of them 
 all, gloriously ilLuinined, is the doc- 
 
 trine of Transubstantiation and the 
 Sacrifice of the Mass. 
 
 And here I hope my learned 
 friend wiU excuse me, if, in the 
 course of this argument, I enliven 
 this our dry discussion by reading a 
 few verses, which I think extremely 
 appropriate to the subject in hand; 
 at all events, it wiU give me a greater 
 facility in conveying my meaning to 
 you in the future progress of this 
 argumentation. I expect, as usual, 
 some little saUies of my learned 
 friend's wit for indulging in this 
 excursion, and wandering into the 
 realms of poetry ; but, though the 
 poetry be colloquial, the thoughts 
 are condensed with such solidity in 
 the few lines I am about to submit 
 to him, that I think he will find in 
 them copious matter to meditate 
 upon, as well as to reply to. It is 
 a little tract that I wrote about a 
 year ago, to point out, as it were 
 by the finger, the Catholic Church. 
 Addressing Protestants, it says : — 
 
 " Built by its founder on a lofty hill, 
 The Church caj'd Catholic is call'd so still; 
 The Church by -wMch all nations were bap- 
 tized, 
 Which none who souglit eternal life despised; 
 The Church in vain the gates of hell assail 
 Based on a tow'ring rock, not lowly vale, 
 That every nation might the eye uplift. 
 And recognise on high th' eternal gift. 
 Say, Protestants, if this the Church ye hold. 
 What sacred arcliives have your deeds eu- 
 
 roU'd ? 
 Who were your heads in each successive age 
 What book can show tlie long-recording page. 
 Or what tradition, if your books should fail. 
 Is found to prop your legendary tale ? 
 Where was your Church when first the Mass 
 
 began ? 
 Why hurl'd she not her thunders at the man 
 Whose tongue first broach'd that daring in- 
 novation. 
 Still call'd by Catholics Transutstantiatianl 
 If ye the Church when that hard tenet rose. 
 Why fail'd her guardians to ward off her 
 
 foes? 
 Dwelt in your Church the Spirit of all Truth, 
 When that old dogma was in days of youth t 
 pould no librarian in your Church be found 
 To stigmatize th' infliotors of the wound,— 
 No priest; no layman, in the Christian weal, 
 To check the spreading sore, or none tohea.? 
 Could no pure Christian in the world ap 
 pear, . 
 
 To shed o'er dying truth one farewell teu J 
 JB 3 
 
105 
 
 SACBmOE OP THE MASS. 
 
 [Sd Evening. 
 
 ^^iew next those glorious Liturgies of old, 
 
 Read what those ancient monuments unfold; 
 
 What the Priest taught, what nations un- 
 derstood, 
 
 Was it the real body and the blood. 
 
 Or was the consecrated bread and wine 
 
 A shadowy type and unsubstantial sign ? 
 
 Alas ! all teach alike, Christ Jesus whole. 
 
 The Flesh, the Blood, Divinity and Soul ! 
 
 Th' Eutychians still, and the Nestorians 
 thrive, 
 
 And flourish in the East a numerous hive ; 
 
 In the fifth century, as all agree. 
 
 These dropp'd off, sunder'd from the parent 
 tree ; ' 
 
 No more than you our hallow'd Church they 
 bless, 
 
 Yet Transubstantiation all confess ; 
 
 All cry aloud to those who dare oppose, 
 
 In no dark age the sacred tenet rose ; 
 
 It was no tenet gradually creeping 
 
 Into the Church when all mankind were 
 sleeping ; 
 
 It sprang up, then, when all th' apostles 
 shared 
 
 What Christ his hody and his blood declared." 
 
 I have entered into the regions of 
 poetry on this occasion, my friends, 
 for no other purpose than that of 
 placing before you, in very concise 
 and pithy language, very momentous 
 matter — matter which would take 
 many diffuse sentences in prose to 
 express clearly; whereas, here you 
 have it impressed upon your memo- 
 ries, in a very compact mode, by 
 the help of a few rhymes, which I 
 hope will long tiagle in your ears. 
 Another advantage is, that it will 
 sink more deeply into the mind of 
 the learned gentleman, so that he 
 will be able to grapple with me in a 
 £rmer manner. 
 
 But before I enter on the Sacri- 
 fice of the Mass, that is, to explain 
 to you what it is, it may not be 
 unseasonable to mention that the 
 whole Greek schismatic Church, 
 which separated from us in the year 
 890, as well as the numerous Greek 
 Catholics in existence, and who per- 
 form the Sacrifice of the Mass in 
 the Greek language, likewise agree, 
 with all Roman Catholics iu the 
 universe, in declaring that they 
 received the sacred dogma from the 
 Hands of the apostles. The word 
 Mass, according to our Catholic 
 
 interpretation, means the sacrifice 
 of the body and blood of Christ, 
 offered up to God on our holy altars, 
 in an unbloody manner, by the hands 
 of the priest; or what amounts to the 
 same thing, " an external oblation, 
 made to God, of the body and blood 
 of Christ, under the forms of bread 
 and of wine."' Now, my friends, it 
 is manifest by the most ancient re- 
 cords of Christianity, by the unan- 
 swerable and undemable testimony 
 of the fathers, ever since the times 
 of the apostles, by the ancient 
 liturgies of aU. nations, Latins, 
 Greeks, Nestorians, Eutychians, 
 Armenians, Ethiopians, and Copts, 
 and even by the confession of Pro- 
 testants themselves, for which I 
 refer you to the learned Dr. Eield, 
 (book ui. chap. 19,) it is affirmed by 
 all these that the holy Eucharist 
 always has been used in the Church 
 of God, not only as a Sacrament, 
 but also as a Sacrifice, instituted by 
 Christ at his last Supper, for proof 
 of which from the ancient Wreck 
 and Latin fathers 1 refer my re- 
 spected friend to the ancient Greek 
 and Latin fathers, St. Justin and St 
 Irenseus, of the second age. St. 
 Chryaostom and St. Augustine, 
 speaking of the words of the pro- 
 phet Malaohi, refer them to this 
 service; and one of the most 
 remarkable proofs of the doctrine 
 of the Mass is, that almost all the 
 fathers of the Church appeal to the 
 very same text of the ancient Bible 
 to prove that grand sacrifice which 
 constitutes the pride and consolation 
 of the Catholic : — the words of the 
 prophet are, " From the rising of ike 
 sun to tie going down of tlie same, my 
 name shall be great among the Gen- 
 tiles, and in everyplace sacrifice shall 
 be offered unto my name and a clean 
 oblation;" and, for further proof of 
 it, they allude to those words of the 
 Psahnist : — " Thou art a priest for 
 ever, according to the order ofMelchi- 
 
Mr. French.] 
 
 SACE.IMCE or THE MASS, 
 
 107 
 
 sedeek." Psalm ix. 4. It is quoted 
 by St. Cyprian, in the third age; by 
 St. Jerome, St. Epiphanius, and St. 
 Augustine in the fourth; by St. 
 Isidore, and St. Cyril of Alexandria, 
 in the fifth. All these have quoted 
 the very same passage in proof of 
 the Saoriftce of the Mass, or, as 
 they argue, " the priest, according 
 to the order of Aaron, sacrificed 
 beasts; but the Sacrifice of Melchi- 
 sedeck was bread and wine, as we 
 see by referring to Genesis iv. 18. 
 St. Cyprian calls the blessed Eu- 
 charist " a free and fuH sacrifice." 
 St. Cyprian, as you well know, 
 lived in tiie third century. St. 
 Augustine calls it " a free and 
 sovereign sacrifice." — I)e Givit. Dei, 
 book X. chap. 20. Eusebius calls 
 it "an expiation." St. Cyril- of 
 Jenisalem, " a spiritual sacrifice, 
 an unbloody worship, a propitiatory 
 sacrifice," in his Mystic Catechism, 
 chap. X. But there needs no other 
 proof to substantiate this but 
 what the Church of England itself 
 teaches ; tor if " the body and blood 
 of Christ be verily and indeed taken 
 and received by the faithful," and 
 consecrated by the priest, it must 
 necessarily follow that they offer 
 them up verili/ and indeed on the 
 altar, and that they are an oblation 
 of mercy; or how can Christ be 
 acceptable to his Eather, or how 
 can the virtues of his passion be 
 applied more effectually than in 
 his own very Self. My learned 
 friend will, no doubt, insinuate, after 
 the Protestant fashion, that the 
 Mass was an invention of after 
 ages ; but, my Protestant brethren, 
 I am sure you wiU agree with me, 
 that scarcely one of you ever sus- 
 pected that we could prove, by au- 
 thentic records, that 1,400 years ago 
 it went under the same appellation 
 as it does now — ^namely, the sacrifice 
 of the Mass. St. Ambrose, in the 
 fourth century, writes thus : — " I 
 
 contiaued to discharge ipy duty and 
 began to say Mass."— Lib. ii. epist, 
 14.. Classes, t. xi. p. 853. 
 
 In the year of our Lord 440, 
 (the words are very remarkable,) 
 St. Leo says : — 
 
 " In order that the discipline of 
 our ohuiohes may in all things agree, 
 this should be observed — that when 
 a more solemn feast calls the people 
 together, and more assemble toge- 
 ther than the church can contain, 
 the offering of the iaorifice ought to 
 be repeated, lest any be deprived of 
 it; for both religion and reason 
 demand that the sacrifice should be 
 so often repeated as there are people 
 to partake ; otherwise, if the custom 
 of one Mass be followed, they who 
 cannot find place must be deprived 
 of the sacnfice. We, therefore, 
 anxiously exhort you, that yon do 
 not neglect, but join with us as in 
 faith, so in practice, to observe a 
 rule that by tradition has emim 
 down to us" — St. Leo, Ep. ii. 
 71, ad Diuc. Alex. p. 437. Parisiis, 
 1675. 
 
 Here, then, we have the Sacrifice 
 of the Eucharist plainly spoken of, 
 first, by St. Ambrose in the fourth 
 century, and, secondly, by St. Leo, 
 who lived in the fifth. But we 
 must mount a little higher than St. 
 Ambrose and St. Leo in our inves- 
 tigations, for we Catholics are noli 
 content with the testimony of the 
 fourth century : we can go much 
 higher. Pirst of all, we will mount 
 to the year 254, and hear from Pope 
 Cornehus, another account, vrritten 
 in the year 256, who remarks, that, 
 " on account of the persecution 
 of the Christians, they could not 
 publicly celebrate Mass." — CcikH. 
 Oener. t. i. p. 576. 
 
 The words are, neqve agere missus 
 licet, which is good Latin for 
 saying Mass to this day. 
 
 And now. my friends, we must 
 mount up a little liigher still, ir 
 
lOS 
 
 SACEIPICE or THE i^.A^S. 
 
 £3(^ Ihening 
 
 order to shaciletlie tongue of my 
 reverend opponent in his invectives 
 against at least the antiquity,' how- 
 ever he may call in question the 
 validity of the Sacrifice of the Mass. 
 We go to Pope Pius I. Now this is 
 worthy of all your attention. I am 
 sure my learned friend has his pen 
 in hand to be ready to note down 
 the memorable words as they flow 
 from my lips. Pius I.thus speaks, 
 amio Domini 166 : — 
 , " Our sister "Euprepia, as you 
 well recollect, made over her house 
 to the poor, where we dwell and 
 celebrate Mass." — Concil. Oenerale, 
 torn. i. p. 576. Edit. Labe. 576. 
 Now, gentlemen, what argument 
 my learned friend can bring against 
 the antiquity of the Mass, as far as 
 records go to substantiate it, I know 
 not. There is only one strong 
 logical argument against it that I 
 can supply him with, and it is that 
 we have in our statute books, a Kttle 
 more than a century ago, that it was 
 " high treason to celebrate Mass 
 in these realms." That is certainly 
 a very parliamentary argument 
 against its antiquity, and 1 hope 
 that the learned gentleman, in turn- 
 ing over his voluminous knowledge, 
 will suggest something in the way 
 of argument a little more solid and 
 convincing in a reasoning age than 
 to refer the antiquity of the Sa- 
 crifice of the Mass to the mere 
 decision or denouncement of the 
 legislature. Gentlemen, I wish to 
 avail myself of the short time that 
 still remains to me, by expatiating a 
 little upon, the ancient liturgies. 
 The ancient liturgies that are come 
 down to us are the most authentic 
 monuments- of antiquity furnished 
 by ecclesiastical history. It is not 
 for me, as a Catholic, to endeavour 
 to impress this ivpon your minds, 
 because coming from a CathoKc, 
 the testimony may appear either 
 more or less suspicious. I shall. 
 
 therefore, beg to show^ you the 
 nature of these liturgies, from 
 which I shall read rather copiously 
 when I have a little more time. I 
 shall beg to show you the nature of 
 them from the mouth of a Protes- 
 tant archbishop. 
 
 " As for the liturgies ascribed to 
 St. Peter, St. Mark, and St. James," 
 says Dr. Wake, a Protestant arch- 
 bishop, " there is not, I suppose, 
 any learned man who believes them 
 written by those holy men, and set 
 forth in the manner they are now 
 published. They were, indeed, the 
 ancient liturgies of the three, if 
 not of the four Patriarchal churches, 
 viz. the Roman (perhaps that of 
 Antioch too), the Alexandrian and 
 Jerusalem churches, first founded, 
 or at least governed by St. Peter, 
 St. Mark, and St. James. How- 
 ever, since it can hardly be doubted 
 but that these holy apostles and 
 evangelists did give some directions 
 for the administration of the blessed 
 Eucharist in those Churches, it may 
 reasonably be presumed that some 
 of those orders are still remaining 
 in those liturgies, which have been 
 brought down to us under their 
 names, and that, (mark, my Pro- 
 testant friends, most attentively the 
 foUowing words,) and tlmt those 
 prayers, wherein they all agree, in 
 sense at least, if not in words, were 
 Jkst prescribed in the same or like 
 terms by those apostles and evange- 
 lists." — Apostolic Fathers, p. 103. 
 
 Again, listen, my Protestant 
 friends, to your celebrated Bishop 
 BuH. " I add," says he, " to what 
 has already been observed, the con- 
 sent of all the Christian churches in 
 ■ the world, however distant from each 
 other, in the holy Eucharist or Sacra- 
 ment of the Lord's Supper, which 
 consent is indeed wonderful. All the 
 ancient liturgies agree in this form 
 of prayer, almost in the same words, 
 but fully and exactly in the aamt 
 
Mr. French.] 
 
 SAORIPICE OE THE MASS. 
 
 109 
 
 sense, order and method; which, who- 
 ever attentively considers, must be 
 convinced that this order of prayer 
 was delivered to the •several churches 
 in the world, in the very first plan- 
 tation and settlement of them" — 
 Sennons on Common Prayer. Serm. 
 13, vol. i. 
 
 Now it will be for me to prove 
 that, amidst these innumerable 
 liturgies, they all agree as to the 
 substantiality of the words used. 
 First, the Liturgy of St. James, the 
 apostle ; these were the words of 
 the priest at the beginning of the 
 Mass : — 
 
 From the Liturgy of St. James. 
 Renaudot, tom. ii. 
 
 "Priest. O God the Father, 
 who, through thy great and ineffable 
 love for men, didst send thy Son 
 into the world, to bring back the 
 wandering sheep, turn not away 
 thy face from us, whilst we cele- 
 brate this spiritual and unbloody 
 sacrifice." — Page 30. 
 
 " Priest. This is my body, 
 which is broken, and given for you 
 and for many, for the remission of 
 sius and eternal life. ..... This is 
 
 my blood of the New Testament, 
 which is poured forth for you, and 
 for many faithful, and is given for 
 the remission of sins and eternal 
 
 life We offer to thee this 
 
 tremendous and unbloody sacrifice, 
 that thou mayest not deal with us, 
 Lord, according to our sins, nor 
 repay us according to our iniqui- 
 ties ; but according to thy mercy, 
 and thy great and ineffable love for 
 men, mayest efface our sins, the 
 sins of thy servants offeriug their 
 supplications to thee." — Page 32. 
 
 " Priest. And may make what is 
 mixed in this chalice, the blood of the 
 New Testament, the saving blood, 
 the life-giving blood, the heavenly 
 blood, the b&od giving health to 
 souls and bodies, the blood -of our 
 
 Lord God and Saviour Jesus Christ; 
 for the remission of sins and eternal 
 life to those who receive it." — 
 People. " Amen."— Page 33. 
 
 " Priest. Wherefore we offer to 
 thee, Lord, this tremendous and 
 unbloody sacrifice, for thy holy 
 places, which thou hast enlightened 
 by the manifestation of Christ, thy 
 Son," &c.— Page 34. 
 
 The Deacon shall say, " Grant thy 
 blessing, Lord. Again, and 
 again, through this holy oblation 
 and propitiatory sacrifice, which is 
 offered to God the Father, is sanc- 
 tified, completed, and perfected, by 
 the descent of the Holy Ghost, 
 . ... we earnestly pray," &c. — 
 Pages 38, 39. 
 
 From the Liturgy of St. Mark. 
 . Renaudot, tom. i. 
 
 " Priest. We offer to thee this 
 rational and unbloody worship, 
 which aO nations, from the rising to 
 the setting sua, from the north to 
 the south, offei: to thee: because 
 thy name is great in all nations ; 
 and, in every place, incense is 
 offered to thy holy name, and sacri- 
 Hce, and oblation." — Page 145. 
 
 " People. 
 Lord." 
 
 Holy, Holy, Holy. 
 
 The Priest signs the holy mys- 
 teries with the sign of the cross, say- 
 ing : " Truly heaven and' earth are 
 full of thy glory, by the manifes- 
 tation of our Lord and God, and 
 Saviour Jesus Christ. Grant, O 
 God, fliat this sacrifice may be also 
 full of thy blessing, by the coming 
 of thy most Holy Spirit. Because 
 our Lord, and God, and Sovereign 
 King, Jesus Christ, in the night in 
 which he delivered himself for our 
 sins, and underwent death in his 
 flesh for all, sitting at table with 
 his holy disciples and apostle.s, took 
 bread in his holy and immaculate 
 and imiocent hands, boking up to 
 
ito 
 
 SACMHCE OF THE MASS. 
 
 [3af Evening. 
 
 Iieaven to thee his Tather, and our 
 God, and the God of all ; he gave 
 thanks, blessed it, sanctified it, 
 brake it, and gave it to his holy and 
 blessed disciples and apostles, say- 
 ing. Take, eat." 
 
 From the Liturgy of St. Chry- 
 sostom. Qoar. 
 The Prayer of Oblation. 
 I' Priest. Lord God Al- 
 mighty, who only art holy .... 
 make us worthy to offer to thee 
 gifts and spiritual sacrifices, for 
 our own sins, and the ignorance of 
 the people ; and grant, that we may 
 find grace before thee, and that our 
 zaerifice may be acceptable to thee, 
 and that the good spirit of thy 
 grace may dweU in us, and in these 
 offerings, and in all thy people." — 
 Page 74. 
 
 Prom the Syriac Liturgy of St. 
 Basil, one of the most ancient 
 in use among the Syrians. Re- 
 ' 4, tom. ii. 
 
 " The Priest. Lord . . . make 
 us worthy to stand before thee, 
 with a pure heart; and to admi- 
 nister ana offer to thee this vene- 
 rable and unbloody sacrifiee, for 
 the destruction of our sins," &e. — 
 Page 549. 
 
 And here, gentlemen, pay par- 
 ticular attention to ttie Litmgy of 
 the Nestorians, who separated from 
 MS, as I told you, more than 1,400 
 years ago, millions of whom, still in 
 existence, celebrate Mass, Jhough 
 they separated from the OathoBc 
 Church 1,400 years ago. 
 
 From the Liturgy used by the Nes- 
 torians, called the' Litiugy of the 
 Holy Apostles. Benaudot, tom. ii. 
 
 The Priest holes down, before the 
 Altar, and says in secret, 
 " Lord, our God .... by'thy 
 
 inexpressible grace, sanctify this 
 
 tacrifioe," &o.— Page 587. 
 
 "Motherof oar Lord Jesus Christ, 
 pray for me to thy only Son . • _. . 
 that he would vouchsafe to forgive 
 me my offences and sins, and receive 
 this sacrifice from my weak and 
 sinful hands," &c.— Page 588. 
 
 The Priest breaks the host, which 
 he holds in his hands, in two 'parts ; 
 places that which is in his left hand 
 on the paten, and with the other, 
 which he holds in his right hand, he 
 makes a sign over the chalice, saying, 
 " The precious blood is signed with 
 the holy body of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ. In the name of the Father, 
 and of the Son, and of the Holy 
 Ghost. Amen." 
 
 Then he dips it to the middle into 
 the chalice, and with it signs the 
 body, which is on the paten, saying, 
 " The holy body is signed with the 
 propitiatory blood of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ. In the name of the Father, 
 and of the Son, and of the Holy 
 Ghost. Amen." 
 
 From the Liturgy used by the Nes- 
 torians, and called the Liturgy of 
 Theodoras. Benaudot, tom. ii. 
 
 The Prayer before the Altar. 
 
 " The Priest. O Lord God . . . 
 grant by thy grace and thy abundant 
 mercies .... that, while we stand 
 before thee with pure consciences, 
 and offer to thee this living, holy, 
 acceptable, glorious, rational, excel- 
 lent and uhbloody sacrifice, we may 
 find grace and mercy with thee." — 
 Page 615. 
 
 "We offer before thy glorious 
 Trinity, with a contrite heart, and in 
 the spirit of humility, this living 
 and holy sacrifice, which is the 
 mystery of the Lamb of God, who 
 taketh' away the sins of the world." 
 —Page 619. 
 
 "Priest. May the grace of the 
 Holy Ghost come down upon us, 
 and upon this oblation; may he 
 dwell and infuse himself on tliia 
 
Mr. French,, i 
 
 SACKmcE or the mass. 
 
 Ill 
 
 bread and on this chalice ; may he 
 bless, and sanctify, and sign them, 
 in the name of the Pather, and of 
 the Son, and of the Holy Ghost : 
 and may the bread, by the virtue of 
 thy name, this bread, I say, be made 
 the holy body of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ : and this chalice, the blood 
 of our Lord Jesus Christ ; that 
 whoever, with true faith, shall eat 
 of this bread, and drink of this 
 chalice, to him they may be, Lord, 
 the pardon of faults and -remission 
 of sins," &c.— Page 621. 
 
 From the Liturgy of Nestorius. 
 Henaudot. torn. ii. 
 
 The Priest having invited the 
 people to raise their minds to heaven, 
 where the Seraphim are perpetually 
 singinff hymns to the sanctity of God, 
 extends and raises his hands and 
 says, "The living and rational ob- 
 lation of our first fruits, and the 
 unbloody {non-immolatd) and accep- 
 table victim of the Son of our race, 
 which prophets mystically fore- 
 told ; which apostles have openly 
 preached ; which martyrs have tes- 
 tified by their blood ; which doctors 
 have eiplained in the Church ; 
 which priests have offered and im- 
 molated on the holy •altar; which 
 Levites have carried in their arms ; 
 which the people have received for 
 the expiation of their sins, is now 
 being offered to God, the Lord of 
 all, for all creatures." Answer — " It 
 is meet and just."— Pages 626, 627. 
 
 "Priest. He (Christ) left us a 
 memorial' of our salvation, this mys- 
 tery which we are offering before 
 thee. Por when the time was come 
 in which he was delivered up for 
 the life of the world, after he had 
 supped, according to the Pasch of 
 the law of Moses, he took bread 
 into his holy, immaculate, and unde- 
 filed hands, he blessed and brake it, 
 and ate, and gave it to his disciples, 
 and saidj ' Take, and eat aU ye of 
 
 it : this is my body, which is broken 
 for you for the remission of sius.' 
 In like manner, he mixed in the 
 chaKce wine and water ; he blessea 
 and drank, and gave it to his dis- 
 ciples, and said, ' Di-ink ye all of it : 
 this is my blood of the New Testa- 
 ment, which is shed for many for the 
 remission of sins; and so do, in 
 remembrance of me until I come.' " 
 —Page 629. 
 
 '^Priest. We offer to thee this 
 living, holy, acceptable, excellent, 
 and unbloody sacrifice, for all crea- 
 tures."— Page 630. 
 
 Prom the Coptic Liturgy used by 
 the Jacobites (or Eutychians), 
 called the Liturgy of St. Basil. 
 "" " ', torn. i. 
 
 Prayer after the Altar is prepared. 
 
 " Priest. Do thou, Lord, make 
 us worthy, by the power of thy 
 Holy Spu:it, to perform this mi- 
 nistry . . . and offer to thee this 
 sacrifice of blessing . . . grant that 
 our sacrifice may be accepted before 
 thee, for my sins, and for the follies 
 of thy people," &c. — ^Page 2. 
 
 Prayer of the Kiss of Peace. 
 
 " Priest. The riches of thy bles- 
 siugs, Lord, surpass all power 
 of speech, and all conception of the 
 mind. Thou hast hidden from the 
 wise and prudent, and hast revealed 
 to us little ones, those things which 
 prophets and kings coveted to See, 
 and did not see. Thou hast gra- 
 ciously committed these mysteries 
 to us sinners, that we should admi- 
 nister them, and be sanctified by 
 them. Thou hast manifested to us 
 the dispensation of thy Son, and the 
 sacred rite of this unbloody sacrifice: 
 for this is not a sacrifice of blood, 
 according to the ancient law ; or of 
 justification, according to the fiesh ; 
 but the Lamb is the spii-itual victim, 
 slain by a spiritual and mcorvioreal 
 
112 
 
 S CEIFIOE C* TKE MASS. 
 
 iZd Eoenincf. 
 
 sword, in Ms sacrifice which we offer 
 to tt?e."— Page 12. 
 
 From the Alexandrian Lituigy of 
 St. Basil, taken from the Grseco- 
 Axabio. — Ibid. 
 
 "Priest. Do not reject us sinners, 
 who are offering to thee this tre- 
 mendous and ' unbloody sacrifice,' " 
 p. 57. — "Grant that, with all fear 
 and a pure conscience, we may offer 
 to thee this spiritual and unbloody 
 sacrifice on this holy altar" &o. — 
 Pago 61. 
 
 From the Coptic Liturgy, used by 
 the Jacobites or Eutycmans, called 
 the Liturgy of St. Gregory. Be- 
 naudot, torn. i. 
 
 The Prayer of the Veil. 
 
 {The Prayer of the Veil is said 
 near the veil or curtain, before it is 
 drawn to cover the Sanctuary and to 
 conceal the officiating Priest.) 
 
 "Prayer. OLord . . . make me 
 worthy to assist at thy* holy altar ; 
 let it not turn to my judgment, but 
 may I offer to thee this rational and 
 unbloody sacrifice with a pure con- 
 science," &c. — ^Page 26. 
 
 From the Alexandrian Liturgy of 
 St. Gregory, taken from the Gr«co- 
 Arabic. — Ibid. 
 
 The Prayer of the Veil. 
 " O King of Glory, through thy 
 Inexplicable and immense benignity 
 towards men, thou didst become 
 man without conversion or change, 
 and wert appointed our High-priest. 
 Thou hast committed to us the cele- 
 bration of this Liturgical and un- 
 bloody sacrifice . . . make me worthy 
 to stand at thy holy table, and to 
 consecrate thy immaculate body and 
 thy precious blood .... Thou art 
 he, who dost sanctify and art sanc- 
 tified ; who dost offer, and art 
 offered ; who dost accept, and art 
 accepted; who dost give, and »rt 
 
 given ; and we give glory to thee, 
 with the Father and the Holy 
 Ghost."— Page 9i. 
 
 From the Coptic Liturgy, used by 
 the Jacobites or Entjohians, oaHea 
 the Liturgy of St. Cyril. Rernu- 
 dot, torn. 1. 
 
 The Prayer qf\Peace. 
 " Priest. Make us aU worthy, 
 Lord, to stand before thee with a 
 pure heart, and a soul full of thy 
 grace," and to offer to thee this holy, 
 rational, spiritual, and unbloody sa- 
 crifice, for the remission of our sins 
 and the pardon of the ignorances of 
 thy people ; because thou art a 
 clement and merciful God, and to 
 thee above we send up our homages 
 of glory, honour, and adoration, 
 Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, now 
 and for ever," &c. — Page 39. 
 
 There are several other Kturgies 
 besides those which I have men- 
 tioned. You have heard, however, 
 my friends, what Archbishop Wake 
 says, and I could quote a long list 
 of Protestant doctors on the subject, 
 as to the concurrence of all the litur- 
 gies in substance. You have heard 
 aE those I have already quoted, 
 using the words " oblation" and 
 " spiritual and wibloody sacrifice," 
 and I ask you how can you listen 
 with patience to any one, however 
 learned he may loe — (and in a few 
 moments you will be regaled with a 
 smooth and placidly-flowing stream, 
 or tempestuous gush of eloquence 
 against them, just as the fit seizes 
 him,) — ^how, I say, can you listen to 
 any man who will dare to tell you 
 that the doctrine of the Sacrifice of 
 the Mass is a modem invention, a 
 thought of after ages ? By what 
 collusion of the monks and of the 
 priests, let my learned friend inform 
 us, was the. Sacrifice of the Mass 
 first introduced into Christendom ? 
 I come forth here this evening, armed 
 I with the records of antiquity ; the 
 
Mr. French ^ 
 
 SACEMCE OP THE MASS. 
 
 113 
 
 learned gentlemaii comes forward in 
 a different manner, with the subtle- 
 ties of art, with the thunder of 
 invective, or at least with the poig- 
 nancy of ridicule, not with logical 
 argument, to invalidate these, irre- 
 sistible testimonies . He wiU endea- 
 vour to make the application of 
 certain texts of St. Paul, overthrow 
 this doctrine of antiquity ; but let 
 him, at least, acknowledge the 
 genuineness of these liturgies, or let 
 him sweep away the record of them 
 at once, by exhibiting sound proof 
 of their suppositiousness. One or 
 the other he must do. If he reject 
 them, he is at war with the learned 
 of all ages, and of all countries, and 
 especially of England ; he is at war 
 with the whole learned world, with 
 the whole Christian world ; and yet 
 I shoiJd not be astonished to find 
 that, without oarhig in the least for 
 the names and reputations of those 
 men of piety and of learning, who 
 have borne testimony to their indis- 
 putably authentic stamp, he throws 
 down, with aU the arrogance of pre- 
 sumption, the gauntlet of defiance 
 to them all. If, on the other hand, 
 he acknowledges these to be well 
 authenticated records, why the whole 
 affair is at an end, and the Sacrifice 
 of the Mass is most clearly, most 
 triumphantly proved. I shall, how- 
 ever, be prepared to follow him and 
 answer him. I know very well the 
 different texts of St. Paid he will 
 aUude to, in order to substantiate 
 his hypothesis. 
 
 Gentlemen, as my time is on the 
 point of expirmg, I shall produce 
 one more Protestant authority, and 
 one which my learned antagonist 
 affects to revere, as another prop, if 
 it stood in need of it, to support 
 the glorious fabric of the liturgies. 
 Listen to the Protestant Dean 
 Milner, in his History of the Church 
 of Clirist, page 415 : — " I close," 
 says he, "this digression, if it may 
 
 be called one, with remarking, that 
 the continued use of these Uturgies 
 in the churches of the West demon- 
 strates the concurrent tbstimony of 
 antiquity in favour of evangelical 
 doctrine." 
 
 Dean MU^er is speaking here of 
 the sixth century, when the liturgies 
 were stiU in use, 
 
 [Here the learned gentleman's 
 hour tenninated.] 
 
 Eev. J. Gumming. — You have 
 Kstened with the most marked, and, 
 I believe, dispassionate attention, to 
 the rambling but elaborate state- 
 ments of my learned antagonist. I 
 confess, Mr. Chairman, I was pre- 
 pared, when I came to this assembly, 
 to hear a defence of the doctrine of 
 the Mass ; but, instead of this, we 
 have had appeals to hturgies, appeals 
 to Parnassus, appeals to Horace, and 
 appeals to Virgil — appeals, in short, 
 to every thing under heaven, save to 
 that great standard of appeal, the 
 Wordof God. [Strong sensation on 
 the part of the meeting, and cries of 
 "Order!"] 
 
 Mr. Pbeitch. — I really must re- 
 quest that those gentlemen making 
 this interruption do be quiet, and 
 not manifest any applause. 
 
 Kev. J. CtfMMiNG, — My learned 
 antagonist stated, at the outset of 
 his remarks, that I had challenged 
 him to this discussion. Now 1 do 
 not think it worth wlule to enter on 
 any explanation of the origin of this 
 discussion — I would merely add, 
 that he it was who challenge^'me, and 
 again and again summoned me to m£et 
 him. My opponent reminded ni& 
 as he reminded the meeting, of my 
 having stated — and I dare say my 
 tongue betrays it — ^that I was " an 
 undaunted son of Scotia." I do 
 not hesitate to acknowledge my 
 country, and I have a Mttle of the 
 spirit, let me add, of a Highland 
 lag-piper, of the 42d Regimeut at 
 
114. 
 
 SACRIFICE or THE MASS. 
 
 Waterloo, who was taken prisoner 
 oy the French. The emperor ordered 
 him to play one of his national airs, 
 and he did so ; he was commanded 
 to play a jyibroch, and he did so ; he 
 ordered him to play an advance, and 
 he did so ; he was next ordered to 
 play a charge, and he did so ; and 
 then Napoleon, who was very mnch 
 pleased and delighted with the 
 minstrel and Lis music, said, " Now 
 then, play a retreat, and I shall have 
 done." "No," said Donald, "I never 
 learned to play a retreat." 
 
 My learned antagonist, in putting 
 this question of the Mass hefore the 
 meetiug, adduced arguments on the 
 subject of the Catholic Church, the 
 Rule of Paith, &c. &o. — in fact, he 
 touched the summa fastigia of al- 
 most every point of the controversy. 
 Among other odd questions, he 
 a.sked, " Where was your Church, 
 'he Protestant Church, at such and 
 such a period?" and then boasted of 
 the Koman Catholic Church beiag 
 seen from the beginning. Yes, I 
 reply, the Roman Church was often 
 seen, but in places where she had 
 better have hid her head ; she was 
 seen kindling the fires and presiding 
 over the faggots of Smithneld ; she 
 is still seen m the Bull Unigenitus, 
 where the secular arm is called in 
 to compel men to renounce those 
 doctrines which their fathers sealed 
 in their hearts' best blood. She 
 was seen, moreover, in the fourth 
 Council of theLateran, where she had 
 much better have retired to con- 
 cealment ; and if she now possessed 
 aught of the modesty of the chaste 
 spouse of the Redeemer, she would 
 veil her face in sackcloth and in 
 ashes, and mourn over those deeds 
 which were done in the sacred but 
 injured names of religion and mo- 
 raliW. 
 
 He next requested, me — and I 
 will repeat his own words — ^to show 
 in what year (nay, he is so kind and 
 
 pcf Eeeamg. 
 
 so charitable, that he will allow me 
 great latitude) in which fiftyyears, or 
 century, the Mass first made its exit. 
 Now, the question, to my miad, is 
 not when, the Mass arose, but ^ehere 
 the Mass is ? The question I will 
 ask the learned gentleman, and re- 
 quire him to solve is, is the Mass 
 here (in the Bible) or is it not? and 
 if it be not here, rest assured it is 
 not of God. Let'me illustrate and 
 mate clear my point by a familiar 
 refereuoe. I supposed, last evening, 
 that a taint of a virulent and poi- 
 sonous character had mingled with 
 the waters of the Thames ; and I 
 suppose^ ttat, being anxious to 
 find out the precise point of its 
 commencement, we had recourse to 
 the analysis and tests of the che- 
 mist. Let me apply this illustration 
 to our present question. 
 
 My antagonist says, I call on you 
 to show where this taint began. I 
 commence my chemical analysis, and 
 try it by every test, and I find that 
 it grows less and less apparent as 
 we go upwards ; but as we advance, 
 it becomes so faint that neither the 
 microscope can detect it, nor the 
 analysis of the chemist discover 
 its existence. At this juncture a 
 peasant walks up and says, " Pray, 
 gentlemen, what 's the use of bo- 
 thjring your heads where it began ? 
 can you not go to ^efoantuin-head 
 and see if it be there ? because if it 
 is iu.the fountain, of course it will 
 be found through the whole stream; 
 but if not, it is childish and worse 
 than contemptible trifling, to try 
 and ascertain where it subsequently 
 began." Or to illustrate this point 
 still more clearly — ^for these truths 
 need to be hammered into my an- 
 tagonist's mind, as he has either" 
 misunderstood or misinterpreted 
 me~suppose two sisters go into 
 their garden, on a May morning, to 
 look at their gooseberry bushes and 
 apple trees, whose fresh and im- 
 
Beo. J. Cumminff.] sacbipice oe the mass. 
 
 115 
 
 folding buds teU of the approach of 
 spring-time. One of them sees a 
 caterpillar on one of the loveliest 
 branches of a rose-tree, and ob- 
 serves, " This is clearly part and 
 parcel of this rose-tree ;" the other 
 says, "My dear, yon are utterly 
 mistaken; it is a caterpillar, it is no 
 • partof the tree whatever." " Well," 
 says the other, " only show me the 
 precise period in the night when the 
 caterpillar crept on the tree, and I 
 wiE beheve that it is not a part of 
 the tree, but a caterpillar." What 
 would the other naturally say? 
 " The question is not the hour of 
 the night lehen it creft cfn the tree, 
 but, is it a pari of the parent tree, 
 or is it not ? One says it is not, the 
 other says it is : examine the cater- 
 pillar and examine the rose-tree, and 
 thereby ascertain whether the cater- 
 pillar belongs to it or not ! " Now 
 that is just what I say with regard 
 to the doctrine of the Mass. Let 
 Mr. Prench go to this standard of 
 appeal, the Bible, and if the Mass 
 can be proved from this book, which 
 Mr. Prench acknowledges to be from 
 God — ^which he acknowledges to be 
 inspired, then I shall, most willingly, 
 admit the dogma; but if my learned 
 friend cannot prove it to exist ui 
 this book, then I say^ I shall treat 
 the question, when it began, as 
 childish drivelling; an effort to 
 avoid the main poiat at issue; — 
 whether ■ it be the inspiration of 
 God, or the concoction of man. 
 I can lay sufficient evidence before 
 this assembly, of the mode in 
 which the Mass arose. Dupin, 
 the celebrated Roman Catholic his- 
 torian, admits that in the. ninth 
 century, " there were great con- 
 tests on the subject of Transub- 
 stantiation ;" and as it is the child 
 of Transubstantiation, I conceive, 
 there is more than a presump- 
 tion that it may have crept into 
 the world at that time, when you 
 
 recollect the darkness, the igno- 
 rance, and superstition of the middle 
 ages— when you bear in mind that 
 the priests alone had the little rem- 
 nant of learning which was left — 
 when, with these facts,' you also 
 keep in inind that revelation and 
 experience also demonstrate man 
 to be too fallible, too guilty a crea- 
 ture, not to have availed himseE of 
 Ms superiority, amid the surround- 
 iag degradation, to turn the ele- 
 ments of power to the means of 
 profit and pre-eminence, and ulti- 
 mately to put his foot in the stirrup 
 and ride rough-shod over the Hber- 
 ties of man and the revelations of 
 God! 
 
 The next remark I have picked 
 up in the statement of my learned 
 antagonist is made in reference to 
 the Churoh of England Prayer-book, 
 in which it is said, " the body and 
 blood of Christ are verily andj indeed 
 received by the faithful'' Now, 
 mark you, if I wanted the most 
 decisive and strikuig disproof of 
 Transubstantiation on the part of 
 the Church of England, I would 
 just refer to the passage quoted by 
 my opponent — " They are verily 
 and indeed received by vas, faithful" 
 By the faithful, not by all ! But 
 observe — in the Uomish Churoh , 
 there is no such discrimination — 
 the body and blood of Christ are 
 received verily and indeed by all, 
 whether they be faithful or unfaith- 
 ful. By the Church of England, 
 the faithful only receive the body 
 and blood of Christ, which shows 
 that there is no Transubstantia- 
 tion. 
 
 My learned antagonist adduced 
 next, in support of tne Mass, a 
 beautiful quotation from one of the 
 classics'. It was rather odd to have 
 recourse to the heat en classics for 
 Christianity. This is his matter, 
 "however. But I must repeat, that 
 the question is not whether the 
 
li.0 
 
 SACIIIHCE OP THE MASS. 
 
 Mass is to be fouud in Virgil or in 
 Homer; and I have strong sus- 
 picions that it is not there. The 
 question is — whether it be an- 
 nounced in the page of truth, in the 
 inerrant and infallible word of God. 
 " To the law and to the testimony/." 
 If it be not according to that, 
 it is " because there is no truth 
 in it." 
 
 I find my opponent still repeats 
 his oft-reiterated question. Where 
 was your Church — where was 
 your Ohiiroh during this and that 
 period, when this doctrine crept 
 in and that doctrine crept out ? 
 My opponent clearly dates our 
 Church at the era of the Reforma- 
 tion. My answer is that which 
 has been often given. A priest 
 asked an Irish reader, " Where was 
 your Church before the Reforma- 
 tion ? Yours is but an upstart and 
 a modam communion ; ours is the 
 ancient Church." The reader, with 
 great naivete, replied, " Where was 
 your reverence's face before it was 
 washed this morning?" The an- 
 swer impKed that the Churches at 
 the Reformation underwent a pro- 
 cess of purification, by having the 
 corruptions of nine or twelve cen- 
 turies washed away by the hands 
 . of those memorable men, Luther, 
 Cranmer, Ridley, and Latimer. Cor- 
 ruptions had accumulated and viti- 
 ated Zion's fair face, until all the 
 primeval traces of her glory were 
 covered, and at intervals only did 
 there evolve beams indicative of her 
 divine birth, which corruption could 
 not quench. The reformers washed 
 away the defilement, and Knox and 
 others, I admit, grazed her features 
 a little in their anxiety to purify 
 her of the abominations which en- 
 crusted them. Thus purified, she 
 at length looked forth " bright 
 as the sun," " fair as the moon," 
 and "terrible as an army with ban- 
 ners." 
 
 \id Evening. 
 
 My learned antagonist next al- 
 luded to the Rule of Paith; but 1 
 have again to remind the meeting 
 that this is not the question of dis- 
 cussion this evening. Most happy 
 shall I be to discuss the Rule of 
 Faith when the time comes, and I 
 am prepared to demonstrate that the 
 great Rule of "Faith, the only Rule 
 of Faith is, in the words of the im- 
 mortal ChiUingworth, " the Bible, 
 and the Bible alone." But I am not 
 at aU of a mind that it becomes me 
 to enter on the Rule of Faith, when 
 the real question before the meeting 
 is the doctrine of the Propitiatory 
 Sacrifice of , the Mass. 
 
 The next quotation — and much do 
 I dislike irrelevant points, but cour- 
 tesy requires me to foDow him — 
 the next quotation of my antagonist 
 was a large piece of poetry, I should 
 think of one hundred and twenty 
 lines, ■ in which the poet sang, de 
 multis rehis et quibusdam, aliis. I 
 thought the learned gentleman had 
 burnt his fingers by quoting poetry 
 on a previous evening, and, like a 
 burnt child, feared the fire. You 
 all recollect he quoted a piece of 
 rhyme from Aquinas, to teach me a 
 little better theology, and as he had 
 given us a taste of St. Thomas's 
 poetry, I gave him a taste of St. 
 Thomas's prose, as embodied m the 
 SecundaSecunda of Thomas Aquinas, 
 where he approves and presses elo- 
 quently a sure process- for "the 
 extermination of heretics ;" and to 
 show you, while speaking of Aquinas, 
 that this was not merely the senti- 
 ment of a private doctor, I laid 
 before you the fact that there is an 
 express prayer in the Missal, in 
 which every Romanist prays "we 
 may have light to understand his 
 doctrine, and to be edified by his 
 example." The Muses will not help 
 the Church of Rome out of her 
 difficulties. Besides, poets are not 
 the most sober wits. 
 
fifiB. /. Cumminr/.'] 
 
 SACKIPICE or THE MASS. 
 
 117 
 
 '■ The poet's eye in a fine phreazy rolling, 
 Doth (>lance from heaven to earth, from 
 
 earth to heaven, 
 And as imagination hodies forth 
 The forms of things unknovn, the poet'u 
 
 pen 
 Turns them to shapes, and gives to airy 
 
 nothing 
 A local habitation and a name." 
 
 My learned antagonist is not ig- 
 norant of an equally apposite pas- 
 sage from Horace : — 
 
 '* Pictoribus atque poetis, 
 Quid libet audendi semiJer fuit asqua 
 
 potestas, 
 Scimus, et banc veniara pttimusque da- 
 
 rausque vicissim." 
 
 I consign poetic arguments to the 
 " tomb of all the Capulets." 
 
 My antagonist repeated towards 
 the close of his speech what he 
 dwelt on towards the commence- 
 memt. My faithful pursuit of my 
 totagonist is my apology for recur- 
 ring to it. My opponent repeated 
 his query, Where was your Church 
 before this or that period ? I have 
 given you illustrations of it, drawn 
 from the reply of the Irish Scrip- 
 ture reader. The next reply, and I 
 hope it will satisfy my learned 
 friend, is. The Protestant Church 
 teas and is where the E.oman Ca- 
 tholic Church is not, viz. in the 
 Word of God ; or, if I concede to 
 my Roman Catholic auditors, that 
 the Roman Cathoho Church is here 
 in the Bible, she is here, I would 
 add, vrith a brand upon her brow, 
 " The Mystery of Iniquity." I 
 might show my friend that his 
 Church is in the Bible, but in most 
 ominous fellowship, and under most 
 startling symbols ; I could show 
 her in the ■eighteenth chapter of the 
 Book of Revelations ; I could show 
 her in the Second Epistle of St. Paul 
 to the Thessalonians ; I could show 
 her in some of the olden prophecies 
 — and in all proclaimed as a fearful 
 apostasy. 
 
 My antagonist next flattered him- 
 seK he had found the Mass in the 
 ^ear of our Lord 260. In his chase 
 
 sfter this phantom he got so near 
 the apostles as the year 160, and ] 
 really began to hope he would ascend 
 higher still, and adduce the author- 
 ities of A.D. 60 or 80 after our Lord, 
 but, alas ! he fought desperately shy 
 of that period ; he would go up to 
 160 for the Mass, but he would^not 
 dare to approach a century nearer, 
 lest he should meet the Bible and 
 be confounded. There must be some 
 reason for this ; my opponent must 
 have some reason for flghting so 
 shy of the apostles and the word of 
 God. He ran from these with pre- 
 cipitate speed, and endeavoured to ' 
 hide liimseK in the tremendous 
 forest presented by the fathers, 
 where, if you drive him away from 
 one mouldering trunk, he runs 
 directly to another, and hke an 
 American rifleman in his native 
 woods, he flres under cover of the 
 spreading trees and bushes till I 
 dislodge him and drive him to 
 another. He dreads the field of 
 open and generous battle ; he fears 
 the field ot inspiration and the hght 
 of day ; he skulks and sku'mishes 
 any where, save on the broad plat- 
 form of the oracles of the hving 
 God. 
 
 My opponent next adduced seve- 
 ral so-called ancient liturgies, and 
 from tliese he read what he thought 
 remarkable descriptions of the Mass. 
 Now, I would reply, we do not 
 deny that there is a Christian sacri- 
 fice. We say praise is a sacrifice, 
 prayer is a sacrifice, the bodies of 
 behevers are sacrifices, (Rom.xii.l.) 
 — " I beseech you by the mercies, 
 of God, present your hodies living 
 sacrifices unto God, which is your 
 reasonable service." But my learned 
 opponent, you observe, like too 
 many of his side, when they come 
 to controversy, put their best foot 
 forward, and take care,' if they can, 
 to keep out the obnoxious Word 
 that involves the whole error. 
 
118 
 
 SiCBIPIOE OF THE MAiSS. 
 
 [3(f Eveninff. 
 
 Accordingly, my opponent endea- 
 Touied to avail nirnself of tHs 
 liberty. He omitted the word 
 "propitiatory." The language tliat 
 is used to describe the Mass, lan- 
 guage which my opponent cannot 
 question, is "a tkbe, phopeb, aud 
 
 PEOPITIATOB,T SACEIPICE POP, THE 
 SINS OP THE LIVING AND THE 
 
 deab;" and, in order that your 
 views may be complete^- settled on 
 the meaning of the Mass, for my 
 learned antagonist has scarcely ven- 
 tui-ed to give you a faithful account 
 of the views of his own Church, I 
 shall read from the Creed of Pope 
 Pius IV. — a creed to which Mr. 
 Trench, ex ammo, subscribes : — " I 
 profess likewise that ia the Mass is 
 offered to God a true, proper, and 
 propitiatory sacrifice for the living 
 ana the dead. — Profiteer pariter in 
 Missa q^erri Deo verum, proprium, 
 et propitiatorium sacrificium pro 
 vivis et defunctis." 
 
 The next extract definitive of 
 the Mass which I shall read is 
 from the canon of the Council of 
 Trent :— 
 
 Caijon I. " If any shall say that 
 in the Mass there is not offered to 
 God a true and proper sacrifice, or 
 that what is offered is nothing else 
 than that Christ is given to us to 
 eat, let him be accursed." 
 
 CajtonII. "If any shall say that 
 in these words, 'Do this in remem- 
 brance of me,' Christ did not appoint 
 the apostles to be priests, or did not 
 ordain that they and other priests 
 should oifer his body and blood, let 
 him be accm-sed." 
 
 CajtonIII. "If any one shall 
 say that the sacrifice of the Mass is 
 only one of praise and thanksgiving, 
 or a bare commemoration of the 
 sacrifice which was made upon the 
 cross, but not propitiatory, or that 
 it only profits him who receives it, 
 and ought not to be offered for the 
 living and the dead for sins, pains, 
 
 satisfactions, and other necessities, 
 let him be accursed." 
 
 Let me remark, en passant, that 
 the Council of Trent here asserts, if 
 any one says, "Do this in remem- 
 brance of me," does not mean that 
 Christ did appoint the apostles to be 
 priests to sacrifice his body and 
 blood, let him be accursed." Now, 
 my learned friend tvritted and 
 taunted me for the use of the word 
 
 orientalism," and he' has dilated 
 most largely on the laws and proper- 
 ties of metaphors and figures. I ask, 
 with this canon in my nand, who it 
 is that uses metaphors and figures ? 
 The common adage is most useful 
 here — ".They who dwell in glass 
 houses should be very careful not to 
 throw stones." You find that ihe 
 canon of the Council of Trent, or 
 the Church of Some, says, "Do 
 this in remembrance of me," means 
 Sacrifice :mG for the remission of the 
 sins of the living and the dead. 
 I thought my friend's Church was 
 all literality. I thought that every 
 word must be taken in its exact, 
 precise, and literal sense ; and, on 
 that supposition, I most clearly 
 and logically demonstrated that my 
 learned opponent is a bundle of 
 grass ; for it is written " all flesh is 
 grass," "surely the people is grass." 
 But now, when he finds it suitable, 
 or rather, when his Church finds it 
 suitable to her views, she departs ' 
 from the literal interpretation, and 
 fastens upon the figurative — the 
 " oriental ;" since, in her vocabulary, 
 " Do this in remembrance of me," 
 means, " sacrifice this ;" ^d all who 
 do not make up their minds to 
 perpetrate this hyper-orientalism, 
 are under anathema. Rare con- 
 sistency ! most infallible Church ! 
 One other definition to show Rome's 
 unity in error, and I have done. 
 It IS from The Abridgement of 
 Christian Doctrinci revised by Dr, 
 Doyle : — 
 
Rev. J. 
 
 .] 
 
 SAcamcB OP the mas; 
 
 119 
 
 " Question. — ^Is the Holy Eaeliar 
 rist or Mass a Sacrifice P 
 
 "Answer. — It is the unbloody 
 Sacrifice of the body and blood of 
 Jesus Christ, which he himself in- 
 stitated at the last Supper." 
 
 Before I proceed to take up the 
 few arguments of my opponent that 
 bore upon the pouit at issue, I think 
 it is important to keep before your 
 minds the fact, that he was most 
 anxious to lead you to believe that 
 Transubstantiation -wss proved ; — ^he 
 seemed, I say, most anxious to re- 
 quire from you the postulatCi that 
 Transubstantiation is a Scripture 
 tenet. Now, every one before me 
 will recollect the arguments I ad- 
 duced on that topic, and ths con- 
 clusion is, no doubt, come to by 
 every one in this assembly, that if 
 my friend holds the necessity of a 
 literal iaterpretation of these words, 
 " This is my body," the most mon- 
 'strous consequences — such as my 
 opponent's favourite poets, Aquitias 
 and Horace, never rniagined — ^ne- 
 cessarily ensue — as that this vast 
 audience is not flesh and blood, but 
 actually ^7-ffSi; Judah is turned into 
 "a lion's whelp;" Agar into Mount 
 Sinai, and other similar offspring 
 legitimately fathered on Transub- 
 stantiation. But why is my learned 
 antagonist so anxious to plead for 
 Transubstantiation — to entreat you 
 to grant him it as a basis ? He well 
 knows that if Transubstantiation is 
 overthrown, the Mass has not a leg 
 to stand on ; that if Transubstantia- 
 tion be uniiue, the Mass must ne- 
 cessarily be a fantasy. But were I 
 to concede Transubstantiation (and 
 such are the riches of truth that on 
 this poiat of the controversy I could 
 afford to do so, and admit it true, as 
 I do not), I can yet disprove the 
 Mass without, and independent of 
 the postulate, that Transubstantia- 
 tion is false ; in other words, I can 
 pursue a course perfectly indepen- 
 
 dent of either of these postulates, 
 and this you wiU find this evening, 
 by the arguments wliich I shall 
 bring forward on the question. 
 Before doing so, however, I would 
 only observe, that my learned anta- 
 gonist, after I had taken up and 
 smashed every point he brought 
 forward, as far as I could follow 
 him, in support of Transubstantia- 
 tion, found that his legs were 
 actually removed from beneath him, 
 and was therefore content to hobble 
 off the platform on two crutches, 
 which I believe were kindly given to 
 him by his reverend friend on his 
 left (Mr. Sisk). I came to this 
 meeting, Mr. Chairman, expecting 
 to construct a speech, by being 
 called on to reply to the arguments 
 brought forward by my learned 
 friend ; but he has brought forward 
 no arguments at all— he has scarcely 
 ev3n defined the subject-^he has 
 left the Mass to stand on its own 
 assumptions, and plead for itself as 
 it best may. And therefore I ex- 
 pect that, in his next speech before 
 the meeting, he will .bring all the 
 artillery of the Vatican fully to bear 
 upon this question, and try, at least, 
 to overthrow those sentiments which 
 we Protestants have been accus- 
 tomed to entertain on the Sacrifice 
 of our Lord Jesus Christ upon the 
 cross. 
 
 Let me remind you how my op- 
 ponent stated, in the course of his 
 remarks last evening, that our Pro- 
 testant translation was wilfully in- 
 correct, in the First Epist. Cor. xi. 
 27. Our translation is— "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." He 
 contended that the Greek word 
 being 77, the proper translation is, 
 "eat this bread or drink this cup of 
 the Lord unworthily, ye shall be 
 guilty of the body and blood of the 
 
120 
 
 SACRLPICB or THE MASls. 
 
 Lord." Let me inform you that 
 our translators were <by no means 
 unacquainted •with ail that had 
 been previously written and pro- 
 duced upon the subject. They had 
 a sight of the Alexandrian, and 
 Cambridge MSS. and two later 
 manuscripts, all four haviug koi, 
 and let me add also, that the Sybiao, 
 the EiHioric, and Coptic versions 
 have all and and not or. I have no 
 hesitation in asserting that the au- 
 thentic Greek is Kai, not ^. My 
 learned antagonist is fondly attached 
 to antiquity — ^he rejoices to appeal 
 to ancient documents and standards ; 
 I go to them, and I find and, not 
 OK, in these most ancient and ve- 
 nerable documents. Besides, the 
 apostle explains his meaning in the 
 following verses, in which ahd is 
 invariably used: (ver. 29.) "He that 
 eateth AUD drinketh." (ver. 26.) "As 
 often as ye eat this bread aud drink 
 this cup." To receive the blood in 
 the flesh without drinking the blood, 
 does not prove that we are freed 
 from the denunciation involved in 
 the words ; or, on the 9ther hand, 
 that communion in one kind is 
 scriptural and right. My opponent 
 says the apostle intends that eating 
 the bread alone impKes being guilty 
 of both body and blood, and that 
 drinking the cup alone implies being 
 guilty of the body and blood both. 
 Now, as he asked the question how 
 ttiis can be, I avail myself of an 
 Kshman's privilege, and reply to 
 that question by asking another: 
 How 13 it that a man by breaking 
 one commandment is guilty of all ? 
 When my learned friend b.ts solved 
 my question it vrill be time enough 
 to solve his. ■ 
 
 His next text was, "not discern- 
 ing the Lord's body." He alleged 
 that we use the literal sense of the 
 Enghsh words, "not disceniing," 
 as if they referred to the eye, and 
 Uiat. this was not the meaning of the 
 
 \Zd Evening. 
 
 word AiaKplvto, which means "to 
 perceive by the mind," and not "by 
 the eye." And then he says, that 
 "not discerning the Lord's body" 
 must imply, that the Lord's body is 
 actually present, and that we Pro- 
 testants only do not discern it. 
 Li the first place, let me observe, 
 that the apostle speaks of certain 
 Corinthian converts who came to 
 the table of the Lord intoxicated. 
 They did not, says the apostle, make 
 a distinction between their ordinarv 
 meals and the table of the Lofd; 
 (and, by the bye, that possibility of 
 intoxication is an extraordinary re- 
 sult, if it be the literal blood of Christ 
 in the cup, and not any longer wine.) 
 Certain Corinthian converts came 
 intoxicated, and Paul asks vrith holy 
 and apostolic indignation, , " What I 
 have ye not houses to eat and to 
 drink in?" and then he says, "ye 
 come to the table not discerning" 
 not making a i:?w^z»(;&'o« between the - 
 Lord's Supper, which is a sacred 
 symbol of nis body and blood, and 
 your ordinary meals; and ye are 
 therefore chargeable vrith the awful 
 guilt of most licentiously and' blas- 
 phemously drinking of the commu- 
 nion wine to excess. 
 
 To show you still further the use 
 of the word "discern," I find, in 
 1 Cor. ii. 14, " But the natural 
 man reCeiveth not the things of 
 the Spirit of God, neither can he 
 know them, because they are sjiirit- 
 walhi discerned. But he that is 
 spiritual judgeth and disoemeth." 
 Ixhe very same original word is 
 used. Hie Church of Rome says, 
 " not discerning the Lord's body" 
 means that we Protestants do not, 
 because we disbeheve Transubstan- 
 tiation. We say Christ's body is 
 spiritually discerned. The Church 
 of Rome does not discern it literally, 
 and she does not discern it sjpirit- 
 ually; and therefore I conceive that 
 she most probably partakes, in some 
 
Rev. J. 
 
 ■] 
 
 SACllIPICE 01 THE MASS. 
 
 121 
 
 measure, of the gvtilt of tlie Corin- 
 thian converts. 
 
 My learned friend has referred to 
 the ancient Httugies connected \fith 
 the subject of the Mass, and illus- 
 trative of its import. I will also 
 refer to some important documents 
 on this subject. In referring to the 
 fathers, mark you, I would attach 
 to them but a secondary importance, 
 and, as I told you, I am prepared, 
 when we discuss the Rule of Faith, 
 to prove yet more clearly, that the 
 fathers either contradict each other, 
 and contradict themselves, or flatly 
 contradict the Church of Rome. 
 I said, therefore, the right way 
 would be to appeal from the contra- 
 dictory fathers to the harmonious 
 and consentaneous statements of 
 the Word of God. But to show 
 you, in this matter, that if my oppo- 
 nent produce one testimony from 
 the fathers — aU of whom, as he well 
 knows, were in the habit of using 
 the most metaphorical, the mbst 
 oriental and symbolic language — 
 if he produces one testimony from a 
 father that seems to imply that 
 either Transubstantiation or the 
 Propitiatory Sacrifice of the Mass 
 was known to them, I wUl refer 
 among others to Justyn Martyr, in 
 his "Apology for Christians," second 
 vol. p. 97, Paris, 1615, and read 
 his account of the celebration of the 
 Lord's day, and see if there be any- 
 thing in that account of a whole 
 Church service that wDl warrant the 
 inference, that the Roman Mass was 
 then known. And, mind you, this 
 document is considerably older than, 
 the liturgies which my friend has so 
 copiously quoted : — 
 
 " When we have ended our 
 prayers," says Justyn Martyr, " we 
 embrace each other with a kiss, &e. 
 Then the bread and the! cup of 
 water and of the wine mixed with 
 it, is offered to the President of the 
 brethren, and he^ taking it, offers up 
 
 praise and glory to the Pather of all, 
 hi the name of the Son, and of the 
 Holy Spirit, and, at some length, he 
 performs a thanksgiving for having 
 been honoured by these things be- 
 side him. When he has finished 
 the prayers and the thanksgiving, 
 all the people present joyfully cry 
 out. Amen, amen. Amen signifies, 
 in the Hebrew language, so be it. 
 But the President, naving returned 
 thanks, and aU the people having 
 joyfully cried out, those who are 
 called by us deacons give to each of 
 those who are present a portion 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 
 regeneration, and who lives as Christ 
 has enjoined. For we do not receive 
 these things as common bread or 
 common drinji. But, as the incar- 
 nate 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 mir flesh and blood are 
 nourished, is both the flesh and 
 blood of that incarnate Jesus. 
 
 "And on the day that is called 
 Sundays there is an assembly in the 
 same place of those who dwell in 
 tovms, or in the country, and Ihe 
 histories of the apostles, and the 
 writings of the prophets, are read 
 whilst the time permits ; then, the 
 reader ceasing, thePresident verbally 
 admonishes and exhorts the imita- 
 tion of these good things. Then we 
 all rise m common, and offer prayers, 
 and, as we have already said, when 
 we have finished our prayers, bread 
 
123 
 
 SACBiricE or ihe mass. 
 
 ani wine and water (after consecra- 
 tion) are offered, and the President, 
 in like manner, offers prayers and 
 thanksgiyiag, as far as it is in his 
 power to do so {extemporaneous 
 prayers), and the people joyfully cry 
 out, saying. Amen." ' 
 
 Obserre, this is a description, a 
 minute description, or history of a 
 Christian Sabbath solemnity. Is 
 there one syllable here about the 
 Mass ? Is there not the utmost 
 Protestant possible simplicity in the 
 whole ceremonial? We read no- 
 thing about the procession of the 
 Host — nothing about the elevation 
 of the Host — nothing about the 
 adoration of the Host. We have 
 just a simple account of praise and 
 prayer, and next, that bread and 
 wine were consecrated and given by 
 
 Eriests and deacons to such be- 
 evers as were thought worthy. 
 We read here, that the cup was 
 also given ; but is the cup given in 
 the Church of Rome ? No ; the 
 Church of Rome- conceded it, for 
 eleven centuries, to the people, but 
 it became expedient to withdraw it, 
 because, according to Delahogue, 
 some communicants " spilled the 
 wine," which is believed to be the 
 blood of Christ, and because it be- 
 came expedient also to exalt the 
 priesthood in the eyes of the laity, 
 by peculiar distinctions. It is here 
 said, that, along with bread and 
 wine, " he presents the prayers and 
 thanksgivings ;" and then the re- 
 mark is added, " our flesh and blood 
 are nourished by the sacramental 
 
 Will my learned antagonist be 
 prepared to acquiesce in this senti- 
 ment, that his flesh and blood is 
 ^ nourished by the sacrifice of " the 
 body and blood, soul and divinity of 
 the Son of Gogl ?" WiU he admit, 
 what Justyn Martyr distinctly de- 
 clares — that, by the elements on the 
 Holy table, our bodies are nourished; 
 
 [3 c? Hoemng. 
 
 or, in, other words, that these ele- 
 ments, by a process of assimilation, 
 become turned into our flesh and 
 blood? The Church of Rome anathe- 
 matizes the opinion of JustynMartyr. 
 Neither my opponent nor his Church 
 admit that the Host nourishes our 
 flesh. The fact is, the Church of 
 Rome treats the fathers, as some 
 proud upstart in the world would 
 treat a flattering sycophant : as long 
 as the latter pleases him by his 
 obsequious adulations ; says what 
 he says, bows when he bows, and 
 things as he thinks, so long is he 
 treated with courtesy and kindness; 
 but if the said sycophant, in a 
 moment of forgetfulness, says any 
 thing to displeasure his, patron, the 
 latter immediately rings the bell, 
 and straightway shows him down 
 stairs [Laughter.] Now, this is an 
 exact portrait of the way the Roman 
 Catholic treats the fathers. As long 
 as they play into the lap of the 
 Church of F'-me, so long as their 
 highly flgurative phraseology can 
 be turned and twisted into mean- 
 ing the Propitiatory Sacrifice of the 
 Mass ; as long as the fathers, either 
 by silence or implication, or posi- 
 tive assertion, speak as she want* 
 them, she treats with contempt the 
 " upstarts of the nineteenth cen- 
 tury," such as Calvin and your 
 humble servant, &c. ; nay, she. 
 treats the Word of God with some- 
 thing like contempt — though I will 
 not impute it to my learned friend, 
 for I believe he has a reverence for 
 that word. Remember, then, this 
 document, which I have read to 
 you, was vpritten before any or all 
 the liturgies which my friend quoted; 
 and in this history of Justyn Martyr, 
 there is no mention of the Mass, or 
 any thii^ like it. Here is a file for" 
 my friena, the admirer of the fathers, 
 to bite [Laughter] : here is a knot 
 which I call on our learned ffidipus 
 to explain. He glories in the 
 
B^v. J. Cumming^ sacbipicb on? the mass. 
 
 123 
 
 fathers; I go lo the fathers, and 
 read from Justyn Martyr this sim 
 pie, this Protestant account of a 
 Christian sabbath assembly, ia which 
 neither Mass nor Transubstantiation 
 occur; and my opponent brings 
 forward long mhsequent documents, 
 mind you, to Justyn's, and exclaims, 
 " if Justyn knew nothing about 
 the Mass, his successors do T " He 
 glories in the fathers ! Well, I go to 
 the fathers, and I find one of them 
 disproving the ajitiquitj of the 
 Mass by his knowing nothing of it ; 
 and, after all, we Protestants are 
 not such " upstarts," that there is 
 nothiug historical and ancient on 
 our side; and I declare, that if 
 Justyn Martyr had Kved iu the 
 days of the Llquisition, he would 
 have been incarcerated in one of 
 its cells; if Tie had Hved in the 
 day« of the Council of Trent, he 
 would have been laid under its most 
 terrible anathema, had he dared 
 to have uttered such things; his 
 book would have been placed in the 
 Index HxpurmitoriUs, and his mouth 
 soon shut. But, blessed be God, 
 he lived in a better and a brighter 
 age, and nearer to apostolic days, 
 when that overshadowing and de- 
 structive despotism had not yet 
 risen to its gigantic empire, nor 
 attained so fell a dominion ; when 
 men could speak out without fear 
 of the faggot and the flame, or of 
 the proscription of the Lateran, 
 and the revolting scenes of Smith- 
 field. I must give yon another 
 quotation, as my friend has referred 
 ■ to it, from the celebrated Tertidlian. 
 He quoted, you recollect, on the 
 Mass the prophecy of Malachi, 
 which I call on my friend to prove 
 refers to the Mass at all. On this 
 text he quoted certain extracts, and 
 he professed to show — (now I call 
 your special attention to this, in 
 order to show how necessary it is 
 to go from the fathers to the grand- 
 
 fathers, the apostles and evange 
 lists) — that all the fathers were 
 unanimous on the interpretation of 
 this passage, and referred it to the 
 Mass precisely in the way that he 
 explained it. Now, you wiU re- 
 member, that my learned friend is 
 under a special pledge, according 
 to the creed of Pope Pius Iv. 
 " not to interpret the Bible, unless 
 according to the zinammous consent 
 of the fathers." As the fathers are 
 noi unanimous, as I have already 
 demonstrated, and as I am prepared 
 stiU further to demonstrate, this 
 injunction is tantamount to a direct 
 prohibition to my learned friend, to 
 interpret God's Word at all. Until 
 he has found the " unanimity" of 
 the fathers, he may not interpret 
 God's Word at all. The unanimity 
 of the fathers ! Why, he might as 
 well try to find one seed of com, 
 amid millions and millions more of 
 bushels of chaff. But let me add 
 that, if there were ten thousand 
 fathers who said one thing, and 
 only ONE Paul who said another, 
 Paul would be right and the ten 
 thousand fathers would be utterly 
 wrong. I repeat it, if there were 
 twenty times ten tho%sanA fathers who 
 all said one thing — (which they do 
 not — the very reverse is the fact) — 
 and if one Paul 'put a veto on, tliat 
 one thing — then I say that one Paul 
 would be right, and the twenty times 
 ten thousand yatte?'s totally wrong. 
 
 But to my point, for I am follow- 
 ing out his speech, and thereby 
 treating him with far more courtesy 
 than he displayed toward me ; for 
 he fought so shy of my speech, that 
 if it had been infected with typhus 
 fever or plague, he could nqt have 
 kept a more respectful distanc*. 
 I win not keep at such a distance 
 from him. 
 
 But my learned opponent states 
 that «;/the fathers are unanimous in 
 their interpretation of that "passage 
 
SACBlflCB or TH'tl MASS. 
 
 in the Book of the Prophet MalacM 
 which he quoted from the first 
 chapter, ver. eleventh, of Malaclii, 
 and declares it to refer to the Mass. 
 Now I mve you a quotation from 
 one of the fathers, viz. Tertullian, 
 who flourished ia the year 194. I 
 give you this quotation in order to 
 siLOwiheimaaimity/f of the fathers 
 upon this passage of Malachi. Ter- 
 tuUian says — "He says, "by the 
 angel Malachi, one of the twelve 
 prophets, ' I will not accept of an 
 offeriag at your hand. For from 
 the rismg of the sun even unto the 
 going down of the same, my name 
 shall be great among the Gentiles, 
 and in every place incense shall be 
 offered unto my name, and a pure 
 offering, for my name shall be 
 great among the heathen, saith the 
 Lord of Hosts.' Also David says, 
 in the Psalms, 'Offer unto God, 
 ye lands of the Gentiles' — doubt- 
 less because the preaching of the 
 apostles ought to go forth into 
 every land, — ' offer to God honour 
 and renown. Offer unto God the 
 sacrifice due unto his name.' , foras- 
 much as we must not app,ease God 
 with earthly, ' but with spiritual 
 sacrifices; as we read it written, 'An 
 humble and contrite heart is a sacri- 
 fice to God.' And elsewhere, ' The 
 sacrifices to God are sacrifices of 
 praise,' and, 'Pay thy vows to the 
 Most High.' Thus, therefore, spirit- 
 ual sacrifices are meant, and a contrite 
 lieart is shown to be an acceptable 
 sacrifice to God." — Tertul. against 
 Jews, chap. v. p. 188. Paris, 1675. 
 My opponent says the fathers are 
 unanimous on the text from Malachi, 
 on its referring to the Sacrifice of 
 the Mass. Tertullian at least de- 
 clares it does not refer to any pro- 
 pitiatory sacrifice. I have quoted 
 this passage merely to reply to his 
 groundless assumption; and I am 
 sure that if you contemplated the 
 face of my learned antagonistj you 
 
 \%d 'Evening. 
 
 must have seen a blush overspread 
 his cheek when he stated that all 
 the fathers were unanimous in re- 
 ferring to the Mass this verse of tjie 
 prophet Malachi. I vriH not pre- 
 scriJbe him any penance for the milt 
 he has committed. I give him frill 
 absolution on this condition — ^that 
 he win recant his strong and ground- 
 less statements, when ne stands up 
 in his next speech, and say, I said 
 "unanimous," as lucits a non In- 
 cendo, when I really meant to say 
 they were contradictory of each 
 other. [Laughter, and calls of 
 "Order!"] 
 
 I have thus replied to such of 
 my antagonist's points as I could 
 collect. I now wish to make a fc'nr 
 remarks in closing, for I have only 
 a few minutes left. In the first 
 place, let it be remembered, that the 
 bacriflce of the Mass is the great 
 act of worship in which the Ohui-ch 
 of Rome is so distinctively engaged, 
 that a Roman Catholic, to express 
 worship, usually says,, " going to 
 Mass," " I am going to hear Mass. 
 Now, I have shown you that Justyn 
 Martyr was clearly a Protestant, or 
 at least, that he was no Roman Ca- 
 tholic. AH the apostles seem to 
 have caught the same contagion of 
 Protestantism. I first call your 
 attention to the commission given 
 to the apostles : — " Go and preach 
 the Gospel to every creature, bap- 
 tising in the name of the Father, 
 and of the Son, and. of the Holy 
 Ghost, and lo ! I am with you 
 always, even to the end of the 
 world." Here is the Saviour's com- 
 mission to the apostles. We find 
 thein commissioned to baptize, to 
 preach, to distribute bread and 
 wine, as the apostle says, which is 
 the consecrated symbol of the body 
 and blood of Christ, according to 
 the " iniunction' of their divine 
 Master :-^" For I received of the 
 Lord Jesus that which also I de- 
 
Rev. J. Oumming^ saceipice op tme mass. 
 
 I2S 
 
 livered unto you." But we do not 
 find one solitary commission to go 
 and say Mass " in every country." 
 Again, I call your attention to the 
 I^ers to Timothy and .Titus, two 
 evangelists and bishops of the Chris- 
 tian Church. Here one would have 
 expected that, when the apostle was 
 wntiag to these distinguished mi- 
 nisters, he would have given some 
 directions such as I quoted on a 
 former evening, respecting the ao 
 cidents of the Mass, the adoration, 
 procession, and elevation of the 
 Host. In the passages I quoted 
 from Be DefecUbm Missa, it is said 
 that " any animal" may carry away 
 the body and blood, soul and divinity 
 of the Son of God; that a mouse, 
 a rat, or a dog — any animal may do 
 it. It is also virtually declared, 
 that if the vintner have furnished 
 bad vpine, it is no consecration. It 
 is virtually said, that if the baker 
 have sent you meal instead of ilour, 
 it is no consecration. Now, ob 
 serve, the Church of Rome thus 
 becomes dependent on her vintner, 
 or her wme-merchant, and her 
 baker, for valid Transubstantiation 
 and Sacrifice. Now, one would 
 have thought that the apostles 
 would have Been earnest in warning 
 them against the use of bad flour 
 and corrupt vrine ; against animals 
 carrying away the Host, or the 
 wind blowing it away; but not 
 one syllable upon the subject — ^not 
 a hint about the Mass — not a 
 whisper about this "propitiatory 
 saoriiioe for the sins of the Hying 
 and the dead !" In those infa'lible 
 annals, the Acts of the Apostles, we 
 do not find one syllable about oifer- 
 ing the Mass — not one word about 
 " a propitiatory sacrifice for the sins 
 of the Evhjg and the dead." 
 Now, I admit this is a negative 
 ', argument. ' I meet him on the 
 lowest ground ; but surely it is a 
 marvellous fact, that neither in the 
 
 commission given to the apostles, 
 nor in the letters written by St. 
 Paul to Timothy and Titus, nor in 
 the Acts of the Apostles, in which 
 are recorded their histories and 
 their exploits, is there one syllable 
 respecting the maiu portion of 
 Roman Catholic worship — theMass. 
 Now, I call on my opponent to 
 show that the word of God.declares 
 or announces the Propitiatory Sa- 
 crifice of the Mass for the sms of 
 the living and the dead, in any shape 
 or way whatsoever. You have heard 
 a great deal about ancient hturgies. 
 I will refer you to one, partly ancient 
 and partly modem — the Missal of 
 the Roman Catholic Church for the 
 use of the Laity. The Ordinary of 
 the Mass, in tms document, begins 
 thus: — "I confess to Almi ghty 
 God, to blessed Mary, ever a Virgin, 
 to blessed Michael the Archangel, 
 to blessed John the Baptist, to the 
 holy apostles, Peter and Paul, to aU 
 the saints," &C, 
 
 " Therefore, I beseech the blessed 
 Mary, ever a Virgin, blessed Michael 
 the Archangel, blessed John Baptist, 
 the holy apostles, Peter and Paul, 
 and all the saints, and you, O 
 Father, to pray to the Lord our 
 God for us." 
 
 This cannot be an apostohc docu- 
 ment, for who could ever dream of 
 the likelihood of Peter confessing 
 to himself ? or of Paul confessing 
 jO himself? "I, Peter, confess to 
 holy Peter ! !" Now, is it likely 
 that, if this part of the Roman Ca- 
 tholic Missal had been concocted in 
 the days of Paul, St. Paul would 
 have said, " I confess to St. Paul ?" 
 And, therefore, I presume that my 
 friend must necessarily be driven to 
 the position, that this liturgy, or 
 Ordinary of the Mass, must be of 
 recent date — at least, that it is 
 neither of apostohc origin, nor an 
 apostohc document ; he must come 
 to the conclusion that it crept in at 
 
126 
 
 SACKiriCB Of THE MASS. 
 
 L3(^ Eoening 
 
 a subsequent date ; (my friend, who 
 reguires the hour of the origin of 
 any thing to enable him to reject or 
 Ifccei^e it, will be perfectly able, no 
 doubt, to explain the precise date 
 at which it crept in.) I nave shown 
 you when it did not exist, viz. 
 m the apostobo times. We find 
 another odd prayer ia the Ordinary 
 of the Mass : — " We beseech thee, 
 O Lord, by the merits of thy saints, 
 whose reKos arfc here, and of all the 
 saints, that thou wouldest vouchsafe 
 to forgive me all my sins." 
 
 No such phraseology as this — no 
 such divinity as this — ^was known iu 
 apostolic times. In God's word we 
 do not read of any merit in any 
 saint to deserve forgiveness of sins. 
 The doctrine of apostolic days isj 
 " In whom (in Chnst) we have re- 
 demption, through his blood, even 
 the forgiveness of sins ;" but I read 
 in this document— by thfe merit of 
 the saints whose relics are here, we 
 have the forgiveness of sins. 
 
 There is, therefore, more than a 
 strong presumption, that this docu- 
 jnent can by no means claim the 
 superscription of an inspired pen- 
 man, whose language is so expressly 
 its antipodes. " In Chnst we have 
 redemption, through his blood, even 
 the forgiveness of sins." But (for 
 my time is fast drawing to a close,) 
 let me observe, that this Missal is 
 guite a nondescript document. It 
 is a mosaic work of the novel and 
 the antique. In some parts it in- 
 volves a disbelief in Transubstan- 
 tiation, when it ^ays — "May thy 
 body, which I have received, and 
 thy blood, which I have drunk, 
 cleave to my bowels." A strange 
 prayer, if it be Christ's literal flesh 
 and blood ! It would then imply 
 that his must be assimilated witn 
 ours, which is monstrous. And 
 there is a prayer to God to " accept 
 this Host as thon^ere graciously 
 pleased to accent the guts of thy 
 
 just .servant Abel, and the sacrifice 
 of the patriarch, Abraham." 
 
 The priest here prays that God 
 would accept the body and blood of 
 Christ, just as he accepted the ^fft 
 of Abel. If bread, and wine, the 
 prayer is just; but if not, it is 
 almost blasphemy. 
 
 I had intended to go over the 
 whole of this document to show 
 you that it contains sentiments and 
 statements which sometimes advo- 
 cate the dogma of Transubstantia- 
 tion, and sometimes plainly con- 
 tradict it. It is a mixed production ; 
 its modem parts being full of the 
 Roman Catholic dogmas of later 
 years, and its more ancient frag- 
 ments evidently containing an oppo- 
 site and purer theology. 
 
 I invite my opponent to the true 
 standard — ^the Word of God. It is 
 the grand criterion of truth and 
 error. All arguments from the 
 oracles of truth I am prepared to 
 canvass and to reply to. Its an- 
 nouncements, and its amiounce- 
 ments alone, are final. 
 
 [The reverend gentleman's hour 
 here expired.] 
 
 Mr. EEtENCH. — Ladies and gen- 
 tlemen — I came into this room, 
 armed with documentary evidence 
 of the most indisputable nature, 
 to prove the antiquity of the Sar 
 orifice of the Mass ; and I did^ 
 expect that the learned gentleman 
 would have condescended to answer 
 some of those strong arguments 
 vvhich I adduced upon the occa- 
 sion, if possible, in a substantial 
 and irrefragable manner. But I fjnd 
 that he has pursued precisely the 
 same line of argumentation with 
 which be has reproached me so often; 
 that is, of mating a long and a ram- 
 bling speech, full of figures and 
 metaphorical allusions, much more 
 beautiful, more brilliant and more 
 elegautly-flovring than my own, bul 
 
Mr. French.'] 
 
 SACElrlCE OP THE MASS. 
 
 127 
 
 in wliicli, as I contend, and wMch I 
 will prove to you satisfaetorflvbefore 
 .1 sit down, he has ngt advanced 
 one single argument to overthrow 
 the strength of those irrefragable 
 liturgies, which ciy out, ia loud and 
 in solemn accents, and which will 
 cry out to the end of time, in favour 
 of the doctrine of the CathoKc Mass, 
 I asked him, naturally, as it was my 
 duty to do, I asked him to point 
 out the time when the Mass was 
 introduced into Christendom, and 
 among the various nations of the 
 world ; and what, what has been his 
 answer ? His reply is, " I oamiot 
 tell yon when it was introduced ; all 
 I can tell you is, it is not in the 
 Bible or New Testament." That, 
 you observe, was not the object of 
 my inquiry. I may not be, Iwillingly 
 confess, so acute as the learned 
 gentleman himseK, in, applying my 
 wits to the New Testament, for I 
 cannot find events recorded there 
 which happened nearly three cen- 
 turies after. My question was not, 
 when I aUnded to those liturgies, 
 which were written subsequently 
 to the New Testament, (for those 
 Hturgies, though said from apostolic 
 times, were not committed to writ- 
 ing untU three or four centuries after 
 the apostolical days,) whether they 
 could be discovered within the 
 sacred volume or not ; but I want 
 to know, and indeed we are aU 
 anxious to know, amid the variety 
 and multiplicity of sects that over- 
 spread this land, which is the true 
 religion ; which is the ancient one ; 
 which adheres to, and which departs 
 from, the meaning and the spirit 
 of those identical liturgies which 
 were framed by the apostles them- 
 selves, most indisputably, as to their 
 substantial ;parts. I had recourse, 
 my friends, m tracing our religion, 
 to our libraries ; I took down her 
 books of sacred antiquity — books 
 that are approved of and acknow- 
 
 ledged by Protestants as well as by 
 Cathohcs, and these aU preach 
 and inculcate the doctrine of the 
 Catholic Mass. And when I came 
 to this room, I threw these docu- 
 ments before my learned friend, and 
 I am answered with ten thousand 
 metaphors, but not one sohd and 
 substantial argument. The fact, 
 therefore, remains unshaken and 
 unquestioned — ^namely, that the 
 fathers of the Church believed in 
 the doctrine of Transubstantiation, 
 believed in the doctrine of the Mass, 
 celebrated Mass, asd taught it in 
 every region of the world ; for the 
 learned gentleman has not over- 
 thrown that argument : he has at- 
 tempted, indeed, to call it in question 
 by one passage from St. Jerome, and 
 by another fiom JustynMai'tyr, and 
 to both these very authorities I shall 
 also beg leave to call your attention. 
 I shall first take Justyn. My learned 
 friend, in his acute, logical, view 
 of this suhjeQt, sees a great deal of 
 inconsistency in our doctrine; I, 
 for my part, see none, and I shall 
 endeavour to prove to you that 
 there is a perfect consonance in our 
 Catholic doctrine, where the learned 
 gentleman sees nothing but disso- 
 nance and disorder. The words 
 are : — " Our prayers being finished," 
 says St. Justyn, " we embrace one 
 another with the kiss of peace." 
 
 Arid here I may remark, as I 
 proceed, that even to this very day, 
 at our holy altars, and during the 
 ministration of those sacred rites 
 which have been transmitted to us, 
 apostolicaily, from age to age, the 
 priests, in a solemn manner, during 
 some parts of the sacred rites, re- 
 spectftlly, at the foot of the altar, 
 
 five one another what is called " the 
 iss of peace." That custom is kept 
 up, just as it was in the days of 
 Justyn Martyr, who laid down his 
 hfe for our blessed Saviour, in the 
 second century. These are his 
 
128 
 
 SACEirlCE OJ? THE MASS. 
 
 own ■words : — " Our prayers being 
 finished, we embrace one another 
 with the kiss of peace. Then to 
 him who presides over the brethren, 
 is presented bread and wine tem- 
 pered with water ; having received 
 which he gives glory to the Eather 
 of all things, in the name of the 
 Son and the Holy Ghost, and returns 
 thanks, in many prayers, that he 
 has been deemed worthy of these 
 gifts." Justyn then goes on to 
 inform the Roman Emperor what is 
 this Eucharist, in language which 
 you have already had laid before 
 you. 
 
 Now, I am really astonished, gen- 
 tlemen, at this oversight of my 
 antagonist. My friend has told you 
 that he noticed — (and no doubt he 
 did in his own poetical and fanciful 
 imagination^) — he has told you, J sayj 
 that he noticed something like the 
 tinge of a blush on my cheek ; but 
 I wonder how he can dare to take 
 Justyn Martyr in his_ hand without 
 the deepest blush that ever spread 
 over the cheek of man ! Here is a 
 father, living near the time of Christ, 
 who ought to have known sometliing 
 of " pure and unadidterated Chris- 
 tianity," and what does he teUyou? 
 Listen! andy my friends, if there be 
 a man in England capable of sub- 
 tilizing away the strength and the 
 spirit of words, and making them 
 evaporate into nothing, it is my 
 learned opponent, with whom I have 
 the honour of reasoning this day ; 
 and yet, with this his subtilizing 
 ingenuity, I defy him, without vitia- 
 ting all the rules of language, with- 
 out overturning aU the laws, all the 
 principles of logic and of grammar, 
 to deduce any other meaning from 
 this identical passage than the 
 very doctrine of Tr'ansubstantiation. 
 I know, fuU well, that my learned 
 friend is tacitly begging pardon 
 of himself for having iaadvertently 
 alluded to it; I know that it is 
 
 [3i Eoening. 
 
 the precise process going on in the 
 mind of the learned gentleman at 
 the present moment, knowing, as 
 he well do^, that I shall inake him 
 repent his temerity all the days of 
 liis hfe. [Laughter, wheal the chair- 
 man rose to order.] Justyn conti- 
 nues, " Nor do we take this as 
 common bread and common drink ; 
 but as Jesus Christ, our Saviour, 
 made man by the word of God, took 
 flesh and blood for our salvation, in 
 the same manner we have been 
 taught" (mark the word ! ihihax&r)- 
 liev is the original Greek), " we have 
 been taught that the food which has 
 been blessed by the prayer of the 
 word which he spoke, and by which 
 our blood and flesh, in the change, 
 are nourished, is the flesh and blood 
 of that incarnate Jesus." So have 
 we been taught, says Justyn ; but it 
 requires scarcely any teadiing at all 
 to learn a doctrme, the sunphcity of 
 which is so obvious as the Protes- 
 tant Sacrament; wherees it requires 
 long instruction_/^-OOT the stewards of 
 the mysteries of - Qod, 1 Cor. iv. 1, 
 to teach matters of doctrine involv- 
 ing mysteries and abstruse truths 
 of any kind whatever, especially 
 as it is written, " the natural man 
 receiveth not the tilings of the 
 Spirit of God, for they are foohsh- 
 ness unto him; neither can he 
 know them, because they are spiri- 
 tually discerned."— /S^. Paul, 1 Cor. 
 ii. 14. 
 
 Kev. J. Cummins. — Is there no 
 more in that passage of Justyn ? 
 
 Mr. Ekench.— No: that is the 
 whole of it. 
 
 Rev. J. CtrMMlNG. — But I have 
 more ; here is more. (Pointing to 
 Justyn Martyr, open at the same 
 page, and referring to the conclusion 
 of the paragraph.) Hand over the 
 book, if you please (to Mr. Einch) 
 to Mi. Erenoh. 
 
 Mr. Ekench. — ^But what part is 
 it you wish me to come down to ? 
 
Mr, French.'] 
 
 SACMTICE or THE ILiiSS. 
 
 129 
 
 Rev. J. Gumming. — Read the 
 whole, if you please. 
 
 Mr. Pkench — (reading the pas- 
 sage alluded to) — Well, but that 
 does not come immediately ^er 
 and join to it. 
 
 Rev. J. Gumming. — ^If you read 
 you will find that it does come after. 
 
 [Here a little interraption was 
 occasioned by reason of some titter- 
 ing on the part of the audience; 
 but, order being restored, the 
 learned gentleman continued.] 
 
 Mr. PuENCH.— I do not wish, my 
 friends, to join things which are dis- 
 jointed in themselves. However, as 
 I shall never shrink from a fair and 
 honest exposition of the truth, I am 
 willing to read it. But first of all, 
 let me say, though I have no objec- 
 tion to read the part pointed out by 
 my learned friend, yet it deters and 
 ddays me from the matter. I want 
 to prove Transubstantiation, and to 
 which it has not the remotest con- 
 nexion. You have evidently here, 
 my friends, most clearly, in the 
 words of Justyn (he is writing to the 
 Emperor Antoninus), an expositita 
 of our doctrine. He tells him that, 
 after the words of consecration 
 are pronounced, it is " the flesh 
 and blood of the iacamate Jesus." 
 That is what the Gatholic Ghurch 
 has taught, from age to age, in aU 
 her CathoKc catechisms, in aU. parts 
 of the world. "So wehave oeen 
 ta.usb.t:"^ovTa>s eSiSaxdlfiev. This 
 is the real Gatholic doctrine, which 
 is corroborated, instead of being 
 subverted, by the passage which the 
 learned gentleman has, with the 
 utmost imprudence and impolicy, 
 brought before you this evening. 
 Now, therefore, I will read to you 
 the passage, though coming after 
 many Unes downwards. 
 
 "Upon this we arise aU together, 
 and pour forth prayers; and, as we 
 hare said, bread is offered, and wine 
 aid water; and he who presides also 
 
 sends forth prayers and thanks- 
 giving, and the people receive them 
 with acclamation, crying out. Amen; 
 and a distribution and communion 
 of the consecrated things is made to 
 every one pi«sent, and to the absent 
 some is sent by the deacons. Upoa 
 this, those that are rich, and are so 
 disposed, cmtribute each what he 
 thinks proper, when the colleotionis 
 placed m the hands of the president, 
 who therewith assists the orphans 
 and widows, and those who, on ac- 
 count of illness, or any other cause, 
 are in a state of destitution; as also 
 strangers and guests arriving from 
 abroad; he is, generally speaking, 
 the provider of all that are in want." 
 
 " Now, most evidently this meet- 
 ing alludes to the Sacrifice, and the 
 collection made at the expiration of 
 it, to the relief distributed to fellow- 
 Ohristians in a state of indigence." 
 — Jmtyn, Apol. I. pro Christianis. 
 Oxon. Grabe, p. 132. 
 
 It is well known that the Ghris- 
 tians, in. those days, were very poor; 
 it was in the time of persecution, and 
 the people were obhged to do every 
 thing silently and by stealth, in order 
 to avoid persecution of their assem- 
 blies, which were carried on in a very 
 stealthy and secret manner. Even 
 Pliny the younger, in that well- 
 known letter which he writes to the 
 Emperor Trajan, in which he in- 
 forms Viim what the Christians did 
 only sixty years (mark !) after 
 Christ ; he tells him " that, accord- 
 ing to his (the emperor's) wish, he 
 caused the assemblies of the Chris- 
 tians to be pried into, and that he 
 had found all very innocent; that 
 nothing was going forward that he 
 could report agamst them, except 
 that there was one ' exitiabilis super- 
 stitio' — ' one execrable, pernicious 
 superstition,' to which they were 
 subject." Now this certainly was 
 not the participation simply of oread 
 amd wine in commemoration of our 
 
130 
 
 SAOBiriCE or the mass. 
 
 [ZdHvemtiff. 
 
 Lord ; no, but he evidently alluded 
 to the ancient and apostolic dogma 
 of, the CathoKc Church, namely, tie 
 iody and blood of our Lord and 
 Saviour Jesus Christ. Such a dogma 
 would, ia Pagan estimation, as it 
 does in Protestant, taJly exactly 
 with an " exitiabilis stipersiitio" — 
 " an execrable superstition." 
 
 But as the learned gentleman 
 has indulged himself with a passage 
 from St. Justyn, I shall beg leave to 
 please myself with another, a Kttle 
 more forcible, and somewhat more 
 intelligible : — " Inflamed by the 
 word of his calling, as it were by 
 fire, truly we are the sacerdotal 
 offspring of God; as he himself 
 attests, saying, that in every place 
 among the nations, ' We offer to 
 him well-pleasing and clean victims' 
 These victims ne accepts from his 
 own priests alone. Wherefore, 
 showii^ preference to all those 
 who, through his name, offer the 
 sacrifices which God ordained to be 
 ~ ' is, in the Eucharist of 
 
 the bread and the chalice, which, in 
 all places of the earth, are cele- 
 brated by the Christian people, God 
 declares that tney are well pleasing 
 to him. But the sacrifices of you 
 Jews, and your priests, he rejects, 
 saying, ' I will accept no offering 
 from your hands, because, from the 
 rising of the sun to the going down 
 of the same, my name is great among 
 the Gentiles, but ye have profaned 
 it.'" — (Malao. i. 10, \\) — Jmt. 
 Dial, cum Tn/phon. Judeeo. p. 209. 
 Once more, then, I most cordially 
 and sincerely return thanks to my 
 good-natured opponent, for remind- 
 mg me of a passage in. Justyn 
 Martyr, which otherwise I might 
 have omitted, and thereby essen- 
 tially have injured the grand cause 
 which I am this day engaged in 
 advocating. Por we have here, 
 from a father of the earliest age, 
 aamely, A.D. 150, in words too 
 
 clear and cogent to be either mis- 
 interpreted or misunderstood, thje 
 fact stated, that, in the first place, 
 the Eucharist is the real bo^ and 
 blood of our Lord; and, in the next' 
 place, we have that justly celebrated 
 quotation, which is so familiar to 
 most of the fathers — that celebrated 
 passage from the prophet MaJachl, 
 appKed to the great Catholic Sacri- 
 fice — a prophecy which the CathoKc 
 Eriesthood, ia all laj^ages spoken 
 y the mouth of mala, has ever re- 
 sounded, from the very days of the 
 apostles down to the present, as 
 being continually verified and accom- 
 plished by the unbloody sacrifice of 
 the Mass over the whole world. 
 
 Now, gentlemen, let me ask yon, 
 is this grand prophecy of the pro- 
 phet Malachi to be totally annihi- 
 lated, by referring it merely to the 
 prayers' offered up by Christians? 
 Does it not plainly and positively 
 imply that there was to be a sacn- 
 flce among the Gentiles ? Were not 
 prayers offered up in abundance by 
 the faithful servants of God before 
 the coming of Christ ? And am I 
 not adhering to the point (for I 
 wish for once to rebut the charge 
 of rambling in my ai-guments,) when 
 I attempt to show that, from tne 
 very time of the apostles, there 
 always has been an altar and a 
 sacrifice, and always a priesthood, 
 in all countries, faithfully minister- 
 ing at that altar ? Yes, it cannot be 
 too frequently repeated, the Sacri- 
 fice of the Mass has always, since 
 its first institution, been regularly 
 offered up ; the priest is nothing 
 without the altar; and it is an 
 anomaly in the histoiy of the whole 
 religious world, to have a priest 
 without an altar and without a 
 sacrifice. 
 
 My learned friend sots, that I 
 fight shy of St. Paul. Now that is 
 the very ground on which I meet 
 him, text for text. My learned 
 
Mr. Frenoh-I 
 
 SACBIPICB OP THE MASS. 
 
 131 
 
 friend is not oracular, nor am I ; 
 but I shall beg leave to explaiu 
 those texts according to my con- 
 ception of their meaning. I will 
 also bring a strong list of the early 
 fathers of the Church to corrobo- 
 rate every word I say, in my way of 
 interpretation, and he (my learned 
 friend) will bring a few extracts 
 from Calvin, from Beza, Zuinglius, 
 aud Luther, to substantiate his 
 affirmations and positions. But that 
 is not my object. I waut no affir- 
 mation from living men, or from 
 men so recent as those first reform- 
 ers, concerning the doctrines of 
 primitive antiquity. I shall content 
 myself with laying open the sources 
 before. Wlien he can accomplish 
 that, when he can turn over a large 
 volume with facility, as I can, and 
 show father after father, in every 
 age, vying with one another in 
 expressing, in the clearest manner, 
 and in the most distinctive terms, 
 the doctrine of the Eucharist, and 
 the doctrine of the Sacrifice of the 
 Mass, as I can do, then it will be 
 high time for him to talk of what he 
 has described so beautifully, by " a 
 retreat on. my part j" but, until then, 
 I stand to my ground untouched 
 and unshaken, holding my head 
 triumphantly aloft, looking down 
 upon the puay despisers of our holy 
 fathers in the same contemptuous 
 style as that with which they at- 
 tempt to look down upon such illus- 
 trious testimony. 
 
 And now, as I pledged myself to 
 prove in the beginning that the 
 actual words for the celebration of 
 Mass were to be found in. a passagp 
 in the New Testament, I will make 
 my word good. I quote from the 
 Acts of the Apostles, xiii. 2 — 
 "And astheymipistered ("they"— 
 the apostles) to the Lord," &e. 
 Here, I acknowledge, that, accord- 
 ing to the English fianslation, there 
 is not a vestige of the word MS,ss 
 
 in these words " as they ministered 
 to tie Lord." But I do maintain 
 most strenuously, and I defy any 
 learned man to contradict the asser- 
 tion, that XuTovpyia means " a 
 sacnfice," and that it has been used 
 so in all ecclesiastical antiquity. 
 That the Greek Church, who cele- 
 brate the Mass in the Greek lan- 
 guage, use it, and have ever used it 
 since the days of the apostles, pre- 
 cisely in the same manner, and they 
 express " to sacrifice" by the word 
 \eiTovpyia. And moreover, I must 
 inform my friend, though I know 
 the signification wiU be contra^ 
 dieted, as it usually is by Protest- 
 ants, that the learned Erasmus 
 translates the passage in question, 
 namely, \eiTOvpyovVTtcv be avrav 
 TO) Kvpim, precisely in the same 
 manner, " Domino sacrificium faci- 
 entibus — whilst they were making 
 the sacrifice to the Lord." Accord- 
 ingly, you find the Liturgy or Mass 
 celebrated in all languages. There 
 is the Syrian Mass, there is the 
 Armenian Mass, there is, the Greek 
 Mass, and several other Masses, in 
 which, although the ceremonies 
 differ, each of those nations calls it 
 the Sacrifice of the Mass, or the 
 Liturgy. But as to the Greeks, it 
 is, I contend, one of the most con- 
 founding arguments in the world to 
 the Protestant clamourer against 
 the Sacrifice of the Mass, that the 
 Greek successive priesthood, who 
 have never ceased to say the Mass 
 from the days of the apostles dovra 
 to the present time, stiU say that 
 Mass in pure ancient Greek, -and 
 have no other word for that Mass 
 but XeiTovpyia — the substantive of 
 the very word used by St. Luke in 
 the Gospel, namely, 'kuTovpyfiv, 
 You have, therefore, as evidently 
 as the sun shining at noon day, 
 the apostles saying Mass in the' 
 New Testament : — AftT-oupyoui'Tci)!' 
 6e avrav Kvpuf: "Whilst they 
 
132 
 
 SACBlrlCE OP THE MAS 
 
 were offering the Sacrifice to the 
 Lord." 
 
 My reverend friend has alluded 
 to some prayers in the Mass which 
 could not have been used in the 
 time of St. Paul. My learned friend 
 must have attended very little to 
 our doctrine, or to the words that 
 escaped me, if he imagines that I 
 asserted that every -fting in iixe 
 Mass, from begJTming to end, was 
 to be found ill apostoHeal times. 
 That was not my meaning, for many 
 a prayer has been added to the Mass 
 that was not there originailly. All 
 that we maintain is, that certain 
 prayers, pervading the liiurcfies or 
 masses of all languages, are most in- 
 controvertibly of apostdical origin, 
 and that those said pregnant, vital, vi- 
 vifying words constitute the genuine 
 Mass. When I am asked whether 
 the Nicene Creed was there origi- 
 nally, my answer is, the substance in 
 aU probability was, the creed itself 
 not, could not have been in the 
 Mass originally, since it was com- 
 posed 325 years after Christ -. how, 
 therefore, could it have existed in 
 writing in apostoKc days ? 
 
 Archbishop Wake, arguing much 
 more candidly and fairfy than my 
 ieai-ned friend is inclmed to do, says 
 that " the substance of these litur- 
 gies is all the same." 
 
 There is no other Greek word for 
 Mass but "Keirovpyia ! so all tra- 
 dition hands down; and I do im- 
 press upon my learned opponent 
 that it means among the Greeks, to 
 this day, the Sacrifice of the "Mass," 
 and nothing else whatever ; and 
 moreover, that at the fatal destruc 
 tion of the eastern empire, when the 
 Grecian priests came to Rome about 
 the year 1418, they said Mass {fqv 
 XdTovpyiav) and it has been con- 
 tinued to be said ever since by the 
 Grecian priests at Rome, who there 
 now say it ; and the only word for 
 Mass, which they still liow, in the 
 
 \Zd Bhemng. 
 
 Greek language, I contend, is that 
 ever - Protestant - confounding word, 
 Xarovpyia. Besides, it is ridicu- 
 lous to suppose that Erasmus, the 
 first scholar of the whole world, 
 since the revival of literature, would 
 have translated \iiTovpyovvrwv by 
 sacrificing, had it been a disputable 
 interpretation. We have, there- 
 fore, actuaUy, as I have demon- 
 strated to you, we have the word, 
 " sacrificing, or saying Mass," in 
 the New Testament— a book which 
 my learned friend most pertina- 
 ciously tells you that I shrink from. 
 On the contrary, 1 will take this 
 opportunity of telling him, once for 
 all, there is no one book in which I 
 so much glory, for the purpose of 
 proving the tenets of the Catholic 
 faith, which is " the pillar and the 
 ground of truth" therein so con- 
 spicuously erected. 
 
 Akin to this charge of my re- 
 coiling, with a species of sensitive 
 horror, from the pages of the Bible, 
 as my opponent most evidently does 
 from those of the anti-Protestant 
 fathers, is his bold assertion, that 
 the priesthood over Christendom 
 was, at any one period of the Church, 
 universaJly corrupted. 
 
 There never was a time, my 
 friends (and mark me well whilst I 
 point out this fact), there never was 
 a time, according to the testimony 
 of the Protestant ecclesiastical his- 
 torians, when there were not men 
 of the most eminent sanctity and 
 virtue, adorning the Catholic Church. 
 This is a fact which may most un- 
 deniably be proved by reference to 
 successive ages of the Church. You 
 vnU find, that during the lapse of 
 ages, if you only open the writings 
 of your own Protestant historians, 
 that you can show no sanctity of 
 heart, no purity of morals on the 
 earth — ^no men earnest and unre 
 mitted in their endeavours to diffuse 
 the truths, and inculcate the solemn 
 
Mr. 'French?^ 
 
 SACEIPICE 01! THE MASS. 
 
 133 
 
 duties of Christianity, but by poiat- 
 iii§ to some of our Koman Catholic 
 samts. But I go further, and say, 
 that there neyer was one single age 
 of the Church unmuminated by 
 brilliant displays o% piety and virtue 
 in every part of Christendom ; and 
 that, durmg the time that some, 
 branded for every vice that can sully 
 the human character, were occupy- 
 ing important , stations in the Ca- 
 tholic Church, still were there 
 thousands upon thousands of holy 
 saints, dwelling in the cells of the 
 anchorites, or in monasteries, or 
 moving in the walks of a guilty, 
 contaminated world, who were es- 
 tranged alike to all its vices, as to 
 its lawful pleasures ; men conse- 
 crating aU the days of their life to 
 the glory of their God, and destitute 
 of all relish for any other species of 
 delight than that of meditation on 
 their celestial country. Yes, there 
 were ever to be found numbers of 
 holy men and women, in every age, 
 ready and eager to lay down their 
 lives to maintain their attachment 
 to Christ Jesus their Lord, whom 
 they adored with all the purity and 
 sanctity of angehc beings. 
 
 But to reproach us, as Catholics, 
 with the crimes of statesmen, is 
 iniquitous in the extreme. It has 
 nothing to do with tenets, with our 
 articles of faith. If my catechism 
 tells me that persecution is lawful, 
 in that case I must applaud a Calvin 
 even when burning a Servetus at 
 the stake ! [Symptoms of disappro- 
 bation on the Protestant part of the 
 audience.] If persecution were law- 
 ful, according to my catechism, then 
 I must applaud John Knox, and all 
 those fiery vagabonds [renewed dis- 
 approbation, when the chairman 
 rose to order] who went about 
 Scotland throwing down our Ca- 
 thoKc altars, and trampling on our 
 crucifixes, which, at least, ought to 
 have commanded some respect, ajs 
 
 emblems and inanimate repi senta- 
 tions of our Saviour, Christ. Was 
 that, my friends, the spirit of piety 
 and devotion ? — and, since ye compe' 
 me to digress by your murmurs, did 
 it not rather resemble the wild and 
 ungovernable transports of the san- 
 guinary enthusiast, than the calm 
 and heavenly zeal of the heaven- 
 aspiring Christian? But I should 
 never have introduced such a matter 
 into a theological discussion, had it 
 not been previously referred to by 
 my friend. The whole of the Chris- 
 tian religion is at an end, if such 
 arguments are to be permitted for a 
 moment. What ! the Pagan might 
 say (if reasoning by such analogy be 
 lawful), do you pretend to tell me 
 the Christ was God, when there was 
 such an infamous, unhallowed, and 
 nefarious wretch among his chosen 
 apostles, as Judas Iscariot ? Such 
 a mode of reasoning, my friends, 
 attacks the vital, the fundamental 
 truths of Christianity. 
 
 Away with it, then ! Let us adhere 
 to close and solid argument. Away, 
 I say, vrith such impotent re- 
 proaches ! If we are to come to 
 reproaches, look at your penal enact- 
 ments against the CathoKcs, in the 
 reign of Elizabeth ; look at the 
 sanguinary execution of males and 
 females during the reign of Elizabeth 
 — at the hanging of them up like 
 common felons, and disembowelling 
 them while yet alive. Look at the 
 well-recorded fact which Dr. Lin- 
 gard has painted in so true and so 
 masterly a manner, that, "notwith- 
 standing the indefensible cruelties 
 of Queen Mary's reign, there were 
 actually more CathoKcs put to death 
 in the days of Queen Elizabeth than 
 Protestants in the reign of Queen 
 Mary." And upon this point a 
 sharp literary contest ensued be- 
 tween the Edinburgh Review and 
 Dr. Lingard, in which Dr. Lingard 
 came off triumphant, with laurels 
 
134 
 
 SACEITICB OP IHE MASS. 
 
 now tmoontested ereniby tlie re- 
 viewers themselves. „Sk 
 
 But what, I ask agaffiTaas poli- 
 tical persecution to do with my 
 religion ? Let ine, since my learned 
 and reverend friend dweUs so pleas- 
 ingly on these irrelevant facts, let 
 me call yonr attention, my friends, 
 to the weU-attested and accredited 
 fact, to be met with in the pages of 
 Lingard, namely, that when the mis- 
 guided Mary was putting to death 
 poor inoffensive Protestaaits (and a 
 shuddering idea it is!) — when she 
 Was, day after day, breaking the 
 laws of her God, and violating the 
 principles of the Catholic faith, a 
 Spanish friar, who had come over in 
 the embassy, and who had learned 
 the BngUsh language, mounted with 
 "the nndaunted faaness of a son 
 of Scotia," (if I may use a simile 
 capable of pleasing my reverend op- 
 ponent,) mounted the pulpit in St. 
 BauTs church, and preached a 
 memorable sermon to the people 
 of England, to the effect that 
 nothing could be more contrary to 
 the vital spirit of the Christian 
 religion than to persecute for dif- 
 ferences of opinion. " It is not a 
 doctrine," says he, " of the Catholic 
 religion. You are contaminating 
 your souls — ^you are polluting your 
 hands with innocent blood!" But 
 statesmen, my friends, if permitted, 
 or connived at by the people, as 
 unfortunately history proves with 
 too much clearness, vpnl persecute 
 in all ages. The OathoHc, however, 
 or the Erotestant — let us extend the 
 same justice to both — ^wiR then only 
 be chargeable with it, when it be- 
 comes a fundamental article aither 
 of the OathoKo or of the Protestant 
 religion. 
 
 I have been led into this digres- 
 sion by my learned friend, and I do 
 acknowledge that it never ought to 
 have been mingled with a polemical 
 discussion. The fault is not mine ; 
 
 [3i Eoemnp. 
 
 and, if. I may tell my reverend 
 friend what I think on_ the subject, 
 such reasoning argues (in my humble 
 opinion) more of the gaU of human 
 nature thai of the sweet milk that 
 flows from genuine Christianity. 
 [Applause on the part of the Ca- 
 tholics, when the cnairmam rose to 
 order:] 
 
 To resume. The Sacrifice of the 
 Mass, my friends, is to be proved 
 from St. Paul :— " lice," exclaims 
 the apostle of the Gentiles, "flee 
 from idolatry ! I speak as to wise 
 men; judge ye what I say. The 
 chaHoe of benediction, which we 
 bless, is it not the communion of the 
 blood of Christ ? For we being many 
 are one bread and one body; for 
 we are aU partakers of that one 
 bread. Behold Israel after the flesh . 
 are not they which eat of the sacri- 
 fices partakers of the altar ? What 
 say I then? that the idol is any 
 thing ? or that which is offered in 
 sacrifice to idols is any thing ? But 
 I say that the things wMch the 
 Gentiles sacrifice they sacrifice to 
 devils, and not to God, and I would 
 not that ye should have feUowsbip 
 vrith devils. Ye cannot drink the 
 cup of the Lord, and the cup of 
 devils; ye cannot be partakers of the 
 Lord's table, aad of the table of 
 devils." _ . . 
 
 There, my friends,' I see that 
 sacred table, to which I approach 
 myself, as also my feUow-Catnolics ; 
 I see therein that same table ; I see 
 the contradistinction between the 
 altars of the CsfthoKc, and "the, 
 altars of devils," described by St. 
 Paul. They have been seen from 
 the time that Paul wrote (as the 
 learned and eloquent Dr. Lingard 
 has so luminously demonstrated) ; 
 and in every part of the world there 
 has been an altar erected, and a 
 
 ?riest offering sacrifice at that altar, 
 see clearly that altar which, my 
 reverend friend does not ; I see it 
 
Mr. French.'\ 
 
 (if he will only permit me \o judge 
 for myself) — I see in this very pas- 
 sive (exeroisiog my own free will, 
 with which my kind friend endows 
 me most kindfy and liberally, whilst 
 he sighs most charitably to eman- 
 cipate me from the yoke of my 
 priesthood — ^using, I say, the eyes of 
 my own understanding) — I see that 
 there is a sacrifice to be kept up in 
 the Christian temple, very distmct 
 from those sacrifices which he has 
 told you are intended in this par- 
 ticular passage. It is not the bloody 
 sacrifice offered up on the cross : 
 for the fathers speak, in consonance 
 with the prophet Malachi, of a 
 sacrifice offered by the Church in 
 every place, iustituted, as they say, 
 by our blessed Saviour at his last 
 supper ; pronouncing also, that it is 
 performed by the priest at the altar, 
 in the oelebracion of the Eucharist 
 particularly. Nor do the fathers of 
 the Church deem the victim here 
 symbolical ; they deem it to be the 
 Son of God, the Lamb that taketh 
 away the sins of the world; and 
 that he is here immolated, again, 
 unbloodily, by the priest, Grod's 
 power and omnipotence concurring, 
 and angels wondering and adoring. 
 What could be expressed more 
 clearly to sonify what it is that we 
 receive ? How can the universality 
 of this propitiatory, unbloody sacri- 
 fice of tne whole Christian world be 
 inore demonstrably established, than 
 by their writings, according as they 
 do with the constant, uninterrupted 
 usage of the Catholic Church, added 
 to the usage of those schismatic 
 churches that separated from her 
 (what can never oe too frequently 
 repeated) now nearly fourteen hun- 
 dred years ago ? 
 
 Contemplating, therefore, the 
 Catholic Church thus believing, 
 thus practising, thus teaching, in 
 aU ages since the days of the apos- 
 tiea, shall it be in the power, let me 
 
 sicarpicE OP the mass. 
 
 135 
 
 iKiK, of the puny, the unlearned, the 
 unstable, the arrogant dogmatizers, 
 whether Lutherans, Calvioists, Ana- 
 baptists, or sectarians of any deno- 
 mination, to overshadow by their , 
 clouds of darkness, raised up in the 
 nineteenth century, the grand obla- 
 tion and unbloody Sacrifice, wherein 
 the Victim is and wiH be, by conse- 
 cration, perpetually made present, 
 under the species of bread and wine, 
 until the consummation of the world; 
 unless the testimony of the Holy 
 Ghost, who is the Spirit of Trutli, 
 is to be rejected, when resounding 
 through the mouth of his prophet, 
 Malaohi ? No, my friends, believe 
 me, neither the storms of heresy on 
 earth, nor the gates of hell, shall 
 ever prevail against the Church, 
 whose principal act and obligation 
 is the Sacrifice of the Mass. 
 
 We see, also, in many other pas- 
 sages of Holy Writ,, besides the 
 prophet Malaohi, the most distinct 
 of its predictors — we see reference 
 to our holy Sacrifice of the Mass. 
 These, proDably, have escaped the 
 discerning eye of my learned friend. 
 I shall, therefore, beg leave to read 
 them to him. I quote from Revela- 
 tions, V. 6. (Douay version) : — 
 
 "And I saw in the midst of the 
 throne, and of the four beasts, and 
 in the midst of the seniors, a lamb, 
 standing as it were slain, having 
 seven horns, and seven eyes, which 
 are the seven spirits of God, sent 
 into aU the earth. — 7. And he came 
 and received the book out of the 
 right hand of him that sat in the 
 throne. — .8 . And when he had opened 
 the book, the four beasts, and the 
 four-and-twenty seniors, fell before 
 the lamb, having every one of them 
 harps and golden vials fuU' of odours, 
 which are the prayers of the saints. 
 — 9. And they saiig a new canticle, 
 saying. Thou art worthy, O Lord, to 
 take the book, and to open the seals 
 thereof; because thou wast slain, 
 
136 
 
 SACKIMCB OP THE MASS. 
 
 [Zd Eeemng. 
 
 and iiast redeemed us to God, in thy 
 blood, out of every tribe, and tongue, 
 and people, and nation. — 10. And 
 bast made us to our God a kingdom 
 and priests, and we shall reign upon 
 the earth." 
 
 Some imagine that this, and es- 
 pecially many of the fathers of the 
 Church, is descriptive of the true 
 priesthood here on earth, prostrate 
 at the foot of our holiest altars; 
 and I candidly own (if my reverend 
 friend, who declares that he is no 
 priest, will permit me to judge for 
 myself) that I firmly believe it has 
 such reference. 
 
 My rev. friend has told you, with 
 unceasing repetition, that I shrink 
 from St. Paul and the Gospels. This, 
 my friends, is not the case. I ex- 
 pected to have heard, and am rather 
 waiting to "hear from him, certain 
 passages from St. Paul, to which he 
 win cGrect your attention, and to 
 which I will give a most satisfactory 
 answer, when he shall have brought 
 them forward. As it is, I shall 
 merely say, in anticipation, that 
 there are many passages in St. Paul, 
 as St. Peter has expressed it, " hard 
 to be understood," hard of under- 
 standing, and which the unenlight- 
 ened or unstable "wrest to their 
 own damnation." Now, really, if 
 there be any danger of incurring 
 damnation by twisting and distort- 
 ing passages in St. Paul, how, I ask, 
 can a Christian, who wishes to pro- 
 ceed in a sure, a safe, and direct way 
 to salvation, how can he do better 
 than by asking himself or others, 
 how have all the holy men that have 
 adorned the Church of God from 
 age to age, how have they been 
 accustomed to interpret certain pas- 
 sages hard of explication? Is it 
 not much the safer way to go along 
 with the stream of the constant, 
 equably-flowing, and harmonious 
 authority from age to age, than to 
 follow the new-fangled aoctriaes of 
 
 the present day, when every man is 
 his own interpreter on texts of so 
 momentous a nature, that the salva- 
 tion of an immortal soul is at stake, 
 in interpreting them rightly o» 
 wrongly? How am I to mow, 
 when the learned gentleman quotes 
 a passage from St. Paul, which is 
 not of an obvious meaning, how am 
 I to know that the meanmg which 
 he attaches to it is the correct one ? 
 Believe me, my friends, it is a daji- 
 gerons, a perilous thing to go against 
 the opimon and practice of all an- 
 tiquity. I came mto this room, if I 
 may repeat words which I have be- 
 fore uttered, with records drawn 
 from the archives of antiqxdty, in 
 order to give my learned opponent an 
 opportunity of confuting them and 
 dashing them to pieces. But he 
 has not been able to do so. And 
 though he may say, again and Egain, 
 vrithout the least proof, that I am 
 not friendly to the pages of St. 
 Paul, St. Peter, St. Luke, and St. 
 John, yet he himself has already 
 acknowledged, vrithout the necessity 
 of any proof on my part, that he 
 does not like to open those sacred 
 Kturgies to investigate their origin; 
 in one word, that ne would rather 
 not say anything at all about them, 
 exceptmg it be this, namely, that 
 one page of St. Paul, in his view of 
 the subject, is worth ten thousand 
 of them. 
 
 Now, without meaning to make 
 my learned friend to start indignant 
 from his chair, I wiU as boldlv 
 inaintain, that one page of St. Pau^ 
 may be more detrimental to the 
 self-taught, seU-conflding Christian, 
 than the joint opinion of the unani- 
 mously-according fathers. And why? 
 Because I am told by St. Peter, that 
 some parts of St. Paul are, by readers 
 of such a description, liable to be 
 wrested to their damnation, no pro- 
 phecy of Scripture being of private 
 But, ill the books of 
 
Mr. French.'] 
 
 SACRIFICE OP TILE MASS. 
 
 137 
 
 tlie fathers, 1 find them telling us 
 ■what the Church has taught and 
 preached in all ages ; I find them 
 concurring with the Bihle, not (mark 
 you, my friends)- contradicting the 
 Bible. God forbid that I should 
 speak disparagingly of St. Paul. In 
 a Catholic point of Yiew, every pas- 
 sage in St. Paul is, as we maintain, 
 perfectly harmonious and intelligible. 
 We aU acknowledge, that where St. 
 Paul lays down, in langaage which 
 is obvious to every one, any thing of 
 Christian doctrine, we are bound 
 then to look upon his words, thus 
 engraven in the inspired volume, as 
 bemg beyond aU value. But 1 
 maintain that it is safer to be 
 guided in the way to salvation by 
 asking what the Church of ages has 
 taught on difficult passages in the 
 ■ Bible, whether from the pen of St. 
 Paul or St. Peter, or any one of the 
 sacred writers, than to set one- 
 seH up for an infallible oracle, after 
 the supercilious manner of my Cal- 
 vinistic opponent, who takes up 
 passages of the sacred volume, and 
 gives an exposition as if he were 
 actually possessed of aU. the intellect, 
 all the acumen, all the wisdom of 
 antiquity, superabundantly improved 
 by modernism — discriminating every 
 thing at first glance, and pronounc- 
 ing, definitively, ex cathedra m- 
 perbia sum, from the proud chair in 
 which he sits by self-mstalment. 
 
 TertuHian has been adduced, by 
 my learned friend, as an authority 
 against our Sacrifice. I grant that 
 TertuHian, in the passage to which 
 he alluded, is not so specific on the 
 point as other fathers of the Church ; 
 but I deny that the passage which 
 he has brought forward militates 
 against us in any shape or form 
 whatever. On the other hand, I 
 cannot omit this opportunity of ob- 
 serving, that my learned opponent 
 views our doctrine with a grossly 
 carnal eye. He never will, I fear. 
 
 unaerstand, and it seems I cannot 
 impress apon him, by any attempt 
 at incuJcation, that our Sacrifice, 
 though containing, according to our 
 tenet, the real body and blood of the 
 Lord Jesus Chiist, is still a " spi- 
 ritual " sacrifice ; which if he un- 
 derstood clearly, he could not fail 
 to see that the word "spiritual" 
 perfectly corresponds with the pas- 
 sage which he has quoted. But, in 
 other places, TertulKan uses the 
 word q^erre (io offer) too significantly 
 to admit of the least doubt as to its 
 being our grand Sacrifice of the 
 Mass, predicted by the prophet 
 Malachi:— "We offer Sacrifice for 
 the safety of the emperor to our 
 God, who is also his." — Tertul. Lib. 
 ad Scap. c. 2. 
 
 Did TertuHian, let me ask, when 
 he wrote these lines, imagine that 
 •the Roman emperor could coUeot 
 from them, that offering sacrifices 
 for any one meant merely saying 
 prayers for him ? Could the Roman 
 language, as understood by my 
 learned friend, be by any means 
 accommodated to so figurative an 
 interpretation in the understanding 
 of a Pagan ? 
 
 Can anything, then, be more 
 clearly shown, my friends, than the 
 truth of my position ? My learned 
 opponent upbraided me, on the last 
 occasion when we met, by making a 
 most ridiculous and unfounded as- 
 sertion — that I never took a text of 
 Scripture to defend my position, 
 but that that text was sure to con- 
 tain some pungent proof against 
 our doctrine. I accuse my reverend 
 opponent, much more warrantably, 
 of just the same thing, not only 
 from Scripture, but from the fathers. 
 
 I have not time sufficient to an- 
 swer the wandering speech of my 
 learned friend, for which my bos'; 
 excuse is, its want of anything like 
 solidity, and having myself a great 
 deal of solid matter to advance. But 
 r 2 
 
13d 
 
 SACBIFICE OP THE MASS. 
 
 I, m my turn (for I am not in. the 
 habit of putting questions of inanity), 
 before I sit dowiij must call upon 
 my reverend opponent, again and 
 again, most importunately, and shall 
 make it a pomt to reiterate it un- 
 weariedly, tiU this discussion is 
 ended, to account satisfactorily for 
 this extraordinary fact, viz. that 
 the Sacrifice of the Mass is offered 
 up by the Eutychians and Nes- 
 torians (who separated from us in 
 the fifth century) at the present 
 day; to answer, I say, how is it 
 that the ceremony, perfectly analo- 
 gous to our own, is stiU existent 
 among them, namely, the unbloody, 
 propitiatory sacrifice, by the priest 
 at the altar ? Is not that a circum- 
 stance worth looking at in the face 
 by my learned friend, instead of 
 — I wfll not say shrinking Kke a 
 Scottish Highlander, for they gene- 
 rally face their enemies — but I wiU 
 say, instead of in a dark, winding, 
 Calvinistic manner, shrinking from 
 such a strong, such a powerfol ai-gu- 
 ment, when it is wielded against 
 him by one who knows how to hurl 
 it, and to follow it up with a perti- 
 nacity not to be conquered? St. 
 Augustine, the most faithful wit- 
 ness, fidelissmm testis, of all an- 
 tiquity, as Calvin describes him, 
 teUs us that Mass was offered up 
 for the repose of the soul of his 
 mother, Monica. WiU the learned 
 gentleman attempt to impugn his 
 'veracity? or, with his usual ob- 
 livious rapidity in speaking, when 
 he rises to address you, pass over 
 the fact, as if it had never been 
 attested, or had never been presented 
 to his notice ? 
 
 [The learned gentleman's hour 
 here terminated.] 
 
 Eev. J. CuMMiNe. — There are 
 two ways in which an opponent finds 
 it somewhat difficult to reply to the 
 statements of his adversary who has 
 
 \Zd Hoemng. 
 
 preceded him. I confess that if the 
 speech of my learned antagonist had 
 been replete with lucid and admir- 
 able argument, that then I should 
 have felt a course of reply open and 
 fairly before me; in the arguments 
 there might be difficulty, but in the 
 line of reply there could be none. 
 But my opponent's speech, from its 
 beginning to its close, has been no- 
 thing else than a sort of incantatary 
 effort to conjure up the airy ghost 
 of Transubstantiation, instead of a 
 series of sober and intelligent argu- 
 ments in defence of the propitiatory 
 Sacrifice of the Mass, the subject 
 under discussion. It reaUy uoes 
 perplex me how to reply, so mat we 
 may each maintain our common 
 credit with this assembly for ad- 
 hering to the question which we 
 proposed, viz. the Propitiatory Sacri- 
 fice of the Mass. My learned an- 
 tagonist brought forward a number 
 of statements, calling upon me to 
 show when the Mass was mtroduced 
 into the Christiaji Church. I showed 
 you a time, posterior to the apostolic 
 age, when it dii not exist. This 
 I proved Ijy an extract from Justyn 
 Martyr, which was brought forward 
 in reference to Transubstantiation 
 on a preceding evening, from which 
 it is clear, that in his day, and ac- 
 cording to his testimony, ani prior 
 to the existence of those so-called 
 ancient Liturgies, out of which my 
 antagonist has quoted, there was no 
 such thing as the propitiatory Sacri- 
 fice or ceremomal of the Mass j and 
 to this triumphant fact he has made 
 no reply. Let it then be recorded, that 
 in the second century 
 
 ojtneMass^ 
 Sacrifice. An elaborate statement 
 of my learned friend was rather a 
 concession than otherwise — for this 
 I heartily thank him. He exclaims, 
 how absurd it is for me to call on 
 him to prove that this propitiatory 
 Sacrifice exists in the Bible, when it 
 
Rev. J. Gummnff.] sacjiifice or this mass. 
 
 ]39 
 
 did not exist till three centuries qfter! 
 That is just what I want — he has 
 deKberately, or inadvertently, con- 
 ceded that it is not in the Bible, 
 but that it sprang up subsequently. 
 I have taken down the words of my 
 learned antagonist ; he most cer- 
 tainly said, how ridiculous it is for 
 me to call on him to prove that 
 such a thing existed in the Bible, 
 when we find that it existed only 
 three centuries after ! If the learned 
 gentleman thinks he spoke inad- 
 vertently, T. will allow him to with- 
 draw it. [To Mr. Erench, and 
 laughter.] Another remark of Ms 
 was, that we Protestants have no 
 priest and no altar ; for his part, he 
 could not conceive the existence of 
 an altar witholit a priest, or a priest 
 without an altar, and he added, with 
 apparent satisfaction, that we have 
 neither. No mistake can be more 
 gross. It is true' that we have no 
 material or perishable altar, which 
 " the moth and the rust may con- 
 sume," and which the ruthless 
 invader may defile and overturn; 
 but we have an altar which the 
 unclean have no right to approach, 
 and a sacrifice wMch none are able 
 to destroy. We have a priest as 
 well as an altar. We have a priest, 
 not like the priests of the Church of 
 Home, liable to all the passions and 
 imperfections of humanity, one suc- 
 ceeding to the other by reason of 
 death, and offering ofttimes the same 
 sacrifice, which can never take away 
 sins ; but we have " a Great High- 
 priest that is passed into the hea- 
 vens," who ONCE roK AIL offered 
 sacrifice for sin, and who now 
 sitteth at the Father's right hand 
 to make intercession for us. Christ 
 is at once our Altar, our Sacrifice, 
 and our Priest. 
 
 If we have not the sacrifice, the 
 altar, and the priesthood of Rome, 
 we have those of Christ, and sU in 
 Christ. TVe have an altai of far 
 
 nobler material, a priesthood of 
 more glorious attributes, and a 
 sacrifice so consummate and so per- 
 fect, that it needed to be offered 
 but once for all, and no more, to the 
 end of the world. My learned an- 
 tagonist has performed many splen- 
 did gyrations round and round St. 
 Paul in his Epistle to the Hebrews ; 
 but the moment he came too near 
 the exterminating records of the 
 apostle, he dashed off instunter to 
 TertuLlian or Augustine, or to 
 some other renowned and illustrious 
 father. I know why Mr. French 
 has said so much about St. Paul, 
 and so little from St. Paul ; he 
 knows there is a rod in pickle for 
 him from that quarter [laughter] ; 
 he knows what St. Paul states, and 
 he knows still further, that if the 
 statements of St. Paul are to be 
 recognised as binding and final, the 
 Mass, with all its superstition and 
 absurdities, must be exploded, and 
 driven before those inspired state- 
 ments, Kke chaff before the wind, on 
 the threshing-fioor .of summer. To 
 vindicate his remaining at so re- 
 spectful a distance from the Epistle 
 to the Hebrews, and having as little 
 as possible to do vrith Scripture, he 
 quoted from the two epistles of 
 St. Peter, " vsa which are some 
 things hard to be understood, which 
 they that are uiileamo'l via-est to 
 their destruction." 
 
 Now, when I conic to the Rule 
 of Faith. I am prepared to canvass 
 this reference at large, but I would 
 remind my antagonist, that in the 
 original it is ev ols, or the neuter 
 gender, and not ev aU, the femi- 
 nine gender. 1\e words or relative 
 " in which there are some hard 
 things," he states does not refer to 
 " Epistles" but to things spoken of 
 in the Epistles. Now, even the 
 fact, that in the days of St. Peter 
 certain tialeamed persons wrested 
 the Scriptures, is proof positive 
 
uo 
 
 SACEIPICE OP THE MASS. 
 
 [&d Eoening 
 
 that these persons were not under 
 the interdicts of the Church of 
 Rome, else how could they wrest 
 what they were not allowed to read ? 
 The cure, moreover, prescribed by 
 the apostle is ui the last verse : — 
 "But grow in grace, and in the 
 knowledge of our Lord and Savionr, 
 Jesus Christ," i.e. read more and 
 more the Bible, and you will be 
 less likely to misunderstand it. 
 "The unlearned wrested them to 
 their own destruction," that is, the 
 uninitiated, the uncMlled ; those 
 who snatch at fragments of Scrip- 
 ture here and there, without lookiog 
 to the analogy of truth or at parallel 
 passages, and to the whole harmony 
 of inspiration — who imitate the con- 
 duct of. my opponent, taldng iso- 
 lated fragments, as was manifested 
 50 palpably when he quoted from 
 B.evelations : — " Unto him that 
 loved us, and washed us from our 
 sins in his own blood, and made us 
 priests unto God ;" and inferred, ia 
 a style of logic for which he should 
 take out a patent, that there are 
 sacrificiag priests in the Church of 
 Borne. Why, who is it that are 
 nere made " priests unto Go'd ?" It 
 is the laity as well as clergy in 
 heaven. The whole Church says, 
 "Unto him that loved us, and 
 washed us in his blood, and hath 
 made us kings and priests unto 
 God, be glory and honour." They 
 are priests, just as St. Peter told 
 the laity in his day : — " Ye are 
 kings and priests,." In order 
 to meet another allegation of my 
 learned antagonist, I must recur to 
 Justyn Martyr, though really I am 
 sorry to bring you into this inter- 
 minable forest of the fathers, where 
 one father knocks his head against 
 another father, and another lather 
 knocks his head against both, and 
 with whom Roman Catholics pky at 
 seek and hide. Nevertheless, for 
 ■.he sake of my learned antasonisti 
 
 who is so passionately attached to the 
 fathers, and correspondenthr afraid 
 of the apostles, I will read from his 
 Dialogue with the Jew Trypho. 
 
 Let us see, if in this eitaract from 
 Justyn, he does read of any other 
 sacnflces as offered up by 'Chnstians, 
 save spiritual praises, prayers, &c. 
 !M^ antagonist states, that his priests 
 offer up " a, propiiiatorj/ sacrifice for 
 the sins of tie living and the dead — 
 a true, proper, and propitiatory 
 sacrifice." Justyn Martyr says, on 
 the contrary, " I also affirm that the 
 prayers and praises of the saints are 
 the only perfect sacrifices acceptable 
 to Ood." {reKeiai fiovai (cat €i3a- 
 pearat etfft t^ dea dvaiat.) 
 
 " Por these only have the Chris- 
 tians undertaken to perform, and by 
 the commemoration of the wet and 
 dry food, in which we caU to mind 
 the sufferings which the God of 
 gods suffered through Him whose 
 name the high priests and scribes 
 have caused to be profaned and 
 blasphemed tlirough the earth." — 
 Dialog, with the Jew Trypho, p. 345. 
 Paris, 1515. 
 
 I next quote another passage from 
 the same father, shijvnng that he 
 has a far greater spice of Protest- 
 antism than my friend is prepared 
 to anticipate. My learned antar 
 gonist appealed, in one of his less 
 timid moments, to the Bible, and 
 quoted from the Roman Catholic 
 version, (Acts of the Apostles xiii. 
 2,) " As they were ministering" to 
 the Lord and fasting, theHoly 
 Ghost said to them, &c. 
 
 This passage, which to every un- 
 prejudiced ear savours so little of 
 Transubstantiation, or its idol-infant, 
 the Mass, is actually adduced by my 
 learned friend, with his eyes open, 
 as a proof of the Mass. 
 
 ReaUy, I never met vrith an 
 adversan^ who had so happy a 
 knack of extracting sunbeams from 
 'cucumbers tLanghterl. He lias 
 
Rev. J. Gumming^ saceipice or the mass. 
 
 ]rt 
 
 actually brought forward this text 
 to support the Mass ! " whilst they 
 were miiustering to the Lord," that 
 is, says my opponent, offering up 
 the body and blood, soul and divi- 
 nity of Jesus Christ. 
 
 Mr. PiffiNOH. — " MioisteriBg" is 
 the word. 
 
 Rev. J. CuMMiNG. — Yes, "mi- 
 nistering," and as you expounded it, 
 " offeriag up the body and blood, 
 soul and divinity of the Son of God." 
 And the learned gentleman endea- 
 vours to drive home his position by 
 referring to Parkhrirst's Lexicon, 
 which I have on the table. I will 
 refer to it also. When my oppo- 
 nent quoted from the Lexicon, I 
 called to him to read on., but he felt 
 it more convenient and desirable, as 
 on previous occasions, not to read 
 on.. I vrill read the remainder of 
 the passage for his edification. 
 Parkhurst defines Xeiroupyeto to- 
 minister publicly in sacred offices. 
 The Lexicographer then quotes from 
 Josephus those who ministered ac- 
 cording to the Jevfish service, and 
 adds, "in works of charity." Is 
 this the Mass ? Mj learned friend 
 left out the clause, in works of 
 charity, and gave merely it was 
 " whilst they were ministering" 
 according to the Jewish service. 
 This slip is curious. My learned 
 opponent contends that the Greek 
 verb XeiToirpyem means to'offer pro- 
 pitiatory sacnflce, or to offer up the 
 body and blood, soul and divinity of 
 the Son of God. Now follow me, 
 and see to what results this inter- 
 pretation leads, and you vnU wit- 
 ness again what I told, you at the 
 outset, that a full remtation of a 
 Roman Catholic's argument may be 
 found in the very texts which are 
 taken up for his defence. 
 
 I refer you to the jSfteenth chapter 
 and twenty-seventh verse (I quote 
 from the Douay Bible) of the Epistle 
 to the Romans :— " Por it the 
 
 Gentiles have been made partakers 
 of these spiritual things, they ought 
 also in carnal things to minister 
 to them/' The Greek is— ev tojs 
 a-apKiKols XeiTOVfyyrja-ai avTois. The 
 same verb, 'Keirovpyeoj, is used here 
 as in Acts xiii. 3, which my oppo- 
 nent says means offering up propiti- 
 atory sacrifice. The meaning, there- 
 fore, of tMs verse iu Romans xv. 27, 
 would be, that as the Gentiles re- 
 ceived spiritual things, then that- 
 they ought also in carnal things to 
 offer up to them the propitiatory 
 sacrifice of the Mass in retirm. 
 Observe : he-says XetTovpyeo means 
 to offer up the Sacrifice of the Mass, 
 then I contend that such a reci- 
 procation as this interpretation 
 necessarily entails, is of a most 
 extraordinary stamp, since, for the 
 reception of spiritual blessings for 
 the Jews, they were in return to 
 offer up the propitiatory Sacrifice of 
 "the Mass, the body and blood, 
 soul and divinity of the Son of 
 God !" Strange recompense, and 
 stiU stranger trajisition on the part 
 of the apostle, if my opponent's 
 whimsicaf interpretation be right. 
 
 I quote from Hebrews i. 14 
 (Douay version) : — " Are angels not 
 all ministering spirits sent to mi- 
 nister for them ?" The Greek word : 
 in this passage is the same as in 
 Acts xiii. 3, which means, accord- ■ 
 ing to my friend's interpretaticn, 
 offering up the Mass. We must 
 contend, therefore, that angels offer 
 up the propitiatory sacrifice of the 
 Mass. If the word XeirevpyovvTav, 
 in the Acts of the Apostles, ren- 
 dered in the Roman Cathohc version, 
 whilst they were "ministering to the 
 Lord," means really whilst thw 
 were sacrificing the body and blooOj 
 soul and divinity of the Son of God, 
 then I demand a reason [to Mr. 
 IVenoh] why I am not to assert, by 
 parity of reasoning, when it is de- 
 clared that angels axe ministering 
 
142 
 
 SAOEiricE or the mass. 
 
 L3rf 
 
 ipirits (the same word XeirovpyiKo) 
 that angels offer up the Saorifloe 
 of the Mass : it is the very same 
 Greek word that is used as in the 
 Acts ; angels, therefore, are sacri- 
 ficing priests, and to saints, not to 
 God, they offer up the body of 
 Christ a propitiatory sacrifice. I 
 must come to this conclusion, if the 
 interpretation of XeiTovpyea, in 
 Acts xiii. 2, by my opponent be 
 correct. 
 
 Again, in Romans xiii. 6, we read, 
 that "rulers" or tings are the 
 " ministers of God." The Greek 
 word is huTovpyoi yap 6eoiJ flaiv 
 — ^the very same word employed in 
 the Acts, and therefore, of course, 
 according to my opponent's process 
 of interpretation, "rulers offer the 
 Sacrifice of the Mass." It is the 
 same word ; I refer my opponent to 
 the passage. I find ttie very same 
 Greek word, which Mr. French says 
 means to offer propitiatory sacrifice, 
 applied to angels, to rulers, and to 
 priests ; and therefore the inference 
 unquestionably must be, if the 
 second verse of the thirteenth 
 chapter of the Acts of the Apostles 
 means, "whilst they were saying 
 Mass," then when we read, "angels 
 are ministering spirits," we are to 
 understand angels say or offer up 
 Mass; that when we read "rulers 
 are ministers of God," that it means, 
 they say Mass for God ; and that 
 when we read, " Gentiles received- 
 from the Jews spiritual blessings," 
 by an admirable species of recipro- 
 city, they are to offer to the Jews, 
 in return, the Sacrifice of the Mass. 
 This, mind you, is not my private 
 interpretation; but, pursuing the 
 interpretation adopted by my learned 
 antagonist, I am inevitably led to 
 the conclusion, that the Sacrifice of 
 the Mass is to be offered up by 
 kings, and rulers, and angels, and 
 priestsj if the Greek verb XeiTovpyea 
 means offering propitiatory sacrifice. 
 
 If it means so in Acts, and nowhere 
 else, I ask an explanation ; I know 
 my opponent is a Greek scholar, and 
 competent to judge of the right 
 meaning of the passage, and he 
 must know, if he will be ingenuous, 
 that it means " engaged in the 
 service of God," or "ministering 
 publicly in the sacred office," or " in 
 the assembly of God's people." 
 
 This interpretation of my oppo- 
 nent is, he knows, absurd, and he 
 dare not risk bis reputation for 
 scholarship on such a position. But 
 I proceed to better matter. I have 
 two positions in reference to the 
 Sacrifice of the Mass ^'positions 
 which I deduce Jrom. the claims of 
 the Sacrifice of the Mass. Let me, 
 however, preface my arguments by 
 an important distinction. We call 
 prm/er a sacrifice, but not propitiar 
 tory ; we call ^m2s« a sacrifice, but 
 not propitiatory ; but the distinctive 
 name for the Sacrifice of the Mass, 
 
 is " A PEOPITIATOET, A KIOPBR 
 AUD PBOPITIATOKY SACKIMCE POB. 
 THE SINS OP THE LrVDrS AND THE 
 
 DEAD." It win, of course, be ad- 
 mitted on all sides, that there are 
 two great pre-regtiisiies to constitute 
 a "propitiatory sacrifice." The 
 first IS the destruction of, or death of 
 the victim ; or, in other words, the 
 shedding of blood. Now, the apostle 
 Paul says expressly, "without 
 
 SHEDDING OP BLOOD THERE IS NO 
 
 EEMissiON OP SINS;" in other words, 
 in every propitiatory sacrifice the 
 victim must be destroyed. The 
 lamb that was offered was slain ; the 
 goat was slain that was offered in 
 sacrifice ; and in every propitiatm/ 
 sacrifice the death of the victim is 
 a sine qua non. But in the Mass, 
 according to all Roman interpreta- 
 tion, there is no death op the 
 VICTIM. Christ does, not suffer death 
 in the Mass. It therefore follows 
 that there is no " propitiatoty sa- 
 crifice" in the Mass. 
 
Reo. J. Cumming.] sacrifice op the mass. 
 
 I repeat this decisive argument. 
 Acoordmg to the Bible, the de- 
 stmction of the victim is essential 
 to a propitiatory sacrifice. Heb. ix, 
 22 :— "Without shedding of blood 
 there is no remission o/'m««," "with- 
 out the destruction of the victim 
 there is no propitiatory sacrifice;" 
 but m the Mass there is no such 
 destruction as my opponent allovrs ; 
 and therefore, there is no propiti- 
 atory sacrifice in the Mass. I take 
 up the words more strictly : " ■with- 
 out SHEDDiNe as BLOOD," says the 
 
 apostle, " THEKE IS NO KEMISSION 
 
 as SINS ;'; but did not my learned 
 antagonist maintaiii, what Dr. Doyle, 
 in his Catechism, also maintaias — 
 that the Mass is an UNbloody sacii- 
 flee ? has he not shown us, from 
 authentic documents, that his own 
 Church says so ? But the apostle 
 says, " without shedding of blood 
 there is no remission of sins," and 
 therefore, the ioference undoubt- 
 edly must be, that as there is no 
 shedding of blood in the Mass, 
 "there, is no remission of sins," and 
 the hope of Roman CathoKcs is an 
 awful delusion ! " The Mass is not 
 a propitiatory sacrifice." Or if he 
 maintains that there is shedding of 
 blood in the Mass — or, ia other 
 words, suffering of death — in bold 
 defiance of the declaration of Dr. 
 Doyle and the oracular statements 
 of his Church, then I s^ that the 
 priests of the Church of Rome take 
 up the dreadful conduct and crime 
 of the Jews and Roman soldiery at 
 the cross ; they crucify afresh ; they 
 shed again the blood of the Son of 
 God. On the one or other horn of 
 this dilemma I impale my learned 
 adversary, and call upon him to ex- 
 tricate himself, how he best may. 
 " Without shedding of blood," says 
 the apostle, " there is no remission 
 of sins ;" but in the Mass there is 
 no shedding of blood, and conse- 
 quently, in the Sacrifice of the Mass, 
 
 143 
 
 there is no remission — ^there is no 
 propitiation for sin. In the next 
 place, there must be not only these 
 pre-requisites for every propitiatory 
 sacrifice, viz. the destruction of the 
 victim, or the shedding of its blood, 
 but there must of necessity be a 
 suitable and valid priesthood also. 
 
 The Mass is a propitiatory sacri. 
 flee. _ To offer it up, there must of 
 necessity be a saorificiag priest. 
 We contend, no such functions are 
 ascribed to the ministers of the Gos- 
 ipel in the New Testament. There 
 are ia the Greek language two dis- 
 tiact words, both of -miich have been 
 rendered priest : — Upcvs aud irpea-- 
 ^vTcpos. The former applied to the 
 priests of Levi, and descriptive of 
 sacrificing priests — the latter appKed 
 to the ministers of the Gospel m the 
 New Testament, and denotiug no 
 function peculiar to a saorificer. 
 The word priest in the Book of 
 Common Prayer, is derived from 
 the Greek irpea-^vrepos; German, 
 prester ; Prench, pretrej English, 
 priest. My position, which I cad on 
 my antagonist to disprove, is, that 
 there is no passage in the New Testa- 
 ment in which any minister of Chris- 
 tianity is, in contradistinction to the 
 faithful, described as either a lepcus, 
 or sacrificing priest. If no Upds 
 among the New Testament minis- 
 ters, then is there no propitiatory 
 sacnfice to be offered. I tberefore 
 call on Mr. French to lay his finger 
 on one solitary passage which declares 
 that Christ left behind him in his 
 Church an order of sacrifioiag priests, 
 or invested his minivers with names 
 or functions denoting them posses- 
 sors of power to make propitiatory 
 offerings. AH believers constituted 
 in the New Testament are a glorious 
 ^acrtKeiov ieparfv/ia — kingly priest- 
 hood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices 
 of thanksgiving and praise. Every 
 Christian layman is as much a Upeus 
 as his minister. Every believer in. 
 
14:4, 
 
 SACBITICB OP IHE MASS. 
 
 this assembly is a priest unto God. 
 No minister, Protestaat or Roman 
 Catholic, is so exclusively and dis- 
 tinctively. 
 
 "Ye also, as lively stones" it is 
 2 Peter chap. v. [to Mr. P.] "are 
 built up a spiritual house, an holy 
 priesthood, to offer up spiritual •sajon- 
 flees, acceptable to God by Jesus 
 Christ." "Ibeseeehyoa,bythemercy 
 of God, that ye present your Mies 
 as living sacrifices." Now, then, I 
 repeat my statement, that the words 
 presbvieros, episcomis, and diacomis, 
 are the words used in the New Tes- 
 tament, to describe the ministers of 
 Christ, and there is not an officer in 
 the New Testament Church distin- 
 guished from the body of the faithful 
 by the name of Upfis, or " sacri- 
 flcingpriest;" andltherefore tell the 
 reverend gentlemen who sit beside 
 Mr. Preneh [the Rev. T. Sisk, of 
 the Roman Catholic Chapel, Chelsea, 
 who, with another priest, was present 
 on the preceding and subsequent 
 evenii^s] that he is no sacrificing 
 priest [Mr. Sisk bowed] in the sense 
 m which he holds it. Mr. French 
 is as much a icpevs as he. I should 
 rejoice to hail him as coadjutor in 
 the Gospel of Christ; but, to enable 
 
 ' me to do so, he must abjure the 
 fearful assumption of any power to 
 bring from heaven and mimolate 
 upon his altar the liordTot. glory. 
 
 ' There is no JfpeiJr in tius room 
 separate from the whole body of the 
 faithful, save that High-priest, that 
 Great High-priest, who said to all 
 his folowers, "Lo! I am with you 
 always, even unto the end of the 
 n-orld." 
 
 We read in Hebrews, v. 4, " No 
 raan'taketh this honour unto him-, 
 self" (that is, " the honour" of 
 being a saeriflcing priest, as the 
 context will show you), " but he 
 that is called of God, as was Aaron." 
 Now I have shown you that God 
 has not called, or appointed, any to 
 
 [3if &ening. 
 
 be sacrificing priests; and ia the 
 New Testament Church there is not 
 one soKtaiy passage, from the Alpha 
 of Matthew to the Omega, of Reve- 
 lations, ia which the minister of 
 Christ is described as officially and 
 exclusively a Upivs, or " sacrificing 
 priest." 
 
 Mr. Pkench. — Wiat was the 
 text? 
 
 Rev. J. CuMMiNG. — The text I 
 last quoted was Hebrews v. 4. Let 
 us look at the institution of the 
 Lord's Supper (1 Cor. xi. 26), and 
 see if there is any intimation of a 
 sacrifice, or sacrilicing priesthood, 
 there : — " As often as ye eat this 
 bread and drink this cup, ya do show 
 the Lord's death tiH he come." 
 The words are not, ye do offer up 
 " the body and blood, soul and 
 divinity of Christ tiU he come." 
 The Lord's Supper, therefore, is an 
 institution to show forth the death 
 of Christ " tni he come," not in- 
 tended to perpetuate the offering 
 up the " body and blood, soul and 
 divinity of the Son of God." Wlien 
 our Lord was iastitutiog the com- 
 munion, it is recorded in thi twenty- 
 second of Luke, that " he tookbread, 
 and gave it to them, saying, ' This 
 is my body, which is ^ven for you.' " 
 Now the Mass is a " propitiatory 
 sacrifice," or something offered by 
 the priest TO ffo^but here is some- 
 thiug given by God to us ; or in a 
 sacrifice something is offered by man 
 to Grod, but a sacrament is some- 
 thing given by God to man. Wlen 
 our Lord instituted the Eucharist, 
 we read of no altar, on which was 
 to be offered up his body and blood, 
 soul and divinity — no sacrificicU 
 priest ; we find no intimation that 
 there was propitiation made in the 
 Last Supper by our Lord, or that he 
 asserted that the Eucharist vras 
 henceforth to be a propitiatory 
 sacrifice for the sins of the living 
 aod the dead. If the Last Supper 
 
Rev. J. Oummmg.'] sackimce as the mass. 
 
 14.5 
 
 was the propitiatory sacrifice of 
 Christ, I ask why did he offer him- 
 seK again? If the Last Supper 
 was the sacrifice that satisfied High 
 Heaven and saved lost mankind, 
 what means the fearful and agoniz- 
 ing cry — " Pather! if it he possible, 
 let this cup pass from me, hut never- 
 theless, not my wiU, hut thine be 
 done?" If the sacrifice was made 
 when the Last Supper was insti- 
 tuted, then must we blasphemously 
 infer from this fact, that the last 
 sacrifice of Christ on " the accursed 
 tree" was a work of superero- 
 gation, \moalled for and unneces- 
 sary. But if the Last Supper 
 was what we beheve it to be — an 
 affecting symbol of that solemn and 
 momentous sacrifice, a symbol of 
 the body and blood of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ, about to he oifered 
 up upon the cross, then we feel the 
 absolute necessity of his last great 
 sacrifice, because the truth is in- 
 scribed in the records of the Jewish 
 economy, and re-echoed intheoracles 
 of the church, " Without shedding 
 of blood there is no remission of 
 sia" — and, " The blood of buUs and 
 goats could not take away sin." 
 God himself must suffer, bleed, and 
 die, before the guitty sinner could 
 be redeemed. 
 
 In the Epistle to the Hebrews, 
 vii. 23, you wiH fini the following 
 important truth : — " They truly," 
 the priests of Levi, under the law, 
 " were many priests" (and the same 
 necessity of reason appKes to the soi 
 disant priests of Rome), " because 
 they were not suffered to continue 
 by reason of death ; but this Man, 
 because he continueth ever, hath an 
 unchangeableY^'i&'CaiX)^' Now 
 
 Mr. Fbench. — ^The reference, if 
 you please. 
 
 Rev. J. CuMJUnirG. — Hebrews vii. 
 23, 24. You observe, there were 
 "many priests" under the law — 
 " thcT were not suffered to continue 
 
 hy- reason of death ;" but this priest, 
 Christ, hath an unchangeable priest- 
 hood. The Church of Rome has 
 rendered the word "e^er^a/" priest- 
 hood; but I appeal to my friends 
 whetherthe Greek word airapa^arov, 
 derived from a vapafiaiva, to pass 
 over, compounded of ivapa, beyond, 
 and ^aiva>, to go, does not mean a 
 priesthood that cannot pass from one 
 to another — a priesthood incommu- 
 nicable and iuteansmissible, exclus- 
 ive and peculiar. The Greek is 
 explained in Parkhurst (Rose's edi- 
 tion) : — "What passeth not from 
 one to another," as the Jewish high 
 priesthood did from the father to 
 his son and successor. Theodoret 
 explains it, aSiaSo^oc. This epithet, 
 mrapa^aTov, denotes that Christ 
 has an incommumeable, intransfer- 
 able priesthood." 
 
 [Mr. French, appearing to deny it, 
 and appealing to the Rev. Mr. Sisk.j 
 
 Rev. J. CuMMiNG. — ^My friend, I 
 perceive, doubts me ! 
 
 Mr. Ebenoh (in reply). — "A 
 priesthood that does not pass away" 
 
 Rev. J. Gumming. — The Greek 
 word, I assert, from its composition, 
 its definition in Parkhurst, and its 
 synonyme in Theodoret, means what 
 I have stated — which passeth not 
 from one to another. 
 
 Mr. Pbestoh, and another voice 
 [which the reporter understood to be 
 the Rev. Mr. Sisk's.]— False! false! 
 bad ! bad ! it is irapa and ^aiva — , 
 "that does not pass away." 
 
 Rev. J. Gumming. — Very well, 
 as you choose. I have given you 
 the" original word and definition of 
 the Lexicon, and I now leave it with 
 every Greek scholar in this assembly 
 to decide whether the word does 
 not mean " unchangeable" or tliat 
 passeth not from one to another, and 
 not as .the Roman CathoKcs now 
 define it, that " cannot pass away." 
 I am not at all surprised that my 
 friend is obstinate on this point, and 
 
143 
 
 SACRIMCE OP THE MASS. 
 
 [ZdEvemnff. 
 
 contends strenuously for a diluted 
 meaning, because if it be a cbarae- 
 teristic of Christ that his priest- 
 hood is essentially and inseparably 
 interwoven with his other sacred 
 functions and glorious offices, and 
 can no more be passed away from 
 himself to another than his omnipre- 
 sence or omnipotence can be trans- 
 ferred, the assumptions of the 
 Boman priesthood are blasted by 
 that epithet as by a thunderbolt, 
 and the Mass proved a fabulous 
 deceit. One reason of the per- 
 fection of his priesthood is, because 
 he contimieth ever. Observe,- one 
 peculiarity of Christ's priesthood 
 IS, it contmueth ever. The feature in 
 contrast -with this, and oharacteiistic 
 of the Mosaic economy, is that 
 the priesthood passed from one to 
 another, that when one priest died 
 another succeeded him ; but Christ 
 continueth ever. There is neither 
 room nor necessity for any other 
 priest; the completeness of his 
 sacrifice, the fulness of his inter- 
 cession, and the continuance of, 
 and impassable origin of his func- 
 tions, render other sacrificing priests 
 mmecessary and inadmissible. Their 
 assumptions are intrusory; ttieir 
 claims are blasphemy; their exist- 
 ence, an attempt to defeat the ends 
 of the Gospel. We have aU we 
 can want m the complete and 
 glorious priesthood of our Lord 
 and Saviour Jesus Christ. 
 
 I may mention that one of the 
 fathers, to whom my learned friend 
 has referred, expresses the Greek 
 word dirapa^arov, by having no suc- 
 cessor. We have an explanation 
 from one of the fathers of this word 
 confirmatory of ours- if that wore 
 needed. If this be the fact — and I 
 am prepared with references abun- 
 dant from the Greek and Scripture to 
 show that that is the meaning — then 
 Mr. French knows there is an end of 
 the claims and proud assumptions of 
 
 the Boman'Catholic priesthood; that 
 their functions are gratuitous ; their 
 office is unhallowed ; their order 
 derogatory to Christ and ruinous to 
 men's souls. The ministers of the 
 Gospel are not sacrificing priests in 
 any sense different from the laity. 
 Heb. vii. 26, 27:— "lor such an 
 High-priest became us, who is holy, 
 harmless, undefiled, and separate 
 from sinners, and made higher than 
 the heavens ; who needeth not daih/; 
 as those high priests, to offer up 
 sacrifice, first for his men sins, ana 
 then for the people's, for this he did 
 ONCE when he offered up himself." 
 The Greek word is icftaira^ — once 
 for all — ^perfectly, completely, not 
 to be done again. I contend that if 
 St. Paul had been professedty com- 
 bating the doctrine of the Mass, he 
 could not have used stronger or 
 more exterminating language. He 
 says, " We have not a High-priest 
 who needeth daih/ to offer'wpsacrijke'' 
 But in the Church of Rome they 
 have priests who need daily to offer 
 up sacrifice. It is a fact, that at least 
 400,000,000 of masses have been 
 offered up since the year 1801. A 
 calculation below the mark, is that 
 there may be about 30,000 priests 
 in the world; suppose they offer a 
 Mass a day, tliat vriU be 2'l0,000 a 
 week, and 10,920,000 a year, or, 
 during the last ten years, in round 
 numbers, 100,000,000, and during 
 the portion of the century that is 
 now expired, and by the same arith- 
 metic, nearly 400,000,000 of masses. 
 Monstrous I almost (I speak it with 
 every kindness towards my anta- 
 gonist) blasphemous statement ! 
 What is the language of St. Paul? 
 " This he did once for all." He 
 needs not to offer up himself 
 400,000,000 of times, for "this 
 he did once for alL" The apostle, 
 dravring a contrast between the 
 priesthood of Christ and the priests 
 under the Jewish economy, or any 
 
Rev. J. Camminff.'j sacbipioe op ihe mass. 
 
 U7 
 
 similar economy, says, "he needetli 
 not daily, aa did their priests, to offer 
 up sacrifice for the sins of the people, 
 for this he did once for all" ■when 
 he offered himself as the victim 
 on the cross. I implore you to read 
 the 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th chap- 
 ters of the Epistle to the Hebrews ; 
 and if ever there was a splendid 
 and overpowering confutation of 
 the doctrine of the Mass, it is con- 
 taiaed in those four chapters, and 
 you wiE find the word aira^ re- 
 peated at' least seven times — " once 
 for all" — and this completeness of 
 Christ's sacrifice and perfection of 
 priesthood sweeps away for ever 
 the claims of a saorifleing priest. 
 
 Again, I quote Heh. is. 11 : — 
 "But Christ being come, an High- 
 priest of good things to come, by a 
 greater and more perfect tabernacle, 
 not made with hands — ^that is to say, 
 not of this building; neither by the 
 blood of goats and calves, but by 
 his own blood, he entered in once 
 into the holy place" — once pob. 
 ALL, you observe, never to come 
 out again to be sacrificed on the 
 altar, "having obtained etebnal 
 REDEMPTION FOB, TJS," and, there- 
 fore, no need of any other sacrifice 
 to be added, as if our redemption 
 could be exhausted and die, or to 
 make more satisfactory and com- 
 plete, than that which is eternal. 
 
 Again, I read from the same 
 chapter (Heb. is.), verses 13, 14 : — 
 •; Por if the blood of bulls and of 
 goats, and the ashes of an heifer 
 sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth 
 to the purifying of the flesh, how 
 much more snaU the blood of Christ, 
 who, through the Eternal Spirit, 
 offered himself without spot to God, 
 purge your conscience from dead' 
 works to serve the living God !" 
 Now, in this passage we find 
 
 Mr. Ebench. — ^The reference, if 
 you please. 
 
 [The reason of these interrup- 
 
 tions on Mr. French's pai-t was, 
 that Mr. Cumming was obliged to 
 make the quotations ao rapidly, on 
 account of the shortness of his time, 
 that it was almost impossible cor- 
 rectly to record them without hav- 
 ing the references again stated.] 
 
 Hev. J. Gumming. — I quoted 
 from Heb. ix. 13, 14. Now, then, 
 you observe, I am not giving my 
 own private interpretation — I am 
 laying the Mass and Scripture side 
 by side, that jou may dehberately 
 see if this propitiatory sacrifice is a 
 doctrine that enJOTs the patronage 
 of the apostle St. Paul. " Through 
 the Eternal Spirit he offered himself 
 without spot or blemish." Here 
 Christ is at once the axtab., and 
 the' VICTIM, and the priest. His 
 Godhead was the altar that sanc- 
 tified and sustained the majestic 
 offering ; his humanity — his " spot- 
 less" humanity — was the victim; 
 and the Lord Jesus Christ was the 
 great High-priest. He offered him- 
 self, the victim, on the altar of his 
 Godhead. 
 
 Again, in verse 32 : — " Almost all 
 things are by the law purged ■with 
 blood, and without shedding of blood 
 there is no i-emission." I have told 
 you that in the Mass there is no 
 shedding of blood, that it is, by the 
 definition of Dr. Doyle, an "un- 
 bloody" sacrifice; and, therefore, 
 this statement at once exterminates 
 its pretension to be a propitiatory 
 offering for the sins of the Uviag 
 and the dead. 
 
 The twenty-fifth verse of the same 
 ninth chapter of the Epistle to the 
 Hebrews ; — "Nor yet that he should 
 offer himself oeien, as the High- 
 priest entereth into the holy place 
 every year with blood of others.' 
 Now, mark, it is not required that 
 Christ should offer himself oriEN ; 
 but, in the Church of Rome, (as my 
 learned antagonist can testify,) it is 
 required that Christ offer himself 
 
14.8 
 
 SACRIMCE OP THE MASS 
 
 often by the priest. Yes, four hun- 
 dred million of times during the last 
 forty years. The Bible says it is 
 KOT EEQTJIKED that he should offer 
 himself oriEN, but the Church of 
 Kome says it is bequieed that he 
 should offer himself otten. [Turn- 
 ing to Mr. French.] 
 
 Mr. Pkench. — ^Yes. 
 
 Eev. J. Gumming. — The learned 
 gentleman most candidly acquiesces. 
 AH I need add is, that the Church of 
 Rome, in the pride of her foEy, says 
 one thing, and St. Paul, the inspired 
 penman, says another! Do you 
 admit the inspirations of St. Paul's 
 Epistle ? Do you hold it to be the 
 word of Gfod ? 
 
 [An' intimation of assent from 
 Mr. French.] 
 
 EcT. J. Gumming. — ^Then I call 
 upon the learned gentleman, when 
 ne stands up, to reconcile these two 
 extraordinary facts — the apostle 
 says, it is not necessary that Christ 
 ^axUA. iften offer up himself; the 
 Church of Rome says it is necessary. 
 I anticipate every possible reply, 
 and remind this assembly of* an 
 extinguisher on such opposition : — 
 " Let God be true, though every man 
 a liar." 
 
 I read on to the twenty-seventh 
 verse of this chapter, and quote the 
 words ; " for then must he often have 
 suffered, since the foundation of the 
 world; but now once, in the end 
 of the world, hath he appeared to 
 put away sin by the saorifloe of him- 
 self." The apostle has just said, 
 " It is not necessary that he should 
 offer himself often." Why ? (I spe- 
 ciaLLy call your attention to this.) 
 " It is not necessary," says the 
 apostle, "that he should ovweb, 
 himself OPTEN." He assigns the 
 reason: "became then must he 
 oiTEN HAVE surFEBED." la othcr 
 words, the apostle says, every time 
 that Christ is OPrEBED he must 
 EUFEEB ; and mark ! if he has been 
 
 \Zd Evening. 
 
 offered often " on Eoman Catholio 
 altars, he must have often suffered" 
 at the hands of Roman Catholic 
 priests. The Church of Rome dis- 
 claims, I believe, the idea that Christ 
 undergoes any suffering in the Sacri- 
 fice of the Mass. But if she dis- 
 claim the idea that he suffers, she 
 must also disolaiin the opinion that 
 he is offered on her altars. But if 
 Christ be often offered, he must, 
 according to the inspired declaration 
 of the apostle, often suffer ; if the 
 Church of Rome maintains he does 
 not often suffer, I must infer with 
 St. Paul, he is not often offered., and 
 therefore, that the Mass is, in the 
 words of the Chifrch of England, 
 " a blasphemous fable and danger- 
 ous deceit." It must be so, my 
 Roman Catholic hearers, if the 
 words of the true God are truth; 
 and, oh ! I implore you, my deeply 
 deluded feEow-countrymen, and you, 
 my leaxned opponent, to weigh these 
 solemn and eternal statements, for 
 we must each give an account be- 
 fore the judgment bar of Grod of 
 what we nave said and heard this 
 evening ! I implore you, my Roman 
 Cathohc friends, while I see many in- 
 telligent and inquiring countenances 
 around me, to lay these sentiments 
 seriously to heart, and resolve this 
 night to receive or to reject the 
 doctrine of the Mass, according to 
 the verdict of this infallible tribunal. 
 This holy volume must root up every 
 plant that is not of ourFather'splant ■ 
 mg. Revere, receive its records. 
 
 I turn to Heb. ix. 37, 28 :— 
 "And it is appoiated unto men 
 once to die, but after this the judg- 
 ment. So Christ was once offered 
 to bear the sins of many ; and unto 
 them that look for Mm shall he 
 appear the second time, without 
 sin, unto salvation." Is there any- 
 thing between man's dying and the 
 judgment ? " No," says the apos- 
 tle, " as a man once dies, and cannot 
 
Itev.J. 
 
 ] 
 
 SACEIPICB OP THE MASS. 
 
 149 
 
 be expected to die twice, and then 
 comes the judgment, so Christ was 
 ONCE offered, and then comes a se- 
 cond time." The next event is his 
 second coming, and not a frequent 
 or daily offering before it. The 
 parallel is complete ; it is beautifully 
 rendered in the Ddnay version : — 
 "So Christ, once offered, exhausted 
 the sins of many." Our version has, 
 to "bear the srns of many." The 
 next personal event that falls to 
 man after death is judgment ; and 
 the next personal event that follows 
 our Lord's having offered himself 
 once is his second advent, there being 
 recognised no intermediate offering. 
 I quote Hebrews x. 13 ;' — " Eor 
 the law haviug a shadow of good 
 things to come, and not the very 
 image of the things, can never with 
 those sacrifices, which they offered 
 
 comers thereunto perfect. Por then 
 would they not have ceased to be 
 offered ? because that the worship- 
 pers once purged should have had 
 no more conscience of sins." The 
 apostle says, that " sacrifices offered 
 from year to year, continually, can 
 never make the comers thereunto 
 perfect." But the propitiatory sa- 
 crifice of the Mass in the Church of 
 Rome is oflen offered, r^eax by year, 
 , continually ; nay, so often, that, 
 as I have told you, vrithin the last 
 forty years only, it has been offered 
 at least four hundred nulhon times. 
 Therefore, they cannot possibly 
 procure that fuD, finished, and per- 
 fect salvation which must be ob- 
 tained by the soul before it can 
 enter into glory. Sacrilces often 
 offered are not propitiatory enough, 
 and cannot take away sin. But the 
 Mass sacrifice is often offered, and 
 therefore it cannot be propitiatory 
 enough. 
 
 I go to Heb. X. 10:— "By the 
 which will we are sanctified, through 
 the offering of the body of Jesus, 
 
 once eok All." The Greek vrord 
 here is l^atra^ — ONCE roB all. 
 Now observe, to repeat this obla- 
 tion is to declare that it has not 
 "sanctified once for all;" in other 
 words, to repeat the sacrifice of 
 Christ is to declare it to be imper- 
 fect. If it need to be repeated, it 
 foUows that we are not " sanctified " 
 once for all; that the sacrifice of 
 Christ was not the perfect and all- 
 sufficient sacrifice which it has been 
 described to be. I vrill quote here 
 from the Douay Bible (as I am 
 willing to do on all these texts, 
 there being little difference), Heb. 
 xi. 11 : — "Every priest standeth 
 daily ministering and often offering 
 the same sacrifices, which can nevei 
 take away sins ; but this Man offer, 
 ing one sacrifice for siios, for ever 
 sitteth on the right hand of God." 
 
 "Bor by one oblation he hath 
 perfected' for ever them that are 
 sanctified," 
 
 You observe the contrast between 
 the priests ■ of the old dispensation 
 with Christ our great High-priest : 
 "They" (the priests) "were standing 
 in the temple daily, ministering," 
 just as they (the priests) do in the 
 Church of Rome, " offering often the 
 same sacrifices," as the priests do in 
 the Church of Rome ; but this Man 
 offered one sacrifice for ever, so that 
 such priests and offerings are done 
 with. He "sitteth at the right 
 hand of God." You observe, he does 
 not come down to the Mass-house to 
 be sacrificed on the altar of the church 
 of Rome by the priest ; but he ever 
 sitteth at the nght hand of God, 
 having offered up one finished sacri- 
 fice for all. " Por, by one oefbk- 
 ING or oblation, he hath for ever 
 perfected them that are sanctified." 
 This goes Hke a ploughshare through 
 the Mass and its ministering priests. 
 
 My dear friends, let me call on 
 you earnestly to weigh these solemn 
 truths. Krst, "without shedding 
 
150 
 
 SACBIFICE OF THE MASS. 
 
 of blood there is no remission;" 
 but ia the Mass there is no " shed- 
 "■ding of blood," and, consequently, 
 "no remission." Secondly, that 
 without the destruction of the 
 victim there is no prqpitiaiory sacri- 
 fice ; but in the Sacrifice of the 
 Mass there is no destruction of the 
 victim. " Christ dieth no more ;" 
 and, therefore, there is no propi- 
 tiatory sacrifice. In the next place, 
 the apostle contrasts "many priests" 
 with one priest, many sacrifices with 
 one ^eat sacrifice— one once far all 
 oblation, by which "we are per- 
 fected and sanctified," with those 
 many and daily-repeated oblations 
 which can never take away sin. 
 And, therefore, I do contend that 
 aU those passages from the reputed 
 ancient Hturgies and fathers, among 
 whom my learned friend has so 
 frequently rambled, and from which 
 he has brought every sort of hetero- 
 geneous and irrelevant extract, go 
 tor nothing in comparison of what 
 St. Paul declares ; and I do call 
 upon him now, earnestly and ho- 
 nestly, to apply himself to the in- 
 vestigation of these sacred passages, 
 and to reconcile them with the doc- 
 trine of the Mass, as it is defined in 
 the canons of the Council of Trent, 
 or in the Catechism of Dr. Doyle. 
 
 Let me, in a few "words, entreat 
 your attention to the glorious suffi- 
 ciency and completeness of our sar 
 orifice. When God forgives the 
 sinner, and remits the sms of the 
 guilty penitent, he does it once and 
 for ever. He forgives as God. It 
 has been related of, Alexander the 
 Great, that on his desiring a person 
 to ask what he pleased, and it would 
 be 'given him; and on the person 
 askmg a paltry and valueless boon, 
 Alexander said, " It may be becom- 
 ing in you to ask this, but it is not 
 in me to give it — ^when I give, I 
 give like a king." Our Great High- 
 priest "gives like a king" and his 
 
 [3rf IheHing, 
 
 gift is as lasting as it is mimificent ; 
 perfect SEilvation, nothing less or 
 more, is bestowed; free, fuU, and 
 final pardon is the royal boon of our 
 Melchisedec— there is no reason 
 why it should not be so. The holi- 
 ness of God, so pure that it detects 
 imperfections in angels, folly in the 
 bright , cherubim, and stains in hea- 
 ven, is infinitely glorified in that 
 sacrifice. Justice, unbending in the 
 least as in the loftiest of her de- 
 mandsj that before wrote in cha- 
 racters of fearful and mysterious 
 import, " Tekel, thou art weighed in 
 the balances and art found want- 
 ing ;" on our every thought and 
 deed, and caste of our race, is met 
 and magnified. The truth of God — 
 that announced with the immuta- 
 bility of heaven's own oracles, " the 
 soul that sinneth it shall die" — 
 looks on the tragedy of Calvary, 
 and finds its threatenings therem 
 exhausted; and God himself pro- 
 claims from the I opening heavens, 
 with a parent's piercing and melting 
 love, " Why will ye die, O House 
 of Israel; turn ye, turn ye, why 
 will ye die?" It is within the 
 sacred precincts of Calvary, and 
 around the Lamb slain from the 
 foundation of the world, that "mercy 
 and truth are met together, and 
 righteousness and peace have kissed 
 each other," and a reconoUedPather, 
 by reason of this onoe-for-all sacri- 
 fice, looks down from heaven on his 
 reconciled and ransomed family, 
 saying, " These are my sons ;" and 
 they look up from the scenes of 
 reconcihaiion, once the scenes of 
 estrangement, and say, in ecstatic 
 and glorious accents, "Abba, our 
 Father and our God." The Church 
 of Rome leads her victims to be- 
 lieve that God is a hard and tyrkmic 
 taskmaster, shorn of aU a father's 
 benevolence, something KkePharabh 
 of oldi who called on the people to 
 ■■"' ■ bricks when they had no 
 
iiev. J. 
 
 ■J 
 
 SACKIHCB OF THE MAS S, 
 
 151 
 
 straw — neither to be propitiated by 
 ■victims, nor to be melted by prayer. 
 So inexorable is God represented ia 
 Roman CatboKe tbeology, that tbe 
 body and blood, soul and divinity of 
 Ms Son must be offered up to bim 
 fo'ar hundred miUions of times 
 during the last forty years [a Toice, 
 "forty-five years"]. But God is 
 not a hard taskmaster. He says, 
 " This is my beloved Son, in whom 
 I am well pleased;" and all who 
 appear in that Son before God, 
 clothed with his perfect righteous- 
 ness, and with raiment washed in 
 the blood of the Lamb, is fuHy and 
 for ever accepted of God. This is 
 not all". The salvation of a Roman- 
 ist's soul rests on the merest con-, 
 tingencies. The inteniion of the 
 priest is essential to the sacrifice. 
 If yoair priest be an infidel and de- 
 ceives, you may be adoring, with 
 supreme worship, mere flour and 
 water, instead of God, and risking 
 your soul on a piece of paste, in- 
 stead of the only sacrifice for sia. 
 This is not all. The Kabilities in 
 the De Defectibm Missce place every 
 Roman Catholic's salvation at the. 
 mercy Or the honesty of his baker, 
 his wine merchant, and his priest ; 
 and, if any of these deceive — the 
 Roman Gathoho — be astonished, 
 Heaven ! and wonder, O earth ! — 
 has NO SACBiriCE. What a pre- 
 carious and perilous Church ! Your 
 poor souls repose on shifting sands. ' 
 lour immortal spirits and your 
 eternal destiny are cast into the 
 laps of men and placed at their dis- 
 posal. Par otherwise is it with the 
 Protestant Church. "We have an 
 AMAE, which no earthly contingency 
 can contaminate or overturn; we 
 have a priest — a great High-priest 
 — -who loved us from the first to the 
 last ; " who ever Uveth to make in- 
 cession for us." We have a sacbi- 
 ncE, so perfect, so far beyond the 
 reach of earth, or the revenge of 
 
 hell, that no wreck or ruin can 
 remove it, and no admixture from 
 above or below can defile it. Pro- 
 testant Christianity is worthy of 
 God. The Roman OathoMc feith is 
 unlike and unworthy of heaven, and 
 unprofitable to earth. It is worse 
 than salt that has lost its savour. 
 
 Suppose, when our first parents 
 fell, and " brought death into the 
 world, and all our woe" — suppose 
 that there appeared on earth an 
 immense enclosure, in which were 
 found- alike the dying and the dead 
 all mingling — sin wasting and con- 
 suming the aged and the young — 
 suppose that Mercy, smitten with 
 compassion at the miserable scene, 
 came down from heaven, to ascer- 
 tain how aU might be restored. 
 Three sentinels are seen at the gates 
 of this vast enclosure — Justice, 
 Holiness, and Truth. Mercy, in 
 touching accents, asks of them, 
 " Can you not open the gates and 
 let the captive be free, the diseased 
 be whole, and the dead breathe 
 heaven's air and love?" Truth says, 
 " I have written, ' The soul that 
 sinneth, it shall die ;' and what is 
 written is written, and cannot 
 shrink." Holiness repHes: — "With- 
 out holiness none shall see the Lord, 
 and I may not give way." Justice 
 adds, "These are aH weighed in the 
 balances, and found wanting; the 
 gate must remain eternally barred ; 
 the dead must moulder — the dying 
 must die." Mercy, with agony, 
 asks, "What must be done and 
 suffered that will effect their deliver- 
 ance ?" Truth, Hohness, and Jus- 
 tice reply, "Either these sinners 
 must die, or a sufficient substitute 
 must die." Mercy vnngs to heaven 
 her flight, and with high sacredness 
 proclaims the fact, and asks if any 
 substitute can be found for the 
 guilU-- The Heavenly lather asks, 
 "Whom shall I give?" and a 
 voice is heard in this hour of 
 
152 
 
 SACK.IEICE OT THE MASS. 
 
 " dread alternative," — " Lo ! I 
 come. Here am I, send me." God's 
 Eternal Son undertakes the work — 
 engages to become man — as man to 
 snfier, as God to satisfy. He as- 
 sumes our nature, in the fulness of 
 the times ; he bleeds, he dies, and 
 he is buried; he bursts the restraints 
 of the tomb — arises triumphant over 
 death, and presents himself, Priest, 
 Sacrifice, and Altar, at the gates so 
 sentmeEed and so secure, and claims, 
 once for all, the deliverance of all. 
 Truth says, " I am satisfied ; the 
 soul that sinned, has died." Justice 
 exclaims, " I am satisfied ;" Holi- 
 ness addi, " I am magnified ;" and 
 Mercy triumphantly proolaams — 
 '• Then open wide the gates ; let 
 the redeemed rejoice, let the dead 
 ive, let the dying, rise as heirs of 
 glory! The Great God has borne 
 the curse — the weeping, and guilty 
 world may Aft its head and hail 
 the blessmg!" [Applause, and 
 cries of " Order."] This is Protest- 
 antism. This is the good news. 
 The everlasting doors are unbarred 
 — no more sacrifices are now re- 
 quired to throw them open. 
 
 Protestantism finds its type in 
 Abel, and Roman Catholicism its 
 ^e in Gain : — Cain was the first 
 Roman CathoKo priest, and Abel 
 the first Protestant. Cain, as we 
 are told, brought "the loveliest 
 flowers of the field," and these 
 " he wreathed as a garland round 
 the shrine of God; and .the first 
 fruits of the golden Autumn, and 
 these he laid as an offering on the 
 altar of God. Abel, on the other 
 hand, brought the firstlings of his 
 flock, and shed the blood of a lamb 
 in sacrifice to God. Cain's was an 
 "unbloody" sacrifice — Abel's a 
 bloody sacrifice. Abel's offering 
 was acceptable — Cain's, to sense 
 the more beautiful, was reieoted. 
 Why? Abel's was the confession 
 of sm and the recognition of Christ. 
 
 [Sd^eitinff. 
 
 Cain's, the disclaimer of sin, and dis- 
 beKef in the necessity of Christ's 
 death. When Cain offered his, 
 he probably said, " O Lord, these 
 flowers and these fimits, the produc- 
 tions of the earth, I consecrate to 
 thee; they have received their 
 betaty from thy smiles, their fra- 
 grance from thy breath, their being 
 from thy power; I consecrate them 
 to thee as a testimony that I acknow- 
 ledge thee as the God that made me 
 and provides for me." But Abel 
 said, " I acknowledge all this. 
 Thou art my Creator and Preserver; 
 but more, I feel myself a guilty 
 sinner, and that without shedding 
 of blood there is no remission of 
 sin. I immolate the lamb to show 
 that I deserve to die. I acknow- 
 ledge myself guilty, depraved ; and 
 my only trust is in that fspotless 
 Lamb,. that glorious sacrifice, prefi- 
 gured by this — slain from the foun- 
 dation of the world,, and to be offered 
 in " the .fulness of time," " once 
 for all," for the sins of mankind. 
 
 In conclusion, I assure you, my 
 dear Roman GathoKc friends, I envy 
 not youi church, her gorgeous cathe- 
 dral, her splendid ceremonies, and 
 her pompous ritual. Her sin is not 
 the splendour of her worship. Her 
 guilt is her concealment of truth. 
 When Alexander the Great desired 
 Diogenes to ask of him any favour, 
 the cynic replied, " I have but one 
 favour to entreat of your majesty, 
 viz. that you would be pleased to 
 stand aside from between me and 
 the sun in the firmament, that it 
 may warm me ;" and in Hke manner 
 I crave neither the riches, nor the 
 power, nor the greatness of the 
 Church of Rome ; aU I demand, and 
 I demand it in the name of. God, is, 
 that she would stand aside, or with- 
 draw the tinsel ceremonies where- 
 with she veils or extinguishes the 
 truth, and allow me, and millions 
 and miUions more to gaze on the 
 
Jtev. J. Cumming.'] sacrifice as the mass. 
 
 ]S3 
 
 holy lustre of that Sim of Right- 
 eousness which shines resplendently 
 in the firmament of heaven, whose 
 presence is light, whose beams are 
 immortality, whose smiles bear, as 
 angel visitants, salvation to the 
 cottages and cabins of the earth's 
 population. My friends, I implore 
 you not to let the truths of God fall 
 upon your ears without their legi- 
 tmiate effect. Contrast, I beseech 
 you, my statements with the oracles 
 of GocC and come to the dehberate 
 resolve, that though a father should 
 say,in tears, " it is cruel to leaveme," 
 and though a mother should say, 
 " it is ungrateful to forsake me ;" 
 though all dear and delightful sym- 
 pathies of life should centre and 
 vibrate around that chord of affec- 
 tion that binds you to the Church 
 of Rome, yet aU must be renounced 
 for truth — martyrdom must be met 
 for truth. " If a man. love father, 
 or mother, or sister, or brother, 
 more than me, he is not worthy of 
 me." The Church of Rome bids 
 yon look to the miserable Mass 
 — to torturing, but false purgatory, 
 — ^to priestly absolution to a man — 
 a wafer — a phantom refuge — to a 
 helpless pope — to Transubstantia- 
 tion; but PaoTESTAHTisM gathers 
 
 up and condenses her deep and 
 glorious inspiration into one sacred 
 text, and pours it forth ia her own 
 fervid and imperishable tones: — 
 " Behou) the Lamb of God, 
 that lakf.th away the sins of 
 THE WORLD ! " [Loud and confused 
 cries of " Beautiful ! beautiful !" 
 "Order! order!" which was followed 
 by loud applause, and frequent 
 hisses from different parts of the 
 room.] 
 
 Order being restored, after an 
 intimation from J. Kendal, Esq. the 
 CathoKc Chairman, 
 
 ,Mr. Prench rose and said — 
 Gentlemen, I trust that the Catholics 
 win abstain from anything of this 
 kind, or from foUowing the example 
 of their Protestant brethren. I 
 don't attempt to preach, myself, 
 [Laughter.] 
 
 [The reverend gentleman's hour 
 here terminated.] 
 
 We certify that this Report is faith- 
 fully and correctly given. 
 
 Rev. J. Cumming, M.A. 
 D. French, Esu. 
 
 Barrister-at-Law, 
 
 Ceas. Maybury Archer, 
 
 * Reporter. 
 
 rorRTH Evening, Thursday, April 11, 1839. 
 
 ■ SUBJECT: 
 
 SACREPICE OF THE MASS. 
 
 Mr. French.— Ladies and Gen- 
 tlemen — I have to argue this evening 
 with an opponent who is more emi- 
 nently skilled, in my humble opinion, 
 than any man I ever met with in my 
 lifetime, in — I wiH not say in reason- 
 ing — but in discoursing upon con- 
 clusions, drawn from shadowy and 
 
 (ConUnuea.) 
 
 unsubstantial premises, and upon 
 concessions which he -affirms his 
 adversary to have made, which con- 
 cessions are the mere product of hia 
 own fertile and exuberant imagina- 
 tion — I say imagination, gentlemen, 
 because I do not wish either to think 
 or to say, that he has wilfully mis 
 
154 
 
 SACBlriCB OP THE MASS. 
 
 represented my words, or falsified 
 my statements ; tut all I wisli to 
 inculcate is, that such is tie strain 
 niid sweep of Ms imagination, when 
 Ve is declaiming and oratorizing, in 
 that fervent and impassioned man- 
 ner in which you will soon hear him, 
 that he actually persuades himself 
 I have said what I did not say, and 
 made concessions which would abso- 
 lutely argue the utmost folly and 
 imbecility in me to make. 
 
 Another specious artifice which I 
 have to complain of in my learned 
 friend is, that, towards the conclu- 
 sion of his harangue generally, 
 fiistead of using strong arguments 
 to wind it up convincingly, he has 
 recourse to what he calls (for I 
 noted down the phrase) " the gather- 
 ing up the glorious inspiration of 
 Protestantism," but which I would 
 call, in more sober language, a loose, 
 confused, and tumultuous outpour- 
 ing of text upon text, without any 
 bearing whatever upon- the subject. 
 Now, by thij he actually works 
 upon the illiterate part of his audi- 
 ence in such a manner, he works 
 them up to such a burning pitch of 
 enthusiasm, as to make them forget- 
 ful of the solemn engagement to 
 which they pledged themselves 
 upon entering this room, viz. to 
 preserve an inviolable silence, and 
 not to exhibit any partiality, by the 
 least acclamation or applause be- 
 stowed upon their favourite dis- 
 putant. This is what I have to 
 complain of with respect to my 
 learned antagonist in the first place. 
 
 But I have other complaints of a 
 more serious nature, to urge against 
 him, and I think I had better do it 
 in this open and unreserved manner, 
 than calumniate him in private, and 
 say behind his back that which I 
 would not dare to utter in his pre- 
 sence. I do, therefore, contend 
 that, in treating of the awful and 
 tremendous mysteries of the Eucha- 
 
 rist, as we Catholics deem them to 
 be, he continually uses the most 
 unbeseeming and censurable ex- 
 pressions; that he wounds oiur 
 feelings in a very acute and sensi- 
 tive manner; in one word, that 
 he is not justifiable before his God 
 for such apparently malignant and 
 wanton procedure. Many Catholic 
 ladies and gentlemen who honoured 
 me with their presence latterly vnL 
 not attend these discussions any 
 longer, in consequence of this his 
 frequent and reiterated abuse of all 
 that we deem holy in heaven and 
 on earth. I declare, gentlemen, that 
 for myself I would not speak in such 
 a taunting, such a gaUmg manner, 
 "even were I resident in the country 
 where thePaganreligion is practised, 
 if I saw its votaries really and fuUy 
 persuaded of the rectitudeand verity 
 of their false and idolatrous reli- 
 gion; Yes, my friends, I confidently 
 •hope that I should never be so for- 
 getful of the natural amplitude and 
 expansion of my mind, as to descend 
 to expressions that would tend to 
 wound or to violate their religious 
 'feelings. If I saw a Mahometan 
 proceed slowly and msnesticaUy in 
 solemn procession to the shrine of 
 Mecca, to pay his reverence at the 
 tomb of Mahomet — whom I deem to 
 "have been an impostor, as well as 
 you — stiH, Godforbid,my Protestant 
 brethren, that I should so far forget 
 myself as to laugh at him scomfmly 
 and deridingly, or to use any ex- 
 pression, especially if I wanted to 
 convert him, that would, in all pro- 
 .babUity, be productive of a contrary 
 effect, namely, to alienate biim for 
 ever from the Christian religion. 
 Such, however, is the traoJc of wis- 
 dom pursued by my learned friend, 
 imagming eis he does, that I, not he, 
 am wandering in the mists of error. 
 He comes here, my friends, employ- 
 ing all the power of pathetic lan- 
 guage to work upon your passions 
 
Mr, French.'] 
 
 and your feelings, in that artificial, 
 theatrical manner, -vrhich he so well 
 kno-ws how to practise; he comes 
 here and tells me, that he is panting 
 for my salvation, that I am indulg- 
 ing in an idolatrous ■worship con- 
 trary to the authority of my God, 
 and that he wishes to wean me from 
 it. I am not now giving his literal 
 words, nor have I penned them 
 down ; I am merely stating what is 
 the general tendency of his expres- 
 sions. Now, I reply to all this, that 
 if he be really pantmg for my sal- 
 vation ; if he wishes to allure me 
 into the pathway of rectitude, and 
 to disabuse me of my errors, he 
 should adopt a far different proce- 
 dure. Such a mode of panting 
 appears to me more Hce the panting 
 of a vindictive Cain, when he rose 
 upon his brother Abel, ia pure envy 
 of the acceptance of the sacrifice 
 he offered, than of the calm, sympa- 
 thetic tenderness of one who wishes 
 sincerely for my welfare. I will 
 not believe that a man is seriously 
 intent upon my conversion, when 
 he endeavours to shock and to hurt 
 the best feelings of our common 
 humanity by what I call a system 
 of dark, malignant oifence by sacri- 
 lege and blasphemy. I am not 
 so uncharitable as to say, that he 
 imagines himself before Almighty- 
 God to be guilty of sacrilege and 
 blasphemy ; but what I contend is, 
 it sounds so in Catholic ears. 
 
 The question between, us, the 
 first question between us, was Tran- 
 substantiation ; that is not entirely 
 finished, inasmuch as it is neces- 
 sarily involved in the present discus- 
 sion of the Sacrifice of the Mass. 
 The question is simply this : — We 
 beHeve that, when the words of 
 consecration are once pronounced, 
 instead of being bread, it becomes 
 really the body of our glorious 
 Saviour Jesus Christ. He believes 
 that no Transubstantiation takes 
 
 SACEiriCE OP THE MASS. 
 
 155 
 
 place, and that it is merely bread 
 and wine. Still he calls it the 
 sacrament of the Lord's Supper. 
 Now, would it become me, talking 
 of his sacrament, either here — talk- 
 ing of it as it is celebrated in your 
 church or churches, where you are 
 impressed with reverential feelings 
 of awe during its reception — wodd 
 it become me, as a CathoMc, to 
 laugh at you, or to use any expres- 
 sion unbecoming the imagined dig- 
 nity of the occasion ? No ; were I 
 to do so, I should charge myself 
 with acting in a very wanton and 
 reprehensible maimer ; or if I showed 
 any levity of conduct, or indecorum 
 in your churches, though I do not 
 beheve the sacrament to consist in 
 what you conceive it to consist. Let 
 me, therefore, expect the same re- 
 turn from my respected friend. I 
 say this without any virulence [to 
 Mj. Gumming, who acknowledged 
 the admission by a bow], but it 
 does appear to me to be totally 
 indefensible in any man, in the 
 course of disputation, to indulge his 
 tongue in such unbounded Kcence. 
 Another observation that my friend 
 made, and it is one, it seems, which 
 I have to answer as a kind of theolo- 
 gical argument, was, that Cain was 
 our first priest — Cain, the murderer 
 of his brother Abel, the fii-st Catholic, 
 the first Catholic priest ! Could any- 
 thing, I ask, be more shocking, I 
 win not say in the way of argument, 
 but in the way of outrage upon our 
 best feelings ? But, gentlemen, 
 rather in a good-natured than in an 
 ill-natured manner, I will retort the 
 oompHment, and I will tell him that 
 the priest Cain is "one of those 
 dead weeds which he threw over 
 from his garden into ours," in the 
 language of Swift. And why ? Be- 
 cause there is a kind of mtimate 
 brotherhood subsistingbetween Cain 
 and Cahiii. They both protested 
 against everything that was good 
 
156 
 
 8ACEIMCJB OP THE JUASS. 
 
 and holy. Caiu and Calvin, in my 
 humble opinion, were both of them 
 loud protesters against the ever- 
 living, existing, and ever-speaking 
 voice of the true Church; they 
 were both enemies to true sacrifice; 
 the hands of both were stained -with 
 fraternal blood; therefore, there is 
 a kind of brotherhood existing be- 
 tween them ; they are a "par nobile 
 fratrum." So that Cain is indis- 
 putably more a priest of the church 
 of Calvin than of the church of 
 Rome. But in the days, gentlemen 
 (though I would rather return to 
 the subject), in the days of Calvin, 
 lived a renowned saint of our Church 
 (whose life I would wish my re- 
 verend friend to refer to, for the 
 name is familiar to most people 
 versed in the literature of those 
 days) — ^the great and illustrious 
 Bishop of Geneva, St. Francis of 
 Sales. Bead the lives of these two 
 men together, compare them toge- 
 ther ; the one, you will find, is the 
 glorious essence of all that sweet- 
 alluring piety that flows so visibly, 
 so undeniably from our hallowed 
 altars ; the other, the very essence 
 of all that rank virtilence and paU, 
 which is so observable even at tne 
 present day, after the lapse of three 
 centuries, in every speech against 
 the Catholic that issues from the 
 mouth of one of his genuine disci- 
 ples — I mean, a true son of the 
 Scotch covenant. 
 
 In vain, my friends, on perusing 
 the life of that renowned Catholic 
 priest to which I am referring you, 
 St. IVancis of Sales, will you look 
 for the least simihtude to the 
 gloomy, the vindictive, the san- 
 guinary Cain ; whereas, on reading 
 the life of Calvin, one cannot but 
 exclaim, that Cain himself, that 
 monster of inexpiable guilt, might 
 just with as good a grace have 
 lifted up his hands at the altars of 
 the immaculate Lamb, as Calvin 
 
 \ith Eoemiig. 
 
 could have lifted up his, reeking 
 as they were, in the pure days of 
 reformed Christianity, with the blood 
 ot Servetus. But to quit this sub- 
 ject (and all the odium of intro- 
 ducing it lies upon my rev. opponent) 
 — ^the learned gentleman tells me I 
 evade his arguments and positions. 
 I reply, it is not argument; it is 
 mere idle declamation, that I scorn 
 to notice. He tells me that he 
 envies us not our gorgeous cathe- 
 drals, and our splendid vestments. 
 I answer him — show me in that 
 sacred Book, which you say is the 
 foundation of every thing that is to 
 be observed in Christian practice, 
 show me in the pages of inspired 
 Writ where the God of Heaven 
 finds fault vfith man in pouring out 
 the full tide of earthly magnificence 
 and beauty, in order to decorate, to 
 the utmost of his power, those ma- 
 jestic temples which human vrisdom 
 has erected to express, after its 
 feeble manner, its deep sense and 
 conviction of the Divine ; show me, 
 I say, where in the sacred volume 
 mortal man is reprehended by the 
 Deity for such a temerarious act; 
 and especially show It in those 
 parts where Jehovah points out, 
 specifically and minutely, the par- 
 ticular ornaments that are to be 
 used in the embellishment of Solo- 
 mon's tempfe? Again, show me 
 that such adornments were ever 
 specifically abrogated by Jehovah, 
 as being altogether unworthy the 
 imitation of all after-ages (though 
 inspired by Himself into the mind 
 of Solomon) ; show me this, I say, 
 and I throw away instantaneously 
 aU forms and ceremonies, all the 
 proprieties of decorum and external 
 splendour, in the celebration of 
 divine service ; nay, once prove to 
 me that we are forbidden by tlie 
 New Testament to employ the glo- 
 ries of the earth in extoHbg the 
 name of Him who hath so magnifi- 
 
Mr. French.^ 
 
 SACKiriCE OP THE MASS. 
 
 157 
 
 cently clothed it, aad I have no 
 objection to see introduced into oui 
 temples that gloomy drapery which 
 is so congenial to the frigid soul of 
 the Scotch Calvinist. 
 
 The learned gentleman next ac- 
 cuses me, as if it -were something at 
 once unorthodox and criminal, of my 
 fondness for the fathers ; he charges 
 me with clinging unreUnquishably 
 to the fathers ; and so it must be 
 admitted I do ; but why ? Because, 
 I answer, those fathers cling unre- 
 linquishably to the Bible; they are 
 always quoting, always explaining, 
 always elucidating the Bible; and 
 that is precisely what I want, in- 
 stead of the nauseating, the mush- 
 room wisdom of this boasted mnc 
 teenth century. I have said that I 
 never will, during the course of 
 this discussion, for one moment 
 abandon the fathers, the glorious 
 fathers of the Church; but, at the 
 same time, I also clai'm, at least 
 with reference to the adversaries of 
 my church, fuU possession of the 
 Bible, to interpret in my own man- 
 ner. No, never let me be compelled 
 to distort and "orientalise" its 
 pages, just as my learned friend shall 
 think proper. But to follow my 
 rev., opponent as closely as I can in 
 aU his observations, whether of a 
 connected or unconnected nature, 
 he tells me, that in his view of 
 things, he would rather have one 
 Paul, than twenty thmsand fathers ! 
 Wow what say I, by way of reply ? 
 Why simply this — and I will utter 
 it though the fanatics around me 
 should burst with indignation whilst 
 T do so — give me one soM, one 
 authentic father, in preference to 
 twenty thousand Pauls [murmurs in 
 some parts of the audience] — mark 
 me ! not in the abstraet, but in pre- 
 ference to twenty thousand Pauls 
 wrested and interpreted by Calvin 
 and his Calvinistic disciples. That, 
 is what 1 would say in answer toi 
 
 my reverend friend ; I say it with 
 
 food nature, but with seriousness. 
 wiU teU him my opinion iust as 
 freely as he charges us vrith idolatry. 
 In perfect good nature, and yet at 
 the _ same tune without the least 
 deviation from the truth, I do de- 
 clare that I consider the swarm of 
 Calvinistic interpreters to be the 
 most noxious, the most emtjoison- 
 ing, the deadliest swarm o\ com- 
 mentators that ever brooded over 
 the pages of the Gospel, and defiled 
 its glories. If it were possible for 
 me — and I say it not out of any 
 antipathy to my learned friend — ^for 
 he is a most ingenious and enviable 
 man, as to the talents of his. mind — ■ 
 I say it not out of any antipathy to 
 him, but if it were possible (though 
 its possibility I cannot conceive) 
 for me to relinquish that faith which 
 I profess, and to which I am so 
 firmly wedded, not only by educa- 
 tion, but by deep, intense, and la- 
 borious study — ^were I to go over to 
 Protestantism, as in fond anticipa- 
 tion the learned gentleman has more 
 than once insinuated, I candidly 
 confess I would rather associate 
 myself to the Church of England, 
 with all its load of heresy upon it, 
 than enter, for one contaminating 
 moment, as a proselyte, the portals 
 of the Church of Scotland. 
 
 But, my friends, among those 
 glorious fathers, to whom I shall 
 have to advert this day, there is one, 
 I think, who ought to be entitled to 
 some little respect in interpreting 
 the Bible, if the learned gentleman 
 has really any reverence for his great 
 master and grandfather, Calvin. 
 I think when Calvin tells him that 
 St. Augustine, to use his own words, 
 to be found in his "Institutes," and 
 which I believe my learned friend 
 wiU allow— when Calvin, I say, tells 
 us that St. Augustine is/delissimus 
 testis antiquitatis, the most faithful 
 witness of all antiquity, that, withr 
 
158 
 
 SACRIFICE or THB MASS. 
 
 Out incurring the leprehension of 
 ray reverend opponent, I may be 
 permitted this day to enter the 
 spacious garden of the Scriptures, 
 hand in hand with St. Augustine ; 
 and I beg leave also to express a 
 hope at the same time, that the 
 reverend gentleman wiU at length 
 cease making use of the stale joke, 
 that I ever fly most cautiously from 
 Scripture ground; at all events, I 
 would advise him to desist from 
 such an accusation, when it must be 
 evident to every one, that the very 
 texts which I have been citing and 
 dilating upon from that sacred book 
 are still uppermost in his mind,' and 
 filling it with perplexity and confu- 
 sion too visible in his countenance 
 to need an interpreter. No, my 
 friends, XeiTOvpyoivTOiV 8e aiJrtay, 
 he wen knows is not to be got over. 
 I fuHy intend, therefore, to open 
 the pages of the Bible, but' I will 
 have St. Augustine by my side — 
 that, is aU the liberty I crave. Now, 
 gentlemen, I did mention, in the 
 first place, that my learned oppo- 
 nent argued upon very shallow con- 
 clusions ; that his conclusions were 
 extremely taking and ingenious, but 
 his premises very unsubstantial and 
 shallow ; and I Ukewise mentioned, 
 that he put concessions into my 
 mouth, vmich I never made, and 
 which I solemnly declare to you I 
 never did intend to make. My 
 friend had the advantage of ending 
 the discourse on the last night, 
 when my month was completely 
 closed, as it will be a^ain this even- 
 ing — the misfortune is on my side, 
 I cannot help it. He, therefore, 
 had the last word, and was pleased 
 to entertain his own fancy with 
 the idea, that my last address to 
 you was destitute of one single a/rgvr- 
 meut. Mark that. However, I con- 
 sole myself by reflecting that 1 .shall 
 be perfectly rescued from that im- 
 putation when what I have said 
 
 [4tt Esexpuff. 
 
 appears upon paper. He will have 
 the last word again to-night, and 
 thereby I labour under very great 
 disadvantage on a most important 
 question — a disadvantage vrhich I 
 ought not to labour under, inasmuch 
 as I am the aggressed and he is the 
 aggressor. He came into this vil- 
 lage to declaim against the CathoUo 
 rcKgion, to point out its errors and 
 superstitions. I took up the gaunt- 
 let and challenged him. He at first 
 declined it, and afterwards accepted 
 it, and threw down the gauntlet to 
 me. I am not on the offensive ; he 
 is the aggressor. Did the present 
 challenge originate from me ? No, 
 most decidedly not; it oiiginated 
 from him, and here I am, upon a 
 most vital and momentous subject, 
 condemned to let my learned and 
 ingenious friend have the last word. 
 That being the case, I shall make the 
 most of my time. The concession 
 which he says I made him, at which 
 I was astonished, and which I shaU 
 be glad to explain, is, that I admit- 
 ted that those liturgies (the verity 
 and authenticity of which I esta- 
 blished so flrmly) were not coeval 
 with • the apostles, but were of a 
 date some centuries afterwards. 
 Now, I began by reading to you, 
 from tins Dook, the acknowledg- 
 ment of the Protestant Archbishop 
 Wake, and several other bishops, as 
 to the liturgy of St. Mark, the 
 Epistle of St. James, and other 
 liturgies, shovring you that they all 
 agree on one point, viz. a&. to the 
 substance of them being, iadiis- 
 pitahlj, penned by the a/postlea them- 
 selves. How then, I ask, could I 
 have been so stupid as to make such 
 a concession ? So far from making 
 it, I consider (though it is by no 
 means an article of Catholic faith) 
 the liturgies of St. Mark, St. James, 
 and the other liturgies, to be as 
 authentic as the Gospel itself, and 
 the words of St. James to be of 
 
Mr. French^ 
 
 SACKirlCB OP TilE MASS. 
 
 159 
 
 equal verac% and inspiration with 
 those of St. Paul. I sEaU therefore 
 read you the passage once more : — 
 "It can hardly he doubted that 
 those prayers ^ the liturgies) in 
 which they all agree, ui sense at least, 
 if not hi words, were flnt prescribed 
 in the same or like terms, hy those apo- 
 stles and evangelists" — Archbishop 
 Wake on Apostolic Fathers, p. 103. 
 
 The names, therefore, or titles 
 affixed to the liturgies, are of Kttle 
 signification. Some of them, ia- 
 deed, refer to the apostles who uitro- 
 duced the form of Christian worship 
 in the churches where these liturgies 
 were used. But what is of the 
 highest consequence is, that the 
 liturgies contam the common form 
 and order of public worship ob- 
 served in those churches, and, con- 
 sequently, that they contain a pubKo 
 profession of the faith of all the 
 clergy and people attached to them, 
 in the ages in which these hturgies 
 were in use. 
 
 The most sacred part of the form 
 of divine worship, the canon (called 
 the Ariaphora in the oriental litur- 
 gies), during the first two or three 
 centuries, was only committed to me- 
 mory, and retained by thebishops and 
 priests, as the Apostles' Creed was 
 learnt and retained by the faithful. 
 
 The canon was not written tiU 
 about the beginning of the fifth age, 
 when the (finger of exposing all 
 that was most sacred in the mys- 
 teries of religion to the derision and 
 blasphemy of infidels was not so 
 great as it was in the first two or 
 three centuries ; but when the 
 canon was generally committed to 
 writing, it was to be found the 
 same, m substance, in aU Christian 
 countries. This showed the unity 
 of its origin in the unity of that 
 faith which was everywhere taught 
 by the apostles, and which was the 
 spirit of the body and language of 
 the liturgies. 
 
 I contend, therefore, most vic- 
 toriously, that these liturgies will 
 stand for ever as so many glorious, 
 indestructibly monumental proofs of 
 the truth of the Catholic rehgion, 
 admitted, as they are, to be genuine 
 by every truly learned and inquiring 
 Protestant theologian. Yes, the 
 authenticity of these hturgies re- 
 mains unimpeached and uncontested 
 by the sons of learning ; and when 
 I bring before you such a circum- 
 stantial, solid body of evidence, 
 where they all agree as to grand 
 points, viz; that it is the body and 
 blood of Christ, an unbloody victim, 
 an unbloody sacrifice, ttjv dvalfioKTov 
 6v(Tiav Tov dXaafiov ; " The un- 
 bloody sacrifice of propitiation," — 
 when we have such an acknow- 
 ledgment as this after the words of 
 consecration have been pronounced, 
 — ^have not I most gloriously vindi- 
 cated myseK from the concession 
 which my reverend opponent, in the 
 ductility of his imagination, per- 
 suades himself that I have made, to 
 the effect that these liturgies were 
 the product of after ages ? No, my 
 friends, I never made such a con- 
 cession — a circumstance which will 
 enable me, by the grace of God, to 
 obtain an illustrious triumph over 
 my learned antagonist. I now come 
 to that word which seems so signi- 
 ficative to my learned friend, and to 
 which he manifests such a sensitive 
 dislike. 
 
 I explained to you the words 
 \eiTovpyovvTaiv he avrtav : " Whilst 
 they were celebrating Mass." My 
 reverend friend would fain neu- 
 tralize the efficacy of these words ; 
 he wlU not listen, in his decided 
 hostility to their bearing, to any 
 argument upon them, though I have 
 Erasmus on my side, translating it 
 in a similar manner; Erasmus, I 
 say, J;he greatest scholar that ever 
 adorned this country, for he was 
 Eegius Professor of Greek at Cam- 
 
160 
 
 SACEUICE OF THE MASS. 
 
 [i:th 'Ecening 
 
 bridge, as my friend knows ; who 
 was the greatest scholar, of those at 
 least illuminated with native genius, 
 in any age since the Augustan ; we 
 have Erasmus, my friends, trans- 
 lating sacrificantihus illis. 
 
 B,ev. J. Gumming. — Read Eras-' 
 mus, if you please. 
 
 Mr. fetBKCH. — I have it notvrith 
 me. Tou can take it pro confesso, 
 or deny it, just as you like ; or I 
 win give it to you the second time 
 (i.e. next speech). 
 
 Rev. J. CuMMTNG. — ^I will take 
 it the second time. 
 
 Mr. PujENCH. — ^Very well. But, 
 my friends, I use still more con- 
 vincing and satisfactory arguments. 
 The Greek language has been cul- 
 tivated, time immemorial, by the 
 learned Greeks. Mass has been 
 said among them from that time 
 down to the present day. At Rome 
 you can heai the Mass said iu Greek, 
 and you can hear it ia the Greek 
 islands said in Greek, and they can 
 speak Greek, and theyj thoroughly 
 understand their language, and they 
 all call the Mass XeiTovpyia ; they 
 aU call the act of celebrating Mass 
 TO \ciTovpyew. Now, the very fact 
 of these Greeks bearing testimony, 
 and whole nations besides bearing 
 . testimony, that that was the word 
 handed down in one continued 
 stream of tradition, is perfectly 
 sufficient to tell me what uie word 
 means without resorting to Greek 
 lexicons. How do we know the 
 position of the city of Rome, except 
 by the harmonious consent of tra- 
 dition ? It is Rome, is it not ? And* 
 you and I will concede to it, as our 
 descendants will also, to have been 
 the capital of the Roman empire to 
 the end of time. , Perhaps it may not 
 be circumscribed exactly within the 
 same bounds, but there is the spot, 
 and no man in his senses ever 
 doubted it. JIow do you know it ? 
 You know it by tradition, just as 
 
 you know other things, of a material 
 and immaterial nature ; and there- 
 fore my inference is, that \tiTovpyta 
 means Mass by the same principle 
 of reasoning, even on the suppo- 
 sition that I had no other ground to 
 reason — such as, for instance, my 
 own insight into the Greek lan- 
 guage, backed as it is by that of 
 men who are something more than 
 a magni nominis umbra. 
 
 1^ reverend friend attempts to 
 invalidate this irrefutable argument 
 by showing me, that Xenovpyia is 
 sometimes used for ministering. I 
 grant it ; and so is the word 6vw, 
 which he will acknowledge means 
 "to sacrifice," and it is the same in 
 English. Eor instance, if I say, 
 "to sacrifice a victim," there we 
 have the word ; but that does not 
 hinder me using the word sacrifice 
 in a figurative sense. Again, I may 
 say, " You are sacrificing your own 
 interests for the good of another," 
 as is often the case in common ^ar- 
 lance, but that does, not take away 
 the meaning of those plainly dis- 
 cernible words in the Acts, viz. , 
 " Whilst they were offering the sa- 
 crifice or celebrating the Mass." 
 No, my friends, there the sacra- 
 mental words are staring you in the 
 face; there they lie level to the 
 capacity of every one. There is 
 also the Mass in the liturgy of St. 
 James; there is the Mass in all 
 the other liturgies already alluded 
 to and cited ; there is the Mass in 
 all the fathers of the Church, in 
 every age ; and still, notwithstand- 
 ing aU this irrefragable testimony, 
 we are to be told by the unblushing 
 declaimers of the nineteenth cen- 
 tury, that the Mass is an invention 
 of the dark ages! 
 
 Gentlemen, I have but one more 
 allusion to make before I go to my 
 remarks, though I am afraid I have 
 wasted too much time already [the 
 learned gentleman here paused to 
 
Mr. FtencL] 
 
 SACEIPICB 01' THE MA.SS. 
 
 161 
 
 mcniire haw mucli time remained, 
 and finding he had but five-and 
 twenty minutes, continued]. I shall 
 preserve what 1 had intended to ay 
 on another subject till I have done. 
 I shall therefore now come to very 
 serious matter, and it is to answer 
 a portion of the speech of my reve- 
 rend friend, which was not, I can- 
 didly acknowledge, of so wandering 
 or excursive a description as to that 
 part of his address : I mean, where 
 he alluded to the pages of the Bible, 
 which he had in his hand, and in 
 referring to which, I vriU do him the 
 credit to say he adhered very closely 
 to the question. I collected from 
 the notes which I have taken — for 
 I was willing not to touch upon 
 Scripture (wmch he seemed to think 
 I shrarj£ from), before I knew what 
 he had to say on Scripture, pes- 
 tainable to the subject we are dis- 
 cussing, and how differently he 
 would interpret that Scripture from 
 all the fathers of the Church with 
 whom I was conversant. — I wanted 
 to know, moreover, what was the 
 ingenious mode by which the «n- 
 stable in the nineteenth century, 
 "teresi the Scriptures to their own 
 destruction" — for you will recollect, 
 my friends, that my reverend op- 
 ponent was very unwilling, in quot- 
 ing St. Peter, where he alludes to 
 those who wrest St. Paul's Epistles 
 (as they do all other parts) "to 
 their own damnation" — my reverend 
 friend, I say, was unwilling, or 
 perhaps forgot to mention, in re- 
 peating the text, the word unstable ; 
 for he knew very well I did nflt 
 mean to call liim unlearned — ^what 
 T meant to bring home to him was, 
 that the instability there implied 
 cannot by the tongue of man be 
 made applicable to tne rock of ages, 
 the everlasting Church, [whose in- 
 terpretations nave been heard in 
 one uniform tenor, from age to age, 
 so as to rescue their followers from 
 
 all imputation on the ground of 
 fickleness or inconstancy. 
 
 And now, the first remark of my 
 reverend opponent that presents 
 itself to my notice is, that the Sa- 
 crifice of the Mass is " a vain and 
 idolatrous thing, ruinous to souls, 
 and dishonourable to God," to use 
 his own words and definition, which 
 escaped him, I think, on two or 
 three occasions. " Dishonourable 
 to God," he says. Why ? Because 
 in Christ's sacrifice God is suffi- 
 ciently satisfied, and the repenting 
 sinner fully secured. This he en- 
 deavours to substantiate by the text 
 of St. Paul to the Hebrews :— " But 
 this Man, after he had offered one 
 sacrifice, for ever sat down at the 
 rigW hand of God." 
 
 Now, you will remark, my friends, 
 before I enter into close combat 
 with him, that this mode of inter- 
 preting this chapter, and indeed the 
 whole of the Epistle to the Hebrews, 
 is quite novel m the Christian world. 
 I ask him {i. e. Mr. Gumming) and 
 I ask you, my Protestant friends, 
 where is the plausibility of this 
 ingenious mode of interpreting the 
 Bible and St. Paul's Epistles, against 
 the current of aU antiquity in the 
 Cathohc church? It was never 
 either used, thought of, or hinted at 
 in the early centuries ; no, not even 
 in the twelfth century ; there was 
 not even a vestige of it ! I certainly 
 should like to hear a satisfactory 
 answer to that. Surely it cannot 
 be, that, in the fifteenth and six- 
 teenth centuries, the people but 
 began, and then only, to acquire an 
 understanding of Scripture ? It 
 will, no doubt, be told me, that the 
 laity could not get hold of them so 
 easily. Why, the art of printing was 
 not then invented — that is one 
 reason ; but surely there must liave 
 been some person, during the long 
 tract of those innumerable days 
 who could not fail, either by tiw 
 
 G 
 
162 
 
 SACRIFICE OP IKE MASS. 
 
 ndp of a capacity equal to tiat of 
 my learned friend, or who had as- 
 sistance from heaven, in reward of 
 piety equal to his own, to find out 
 the genuine interpretation. I say, 
 therefore, that u this argument 
 proves anything, that is, "that 
 this Man, after he had offered one 
 sacrifice, for ever, sat down at the 
 right hand of God ;" if this argu- 
 ment proves anything, that binds 
 me to the letter, not the sjpirit of 
 them ; it proves likevrise, that both 
 Christ's mediation in heaven, as well 
 as the sacrifice which he has pro- 
 vided on earth, are also nugatory 
 and useless. You must see the 
 drift of my argument— if the mere 
 circumstance of his dying is to 
 satisfy entirely, and nothing more 
 is to be done ; if we are not to 
 apply the fruits of his death to our 
 souls, the blood of his sacrifice to 
 our souls, by the different means of 
 sacrifice and prayer, and spotless 
 living, and other means pointed out 
 in the Bible — I say it destroys 
 Christ's mediation in heaven. What 
 need of his mediation in heaven, 
 what need of these instrumentalities 
 on earth, if all is to be satisfied, 
 sanctified, and appeased by his mere 
 dying on the cross ? Eory listen, my 
 friends, I beseech you, most atten- 
 tively, to the testimony of this new- 
 sprung light, that in the sixteenth 
 century was miraculously shed 
 around St. Paul's Epistle to the 
 Hebrews, by Calvin, the murderer of 
 Servetus — a light, which appeared 
 not in any age before, and conse- 
 quently is not to be found in the 
 pages of the fathers. 
 
 God is sufficiently satisfied, mif 
 reverend opponent contends ; it is 
 completed — aU is iinished — our ran- 
 som is fuUy paid by Christ's-sacri- 
 fice offered on the cross. Now, 
 then, if that be the case, I reply, 
 it does away with prayer (which 
 my opponent, by-the-bye, calls the 
 
 {iih Evemng. 
 
 sacrifice pointed out by Malachi), 
 with the laws of self-denial— nay, 
 with keeping the commandments ; 
 all these may, therefore, give place 
 to the lusts of the world, and the 
 evils by which we are beset ; so 
 that, without any effort on our 
 parts, calmly, placidly, and uninter- 
 ruptedly, we may all repose with 
 full confidence upon the sacrifice of 
 the (sross ; and yet, all the virtues 
 above specified, my reverend friend 
 will, no doubt, most willingly ac- 
 knowledge are very profitable to us ; 
 nay, he cannot deny that they are 
 ordained by God, as a means to 
 apply to us the fruits of that bloody 
 sacrifice, which we acknowledge 
 with him was only to be offered 
 once, €(f)awa^, by which bloody sa- 
 crifice alone, I say, by which alone 
 we are redeemed, and renewed, and 
 by which alone the Divine justice 
 is fuUy satisfied and apjjcased. But 
 what I contend is, with all anti- 
 quity on my side, that the sacrifice 
 of Christ offering himself on the 
 altar, in an unbloody manner, for 
 the same end, is of apostolic trans- 
 mission, and consequently cannot 
 but coincide and harmonize with 
 the bloody sacrifice of the cross, 
 instead of being at variance and in 
 a state of collision vrith it ; yes, my 
 friends, it must necessarily be, 
 having been thus transmitted to us, 
 a means instituted by Christ himself, 
 whereby to apply the efficacy of it 
 to our souls most sweetly and most 
 exuberantly. Instead, therefore, of 
 being idolatrous, or a vain and idle 
 ^hing, dishonourable to God, as my 
 reverend antagonist has designated 
 it, I retort, in language as plain and 
 unceremonious as that whidi he has 
 used towards me, that it is blasphemy 
 in any one who thus characterizes 
 the grand sacrifice pointed out by 
 the prophet Malachi, whereby the 
 baptized Oentiles of every age down 
 to the present day have never ceased 
 
Mr. French^ 
 
 SACEiriOE OT THE MASS. 
 
 163 
 
 to apply to their souls tie fruits of 
 tliat bloody sacrifice, ■whioli, in Ms 
 infinite love for man, Clnist Jesus, 
 our adorable Redeemer, offered on 
 Mount Calvary.' 
 
 But -what, you may say, if this he 
 so, is St. Paul aUudiug to in this 
 memorahle chapter ? Why, simply, 
 my friends, to the grand sacrifice of 
 the cross, in contradistinction to the 
 sacrifices of the Jews, and not one 
 jot further. No instruction what- 
 ever -was intended, as common sense 
 informs us at the first glance, as to 
 future Christian rites and usages, 
 to persons who had not yefentered 
 the very threshold of Christianity. 
 
 But, on the other hand, mark, my 
 friends, "Because he is a priest 
 according to the order of Melchise- 
 dek." He offers himself up for 
 us daily in an unbloody manner, 
 according to the liturgies of St. 
 James, and according to all the 
 liturgies of the Church, and not 
 dissonantly and discordantly from 
 the pages of the Bible, but most 
 conspirmgly with them, offers him- 
 self, namely, in the sacrifice of the 
 altar, accordiug to the glorious pro- 
 phecy of Malaohi: — "Daily in aU 
 parts of the world he offers himself 
 up for us." And why ? In order 
 that we may apply the fruits of his 
 bloody sacrifice on the cross to our 
 souls, just as you say it can be 
 applied by prayer and ahns, and 
 other virtuous deeds. But my 
 learned adversary asks. How can he 
 be venly present on our altars ? 
 Why, precisely in the same manner 
 that he was present to St. Paul, 
 journeying to Damascus. How did 
 St. Paul hear from him ? Did he 
 not appear to him going from Da- 
 mascus ? If the words are taken in 
 their Jiterahty, as signifyiag that as 
 he had once ascended mto heaven, 
 that he is never to appear upon 
 earth, how could he appear to St. 
 Paul ia journeying to Damascus ? 
 
 But let the great St. Chrysostom 
 be the instrilctor of my learned 
 friend, instead of Calvin, m answer- 
 ing this question — no bad exchange, 
 by-the-bye— [laughter]— St. Chry- 
 sostom says— "He has ordained a 
 sacred rite, changing the victim, 
 and, in the place of animals, com- 
 manding himself to be immolated." 
 —Horn. 24, in I Cor. t. x. p. 213. 
 
 " This sacrifice is a copy of that ; 
 the offering is the same. Not one 
 on one day, and on the next another, 
 but always the same. Thus, then, 
 the sacrifice is one. But are there 
 many Christs, as the offering is made 
 in many places ? By no means ; it 
 is the same Christ everywhere ; 
 here entire, and there entire; one 
 body, as then; though offered in 
 many places there is one body, and 
 not many bodies : so is there one 
 sacrifice. He is our priest, who 
 offered the victim of our expiation; 
 that victim we now offer was then 
 offered, which cannot be consuned. 
 This is done in remembrance of what 
 was done. " Do this in remem- 
 brance of me." — Hom. 17, c. 9, 1^. 
 adHebr. torn. 12, p. 168. 
 
 Again, in proof that St. Chry- 
 sostom is speaking of the real un- 
 bloody sacrifice, and not any thing 
 such as the oriental imagination of 
 my rev. friend would be wiUuig to 
 suggest, he says — "The works 
 that lie before us are not the effects 
 of mortal power. He who once 
 tiTought ■ them at that memorable 
 supper — ^it is he himself who now 
 PjCrforms them. We, indeed, sj;and 
 as his ministers ; but it is he himself 
 that sanetiflesand transmutes them." 
 — Ad Pop. Antioch. tom. ii.p. 3. 
 
 And here remember, my friends, 
 I do not mean by this Mne of argu- 
 ment to defraud Jesus Christ of his 
 high-priesthood. They, the priests 
 that consecrate, are but as ministers 
 underthe Upapxos — the Great High 
 priest. It is he who, according 
 
164 
 
 SACBIPICE OF THE MASS. 
 
 to St. Chiysostom, and the other 
 fathers, is alone the author of the 
 ever-renewed iniracle. The priest is 
 but the lowly instrument. " The 
 priest stands, performing his office, 
 and pronouncing those words : — 
 ' But the power and the grace are 
 the power and the grace of God.' 
 He says — ' This is my lody' and 
 these words change the whole order 
 (li€Tappv6iuiei.) of the thills that 
 lie before us." — St. Chrys. ibid. 
 
 St. Augustine — who is so much 
 admired by the founder of Calvir 
 ism — has a passage, in allusion i o 
 the Jewish sacrifices — those types 
 of sacred antiquity — which to a 
 mind not totally inflexible to argu- 
 ment win appear at once decisive 
 of the question, viz. Whether the 
 Bucharist is to be considered as the 
 body of our Lord, or merely as the 
 figure of his body. The words of the 
 saint are, and never have they been 
 more appropriately, or more oppor- 
 tunely quoted : — " Sacrificium et 
 oblationem noluisti, ait Psalmus 
 Deo; antiqui enim, quando adhuc 
 sacrijicmm, verum quodfdeles nonmt 
 flguris prEenuntiabatur, celebrabant 
 figuras mtuise rei. Sacrifloia ergo 
 ilia tanquam verba promissiva ablata 
 sunt : Quid est quod datum est 
 completivum ? Corpus quod nostis, 
 quod non omnes nostis; quod 
 utinam qui nostis omnes non ad 
 judicium noveritis !" — ^Edit. Bened. 
 St. August, tom. iv. p. 334. 
 
 " ' Sacrifice and offering thou didst 
 not desire,' said the Psalmist to 
 God. Tor the ancients, when as 
 yet the true sacrifice which the faith- 
 tul are acquainted with was fore- 
 told m figures, celebrated the type 
 of what was to come. Those sacri- 
 fices, therefore, signifying promises, 
 were annulled. And what was given 
 as comjiletory of those promises ? 
 Why, that body which ye know, which 
 all of you do not know" — meaning 
 the catechumeni — ^wrsons, through 
 
 youth, or other causes, not yet 
 mitiated, " and which it might be 
 wished that not any might know to 
 their ovm condemnation !" There, 
 my friends, is an astounding pas- 
 sage from Calvin's most faithful wit- 
 ness of all antiquity, for my learned 
 opponent to digest ; in the mean 
 time, let me exclaim vrith the Bene- 
 dictine editors of the works of that 
 glorious father: "Locus pro veritate 
 corporis Christi insignis !" That is, 
 " a most conspicuous passage, in 
 corroboration of the truth of Christ's 
 body in the sacrament." 
 
 So taught all sound antiquity, but 
 the very reverse is taught by hol- 
 low modernism ! But how can this 
 be ? How can it become the real 
 body of Christ Jesus ? St. Chiy- 
 sostom shall be again, for a few 
 moments longer, the orthodox in- 
 structor of my learned friend — for 
 he has told you, very truly, that when 
 I am upon Scripture I am fond of 
 introducing the fathers. He ought 
 to be fond, and proud likewise, of 
 the same filial deference to such 
 Ulustrious predecessors, unless he 
 prefers modernism to antiquity 
 [laughter] in striking out the light 
 that is contained in that inspired ' 
 volume. St. Ohrysostom vrates : — 
 AAV o p.iv yap HXias iirjKcorriv 
 acl>rjKe ra fiadrjra ode vws tov &eov 
 ava^mvav Tt]V aapKa ^liiv KaTeXiirf 
 Tt]V eaVTOv. AXV o nev HXia: 
 aTroSwffa/ifKo? o 8e Xpurrot Kai tJ^uw 
 KaT€Xnre, Kai fp^oiv avTrjv avrjKde : — 
 " EKas left Jas garment to his 
 disciple ; but the Son of God, as- 
 cending, left unto us his own flesh. 
 Mas, indeed, stripped himself of 
 his covering, but Christ, ascending, 
 took with him his body, and left it 
 also for us." — St. Chrys. Horn. 3, 
 ad Pop. Antioch, tom. li. p. 34. 
 
 Again: " Reflect, mortal, what 
 kind of a sacrifice you are about to 
 touch — ^to what kind of a table, you 
 are about to approach ! Oh, meditate 
 
Mr, Frenchi] 
 
 BACEIWCB 01 THE MASS. 
 
 165 
 
 profoundly, that, being nothing but 
 earth and ashes, you participate of 
 the body and blood of Ohnst!" — 
 Id. p. 384. 
 
 NoVi'my friends, how beautifully, 
 how aptly are not these words of 
 St. Chrysostom in harmony with 
 the Protestant mystery of mere 
 bread and wine ! 
 
 Why do I read the Greek ? In 
 order that you may pay greater atten- 
 tion to the BngUsh when you hear it. 
 But to cling to these said fathers, 
 who are ever cUnging to the Bible, 
 let us take into our hands St. Cyril of 
 Jerusalem, who in his Catechetical 
 Instructions, dehvered in the year 
 of our Lord 351, says: — "As the 
 bread and wine of the Eucharist, 
 before the holy invocation of the 
 adorable Trinity, were mere bread 
 and wine ; but when the iuTOcation 
 has taken place, the bread becomes 
 th3 body of Christ, and the wine 
 becomes the blood of Christ." _ 
 
 Again: " As the Euchaiistie 
 bread after the invocation is no 
 longer bread, but the body of 
 Christ." 
 
 Again : " Let not your atten- 
 tion, therefore, be fixed upon them 
 as being mere bread and wine, inas- 
 much as they are the body and the 
 blood of Christ, according to the 
 showing of the Lord himself. And, 
 althou^ your senses may suggest 
 to you the contrary, let faith confirm 
 you. Judge not of the thing by 
 the taste, but be by faith fuUy con- 
 vinced that you have, beyond aU 
 doubt, been deemed worthy of the 
 body and the blood of Christ." 
 
 Again : " This doctrine of the 
 blessed Paul is of itself sufficient 
 fuUy to confirm our faith concern- 
 ing the Divine mysteries, of which 
 having been made worthy, ye have, 
 as it were, become identified and 
 incorporated with the body and the 
 blood of Christ. It is St. Paul 
 himself who says, ' That our Lord | 
 
 Jesus Christ, the very night in 
 which he was betrayed, having 
 taken bread, and having given 
 thanks, broke and gave it to his 
 disciples, saying, Take, eat, for this 
 is my body ; and having taken the 
 chahce, and having given thanks, he 
 said, Take, drink, for this is my 
 blood.' (1 Cor. xi. 23, 24, 25.) Now, 
 since he himseK hath so manifestly 
 declared and spoken concerning 
 this bread. This is my body, who 
 after that shall have the daring to 
 entertain a doubt of it ? And, smce 
 he himseK confirms it, and says. 
 This is my blood, who shall at any 
 time presume to doubt, saying. This 
 is not his blood?" — St. Cyr. of 
 Jems. Catech. Myst. 4, vol. i. p. 319. 
 Again, let us listen to St. Cyril 
 of Alexandria, who flourished in the 
 year of our Lord 412, a little before 
 (if five centuries in the arithmetic 
 of my learned friend be worth 
 countmg) the age of the said-to-b« 
 Transubstarvtiation-inventor, Pasoa- 
 sius Radbert. The words of the 
 venerable father in question are — 
 " Let these verbose and most absurd 
 of men tell us with whose body 
 the nurselings of the Church are 
 fed, or from what springs her chU- 
 dreu are refreshed : for if the body 
 of God is dcKvered, this God is the 
 true God — Christ the Lord, not a 
 mere man, nor an angel, as these 
 men assert, nor a mere minister, nor 
 one of the unbodied spirits ; and if 
 it be the blood of God, the cup of 
 God, this God is not merely God, 
 one of the adorable Trinity, the 
 Son of God, hut the Word of God 
 made man,. But if the body of Christ 
 be our food, and the blood of Christ 
 be our drink, and this Christ be, as 
 they insist, mere man, how is the 
 bodfy of life promised to those who 
 approach to this sacred table? And 
 how, again, shall this body take up 
 its dwelling here, and in many 
 places, and not be diminished? 
 
166 
 
 SAOBIPICE OP THE MASS. 
 
 A mere body cannot by any means 
 be the salient spring of life to those 
 who receive it. Wherefore, let us 
 receive the body of life itself -r- 
 that life which for us has dwelt in 
 our body ; and let us drink his sacred 
 blood for the propitiation of our 
 sins, and the participation of that 
 immortality which is ia him, believ- 
 ing that he himself is at the same 
 time the Priest and the Victim, he 
 that offers, and he that is offered." 
 — St. Our. Alex. Bdit. Avhert. Lutet. 
 1638, torn. T. pars 3, p. 377. 
 
 Wonder not, then, my Protestant 
 friends, that this same doctrine was 
 implanted in this island when the 
 first missionaries from Rome arrived 
 amongst us ! "Wonder not that the 
 venerable Bede, our first ecclesias- 
 tical historian, when describing the 
 nature of this sacrament, proves 
 himself to be a CathoKo, not a Pro- 
 testant. " There is the form of 
 bread," says he, "but after .conse- 
 cration it is the body of Christ." 
 
 Again : " Oblato pane et vino, id 
 est oorpore et sanguine Ohristi:" 
 " Bread and wine being offered, 
 that is, the body and the blood of 
 Christ.' Bede, Edit. Colon. Agripp. 
 1688, t. ,v. lib. 8, p. 139. 
 
 Such was the language, my 
 friends, of the venerable Bede, be- 
 fore the birth of the famous Pro- 
 testant-raised magician Paschasius 
 B-adbert, and before the birth of 
 the aU-HLumining Reformation. But, 
 exclaims, or at least vriH exclaim, 
 my reverend antagonist, all the 
 force of such overpowering testi- 
 mony in favour of the Catholic, is 
 totally annihilated by one single 
 text of St. Paul, namely, " Without 
 shedding of blood there is no re- 
 mission of sias." 
 
 Wonderful discovery! wonder- 
 fully sagacious deduction from this 
 text of St. Paul, made by the im- 
 proved readers of the Bible at the 
 first dawn of the Reformation in 
 
 [ith Hvening. 
 
 this island ! But oh ! shame upon 
 my learned friend, to practise such 
 an imposition upon you, as to 
 attempt to confirm so modem an 
 idea, by referring to the Greek pages 
 ofTheophylaotus. Why, myfnends, 
 no later than this morning I visited 
 the British Museum, in order to 
 iospect the writings of that iden- 
 tical father, and I find that he has 
 not the slightest notion of any such 
 Protestant deduction &om the text 
 alluded to. On the contrary, that he 
 conceives the meaning of St. Paul, 
 throughout the whole chapter, most 
 visibly to be, to direct thp attention 
 of the Jews from the sacrifices of 
 the law, to the grand completely 
 sacrifice of the cross, without the 
 least reference to any other Christian 
 doctrine. Is it not, then, let me 
 ask, a most extraordinary, thing, 
 ,that this should soimd in your 
 ears as a very powerful argument ? 
 and is it not also somewhat sin- 
 gular, that this said text, thus 
 mterpreted, never entered into 
 the heads of Christians of former 
 ages, as doing away with the 
 Saciifice of the Mass, which has 
 uninterruptedly been celebrated 
 in every part of the universe, in 
 so many different languages and 
 nations dovm to the present day? 
 But what means it, after all ? What 
 is its pungency P " Without shed-, 
 ding of blood there is no remission 
 of sins." Now, I contend that the 
 whole verse shows, that the rea- 
 soning of the apostle is confined to 
 the old law, in which the victims 
 for the sacrifice were always slav^h- 
 tered ; and almost all things in flie 
 old law " were purged with blood." 
 Secondly, suppose, for the sake of 
 argument—for I have no objection, 
 aignmentatively, to concede a Uttle 
 to my friend ^suppose, for the sake 
 of argument, I say, that the decla- 
 ration of the inspired vpriter applies 
 to the new law. Let us suppose it 
 
Mr. FrencJk^ 
 
 SACBXPICE OJ THE MASS. 
 
 167 
 
 for a moment — why, I cannot see, 
 even upon that supposition, that it 
 militates anything against the Ca- 
 tholic doctrine, correctly and accu- 
 rately stated ; for we mauitain that 
 a fuU remissipn for sins has been 
 made ; we admit that fuU remission 
 is only obtained for us by the shed- 
 ding of the blood of Clmst on the 
 cross, ONOE/or all. [A voice, " Put 
 that down," we presume as a hint 
 to Mr. Gumming.] 
 
 Mr. Erbnoh (sarcastieaUy). Yes, 
 put that down; but recollect to 
 put this down with it — that is, 
 Protestants profess that, by the 
 power of faith m the efficacy of the 
 one bloody offering, is presented an 
 expiation for the sios of man to his 
 oifendedGod, whothereuponbestows 
 upon him the contrition required for 
 his offences, accepts his repentaace, 
 and applies the blood of Christ 
 actually to wash away his sins. So 
 we hold {here is my argument), that 
 by the unbloody Sacriice of the 
 Mass, the infinite merits of the 
 bloody sacrifice of the cross are 
 offered anew to the . Almighty [a 
 murmur] — I say, are offered to the 
 Almighty, who is moved thereby to 
 bestow on the sinner grace, and a 
 hearty sorrow for his trespasses, and 
 to cleanse him in. the blood of the 
 Lamb, shed on Mount Calvary, for 
 the redemption of a sinful world. 
 Thus we hold, too, that " without 
 shedding of blood there is no re- 
 mission of sios;" had Christ not 
 shed his blood, there had been no 
 remission. But mark, my friends, 
 we do not allow it in the extent to 
 which my learned friend wishes to 
 carry it ; we do not allow that the 
 verse had any reference prospec- 
 tively. It was all retrospective; 
 the whole drift and scope of the 
 chapter was of a retrospective 
 nature, as to the contrast or com- 
 parison of the sacrifices. Besides, 
 will my learned friend' teU me that 
 
 Christ, before he shed his blood, his 
 precious, his adorable blood, before 
 he actuaUv shed it, I say, that he 
 could not have forgiven sins ? wiU 
 he tell me that he did not forgive 
 any ? WiU my Bible-reading friend 
 seriously maintain, that when Christ 
 said to the man that " was taken 
 with the palsy" " Man, thy sins are 
 forgiven thee," (St. Luke, v. 20,) 
 that there was then any actual shed- 
 ding of our blessed Kedeemer's 
 blood? Away, then, my Protes- 
 tant friends, with this carnal inter- 
 pretation of the text in question. 
 Believe me, it was first made, not 
 by any of the ancient fathers of the 
 Church, who were ever comparing, 
 m the language of St. Paul, " spiri- 
 tual things with spiritual," 1 Cor. ii. 
 13, but by men of real carnality, both 
 in living and in reasoning; proud 
 scomers of all ancient wisdom, and 
 adorers of their own inventions. 
 
 One object of that letter -of St. 
 Paul to the Hebrews, on which 
 Protestants so vainly rest their 
 hope of stultifying the grand pro- 
 phecy of Malachi— indeed the sole 
 object of that letter was to repro- 
 bate the erroneous notion, that they, 
 the Jews, were stiH to keep up their 
 bloody sacrifices for sins. It is not 
 necessary, he tells them, that Christ 
 " should be often offered." No 
 part, therefore, of the reasoning of 
 this epistle of St. Paul, I contend, 
 bears against the Sacrifice of the 
 Mass, "which is not bloody, nor 
 requires that Christ should suffer 
 any more." Bvtriai, Kadapai koi 
 avaiiioKToi : "Pure and mhloody sa- 
 crifices," says St. Cyril, teaching 
 our Cathohc Catechism, in the year 
 351 ; and as I tell you, over and 
 over again, I would rather consult 
 primitive antiquity on the meaning 
 of the phrase, than I would my 
 respected friend, however ingenious 
 and talented he may be, "in his 
 speech and in his preaching, with the 
 
SACUmCE OP THE MASS. 
 
 [iiA Evening. 
 
 enticing words ofnuuis wisdom!' — 
 1 Cor. ii. 4. 
 
 " Aa unbloody sacrifice, a victim 
 of propitiation — tov IXacriiov" — 
 says that glorious Catholic cate- 
 ohizer, in the year 351. 
 
 And so it is in. the Catholic Cate- 
 chism at the present day, the whole 
 world over, a propitiator^/ sacrifice. 
 Yes, my Protestant friends, this 
 resounds iu all our catechetical in- 
 structions ! But a new modem 
 light has sprung up into existence 
 that finds in this chapter something 
 subversive of the great sacrifice of 
 ages foretold by the prophet Ma- 
 lachi. Our behef, however,' is, I 
 contend, strictly analogous to the 
 doctrine which is laid down in 
 Scripture, and which constitutes 
 the foundation of all our hopes and 
 of every good and perfect thing — 
 namely, the one great bloody sa- 
 crifice on the cross. " It is ap- 
 pointed," says the apostle, "unto 
 men once to die;" so was Christ 
 " once offered," according to all 
 prophecy, to effect satisfaction for 
 sins, wmoh was made, once for all, 
 by Christ upon the cross. 
 
 Its application was left to man's 
 co-operating with Divine grace — 
 the application of the bloody sacrifice 
 on the cross was left to man's co- 
 operating vrith Divine grace ; and 
 how can he co-operate with Divine 
 grace more effectually than by 
 adhering, in the most determined 
 and unceasing manner, to the great 
 unbloody sacrifice which has come 
 down to us in an uninterrupted 
 train of tradition from the apostles 
 even to the present day ? "If," says 
 St. Cyprian (and mark the era, my, 
 friends, when he said it, nsimely, the 
 year of our Lord 3di8), " if Jesus 
 Christ, our Lord and God, be him- 
 self the High-priest of his Pather, 
 and if he first offered himself a sa- 
 crifice to him, and commanded the 
 same to be done in remembrance of 
 
 him, then that priest truly stands 
 in the place of Christ, who imitates 
 that wHch Christ did, and then offers 
 in the Church a true and complete 
 sacrifice to God the Father, doing 
 what he ordained. Por the whole 
 discipline of religion and of truth is 
 subverted, if that which is com- 
 manded be not faithfully kept up." 
 — St. Gyp. Episi. ad Ceciliam, p. 109, 
 Edit. Bened. Paris, 172G. 
 
 It is, then, by that great sacrifice, 
 the unbloody Sacrifice of the Mass, 
 that we apply to us ihe/raits of the 
 bloody sacrifice on the cross ; by 
 the use of such means as Christ has 
 appointed — ^faith, prayer, &o. I say, 
 we apply it by co-operations with 
 Divine grace. In the first place, 
 co-operation by such means as Christ 
 has appointed — such as faith — for 
 without faith no m.an can be pleasing 
 to Christ, althoifgh Christ did die on 
 the cross. But there must be bap- 
 tism also, prayer, &c. ; although I 
 am aware that in Calvin's doctrine 
 faith alone will suffice, without even 
 baptism, much less prayer. Calvin 
 says, that " if a man have once 
 grace, he never can lose it ;" and 
 though he may commit murder on 
 murder, yet that the sweet creature 
 has ^ace stiU unburied, still unex- 
 tinguished in his bosom. [Murmurs 
 of disapprobation in different parts 
 of the room]. That is the real doc- 
 trine of Predestinarianism. " It 
 may be smothered," says he (those 
 are his own words) — " it may seem 
 extinguished, still it is there — the 
 man cannot be lost." Nay, more, 
 he goes on further — and a dreadful, 
 shuddering doctrine it is : — " If a 
 man has once faith, all his posterity 
 are to be saved," whether they be 
 monsters of pollution, or not ! ! I 
 say (to revert again), applying the 
 bloody sacrifice of the cross by these 
 means which Christ has appointed, 
 viz.^ faith, prayer, baptism, and 
 espically the solemn commemora- 
 
iir. French.'] 
 
 SACEiricE or the mass. 
 
 169 
 
 tion of the sacrifice on the cross, 
 made in the Sacrifice of the Mass 
 on our Cathohc altars. 
 
 My learned friend's argument 
 against the Mass is, that all with one 
 oblation, was consummate, and that 
 Christ was offered once for all. True, 
 I answer, it cannot be denied ; but 
 that text is not to exclude that 
 which Scripture .delivers also in 
 other places. " A clean oblation," 
 says the inspired prophet, Malachi, 
 "was to be offered, to God in all 
 places" Now that text cannot be 
 understood of the sacrifice on the 
 cross ; that was not offered in all 
 places, but on one only cross ; much 
 less can it be understood of the 
 prayers or works of the ungodly 
 race of men that arose at the Refor- 
 mation, trampling upon the cross of 
 Christ, and all the sacred emblems 
 of our rehgion. No, my friends, 
 the bloody sacrifice was oifered only 
 once ; the unbloody is from age to 
 age repeated. The one did con- 
 sumijiate all by way of redemption, 
 the other was instituted for appli- 
 cation. 
 
 We have, therefore, an altar where 
 they who are out of our Church 
 have no power to eat, where they 
 have no power to serve, whereon is 
 offered to the eternal Father the 
 same victim, his well-beloved Son, 
 truly, really, and substantially pre- 
 sent, according to the confession of 
 accumulated ages — a confession 
 never called in question till the six- 
 teenth century. Nay, Melancthon 
 himself says, speaiing of Gregory 
 the Great, who sent Augustin to 
 christianize this island, " This Gre- 
 gory did allow, by public authority, 
 the sacrifice of Christ's body and 
 blood, not only for the living, but 
 also for the dead."— if«tec. lib. 
 4. -Ghro. in Hen. 4. 
 
 But mark, gentlemen, though a 
 holy victim on our altars, Christ is 
 not there after a corporeal maimer, 
 
 in the gross sense of that word, but 
 in a spiritual and celestialized man- 
 ner. " Not in a sensible, but mys- 
 terious manner," as St. Epiphanius, 
 one of the fathers of the Church, 
 eloquently and beautifully expresses 
 it — "He, who in the same body, 
 magnificently uplifted into heaven, 
 and sat down at the right hand of 
 the Father, unencumbered by any 
 corporeal clogs, though not divested 
 of the body which he raised in its 
 spiritualized glory." ^ 
 
 Thus, and thus only, my friends, 
 can be reconciled the doctrine of 
 the Sacrifice of the Mass, so clearly, 
 so solemnly predicted by the pro- 
 phet Malaohi : — " For from the 
 rising of the sun to the going down of 
 the same, my name shall be great 
 among the Gentiles, and in every 
 place incense shall be offered to ■ my 
 name, and a clean offering." — Mai. 
 i. 10, 11. 
 
 That "pure oblation" is most 
 demonstrably the Sacrifice of the 
 Mass. It has been offered up in 
 every age, as I have proved to you 
 from historical documents, which 
 my learned friend has not attempted 
 to contradict or controvert. And 
 how does he endeavour to question 
 or overthrow them ? Why, solely 
 by givir^ us his arbitrary trans- 
 lation of St. Paul's epistles, and 
 then by exclaiming in a dogmatical 
 and authoritative manner, " There's 
 the Christian doctrine." If he were 
 the Pope of Rome, he could not 
 speak m a more imperious and 
 authoritative manner [laughter] — 
 " there 's the Christian doctrine." 
 But now, gentlemen (as I am 
 reminded that I have only two 
 minutes more, I shall speak as 
 rapidly as' I can). H I might be 
 permitted to mate a request of my 
 learned antagonist, who knows so 
 well what passed in aU antiquity, 
 I would entreat him, however pain- 
 ful to his feelings the performance 
 G 3 
 
170 
 
 SACEIPICE OS THE MASS. 
 
 [iiA Evening. 
 
 bi such a'task may be, to devote 
 some part of this argument to-day 
 to a confutation of the authenticity 
 of those liturgies which I have 
 urged upon him. Let him throw 
 overboard, to use his own reiterated 
 expression, in a clever, plausible 
 mamier, all those immovable litur- 
 gies — let him totally annihilate, by 
 some soM argument, the glorious 
 testimony of the fathers of the 
 Church, in every age, speaking the 
 CathoKc doctrine, the glorious tra- 
 «Ution of ages, the harmomzing con- 
 sent of aU. the nations of the earth — 
 let bim do this, I say, in a most un- 
 hesitating and overwhelming man- 
 ner, and, my fellow-Catholics, the 
 victory is his, the laurel is all Ms 
 own. Again, again, and again, I 
 cry out, however grating it may be 
 to "his delicate ears, give me a 
 satisfactory answer to this question 
 — How it IS that theButyohians and 
 Nestorians, who still flourish innu- 
 merably in the East, and who sepa- 
 rated from us fourteen hundred 
 years ago — how it is that they com- 
 bined with Catholics, after haviog 
 renounced the Pope, to introduce 
 into the world the Sacrifice of the 
 MassP 
 
 This is the grand question : how 
 can it be resolved ? This, I say, is 
 the grand puzzler, the torturing 
 perplexer for the clear head of my 
 very ingenious and talented oppo- 
 nent. Such an answer, on his part, 
 will be infinitely preferable to any ar- 
 bitrary interpretation he may think 
 proper to give to some hard text 
 in St. Paul's Epistle to the Hebrews, 
 knowing, as my learned friend most 
 unquestionably does, that, even after 
 his illmninating them, a man may 
 still wrest, them to Us own. damna- 
 tion. But, as I said before, I again 
 repeat, I perfectly acquiesce with 
 regard to that hard epistle in the 
 sentiment of Theophylactus, o-kotto? 
 T4) aTTOOToXo) 8ei|a( ro 8iaxj)opov 
 
 TTjs jraXaias Kai rrjs Kaivrjs. That is, 
 " The drift of tlie apostle is to point 
 out the difference between the Old 
 and the New Testament. " And now, 
 to answer one more observation of 
 the reverend gentleman, before I sit 
 down. The fathers, says he, not- 
 withstanding all the proud vaunting 
 of Mr. French, are not unanimous 
 upon any one point. They are, I 
 reply, most unanimous on articles 
 of faith ; any .other species of una- 
 nimity is not to be expected. In 
 the interpretation of allegorical allu- 
 sions and figurative expressions, I 
 grant, one father may see one mean- 
 uig and another another; but in 
 dogmas of religion, I defy my 
 learned antagonist to show the least 
 discrepancy between them. But 
 not to enter into too wide a field at 
 the present moment, I shall content 
 myself with observing, that if there 
 be any one point on which the 
 fathers of the Church seem to have 
 gloried in exhausting all the powers 
 of the Greek and Roman languages, 
 in order to prove their perfect una- 
 nimity and concurrence of belief, it 
 is the dogma of Transubstantiation ; 
 yes, where the fathers are most con- 
 current (unhappily for my learned 
 friend, as I have proved to you), 
 most indissolubly concurrent, is on 
 the body and blood of our Saviour 
 on the altar in the Sacrifice of the 
 Mass. Nor, among these, is Theo- 
 phylactus, to whom my learned 
 friend has referred me, the least 
 express. " What, then, do not we 
 also offer up unbloody victims ? 
 Yes, most certainly we do." — 
 Theophyl. Venet. 1854, torn. ii. 
 p. 719. 
 
 [Here the learned gentleman's 
 hour terminated.] 
 
 Rev. J. CuMMiNS. — You have 
 heard so much, my Christian hearers, 
 of the liturgies of ancient times, and 
 so little of the Epistles and Gospels 
 
Rev. J. 
 
 •J 
 
 SACKIFICE OP THE MASS. 
 
 17i 
 
 of still more ancient times, that I 
 feel it incumbent upon me, in de- 
 ference to the reiterated demands 
 of my learned friend, to show you 
 what is the precise weight attached, 
 by distinguished men in his own 
 Church, to these liturgies, which he 
 has attributed to apostolic, and 
 almost to inspired ages. He has 
 traced them by a very ingenious, 
 but to my mind a very specious 
 logic, to the days of the Apostles and 
 Evangelists, and has asked, with a 
 triumph which he anticipates rather 
 than reaps — is not this a decisive 
 proof that the Mass was sung and 
 said in the days of the apostles, and, 
 a fortiori, oountenancedTand taught 
 by them ? 
 
 I now hold in my hand the Eccle- 
 siastical History of Dupin, whose 
 authority, correctness, and weight, 
 no Roman Catholic disputant will 
 very readily disclaini or deny. This 
 history is translated from the Erench 
 of Dupin, Doctor of the Sorbonne, 
 and Regius Professor of Divinity at 
 Paris. I shall read Us remarks on 
 the ancient liturgies (mind you, not 
 my remarks, not a Protestanfs re- 
 marks, but a Roman Catholic his- 
 torian's remarks) — ^these I quote, 
 not only for the sake of Dupin's 
 testimonj, but also for the sake of 
 his irresistible disproofs of the ge- 
 nuineness and autnentieity of these 
 liturgies, which any one may enter 
 into, and which are decisive whoever 
 adduces them. " The liturgy, or 
 . Greek and Latin Mass, attributed 
 to St. Peter, caonot be St. Peter's, 
 for the following reasons :" — [you 
 shall hear these reasons J — "smce 
 mention is made therem of St. 
 Sixtus, Cornelius, and St. Cyprian. 
 The Virgia Mary is caUed the 
 Mother of God, a term that was not 
 
 fenerally in use until after the con- 
 enmation of the Nestorian heresy. 
 The canon of the Latin. Mass, which 
 is reputed by St. Gregory to have 
 
 been composed by a scholastic — that 
 is to say, a learned man of the fifth 
 century, is entirely inserted therein ; 
 moreover, it contains divers Htanies, 
 taken from the Sacramentarium ot 
 St. Gregory, and the Kturgies of St. 
 Basil and St. Chrysostom (who of 
 course did not hve in the days of 
 St. Peter). _ There are also prayers 
 for the patriarch, a term altogether 
 unknown before the end of the 
 fourth century. It is evidently a 
 document of the fifth, not the iirst 
 century. Li short, if St. Peter had 
 been the author of this hturgy, it 
 would have been used by the Church 
 of Rome ; neither would it have lain 
 hid dm'ing so many centuries. These 
 reasons made the learned Cardinal 
 Bona say, that this liturgy was 
 forged, and, in aU probability, com- 
 piled by a Greek priest. Latinized 
 because it is collected partly from 
 the Greek liturgy and partly from 
 the Latin, and the name of St. Peter 
 was afBxed to it either that it might , 
 attain authority," &c. 
 
 Irresistible facts and great names 
 in the Roman Church thus disprove 
 the pretensions of these Kturgies to 
 apostolic origin. If these liturgies 
 were written in the first century, 
 the writers must have been gifted 
 with something of the foresight of 
 my Highland countrymen, who see 
 things prospectively centuries before 
 they occur, and record them, it may 
 be, four himdred years before they 
 have been lijard of. [Laughter]. In 
 short, that St. Peter is not the 
 author of the liturgy that bears his 
 name, a cardinal of the Church of 
 Rome fuUy admits. Dupin also, an 
 historian of the Church of Rome, 
 mark you, assigns it to the fourth 
 century. My learned friend says it 
 belongs to apostolical days. Now, 
 if such doctors differ in.the bosom of 
 unity, whom are we to believe ? The 
 learned gentleman says he would 
 prefer the learned doctors of ancient 
 
172 
 
 SACMTICE 01 THE MASS. 
 
 [i/A Evening. 
 
 times "to me and otlier upstarts of 
 tlie nineteenth century. AHow me 
 the liberty to do so also. I give 
 them the preference too. 
 
 Mr. rsENCH. — ^Let me see the 
 proof. 
 
 Rev.' J. CuMMTSTG. — I shall read 
 agaiu : — " These reasons made the 
 learned Caedinal Bona" (mind 
 you ! not a layman — higher than a 
 priest, higher than an archhishop — 
 even a cardinal!) "say that this 
 liturgy was forged." — Dupin, chap, 
 i. p. 8. They are dishonest forgeries, 
 and yet they are the almost only 
 proofs of the Mass. 
 
 " The Mass of the Ethiopian, that 
 bears the name of St. Matthew," 
 says Dupiu, "is evidently forged." 
 p. 8. 
 
 "We ought to give the same 
 judgment of the Stuigy of St. 
 Mark," adds Dupin, in the same 
 place. "There are in it several 
 prayers for. the king, and even for 
 St. Mark himself." 
 
 " Which circumstances," adds 
 this Roman Catholic historian, " are 
 apparent demonstrations of its no- 
 velty." Observe, this Roman Ca- 
 thohc historian says it bears such 
 evident traces of its novelty, as no 
 man with his five senses can dis- 
 pute. Now, we will take the next 
 liturgy on my opponent's list of 
 " glorious liturgies," the Liturgy of 
 St. James, and see how his own 
 Church treats -them. I am not on 
 my authority treating them with 
 tils hauteur, mind you: it is the 
 learned of his own Church that treat 
 them so. " There remains only the 
 liturgy attributed to St. James, 
 which divers learned men" (my anta- 
 gonist in the number) "have taken 
 much pains.to vindicate, but" (ihost 
 melancholy !) " to no purpose ; for 
 although it is more ancient than 
 those we have already examined, 
 yet we ought not to say that St. 
 James was the author thereof* or 
 
 that it was composed in his time." 
 To the disproofs of Dupin, as dis- 
 tinct from his authority, I direct 
 your attention : — 
 
 "I. The Virgin Mary is called, 
 in this hturgy, the Mother of God, 
 and the Son aid the Holy Ghost 
 are said to be consubstantial with 
 the Pather, terms altogether un- 
 known in St. James's time. But 
 supposing that they were not un- 
 known in his time, is it credible 
 that this authority should not be 
 alleged in the Councils of Nice, 
 Ephesus, and Constantinople ? 
 
 "II. We find there the 2Hsa^«o» 
 and the Doxology — that is to say, the 
 Sanctus and Gloria JPa^rJ," which 
 were not generally recited in the. 
 Church until the fifth century. 
 
 " in. There are collects for those 
 shut up in monasteries. Caji any' 
 man say there "were monasteries in 
 the times of James?" (Observe, 
 this is a Roman CathoKc who asks 
 the question !) 
 
 "IV. There is mention made of 
 confessors, a term that was not 
 inserted in the Divine offices till a 
 long time after James, according to 
 the confession of Bellarmine" (an^ 
 I other cardinal and doctor of the 
 church of Rome, you observe !). 
 
 "V. In this litTurgy there is men 
 tion made of churches, incense, 
 altars. Can it be imagined that 
 these things were used in St. 
 James's time ? 
 
 "VI. We find many citations 
 from the Epistles of St. Paul, the , 
 greater part of which were written 
 after St. James's death." (Therefore, 
 my opponent must have recourse to 
 the old expedient, a miracle, viz. 
 that St. James rose again, and ap- 
 peared upon the earth, to help out 
 Mr. French's defence of the Mass ; 
 and then we shall have a pheno* 
 menon parallel vrith the "immor. 
 tal" dogma of lYansubstantiation.) 
 " Neither ought we to object, witii 
 
Rev. J. Cummmg.] saceitice op tele mass. 
 
 173 
 
 the cardinals Bona and Bellarmiae, 
 that these things were afterwards 
 inserted ; because it is not probable 
 they should be added ia so many 
 places ; besides, the connexion and 
 ceremonies of the whole liturgy do 
 not agree with .the time of the 
 apostle." — Dupin.,hj^. 1, pp. 8 and9. 
 
 Now, where, my friends, is the 
 apostolicity of these much-boasted 
 liturgies ? I have advanced no as- 
 sertions of my own. I have gone 
 to a cardinal, and he says they are 
 some three centuries after the days 
 of the apostles, and I have gone to 
 BeUarmme, and he acquiesces in a 
 similar sentiment ; but I go to Mr. 
 French, and he says, that these car- 
 dinals, these learned and distin- 
 guished advocates of the Church of 
 Rome, the subtlest and the ablest 
 that ever upheld the system, he says 
 they both speak what is untrue. 
 Then I do not desire him to take 
 the ipse dixits of these learned and 
 distinguished doctors, and thereby 
 preserve unity, but to weigh patiently 
 and honestly the arguments which 
 they give, and he wiU. come to the 
 conclusion which I have come' to, 
 and which I am sure niae-tenths of 
 this audience have come to, viz. 
 that they do not belong to apo- 
 stolical tunes. 
 
 In the outset of my learned an- 
 tagonist's remarks, he said that I 
 had attributed some concession to 
 him which he really and honestly 
 did not make. Now I shall nst 
 dispute about the concession; it 
 was a paltry statement about some 
 historical data, and I believe, last 
 evening, I said I would give it up if 
 he did not say so ; if he did not 
 make the concession, I offered to 
 give up the advantage it presented, 
 for I know there is such a sub- 
 stratum of solid, scriptural, and ia- 
 superable fact beneath my positions, 
 that I can afford to be generous 
 n-ith the adversary with whom I 
 
 have to contend. I solemnly de- 
 clare that, as far as I am conscious, 
 I have not imputed to the Church 
 of Borne, or to her defender, my 
 learned friend, one sentiment which 
 she does not profess, or which is 
 not to be found in her authentic 
 documents. I see on the walls of 
 this school-room, "Lying lips are an 
 abomination to the Lord," and, hav- 
 ing the fear of God vnthiri my 
 heart, I feel the fuU force of that 
 sentiment, and can call him to wit- 
 ness that I have not intentionally — 
 and I hope my friend believes me, 
 that I am speaking in the sincerity 
 of my heart, when I say, that I have 
 not intentionally misrepresented, 
 misapphed, or misdescribed any one 
 tenet of his Church, or any one prin- 
 ciple of his faith. My friend, at the 
 outset of his remarks, complained 
 bitterly, that at the close of my 
 statement, last night, some indivi- 
 duals thought proper to make certain 
 shght emotions of acquiescence with 
 their hands and feet. You are 
 aware, my hearers, that this is ex- 
 pressly contrary to the rules under 
 which this assembly was convened, 
 and I deeply deprecate and deplore 
 it ; and had I only possessed the 
 magnetizing power of some of the 
 worthy doctors of the age in .which 
 we hve, I would have mesmerized 
 every hand and every foot, and have 
 effectually repressed every symptom 
 of approbation, or of the contrary. 
 [Laughter.] But not being gifted 
 with this magic, this mesmeretic 
 power, I was utterly unable to do 
 so; and I can only say to those 
 Eoman Catholics and Protestants 
 who exercised their hands and their 
 feet on that occasion, that, in defer- 
 ence to my learned Mend, they wiU 
 do so no more. 
 
 The next accusation brought 
 against me is, that I used wanton 
 and uncalled-for lanpage in refer- 
 ence to dogmas which my learned 
 
174 
 
 SACKITICE OP THE MASS. 
 
 antagonist believes to be most sar 
 cred. I am not aware that I used 
 one single epithet which was not 
 either to be drawn from the pre- 
 mises I have laid down, when argu- 
 ing against it, or found in the 
 canlons, or in the Catechism of the 
 Council of Trent, when defining and 
 determining the meaning of that 
 dogma. Aid I can as deliberately 
 and solenmly announce, that my 
 heart's desire and prayer to God is, 
 not that I may be the conqueror, 
 but that he and I may be saved; 
 and I do put the question to you, 
 and to every one in this vast assem- 
 blage, with an energy and an em- 
 phasis which I trust wUl not be 
 easily forgotten — Jm I yom- enemy 
 because I tell you the truth ? [point- 
 edly to Mr. lYench.] If yoiu- sys- 
 tem wfll not stand the pure and un- 
 sullied blaze of light which the 
 oracles of truth supply, then you 
 have to blame your popes and your 
 bishops who concocted it, not the 
 humble advocate of the Bible who 
 brings its truths experimentally to 
 bear upon it. 
 
 My learned antagonist remon- 
 strated very much with me for 
 saying that Cain was the first 
 iuss-priest. Now, while I deprecate 
 everything like personal reflection 
 in the course of this controversy — 
 and I am sure the peaceable and 
 orderly conduct which have hitherto 
 prevailed wiU show that there has 
 been very little of personal reflec- 
 tion on either side — ^you will recol- 
 lect that my learned antagonist 
 set me the example of this apparent 
 deviation. Before I spoke about 
 fathers and grandfathers, he told us 
 first that Luther was the father of 
 our Church ; then anon, that Calvin 
 seemed to have the honour of being 
 our father — aU of which nice con- 
 troversy is a matter of genealogy 
 and descent, which I am not anxious 
 to ascertain. Then he made a con- 
 
 1 4:th Evening. 
 
 cession, which I hope he wiU not 
 again dispute [to Mr. JVench], viz. 
 that the Jews, who disbelieved our 
 Lord in the sixth of John, were 
 our fathers. In his generosity he 
 brought our lineage to apostolic 
 ages, and said the Jews, who dis- 
 believed Christianity, were our first 
 Protestant fathers. Now I guided 
 the excavations of my friend a little 
 further up the path of time," and 
 showed, by a parallel, which I shall 
 now briefly recapitulate, that Caia 
 was the first Mass-priest; for the 
 distinction which I reminded you of 
 between the sacrifices of Cain and of 
 Abel was, that one was bloody- and 
 the ether not so. My antagonist 
 admits that the Mass is an unbloody 
 sacrifice — that is, that there is no 
 shedding of blood ia it ; he admits 
 also, that the sacrifice of Cain was 
 an unbloody sacrifice — that is, that 
 there was no shedding of blood in 
 it. All I said and contended for 
 was, that in this distinction consists 
 the efficacy or ineffieacy, as well as 
 peculiarity, of the sacrifice. My an- 
 tagonist contends for a sacrifice in 
 which there is no shedding of blood ; 
 and therefor^ I said, that by Cain's 
 offering is the Mass typified in the 
 annals of inspiration, and in the 
 book of Genesis, wherein it is re- 
 corded that Cain ofi'ered of the 
 fruits and flowers of the earth an 
 unbloody sacrifice to God. And the 
 different accompaniments of the two 
 offerings were probably these: When 
 Cain, it may be supposed, brought 
 his sacrifice to God, he said, pro- 
 bably, "O Lord, these flowers and 
 these fruits I consecrate to thee, 
 the beautiful though frail produc- 
 tions of the earth, pencilled by thy 
 fingers, and tinted by tliy handi- 
 work; they have received theic 
 beauty from thy smiles, their fra- 
 grance from thy breath, their being 
 from thy mighty power; I conse- 
 crate them unto thee, and offer 
 
Bev. J. Cummin^.] sacbimce or the mass. 
 
 them as the just and dutiful symbols 
 
 of my recognition of thee, my God, 
 
 as my creatiug, sustaining, and pro- 
 viding God." But Abel, when he 
 
 presented his, felt that an imbloody 
 
 saoiiflce ■would not take away sins — 
 
 just what I wish my Roman CathoUc 
 
 friends to feel. He brought an iu- 
 
 nooent lamb to the altar, and he 
 
 ponced out its hlood, and his confes- 
 sion was : — " O God, thou art 
 
 not only my Creator and Sustaiuer, 
 
 and Preserver, but I have simied 
 
 against thee, my Father and my 
 
 God ; and I shed this blood ia token 
 
 that mine deserves to be shed, and 
 
 as a type or foreshadow of that most 
 
 precious blood through which alone 
 
 there is forgiveness, and in which 
 
 when washed, I shall be 'white as 
 
 the driven snow,' ' without spot or 
 
 blemish, or wrinkle, or aiiy such 
 thiue.' " I say, these may be sup- 
 posed to have been the addresses of 
 the former, the fratricide, and of the 
 latter, the martyr ; and as the mar- 
 tyr's sacrifice was bloody, it cannot 
 be the type of the Mass ; but as the 
 murderers was unbloody, the offer- 
 ing justly typifies the Mass, and the 
 otterer the Mass-priest. 
 
 My opponent next referred me to 
 the life of some saints for evidence. 
 I have not time to follow out the 
 life of St. Francis, or any other 
 of that kin; but when J come to 
 the doctrine of the Invocation of 
 Saints, I shall give you a few 
 extracts from his life, which will 
 tell more than I am able to give of 
 his character and principles. The 
 next point my antagonist took up in 
 his speech was some remarks I seem 
 to have made about the meretricious 
 splendours of the rites of the church 
 of Rome. I admit their gorgeous- 
 ness. I am not aware that I said 
 these ceremonies were uascriptural 
 — ^I do not know that they are 
 so. I can only say they look to me 
 very sitspiciom, that is aU. One 
 
 175 
 
 of our own poets has beautifully 
 said — 
 
 " Do we paint the rose, or add fresh per- 
 fume to the violet I " 
 
 If Eehgion be what she is declared 
 in God's word to be — the most 
 beautiful visitant that ever came 
 from heaven to cheer our hearts 
 with bright anticipations of a future, 
 and without her all is darkness and 
 despair in the homes of earth — if 
 she be such a glorious and celestial 
 visitant, then, indeed, must there 
 be something in the native, unvar- 
 nished features of real rehgion, so 
 bright and impressive, that cere- 
 mony sinks it, and all splendour 
 deforms it. I maintain, however 
 (as I shall afterwards prove to you), 
 that the splendid ceremonies of the 
 Church of Rome form rather the 
 magnificent shroud ia which she 
 has entombed the whole body of the 
 truth, rather than the ornament that 
 forms the setting of that precious 
 gem. I envy not your priests' tinsel, 
 splendour, and their pompous cere- 
 monies. They have compassed sea 
 and land to give circumstance and 
 pomp to their worship— they have 
 hired the most celeoratpd cAe/s 
 d'oeuvres of painting and of music, 
 from all quarters, and at any expense, 
 to set off their forms; butwhat dying 
 souls want is not beauty, but bread, 
 by which they may be fed. What 
 you and I need, is not ceremony 
 which can dazzle the eye by un- 
 wonted splendour, but salvation that 
 can bring the soul to our Father 
 and our God ! I naturally exclaim, 
 as I gaze on the floatiug of your 
 iucense and the splendour of your 
 rites, or listen to the peal of anthem 
 and song, and note the whole dis- 
 play — Here, indeed, there is re- 
 freshment for every sense; but 
 " where have they laid my Lord? " 
 [Applause.] 
 
 The question that Mary asked at 
 the sepulclire is the question which. 
 
17C 
 
 SAOEinCE OF THE MASS. 
 
 every individual must ask wMlst 
 contemplating the Vatican's aoou- 
 mulated splendour — " Where, where 
 have they laid my Lord?" 
 
 My opponent next introduced his 
 former and hacknied statements 
 about the fathers. I showed you, 
 in my first speech, that the fathers 
 were never deputed by the Church 
 to make known its sentiments — 
 my friend admitted the fathers not 
 to be infaUible. The fathers fre- 
 quently contradict each other, and 
 contradict each himself ^ — a fact 
 whion invariably shows the neces- 
 sity of appealing from fallibility to 
 inmUibiUty — " from Caesar unto 
 Christ" — ^from the words of man, 
 " to the law and to the testimony." 
 But I must throw but a sentiment 
 that may appear somewhat peculiar 
 on this subject, and it is, that 
 what he is pleased to call the 
 fatliers were the mere striplings, 
 or beardless boys of the Christian 
 world. Tor, you observe, they had 
 but the same Bible that we have ; 
 the same promises of aid that we 
 have ; the same sacred books that 
 we have ; and we have many advan- 
 tages in addition — that is to say, 
 we have the advantage of vast and 
 varied biblical criticism, the disco- 
 veries of the age, the adjustment 
 of erudite controversies, together 
 with many other powerful auxilia- 
 ries, which must necessarily enable 
 us to come to more competent con- 
 clusions on the meaning of Scrip- 
 ture. So that, really, I believe, 
 the fathers of this contemned and 
 despised nineteenth century are, 
 perhaps, in a position niore fitted 
 for arriviag at a consistent and cor- 
 rect interpretation of the word of 
 God than the fathers of the fourth, 
 fifth, sixth, and tenth centuries. As 
 my learned friehd has once referred 
 me to Dr. Wiseman's lectures on 
 his Chuich, I would refer him, by 
 Vfay of repayment, to a sermon 
 
 by Dr. Chalmers, on the respect 
 due to antiquity, and also to the 
 history of the Jleformatioii, by a 
 French divine, Merle D'Aubigne, in 
 both of which he will find some 
 very logical and useful lessons on 
 ancient claims and characteristics. 
 iThe next point on which my friend 
 has taunted me, according to his 
 regular course, is my connexion with 
 or descent from the learned Calvin. 
 Now Calvin is not my infallible. 
 He weighs not a feather vpith me ; 
 he is no guide or authority for me. 
 If Calvin were to say anything un- 
 warranted by God's word, I would 
 treat Calvin as I treat Mr. Trench. 
 Calvin is not my Pope. I am not 
 in the least amenable to him. I 
 am neither Calvinist nor Arminian 
 — neither Jansenist, Jesuit, nor 
 Papist. I must rebut this waste 
 of words ; and therefore I once for 
 all disclaim Calvin as my dictator, 
 guide, or oracle ; whatever be the 
 merits of Calvin — and they are un- 
 questionably great, as my antagonist 
 evinces by his hatred of him — he has 
 no connexion with me, and I none 
 with him. As to the high views 
 which Calvin is asserted to have 
 entertained — viz.^that if a man had 
 faith, all his children, aU. his poste- 
 rity would be necessarily saved — I 
 may add, I defy Mr. French to pro- 
 duce any such sentiment from the 
 writings of Calvin, and that termi- 
 nates the matter. I have read the 
 works of Calvin, and I think him a 
 most acute, learned, and Christian 
 divine ; but never read such abomi- 
 nable imputations : he has made 
 mistakes m his writings, as well as 
 the fathers, and especiaUythe Pope, 
 and therefore this bears out my 
 advocacy of the more excellent way 
 — ^to let Calvin alone, and have re- 
 course to St. Paul, and see what he 
 says on these momentous "matters. 
 Mj friend was candid enough to 
 add, that if he were leaving the 
 
Eev. J. 
 
 SAOEIEICE OP THE MASS, 
 
 177 
 
 Church of Rome, he -would go to 
 the Church of England instead of, 
 and in preference to, the Church 
 of Scotland. I a,m really delighted 
 with the very hypothesis! [laugriter] 
 delighted with that monosyllable 
 " if." It is a bright presentiment 
 of good : he is coming so near to 
 the certainty of his abandoning that 
 corrupt and erroneous communion, 
 that he hangs somewhat in sus- 
 pense as to which branch of the 
 Protestant Church he will join. I 
 do from my heart congratulate you. 
 I should be glad to hail you in our 
 Scottish Church, but I am so pleased 
 with the promise of a change, that 
 I envy, but do not grudge the sister 
 Church her learned and zealous 
 accession. If he goes to the Church 
 of England, he will have entered 
 into a church characterized by able 
 and devoted ministers, distinguished 
 by a splendid literature, an aposto- 
 lical liturgy, and a scriptural creed ; 
 by the noblest essentials of a true 
 and Christian church of the Lord 
 Jesus Christ. I therefore pray 
 my friend to go to the Church of 
 England, to cast the Canons of Trent 
 into the Thames, and take the Thirty- 
 nine Articles m their stead, and you 
 will have made a happy exchange — 
 and if the truths of that church 
 reach your heart as well as your 
 head — if the Spirit of God apply 
 them to your conscience, as well as 
 just reason commend them to your 
 judgment — you will have made 
 such a transition as will be pro- 
 ductive of glory to God in the 
 highest, and eternal salvation to 
 your soul. 
 
 My antagonist again recurred to 
 the phraseology and usages of the 
 soi-discmt ancient hturgies, for proofs 
 of the existence of the Mass. Eor 
 a reply to this part' of his speech I 
 refer to the extracts I gave from 
 Dupin; secondly, to the ^extracts 
 which I read to you at great length 
 
 from the apostle Paul, and lastly, to 
 the narrative of a sabbath's solem- 
 nities, by Justyn Martyr, in the 
 third century, in which that father 
 furnishes a beautiful account of the 
 worship of the early Christians, 
 and in which there is not one word 
 breathed or intimated about the 
 Mass. I therefore insist, from 
 these irrefragable premises, that the 
 Mass is a dangerous deceit. I have 
 gone to the Bible, and find no men- 
 tion of it there. I have gone to 
 Justyn, and he gives an account 
 of the exercises of a Christian 
 sabbath, which my friend tried to 
 torture, with a Procrustes deter- 
 mination, into the shape of Transub- 
 stantiation and Adoration of the 
 Host. I have gone to his last 
 strongholds, the hturgies, and from 
 the cardinals and historians of the 
 Church of Rome, and from abundant 
 evidence, proved them impudent 
 forgeries. Driven out of all these, 
 my opponent lugubriously com- 
 plained that I had the last speech 
 last night. Does my friend recollect 
 that he had the two last speeches 
 the two nights before ? Time about 
 is fair play. [Laughter.] If he for 
 two nights had the last speech, I 
 know he will be generous enough 
 to give me the last speech for one 
 niglit. At the first arrangement, 
 my friend wanted all the last 
 speeches (I hope I am not disclosing 
 any private airangements to Mr 
 French and Mr. Kendal, the Chair- 
 man,) but I remarked that such 
 a request was quite an Irish kind 
 of reciprocity — a reciprocity aill on 
 one side. [Laughter]. I suggested 
 at last, that, 3 he had out of the 
 five subjects, the last speeches of 
 three, I should be satisfied with the 
 last speech on two: 
 
 My antagonist referred next to 
 the important use of the word 
 XetTovpyta. 1 find he has not un- 
 derstood my remarks on tliis word. 
 
178 
 
 SACKIHCB OP THE MASS. 
 
 [4M Everimg. 
 
 I have no objectioii to its being 
 rendered a sacr^ice. I do not object 
 to call the Lord's Supper a saonflce 
 — ^the strength of my objection lies 
 to the defining word, " a propitia- 
 tory sacriflce" — *' there's the rub." 
 I wish you to keep in mind this 
 distinctive epithet throughout. I 
 caJl praise a sacrifice; I call prayer 
 a sacrifice : I hold our bodies to be 
 sacrifices. " I beseech you by the 
 mercy of 'God that ye present 'your 
 bodies liying saermces." But I 
 object to call any of the rites or 
 sacraments of the Gospel, as the 
 Lord's Supper, " a true, proper, 
 and prc^itiatory sacrifice for the 
 sins of the limig and the dead." 
 But my friend insists, notwithstand- 
 ing my thorough confutation, that 
 "KeiTmifr/ovvToiv means, in the Acts 
 of the Apostles, xiii. 2, celebrating 
 Mass. Pray, sic, what was your 
 Church about [turning to Mr. 
 French] when she translated it 
 " minister ?" Your own Church, in, 
 your owu version, prefers the trans- 
 lation " as they were ministering to 
 the Lord," and not saerifieii^ the 
 body of ttie Son of God. My 
 opponent says, \&,Tovpyia means 
 to offer propitiatory sacrifice; his 
 Chuich says, it means " to minister," 
 Now, which am I to believe P Mr. 
 iVenoh or his Church? — one indi- 
 vidual agamst a whole Church, the 
 proud assumption of which is the 
 high prerogative of ineirability and 
 infallibility! His Church translates 
 it, " minister," Mr. French trans- 
 lates it, " sacrificiM; the Mass to the 
 Lord." How am ito reconcile the 
 two? I really must say that I think 
 the Church of Borne a more com- 
 petent judge of the matter than her 
 gifted son. 
 
 " Rulers are ministers to God," 
 (I quote from his own Bible, 
 XctToupyoi ro) fleco, the very same 
 word,. My friend insists that the 
 word means " offering up the Mass 
 
 — offering up a propitiatory sacrifice 
 for the sins of the livmg and the 
 dead,") and, therefore, if so, in tie 
 prosecution of the principle he has 
 laid dowB, he must hold that kings, 
 magistrates, rulers, princes, ai^els, 
 and pontiffs offer up the propitia- 
 tory sacrifice of the body and 
 blood, soul and divinity of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ; or, 'in other 
 words, " say Mass regularly." I 
 also showed you that this very word 
 oecurs in various portions of the 
 New Testament, in amy of which 
 the meaning thrust upon it by my 
 learned antagonist is totalty insuf- 
 ferable and absurd. Li Bomans, 
 XV. 27, the Douay or RomanCathoKc 
 Bible renders •this very Greek word, 
 " in carnal things to minister to 
 them." But, observe, if my learned 
 opponrait's new translation is to be 
 preferred, the words should be, " in 
 carnal things to offer up" a propi- 
 tiatory sacnflee for the sins of the 
 living and the dead. Reciprocity, 
 therefore, enjoined by the apostle is, 
 that if you partake of " spiritual 
 things," ye ought, by way of return, 
 to say Mass as well as the Roman 
 Catholic priestsl Now, if my friend 
 insists on the extravagant rendering 
 of Xaroupyaj', in consistency and 
 on his own principle, he must, in the 
 passages I have quoted, and to the 
 ruU extent, apply the new version, 
 and it will land him in practices so 
 heterodox, tiiat if he repent not, 
 he wHl find by and by, that he will 
 have placed himself under the 
 anat\ema of the Council of Trent, 
 and that absolution, with or with- 
 out penance, may be a very ques- 
 tionable or a very difficult thing. 
 [Laughter.] I referred you to 
 another extract, viz. " angels are 
 ministering spirits," from the Epistle 
 to the Hebrews, i. 14, as it is in 
 the Douay Bible, " are they not all 
 ministering spirits — ov^' wavrei 
 flat \eiTovpyiKa nveijuiTa." My 
 
Rev. J. Cummi/iff.'] 
 
 opponent insists that 'Karovpyea 
 means, " to offer up the Saerince 
 of the Mass." Of course he -will 
 explain the beauty of this rendering 
 here. I insist on an. explanation. 
 If XeiTovpydv means " to offer up 
 the Sacrifice of the Mass," then 
 of course it is a necessary sequitnr 
 that angels offer up the Saerince of 
 the Mass. To the heirs of salva- 
 tion, according to the interpretation 
 of my friend, they offer up " a pro- 
 pitiatory sacrifice for the sins of the 
 living and dead." 
 
 My learned antagonist next re- 
 ferred to St. Peter's words, " in 
 which are some things hard to be 
 understood, which they that are 
 unlearned and unstable wrest as 
 they do the other Scriptures.to their 
 own destruction." 
 
 The words ev ots, " in which," 
 are of the neuter gender, in wMcA 
 there are " some tlungs h^rd to be 
 understood." He complains that I 
 left out the word " umeamed ;" I 
 said, which "the unlearned wrest to 
 their own destruction." But who 
 are the unlearned ? They are those 
 who refuse to come to Him " who is 
 meek and lowly," that they may 
 learn of him. Now these unlearned 
 " wrest them to their own destruc- 
 tion" — they are not in the habit of 
 reading God's word, and are there- 
 fore ualeamed. My friend knows 
 whether he comes under that cate- 
 gory or not. Observe, they " wrest 
 them'' I object to wresting Scrip- 
 ture as much as he does. Irequire 
 every reader to apply himself with 
 humility and prayer to the inter- 
 pretation of that book which God 
 has given to " be a light unto the 
 feet and a lamp unto the path." The 
 learned gentleman, soon after these 
 irrelevant remarks, referred to the 
 Epistle of St. Paul to the Hebrews, 
 on which he threw out many curious 
 remarks, and once or twice I really 
 did imagine that he was about to 
 
 SACBIPICE OP THE MASS. 
 
 179 
 
 give up the Mass from sheer shame 
 in the presence of St. Paul. He 
 said, if Christ's sacrifice was offered 
 up " once for all" on the cross for 
 the sins of all believers to the end 
 of the world, that that was amply 
 sufficient ; but he added, in his own 
 curious logic — ^It is wholly sufficient 
 in the sense in which I used it. He 
 next showed the modes of prayer 
 and praise, and aU those various 
 means by which Romanists " apply 
 (mark that word!) the_ sacrifice of 
 Christ." This was an evasion. Does 
 my learned antagonist mean to try 
 to escape with the old plea, that the 
 Mass is the mere means of applying 
 the sacrifice of Christ — the mere 
 application of Christ's sacrifice, or 
 the mere apphcation of the fruits 
 of Christ's sacrifice? The canons 
 of the Council of Trent define 
 exactly what it is; I shall read 
 one of them, therefore, and shall 
 see whether it be there the appli- 
 cation of Christ's sacrifice, or, in 
 very deed, the sacrifice. I read from 
 the canons of the Council of Trent, 
 chap. H. sess. 22: "The holy synod 
 teaches that this sacrifice is and 
 becomes of itseK truly propitiatory. 
 The Lord, forsooth, bemg appeased 
 by the offering of Christ, and grant- 
 ing grace ana the gift of repent- 
 ance, remits crimes and sins, even 
 great ones. 
 
 Observe, through this Sacrifice 
 of the Mass, "God remits crimes 
 and sins, even great ones ; for it is 
 one and the same Host, the same 
 person offering now by the ministry 
 of the priests who then offered him- 
 self on the cross, only in a different 
 manner of offering ; and by this un- 
 bloody sacrifice the fruits of that 
 bloody one are abundantly received." 
 
 Canon iii. sess. 22 : "If any one 
 should say that the Sacrifice of the 
 Mass is only one of praise and 
 thanksgiving, or a commemoration 
 of the sacrifice made on the cross. 
 
180 
 
 SACEmCE OP THE MASS 
 
 [ith Eoening. 
 
 but not propitiatory, or that it only 
 profits £im who receives it, and 
 ought not to be oifered for the living 
 and the dead for sins, pains, satis- 
 factions and other necessities, let 
 tiiwi be accursed." 
 
 Whatever meamng my learned 
 antagonist may iu your hearing 
 attach to the Sacrifice of the Mass, 
 this meaning he dare not dispute. 
 It is, his church says, & propitiatory 
 sacrifice, by which sius and crimes, 
 even great sias and great crimes, 
 are forgiven,' and by which the sins 
 of the departed dead, who may not 
 yet be purged from their sins, are 
 also entirefy and wholly forgiven. 
 So that you are to remember that 
 the Sacrifice of the Mass is not 
 merely an application of the sacrifice 
 of Christ — his own church denies 
 that. Any demur on this poiut 
 agaiu brings him into collision with 
 his church, and shows most plainly, 
 as this discussion will further prove, 
 that Roman Catholic ground is un- 
 tenable ; that he must retreat from 
 the position which he occupied so 
 tiiumphantly before we began. He 
 admits in hife statement, that Christ's 
 sacrifice was a bloody sacrifice (iu 
 which blood is shed), and that the 
 Mass is an unbloody sacrifice. Now 
 this very distinction is, I have 
 shown, a decisive ground for over- 
 throvring the whole doctrine of the 
 Mass. For observe, my irrefraga- 
 ble position, adduced on the last 
 evening on which I addressed you, 
 and to which a reply has not been 
 attempted, was, that if the Sacrifice 
 of the Mass is not accompanied 
 with the sheddiug of blood— that is 
 to say, is an unbloody sacrifice, then 
 it cannot be a propitiatory sacrifice 
 for the sins either of the living or of 
 the dead; for the language of the 
 Apostle iatheEpistle to theHebrew's 
 is express (ix. 23) : " And almost 
 all things are by the law purged 
 with blood, and without shedding 
 
 or BLOOD THEEE IS NO REMISSION." 
 
 Here is an absolute incontestable 
 fact — "That without shedding of 
 blood there is no remission." My 
 learned antagonist will not surely 
 plunge into that unbounded licence 
 of "orientalism" which he con- 
 demns in everybody save in himself, 
 and teU me tbat this is to be ex- 
 plained away by a figure, and that 
 the language is not Hteral. He 
 professes to adhere to the literal 
 interpretation : he professes, at all 
 hazards, to adhere to the verbatim et 
 literatim statements furnished by 
 the word of God. He must, there- 
 fore, listen once more to these 
 words: " Without shedding of blood 
 there is no remission of sins." But 
 there is no blood-shedding in the 
 Mass ; ergo, there is in the Mass no . 
 EEMissioN OP sins. The Apostle 
 declares, in the twenty-fifth verse of 
 the same chapter : " Nor yet that he 
 should offer himself often, as the 
 High-priest entereth into the holy 
 place every year vrith the blood of 
 others ; for then must he often have 
 suffered since the foundation of the 
 world : but now once, in the end of 
 the world, hath he appeared to put 
 away sin by the sacrifice of himself." 
 Now mark here ! The apostle says 
 that, "if Christ has been often 
 offered, then must he have often 
 suffered." If Christ is. offered every 
 day in the Mass, Christ must suffer 
 bodily torment every day. It is 
 not my interpretation. If speech is 
 at all calculated to convey ordinary 
 ideas, then the statement of the in- 
 spired writer is, " that there cannot 
 be offering without its essential 
 accompaniment in Christ's case of 
 suffering." But my antagonist be- 
 lieves that when Christ's " body and 
 blood, soul and divinity, ossa et 
 neroi" are offered on the altars of 
 the church of Rome, there is no 
 suffering ,■ he holds that Christ does 
 not suffer. Mark that I If thpj'e is 
 
B»v. J. Cumming.'] SAcaiMCE as the masS. 
 
 ISl 
 
 no mffering on tlie altar, tlie apostle 
 distinctly declares there is no sacri- 
 fice, no propitiatory offering. Pro- 
 pitiatory offering and suffering are 
 utterly inseparable. Either the Mass 
 is a cheat, or God's word deceives. 
 Now these two simple facts I call 
 on my friend to expound to me 
 honestly and fairly, and to give me 
 to-night an explanation of the har- 
 mony of the Mass with the Epistle 
 to the Hebrews. He must be more 
 than an (Bdipus who is successful. 
 
 My learned antagonist, iu the 
 course of his speech, dissented from 
 my assertions on the use and the 
 application of the word^Wes^ in the 
 New Testament. Now I call on my 
 antagonist to prove, by reference to 
 chapter and verse, that the Greek 
 word'Iepcur, which means "a sacri- 
 ficing priest," is, in one solitary 
 instance, appHed distinctively to the 
 ministers of Christ in any part of 
 the New Testament. Now, mark my 
 challenge. I call upon Mm to de- 
 monstrate satisfactorily to me and 
 this assembly that the word 'Ifpcur, 
 which denotes "a sacriflcing priest," 
 is appHed distinctively to the minis- 
 ters of Cluist in any portion of the 
 NewTestament: Iknow, myKoman 
 Catholic friends, that your priests 
 vr^ dispute the dignity which I now 
 claim for you on the authority of 
 the word of God. You, my friends, 
 according to St. Peter, are "priests 
 unto' GoQ." Yon, according to St. 
 Peter, are a " royal priesthood." If 
 you be Christians, and have been 
 washed in the Redeemer's blood, 
 and justified by the Redeemer's 
 righteousness, the apostle Peter, 
 whom your church claims as the 
 founder and head of her communion, 
 says to all the believers scattered 
 through Pontus, Galatia, Cappar 
 docia, Asia, and Bithynia, "Ye are 
 a chosen nation — ^ye are a royal 
 priesthood." Now ask your priests 
 — Will you allow that WE are 
 
 PBiESTS? If Peter be right, we 
 are priests, and the word "If/jeus is 
 applied to laymen, to all believers in 
 Christ, whereas it is not applied to 
 ministers as such. Then the laity 
 are necessarily priests, and, in this 
 respect, are equal to the clergy, 
 being Christian priests in the noblest 
 sense of the word. The apostle 
 also tells us that the laity, as priests, 
 have sacrifices which they are to 
 offer. He says, Rom. xii. 1, "I 
 beseech you, by the mercies of God, 
 that ye present your bodies living 
 sacrifices to God, which is your 
 reasonable service." He declares 
 that ye are not only priests, but 
 tells you that you have offerings to 
 present, viz. your bodies "hving 
 sacrilces unto God, which is your 
 reasonable service." And again, 
 Heb. xiu. 15, he says, "By Mm, 
 therefore, let us offer the sacrifice 
 of praise continually." Now you 
 observe, then, if there be no pnest 
 in the whole of the New Testament 
 Scriptures, save those who are the 
 children of God and spiritual priests, 
 to offer up spiritual sacrifices ac- 
 ceptable through Christ — if my op- 
 ponent can furnish not one solitary 
 instance t!f sacrificing priests dis- 
 tinctively to make propitiation, then 
 there can be no propitiatory sacri- 
 fice in the Christian economy. No 
 priest, no propitiation ; and, there- 
 fore, the Sacrifice of the Mass is vox 
 etpmeterea nihil. There is but one 
 sacrifice once for aU on the cross, 
 and one Eternal Priest, who was 
 dead and is alive for evermore. 
 
 My antagonist admits, in the 
 next place, that there is full re- 
 mission of sins from the bloody 
 sacrifice on the cross. He asserted 
 in Ms speech this evening, that fuU 
 remission of sins is obtained through 
 the bloody sacrifice of Christ Jesus 
 "once for all," e0oira^. He ad- 
 mitted this, you observe — "full re- 
 mission." Well, if I have got al 
 
182 
 
 SAUKIMOE OS THE MASS. 
 
 I4^ih Evening, 
 
 my sins forgiven, what else do I 
 want ? If I hs;srefuU remission in 
 Christ, why seek more than "fuU" 
 in the Mass ? What can be the use 
 of anything possessed over or beyond 
 it ? Cardinal BeUarmine admits that 
 the bloody sacrifice of Christ on the 
 cross was rsfriNiTE, aad that the 
 Mass is PINITE. Now if Mr. Prench 
 admits what the illustrious BeUar- 
 mine asserts, then observe, what is 
 the inevitable consequence? The 
 Mass is a work of supererogation. — 
 an attempt, a miserable attempt, to 
 enlarge the inwnite by the hnite. 
 Would it add to the boundless and 
 inexhaustible ocean to drop a tear 
 into the midst of its mighty and 
 tumultuous waters? Would it deepen 
 the hoarse murmur of the hurricane, 
 or add to the rush of the wild tor- 
 nado that sweeps irresistibly past, if 
 you were to sigh or breathe in the 
 midst of it ? Would the dim, the 
 feeble radiance of a taper, held up 
 in the blaze of mid-day, increase 
 those fall and vivid splendours 
 which flood creation when the sun 
 has reached its zenith ? Will ten 
 thousand times ten thousand Masses 
 — or, in other words, ten thousand 
 times ten thousand mmtes, add 
 one particle to that sacrifice which 
 both parties hold to be ineinite, or 
 in all respects incapable of addition? 
 [Strong sensation.] I ask, solemnly, 
 my learned friend. If Chnst's sacri- 
 fice is infinite, and if we have full 
 POEGIVENESS through Chrisfs4foo% 
 sacrifice — ^ebbpect roneiVENESS — 
 if Christ's bloody sacrifice is infinite 
 — ^I ask, what is the use oi few 
 hzmdred milUom of Masses ! at the 
 lowest calculation, offered up during 
 the last forty years, if Christ, by 
 " ONE sacrifice," " once eob ail," 
 has given fitll remission of sins to 
 all who faithfully receive him ? Is 
 it not monstrous madness in the 
 priests — ^monstrous cruelty to the 
 souls of the people — monstrous 
 
 absurdity in the judgment of men, 
 for the Church of Rome to pretend to - 
 offer up his " body and blood, sou] 
 and divinity," four hundred millions 
 of times during the last forty years ? 
 My dear Eoraan Catholic friends, I 
 beseech you, by the worth of your 
 souls, to look thoroughly at this. 
 Do not let the Church of Rome 
 dazzle your senses and lay a padlock 
 on your judgments; but judge ye 
 what I say. I speak to reasonable 
 and reflecting men ; and if my words 
 wiU not stam the test and the scru- 
 tiny of mature reflection and Scrip- 
 ture analysis, cast them from you. 
 
 To show how the Roman Church 
 trifles with what she believes to be 
 the body and blood of the Lord of 
 Glory, I win state a fact. 
 
 The Rev. Mr. Stoney lately had a 
 discussion with a priest of the name 
 of Hughes. Mr. Stoney stated in 
 his presence that Masses were 
 usually sold for two shilling and 
 sixpence. [Sensation.] Mr. Hughes 
 interrupted him, and said, " he got a 
 pound for one Mass t" [Renewed 
 sensation, and cries of "Order!"] 
 Oh, strange and extraordinaiy the- 
 ology, that leads a priest to pretend 
 to offer up " the body and blood, 
 soul and divinity of the Son of God!" 
 for half-a-crown, according to Mr. 
 Stoney, or, according to the priest, 
 twenty shillings !.' Mr. Hughes, 
 in that discussion, exclaimed, that 
 they were not sold: he admitted 
 that money was received by the 
 priests, and that Masses were said 
 for the donor, but that they were 
 not sold. He cherished some scho- 
 lastic distinction about the word 
 sell. He admitted that Masses were 
 said for the donor, and that money 
 was paid for saying them. It hap- 
 pens, also, that the number of Masses 
 is in the direct ratio of the number 
 of half-crowns that are paid I Mx. 
 Stoney went on to observe that he 
 knew the fact of a person, named 
 
Rev. J. 
 
 SACRmcE or the mass. 
 
 1S3 
 
 Bolger, beqaeathing to tlie Rev. J. 
 Roaoli, P.P., 600;. in cash, his 
 plate, je-wellery, books, horses, and 
 jaunti^-car, for Masses for his 
 soul. Tiie sum total might be 700/. 
 Calculatiug the Masses at the usual 
 price, we must infer, that by the 
 haads of Priest Koach the body of 
 Christ was to be offered up Jive 
 thowsaui six Imwdred times for the 
 deliverance of Mr. Bolger's soul 
 alone 1 ! Oh ! if his ear were withia 
 reach of my accents, 1 would tell him 
 of the glorious tidings which Mr. 
 French has admitted this night, and 
 Cardiual BeUarmine has recorded 
 before him, that in Christ's bloody 
 sacrifice alone is full and glorious 
 remission for all sin; that in his 
 bloody sacrifice there is everlasting 
 forgiveness of all sin, and — " with- 
 
 OTJT MONEY AND WTTHOtfl PEICE ! " 
 
 [Strong sensation.] 
 
 My learned opponent quoted much 
 from St. Cyril, and applauded the 
 principles of that father. Now, I 
 nave only to state, for my opponent's 
 comfort, that Dnpin quotes from 
 Cyril these words : — " Not bread 
 and wine, but the body and blood 
 of Christ wMeh these represent" and 
 adds, " One that believes with the 
 Church of Rome cannot sot the 
 bread and wine represent." JJupin 
 says his faith was suspected, and 
 St. Jerome observes that he often 
 changed his faith and communion 
 too. One father, you observe, says 
 this of another ! So much for the 
 " unanimous " consent of the fathers. 
 
 The next statement of nw learned 
 antagonist was, that the i^istle to 
 the Hebrews was to be confined 
 exclusively (I am giving his words) 
 to the Jews, not to the Gentiles, 
 and that it refers to those sacrifices 
 only which were offered up by the 
 Jews, and not to that propitiatory 
 sacrifice offered up by the Church of 
 Bx)me. If he keep to this principle, 
 you wiU see where it will lead him. 
 
 If the Epistle to the Colossians was 
 meant only for the Colossians, and 
 the Epistle to the Thessalonians 
 only for the Thessalonians, and the 
 Epistle to the Ephesians only for 
 the Ephesians, and for those only, 
 we must give up possession of the 
 Bible altogether, and believe those 
 only to be truth which the oracles 
 of Papal infallibility dole out. But 
 to show you that the apostles did 
 not mean the individuals only to 
 whom these epistles were addressed, 
 I shall quote the Epistle to the 
 Colossians, iv. 16 : — " And when 
 this Epistle is read among you, 
 cause that it be read also in' the 
 Church of the Laodiceans." Now, 
 I say, when this Epistle to the 
 Hebrews is read among Jews and 
 Pbotestants, just cause it to be 
 read in the Church of Rome also, and 
 you wUl see what wiH be the conse- 
 quences. Moreover, I maintain that ' 
 treat moral and spiritual truths de- 
 vered by the apostle are no less 
 binding and true now than when 
 first they were proclaimed. What 
 was morally and spiritually true 
 eighteen centuries ago, is morally 
 and spiritually true now. There is no 
 chronology in truth. If the apostle 
 asserted it to be true eighteen cen- 
 turies ago, that "without suffering 
 there is no offering," it is equally 
 true now. If the apostle asserted 
 eighteen centuries ago that " many 
 priests and many sacrifices can 
 never take away sin," it remains 
 just as true at the present moment 
 that many Masses, many Roman 
 CathoHo priests, can never take 
 away sin. And, therefore, instead 
 of trying to do away with the ap- 
 pKcabili& of this epistle to us,_ 1 
 would call on my learned antagonist 
 to come and confront that epistle 
 with the dogmas of the Mass, if 
 he can muster hardihood to do so ; 
 and he will find that its proud pre- 
 tensions, its ceremonials, and its 
 
184. 
 
 SACMTICB OF THE MASS. 
 
 assumptions will vanish before tte 
 light of that holy epistle, " like 
 the bats and the moles" before the 
 piercing splendour of the sunrise. 
 The other point which lie repeated 
 and reiterated this and last evening 
 also was, if I could reply to the 
 question when the Mass was intro- 
 duced. This is an attempt to cover 
 by chronology what is exploded 
 by Scripture. You have aU. read 
 the parable in the Gospel of St. 
 Matthew, of the tares and the 
 wheat. The husbandman found that 
 some one whilst he slept had sown 
 tares. Now suppose he came in to 
 bis wife and told her that the com 
 was blended with grown tares, 
 though he in the first instance sowed 
 wheat, and saw wheat springing up. 
 His wife looks at the field, and says, 
 " You are really mistaken, my dear; 
 these tares, I assure you, were origi- 
 nally sown, and are part and parcel 
 of th^ wheat. If you deny this, 
 show me the hour when the tares 
 were sown. If you cannot teU 
 when, you have no right to presume 
 that they are tares and not wheat." 
 What, think you, would be his 
 astonishment ? He would say, " It 
 is a matter oi fact and not of time. 
 I can show when there was wheat 
 only : I now see tares in addition, 
 and whatever be the time, 'an enemy 
 hath done this.' " We say, during 
 those dark and leaden ages, when 
 man's intellectual and moral pulse 
 stood stil, when daikness covered 
 the earth, and thick darkness the 
 people — when successive genera- 
 tions slept and slumbered in apathy 
 and ignorance, the Mass, and pur- 
 gatory, and relic-worship, and the 
 mvocation of saints, and all the 
 destructive tares of the Church of 
 Rome,, were largely and liberally 
 sown by the great enemy of mankind, 
 and these took root in, the passions 
 and shot up amid the corruptions of 
 the human heart, Uke the plants 
 
 [4M 'Boemng. 
 
 of the valley of Java, flourishing 
 best in the murky eclipse of the 
 moral luminaries of heaven, and 
 beneath that paU of superstition 
 which intercepted the light of God's 
 sun, and plunged a whole race in 
 spiritual and intellectual thraldom. 
 [The rev. gentleman's hour here 
 terminated.] 
 
 Mr. Ebbnch. — Ladies and gentle- 
 men — The learned advocate of 
 Protestant principles, has at length 
 finished his usually erratic and un- 
 argumentative harangue, and inti- 
 mated to you, that it is not fair on 
 my part to express any kind of 
 regret that he should have the 
 benefit and advantage of the last 
 word this evening. Now, I cannot 
 refrain, in the very outset of my 
 addressing you, to repeat, most de- 
 liberately, the expression of this my 
 regret ; that entering as I am upon 
 the discussion of so vitally momen- 
 tous a point of the holy religion 
 which I profess, where I am acting 
 on the defensive, and am dragged 
 like a culprit to the bar of Protes- 
 tant inquisition, I should not be 
 entitled to the last speech. I de- 
 clare that it is subversive of every 
 principle of equity that I have not 
 the last word. But so it is, gentle- 
 men, fea; lata est, the law is passed; 
 my duty is to submit. Let my 
 learned opponent, however, prove 
 himself inclined to adopt an equit- 
 able mode of procedure this evening. 
 Let him not in his concluding speech 
 bring forward new arguments and 
 advance new statements which I 
 may be inclined to contradict and 
 controvert, because he may give you 
 that for proof which a breath of 
 mine would overturn and extinguish 
 in a moment. The learned gentle- 
 man, on the last evening of discus- 
 sion, made one remark, which, in 
 the hurry of looking over D^y notes, 
 I had totally forgotten. He was 
 
Mr. French^ 
 
 SACEIFICE OP THE MASS. 
 
 ]85 
 
 extremely facetious upon tlie point, 
 aaid he told you a pretty story, 
 whicli I have often heard, and which 
 I will do him the credit to say must 
 have appeared extremely original to 
 a large part of his fond and gaping 
 admirers. Such is the happiness 
 of his gest and manner, when he 
 either chooses to he original, or to 
 act the original where he cannot 
 but he conscious that he is a mere 
 copyist. However, I must say, for 
 I love plain dealing, it was remark- 
 ably stale to me ; insomuch that I 
 have heard it repeated over and 
 over again. I shall, therefore, en- 
 deavour to repay it by something 
 like origiaality ; and though I shall 
 repay it, my friends, in verse rather 
 rough, colloquial, and unpolished, 
 stiU I flatter myself it will sound a 
 little more harmonious than his 
 beloved bagpipe [laughter] ; that 
 very musical exhUarator of the 
 gloomy mountains that adom his 
 native country. It is concerning 
 " the face washed." I have heard 
 this quoted by divines of the Church 
 of England, and have heard roars of 
 Protestant laughter produced by it, 
 and I therefore thought I would 
 one day, when I was m a poetical 
 bagpipe mood, answer it ; and when 
 I do take the pen in hand, and feel 
 something like the influence of a 
 happy poetical vein upon me, I 
 would have you to know, that 
 although I may not be quite so suc- 
 cessful as my reverend triend in his 
 ever-dazzling oriental imagery, yet 
 do I contrive, some way or other, 
 to tell an agreeable story, a tale fuU 
 of truth, and at the same time, to 
 make those to whom I tell it laugh 
 heartily. 
 
 The verses- in question were 
 written by me to a lady, in an epistle 
 which I win read to you ; and they 
 were by way of answer to a Pro- 
 testant bishop who had attempted 
 to convert her to Protestantism, by 
 
 asserting, in the language of my 
 reverend opponent, that his church 
 was the Catholic Church with its face 
 washed. 
 
 " The Romish faith" observes the 
 sapient bishop, " differs from the 
 English Protestant in the same man- 
 ner as a face which has not been 
 washed differs from one which has ; 
 inasmuch as the English have not 
 absented themselves from the Church, 
 but have only washed off the errors 
 and corruptions of it, and worship 
 God in the same manner as the pri- 
 mitive Christians did, after the death 
 of their Saviour, when no such cor- 
 ruptions had gained ground." 
 
 Now, gentlemen, in answer to 
 this right reverend anticipator of 
 the sprightly, vritty joke of my 
 reverend antagonist, Mr. Gumming, 
 I personify the Catholic Church, 
 and make her answer in propria 
 
 But first let me read the letter I 
 sent to the lady, in order to coun- 
 teract the machmations of that very 
 logically seducing bishop. 
 
 " Deas, Madam — I hasten to 
 return an answer to the above Hues, 
 vrritten, as you tell me, by a Pro- 
 testant bishop, with the benevolent 
 intention, no doubt, of affording 
 matter of consideration to your 
 reflecting mind. A reply, in return, 
 on the part of that right reverend 
 personage, would confer an inde- 
 lible obngation on, 
 
 " Madam, 
 "Your humble Servant, 
 
 "Daniel Pkench." 
 
 Answer of the Catholic Church to the 
 "' ' " " 'ace. 
 
 Bishop washing its fat 
 
 My face wants washing I what is it you 
 
 mean? 
 If the true Church, could it become unclean? 
 If soil'd with error, Christ's own words must 
 
 The gates of hell must against heay'n prevaU. 
 Instead of rock, on which the Church should 
 
 stand, 
 Its true foundation must be iiumbling sand. 
 But no, 'tis stamp'd upon the sacred page. 
 
ii 
 
 SACBiriCE OF THE MASS. 
 
 Ita columns mould not with corxupting age ; 
 The Spirit that inspir'd its days of youth 
 Shall dwell within it, teaching it all irttth 
 Till the world ends; — it ne'er sliall know 
 
 decay, 
 While sects on sects shall lise and fade 
 
 away ! ! 1 
 
 I, however, was not content with 
 that, but another poetical visitation 
 came upon me, and so I thought 
 I would make the grave bishop 
 look a little more unconseq^uential, 
 by striking out the following im- 
 promptu ; the other being, as I 
 imagmed, too solemn for the oc- 
 casion : — ■ 
 
 Since washing first became a trade, 
 
 Each sect on earth in turn must fade ; 
 
 No Church can stand th' eter-nal scour 
 
 Of sect on sect, endu'd with power, 
 
 To rub and rub and wash away. 
 
 To please the taste of infldern day. 
 
 First, Church of England brought its wash j ' 
 
 The Unitarian calls it spjash. 
 
 Last, Irving bawls, with sweeping brush,, 
 
 No washing yet was worth a rush ; 
 
 He scorns alike the gentle Fox 
 
 And foaming sanguinary Knox ; 
 
 Declares their daub is all damnation, 
 
 His work alone is. irispiraUon. 
 
 Quisret Bishop, who comes next, 
 
 To wash most like the sacred text? 
 
 [Laughter]. 
 
 Such, my Protestant friends, was 
 the manner in which I gave your 
 learned bishop his qidetus ; and the 
 same identical verses will, I flatter 
 myself, serve the purpose of bring- 
 ing ,down the pride also of my 
 anti-episcopal and [applause and 
 laughter] honourable opponent, who 
 has been giving us Ms second-hand 
 washing this mght. [Laughter]. 
 
 Now, gentlemen, 1 wiU give my 
 learned friend the Uttle mgar-pMm 
 I promised him. [Laughter, and 
 cries of " Order !"]. The learned 
 gentleman seemed desirous that I 
 should\)ursue a certain course which 
 he suggested ; but as I do not like 
 any dictation as to my mode of, 
 proceeding, I shall enaeavour, as 
 far as the time will permit, seriatim, 
 to pursue my own train of arguing, 
 calmly, coolly, and dehberateiy, for 
 in fast speaking I have no skill 
 
 [4M Evemng. 
 
 whatever. But I beg leave to 
 answer, first of all, to a mightily 
 perplexing observation of my reve- 
 rend opponent, as it appeared to 
 him, made upon a test of St. Paul 
 on the last evening. The lestmed 
 gentleman translated it, " he has a 
 priesthood unchangeable," as your 
 Bible correctly translates it, and 
 as mine translates it also, viz. " eter- 
 nal, unchangeable." But, then, he 
 gravely tells us that Theophylactus 
 also translates the word oTrapa- 
 /3aro», by " a priesthood that will 
 admit of no succession," and there- 
 fore Mr. Gumming, the reverend ar- 
 gumentator, concludes we have no 
 priesthood; that there is in the 
 Christian dispensation no 'priest but 
 Christ, and that it is aU a vain and 
 arrogant claim on the part of any 
 church now extant to claim a priest- 
 hood or hierarchy. Nay, my reve- 
 rend opponent was a little deficient 
 in politeness on the occasion, point- 
 ing as he did with his finger to a 
 Catholic priest who sat near me, 
 and denying that he was in the least 
 entitled to that sacred name. I 
 can only say that I would not have 
 thus acted towards his reverend 
 coadjutor who sits near him [B«v. 
 Mr. Parkinson], andwhohas acted in 
 the most gentlemanly maimer ever 
 since I had the honour of seeing 
 him in this room. However, to 
 pass this by, I must inform my 
 reverend opponent that I looked into 
 the British Museum this morning, 
 and I did find the passage aUuded 
 to was very accurately quoted by 
 the reverend gentleman. But let 
 my reverend friend observe, that 
 Theophylactus translated the same 
 word precisely in the same manner 
 as the Catholic and Protestant 
 translators of the Testament do, 
 viz. uxehatyeable priesthood ; but 
 maintains that it means also, that 
 which my learned friend contends 
 for, namely, that it does not admit 
 
Mr. French!] 
 
 of sucoession. Now, m annexing 
 this meaning to the word at all, I 
 win boldly say, that it appears to 
 me, when I look at the derivation 
 of the word, to .he interoreting a 
 little in the oriental style of my 
 learned friend, though the father in 
 question had no such meaning in 
 view as that which my learned 
 friend would fain deduce from it, 
 namely, that wlien Christ died, aU 
 priesthood on earth should cease. 
 No ; such was very far from being 
 that father's meanmg, for he tells 
 us he was himself a priest, as I shall 
 soon prove to my learned friend to 
 his utmost astomshment as well as 
 consternation. 
 
 All that Theophylaotus maintains 
 is, that in, his quality of priest he 
 can have no succession; and therein, 
 we Catholics agree with him ; the 
 mighty priesthood of the great High- 
 priest IS exclusively daimed by 
 Christ Jesus ; but, notwithstanding 
 this, ministers and priests he has 
 under him of his own sacred ordi- 
 nation, according to this very Kieo- 
 phylactus, and according also to the 
 Church of Ei^land itself, whose 
 adversary my Calvinistic opponent 
 does not this day profess himself, 
 though he wounds it at every step 
 he taies in a deadly matter. 
 
 Now then, mark, my friends, the 
 passage I am about to lay before 
 you from this fiither of the Church, 
 to whom my ever -good-natured 
 friend has kindly referred me, not 
 meaning thereby, most assuredly, 
 any harm to his own cause. Theo- 
 phylaotus, speaking of the dignity 
 of the priesthood, of which he was 
 one, bemg an archbishop also, thus 
 writes : — See, moreover, the dignity 
 of priests, how it is indeed divine! 
 Por although they should prove 
 unworthy, how does this affect their 
 office? They are the ministers of 
 the gifts of God, and grace ope- 
 rates through their instrumentality. 
 
 SACKIFICE OE THE MASS. 
 
 187 
 
 in the same maimer as Balaam spoke 
 'through the mouth of an ass. Our 
 unworthiness, therefore, hinders not 
 the operation of grace ; and as 
 ■priests are thus made the vehicles 
 of grace, npijTeof auTouy, they are 
 to be honoured." — Works of Theo- 
 phylaotus, Archbishop of Btdgaria. 
 Edit. Venice, 1754, torn. i. p. 765. 
 
 Now, then, mark, there is a pas- 
 sage in the Bible, as you weU know, 
 " Wtosesoever sins ye forgive, they 
 are forgiven;" and it is, amongst 
 other causes, upon this delegated 
 power of absolving from sins, that 
 Theophylactus, in the passage I 
 have just cited to you, founds the 
 honour to be given to the priest- 
 hood. But it is not on that alone 
 that he founds it, nor does that 
 passage contain the sole ingredient 
 of tiie little sugar-plum I promised 
 to my reverend opponent. Listen, 
 my friends, to the folowing equally 
 sweet, and to me equally palatable 
 extract from the works of the same 
 father : — " But when he says This is 
 my body, he shows that the bread 
 which is consecrated on the altar is 
 the body itself of the Lord, and not a 
 respon<iing figure. Eor he does not 
 say this is a figure, but this is my 
 body ; it being transmuted, as it is, 
 by am ineffable operation; although 
 to us it may seem bread, in consider- 
 ation of our weakness, and that we 
 have an abhorrence to the eating of 
 crude flesh, and chiefly that of man ; 
 for which reason it appears to us 
 to be bread; but it is," says the 
 father, and mark the wwrientaliz- 
 able strength of the words, a-ap^ he 
 It is in vei 
 
 Ta> ovTi euTi : 
 
 So much, gentlemen, for my 
 learned friend's argument on the 
 priesthood. Let him now hoard up 
 that in his theological treasury, as 
 a caution to him m future, not to 
 put the Catholic disputant in mine" 
 of Theophylactus. [Laughter.] 
 
188 
 
 SACBIMCE or THE MASS. 
 
 Now I will take up the word 
 'Upevs, wHch tlie learned gentleman 
 olmg's to so fondly. It is not to be 
 found in the New Testament, says 
 he ; it is, say I, and I thus prove it. 
 St. John, in the Revelations, i. 6, 
 thus writes : — km eiroirjirev rifias 
 ^aaiKus km 'upcis to) Sea Kai 
 irarpt avTov : " And hath made us 
 kings and priests unto God and his 
 father." 
 
 Is not the word here for the 
 priests . thus constituted by Christ, 
 Upfis ? If so, what becomes of 
 this his novel argument ? Nay, 
 Theophylactus tells us that, even 
 though the priests of the New Tes- 
 tament should be bad instead of 
 good, vicious instead of virtuous, 
 that this do6s not diminish the 
 efficacy of their power, as Balaam 
 spoke through the mouth of an ass. 
 (I hope this circumstance will not 
 afford any ludicrous remarks for my 
 learned friend, as it certainly would 
 if the book were, in his estimation, 
 apocryphal). In like manner, 
 says he, the instrumentality of the 
 pnest, however unhallowed his life 
 may be, is still the sacred vehicle 
 of the gifts of God, his sacra- 
 ments. 
 
 I know my learned friend is fuU 
 of repentance already for having 
 directed me to this book [Laughter. J 
 I' see he is in great agitation, 
 and it is natural enough— he has 
 thrown me into a tremor before 
 now, [Laughter.] 
 
 The learned gentleman has called 
 upon me to give a satisfactory 
 explanation concerning the word 
 XfiTovpyos, and I vriUingly resume 
 ,the subject, because I flatter myself 
 that there is no subject in the whole 
 compass of theology in which I am 
 not able'to give you a satisfactory 
 answer, provided I have time. I 
 n«ver denied that the wordXtirovp- 
 705, was used in the New Testa- 
 ment, sometimes in a figurative 
 
 [^thlhemng. 
 
 sense; and the learned gentleman will 
 acknowledge that the word Upeva, 
 which means literally " to sacrifice, 
 to slaughter," is likewise sometimes 
 used m a figurative sense. This 
 mode of arguing, therefore, proves 
 nothing in his favour. But the 
 objection that he makes, of its not 
 being found in the pages of the 
 New Testament, even if it were 
 true (as it is not), but if it were 
 true, it is but ^ negative _one. 
 Suffice it for me, therefore, that 
 the word Upevs, " priest" is to be 
 found in the New Testament, and, 
 to my apprehension, most indispu- 
 tably applied therein to the Catholic 
 priesthood. 
 
 Rev. J. Gumming. — Not as ap- 
 plied to ministers. 
 
 Mr. Pkench. — Not as applied to 
 ministers ? I do not care what it is 
 applied to in your interpretation. 
 I am perfectly satisfied with the ac- 
 curacy of my own, re-echoing, as it 
 does, the interpretation of ages, and 
 I will not be dictated to by you ! 
 You only give a plausible and di- 
 dactic interpretation of your own, 
 or of your master, Calvin ; erecting 
 yourself, as I told you before, into 
 a kind of papal chair. [Laughter.] 
 
 [The learned gentleman uttered 
 this with much emphasis and warmth 
 of delivery, which caused some 
 Kttle excitement. Order being re- 
 stored, the learned gentleman pro- 
 ceeded.] 
 
 And now, my friends, when I con- 
 siderthe well-known and triumphant 
 fact that the Greeks, now in exist- 
 ence, have received it so from father 
 to son, that the word \eiTovpyia, or 
 liturgy in their language, means 
 mass — when I reflect that, although 
 it is celebrated by them with dif- 
 ferent ceremonies to ours, yet that 
 the substance is still the same— when 
 I reflect that the Armenians, the 
 Syrians, &c. concur, from age to age, 
 with the Catholic nations of Europe^ 
 
Mr. French.'] 
 
 SACMTICE OP THE MASS. 
 
 189 
 
 in offering up this grand sacrifice, I 
 see most clearly, without the inter- 
 vening of one single cloud or mist, 
 the ever-during accomplishment of 
 the prediction of the prophet 
 Malachi, and withoat the aooom- 
 plishment of which the Bible must 
 fall to the ground as unveradous, 
 namely : — " For from the rising of 
 the sun, even unto the going down 
 of the same, my name^hall be great 
 among the Gentiles, and in every 
 place incense shall be offered unto 
 my name, and a pure offering ; for 
 my name shall be great among the 
 heathens, saith the Lord of hosts." 
 — Malachi i. 11. 
 
 Rev. J. Cttmming. — It is not 
 shall ; it is is in the Bible. 
 
 [The learned gentleman, we pre- 
 sume, did not hear this remark, as 
 it remained unanswered.] 
 
 Mr. French. — I need scarcely 
 add that I thanlc my rev, friend from 
 the bottom of my heart, for having 
 enumerated the, miUions and millions 
 of times in which that splendid an- 
 nouncement of Malachi has been and 
 daily is, since the time of the apo- 
 stles, accompKshedaU overthe world, 
 by the celebration of masses by 
 Catholic priests. , WiU. the learned 
 gentleman, with all Ms tropes and 
 metaphors and figures, which he 
 will pour forth this evening, in usual 
 substitution for argument, contend 
 that the prophet Malachihad nothing 
 else in view by such prediction but 
 mere praise and prayer to God ? 
 Should my reverend opponent at- 
 tempt this, as he wiU. have the 
 advantage of the last word, I shall 
 only say by way of anticipation, 
 that it could not possibly aUude to 
 such a sacrifice, smce prayers were 
 offered up to the Lord God of 
 heaven from the days when Malachi 
 uttered that prophecy to his death, 
 and to the comiag of our Saviour. 
 Was not prayer as available then as 
 it is now? Would the prophecy 
 
 find its accomplishment ia that? 
 No, gentlemen, I cannot too fre- 
 quently repeat the grand, irrefra- 
 gable argument ; it has been testi- 
 fied in all the records of antiquity, 
 from the times of the apostles, that 
 the Mass has been celebrated in all 
 languages and in all nations ; and 
 we are contiaually witnessing the 
 accomplishment of that glorious 
 prophecy in the millions of holy 
 Catholics that are now spread over 
 the face of the earth. It has been 
 handed down amongst them from 
 sire to son; it has ever been the 
 doctrine of the stewards of the mys- 
 teries. Xes, my friends, in our cate- 
 chetical teaching, in our books of 
 instruction, by a regular train of 
 priests, regularly ordained and conse- 
 crated, from the times of the apo- 
 stles, in one continued and unbroken 
 stream, has that noble prophecy of 
 the inspired Malachi been resounded 
 as referring to the Mass and the 
 Mass alone; depend upon it, my, 
 friends, the more deeply you exa- 
 mine the more wiU you oe convinced 
 that the institution of the Mass, as 
 weU as all our institutions, carry 
 along with them' the stamp of infal- 
 lible origin and divine appointment, 
 throughout the long lapse of multi- 
 plie'd and progressive ages. And 
 shall I, let me ask you, knowing, 
 as I do, all this, ever be induced, 
 think ye, to relinquish the faith so 
 firmly professed and adhered to by 
 my ancestors, in order to take up 
 the arbitrary explanations and in- 
 ventions of my learned friend in the 
 nineteenth century? No, no! it is 
 impossible; with the grace of 
 Almighty God I will live and die a 
 firm Dehever in the Catholic reli- 
 gion, in which alone is to be found 
 the most fervent and devoted ado- 
 ration of the blessed Jesus ! And 
 what is more— as I am speaking in 
 the presence of the One Living God, 
 I would rather be condemned to 
 
190 
 
 SACMPICE OF- THE MASS. 
 
 roam about the face of the eartli, 
 an outcast or an exile from all domes- 
 tic comfort and repose, begging my 
 bread from door to door, and seeing 
 my family reduced to the condition 
 of the defenceless and the fatherless, 
 than abandon that sacred faith, that 
 primitive rehgion, which has been 
 transmitted to me in one undeviat- 
 ing course of glorious tradition 
 from the earliest times — the days of 
 the apostles ! 
 
 I now come to answer the notes 
 which I have successively taken 
 down. My reverend friend holds 
 up Dupin as oracular ; he holds him 
 up as an unexceptionable CatlioKc. 
 If he wfll only turn to many of 
 our biographical dictionaries, he 
 will find that he is far from being 
 an unexceptionable Catholic, and 
 that he has been suspected often on 
 many grounds. But, nevertheless, 
 we do acknowledge that Dupin is a 
 learned man. Well then, what says 
 he ? Why, accordiug to my reverend 
 opponent, he suspects one or two 
 of these liturgies. Let him do so; 
 I reply, his orthodoxy as a Catholic 
 is itself suspected ; and suspecting 
 from such a quarter, let my learned 
 friend remember, is not tantamount 
 to invalidating. The immortal 
 liturgies feel no concussion from 
 the snaking of an arm like his. But 
 stiU, to do the mail justice, if we 
 look at Dupin we shall find, that for 
 the substance of these liturgies he 
 is a determined stickler. Aid now 
 to come to Cardinal Bona, that illus- 
 trious and distinguished cardinal, 
 whom my learned friend calumniates 
 and traduces ; for it is, on the part 
 of my reverend antagonist, a most 
 unwarrantable piece of calumny, 
 when he declares that Cardinal Bona 
 raises his voice against these litur- 
 gies. I would have my learned 
 antagonist to know that Cardinal 
 Bona is one of their staunchest and 
 most resolute supporters, defenders, 
 
 [4tt Evemrig. 
 
 panegyrists, and admirers. Cardinal 
 Bona' has said, and it is what all 
 CathoHos admit, that these liturgies, 
 in the four first ages, were repeated 
 orally, as was the Apostles" Creed, 
 and not committed to writing. But 
 Cardinal Bona ever most strenuously 
 maintains that the said liturgies, 
 and most particularly that of St. 
 James, in those parts especially 
 which relate tio consecration and to 
 the unbloody victim, came from the 
 lips of the apostles. It has been 
 maintained by many writers, that 
 the Apostles' Creed, which I say, 
 viz. — " I believe in God the Father 
 Almighty, Creator of heaven and 
 earth," &c. and which you aT. say, 
 was never committed to writing 
 until the fourth century, and siqii- 
 larly with regard to the liturgies of 
 the Church; and the reason as- 
 signed for this is, that the Pagans 
 might not get sight of them, and 
 thus be csnabled to blaspheme our 
 holy religion in that infidel manner 
 in which my ears have been con- 
 demned to hear my sacred tenets 
 blasphemed, on this and on former 
 occasions, by the tongue of my 
 Calvinistic opponent. Some, on 
 the other hand, have imagined that 
 they, were written at an earlier 
 period ; but what all learned Pro- 
 testants — all of them, — all without 
 exception ■ — really learned Pro- 
 testants, and all learned Catholics 
 maintain is, that those specific parts 
 which I read to you the last evening, 
 and which must have struck you 
 with surprise, came from apostolic 
 Kps, as their foTmtain head. But 
 what, after all, is the best attested 
 authentication of these liturgies in 
 question, that learning, human or 
 divine, can furnish, in the estima,tion 
 of my didactic friend? Why, 
 really, if all the learned among 
 Protestants and CathoHos in the 
 world were to substantiate the fact 
 of their being genuine and authentic 
 
Mr. French.'] 
 
 SACEIEICE or THE, MASS. 
 
 191 
 
 monutneats of aurtiqmty, this dis- 
 ciple of Calviri) ■witi whom I have 
 the honour of argidng at the pre- 
 sent momeHtjWiU not feil to exclaim, 
 if I have the least penetration into 
 his mode of t hi-nVing : " Well, it is 
 not in the pages of the Bible, and 
 so I do not care one straw for 
 them ! " That, indeed, my friends, 
 wiU, if resorted to, be a most 
 fahninatiag, grand argument to 
 destroy the validity of the sacred 
 monuments alluded to, namely, the 
 liturgies. 
 
 One cause for which my learned 
 friend suspects these hturgies — and 
 a very ridiculous one it is — ^because 
 mention, forsooth, is made in one of 
 them, viz. of St. Maik, which liturgy 
 is called his own. Wliy, of course, 
 my friends, when St. Mark died, 
 his name would be there, inscribed 
 or added. And the same is appK- 
 cable to St. Peter ; and when we 
 happen to find the name of such 
 and such a saint in the Mass, we 
 easily "account for the name being 
 there, because they successively died 
 martyrs, and, of course, were succes- 
 sively added to it. We acknowledge 
 that. But what has that to do with 
 the question? We are now con- 
 tending for the substance of these 
 liturgies, where they mention " the 
 unbloody victim," the victim of pro- 
 pitiation, £Xa<7(iou, whiehmeans "pro- 
 pitiation," and Bva-ta avaifuiKTos, 
 "the unbloody sacrifice." There 
 they all agree, and all confound, 
 most vociferously, my learned an- 
 tagonist. Another reason, it seems, 
 is, which sounded, it appears, like a 
 blasphemy in the ears of my learned 
 friend, but as perfect harmony and 
 celestial music in mine, namely, that 
 the Virgin Mary was therein caUed 
 " the Mother of God !" Why, my 
 Bible-reading friend says, he cannot 
 find the "Mother of God" in the 
 Bible ! Will my reverend antagonist 
 act the Unitarian to-night, in order 
 
 to carry out his argument ? Why, 
 when Elizabeth says, "Whence is 
 this to me, that the mother of 
 my Lord come to me ?"— Does not 
 Lord mean God? In the Uni- 
 tarian's argiunent it does not con^ 
 sequentially refer to God; but, 
 surely, my reverend Calvinistie the- 
 ologian will _ not thus quibble? 
 When the Unitarian wishes to repel 
 the force of these words, the Mother 
 of my Lor A, he says it is the Lord 
 that is the man Jesus ; but, surely, 
 this is not the logic of my pious 
 friend ? Again, as the Unitarian 
 ever reeogmses Christ as Lord, but 
 not as God, when he meets, in the 
 Acts of the Apostles, xx. 28, the 
 following words — "The church of 
 God which he hath purchased with 
 his blood," what does the Unitarian 
 do ? He takes down one of the 
 Greek MSS., and finds in it tht 
 " Church of the Lord, which he pur- 
 chased with his blood." Thus it is 
 that the Unitarian icludes the force 
 of this tremendous text against him ; 
 but, let me ask, is this a weapon to 
 be wielded in the field of controversy 
 by my Trinitarian friend ? Will he 
 seriously maintahi that when Eliza- 
 beth cries out, in St. Luke i. 43 : — 
 "And whence is this to me, that 
 the mother of my Lord should come 
 to me," means barely the mother of 
 the man Jesus, and not the mother of 
 Jesus true Gods' 
 
 But the late Dr. Burton, one of 
 the most learned men of the Uni- 
 versity of Oxford, who wrote, some 
 years ago, an elaborate and invin- 
 cible book against the Unitarians, 
 quoting the fathers of the Church, 
 when he disputes with the Unita- 
 rians, deems it not incongruous with 
 his plan of proving the divinity of 
 Christ, to place in the frontispiece 
 of his work this admirable extract 
 from St. Athanasius : — ravra 6e 
 aTTtSexolM^da eK irarepaiv km irarf- 
 pwv, CIS ni^ai "These things we 
 
192 
 
 SACRIFICE 01' IHE MASS. 
 
 have received from father to fathjCr, 
 down to us." 
 
 Here it is very fair, in Protestant 
 conception, to bring the fathers 
 into play, because the Unitarian 
 says, Prove me the godhead of our 
 Saviour from the Bible; and the 
 doctor seems to stand in need of 
 some other subsidiary proof; but 
 when we CathoKcs, who are per- 
 suaded that the flesh and blood of 
 our blessed Saviour in the sacra- 
 ment of the Eucharist are at least 
 as provable from the pages of the 
 New Testament as is his divinity, 
 bring in the testimony of tradition 
 from the fathers to the self-same 
 point, my ingenious opponent (to 
 use his favourite, I wuL not say, 
 vulgarism, but polite nautical ex- 
 pression) throws all the fathers 
 overboard en, masse. Away with the 
 fathers, he cries out; give me Paul: 
 — as if, forsooth, I had not proved 
 unanswerably, that as to " the dis- 
 cerning of the Lord's bodif' in the 
 sacrament of the Eucharist, there 
 is the most remarkable harmony 
 between Paul and every one father 
 of the Church that ever took pen in 
 hand, vidth expressive force, to 
 record his sentmients on the sub- 
 ject. 
 
 My friend wiU show, I appre- 
 hend, some respect to the fathers 
 •who presiaea at the Nicene Council 
 in 325. Well, then, let him turn 
 over the volume that hands down 
 the proceedings of that council, and 
 he will find, that when the divinity 
 of Christ was to be decided, against 
 the blaspheming Arian, the grand 
 appeal made by the fathers who 
 composed that council, in order to 
 substantiate such divinity, was, not 
 to the Bible, but to tradition ; and 
 to tradition also, with my oppo- 
 nent's good leave, we Cfatholics 
 make appeal to substantiate the 
 Sacrifice of the Mass. But mark, 
 my friends, we do not therefore (for 
 
 Mh §oeniiig. 
 
 1 can easily anticipate that in my 
 friend's logic I shall be said to have 
 conceded that the Bible is against 
 it) avert our eyes from the New 
 Testament ; on the contrary, we 
 find the texts of the Gospel as dear 
 and significant in our favour as the 
 voice of tradition. 
 
 Again, as to the words " Mother 
 of God," an expression which is 
 not exactly to the taste of my pious 
 friend, I would beg leave to remind 
 him , that the fathers of the Coxmcil 
 of Bphesus, where my friend tells 
 us the words were mst used, ex- 
 pressly declaxed that the word 
 BeoTOKos, that is, Mother of God, 
 had been used in apostolic days, 
 and had transmissively come dovm 
 to them. Now for the argument of 
 my learned friend, as to the word 
 " consubstantiation." Dr. Burton 
 says it is a mistaken notion that 
 the word " consubstantiation" was 
 not used before the Council of Nice 
 in 325, and he proves most clearly 
 that it was used in the earliest 
 apostolic days, and transmitted down 
 to them. So much for these invin- 
 cible arguments, attempting to over- 
 turn and undermine those nobly- 
 towering monuments of antiquity 
 that look down so proudly upon the 
 arguments of Protestantism, the 
 ifflii-recording liturgies, from which 
 I have proved, to my friend's 
 inexpressible dissatisfaction, every 
 point in discussion between us. 
 Then, my friend proceeds to talk 
 about the death of St. Paul and of 
 St. James. I reply, that as to this 
 we have no accurate historical data 
 as to when St. Paul died, and when 
 St. James died, and that is all 1 
 shall observe upon the subject. 
 But my learned friend tells us he 
 will say something more about the 
 liturgies this evening. Now I reply, 
 that it is extremely ungenerous and 
 unfair. He has certainly a right to 
 answer what I have advanced, but 
 
Mr. French^\ 
 
 SAcaiPicE or ihb ma.ss. 
 
 193 
 
 to introduce any new matter, when 
 he knows I am ending, is not at all 
 the part of a fair and honourable 
 disputant. 
 
 He then tailcs about our priest- 
 hood and Cain, and proves, to 
 his own satisfaction, that Cain was 
 theflrstRomanCatholicpriest. Most 
 extraordinary discovery ! Worthy 
 the elaborate investigation of a deep- 
 searching theologian of the nine- 
 teenth century ! But his tact is uni- 
 form ; he is all along proving, that 
 a stream, in proportion as it wanders 
 from the fountain-head, becomes 
 uiore and more clear and transparent 
 — a thing in natural philosophy I 
 never heard of before ; but it ap- 
 pears to hold good in moral or reli- 
 gious philosophy ! It appears to me 
 that those who live "near to the 
 times of Christ and his apostles, 
 ought to know more of pure, un- 
 corrupt Christianity than we do, 
 with all our criticisms, and labo- 
 rious physical inventions. It ap- 
 pears to me that the blessed Ignatius, 
 whom I quoted in the beginning of 
 this discussion, and who said that 
 certain heretics absented themselves 
 from the sacrament of the blessed 
 Eucharist, because they did not 
 believe it to be the real flesh of 
 our Lord Jesus Christ, which flesh 
 suifered for our sins, and which 
 flesh in his goodness the Father re- 
 suscitated, that he (Ignatius) cer- 
 tainly ought to know more of the 
 doctrine of the apostles than my 
 learned friend, who is just about to 
 address you. The blessed Ignatius 
 tells you this, and he moreover tells 
 us that he had himself seen Christ 
 Jesus. Now, when I read what 
 that father says of the blessed Eu- 
 charist, 1 immediately recognise in 
 him a priest of my Church ; yes, 
 just as clearly as when I look at 
 the character of Cain, I see stamped 
 upon his brow the same sacerdotal 
 marks that fitted a Calvin and a 
 
 Knox for the dark ministrj of tne 
 Calvinistio temple. 
 
 But really, gentlemen, though I 
 must own I am not exempt from 
 some degree of fanltiness in noticing 
 such puerile arguments of my learned 
 friend, their virulence joined to then- 
 puerility reminds me forcibly of an 
 Archdeacon Chapman, who, about 
 fifty years ago, published a book 
 sometning in the style of ray learned 
 friend, against our CathoKc dogmas ; 
 and in which book he had the teme- 
 rity to assert, that all the fathers of 
 the Church were staunch sticklers 
 for the Protestant definition of the 
 Eucharist. The words of this fac 
 simile in point of Christisji softness 
 of expression and character to my 
 reverend opponent, namely, Ai-ch- 
 deacon Chapman, are worth listen- 
 ing to ; but the answer given to 
 them by the Protestant Dr. Conyers 
 Middleton, that splendid ornament 
 of English literature, and author of 
 the "Life of Cicero," is stiU more 
 memorable. I shall give you them 
 both. The former wm produce in 
 the countenance of my reverend 
 opponent an agreeable smile — ^the 
 latter at least a dismal if not a 
 gloomy frown. 
 
 The words of Archbishop Chap- 
 man, which will prove so exhilarat- 
 ing to my reverend friend, are — 
 
 " The ancient fathers of the 
 Church, and especially the Clements, 
 the Chrysostoms, the Jeromes, and 
 the Augustines, are an armoury 
 on the Protestant side, continually 
 galling the Papists in some tender 
 part, and exposing to every common 
 eye the unscMptural and unprimitive 
 crudities of the Eomish principles 
 and practices." — Arch. Chapman. 
 
 Now the words of his fellow- Pro- 
 testant, Dr. Conyers Middleton, 
 which, if I mistake not, are about to 
 prove am antidote to this cup of 
 exhilaration for my learned fnend, 
 are the following ; — 
 
194 
 
 SACRIflCE OF THE MASIS. 
 
 "The authority of those very 
 fathers," he observes "as it is en- 
 forced by the archdeacon, would 
 betray us into Popery ; and in par- 
 ticular, that Chrysostom, Jerome, 
 and Augustine, had severally taught 
 and practised, and warmly recom- 
 mended to the practice of all Chris- 
 tians, certain rites and doctrines 
 which, from their example and au- 
 thority, are practised at this day 
 by the Romish Church, but re- 
 iected by all Protestant Churches 
 as unscriptuial, superstitious, and 
 idolatrous. 
 
 "Por example: this sacrament," 
 the Eucharist, "was held to be a 
 tremendous mystery, dreadful even 
 to ai^els, and constantly styled the 
 sacrifice of the body and blood of 
 Christ, and offered up as such, both 
 ' for the dead and the living, over the 
 tombs and ashes of departed saints 
 and martyrs ; which was either the 
 same thing with what is now called 
 the propitiatory Sacrifice of the 
 Mass, or at least a very near ap- 
 proach to it. 
 
 " .... So that it was not pos- 
 sible," says the Doctor, "to take it 
 any longer for mere bread, but some- 
 thmg apparently divine and worthy 
 of adoration, and transubstantiated 
 consequently into the real body 
 of Christ ; for nothing else could 
 naturally flow from those prac- 
 tices and principles of the fourth 
 century." 
 
 " Here," says the same Dr. Mid- 
 dleton, in anothc- place, " the su- 
 perstitious practice of praying for 
 the dead is acknowledged to nave 
 been used by the primitive Chris- 
 tians, as it certainly was from the 
 earliest ages after the days of the 
 apostles. The purpose of it, as 
 declared by Tertulhan and Origen, 
 was to procure some telief and 
 refreshment to departed souls in 
 an intermediate state of expiatory 
 \)ains. 
 
 it A Evemng. 
 
 " Again," says Dr. Middleton, 
 " Ignatius, the Bishop of Antioch, 
 was exposed to wild beasts in the 
 amphitheatre at Rome. On which 
 occasion it was his earnest prayer 
 to God, that the beasts might devour 
 his body so entirely, that no re- 
 mains of it should be left to give 
 his friends the trouble of gathering 
 them. And he obtabied his wish so 
 far," (as the narrative informs us,) 
 " that none but the greater and 
 harder of his holy bones remained. 
 Yet these were gathered up and car- 
 ried to Antioch, and were wrapped 
 up in linen, as an inestimable 
 treasure left to the Church by the 
 grace which was in the martyr. See 
 the relation of the martyrdom of 
 St. Ignatius, translated into English 
 by the Protestant Archbishop Wake. 
 
 " Here then," continues the Doc- 
 tor, "we see what was the practice 
 of the primitive Chiirch from the 
 earliest ages." 
 
 The Doctor goes on : — " In the 
 relation also of the martyrdom of 
 Polycarp, who was burnt alive some 
 yeai's after at Smyrna, it is said 
 that his friends gathered up his 
 bones, more precious than the 
 richest jewels, and tried above gold, 
 and deposited them in a proper 
 place, where they proposed to as- 
 semble themselves together, as oft 
 as the Lord would give them an 
 opportunity, to celebrate the birth- 
 day- of his martyrdom !" 
 
 Thus far the celebrated Dr. 
 Conyers Middleton, a clergyman of 
 the Church of England, in corrobo- 
 ration of a fact which cannot be 
 denied — by the sons of learning, at 
 least — ^namely, that the leading doc- 
 trines of the Church of Rome, which 
 its enemies call sv^erstiUcms and 
 idolatrous, were the doctrines of the 
 disciples of those very men who had 
 been nurtured in the bosom of the 
 true, the primitive Church, by the 
 sacred apostles and the sacred evan- 
 
Mr. Brench.'] 
 
 felists of our Lord and Saviour 
 esus Christ. 
 
 Yes, it is most evident and in- 
 controvertible, that the primitive 
 Christians revered the relics of saints 
 and martyrs ; believed in an inter- 
 mediate state of punishment called 
 pfurgatory ; believed in the efficacy 
 of prayer offered up by the living 
 for the dead; and believed in Tran- 
 suhstantiation. Instead, therefore, 
 of finding an armoury fit to be used 
 against the CathoKcs in the pages 
 of the fathers, they find in them, on 
 the contrary, as may be seen by 
 this ever-memorable concession of 
 an adversary, a bulwark of strength, 
 that gives a perpetual stability to 
 their creed, and renders them eter- 
 nally invincible in argument, what- 
 ever enemies may take the field 
 against them. It is likewise equally 
 evident, that so often as the Pro- 
 testant condetnns the vrorship of 
 the Roman Catholic as being super- 
 stitious and idolairous, he at the 
 same time tacitly condemns all the 
 fathers of the Church as being 
 guilty of superstition and idolatry ; 
 indubitably certain as it is, and as 
 I have proved it from their works, 
 that ^(i^adoredthe Eucharist, p'ayed 
 for relief and refreshment to departed 
 souls, considered the bones of martyrs 
 more precious than the richest jewels, 
 and tried above gold, and offered up 
 the saarifiee on their tombs — ^in one 
 word, Kving and dying, practised all 
 the rites, and acted up to the full 
 spirit of that religion, which is pro- 
 fessed by the Roman CathoHo at the 
 present day. 
 
 I predicted to you, my friends, 
 and I think you have seen my pre- 
 diction verified, that the quotation 
 I have laid before you from the 
 celebrated Protestant theologian. 
 Dr. Conyers Middlaton, would pro- 
 duce no very agreeable play of the 
 muscles in the countenance of my 
 reverend opponent. [Laughter]. 
 
 sAcaincE 05 the mass. 
 
 195 
 
 Indeed, how can. it bo otherwise 
 than the quintessence of gall to mv 
 honourable antagonist, being, as it 
 unquestionably is, a oonflrmation of 
 what I have been saying fi-om the 
 very beginning of this discussion, 
 viz. that from the days of the 
 apostles, the Sacrifice of the Mass 
 has been offered up to the hviug 
 God, according to that ever memor- 
 able and ever triumphant prophecy 
 of the prophet Malachi, and which 
 prophecy, little conscious of the 
 sweet balm he was pouring into the 
 soul of every Catholic present, by 
 the procedure he adopted, my reve- 
 rend opponent has most gloriously 
 confirmed, counting andlaymg before 
 vou the fruit of his arithmetical 
 labours, the actual number ; in other 
 words, the millions of masses that 
 are being incessantly, day after day, 
 offered up at Catholic altars, in 
 various parts of the universe. Yes, 
 mjr friends, I felt, whilst he was 
 going through the minute detaQ, a 
 joy that I never felt before, however 
 frequent my triumphs, from the 
 commencement of this disputation; 
 and I am fully convinced that a 
 similar joy pervaded the bosom 
 of every Catholic present, whilst 
 thus our glorious anthmetician was 
 performing that elaborate task, 
 and provmg by all the laws of 
 just science, the sum he had so 
 accurately and sedulously calcu- 
 lated. And, my friends, let me tell 
 you at the same time, that multi- 
 tudes of those said masses, those 
 grand, ever-during fnlfillers of the 
 prophet Malachi's prediction, are 
 offered up by the holiest, the most 
 
 Eious, the most unpoEuted of the 
 uman species. Yes, my friends, I 
 have seen men at our holiest altars, 
 and in our consecrated convents, 
 from 90 to 100 years old, approach- 
 ing, with their long flowing sacer- 
 dotal robes and venerable gray haii-s, 
 the altai-s of their God, there to 
 
196 
 
 SACEIHOE OP THE MASS. 
 
 [iik Eoenmg. 
 
 pour out the aspirations of their 
 hearts, and employ their tongues in 
 reiterating hallelujahs and hosannas, 
 in tones of melting piety so celes- 
 tially eloquent, that even my Cal- 
 vinistio friend, had he been present, 
 would have been reminded most 
 forcibly of the prophet Malachi. 
 You, my Protestant brethren, Kving 
 iu this contaminated city, and con- 
 versant only with clergymen of a 
 terrestrial cast, 
 
 " whose looks and thoughts 
 Are ever downward bent, admiring more 
 The riches of heav'n's pavement, trodden 
 
 gold, 
 Than alight divine or holy else enjoy'd 
 In vision beatilic," 
 
 can scarcely believe the purity that 
 is cultivated by these ministers of 
 God. Sometimes, I acknowledge, 
 we have lamentable fallings off, 
 because some there ever wiU be, so 
 long as there is a priesthood upon 
 the earth, forgetful of their sacred 
 duty; but these degenerate, worldly- 
 minded beings are, thank God, but 
 few in number : and at the head of 
 them all for unqualified apostasy, 
 by merits "raised to that bad emi- 
 nence," stands the Priest Nolan, in 
 whose conversion to Protestantism 
 my learned friend now so exultingly 
 glories. ML I can say is, he was an 
 impure, a baleful, and a loathsome 
 serpent amongst us. I am glad, 
 for one, that he has gone over to 
 the Church of England, where he 
 may possibly do some good, namely, 
 by propagating .against us those in- 
 famous, unfounded falsehoods which, 
 when detected, as I myself have 
 known them to be, by inquiring 
 Protestants, are not unfrequently 
 productive of conversions to our 
 holy faith. But enough of this 
 foul stain to our priesthood, this 
 immaculate acquisition of Protes- 
 tantism. 
 
 And now, gentlemen, before I 
 conclude, I must not forget to reply 
 to an observation of my reverend 
 
 opponent, on the extract he read to 
 you from the Council of Trent. It 
 IS the passage in which the counoU 
 speaks of mH forgiveness of sins. 
 Now, if the learned gentleman 
 would but condescend to learn our 
 articles of faith, he would find iu 
 those words of the council no cause 
 for scandal. Every Catholic who . 
 reads that passage, knows full well 
 that the Council of Trent has no 
 power to forgive sins without re- 
 pentance, and that no priest on 
 earth can forgive sins without it. 
 It supposes before, that you must 
 pray most fervently and repent 
 most sincerely, and be truly con- 
 trite [cries of " Order "], and that 
 then pardon may be obtained by 
 those who are thus sincerely peni- 
 tent. That is our doctrine. [In- 
 creased interruption.] 
 
 [Mr. Erenoh desired the chairman 
 to count the time that elapsed 
 during the restoration of order, say- 
 ing, "I cannot proceed with such 
 interruptions."] 
 
 My reverend friend, who will soon 
 have to address you, will, of course, 
 as usual, leaving to us an uncon- 
 tested, unHtigated ground, anUguity, 
 the consent of nations, apostolical 
 succession, lawful mission, communion 
 ■with the chair of St. Peter, §rc., 
 direct your attention to the Bible, 
 and, totally forgetful of aU my re- 
 ference to the Bible, will vociferate, 
 as usual, that I dare not enter into 
 that inward saiiotuary. But, my 
 friends, would to God, in referring 
 to that sacred volume, which the 
 Catholic Church has handed down 
 to us, that he would make it speak 
 its own meaning and not his; and 
 that he would, moreover, bear sted- 
 fastly in mind, that the ancient 
 Catholic Church, whether that was 
 his or mine, ever insisted on her 
 sole authority in finally determining 
 controversies in religion, and that 
 she never permitted sectarians to 
 
3/r. French.'] 
 
 SACKlnCE OF THE MASS. 
 
 197 
 
 ajjpeal fromlier decision to the letter 
 of Scripture uirfolded according to 
 their own private interpretation., to 
 use St. Peter's phrase, but uniformly 
 obliged them to stand to her judg- 
 ment. In proof of tliis, my friends, 
 we have but to carry our mjiids back 
 to the case of the Arians, in the 
 year 325, who no less pretended to 
 plain Scripture, in' disproof of the 
 divinity of Christ, than my learned 
 friend has this evening, in disproof 
 of the Sacrifice of the Mass. So 
 utterly did the primitive Church 
 condemn that anti-Bible Kberty of 
 private interpretation, of these mys- 
 terious pages, which is the foun- 
 dation and very essence of Protes- 
 tantism. 
 
 Indeed, my friends, if my reverend 
 opponent would but rejlect deeply, 
 he would find that whilst he vnU 
 not listen to Scripture, as inter- 
 preted by the Church of ages, or by 
 the holy fathers, or any otherwise 
 than as iuterpreted by liis proud 
 self, it is not the Scripture, but 
 himself that he appeals to. I said, 
 my friends, Scripture, as interpreted 
 by the holy fathers, and I jom, on 
 one single poiat, with Calvin and 
 with Beza, namely, in eulogizing 
 St. Augustiue above aU. the other 
 witnesses of antiquity; St. Augus- 
 tine, I say, who, in the words of 
 Beza, was omnium veterum tJieolo- 
 
 pnnceps : " Of all ancient divines, 
 both Greek and Koman, the Cory- 
 phaeus." Well, then, if Calvin and 
 Beza speak truth (and my learned 
 ' antagonist, at least, vnU not stu- 
 diously attempt to convict them of 
 falsehood) it becomes a point of vital 
 importance to ascertain, whether, to 
 use the figurative language of old 
 Protestant Cartwright, by adopting 
 the sentiments of St. Augustine, jve 
 throw a smothering blanket over all 
 Protestantism, or thereby open a 
 window to bring in all Popery. 
 
 Come we then, my friends, at once 
 to the investigation. In the first 
 place, St. Augustine is found teaoh- 
 mg that we receive the true body of 
 Christ, not only spiritually, but in a 
 visible sacrament, in veritate ipsa, in 
 truth itself. (St. Aug. xxvi. 27, in 
 Johan.) In the forty-sixth number 
 he is found teaching, tliat the body 
 of Christ u not only a figure, buz 
 also the verity ; and that the same 
 body which was born of the Virghi 
 Mary is given to be eaten. In the 
 thirty-second number he is found 
 teaching, that Christ, according to 
 the letter, was in different places at 
 tlie same time. In the thirty-eighth 
 number he is found teaching, that 
 Christ, in the sixth chapter of St. 
 John, amply treated of the blessed 
 Sacrament. In the fifty -fourth num- 
 ber he is found teaching, that we eat 
 our Lord, but in such manner that we 
 harm him not by our eating, whilst, 
 on the other hand, we fortify and 
 benefit our souls by such divine par- 
 ticipation. In the sbcty-thiid number 
 we find hi-n teaching, that to eat 
 Christ and to preach him are vridely 
 different ; whereas, my reverend op- 
 ponent has strenuously contended 
 that they are both one. In the 
 sixty-fourth number he is found 
 teaching, that we should confess 
 faithfully, that what before consecror 
 tion was but bread and wine, after 
 consecration is the flesh and blood of 
 Christ. In the seventieth number 
 he is found teaching, that it is the 
 fiesh and blood of Christ which are 
 received under the form or likeness of 
 bread and wine. Lastly, as I quoted 
 to you on the first day's disputation 
 — But no one eats that fiesh without 
 adoring it first — not only is it no sin 
 to adore it, but we sin if we adore it 
 not.— St. Aug. Benedict. Ed. vol. iv. 
 Pars. 11. ' 
 
 What more, let me ask, could be 
 said, or what could be said more 
 energetically antidotal to Protest- 
 
198 
 
 SACMEICE OE THE MASS. 
 
 antism by any Pope or Papist in the 
 world? 
 
 And yet, if we listen to my re- 
 verend opponent, this is the father 
 of the Church that is most empha- 
 tically hostile to Transnbstantiation ! 
 According to him, and I allow the 
 quotation to be accurate, we should 
 eat Christ with faithful heart and 
 mouth. Why, I ask no more than 
 that it be granted by my opponent 
 that not only by heart, but also by 
 mouth, Christ maybe eaten. My 
 antagonist dweUsmost triumphantly, 
 in ms own estimation, upon the 
 words of St. Augustine, " Why do 
 you prepare your teeth and your 
 stomach? Believe only, and you 
 will have eaten," not reflecting, 
 that if such words as these are to do 
 away with the Catholic sacrament, 
 they must do away likewise with the 
 Protestant One of mere bread and 
 wine ; whereas all that St. Augus- 
 tine meant to inoulcate by them 
 was, that our own best and grand 
 preparation for the sacrament was 
 Arm belief as to its contents, and 
 ardent desire to receive it; and 
 then, whether you received it or re- 
 ceived it not, owing to unforeseen 
 accident or casualty, it was aU one, 
 and so say we Catholics at the pre- 
 sent day. But the doctrine of my 
 antagonist does away altogether 
 with the Lord's Supper. With him 
 it is all a mere farce. Such is " the 
 glorious gathering up of the inspira- 
 tion of Protestantism., at least in its 
 
 The great St. Augustine, however, 
 as you see, my friends, taught far 
 otherwise. Indeed, what can be 
 more clearly, more pre^antly de- 
 monstrated than the Sacrifice of the 
 Mass in the pages of St. Augus- 
 tine: — 
 
 Listen, my Calvinistio friends, if 
 any such be present. 
 
 " Eor when for the time ye ought 
 lio be teachers, ye have need that 
 
 \_^th EBemny. 
 
 one teach, you again what are the 
 first principles of the oracles of 
 God." 
 
 St. Attgtjstine, , L. C. — "Then 
 Abraham (Gen. xiv.) was blessed by 
 Melohisedec, the priest of the most 
 high God, of whom many and great 
 thmgs are said in the Epistle to the 
 Hebrews (vii.), which epistle most 
 people ascribe to the apostle Paul, 
 sbA. some deny it. Then first ap- 
 peared that sacrifice which now is 
 offered to God by Christians in all 
 the earth ; and that is fulfilled which, 
 long after the fact of Melohisedec, 
 was said by the prophet of Christ : 
 Th)u art a priest, according to the 
 order ofMelehisedeo. (Ps. cix.) Not 
 acoor(Sng to the order of Aaron: 
 for this order was to be annulled, 
 when the things which those sha- 
 dows prefigured should come to 
 pass." — De Civ. Dei. L. xvi. 
 
 Mai. i. 11. — " And in every place 
 incehse shall be ofl'ered to God, and 
 a clean oifering." , 
 
 Heb. xi. 38.— " Nowthe jnst shall 
 live by faith ; if any man draw back, 
 my soul shall have no pleasure in 
 him." 
 
 Ibid. c. xsii. t. vii. p. 435.— "Tliis 
 eating and drinking, of which the 
 wise man speaks (Eocles. iii.), relate 
 to the participation of this table, 
 which the Mediator of the new 
 covenant, the priest according to 
 the order of MTelchisedec, offers of 
 his body and blood. This sacrifice 
 has succeeded to aU those of the 
 ancient covenant, whicji were offered 
 as the shadows of this that was to 
 come." 
 
 Ibid. lib. xvii. c. xx. p. 434.. — 
 "The prophet Malachi, foretelliag 
 the Church, which we now behold 
 propagated by Christ, in the person 
 of God, thus manifestly speaks to 
 the Jews : I have no pleasure in you, 
 saith the Lord, neither will I accept 
 an offering at your hand. For from 
 the rising of the sun to the going 
 
Mr French.l 
 
 SACaiMCE Of THE MASS. 
 
 199 
 
 aown of the same, my name shall he 
 great among the Oentiles ; and in 
 every place incense shall be offered 
 to my name, and a clean offering. 
 (Malach. i.) Since thea we behold 
 this sacrifice, in every place oifered 
 to God by the priesthood of Christ, 
 
 gioo sacriflcimn per sacerdotium 
 hristi, cum in onmi loco videamus 
 offerri] according to the order of 
 Melohisedec, and the Jews cannot 
 deny that their sacrifices have 
 ceased, why do they still look for 
 another Clirist?" — Ibid. lib. xviii. 
 c. XXXV. p. 517. 
 
 Ibid. p. 666.— "The Hebrews, in 
 the victims which they offered to 
 God, in many and various ways, as 
 became so great a subject, pre- 
 figured the future victim, which 
 Christ has offered. Hence Chris- 
 tians, by the holy oblation and par- 
 ticipation of the body and blood of 
 Christ, celebrate the remembrance 
 ti that sacrifice. But the Maai- 
 cheans understand not what they 
 should believe, or what observe, ia 
 this sacrifice of the Christians." 
 -'-Contra Famtum, Ub. xx. c. xvui. 
 t. vui. p. 345. 
 
 Then, to the objection of his 
 adversary, that the Catholics had 
 substituted the mar^s in the place 
 of the idols of the Gentiles, he re- 
 plies : " The Christian people cele- 
 brate the memories of the martyrs 
 with a religions solemnity, in order 
 to excite themselves to an imitation 
 of their constancy, to be united to 
 their merits, and to be aided by their 
 prayers : but to no martyr, to the 
 God alone of martyrs, ia memory of 
 them, do we raise altars. For what 
 prelate, assisting at the altar where 
 'the bodies of the martyrs Me, was 
 ever heard to say : To thee Peter ; 
 to thee Paul ; or to thee Cyprian, do 
 we make this offering? To God 
 albne, who crowned these martyrs, 
 is sacrifice offered.— y^e frequently 
 sacrifice to God in the churches of 
 
 the martyrs, by that rite, according 
 to which, as the Scriptures of the 
 New Testament declare, he 'com- 
 manded Sacrifice to be offered to 
 him. This- pertains to that worsliip 
 which the Greeks oaU Latvia, and 
 which can be offered to God alone." 
 — Ibid. c. xxi. pp. 347, 8. 
 
 "It cannot be doubted, that by 
 the prayers of the holy Church, and 
 by the salutary sacrifice, and by 
 alms, which are given for the repose 
 of their souls, the dead are helped ; 
 so that God may treat them more 
 mercifully than their sins deserved. 
 This the whole Church observes, 
 which it received from the tradition 
 of the fathers, to prsCy for those who 
 died in the commumon of the body 
 and blood of Christ, when, in their 
 turn, they are commemorated at the 
 sacrifice, and it is then announced, 
 that the sacrifice is offered far them" 
 — Be verbis Apostoli, Serm. clxxii. 
 t. V. p. 837. 
 
 But the fathers, my reverend an- 
 tagonist insists most perseveringly, 
 are not unanimous on any one fun- 
 damental point. Say you so, my 
 learned friend? Then I challenge 
 you to make good your words, by 
 asking their opinions, one by one, 
 on the Sacrifice of the Mass. St. 
 Augustine has, in all conscience, 
 spoken plainly enough, so as to 
 need no more quotation. Let us 
 begin with a father who viasfelhic- 
 labower with St. Paul, and whose 
 name (if we may credit St. Paul) is 
 in the booh of life, St. Clement. — Si. 
 Paul Philipp. iv. 3. 
 
 Si. Clement of Home, L. C. — 
 " Whatever God has commanded to 
 be done at stated times, that we 
 must perform in regular order : thus 
 must our offerings be made, and the 
 liturgies (that ismasses) performed ; 
 not inconsiderately, and without 
 order, but, as it was ordained^ at 
 stated times and hours. They, 
 therefore, who in this manner pre- 
 
200 
 
 SACBIMOE or THE MASS. 
 
 sent their offerings, are acceptable 
 to the Lord, and blessed; for, fol- 
 lowing his commandments, they do 
 not go astray. — JEp. 1 ad Cor. n. 40, 
 t. i. PP. Apost. p. 170. 
 
 Now hear St. Irensus, a.d. 177, 
 and see if he breaks the unanimity 
 I boast of. 
 
 Si. iKENiBUS, L.C. — " Giving 
 advice to his disciples, to offer their 
 first fruits to God, not as if he 
 stood ia need of them, but that they 
 might not seem ungrateful, he took 
 bread into his hands, and giving 
 thanks, said: this is my bodi/. Like- 
 wise he declared the cup to be his 
 blood, and taught the new oblation 
 of the New Testament, which obla- 
 tion the Church, receiving from the 
 Apostles, offers it to God over all the 
 earth — to nim who grants us food 
 — ^the first fruits of his sifts in the 
 New Testament, of which the Pro- 
 phet Malachias spoke : / will not 
 accept offerings from your hands. 
 Tor, from the rising of the sun to the 
 going down of the same, my name is 
 great among the Oentiles, and in 
 every place incense is offered to my 
 name, and a clean sacrifice. Mam- 
 festly hereby signifying, that the 
 first people (the Jews) will cease to 
 offer to God; and that in every place 
 a sacrifice, and that clean, wiU be 
 offered to him, and that his name is 
 glorified among the Gentiles." [On 
 this passage, the learned Protestant 
 editor, Dr. Grabe, observes, " It 
 is certain that IrensBus and all the 
 fathers — either contemporary with 
 the apostles, or their immediate suc- 
 cessors, whose writings are still 
 extant- — considered the blessed Eu- 
 charist to be the sacrifice of the 
 new law, and offered bread and wine 
 on the altar, as sacred oblations to 
 God the Pather ; and that this was 
 not the private opinion of any par- 
 ticular church or teacher, but the 
 pubhc doctrine and practice of the 
 Universal Chuxchj which she re- 
 
 \^th Evening, 
 
 ceived from the apostles, and they 
 from Christ, is expressly shown in 
 this place by Irenseus, and, before 
 him, by Jusran Martyr and Clement 
 of Rome." — Nota in Irenaum, p. 
 333.] Adv. Htsr. 1. iv. c. xvii. p. 
 249. — " Therefore the offering of 
 the church, which the Lord directed 
 to be made over all the world, was 
 deemed a pure sacrifice before God, 
 and received by him." 
 
 In the year, therefore, 177, Mass 
 was said, as it was said in the day 
 of St. Clement, which were the days 
 of St. Paul. 
 
 Let us now descend to the year 
 248, and give ear to St. Cyprian, and 
 listen whether or not he touches 
 upon the same cord. 
 
 St. Cypkian, L. C. — Writing to 
 the clergy and people of a certain 
 district in Africa, he laments that, 
 contrary to an established rule, a 
 brother clergyman had been ap- 
 pointed, by will, an executor or 
 guardian, when it was the sole duty 
 of the ministers of the Gospel "to 
 attend to the altar and sacrifices, 
 and to prayers and supplications." 
 Such likewise, he observes, was the 
 view of the Almighty in the esta- 
 bUshment by Moses of the Levi- 
 tical order, and then- adds : " The 
 same disposition hplds good now, 
 that they who are promoted by 
 clerical ordination be not called 
 away from the service of God, 
 nor perplexed by worldly business ; 
 but, receiving aliment from their 
 brethren, they withdraw not from 
 the altar and from sacrifices, 
 day and night intent on heavenly 
 things." 
 
 He next remarks, that, in a case 
 like this, it had been decreed, that 
 for no brother, who by will had 
 made such a disposition, " any 
 offering should be niade, or sacrifice 
 celebrated for his repose; because 
 he merits not to be named at the 
 altar in the prayer of the priest§j 
 
Mr. French.'] 
 
 SACKiriOE OP THE MASS. 
 
 201 
 
 whose wish, it was to withdraw them 
 from the altar." He, therefore, 
 forbids prayers and oblations to be 
 made for him. 
 
 Again: "If Jesus Christ, our 
 Lord and God, be himself the High- 
 priest of his lather; and if he first 
 offered himself a saorifloe to him, 
 and commanded the saijie to be done 
 in remembrance of him ; then that 
 priest truly stands in the place of 
 Christwho imitates thatwhioh Christ 
 did, and then offers in the church a 
 true and complete sacrifice to God 
 the Path^r, doing what he ordained. 
 For the whole discipline of religion 
 and of truth is subverted, if that 
 which was commanded be not faitli- 
 fuHy complied with." — Ifiid. p. 109. 
 Again : " To God and his Christ, 
 whom I serve, and to whom, with a 
 pure and undeflled countenance, in 
 persecution and in peace, I unceas- 
 ingly qfer sacrifices." — Ep. Ixix. 
 p. 124. — " Whilst we were offering 
 sacrifice, the girl was brought in by 
 her mother." — De Lapsis, p. 189. 
 
 'Phis' unanimity, therefore, being 
 unbroken by St. Cyprian, descend 
 we now to the year of our Lord 
 313, and examine the writings of 
 Eusebius of Csesarea, anxiously in- 
 qoiriag whether they speak comfort 
 to me or to my Calvinistic opponent, 
 who so daringly and unblushingly 
 asserts that the fathers are not 
 unanimous on the Sacrifice of the 
 
 EtrsEBius as C^saeea, G. C.^ 
 " And as he (speaking of Melchi- 
 sedec) who was the priest of the 
 Gentiles, seems never to have ofiered 
 animal sacrifices, but wine alone and 
 bread, whUe he blessed Abraham; so 
 our Saviour and Lord first, and then 
 the priests, who are descended from 
 him, performiag, in all nations, 
 according to ecclesiastical ordi- 
 nances, the sacerdotal function, 
 represent, in bread and wine, the 
 mysteries of his body and salutary 
 
 blood, which mysteries Melchisedee 
 had so long before, by the divine 
 Spirit, foreknown, and used in 
 figure. The Scripture of Moses says • 
 And Melchisedee, Icing of Salem, 
 brought forth bread and ivine : and 
 he was the priest of the most high 
 God: and he blessed Abraham" 
 (Gen. xiv.) Bemonst. Boang. 1. v. 
 c. iii. p. 223. Colonics. 1688. — 
 " Since then, as the New Testa- 
 ment," &c. 
 
 Now let us visit a father flourish- 
 ing in the year of our Lord 351: — 
 
 St. Oyml oe JEausAiEM, G. C. 
 — He mentions the various prayers 
 and ceremonies which accompany 
 our sacrifice of the altar, and adds : 
 " When this spiritual sacrifice is 
 ended, and tliis unbloody worship 
 mer the victim of propitiation, we 
 suppKcate God, for the common 
 peace of the churches, for the tran- 
 quillity of the world, for kings, for 
 their armies, and their allies, for the 
 sick and the afilicted, and, in a word, 
 for aE who want assistance. Again, 
 when we offer this sacrifice, we com- 
 memorate those who have departed 
 this world before us. We offer up 
 that Christ who was sacrificed for 
 our sins, propitiating him who is so 
 merciful for them and for us." — 
 He proceeds to the Lord's prayer, 
 which is recited in the Mass, and 
 dwells on its several clauses; and 
 then prescribes the reverential man- 
 ner in which the body and blood of 
 Christ are to be taken. — Catech. 
 Mystag. v. n. viii. ix. x. p. 327-8. 
 
 Oh glorious, unassailable unani- 
 mity! Descend we now a httle 
 lower, to A.D. 372 ; what says St 
 Gregory of Nazianzum ? — • 
 
 St. Gregokt oi' Nazianzum,. 
 G. 0. — " And where, and by whom, 
 could God be worshipped m those 
 mystic and elevating sacred rites, 
 than which nothing among us is 
 greater nor more excellent, if there 
 were no priesthood, nor sacrifice? 
 u 2 
 
202 
 
 SACBIPICE OP THE MASS. 
 
 [4^A Evemngt 
 
 Knowing tMs, and knowing besides 
 that no one was worthy of this 
 great God, this sacrifice and this 
 priesthood, who had not first offered 
 himself a victim to the Lord, how 
 should I dare to offer to him that 
 external sacrifice, that antitype of 
 great mysteries, or to take up the 
 name and habit of a priest ?" — Orat. 
 i. t. i. p. 3, 38. — Again, " Julian, 
 in impure and wicked blood, washes 
 away his baptismal rite, opposing 
 initiation to initiation — he defUes 
 his hands, in order to purify them 
 from that unbloody sacrifice, through 
 which we communicate with Christ, 
 with his divine nature, and his suffer- 
 ings." — Orat. ra.va.Jiilian,t.i.'o. 70. 
 
 St. Gregory of Naziaazum, there- 
 fore, thus repelling the assertion of 
 my learned friend as to ward of 
 ■unanimity, let us hear St. Ambrose 
 speaking at the same period — 
 sounds he harmo:^ or discord ? 
 
 St. Ambbose, L. C— Comment- 
 iag on the appearance of the angel 
 to Zacharias \lMhe), he says: " It 
 were to be vrished that, while we 
 bum incense on our altars, and 
 offer sacrifice, the angel would assist 
 and become visible to us. That he 
 does assist, cannot be doubted, while 
 Chriit is there, while Christ is' immo- 
 lated;— -/or CArist, ourpasch, is sacri- 
 Hced." (1 Cor. v. 7.) L. i. in Moang. 
 Luc. c. i. t. i. p. 1275. — " T^e 
 have beheld the Prince of Priests 
 coming to us ; we have beheld and 
 heard him offering his blood for us: 
 we priests, then, foUow him as we 
 can, and offer sacrifice for the peo- 
 ple, weak as we are in merit, out 
 rendered honourable by this sacri- 
 fice: for although Christ is not 
 now seen to offer, yet is he offered 
 on earth, when his body is the victim." 
 
 In a letter to his sister Marcel- 
 Una, giving an account of some dis- 
 turbances at Milan, when an attempt 
 wixs made to seize the church, he 
 relates : " The next day, which was 
 
 Sunday, after the reading and ser- 
 mon, when I was explaining the 
 creed, word was brought that oificers 
 were sent to seize the Portiaii 
 church, and that part of the people 
 were flocking thither. I continued 
 to discharge my duty, and began 
 Mass : but, as I was offering, I was 
 informed that the people had laid 
 hands on an Arian priest. This 
 made me weep, and I prayed to 
 God, in the midst of the offering, 
 that no blood might be shed in this 
 quarrel." Up. xiv. Classis i. t. 11. 
 p. 853. — Having heard from the 
 Emperor Theodosius of the victory 
 which he had gained over the tyrant 
 Eugenius, Ainbrose writes to him : 
 " I took your letter with me to the 
 church : I laid it on the altar, and, 
 whilst I offered sacrifice, I held it 
 in my hand, that by my voice you 
 might speak, and your august letter 
 perform with me the sacerdotal 
 office."— JfoU p. 1021. 
 
 St. John Chrysostom, who lived 
 A.D. 397, has already, in a former 
 discussion, been copiously cited on 
 this subject, and has been proved to 
 be philharmomc on the grand sub- 
 
 i'ect. One or two passages more, 
 lowever, from that illustrious father 
 are too remarkable to be left un- 
 quoted : — 
 
 St. John Chrysostom, G. C— 
 On the words of the prophet Mala- 
 chi : " And in every place incense 
 shall be offered to God and a clean 
 offering ;" he says, addressing the 
 Jews: "When did this happen? 
 When was incense thus offered? 
 When this clean sacrifice? Tou 
 can produce no other time than ^^ 
 present, the period since the coming 
 of Chrft. — And if of this time the 
 prophet had not spoken; had he 
 prophesied not of our sacrifice, but 
 of that of the Jews, his prophecy 
 would have been contrary to the 
 law : for Moses forbids sacrifices to 
 be offered in any other place than 
 
Mr. French.} 
 
 SACfilFICE 03? THE MASS. 
 
 203 
 
 thatwhich God had chosen. To this 
 he confines them. But Malachi 
 declares, that, in every place incense 
 shall be offered, and a clean sacrifice. 
 In truths however, there is no dis- 
 cordance between them. They 
 speak of different sacrifices. In the 
 first place, the prophet foretels that, 
 not in one city, as among the Jews, 
 but from the rising of the sun to 
 the going down of the same, offerings 
 shall be made. Then, by calling 
 the sacrifice clean, he plainly denotes 
 of what victim he spoke. 
 ' " Wherefore it is necessary that 
 the priest be pure, as if, placed in 
 heaven, he stood among the celestial 
 spirits. For when you behold the 
 Lord immolated, and the priest pre- 
 siding over the sacrifice, and pouring 
 out prayers, and then the surround- 
 ing multitude partaking of the 
 sacred blood, can you, at that 
 moment, fancy you are among mor- 
 tals, and dwelling on the earth? 
 Rather, are you not transported 
 to the heavens?" — De Sacerd. 
 1. iii. Q. iv. t. 1. 
 
 These sentiments he often re- 
 peats :-7-" He has ordained a sacred 
 rite, -changing the victim, and, in 
 the place of animals, commanding 
 himself to be immolated." 
 
 Horn. xxiv. in 1 Gor. t. x. p. 313. 
 — " It was not in vain that the 
 apostles ordained that, in the cele- 
 bration of the tremendous mys- 
 teries, mention should be made of 
 the dead. They knew that great 
 advffltage woulcf thence be derived 
 to them. Eor all the people being 
 present, and raising thSir hands to 
 heaven, and the sacred victim lyin^ 
 there, shall not God be rendered 
 propitious to them?" 
 
 " This sacrifice is a copy of that ; 
 the offering is the same. Not one 
 on one day, and on the next another; 
 but always the same. Thus, then, 
 the sacrifice is one. But are there 
 many Ghrists, as the offering is 
 
 made in many places? By no 
 means ; it is the same Christ every- 
 where; here entne, and there 
 entire ; one body. As, then, though 
 offered in many places, there is one 
 bodjf, and not many bodies ; so is 
 there one sacrifice. He is our High- 
 priest, who offered the victim of 
 our expiation : that same victim we 
 now offer that was then offered ; 
 which cannot be consumed. TMs 
 is done in remembrance of what 
 was done. Do this, he said, in 
 remembrance of me." — Horn. xvii. in 
 c. is. Ep. ad Hebr. t. xii. p. 168. 
 
 But come — let us travel down- 
 wards to A.D. 413, and hear the 
 Mass proclaimed from the lips of 
 St. Cyril of Alexandria : — 
 
 Si. Cybil op Alexandria, G. C. 
 — " We offer in the church a holy, 
 vivifying, and unbloody sacrifice; 
 not beheving it to be the common 
 body and blood of man, but the real 
 body and the real blood of the life- 
 giving Word. For common flesh 
 cannot give hfe, which our Saviour 
 himself attested, saying : It is the 
 Spirit that qiticheneth, the fiesh pro- 
 fiteth nothing." — Johm/i. 64. Declar. 
 Anathem. xi. t. vi, p. 166. 
 
 " God said plainly to the Jews, 
 that they were not pleasing to him, 
 or rather, that he would not accept 
 their sacrifices in shaddWs and 
 figures : but foretels, that his name 
 shall be great among all nations, 
 and that, m every place and nation, 
 pure and zinbloody sacrifices shall he 
 offered." 
 
 Say ye, my friends, does not aJi 
 this constitute harmony ? — Ay, it 
 is super-haimonization. 
 
 But listen to one, in the year of 
 our Lord 440 — the great, the truly 
 
 freat and stupendously eloquent 
 t. Leo. 
 
 St. Leo. — He remarks, speaking 
 of the passion of our Saviour, that 
 " the variety of eternal sacrifices 
 ceasing, the single oblation, of the 
 
204 
 
 SACMFICE OE THE MASS. 
 
 boay and blood takes place of all 
 other victims." But tMs properly is 
 referred to the Woody saonflce on 
 the cross. — Serm. viii. de Pass. Dom. 
 p. 265. Afterwards he thus writes 
 to Dioscorus, the same bishop of 
 Alexandria whose reprehensible 
 conduct we have just seen : — " That 
 the disciphae of our churches may 
 in all things agree, this should be 
 observed ; that when a more solemn 
 feast calls the people together, and 
 more meet than the church can 
 contain, the offering of the sacrifice 
 be repeated, lest any be deprived of 
 it ; for religion and reason demand 
 that the sacrifice should be as often 
 offered as there are people to par- 
 take. Otherwise, if the custom of 
 one Mass be followed, they who 
 cannot find place must be deprived 
 of tlie sacrifice. 
 
 Hear again, St. Eucherius, of the 
 same period, a.d. 434 : — 
 
 St. Euohekius, L. 0. — " Let all 
 unbelief be gone, since he, who is 
 the witness of the truth, who is the 
 author of the gift ; for the visible 
 priest does, by his word and secret 
 power, change the visible creatures 
 into the mbstance of his body and 
 blood, saying thus: Take and eat, 
 this is my body, &c. And therefore, 
 as, at the command of the Lord, 
 the highfest heavens, the deep waves, 
 and the vast earth suddenly rose out 
 of nothing ; so, by the like power 
 in the spiritual sacraments, the 
 virtue of the word commands, and 
 the effect obeys. .Lei no one doubt 
 that these creatures, by the nod of 
 bis power, by the presence of his 
 majesty, pass into the substance of 
 the Lord's body. When the crea- 
 tures to be blessed by the heavenly 
 words are placed on the altar, before 
 they are consecrated by the invoca- 
 tion of the name of the Most High, 
 the substance of bread and vidne is 
 there ; but, after the words of Christ, 
 it is the body and blood of Christ. 
 
 [ith Ihening. 
 
 And what wonder is it, that he 
 who could create these things by 
 his word should change them when 
 created f Nay, it seems matter of 
 less wonder, if that which is acknow- 
 ledged to have been created of 
 nothing hs now changed into better. 
 Search what is hard for him to do, 
 to whom it was easy to raise things 
 visible and invisible by the power 
 of his win ; ,fco whom it was easy to 
 clothe man made of the matter oi 
 clay, with the image of his own 
 divinity," &c. — Horn. v. de Pasch. 
 sub nomine Musebii Bibl. PP. t. vi. 
 pp. 363, 637. 
 
 And now, my friends, what says 
 my learned opponent to this eye- 
 dazzling unanimity of the fathers on 
 the Sacrifice of the Mass ? Will he 
 attempt to overturn it by an appeal 
 to the early councils ? Let us take 
 the grand Council of Nice, held in 
 the year of our Lord 325. 
 
 CocwoiL OE Nice, G. C— " The 
 holy Synod has been informed, that, 
 in some places and cities, the dea- 
 cons present the Eucharist to the 
 priests— a thing which no canon nor 
 custom has taught — ^that-they, who 
 have themselves no power to offer, 
 should present the body of Christ 
 to those who possess that power." 
 — Can. ivii. Cone. Gen. t. ii. p. 3S. 
 
 Now to the Council of Laodicea, 
 held A.D. 374. 
 
 Council oe Laodicea, G. C. — 
 Having established certain rules to 
 be observed in the service of the 
 Church, it adds : " And after the 
 priests have given, the kiss of peace 
 to the bishop, the laity must do the 
 same one to the other, and thus the 
 holy offering be completed : but the 
 ministers alone may approach the 
 altar, and there communicate." — 
 Ibid. Can. xix. t. i. p. 1409. 
 
 Now to the Second Council of 
 Carthage, held a.d. 397. 
 
 SjicoND Council oe Camhage, 
 L. C — It enacts, that, " if any 
 
Mr. French.'] 
 
 SACBIPICB OE THE MA.SS. 
 
 205 
 
 priest, having been reprimanded by 
 his bishop, withdraw Trom his com- 
 munion, and offer sacrifice privately, 
 erecting altar against altai, contrary 
 to established oiscipliiie, he be de- 
 prived of his office." — Can. viii. t. ii. 
 Hid. p. 1161. 
 
 Before I conclude, gentlemen, I 
 must beg leave once more to call 
 your attention to one passage of 
 St. Augustine. 
 
 " Those sacrifices, therefore, sig- 
 nifying promises, were annulled. 
 And what was given as completory 
 of these promises ? Why, thai body 
 which ye know, which all of you do 
 not know" (meaning the Catechu- 
 meni — that is, persons not yet ini- 
 tiated^ "and which It were to be 
 wished that not any might know 
 to their condemnation." — St. Aug. 
 Edit. Bened. torn. iv. p. 334. 
 
 Now, my friends, you cannot pos- 
 sibly be ignorant, with what care- 
 fulness and.trembhng caution the 
 priests of the Church concealed the 
 awful mysteries from the Pagans; 
 a carefnmess and caution which, iu 
 ancient books, goes under the name 
 of the discipline of the secret, and to 
 which St. Augustiae here most iu- 
 contestably alludes. Their chief 
 object in doing this was, lest their 
 ears should bo continually grated, 
 and in a manner defiled, as ours, my 
 Catholic friends, have constantly 
 been during the course of this dis- 
 cussion, by the blaspheming tongues 
 of mocking and loud-laughing infi- 
 dels. Hear, on this subject, the 
 Rev. John Kirk, that learned inves- 
 tigator into primitive antiquity, 
 whose name is so much the terror 
 of my learned and bold antagonist. 
 
 " The secrecy, with which the 
 early Christians celebrated the di- 
 viae mysteries, is a most remarkable 
 feature ia the disoiphne of the pri- 
 mitive Church ; and, in connexion 
 with the Liturgies and the Catecheses, 
 affords a general and irrefragable 
 
 proof of the Catholic doctrine of the 
 Eucharist. ' It was customary,' says 
 Eleury, 'to keep the sacraments 
 concealed, not oiiy from the unbe- 
 lievers, but also from the Catechu- 
 mens ; and they not only did not 
 celebrate them in their presence, 
 but they dared not even to relate to 
 them what passed ia them, noi 
 even of the nature of the 
 
 sacrament. They wrote still less 
 about them ; and if m a public dis- 
 course, or in a writing which might 
 fall into profane hands, they were 
 obliged to speak of the Eucharist, 
 or of some other mystery, they did 
 it in obscure and enigmatical terms.' 
 Manners of the Christians, c. xv. — 
 Abundant proofs of this discipline 
 are found in the works of the holy 
 fathers." Of these I shall for the 
 present select only one from St. 
 Gaudentius of Brescia. 
 
 St. Gaudentius op Brescia, 
 L.C. — Spealdngof thePasohalLamb 
 among the Jews, and the manner in 
 which it was distributed, he says, 
 "Of all the things pointed out in 
 the book of Exodus, we shaU at 
 present treat of those only which 
 cannot he explained before the Cate- 
 chumens, which, nevertheless, it is 
 necessary to discover and explain to 
 the newly baptized. Inthesnadows 
 and figures of the ancient pasch, 
 not one lamb, but many were slain ^ 
 for each house had its sacrifice, 
 because one victim could not suffice 
 for all the people ; and also because 
 the mystery was a mere figure, and 
 not the reality of the passion of the 
 Lord. Eor the figure of a thing is 
 not the reality,, but only the image 
 and representation of the thing sig- 
 nified. But now, when the figure 
 has ceased, the one that died for all, 
 immolated in the mystery of bread 
 and wine, gives life through all f!i' 
 c/«arc&s,and being consecrated, sanc- 
 tifies those that consecrate: This 
 is theflenh of tlie Lamb— this is his 
 
206 
 
 SACEIflCB OP THE MASS. 
 
 blood : for the Bread wUgIi came 
 down from heaven said : The bread, 
 which I shall give you, ismy flesh for 
 the life of the world. His blood is 
 rightly expressed by the species of 
 wme ; because, when he says in the 
 Gospel, / am the true Vine, he suf- 
 ficiently declares aU wine, which is 
 offered in the figure of his passion, 
 to he his blood. And he who is the 
 Creator and Lord of aU natures, 
 who produces bread from the earth ; 
 of the bread makes his own proper 
 body : (for he is able, and he pro- 
 mised to do it) and who of .water 
 made wine, and of zdne his blood. 
 Oh the depth of the riches of the 
 knowledge and wisdom of God ! 
 (Romans xi. 33.) It is the pasch, 
 he says, that is the passover of the 
 Lord : think not that earthly which 
 is made heavenly by him, who 
 passes into it, and has made it his 
 body and blood. Believe what is 
 announced to thee ; because what 
 thou reoeivest is the body of that 
 Celestial Bread and the blood of that 
 Sacred Vine ; for when he delivered 
 consecrated bread and wine to his 
 disciples, thus he said ; This is my 
 body ; this is my blood. Let us 
 beheve him, whose faith we profess ; 
 for truth cannot he. Let us not 
 break this solid and firm bone : 
 This is my body ; this is my blood. 
 Now, what remains in the sense of' 
 any one, which he dofes not conceive 
 by this exposition, let it be con- 
 sumed by the ardour of his faith." 
 —Tract. 11. De Pasch. Bibl. PP. 
 t. V. pp. 946, 947. Edit. Lugduni, 
 1677. 
 
 After this most pregnant and 
 illuminating extract from St. Gau- 
 dentius of Brescia, I think it totalLv 
 uimeoessary tp say one single word 
 more upon the subject ; but I 
 cannot refrain from adding to it 
 what the learned Protestant Casau- 
 bon has said in reference to this 
 primitive usage : — 
 
 \^th Evemng. 
 
 " Is there any oiie," says the 
 Protestant Casaubon, " so much a 
 stranger to the reading of the 
 fathers, as to be ignorant of the 
 usual form of expression which they 
 adopt, when speaking of the sacra- 
 ments — the initiated know what I 
 mean? It occurs, at least, fifty 
 times in the writings of Chrysostom 
 alone, and as often in those of Au- 
 gustine-" 
 
 You see, then, my Protestant 
 friends, most clearly, in St. Gauden- 
 tius of Brescia,' who flourished in 
 the year of our Lord 405, what was 
 the discipline of the secret ; yon see 
 plainly, that the primitive Chris- 
 tians shuddered as much as we do, 
 lest the ineffable, adorable mysteries 
 of the Christian altar should heoome 
 an object, as ours has been this 
 evening, of derision and scorn to 
 those who know not that the wisdom 
 of the world is foolishness with God. 
 (1 Cor. iii. 19). In other words of 
 the same apostle, which I would 
 adds'ess without acrimony to the 
 discordant, eternally varying sects 
 here present — " For ye are yet 
 carnal ; for whereas there is among 
 you envying, and strife, and divi- 
 sions, are ye not carnal, Emd walk as 
 men?" (1 Cor. iii. 3.) 
 
 But, my Catholic Mends, what is 
 our consolation for all the bitter 
 revihngs that have issued from the 
 mouth of my learned antagonist 
 against the deep things of God, 
 (1 Cor. ii. 10.) the awful, tremen- 
 dous mysteries of the Catholic altar ? 
 Beflect, my pious, my keenly, sen- 
 sitively, deeply-wounded friends, ye 
 whose faith stands not in the wis 
 dom of men, but in the power of God, 
 (1 Cor. ii. 5)— reflect, I say, that 
 Christ Jesus, when he was here a 
 sojourner upon earth, was himself 
 scourged at the pillar, and spit upon, 
 and mocked, and despised, and had 
 the head of the scorner shaken at 
 him, and he answered not ; and 
 
JSfr. French.'] 
 
 ought not we, my fellow-labourers, 
 and fellow-bearers of the cross of 
 Jesus, that badge of glorious in 
 famy, to endure with meekness of 
 spirit all this blasphemy, ia imita- 
 tion of liis divine example ? ought 
 we not to bear it just as the fathers 
 at the Council of Nice felt them- 
 selves in duty bound to listen to 
 ell the unheard-of horrors of the 
 blaspheming Arius ? I say unto you, 
 therefore, my Catholic feRow-suf- 
 ferers, upon this sad occasion, in 
 patience possess ye your souls. (Luke 
 xxi. 19). It seems, indeed, and 
 with real sympathy for his soul I 
 say it (for it is a terrible thing to 
 fall into the hands of the living 
 God), an incurable propensity on 
 the part of my learned antagonist, 
 to disregard every thing that is 
 true, hallowed, and venerable, and 
 to deprecate with the lemien, of malice 
 and, wickedness (1 Cor. v. 8.), every 
 thing which we Catholics adore with 
 the unleavened bread of sincerity 
 and truth. Many CathoKos who 
 came into this rc/om to witness this 
 interesting dispute, hearing the im- 
 proper language which my friend 
 used, and whion repeatedly fell from 
 his lips, even at a time when he 
 solemnly declared that the nearest 
 object of his heart was the conver- 
 sion of his poor benighted Catholic 
 neighbours — hearing this, Isay,they 
 have left off attending ; nay, I will 
 go still further — a Protestant cler- 
 gyman, who came the first evening, 
 hearing the manner in which my 
 friend spoke of the sacred body and 
 blood of Christ, could not actually 
 bear it, but went out of the room, 
 declaring most distinctly and most 
 audibly that he would never re-enter 
 it durmg these discussions. And, 
 therefore, I do most earnestly re- 
 quest of my reverend friend, that he 
 win govern his tongue, and not lapse 
 again into the same disorder, of wmch 
 I have so repeatedly complained. 
 
 SACKlrlCJS OF THE MASS. 
 
 207 
 
 To take now a transient glance at 
 my notes, my learned friend says. 
 What authority have you for saying 
 that Christ, in the sixth chapter of 
 St. John, was preparing the minds 
 of his disciples for the sacrament of 
 the Eucharist ? Wliy, I reply, had 
 only one of the four Evangelists 
 alluded to the sacrament, I might 
 have been in doubt ; but having the 
 three others spoken to it, and St. 
 John not having glanced at it else- 
 where, I am positive. And, my 
 friends, I read to you, in a slow and 
 solemn manner, that divine and in- 
 expressibly sweet refreshing chapter 
 to the soul of a Catholic — I read it 
 to you the other night, and I know 
 it sank deeply into many breasts ; 
 and instead, my friends, of my being 
 converted by the vain babbling of 
 any modem sectarian, as my anta- 
 gonist gravely affects to look for, I 
 confidently trust, though these gray 
 hairs are daily, nay, hourly, remind- 
 ing me of the toinb, that I shall 
 yet have, before I die, the consola- 
 tion of seeing these my efforts to 
 illustrate this said sixth chapter of 
 St. John, prove the source of many 
 a conversion even in the town of 
 Hammersmith ; ay, even among 
 those who may not have had the 
 opportunity of attending this dis- 
 cussion. It is at the great tribunal 
 of public appeal that we are to 
 appear ; when men are in their sober 
 kind of mind, not to be disturbed 
 and elated by those ecstatios of 
 rhetoric into which you are about 
 to be thrown at the present mo- 
 ment, when not cool judgment and 
 reason, but wild enthusiastic raving, 
 are about to lord it in your minds, 
 and to strip them of their reasoning 
 faculties. Then I say, when this 
 dispute shall be over, you will be 
 enabled to look at the vast mass of 
 evidence which I have laid before 
 you, on the doctrines of piire, un- 
 adulterated .ffitiquity, in contradis- 
 
208 
 
 sAoraricB or the mass. 
 
 tinotion to the reiterated observa- 
 tions of mj learned friend, that in 
 proportion as the world advances, 
 the deeper is the insight into the 
 meaning of the apostles. 1 deny it 
 strenuously ! Common sense itself 
 rises np against it — aU the fathers 
 rise Tip against it — all the learned 
 doctors of the Chnrch of England 
 rise up against it, from Dr. (Sabb, 
 and Dr. Cave, even down to the 
 Unitarian, Dr. Priestley himself, 
 when he is arguing with the Tri- 
 nitarians. 
 
 My friend has often accused me 
 of wandering from the argument, 
 and making a kind of irrelevant 
 and straggling speech. I deny it ! 
 I have used sound argument from 
 beginning to end — I may, now and 
 then, have fallen into repetition; 
 but even in this I have followed all 
 those models who are held up as 
 good and sound argumentators, from 
 the time of Aristotle down to the 
 present day; namely, that when 
 you are soKcitous to impress upon 
 the minds of your audience any 
 great argument, you must reiterate 
 it over and over again. And I cer- 
 tainly should, by dint of incessant 
 repetition, make the learned gentle- 
 man to go home this evening with 
 that glorious prophecy of Malachi 
 ringiHg in his ears, and engraven on 
 the fleshy tablet of his. heart, added 
 to Ms own accurate statement of 
 the many milions of masses that 
 are daily offered up from east to 
 west, in verifloation of its accom- 
 plishment. It was indeed unvrit- 
 tingly, blunderingly done, on the 
 ' part of my learned antagonist, thus 
 to serve so conspicuously that 
 cause which, by such a calculation, 
 no doubt he had it in his intention 
 to disserve most materially ; but, 
 alas for my learned friend! quod 
 4ixU, dixit — wliat he has said, he 
 has said; the accurate calculation 
 cannot be recalled; the millions of 
 
 [4tt Eveninff. 
 
 masses daily offered up at Catholic 
 altars cry out with a loud voice, 
 that the prophet Malachi did not 
 pour forth from an uninspired 
 mouth --the following words — "For 
 from the rising of the sun, even to 
 the going down, great is my name 
 amoflg the Gentiles, and in every 
 place there is saoriflcing, and there 
 is offered unto my name a clean 
 oblation ; because my name is great 
 among the Gentiles, saith the Lord 
 of Hosts."— Malachi i. 11. Yes, 
 my friends, the Sacrifice of the Mass 
 vnH for ever respond to those grand, 
 predictive, and descriptive words : 
 So long as the sun and moon, shall 
 
 — ^Ps. ixxii. 5. I can only say, as 
 my excellent friend Mr. Kendal, oui 
 Catholic chairman, hast just re- 
 minded me of my expiring time, 
 that, as no one argument adduced 
 by my reverend antagonist has 
 hitherto been of the least avail to 
 him in disproving its divine institu- 
 tion, so I am persuaded that the 
 declamatory trumpet which is about 
 to begin its usual floTirish, will be 
 equally .vain and nugatory with his 
 past endeavours, in the estimation 
 at least of the reflecting part of my 
 audience. 
 
 [The learned gentleman's hour 
 here terminated.] 
 
 Rev. J. CuMMiNG. — ^For the se- 
 vere, and I do think, uncalled for, 
 reprehension of my tongue, and of 
 my statements, to which my learned 
 antagonist has given utterance, I at 
 once, for one and all, most fully and 
 heartily forgive him ; and, to show 
 how lightly I regard them, I cast 
 them all behind my back, and would 
 not waste a moment in reply — a 
 good cause needs not such weapons. 
 It is my desire that all personaHtv 
 should cease, that all Hght and irre- 
 verent expressions should be with- 
 drawn, for I do feel, Mr. Chairman, 
 
Rev. J. Cumming.\ sacripice oi- the mass. 
 
 209 
 
 that a subject of the most vital in- 
 terest, and to one or other of eternal 
 importance, is involved ia this con- 
 troversy. I see in this assembly, it 
 may be, two hundred and fifty Roman 
 Catholic auditors, and at least two 
 hundred and fifty PaoTESTANTS; and 
 I must confess, that if the canons of 
 the Council of Trent be right, if the 
 doctrine of the Church of Rome upon 
 the Mass be right, I cannot make my 
 charity the grave of tsc^ faithfulness, 
 by withholding the assertion that 
 two hundred and iifty of one party 
 stand before God and before me on 
 the verge of death and misery ever- 
 lasting. I believe that there is but 
 one waythrough which the guilty oaa 
 be saved ; and if your Mass is that 
 way, then there is nothing hut "a 
 fearful looking for "of judgment and 
 fiery indignation" for us Protestants. 
 I will try, as exhorted by my oppo- 
 nent, to be as cool and as collected 
 on this question as I can; I will 
 try to give vent to no enthusiastic 
 remarks, but directly, seriatim, and 
 as closely as I can recollect, endea- 
 vour to reply to some objections 
 which my learned antagonist has 
 made in the course of the truly 
 extraordinary address which he has 
 just now dehvered. Krst of all, he 
 denies that the word anapa^aTov 
 means " «»transmissible," — " not 
 transmitted from one to another." 
 Now, he knows quite well, that if 
 the expression airapa^arov, applied 
 to the priesthood of Christ by the 
 apostle, means "this man hath an 
 intransmissible priesthood, or an in- 
 communicable priesthood," " because 
 he continueth ever " — ^it is all over 
 with the priesthood of the Roman 
 Catholic church, as far as Scripture 
 is concerned. He knows right well, 
 that if Christ's priesthood, or power 
 of offering up and applying propitia- 
 tory sacnflce (for 1 insist on that 
 word "propitiatory" sacrifice) — is 
 cot transmissible from Christ— not 
 
 alienable from Christ — exclusivelv 
 his— the priesthood of the Church of 
 Rome have not one iota of authority 
 to sacrifice upon their altars "the 
 body and blood, soul and divinity of 
 the Son of God." 
 
 To show you my reasons for its 
 meaning, as I have defined and de- 
 clared it, I refer to Stephams. He 
 explains it — Sacerdotium quod pns- 
 terire non potest ; that is, " & priest- 
 hood which cannot pass over or be 
 transmitted." Again, I take the 
 Lexicon Constantini, and here I 
 find — Perpetuum Sacerdotium quod 
 ad alium transire non potest : " A 
 
 pass over to another.' ' I gave you 
 the explanation of Parkhurst's be- 
 fore ; I have now given you that of 
 Stephanus's ; and lastly that of Con- 
 stantinus's; three of the chief lexico- 
 graphers of the world, and they aU 
 distmctly and plainly declare that 
 
 mrapapaTov means, a _ 
 
 which is not transmissible, a priest- 
 
 And if this he the fact (mind you, it 
 is not mv assertion ! it is the decisive 
 and well-weighed assertion of these 
 distinguished lexicographers) then 
 the Church of Rome must declare 
 that her priests have assumed func- 
 tions which they have no lawful 
 right to assume — that they have 
 engaged in an oflice to which they 
 are not called — and imagined a duty 
 and power which God never insti- 
 tuted. They ought now candidly to 
 admit that they have tried to wreath 
 round the brows of perishable man 
 the immortal glories of that great 
 High-priest whose priesthood is 
 an mcommunioable priesthood, and 
 whose sacrifice was offered once for 
 all for the sins of an undone world- 
 My learned antagonist travelled 
 out of his way to comment on the 
 priest's investiture with the power 
 of forgiveness of sins, in order to 
 vindicate the sacrificial assumptions 
 
230 
 
 SAOKiriCB OP THE MASS. 
 
 of the Roman Catholic priesthood. 
 He admitted and distinouy declared 
 that the priests do judicially forgive 
 sins; and in pleading for this claim — 
 this judicial power of the priests to 
 forgive sins — he said it showed their 
 dignity, and the exalted nature of 
 their office and appointment, in thus 
 being able to forgive the sins of 
 others. Now, recollect, Mr. I'renoh 
 asserted that the priests do judicially 
 forgiye sins, and that this fact of 
 their power of forgiveness of sins, 
 so far from being a diminution of 
 their dignity, shows it is something 
 like that of the priesthood of Christ 
 — fhej jtidicially forgive sios. To 
 show that my opponent is right, I 
 go to the Council of Trent, and I 
 find the synod also teaches "that 
 even priests who are bound with 
 mortal sin exercise, as the ministers 
 of Christ, the power of remitting 
 sins by the power of the Holy Ghost 
 conveyed to them in ordination; 
 and that those persons err in their 
 opinion who contend that wicked 
 priests have not this power. But, 
 although a priest's absolution is the 
 dispensation of a benefit conferred^ 
 by another, yet it is not a mere naked 
 act of ministry, in announcing the 
 Gospel, or declaring that the sins 
 are remitted; but is like a judi- 
 cial ACT, IN WHICH SBNTENOE IS 
 PflONOUNCED BY HIM AS BT A 
 
 JUD&B." — Can. vi. on 
 (Council of Trent.) 
 
 Now, here is the verdict of the 
 Council of Trent. The priest for- 
 fi^yesjudicialh, ahd not ministerially 
 Illy. You observe 
 
 Mr. Pkench.— Both ! 
 
 Kev. J. CirMMiN&. — Both. The 
 greater includes the lesser. 
 
 Mr. French. — Certainly, de- 
 cidedly ! 
 
 Rev. J. Cummins. — He admits 
 both, therefore he admits judicially 
 — 1 deny the judicial power. I be- 
 lieve it, along with the "divine," 
 
 [4tt Evemuff. 
 
 the " glorious," the " splendid" St. 
 Augustine, to be a blaspheming 
 assumption: "And what did the 
 Jews say ? Who is this that forgives 
 sins also ? Does man dare to usurp 
 to himself this power ? What, on 
 the other hand, does the heretic say? 
 I forgive — / cleanse — / sanctify. 
 Let Christ, and not myself, answer , 
 him : O man, when I was thought 
 by the Jews to be simply man, I 
 gave the forgiveness of sin to faith. 
 It is not I, it is Christ, who answers 
 you. O heretic ! you are but man, 
 and you say. Approach, woman ! 
 I will save thee ; but I, when I was 
 thought to be a man, said. Depart, 
 O woman! thy faith hath saved 
 thee. They answer, as the apostle 
 says, ignorant of the things of which 
 they talk and which they affirm — 
 they answer and say. If men do not 
 forgive sins, then what Christ says 
 is fidse ; AVlatsoever ye shall loose 
 on earth shall be loosed in heaven. 
 Ye are ignorant wherefore this was 
 said, and how it was said. The Lord 
 was about to give the Holy Spirit to 
 men, and he wished it to be under- 
 stood that sins were remitted to 
 believers by the Holy Spirit himself, 
 and not by the merits of men. Tor 
 what are you, man ! but a sick 
 person about to be healed? Do 
 you wish to be a physician to me ? 
 Come with me, and seek the phy- 
 sician; for the Lord, in order to 
 show more evidently, namely, that 
 sins were remitted! by the Holy 
 Spirit which he gave to his believers, 
 and not by the ruerits of men, thus 
 says, in a certaiu passage, when he 
 had risen from the dead, " Receive 
 the Holy Ghost," he immediately 
 added, " whosesoever sins ye remit, 
 are remitted ; " that is to say, it is 
 the Spirit who remits, and not you. 
 But the Spirit is God — God theke- 
 
 FOIUB KEMITS, AND NOT YOU." — St, 
 
 August, on LaJce vii. ; Serm. 99, 
 vol. V. p. 525. 
 
Rev. J. Oumminff.'] sacrifice op the mass. 
 
 211 
 
 Mr. Fbbnch. — Certainly, cer- 
 tainly ! 
 
 Rer. J. Gumming. — The Spirit 
 remits, not you. Observe, the 
 statement of St. Augustine is most 
 explicit, viz. that " he " (God) re- 
 mits sins JUDICIALLY, and not that 
 the PMEST JUDICIALLY remits sin. 
 The whole argument, you observe, 
 between us is this : he says it is 
 judicialh, we say, ministerialh/ only. 
 
 Mr. French. — It if both ! 
 
 Eev. J. Gumming. — We minis- 
 terially proclaim Ghrist, " in whom 
 we have redemption through his 
 blood, even the forgiveness of 
 sins ;" but the priests of the Ghuroh 
 of Rome assume also judicial func- 
 tions, and judicially forgive the sins 
 of those who come to them as 
 judges, as it is asserted in the canon 
 of the Council of Trent.— I am com- 
 pelled by my opponent again to call 
 your attention to the word Xnrovp- 
 yiKos ; I have shown you that if 
 \eiTovfiyiKos means sacrificing the 
 body and blood, soul and divinity of 
 the Son of God on the altar, as a 
 propitiatory sacrifice for the sins of 
 the living and dead, it must also be 
 implied that kings, and rulers, and 
 angels, have a call and right to do 
 the same, as their functions are in 
 Scripture called \eiTovpyiKa. This 
 leads to results the most monstrous, 
 more so by far than Transubstantia- 
 tion. — My antagonist repeated his 
 asseverations that the fethers call 
 the Mass a sacrifice. I have no 
 objection to call the Eucharist a 
 sacrifice, as I have repeated over 
 and over again. I do not shrink 
 from this expression.- What I dis- 
 sent from is, your calling it "% pro- 
 pitiatory sacrifice, an unbloody pro- 
 pitiatory sacrifice for the sins of the 
 living and the dead." — My opponent 
 next turned your attention to the 
 propriety of Mary being called " the 
 Mother of God." You remember I 
 quoted Dupin, the celebratedRoman 
 
 Catholic historian, for ample autho- 
 rity a^ to the post-apostohcal origin 
 of this phrase. But when he con- 
 tends that the Scripture expression 
 "Mother of my Lord," means neces- 
 sarily " Mother of my God," then, 
 while holdittg in the fullest and 
 amplest sense the eternal Deity of 
 the Son of God, I do declare that 
 the expression "Mother of my 
 Lord" does not necessarily prove 
 her to be "Mother of my God." 
 For if it does, Mr. Prench must 
 beheve that Abraham was God, be- 
 cause we read in 1 Peter iii. 6, 
 "Even as Sara obeyed Abraham, 
 calling Mm Lord." The very same 
 expression, you observe. He says 
 the expression "Lord "necessarily 
 involves the essential Deity, but we 
 find the expression "Lord " appKed 
 in Scripture to Abraham, and I 
 therefore assert that, on such a sup- 
 position, Mr. Erench must beheve 
 that Abraham was called God by 
 Sara. — ^My learned opponent next 
 accused me of using blasphemous 
 language — Slanguage so bad that cer- 
 tain Roman Catholics left the room, 
 and refused again to attend. I so- 
 lemnly protest against this aspersion 
 which is so recklessly cast upon me. 
 I have used, throughout this discus- 
 sion, the very language of the canon 
 of the Council of Trent, the lan- 
 gnage of the catechism of the 
 Council of Trent ; and if the in- 
 ferences which I deduce from their 
 language necessarily involves blas- 
 phemy, let my friend lay the gmlt of 
 blasphemy on the Church who in- 
 vented so monstrous a phraseology, 
 and concocted so foul a theolo^, 
 not on the faithful annalist of the 
 corruptions of both, who merely 
 drags them forth from their conceal- 
 ment, and brings them before the 
 burning light of God's most sacred 
 oracles. Now, he has also com- 
 plained, first, that I do not reply to 
 the matter he brought forward and. 
 
212 
 
 SAcaincE OP the mass. 
 
 secondly, he complains that I io 
 reply. I reaUy oaimot understand 
 ■what my learned friend would be at. 
 Yon have heard much this even- 
 ing, as well as on a former, respect- 
 ing that most important fact (in the 
 estimate of my friend, Mr. IVench) 
 that if the Mass be not a true and a 
 scriptural dogma, how comes it to 
 pass that not only the Church of 
 Rome, but the schismatic churches, 
 the Syrian, the Armenian, and Greek 
 churches, have aU retained it as a 
 propitiatory sacrifice for the sins of 
 the living and the dead ? He says. 
 How comes it to pass that these 
 churches, who separated from the 
 Roman, have retained it ? Now, I 
 wish that I could give him some 
 satisfactory account of still more 
 extraordinary things that have hap- 
 pened in the world. How, for in- 
 stance, shall I account for the fact, 
 that in the years that immediately 
 preceded the flood, corruption ana 
 crime had so overspread the habit- 
 able globe, that when God looked 
 down from heaven on the guilty 
 earth, he declared, that "every ima- 
 gination of the thought of men's 
 hearts was evil continually ?" and 
 I .ask him how that came to pass ? 
 He has asked me how it came to 
 pass that the corrupt tenet has been 
 retained and interwoven with the 
 rituals of the schismatic churches, 
 and how it came to pass that it so 
 extensively overspread the world, if 
 it were not a sound, and orig^ally 
 a scriptural dogma ? I ask, in re- 
 turn, how it came to pass that, ere 
 the waters of the flood had well 
 subsided, and ere the wrecks of that 
 overwhelming judgment had disap- 
 peared, men began to build tie 
 tower of Babel, and mena,ced from 
 its forts defiance to the name of the 
 Most High ? How did it come to 
 pass that, after clear and audible 
 revelations given by God to the 
 descendants of Noah and his ser- 
 
 [4M Evening: 
 
 vauts, Abraham, the patriarch of the 
 yet young world, seemed alone to 
 be " faitMul amid the faithful few," 
 all around him being plunged in 
 idolatry ? Nay, more : I ask how it 
 came to pass that, after the impres- 
 sive spectacles of Sinai — after the 
 stupendous judgments, and yet more 
 stupendous mercies, witnessed by 
 the children of Israel, no sooner 
 had the thunder on Sinai's hill been 
 hushed, and the lightning flame dis- 
 appeared, than they fell dovm pros- 
 trate, and, forgetful of Jehovah, 
 worshipped the "golden caK," which 
 their own hands and fingers had 
 fashioned ? I ask, also, how it came 
 to pass (for I require an explana- 
 tion of all this) < that the schismatic 
 Church of Samaria retained the 
 same idolatry which the true Church 
 of Jadah had also fallen into? When 
 my antagonist has given an expla- 
 nation of these multitudinous facts, 
 I shall give an 'explanation of the 
 (to my opponent) marvellous fact, 
 that the same corrupt tenet spread 
 like a contagion through all the 
 schismatic churches during the ages 
 that succeeded those of the apostles. 
 There are, however, three reasons 
 which I can give you for my oppo- 
 nent's marvellous fact. Prst, the 
 dark ages — ages in which igno- 
 rance wrapped almost all mankind 
 in a thick and impenetrable mantle. 
 Secondly,, the corruption of the 
 priests ; and I am prepared to bring 
 historic and decisive documents to 
 show that their corruption was so 
 gross, that licentious indulgences, 
 and other abominable frauds, arose 
 out of it, to an awful and unprece- 
 dented extent. A third reason I 
 assign for the spread of this tenet, 
 was the spirit of proselytism, acd 
 the seductive arts put forth and 
 exercised by the Roman Catholic 
 Church — the efforts, in short, made 
 by her in every shape to make pro- 
 selytes to her principles. If no 
 
Reu.J. 
 
 ] 
 
 SACRIMOE OE THE MASS. 
 
 213 
 
 intercourse had been between Rome 
 and tbe schismatic chnrches, the 
 maintenance of the dogma by all 
 would be most remarkable ; but the 
 intercourse between Rome and the 
 suiToundiug nations of the world is 
 known to nave been so great, that 
 the same dogma might spread from 
 her to the remotest schismatic 
 churches with the utmost rapidity 
 and ease. When we know that this 
 intercourse with Rome was imre- 
 strained and almost uninterrupted ; 
 when we recollect that for centuries, 
 during the twelfth, thirteenth, and 
 fourteenth, she had Latiu patriarchs 
 at Jerusalem and at Constantinople, 
 at Alexandria and Antiooh; when we 
 recollect the amalgamating influence 
 exerted by the crusades over the 
 whole of Europe ; when we recollect 
 that Pope after Pope left unem- 
 ployed no weapon (little minding 
 the holiness of that weapon) and 
 passed by no opportunity (not mind- 
 ing the lawfulness of that oppor- 
 tunity) ; when we know all this, not 
 on Protestant, but Papal authority, 
 as my opponent wiU find by refer- 
 ring to the Romish annalist, Re- 
 naldus, it is easy to account for the 
 extensive spread of the idolatrous 
 dogma, and for its being taken up 
 by the schismatical children who 
 imbibed their notions from their 
 heretic mother. While I state this 
 universality of the influence of cor- 
 ruption, this wide-spread degene- 
 racy of the time, and departure from 
 the faith, we cannot but think of the 
 Apocalyptical Church "who made 
 all the nations drink of the wine of 
 her fornication." 
 
 The argument, I may observe, 
 above drawn from the schismatic 
 churches, is only an old argument, 
 clothed with a certain freshness, 
 and pointed by the peculiar logic of 
 my learned fnend; and as I have 
 been referred for more, to the pages 
 of Dr. Wiseman, I beg to return 
 
 the kindness by directing my learned 
 friend to Claude's Reply to Arnault, 
 in which, among other wholesome 
 lessons, he wiU find his argument 
 discussed and dismissed, with very 
 marked evidence of its worthless- 
 ness. — My antagonist, after this 
 referred us to those soi-disant ancient 
 liturgies of which he has spoken so 
 sadly and so much. I showed that 
 Dupin gives many powerful and 
 irresistible reasons against their 
 claims to be apostolioal. We have 
 seen that they are not apostolical, 
 from Protestant and Roman Catholic 
 testimony ; on the contrary, that 
 they are forgeries of the fourth and 
 fifth centunes. This settles their 
 worth as evidence. — I referred next 
 to the words of Justyn Martyr, 
 giving an account of a Christian 
 sabbath's worship, in which there is 
 not one syllable, by implication or 
 otherwise, about the Mass, or the 
 elevation and adoration of the Host, 
 or any other of the marked and the 
 prominent peculiarities of the doc- 
 trine. In the next place, so decisive 
 is the Word of God (as I showed you 
 last evening, when I went over the 
 seventh, eighth, and ninth chapters of 
 the Epistle to the Hebrews), so deci- 
 sive is the word of God against often- 
 times repeatedsacrifioe, and themany 
 priests and the many sacrifices which 
 cannot take away sin, that if there 
 were ten thousand liturgies that 
 supported the Miass, and one single 
 chapter of the Epistle to the He- 
 brews that disclaimed and disproved 
 it, the ten thousand liturgies would 
 be false, and that single chapter 
 would be eternally true. Observe, 
 however, that the whole weight and 
 worth of these liturgies is not quite 
 sub j-udice ; it is scarcely a vexata 
 qiimstio. They would, if unanimous 
 for the Mass, weigh but a feather in 
 the scale against the word of God ; 
 but I do not concede that feather. 
 But to fui-nish my antagonist, 
 
214 
 
 SAChlPICE OP THE MASS. 
 
 [4-t/i JEvemnff.. 
 
 once for aL, witn the right mode of 
 mterpreting the fathers, I will sub- 
 mit the foUowing facts and refer- 
 ences, in order to cast light on the 
 interpretation of those fathers which 
 my antagonist brought forward, and 
 which wiU be of essential service 
 as a guide in his future iaterpreta- 
 tion. In the first place, I maintain, 
 what I shall prove by and by from 
 themselves, that the fathers gene- 
 KALlT me the sign for the thing sig- 
 nified. I say GENBRAILT; and if 
 you convict them from this habit of 
 Delievins in Transubstantiation and 
 ia the Mass, you wUl have to convict 
 Dr. Watts, the Independent, and 
 every one singing Dr. Watts' hymns, 
 of believing in the same doctrine ; 
 for you find in those hymns expres- 
 sions as much in favour of Transub- 
 stantiation as any passages in the 
 fathers : I quote. 
 
 Hymn vi. b. 3. 
 The lord of life this taWe spread, 
 With his own flesh and dying blood. 
 
 Hymn XTii. b. 3. 
 This soul-reviving wine, 
 
 Dear Saviour, is thy blood ; 
 "We thank that sacred flesh of thine 
 
 For this immortal food. 
 
 Hymn xviil. b. 3. 
 And here we drink our Saviour's blood, 
 
 We thank thee. Lord, 'tis generous win 
 Mingled with love, the fountain flowed. 
 
 From that dear bleeding heart of thine. 
 
 Hymn xix, b, 3. 
 Thy blood, like wine, adorns thy board. 
 And thine own flesh feeds every guest. 
 
 Hymn xxi. b. 3. 
 Now you must triumph at my feast, 
 And taste my flesh and blood. 
 
 Hymn xxiii. b. 3. 
 Sitting around our Father's board, 
 
 We raise our tuneful breath ; 
 Our faith beholds her dying Lord, 
 
 And dooms our sins to death. 
 We see the blood of Jesus shed. 
 
 Whence all our pardons rise ; 
 The sinner views th' atonement made. 
 
 And loves the sacrifice. 
 
 Will my Independent friendsadmit 
 that they beEeve in Transubstan- 
 tiation? They spurn it as an un- 
 seriptuial dogma, and yet the fathers 
 
 do not use stronger language. Will 
 my Baptist friends admit a belief ia 
 Transubstantiation, as one of their 
 tenets ? No ; they spurn it as an 
 nnsoriptuial dogma also. Will our 
 Wesleyan brethren recognise the 
 tenet of Transubstantiation ? No ; 
 they treat its claims with kindred 
 contempt ; and yet I will defy you 
 to find throughout the writings of 
 the fathers stronger language than 
 that employed in the hymns of the 
 excellent and pious Dr. Watts. If 
 you adopt Mr. French's mode of 
 mterpretmg the fathers — of inter- 
 preting Scripture, you wUl not only 
 land in the most monstrous results 
 — such as that " aU flesh is grass" 
 — or meaning according to his prin- 
 ciple, all the individuals in this 
 room are become blades of grass, 
 instead of being Hving men and 
 women, but ton will bring Scripture 
 and the fatners 'too into complete 
 disrepute. If you wish, I declare, 
 to propagate infidelity at the most 
 rapid ratio throughout the world, 
 you have only to adopt the prin- 
 ciples of interpretation which Mr. 
 French contends for. But if you 
 pursue the mode of interpretation 
 which I conceive to be at once 
 natural and intended, namely, that 
 the fathers iise the sign for the thing 
 signified, you will find that there is 
 harmony where all was furious dis- 
 cord, and common sense in the 
 word of God where, on the other 
 plan, it was not before ; and you 
 wiU ascertain that the fathers, in- 
 stead of being all mad fanatics and 
 wild enthusiasts, were some of them 
 really reasonable men. 
 
 But I am happy to announce, that 
 I have discovered in one of the 
 fathers the key to the interpreta- 
 tion of the rest. In the first place, 
 I shall read an extract from Isidoee, 
 on his mode of interpretipig Scrip- 
 ture. He gives the very same 
 common sense explanation which 
 
Rev. J. 
 
 •] 
 
 SACEIPICE OP THE MASS. 
 
 215 
 
 suggested itself to me before. This 
 extract, whicli 1 translate from the 
 original Latia, gives a most satis- 
 factory explanation of the strong 
 language of the fathers, out of whicK 
 my opponent wiredraws, by literary 
 butchery, "the immortal dogma" 
 Transnbstantiation. He was one of 
 the fathers of the seventh century. 
 " Wherefore, Scripture calls it 
 the.spirit of Samuel, because images 
 are wotit to be called by the names 
 of those things of which they are 
 images. Thus, all thiugs painted or 
 sculptured are called by tke names 
 of those very things of which they 
 are resemblances, and the proper 
 iiame is unhesitatingly given ; and 
 it is said — ^that is Cicero, that is 
 Sallust, that is Achilles, that is 
 Hector, this is the river Simois, 
 although they are nothing else than 
 the painted images. The represen- 
 tations of the cherubim, though ce- 
 lestial powers, being made of metal, 
 which God commanded to be placed 
 above the ark, were also called che- 
 rubim. So when one has a dream, 
 he does not say I saw the picture of 
 Augustine, but I saw Augustine ; 
 though, at the moment of tms sight, 
 Augustine was ignorant of anything 
 of the kind. So obvious is it that 
 the images of the men, and not the 
 men themselves, are seen. Thus 
 Pharaoh said he saw ears of com 
 and kine in his dream, not the re- 
 presentations of ears of com and 
 tine." — Isidori Hispalmsis Episcopi 
 Commentar. m Lib. I. Begum, c. xx. 
 Paris, 1601. 
 
 Now, observe, here is an extract 
 from Isidore, speaking the language 
 of the seventh century. This father 
 virtually declares that, in reference 
 to the Sacrament of the Eucharist, 
 the fathers of the centTiries that pre- 
 ceded tiim called the sign by thename 
 of the .thing signified. Remem- 
 ber, this is from one of the jatheks, 
 and therefore, if this passage from 
 
 the writings of an ancient father 
 proves, that, in the wonted lan- 
 guage of the times, in reference to 
 the Sacrament of the Eucharist, the 
 symbol is called by the name of the 
 thing signified, how wiU Transub- 
 stantiation stand, even in the pre- 
 sence of Isidore and the fathers, 
 not to speak of the apostles ? 
 
 Now, the next quotation which I 
 shall make, explanatory of the lan- 
 
 fiage of the ancient fathers on the 
 ucharist, is from the divine and 
 glorious St. Augustine (as Mr. 
 French calls him), from his Epistle, 
 98, vol. ii. p. 267 :— " Eor we fre- 
 quently so express ourselves that, 
 when Easter is approaching, we say. 
 To-morrow, or the day after to- 
 morrow, is the Lord's passion, : when 
 he suffered so many years before, 
 and that passion only once for all 
 took place. Moreover, on the Lord's 
 day, we say To-day the Lord rose 
 again : when so many years are 
 passed since his resurreetion. Eor 
 surely, no one is so fooKsh as to 
 contend that we, speaking thus, 
 have Ued, because we call those 
 days after the likeness of the days 
 on which thos6 things took place ; 
 so that is called the verjr day which 
 is not the very day,' but in the lapse 
 of time resembles it. And that is 
 said to take place on that day on 
 account of the celebration of the sa- 
 crament, which did not occur on that 
 day, but long ago" (this is the expla- 
 nation of the origin of the Mass). 
 " Was not Christ in his own person 
 ONCE sacrificed, and yet in the 
 sacrament is he not sacrificed for 
 the people, not only during aU the 
 solemnities of Easter, but every 
 day; nor does he lie, who, being 
 questioned, answers, that he is sacri- 
 ficed. Eoii. IE THE SACBAMENTS 
 TTATI NOT A CEETAIN LIKENESS 
 OF THOSE THINGS OJ? WHICH THEY 
 ARE SACRAMENTS, THEY WOULD 
 CEASE ALTOGETHEK TO BE S.iCRA. 
 
816 
 
 sackieice of the mass. 
 
 MENis. But on aocotjni or this 
 
 LIKENESS THET KECEIVB EOR THE 
 MOST PAST THE NAME OF THE 
 
 THINGS THEMSELVES. Asj there- 
 fore, after a certain fashion, t^e 
 sacrament of the body of Christ is 
 the body of Christ, and the sacra- 
 ment of the blood of Christ is the 
 blood of Christ, so the sacrament of 
 
 faith is faith As the apostle 
 
 says, concerning baptism itself, ' we 
 have been buried together ■with 
 Christ, by baptism unto death.' 
 He does not say we have signified a 
 burial, but he says at once, we have 
 been buried together with him. He 
 called therefore the sacrament of so 
 great an event hy nothing else hut the 
 name of the thing- itself" — Augus- 
 tiae's Letter to Bishop BoniSce, 
 epistle 98, vol. ii. p. 267. 
 
 Now, I have given you these two 
 most important passages from the 
 fathers — one from Isidore, in refer- 
 ence to the language employed and 
 set forth in the Scriptures, and 
 another from Augustine as to the 
 language used by the Church. These 
 two explain in the clearest manner 
 the prmeiple by which you are .to 
 be guided m iaterpreting the fathers. 
 And therefore, the iaferenoe is, that 
 in the fathers, according to the 
 testimony of Atr&irsTiNE, and ac- 
 cording to the testimony of Isidore, 
 the symbol is called by the thing 
 signified; and hence their strong 
 and startling phraseology, which my 
 friend has tried to construe into the 
 doctrine of Transubstantiation, eva- 
 porates into " thia air," instead 
 of condensing into "the immortal 
 dogma of Transubstantiation." 
 
 It does, Mr. Chairman, seem to 
 me a most extraordinary fact, that 
 Mr. French should so pertinaciously 
 shrink from meeting those Mass- 
 exterminating statements which I 
 repeated and reiterated from the 
 Epistle to the Hebrews. If a man's 
 cause is to be judged by the nature 
 
 \Uh Evening. 
 
 of his vritnesses, his cause will pre- 
 sent itself to your minds with meagre 
 and miserable claims. To defend 
 himseK he has adduced divers schis- 
 matic churches as his witnesses — he 
 has appealed for protection and 
 support to the Greek Church — he 
 has applied to the Baptists to help 
 Imn — ^he has flung himself and his 
 Church among the Independents; 
 and, lastly, he has rushed for shelter 
 to the Church of Scotland. My 
 learned opponent ran to every nook 
 and comer under heaven, crying in 
 agony, " Bray take me in, for I find 
 the Word of God drives me out ; 
 I must find shelter somewhere, for 
 this ' Calvinist ' has no meroy." He 
 has applied to Greeks and schisma- 
 tics, to seraphic doctors and to Pro- 
 testant divines — to Churchmen and 
 to Dissenters — but all reject him. 
 I have cross-questioned all his wit- 
 nesses, his choicest witnesses ; and 
 they contradict each himself, and 
 e^ch his neighbour, or wiU have 
 nothing to do with Mm. My oppo- 
 nent loves to bask beneath the pale 
 and sickly light emitted from the 
 fathers, and to present his question- 
 able wares amid the flickering 
 glow-worm light that streams fro 
 their lamps; but most fgnobly does 
 he refuse to bring them forth to the 
 scrutiny and gaze of this assem ly 
 beneath the blazing sunshine t at 
 pours out from the oracles of God. 
 
 He reminds me in this respect 
 a shrewd and sagacious Jew, who 
 was anxious to dispose of a piece of 
 common crystal as a rare and valua- 
 ble jewel. He took care to proclaim 
 this piece of out glass as a precious 
 gem of " the first water," but at 
 the same time managed never to 
 bring it out to public view at mid- 
 day. He preferred the dusk of the 
 evening, or still better, candle light. 
 [Laughter]. He knew the laws of 
 reflection and refraction sufficiently 
 to enable him to foresee that Iran- 
 
Bev. J. Gumming.'] saceihce oi the mass. 
 
 217 
 
 dreds woiild believe it a valuable 
 jewel by candle light, wlio, behold- 
 ing it amid the clear noon-day Hght, 
 woxild give the impostor in charge, 
 and not only perceive but proclaim 
 the disreputable fraud. I want my 
 learned opponent to shun the prac- 
 tice of the Jew in this discussion. 
 Bring forth this dograa from the 
 glow-worm light of at best the con- 
 tradictory and cloudy fathers, and 
 place it beneath the glorious sun- 
 shine of the Sun of Bignteousness, as 
 it streams with undying splendour 
 from the oracles of truth ; and if it 
 will not bear that test, depend upon 
 it it is not given by the inspiration of 
 God. Evu and error only prefer 
 darkness to light. 
 
 After my friend had run the round 
 of schismatic churches, and cowered 
 under the wing of contradictory 
 fathers and persecuting doctors, 
 and, in every instance, had either 
 knocked his head against stone 
 walls, or been turned out sans 
 ceremonie — after he Jiad run to our 
 Baptist and Independent friends, 
 who differ from me on ecclesiastical 
 establishments, to hide his head 
 among them, and had heard from 
 their nps the withering reply, We'U 
 have nothing to do with you and 
 your traditions : " the Biblb, and 
 the Bible alone," is our rule of 
 faith ; — after this desperate run, my 
 learned opponent looked perfectly 
 bewildered. He seemed to be in 
 the plight of some poor sailordoomed 
 to walk the plank, receiving a buffet 
 from every hand as he passes, till at 
 length he plunges into a sea of tem- 
 pestuous froth, and disappears. 
 [Laughter.] My opponent referred 
 to the sacrifices under the Jewish 
 economy, as topical or illustrative 
 of the Mass, the Roman Catholic 
 propitiatory sacrifice for the sins of 
 the living and the dead. Let it be 
 remembered, that while the Mass is 
 defined " a peopiiiaiokt sacrifice 
 
 for the sins of the living and the 
 dead," it is nevertheless " an ■un- 
 bloody sacrifice." A glance at any 
 of the sin-offerings under the law 
 will convince us that their inscrip- 
 tion, legible as if written in light, 
 was, " Without shedding of blood 
 no remission of sins." Let us refer 
 to the Paschal or Passover Lamb — ■ 
 surely it was not an unbloody sacri- 
 fice. It was required by God, that 
 the blood of the Lalnb should be 
 sprinkled upon the lintels and door 
 posts of the houses of the children 
 of Israel, at that time in Egypt; 
 and they were told that when the 
 destroying angel should " spread 
 his wings on the blast," and sweep 
 on strong pennon from the palace 
 to the .cottage through the length 
 and breadth of startled Egypt, 
 breathing death upon the first-born 
 of Rahab, from Pharaoh on the 
 throne to the meanest subject — 
 the inmates of the blood-besprinkled 
 habitations should be safe. Hence 
 it came to pass, that the only shel- 
 tered and sacred few were those 
 who believed in, and trusted to, the 
 bloody sacrifice — ^who had sprinkled 
 its (the victim's) blood upon the 
 lintels and the door posts. Egypt's 
 unbloody offerings presented no 
 shelter; Israel's bloodn/ sacrifice 
 proved better than bulwarks and 
 battlements. And you, my dear 
 Roman Catholic friends, if you will 
 but have recourse to " the once-ior- 
 allSacrifice," offered on the accursed 
 tree, and by faith sprinkle that 
 precious blood upon the inward 
 "lintels" of the heart, then when 
 the angel of the second death, armed 
 with more than the vengeance of 
 Sinai, shall pass through the length 
 and breadth of this dismantled world, 
 the shrieks of woe and the wadinga 
 of despair which shaU pour forth 
 from amidst the devouring slaughte. 
 of the world's first-born shall sound 
 in your ears like sacred accents-^ 
 
21S 
 
 SACEiricE or the mass. 
 
 lit A Ev'emitff. 
 
 like tones of melody significant of 
 unutterable glory — and- that ocean 
 which becomes the sepulchre of 
 earth's most illustrious Pharaohs, 
 shall form a bright and beauteous 
 promenade for the redeemed of the 
 Most High. [Strong sensation.] 
 
 I must produce another reference 
 to the nature of sacrifice, from the 
 scape-goat in Leviticus, xvi. 15, 23. 
 We find that, after the priest had 
 covered the altar v^.th the cloud 
 of incense, he slew one goat, and 
 sprinkled its blood upon the mercy 
 seat, thus proving that blood-shed- 
 ding was an essential concomitant 
 of accepted and propitiatory sacri- 
 fice. He next took another goat, 
 on the head of which Aaron laid 
 both hands, within the vail, and 
 confessed the sins of Israel over it ; 
 and the goat was then sent away 
 by the hand of a fit man into the 
 lonely and uninhabited wilderness 
 — " the land of forgetfulness" — and 
 the sins of the people were no 
 more remetoberea. Here again 
 salvation was through a bloody 
 sacrifice. Now, we want you to do 
 this, my Roman Catholic hearers, 
 with the sacrifice of Christ. Take 
 his blood, by faith, and sprinkle it on 
 your hearts and your consciences, 
 pleading its efiicacy before God; 
 lay your hands, by faith, upon his 
 sacred head, confess your sms over 
 him, seek forgiveness by his bloody 
 sacrifice, and all your iniquities will 
 be buried in the sea of God's mercy 
 — borne to the land of forgetful- 
 jiess, and , no more remembered at 
 all. Every blessing in the promises 
 is by blood. I find it recorded 
 in the Bible, that we have accept- 
 ance through his blood, that we 
 have forgiveness through his blood, 
 "redemption through his blood, even 
 the forgiveness of our sins." We 
 find purification through his blood, 
 even " the cleansing from all sin ;" 
 we find access to the Pather through 
 
 his blood, by " a new and a Kving 
 way;" we find victory through his 
 blood — " they overcame by the blood 
 ot the Lamb;" we find fitness for 
 heaven throughhis blood, for "these 
 are they who have washed their 
 robes and made them white in the 
 blood of the Lamb." I ask you, 
 then, tohat else can you desire ? Do 
 you want pardon? it is found in 
 Christ's blood, infinitely for you all, 
 do you -wasAforpveness? it is found 
 in his blood, noMy, freely for you 
 all; do you want victon/f it is even 
 Christ who giyeth you the victory, 
 and ■'"'rough mm we are " more than 
 conquerors ;" ' do you want access to 
 a tbrone of grace ? it is found in 
 Christ's blood for " the chiefest of 
 sinners" in " the once-for-all sacri- 
 fice for sins," the Just bleeding in 
 the room of the unjust. 
 
 Let it also be remembered, how 
 entire and real is the fitness of the 
 blood of Christ to do all this. It 
 was required, before forgiveness 
 could possibly be extended, that 
 there should be suffering and satis- 
 faction. Man couQ svffer, but man 
 could not satisfy : God could satisfy, 
 but God is impassible, and cannot 
 suffer; and therefore God and man 
 were mysteriously united into on?, 
 combining the suffering of man and 
 the satisfaction of Grod, and forming 
 that perfect Saviour in whose bloody 
 sacrifice we obtain mercy and for- 
 giveness. God in Christ has come 
 so near to me that I can see him, 
 hear him, handle him, receive him, 
 believe in hinn ; and yet he remains 
 so holy that the whole godhead may 
 be seen to dilate in every feature, 
 infinity to unfold itself in every act, 
 and the majesty of heaven to bum 
 in every thought and beam forth 
 in every lineament of that incarnate 
 Lord [renewed sensation] ; and, my 
 friends, if this, in verity, be the 
 fact, if we have so perfect — so com- 
 plete — so fit a Saviour — adequate 
 
iJw. V. Cummin^.'] sacrifice op the mass. 
 
 in all respects to our condition and 
 our ■wants, whai can be the use of the 
 Mass ? What is the use of an 
 unhloodm sacrifice additional to this? 
 in -whioh, if God's Word is truth, 
 there can be no remission, no possi- 
 bility of forgiveness! The Scrip- 
 tures assert, that in Christ " there 
 is full f org;iTeness" — ^what ■want ■we 
 more? — ^tnat he is made unto us 
 " ■wisdom, and righteousness, and 
 samotifioation, and complete redemp- 
 tion." Scripture asserts, that his 
 " riches are unsearchable, his mercy 
 infinite and -without end." 
 
 And now, my dear friends, I 
 implore you to flee for mercy to 
 this all-perfect Saviour — this pre- 
 cious blood — this alone propitiatory 
 saciiflce. Place not your trust, I 
 beseech you, in the ■wretched fancies 
 of fallible and guilty mortality ! If 
 the Mass be a "p-opitiatory sacrifice 
 for the sins of the Hviag and the 
 dead," ■what need could ■there be of 
 the agonies of the cross — the suf- 
 ferings of Gethsemane — and the 
 gloom of the grave ? I have proved 
 it " a blasphemous fable, and a dan- 
 gerous deceit." It is a bramble, that 
 ■will sting yon, but wiH not shelter 
 you. Like " Jonah's gourd," it 
 may give you the momentary peace 
 and exhilaration of a night under its 
 ephemeral foliage; but ■when the 
 terrible morning of eternity shall 
 s^waUo^w up the shades of time, it 
 will wither as a flower beneath the 
 baleful simoom, and leave you shel- 
 terless, save by the freezing shadows 
 of despair, and amid the stormy 
 terrors of the judgment. But Christ 
 is that fruitful and spreading ■vine, 
 ■whose branches extend over the 
 face of the firmament itself, and 
 under which all nations are destined 
 to find repose, refreshment, and 
 peace. He is that " Rook of ages," 
 on which if the sinner build, " the 
 gates of heU shaUnot prevail against 
 Eim." The Mass — miserable mi- 
 
 micry ,of truth! — ^is but a lamp 
 ■without oil, a bone ■without marrow, 
 a type ■without an adtitype, a system 
 unillumin ed by a sun. It is a vox 
 et ifrieterea nihil. If you speak to 
 it, it cannot ans^wer — ^if you pray to 
 it, it caimot help you — n you lean 
 on it, like a treacherous reed it 
 ■will give way — if you put your 
 trust in it, it ■will deceive you; 
 but if you pray to Christ, he will 
 sustain you — if you go to his bosom, 
 and seek rest ■within his eternal em- 
 brace, " neither life, nor death, nor 
 principalities, nor powers, nor height, 
 nor depth, nor any other creature, 
 shall be able to separate you from 
 the love of God which is in Christ 
 Jesus your Lord." 
 
 My dear Roman Catholic friends, 
 in lookiug to the Mass for pardon- 
 ing mercy and eternal life, you 
 are looking for bread ia a sack of 
 chaff, for " grapes on thistles ;" 
 Kke the prodigal, you are feeding 
 " on the husks that the swine 
 should eat," instead of the true 
 bread that can satisfy the wants 
 of hungry and immortal souls : 
 in seeking salvation from the Mass, 
 you are searching for truth amid 
 falsehood — ^for th* living among the 
 dead. [Sensation.] Oh! tell me 
 not, my friends, of its splendour, 
 its pomp, and its ceremony. These 
 may cheat your senses, but they 
 cannot save your guilty souls. Do 
 not gratify sense at the risk of hell. 
 Its truthfulness or its erroneous- 
 ness is a matter of life eternal, or 
 of death eternal. Let no syrens 
 charm you to ruin. I call on you 
 to burst through every obstacle 
 obstructiug your path to truth — 
 and, as the warriors in David's army, 
 when David and his soldiers were 
 athirst, rushed onward through the 
 ranks of opposing Philistines, and 
 drank of the wefl of Bethlehem — 
 even so must you break away from 
 the repressive influences of the best 
 
220 
 
 SACIUriOE OF THE MASS. 
 
 and the dearest to your hearts, and, 
 at all hazards aad at every sacrifice, 
 reach the living waters that flow 
 from the Rock of ages, and refresh 
 yourselves with them, that you may 
 no more thirst, but find them wells 
 " within you, springing up to ever- 
 lasting Kfe." I call on you to rise, 
 like Samson, from the lap of Rome, 
 that wanton and voluptuous Dalilah, 
 and, bursting the bonds of her 
 tyranny and the snares of her en- 
 chantment, assert your right to the 
 number of those " freemen whom 
 the truth makes free." Hear the 
 voice of the Son of Grod, who, in 
 his own tones of majesty, said, 
 " Lazarus, come forth !" and from 
 that moment corruption shall start 
 into beauty — death shallquioken into 
 life, and the deep and dismal super- 
 stition in which you have been so 
 long entombed shall explode, and 
 the living light of glorious day 
 shine into the champers of your 
 souls. Hear the voice of the Son 
 of God, saying to every victim of 
 error, " Come forth!" and though 
 the bandages are left on your 
 eyes, and the cerecloth trappings 
 of the tomb be bound about your 
 (inabs, and a monatain load of gmlt 
 press upon your souls, yet the same 
 voice which said, " Come fokih" 
 win cause mountains to give way, 
 will unloose your bands, and let 
 you taste the sweets of Protestant 
 and sanctified freedom. 
 
 I call your attention, in conclud- 
 ing, to one soKtary text, applicable, 
 because destructive, to the Mass ; it 
 is embodied ia three words, but 
 'those three words alone are enough 
 to sink the Mass into the depths of 
 a sea of shame. But before I do so, 
 as I have just TecoUeoted another 
 reference and semblance of argu- 
 ment, I must very briefly advert to 
 it, if only to satisfy Mr. Irench. 
 He adduced Malachi i. 11, as a 
 proof of the Mass. The word is 
 
 [4,'^ "Evtainj 
 
 not mentioned in this text, nor any 
 thing to intimate the existence or 
 characteristic features of tbe Mass. 
 
 "Por from the rising of the sun to 
 the going down thereof, my name 
 shall be great among the Gentiles, 
 and in every place incense shall be 
 offered to my name, and a piire 
 offering ; for my name shall be great 
 among the heathens, saith the Lord 
 of Hosts." 
 
 In the Douay, or Roman Catholic 
 version, it is as follows : — 
 
 " Por from the rising of the sun 
 even to the going down, my name is 
 great among the GrentUes, and iu 
 every place there is sacrifice, and 
 there is offered to my name a clean 
 oblation, for my name is great among 
 the Gentiles, saith the Lord of 
 Hosts." 
 
 He says the word "sacrifice," 
 which is the- Douay rendering, 
 means the Sacrifice of the Mass. 
 Now I demand evidence, not ipse 
 dixits, for this. I quoted Scripture 
 passages which describe this sacri- 
 fice, telling him "the sacrifices of 
 God are a broken and contrite 
 spirit," and Heb. xiii. 15, 16 : — 
 "By him, therefore, let us offer the 
 saonflce of praise, contiriually. To 
 do good and to communicate, forget 
 not, for with such sacrifices God 
 is well pleased." Rom. xii. 1: — 
 "Present your bodies living jsacri- 
 fices." 
 
 These, I assert from Scripture 
 evidence, are the various sacnficea 
 which Malaohi alludes to. Where, 
 I ask, in the New Testament, are 
 any of then, referred to the Mass ? 
 My friend says it is the Mass. He 
 cannot produce one New-Testament 
 text which declares that it is the 
 Mass ; which is no mean disproof of 
 his assertion. I "have produced 
 several texts which show that spiri- 
 tual sacrifices are the only sacrifices 
 offered up by "the kings and priests 
 to God" of the New Testament 
 
^». /. Cumminff.'\ SACfiiMOE op the mass. 
 
 economy. In this passage the two 
 Hebrew words are nmpD and mra ; 
 Miktar, rendered by_ thp Donay, most 
 improperly, " sacrifice," — by our 
 version, most correctly, "iaoense," 
 as Gesenius testifies, who defines 
 it a " burning of incense ;" and 
 Mincha, rendered, well enough, ia 
 the Donay, "oblation," or, ia our 
 version, "offering." In reference 
 to the first, Miktar, the Church of 
 Rome re iders it " sacrifice " in this 
 terse, where she has a purpose to 
 serve, but in Exodus xxx. 1, where 
 she can have none, she properly 
 renders it " incense." Why this dis- 
 tinction? Why "sacrifice," most 
 unscholiir-like, in one place, and 
 " incense," correctly, in. another ? 
 In Exodus XIX. 7, " sweet-smelling 
 incense" is the just rendering of 
 tne Hebrew according to the Donay, 
 and also of the Greek 6v\u,a[La, The 
 Church of Rome, destitute of any 
 evidence for the Mass, has perverted 
 and mistranslated this text. She 
 refuses to bring her dogmas to 
 God's word. She prefers to tor- 
 ture God's word to suit her super- 
 stition. The other word, nn:D, is 
 rendered fairly in her version, but it 
 never can refer to the propitiatory 
 Sacrifice of the Mass, for m Isaiah 
 Ixvi. 20, the very same Hebrew 
 word is rendered "gift" in the 
 Donay Bible, and is applied to 
 persons, who are not, surely, tran- 
 substantiated into the Mass? Isaiah, 
 Ixvi. 20 (Donay version); "And 
 they shaU bring all your brethren 
 out of all nations," for a gift to the 
 Lord" (mn'';m«o). The word is 
 applied to " a meat and drink offer- 
 ing," and accompanied certain sa- 
 cnfioe, as may be seen in Lev. ii. 
 1, 4, 5, 11. It never meant propitia- 
 tftry sacrifice, or was typical oi the 
 Mass. It is asked, how there can 
 be a clean offering, if not the Mass ? 
 The Greek word in the Septuagint 
 is KaOapos, {clean) and hence the 
 
 321 
 
 offering is clean in the same sense 
 in which the offerers are clean. 
 John XV. 3.— "Now are ye clean 
 through the word which I have 
 spoken to you." The offering and 
 offerer are clean through theblood 
 and intercession of Christ. 
 
 I have already shown you that 
 Tertullian (Against the Jews, p. 188. 
 Paris, 1675,) expressly declares it 
 to be sacrifices spiritual, not propi- 
 tiatory : " Thus, therefore, spuri- 
 tual sacrifices are meaiit, and « 
 contrite heart is shown to be an 
 acceptable sacrifice to God; — ^that 
 Theodoret (on Epist. to Heb. x. 795) 
 declares, " Here is one and the same 
 priest, and he effected the forgive- 
 ness of sins, and needs no othet 
 sacrifice;" and that Justyn knew no- 
 thing whatever of the Mass Sacrifice. 
 I have shown you that the litur- 
 gies he quoted are, from internal 
 evidence, and the testimonies of 
 Dupin and Tihnont, historians of 
 the Roman Catholic Church, down- 
 right forgeries of the fourth and 
 sixth centuries, and his arguments 
 from them as' strong as if taken 
 from Walter Scott's novels. I have 
 shown that the Bible exterminates 
 the Mass with more speed than the 
 touch of Ithunel's spear ; and my 
 opponent has not adduced one 
 statement from that blessed book 
 for the Mass which will bear to be 
 looked at. If the Mass be not a 
 bloody sacrifice, then, according to 
 Scripture, there can be no propitia- 
 tion for sins by it, and therefore the 
 Council of Tient speaks without 
 truth, and anathematizes • without 
 charity. There is but o»« Priest who 
 made propitiation under the New 
 Testament, and everliveth, although 
 behevers are called spiritual priests, 
 to offer up spiritual sacrifice ; and 
 therefoie the proud claims and very 
 existence of the priests of the 
 Church of Home are a grievous in- 
 fliction on earth. 
 
SACEIMCB OP THE MASS. 
 
 Having thus cursorily glanced at 
 all my fflend has said, as I have 
 refuted it again and again, I now 
 recur to a text of three words which 
 rings the deaih-kuell oe the 
 Mass — and these words our Lord 
 uttered on the cross, as recorded in 
 John xix. 30, when he bowed his 
 head to die : — " It is einished !" 
 Then death was spoiled of its sepul- 
 chered treasures, and denuded of his 
 iron tyranny over the faithful in 
 Christ. ■ Sin, its sting, was then 
 exhausted for ever ; thero the bars of 
 , the grave were burst open, and the 
 sheeted dead arose the first fruits to 
 God and to immortality ; then, the 
 cup of God's red wrath against sin 
 placed in his hands, which we, with- 
 out him, should have had to drink 
 throughout all eternity, the Son of 
 God emptied to its very dregs, and 
 replenished with eternal blessings, 
 so that there remained not one drop 
 of wrath, " no condemnation to them 
 that are in Christ Jesus," when he 
 said, " IT IS EMisHED 1" AH types 
 are now merged in the glorious anti- 
 type; all prophecies fulfilled — all 
 signifloant ceremonial scattered, for 
 
 " IT IS EINISHED ! " KobcS of 
 
 righteousness washed in his tears, 
 and made perfect in his shed blood, 
 are ready. There is a righteousness 
 for you all, so pure, so perfect, that 
 a martyr's best blood would defile 
 it, and a saint's purest tears would 
 blemish and bedim it — a righteous- 
 ness which can receive no addition 
 from man, and no deterioration 
 from devils : nothing that earth 
 can do can add to its splendour, 
 and nothing that Satan can try can 
 depreciate its worth. The eye 
 that detects spots in the azure 
 heavens, and infirmities in the burn- 
 ing cherubim, sees no flaw in this 
 garment. Arrayed in it, you stand 
 before the Holy One "without 
 spot or blemish,' or wrinkle, or any 
 6uch thing." It was woven by 
 
 \y,h Tkemng. 
 
 the fingers^ washed in the blood, 
 sprinkled by the tears, and perfumed 
 by the merits of God's incarnate Son 
 Hear me. It is free and is given 
 gratis to you all. No half-erowm 
 are required for it — no. pounds, as 
 for Masses. It is given to every 
 guilty sinner that seeks it from 
 Christ, " without mone^ and without 
 price." "Ye are saved through 
 faith — not of yourselves — it is lie 
 gift of God." "It is einished," 
 and all propitiatory sacrifices are 
 now completed ; all the functions of 
 the Aaronitic priesthood are come 
 to a close ; each hoary prediction is 
 met — each sacred emblem illumined. 
 The Baptist heralded his gloiy when 
 it broke forth first in Palestine, and 
 Christ himself at last announces 
 his triumph and his entrance into 
 glory when he uttered these words. 
 Sin's iron sceptre was trampled 
 on and overthrown ; and therefore, 
 wherever you behold a' priest of the 
 Chvprch of Rome assuming and 
 claiming propitiatory functions, let 
 faithfulness and mercy prompt you 
 to whisper in that priest's ear the 
 thrilling tones-^" It is einished !" 
 When you see the many priests of 
 the Church of Rome offering up the 
 many and ofttimes repeated sacri- 
 fices, which can never take away 
 sin. Oh, whisper it affectionately in 
 their ears, if peradventure it may 
 sink deep into their hearts — " It is 
 
 EINISHED !" " ThBEB IS NO MOEB 
 
 OEEEBDfGr EOK SIN." Christ is oar 
 indestructible Altar. Our Priest, 
 Christ, never dieth — our Sacrifice, 
 Christ, is, once for all, ever effica- 
 cious to the uttermost : aU altars, 
 in the strict sense, besides Christ, 
 are blasphemous and useless. When 
 you hear of poor Roman OathoUcs 
 going to a priest of the Church of 
 Rome to get absolution and forgive- 
 ness of sins, as a Judicial act, reply, 
 When Christ died, eternal absolution 
 was obtained; for he said, "It is 
 
Rev. J Oumming.'] invocation ov saints and angels. 
 
 I!" In the beautiful -words 
 of the Douay Bible, " He exhausted 
 siu," he made an end of sin, and 
 brought in eternal righteousness. It 
 is, therefore, my fervent and my 
 heartfelt desire, that these words — 
 " It is riNisHED !" may be em- 
 blazoned in the pages of the Missal, 
 engraven on all the altars of the 
 Roman Catholic Church — may re- 
 verberate throughout the dome of 
 St. Peter, and return in piercing 
 echoes from the chambers of the 
 Vatican. I pray that these words — 
 "It is finished ! " may be engraven 
 on the heart of my learned antago- 
 nist, and on the hearts of his two 
 reverend friends. " It is hnished" 
 — there is no more need for Masses 
 — no more need for propitiatory 
 sacrifice of any kind. " We have a 
 Saviour who has an unchangeable 
 or intransmissible priesthood;" a 
 
 223 
 
 sacrifice of eternal efficacy, to which 
 heaven and heaven's ambassadors 
 beckon you. I implore you, my 
 dear Eoman Catholic hearers, to 
 remember these words ia all time oi 
 your wealth, in all time of your 
 tribulation, in the hour of death, 
 and in the day of judgment: — 
 " Thekb is no moee ofpeeing por 
 SIN ; IT is riNisHED !" [Strong 
 sensation, which soon subsided, by 
 reason of the dispersion of the 
 meeting.] 
 
 [The reverend gentleman's hour 
 here terminated.] 
 
 We certify that this Report is faith- 
 ' correctly given. 
 J. Gumming, M.A. 
 D. Pbench, 
 
 Barrister-at-Lma. 
 
 Chas. Maybiiby Abchbb, 
 
 R^orter. 
 
 EiriH Evening, Tuesday, April 16, 1839. 
 
 SUBJECT : 
 
 INVOCATION OF SAINTS AND ANGELS. 
 
 Hev. J. Gumming. — You are all 
 perfectly aware that the subject 
 propounded for discussion this even- 
 mg is what is called the Doctrine of 
 the Invocation, of Saints. As I 
 stated on a previeus occasion, I had 
 wished that my learned antagonist 
 had commenced the discussion by 
 laying before you a succinct and 
 exphoit account of the views enter-' 
 tamed by his own church upon this 
 question. However, by an arrange- 
 ment previously made, it has de- 
 volved on me to open the discussion, 
 and to explain, upon the one hand, 
 what are the views of the Pbo- 
 ■iBSTANT Church on this subject, 
 and, upon the other, what are the 
 views of the Church of Kome. In 
 
 directing your attention to the in- 
 vocation of Saints, you are not for 
 one moment to imagine that we 
 Protestants would cast one single 
 aspersion on the redeemed that are in 
 the presence of the Lamb, or would 
 depreciate by one solitary iota the 
 convictions you may have of their 
 holiness, and the happiness that 
 flows from that holiness ; I only 
 feel that peril of momentous extent 
 is near when even a saint is placed 
 between Christ and the siimer, or 
 when the one is located in the stead 
 or in the room of the other. 
 
 My learned friend complained, 
 you vnU remember, last evening, 
 most bitterly, at my having the last 
 speech. Eor the two first evenings 
 
INVOCATIOH or 
 
 [5ih Eoentng 
 
 he had twice the last speecL It hap- 
 pened, however, hy the rotation of 
 last week, that I should have the 
 disadvantage or advantage ; and he 
 actually deprecated, deplored, and 
 almost wept over my havmg the last 
 speech, remiadiagme of apoor school- 
 hoy afraid of the flogging which his 
 master is about most severely to 
 inflict upon him for his naughty 
 behaviour. [Laughter.] All this, 
 I must say, betrayed something 
 excessively childish and ridiculous, 
 and unworthy the talents and re- 
 sources of my learned friend. Now 
 to-night I congratulate yoM that you 
 have the last speech [to Mr. E.]. 
 My friend has the last speech to- 
 night; instead, however of deeply 
 deploring this, though I am satisfied 
 when I have it, I rqoice, I am per- 
 fectly pleased with the arrangement, 
 because I am sure, that when a 
 mouse shall have bitten through a 
 large file, or ground it to powder 
 vrith its teeth, then my friend will 
 have destroyed the scnptuial argu- 
 ments which I shall adduce upon 
 the subject. [Laughter.] I do not 
 at all deplore his having the last 
 speech, because I am persuaded, 
 that in this most glorious book there 
 are so many, and so overwhelming 
 arguments, that aUthe last speeches 
 of a Bellarmine would be utterly un- 
 able to demolish ortoneutralizethem. 
 The doctrine of the Peotbstajtt 
 Chtiiich may be explained to you 
 in one single text taken from the 
 Epistle to the Ephesians, ii. 18 : — 
 
 "TESaVSE. HIM WE HAVE ACCESS 
 BY ONE SeIKIT TO THE PaTHEK." 
 
 Here is the doctrine of the Pro- 
 testant Chtjech, that through the 
 Lord Jesus Christ we have access, 
 by the aid of one Holy Spirit, to 
 the presence of God the Eather. 
 The doctrine, however, of theChujrch 
 of Bxame is of a very different cha- 
 racter. Ve hold the saints in hea- 
 ven to be holy and infinitely happy. 
 
 beyond the reach of tears, which so 
 often bedim the eye in this lower 
 world, inaccessible alike to sorrow 
 and to death, which so often cast a 
 bKght over all that is bright and 
 beautiful below ; but we hold at the 
 same time, that we most honour the 
 saints, when we leave them to the 
 uninterrupted enjoyment of their 
 happy and their holy homes, and 
 seem to magnify and to honour him, 
 through whom the saints attained 
 unto glory, in whose blood they 
 have washed their robes, and made 
 them white. 
 
 The doctrine of the Roman Ca- 
 tholic Church (as on former occa- 
 sions) I deduce, not from the writ- 
 ings of private doctors, nor from 
 the opimons of my learned anta- 
 gonist, but from the authorized and 
 accredited documents and standards 
 of the Church of Rome. I there- 
 fore read the CouncU of Trent on 
 the Invocation of Saints. Sess. xxv. 
 " The holy synod commands the 
 bishops and others, who have the 
 office and care of instruction, that 
 according to the custom of the Ca- 
 tholio and apostolic Church, which 
 has been received from the fijst 
 ages- of the Christian religion, the 
 consent of the holy fathers, and the 
 decrees of the sacred councils, they 
 make it a chief point diligently to 
 instruct the faithful concemiog the 
 interoessionand Invocation of Saints, 
 the honour of relics, and the lawful 
 use of images ; teaching them that 
 the saints, reigning together w''.th 
 Christ, offer to ,God their prayers 
 for men ; that it is good and useful 
 to invoke them wim supplication, 
 and on account of the benefits 
 obtained from God, through his 
 Son Jesus Christ" — (they make it a 
 chief point, mark you, diligently 
 to instruct the faithful concerning 
 the intercession and Invocation ol 
 Saints, the worship of relics, and 
 the lawful use of images) — "but 
 
Sev. J. Gumming^ , 
 
 they •who deny that the same, en- 
 joying eternal happiness in heaven, 
 are to be invoked; or virho assert 
 either that they do not pray for 
 men, or that the invoking them that 
 they may pray for each of ns, is 
 idolatry ; or that it is contrary to 
 the word of God, and opposed to 
 the honour of the one Mediator 
 between God and man ; . or that it is 
 foRy either by woed ok thotight 
 to supplicate them who are reigning 
 in heaven, are impious m their 
 opinions. 
 
 Cajjon. " If any shall teach or 
 think contrary to these decrees, let 
 him be accursed/' 
 
 Those who assert- that it, is foUy 
 to pray to, iy word or thoughti or to 
 suppKeate, the saints reigning in 
 heaven, are impious ; that is to say, 
 if my learned opponent, by word or 
 in thought, or m heart, pray to St. 
 Peter, or St. John, or St. lames, or 
 any other saint ; and. if I assert 
 that it is a piece of perfect foKy to 
 pray to- a samt in heait or in mind, 
 the Council of Trent teUs me it is 
 an impious opinion. Roman Ca- 
 tholics, therefore, hold the opinion, 
 you observe, that it is perfectly 
 right to invoke the saints, not only 
 . by word but by thought. 
 
 I now read to you from Pope Pius 
 the Eourth's Creed, to which every 
 Bxjman Cathohc subscribes. " And 
 likewise that the saints, reigning 
 together with Christ, are to be 
 venerated and invoked, and that 
 they offer prayers to God for us, and 
 that their relics are to be venerated." 
 
 Now, I believe the Church of 
 B.ome does not attach the full mean- 
 ing that persons read in the classics 
 may attach to the words veneror and 
 invoGO. I find that, by classical 
 references, veneror and invoco are 
 used to denote " supreme wor- 
 ship," but the Church of Rome 
 disclaims latria, and holds that 
 veneror and invoco denote here wor- 
 
 SAINTS AUD ANGELS. 
 
 225 
 
 ship of Boulia, or inferior worship. 
 Yet the words are not so used. 
 Ovid says, Nostraqite fallaci vene- 
 ratus numina cuUn: "Having wor- 
 shipped or venerated our go(£ with 
 counterfeit worship." 
 
 Cicero says. Quern invocant omnes 
 Jovem : " Jupiter whom aE call on 
 and worship." 
 
 The use of these Latin words, 
 you observe, in classic writers is cal- 
 culated to mislead ; but the Church 
 of Rome attaches to them her 
 own peculiar meaning. She says : 
 The worship of Zatria is to be 
 given to God, and in the Sacrament 
 of the Lord's Supper to the Host ; 
 but the worship of Doulia, or an 
 inferior worship, is to be given to 
 .saints. This is her explanation, 
 which it is useful to keep before us. 
 We admit, let me premise, that it 
 is perfectly legitimate for one saint 
 upon earth to solicit the prayers of 
 another saint. I think it is per- 
 fectly Christian and perfectly scrip- 
 tural, and in full consonance with 
 apostolical practice, to ask of this 
 assembly, (those who are Pkotest- 
 ANTS and Christians indeed,) that 
 they would pray for my learned 
 opponent, that he may be turned 
 from darkness to light, and brought 
 to a knowle&e of the glorious 
 Gospel of the Son of God. 
 
 KrA, therefore, when my friend 
 brings forward his arguments on the 
 Invocation of Saints, take special 
 notice whether th^ cpply to one 
 saint on earth calling on another to 
 pray for him on earth, or whether 
 they apply to a saint on earth apply- 
 ing to a saint in heaven. Now, I 
 wish this distinction particularly to 
 be impressed on your minds — ^that 
 we hold it to be folly apostolical 
 for me to ask you to pray for Mr. 
 Prench, or for one samt to say to 
 another, "Pray for me, that God 
 would forgive my sins, and sanctify 
 my heart, and strengthen and sustain 
 
225 
 
 INTOCATION OS 
 
 .5th Moefdng. 
 
 me ty Ms mi^lity power;" and, 
 theretore, you will wateh my learned 
 antagoirist (who is so skilled ia 
 " special pleading" from his habits 
 at the bar) lest he should confound, 
 either by accident — ^for I am sure 
 he would not do it wilfully — but by 
 a slip — a lapsus linguas — a saint on 
 earth, ashing another samt on earth 
 to fray for him, and a saint on earth 
 praying to a saint in heaven, that he 
 ioould plead and iniercedefor him. 
 
 Now, the next poiat of caution 
 which I giye you, and to which I 
 feel it important that I should direct 
 your attention, is, it may be or it 
 may not be — ^I have no wish to dis- 
 
 Eute the supposition — that saints iu 
 eaven pray for saints on earth, 
 though 1 hare nothing which leads 
 me to believe it and no Scripture 
 leads me to reject it ; only you wiU 
 remember that this question does 
 not enter iuto the present subject 
 of controversy — ^it maybe that saints 
 around the throne do lift up their 
 prayers and their petitions for the 
 martyrs that bleed and suffer upon 
 earth, for the soldiers who contend 
 for " the faith once delivered to the 
 saiuts." I say it may be so ; but 
 whether so or not, is not the ques- 
 tion. The question is not whether 
 saints in heaven may intercede and 
 piead for saints upon the earth, but 
 (as defined in the Creed of Pope Pius 
 the Pourth) whether we on earth 
 are to invooate, and venerate, and 
 pray to the saiuts that are feigning 
 in heaven. These are most impor- 
 tant distinctions, because if you do 
 2ot keep them clearly before you, 
 you may be involved m some little 
 confusion by my opponent con- 
 founding " the thmgs which differ," 
 or seeing no distinction upon points 
 which are literally "wide as the 
 poles" asunder. I do also trust 
 that he will enter upon S(?ripture 
 trouhd ; at aU events, if, according 
 to his former custom, he take a deep 
 
 plunge into the fathers, I have a 
 sufficient dose about the fathers in 
 reserve for him; I expect his repe- 
 tition of the practice. Let me add 
 here, that the practice of my anta- 
 gonist is exactly the_/»c simile of an 
 experience of my own, when a pupil 
 at a grammar school. Between 
 school hours I sometimes went out 
 fishing, and in some deep waters I 
 was teazed by eels in this -ffsi^: 
 when I thought the hook had caught 
 the eel, and made sure of him as 
 I dragged him up to the clear deep 
 water, the fish instantly took a 
 plunge, dived into the mud, and 
 raised so great and turbid a com- 
 motion in the water that I could 
 catch a glimpse of him no longer. 
 PLaughter]. This is just the prac- 
 tice of my learned antagonist. When 
 I have him by the hook and pull 
 him upwards — the instant that I 
 get him to the pellucid waters of 
 the word of truth, he takes a plunge 
 forthwith into the muddy waters 
 of the fathers, and dives directly 
 out of sight. [Laughter]. But I 
 hope to-night he will appear in dear 
 water, I trust he will show himself 
 in the light of day ; I hope he will 
 bring the matter, not to the contra- 
 dictory and conflicting fathers, who 
 are anathematized (many of them) 
 by the Council of Trent, and who 
 have committed themselves on the 
 most monstrous points ; but to the 
 grand standard which we admit in 
 common — " The law aud the 
 TESTIMONY," for if it be not ac- 
 cording to that, it is because there 
 is no truth in it. 
 
 Our doctrine on the subject of 
 saints, as weU as on all forms of 
 worship, is the apostolical and scrip- 
 tural doctrine. Now, mark! ours, 
 I say, is the ancient apostolical 
 faith. I therefore require for proof 
 apostolic documents. I will tave 
 nothing beneath this — I will have 
 nothing contrary to this. All argu. 
 
Rev. J. 
 
 •] 
 
 SAINTS AUD ANGELS. 
 
 227 
 
 ments taken from any other source 
 than from the pre-emdnently apo- 
 stolic fathers, the apostles and evan- 
 gelists, I hold to be of no more 
 value than the pattering of the rain- 
 drops on the roof, or the rays of the 
 sun that shine through the windows 
 of this room; I sot they are nothiag 
 to the suhject. IwiU have none of 
 these nineteenth century notions ; 
 no,notevensisteenthcentiirynotions 
 — yea, none of these tenth century 
 notions — I repudiate even the third 
 century notions. I am of the ancient 
 Church; I appeal to antiquity; I 
 appeal to the apostles and evamge- 
 iSts ; for theirs, and theirs alone, 
 are the ancient and primitive views 
 of the Church, ajid of the worship 
 of the Church, as inspired by the 
 Spirit of God. I repeat it, aU 
 modem innovations I utterly reject ; 
 aU. upstart opinions of the tenth, 
 eleventh, twelfth, second, third, 
 fourth, and fifth centuries I utterly 
 repudiate. I must have an appeal 
 made to those ancient and irrefra- 
 gable standards, the apostles and 
 evangelists, as they speai the oracles 
 6f God. 
 
 In looking at those standards, 
 when I think of the immense space 
 occupied in the worship of the 
 Church of Rome by the names of 
 saints, by their virtues, their merits, 
 and the deeds they have performed, 
 and when, on the other hand, I look 
 at the word of God, I am perfectly 
 surprised with the utter absence of 
 anything like saint-Doulia, or saint- 
 homage or worship. When I go to 
 the word of God, I can find no 
 parallel whatever to the saint-wor- 
 ship or saint-Doulia, that obtains 
 in the usages and liturgies' of the 
 Roman Church. In the first place, 
 looking at Scripture, I find most 
 solenm warnings against forsaking 
 " the fountains of living waters, and 
 hewing out cisterns, broken cisterns, 
 that can hold no water." I find the 
 
 most plain and expKeit prohibition 
 against trusting to " an arm of 
 flesh," followed by one of the most 
 awful and solemn anathemas in the 
 word of God : — " Oursed, is the man 
 that trusteth in an mm of flesh." 
 I find in the word of God, repeated, 
 and most pressing reasons, for not 
 worshipping the saints in heaven. 
 I find, I say, explicit statements 
 against worshipping the saints in 
 heaven, and I moreover find a main 
 charge brought against the whole 
 heathen world, viz. that " they wor- 
 shipped the creature," or honoured 
 and served the creature, "more than 
 the Creator." In short, from the 
 alpha of Genesis to fclve omega of 
 Revelations, I find one ibud, simul' 
 taneous protest against trusting to 
 "an arm of flesh," and drinking 
 from " broken cisterns ," against 
 " serving or honouring iiie creature 
 beside or above {ivapa) iat Creator." 
 I admit that the Churcii of Rome 
 (as I have stated before) recognises 
 a distinction between Jhulia and 
 Latria. Yet the words of Dr. Dela- 
 hogue, are, "The worship of saints is , 
 a, religious s&mBS:." I wish you par- 
 ticularly to remember, that Dela- 
 hogue's declaration is, that religious 
 service is to be given to saints. 
 Now, I admit the distinction she 
 makes, and I perfectly comprehend 
 the meaning she attaches to that 
 distinction — but is it not rather a 
 perilous position, that the fact, 
 whether a man may be gnilty of ido- 
 latry, or may worship the living and 
 the true God, hangs on the scho- 
 lastic splitting of a straw, on the 
 mere delicate distinction of two 
 Greek words which are used con- 
 vertibly throughout the sacred Scrip- 
 tures ? To show you that these tioo 
 words, namely, AouXfueo, the Greek 
 verb, which Rome applies to saints, 
 and AouXcia, the Greek noun, which 
 the Church of Rome appUes to 
 the worship of saints, are used to 
 
228 
 
 INVOCATION OF 
 
 \5ih M/ening. 
 
 denote the highest possible warship 
 that can he given to the Almighty, 
 I ■wil quote Qie following passages 
 of Scripture : — 1 Thess. i. 9 : hvToi 
 yap irepi fifiav aifayeKKovaiv otroiav 
 iliToiov exoiiiv irpos vptas Kai jrffls 
 eVecrrpei^are wphs tov ©cov otto t&v 
 fiScHKav Sovkeveiv Qea (aVTi Kal 
 oKriBtva : " Por they themselves 
 show of us what manner of enter- 
 ing ia we had unto you, and how 
 ye turned to God from idols to seme 
 (or worship dov\eietv) the Uving and 
 trije God." Again, I quote Mat- 
 thew vi. 34 ; ov hvvaaBe &(& hov- 
 . \evet,v KOI fiapMva : ''Ye cannot 
 serve (or worship, 8ov\eyeiv) God 
 and mammon." Again, I quote 
 Romans sii. 11 : ra Kvpia SovXev- 
 ovT€s : " Not slotlifol in business ; 
 fervent in spirit, sebving (or wor- 
 shipping, SovXevoyres) the Lord," — 
 the identical word, you observe,, that 
 the Church of Eome applies distinc- 
 tively to the worship of saints. 
 
 Again, to prove this, I quote 
 Eph. vi. 7 : Mer evvoias bovXevovres 
 (oDserve) r^ Kvpu^ : " With good 
 will doing sbkvicb (with the under- 
 standing is meant, worshipping, 
 or giving DouHa to the Lord) as to 
 the Lord, and not to men." So 
 that, you see* while I admit that 
 the Church of Rome does attach a 
 modified jneaning to Doulia, and 
 that she applies Latria only to the 
 loftiest kind; of worship given to 
 the Almighty, yet I do not admit 
 that Scripture recognises any saeh 
 distinction. We ^ of us allow 
 that ciml homage is to be paid to 
 men, according to their ranis aad 
 their degrees m civil society. We 
 admit that if an angel came down 
 from heaven, radiant with all its 
 unseen glories, and eloquent of all 
 its highest and its hohest visions, 
 that we should give that angel the 
 highest possible dvil homage that 
 we could, give to any creature ; but 
 I would say, " Jjet my right hand 
 
 forget its cunning, and my tongue 
 cleave to the roof of my mouth," 
 before I would fall down and wor- 
 ship that angel, or give him the 
 remotest part of that worship 
 which is God's. 
 
 There are some passages some- 
 times quoted by the Church ot 
 Rome, to wliich I will refer — 
 which, however, like all passages she 
 brings forward from the word of 
 God, to elucidate her favourite 
 dogmas, just militate the other way. 
 When Cornelius the centurion came 
 into the presence of Peter, Cor- 
 nelius " fell down to worship him." 
 — What was Peter's reply? If 
 Peter had been a Roman Catholic, 
 he would instantly have said, " Xon 
 may, ComeMus, give me the worship 
 of Doulia, only keep up a careful and 
 exact distinction between Doulia 
 and Latria; tiiat is, when you fall 
 down to worship me, you may give 
 me all the homage that is involved 
 in Doulia, but you must not dare to 
 give me an atom of the homage or 
 me worship that is represented by 
 latria." But was this the fact? 
 No. Peter was too sound and scrip- 
 tural a PnoTESTANT. He instantly 
 replied to the centurion, " Stand up, 
 for /alsoflsm a man;" (Acts x. 26.) 
 — Slanguage which implies, that it is 
 below the dignity, even of fallen 
 man, to bow his knee and give reli- 
 gious worship to a creature. Another 
 passage, quoted by the Church of 
 Rome, is from the 19th chapter 10th 
 verse of the Book of Revelations, 
 where St. John says, when he saw 
 the angel, "I fell down at the feet 
 of the angel." Now, mark you, 
 John was instructed in the truth of 
 Christianity. If he had been a 
 Roman Catholic, he would have 
 known perfectly well that there is a 
 a distinction between Latria and 
 Doulia ; and therefore Mr. Prench 
 never will presume to assert that 
 the apostle fell down and offered to 
 
Sev. J. Cummiitff.] 
 
 SVe the aneel the worship of Latria 
 e must have offered the angel 
 the worship of DouMa, knowing that 
 the angel was a creatuiej though an 
 exalted one. What was the angel's 
 reply? Did he say worship me 
 with Doulia? No; but, "See 
 thou do it not: I am one of thy 
 feEow-servants; worship God." Ob- 
 serve, then, I call upon Mr. French 
 to give an explanation of this pas- 
 sage—" John fell down at the feet 
 of the angel, intending to give him 
 Doulia — ^ he was a Roman Ca- 
 tholic, for an apostle never could 
 have intended to give him the 
 greater worship of Latria); but the 
 reply of the angel was, "See thou 
 do it not," i.e. do not worship me 
 at all, either with Latria, or Doulia. 
 I can almost anticipate the reply 
 of my learned antagonist, and I 
 will therefore give it him. 
 
 In the catechism of the celebrated 
 Dr. Doyle, or rather the " Abridge- 
 ment of ChristianDoctrine," revised 
 by Dr. Doyle, this very passage is 
 quoted, m the fifty-second page 
 of the " Abridgement of Christran 
 Doctrine," revised by the Eight 
 Rev. James Doyle, D.D. we read:; 
 " Quest. Is it lawful to honour, 
 angels and sauits ? Am. It js, with 
 Doulia. — Q. How do you prove it? 
 A. Krst, out of Joshua, v. 14, 15, 
 where Joshua did it. Secondly, 
 Apocalypse, xxii. 8, when St. John 
 did it" (!!) (though the angel had 
 once before wJHed nim not to do it 
 in regard of his apostolical dignity) 
 "xix. 10. And I fell down to 
 adore before the feet of the angel 
 who showed me these things.' "■ 
 There is a very curious explanation 
 here, as to the circumstance that 
 John did worship and as well as 
 fell down to do it ; but the angel 
 said, " See thou do it not ;" however, 
 it seems (according to this) that 
 John did it, though the angel com- 
 manded him not. | 
 
 SAINTS AND ANGiSlS. 
 
 22!/ 
 
 My antagonist speaks of " orien- 
 talism" and figures, and metaphors, 
 and private expositions of texts ! If 
 ever there was an " oriental" and 
 metaphorical interpretation of a 
 text, it is this of the Right Rev. 
 Dr. Doyle. And, mark what follows 
 this text, which the Doctor quotes 
 for the worship of Doulia to angels 
 (Rev. xix. 10.) "And he (the 
 angel) saith unto me, These are 
 the true sayings of God. And I 
 fell at his feet to worship him." 
 Here the Doctor stops. This is 
 the close of Dr. Doyle's quotation 
 of the text; for the, worship of 
 Doulia to be given to angels and 
 saints. The text, as I have said, is 
 (Rev. xix. 10), beginning, " I fell 
 down at his feet to worship him." 
 But Dr. Doyle omits the remainder 
 of the verse, which is its vital 
 part, and is as follows : " See thou 
 DO IT NOT, I am thy feUow-servant; 
 worship Gfod." I know my learned 
 antagonist win reprobate the con- 
 duct of Dr. Doyle ; I know he will 
 come to the conclusion that that 
 Church is afraid of the Mght of 
 heaven which would thus dare to 
 tamper with the oracles of God — 
 to bring forward a portion of a text 
 that seems to militate in favour of 
 a superstitious dogma, and to with- 
 hold that very portion ol the text 
 which at the same time declares 
 that dogma to be unscriptural. The 
 exposition given in the Douay Bible 
 of the same passage, is — " St. Au- 
 gustine is of opinion, that this angel 
 appeared in so glorious a manner 
 that St. John took liirn to be God, 
 and gave him divine honour. St. 
 Gregory thinks he did not offer him 
 divine honour." By the bye, this 
 is the unanimity of the fathers ! ! 
 The "glorious" St. Augustine say- 
 ing one thing, and the divine St. 
 Gregory the reverse ! — and yet, my 
 friend professes in his creed that he 
 win not interpret one text of the 
 
330 
 
 INVOCATION OP [5tt Evening. 
 
 Word of God, unless aocording 
 to the unanimous consent of the 
 fatheis ! 
 
 The next passage ■which I shall 
 adduce on this subject is from the 
 Gospel of St. Matthew, 4th chapter, 
 where you will recollect Satan said 
 he would give Christ " all the 
 kingdoms of the world, if he would 
 fall down and worship him." Now, 
 I do not dispute one moment whe- 
 ther the worship was of Dotilia or 
 Latria, for our Lord's reply seems 
 to be utterly exclusive of the pro- 
 priety of paying, any religious wor- 
 ship or service to any creature 
 whatever. " It is written, thou 
 shalt WOKSHIP the Lord thy God, 
 and him onh/ shalt thou serve." 
 [A slight whispering on the plat- 
 form.] 
 
 Rev. J. CuMMiirG (in continu- 
 ation)^— Aud the words (it is whis- 
 pered to me) Doulia and Latria are 
 both used in that very place. If 
 this practice of the worship of saints 
 (and I understand "worship" 1o be 
 a correct translation of AovXeta), if 
 it be so profitable as the Council of 
 Trent declares it to be, is it not a 
 most extraordinary thing that the 
 Trentine Council should be more 
 discerning on what is conducive to 
 the interests of man, than the omni- 
 scient God? Is it not a most ex- 
 traordinaaj fact, that if this doctrine 
 be so profitable to man, that in the 
 whole word of God there is not 
 one instance of a saint on earth 
 invooating a saint in heaven, or one 
 solitary command to the saints on 
 earth to invocate and worship the 
 saints that are in heaven ? Is not 
 this a strong presumption against 
 the practice? I know there are 
 quoted a few more passages which 
 bear very little upon the subject ; 
 but as they are brought forward 
 by doctors of the Roman Catholic 
 Church, it may help my friend to 
 come with more soM argument, if 
 
 I just draw the teeth of all infer- 
 ences on these brought forward by 
 the bishops of his Church, and show 
 you that they have no foundation; 
 m them. One passage ia not unfre- 
 quently referred to — ^Book of Reve- 
 lations, i. 4 : " Grace be unto you, 
 and peace, from Him which is, and 
 which was, and which is to come, 
 and from the seven spirits which 
 are before his throne." On this 
 passage I cam shut, Mr. !Prench's 
 mouth at once. The " seven spirits" 
 have been considered by the Church 
 of Rome to be angels or saints 
 giving aid or assistance to men. 
 Now, I do not wish to enter on the 
 exposition ,of the seven spirits. 
 Instead, I ■'hall close his lips at 
 once by an extract from the writings 
 of his glorious St. Augustine ; who 
 uses the following, wouds: — "Which 
 Holy Spirit is chiefly commended to 
 us in Scripture by the sevenfold 
 number, as well in Isaiah ssiatht 
 Apocalypse, where the seven spirits 
 are most evidently set forth on 
 account of the sevenfold opera- 
 tion of one and the same Spirit." 
 "Hence, also, the Holy Spirit is 
 commended to us by the number 
 seven." — Exposition of Psalm cl. 
 vol. iv. p. 1693. 
 
 Now, that completely shuts Mr. 
 JrencWs mouth on the interpre- 
 tation of that passage ; and if he 
 dare -venture to declare that these 
 spirits are seven angels or saints, J 
 !will bring forward the " glorious " 
 Augustine, and show that the father 
 is pleased to differ toto cmlo from 
 'his patron and pupU. I have 
 another passage from another father. 
 This [opening the book] is the 
 illustrious Gregory Nazianzen, from 
 41 Orat. p. 733. " The precious 
 spirits were called »e»e«. For Isaiah, 
 I think, was accustomed to call the 
 operations of the Spirit, spirits." I 
 have another extract still, confirma- 
 tory of the very same view, from 
 
Rev. J. Chimming.] 
 
 another father. St. Ambrose — 
 Exposition of Gospel of St. Liike, 
 torn. i. p. 1498. " Treasure up, 
 then, as a good money chaaiger of 
 the Lord, the Lord's discourses, 
 his chaste discourses, the sUrer 
 tried by the fire, and purified by 
 
 THE SEPTrFOSM SPIBIT." 
 
 Now, observe, my learned anta- 
 gonist must not dare bring forward 
 that passage in favour of the wor- 
 ship of saints. Three fathers give 
 the Protestant comment. The next 
 passaM is Rev. v. 5, where we have 
 described to us the four living 
 creatures with harps in their hands, 
 and the four-and-twenty elders, 
 with harps and vials full of odours, 
 which are the prayers of saints; and 
 they sang a new song, saying, 
 " Worthy is the Lamb," and so on. 
 Now, in the first place, is there arte 
 particle ia this about the Invocation 
 of Saints ? Here is a symboHc book 
 called the Book of Revelations, or 
 Apocalypse — here is a symbolic 
 vision of the four-and-twenty elders, 
 and the four living creatures — who 
 are represented with •" harps," the 
 insignia of kings, and with vials, the 
 insignia of priests, and as rejoicing 
 and singing the song, "Worthy is 
 the Lamb," — is there one particle of 
 precedent here for the Invocation of 
 Saints? Can the most acute and inge- 
 nious intellect deduct or sublimate 
 from ttiis glorious vision, one jot of 
 Scripture commendatory of the duty 
 of invocating and venerating saints? 
 There is nothing on the question. 
 It is simply a symbolical vision, 
 representing the Church of the 
 redeemed in the figurative manner ; 
 in which aE these things are de- 
 scribed in the Book of Revelations, 
 just in the same manner as Christ 
 IS represented with " seven eyes." 
 Many figurative kinds of phraseo- 
 logy are used to denote the truths 
 in this book ; and if you admit the 
 fact that the whole of this book is 
 
 SAINTS AND ANGELS. 
 
 331 
 
 symbolical, this representation must 
 be syrabolio also. In the last place, 
 there is not one partite as to vene- 
 rating saints in the whole passage ; 
 so that if my friend should bring 
 forth that passage in behalf of the 
 dogma, he wiUbe trying his old 
 trick of extracting moon-beams 
 from cucumbers. [Laughter.] 
 
 Again, I quote Rev. viii. 3. I 
 quote this passage because I know 
 my antagonist intends to do so. We 
 read here that the inspired penman 
 saw an angel with a golden censer, 
 and in that censer presenting the 
 prayers of aU saints. The Church 
 of Rome maintains that this angel is 
 one of the angels that are about the 
 throne. If so, he must have been 
 possessed of the great attribute of 
 omniscience, to know the prayers of 
 all; he must further be possessed 
 of omnipotence, to be able to pre- 
 sent themo//; he must, in short, 
 (even from the admission of the 
 Church of Rome) excel, in his re- 
 sources and capabilities, all the 
 angels and archangels that are m 
 heaven; nay, he must even rise to 
 the lofty level of the godhead, be- 
 fore, in one golden censer, he shall 
 be able to present all the prayers of 
 all the saints that have lived from 
 the time of the apostasy of Adam to 
 the present hour. But, my friends, 
 when we refer to the word of God 
 for an exposition of what is meant 
 by the angel, I read of " the angel of 
 the covenant." I read of "the angel 
 Jehovah," or as it is hteraUy trans- 
 lated, the Jehovah angel — ^the words 
 in Hebrew being literally " Jehovah 
 sent, or the messenger." I read of 
 that angel who. is called "the Lord 
 of Hosts ;" who is the mighty God, 
 the High-priest, who went out once 
 arvear, and took a golden censer, in 
 which he presentod aU the prayers 
 of the children ul Israel ; and there-, 
 fore, at once I see, from reading 
 the expositions and parallel refer- 
 
232 
 
 iNvocAiioN or 
 
 [oik Evening. 
 
 ence of the sacred volume from the 
 Jewish types and solemnities, that 
 this angel with " the golden censer 
 was the Lord Jesus Christ, who has 
 entered once into the holy place/' 
 and whO) in " the golden censer " of 
 his glorious atonement, perfumed 
 by the intercession and efficacy of 
 has mediation, presents the prayers 
 of all who come to God through 
 him. " The golden censer " formed 
 part of the fvmiiture of the Holy of 
 Holies, which none but the High- 
 priest could enter or interfere with. 
 
 My learned antagonist admits 
 that Christ has the high alid the 
 exclusive prerogative of being the 
 great High-priest, and therefore 
 that the golden censer is his pro- 
 perty, and that the presentation of 
 all the prayers of saints in that 
 golden censer is his high and his 
 malienable prerogative. Several 
 other passages have been quoted by 
 the church of Rome from the Apo- 
 calypse, totally irrelevant to the 
 question. You may rest assured 
 . that the Chuich of Kome was very 
 hard driven when she had recourse 
 to these and similar texts, because, 
 really, if any impartial reader refers 
 to the passage, there is not one par- 
 ticle about the worship of saints, 
 not one atom or iota as to in- 
 vocating, venerating, or honouring 
 saints, or anything to lead you to 
 suppose that the Invocation of 
 Saints is of a scriptural and an 
 apostolical usage. 
 
 I have stated that the practice is 
 unprofitable, and next that it is un- 
 scnptural. I have to reply, in the 
 third jplace, that the practice of in- 
 vocatmg saints appears to me to be 
 the most useless and most unneces- 
 sary process that a poor deluded 
 sinner can possibly nave recourse 
 to. Every blessing has heretofore 
 been obtamed without it. I find in 
 the sacred Scriptures, that there 
 never was a saint in the history of 
 
 the Church, in troubles so deep, 
 and in dangers and adversities so 
 overwhelming, that from the depth 
 of his danger and his sorrow his 
 prayer did not rise to God, and, 
 through Christ alone, bring dovm 
 an answer in mercy and in peace. 
 When Daniel, even- in the lion's 
 den, lifted up his prayer to the most 
 high God, that prayer pierced 
 through 'the pondrous stone of the 
 dreary sepulchre, and rose "as on 
 eagles' wings," and reached the ear 
 of his Pather and his God; and 
 Daniel was mercifully delivered, 
 while the monarch who imprisoned 
 him was eventually overthrown. The 
 prayers of Shadrach, Meshech, and 
 Abednego rose from the burning 
 and the fiery furnace, and "one like 
 the Son of man" heard them. 
 Prom the glens and gray moors of 
 my native mnd, where martyrs bled 
 to seal their faithfulness to Christ, 
 and their protest against the errors 
 of thfe Roman Catholic Church, and 
 from our desert hiUs and dreary 
 moss-hags, the prayer of many 
 saints arose Kke incense at mom 
 and at eventide. He that watched 
 over them listened to their cry, and 
 delivered them from the cells of the 
 Inquisition, and from the auto da 
 fes of Spain, from'the dungeons that 
 imprisoned the martyrs, and from 
 the flames that consumed them. 
 Prayer has ever reached God, 
 through Christ, without the inter- 
 vention of saints, and -brought down 
 answers of mercy and comfort. The 
 prayer of Solomon, through Christ, 
 for vrisdom, was instantly answered. 
 The prayer to God of the holy 
 Blisha, for a double portion of that 
 spirit which inspired Elijah, was 
 instantly heard and answered. The 
 prayer of Moses, as he wrestled in 
 spirit upon the mountain-top, pre- 
 vailed immediately with God, and 
 the armies of Joshua were victorious 
 as they fought with their foes in the 
 
Rev. J. Cummi'itg.'] 
 
 SAINTS AKD AUGELS. 
 
 233 
 
 valley below. These instances of 
 sacred writ are proof, in addition to 
 many I can adduce from the long 
 catalogue of those saints who are 
 recorded by the pen of truth, to 
 confirm me in this most consolatory 
 position, that if a sinner stood but 
 one inch on this side hell, and even 
 at its very lintels prayed to God, ia 
 the name of Jesus, for mercy and 
 acceptance, all the devils in heR 
 could not keep down that prayer, or 
 prevent its rising and receiving a 
 return. In the 107th Psahn I find 
 many most beautiful instances of 
 prayers addressed to God, through 
 Jesus, , being directly replied to. 
 107th Psalm, and, 13th verse : — 
 "Then fhey cried to the Lord in 
 their trouble, and he saved them 
 out of their distresses." 
 
 [The reverend gentleman was 
 here interrupted by some whisper- 
 ing, which he explained as follows : 
 — "I am reminded that in the,Dduay 
 version it is the 106th Psalm; in 
 our version it is the 107th."] 
 
 Again, I read the twelfth verse 
 of the same psalm (cvii.) : — " There- 
 fore he brought down their heart 
 with labour; they fell down and 
 there was none to help them; Then 
 they cried unto the Lord in. their 
 trouble, and he saved them out of 
 their distresses." At the eighteenth 
 verse, "Their soul abhorreth aU 
 manner of meat, and they draw near 
 unto the gates of death. Then they 
 cry unto the Lord in their troubles, 
 and he saveth them out of their dis- 
 tresses." Twenty-sixth verse : — 
 " They mount up to heaven, they g:o 
 down again to the depths, their 
 soul is melted because of trouble. 
 Then they cry unto the Lord in 
 their trouble, and he bringeth them 
 out of their distresses." 
 
 Indeed I might go on and quote 
 psalm on psalm, in which the dis- 
 tressed and the perplexed are repre- 
 sented as calling unto God alone, 
 
 and God is represented as imme- 
 diately delivering them. I refer, in 
 the next place, to the great Apostle 
 of the faith, the Lord Christ Jesus ; 
 and if my learned antagonist will 
 stow one sohtary instance in which 
 Christ rejected the prayer of the 
 sinner, and told him to go to some 
 saint to help him, I wiH give up the 
 controversy. When the blind came 
 to Christ he opened their long-closed 
 eyes ; when the deaf came to him, 
 he unstopped their ears ; when the 
 halt came to him, at his touch they 
 leapt and danced like the -roe; he 
 stood by the silent and mouldering 
 dead, and said, " Come forth ! " and 
 Lazarus burst open the bars of 
 death, and looked forth from the 
 cerements of the tomb, at the anim- 
 ating mandate of his Lord ; the 
 repentant thief upon the cross, in 
 dying accents, prayed to the Re- 
 deemer, and received at once a 
 glorious assurance ; Mary Magda- 
 lene, whose bosom had "been the 
 abode of seven demons, came to 
 Christ, and he immediately forgave 
 and sanctified her; and, lastly, I 
 find his most comprehensive and 
 attractive declaration is — Rim that 
 Cometh, %uto me-, Iioill in no wise cast 
 out. I call on you all, my Roman 
 CathoHo friends, to ponder deeply 
 on that sacred sentiment — Bim that 
 com^th unto me, I mill in no wise cast 
 oat. You may, my dear friends, be 
 cast out if you go to angels, for 
 neither angels or saints have one 
 thousandth part of the mercy of 
 Christ ; but if you go to Christ at 
 once, you find it to be true — " him 
 that cometh unto me, I wiU in no 
 wise cast out." The complaint 
 which again and again reverberated 
 through the streets of Jerusalem, 
 and which was accompanied by the 
 tears of the Redeemer, was — Te will 
 not come to me, that ye may have life. 
 So that if we look, my friends, at 
 the various instances recorded in 
 l2 
 
234 
 
 INVOCATION OF [5iA Eoening, 
 
 sacied Scripture, if we look at the 
 instances of our Lord's reception 
 and treatment of those who came to 
 him, we shall not find one particle 
 of warrant or necessity for the prac- 
 tice of invooating saints, or for 
 POTing them any religions service. 
 I find, indeed, an express prohibition 
 of it in the Epistle to the Coloss. ii. 
 18 : — "Let no man beguile you" — 
 this is addressed most impressively 
 and emphatically to Roman CathoKcs 
 — "Let no man beguile you of your 
 reward in a voluntary humility and 
 worshipping of angels, intrudiug into 
 those things which he hath not 
 seen, vainly puffed np by his fleshly 
 mind." I read it recorded of angels 
 again — "Are they not all ministering 
 spirits, sent forth to minister to 
 them who shall be heirs of salva- 
 tion ?" but not one word as to our 
 paying any religious service to them 
 whatever. 
 
 My next position (which I have 
 barely time to enter upon) is, that 
 this saint-worship, or Daulia, is not 
 only unscriptural, unprofitable, and 
 unnecessary, but that it has actually 
 degenerated into the grossest and 
 most fanatical superstition that can 
 possibly be imagmed. I call your 
 attention to the fact of Don Carlos 
 having appointed the Virgin Mary 
 Generalissimo {/) of his army, and 
 placed it under her special protec- 
 tion. [Laughter.] It is also known, 
 that various saints have been as- 
 signed to various places, and these 
 places are regarded as specially safe, 
 and invested with special immunity 
 from the vengeance of heaven, and 
 the judgments of earth, through 
 their intercession. I may mention, 
 too, that at the tomb of Becket 
 (you read this in every English 
 history) at Canterbury, there was a 
 shrine for Becket, another for Mary, 
 and another for Christ ; and 100/. ! ! 
 were found cast into Becket's beg- 
 ging box, IQl. ! I into the Virgin's, 
 
 and — ! ! into Christ's ! — a very 
 impressive estimate of the practical 
 consequences of this doctrine ! 1 
 hold also in my hand [holding up the 
 book] a valuable book, exceedmgly 
 scarce, called the Life of St. Francis, 
 which is illustrated with pictures. 
 In the first place, it is not a book 
 entirely destitute of authority. It 
 was published in an age when there 
 was a strict censorship of books, 
 when all writings were studiously 
 prohibited that were judged un- 
 sound or unprofitablefor the faithful. 
 It is prefaced by testimonies of 
 popes and archbishops. This book 
 has the approbation of P. Herman- 
 nus Lisens, minister provincial, who 
 declares that "this book is printed 
 with type, illustrated with many 
 pictures, and is useful for exciting 
 the devotion of the faithful." It is 
 also signed by his reverence the 
 Archdeacon of Mechlin. Now, I 
 quote three passages from this work. 
 The first picture, you observe [the 
 reverend gentleman here exhibited 
 the picture, explaining it by various 
 motions of the hands], represents 
 Christ, seated on an elevated spot, 
 holding three darts in his hand, v?ith 
 which he is about to destroy the 
 world in indignation, and Maiy is 
 represented as sitting at his feet, 
 and praying that he would not de- 
 stroy the world; and it is added, 
 that in consequence of Marys / in- 
 tercession, the Son of God does not 
 destroy the world, when he had 
 otherwise intended it I ! This is 
 one practical fruit of this doctrine 
 of the Invocation of Saints. Oh ! ■ 
 what an insult to the blessed Re- 
 deemer, who poured out his blood 
 like water, who was buffeted, and 
 reviled, and spit upon; who came 
 from a height of glory to which an 
 archangel's wing never rose, and 
 descended to a depth of misery 
 which human plumb-line never 
 fathomed, in order that he miftht 
 
Rvv. J. Gumming.] 
 
 SAINTS AND ANGELS. 
 
 ^35 
 
 save and sympatliize with a guilty 
 world ; and yet Maiy is represented 
 as more powerful, more sympa- 
 thizing, more merciful than Christ ! 
 [Strong sensation, during which the 
 respective chairmen arose to order.] 
 I will show you another picture, out 
 of the same hook, which is " illus- 
 trated with many pictures," "for 
 the use of the faithful." Observe 
 [displaying the wood-cut to the 
 audience], here is a picture of St. 
 !Francis mmself, represented as en- 
 tertaining most familiarly many 
 birds, beasts, and fishes, who come 
 after him. [Laughter.] I quote 
 this as a proof of the legendary 
 
 , absurdities which this doctrine has 
 given rise to — nay, which Bx)me has 
 sanctioned, and to which she has 
 given her solemn seal wiAimprimatur, 
 and recommended as useful in the 
 devotions of the faithful. St. iFranois 
 is here represented as standing amid 
 elephants, oxen, cats, dogs, and 
 fishes, and preaching to them [loud 
 laughter], until a grasshopper begins 
 chirping, sings a song, perches him- 
 self upon his finger, remains there 
 as long as he wishes, hops off, 
 comes again, and sings and carols 
 most cheerily to the saint. [Re- 
 newed laughter.] The next picture 
 represents St. !Francis in heaven, 
 pulling souls out of purgatory. 
 [Holdmg up the picture amid much 
 laughter.] Here is St. Francis at 
 the top of the picture, dragging the 
 poor creatures out of the midst of 
 purgatory, which is set forth by 
 flames, depicted in spite of that 
 most glorious rescript — " Theblood 
 of Christ Jesus cleanses from aUj 
 sin. " I fear my time forbids me to 
 quote more of this to-night. 1 have 
 extracts from the Breviarf, and 
 extracts respecting other saints, to 
 bring forward by-and-by, illustrative 
 
 . of the gross and grovelling results 
 to whidithis practice of the Invoca- 
 tion of Saints has led. I«say the, 
 
 result of such a system has been to 
 debase men's minds, and to with- 
 draw them from all just notions of 
 God; especially from following ia 
 the _ footsteps of their Lord and 
 Saviour, and imitating his example 
 in suffering, in sorrow, and in death ; 
 and of riveting their Ejections, theii 
 hopes, and their intensest prospects 
 upon guilty creatures, on fabulous 
 saints, and to their expecting mercy 
 and salvation from them. How tho- 
 roughly, my friends, is all this doc- 
 trine met and overcome, when we 
 read we have " a great Bigh-priest ; 
 and that he ever liveth to make in- 
 tercession for us !" To show you the 
 completeness of such a representa- 
 tion,' remember the fact which I have 
 urged continually on your attention, 
 namely, that the high-priest went of 
 old into the temple once a-year, 
 bearing on his breastplate all the 
 names of the tribes of the children 
 of Israel; and when he went into 
 the holy place with these names en- 
 graven on his breastplate, he poured 
 forth his intercession, and offered 
 sacrifice and incense to the Lord, 
 and pleaded and interceded for them 
 that they might be saved. 
 
 Now the antitype of that High 
 priest (even by the admission of 
 our opponents) is the Lokd Jestjs 
 Chbist, the great High-priest of 
 our profession. He, my Koman 
 Cathoho friends, has gone into the 
 Holy of Holies, bearing the names 
 of the myriads of the vast human 
 family engraven on his heart, and 
 inscribed on the palms of his hands. 
 He has taken your case, your sym- 
 pathies, your sorrows, your sins, 
 and your wants iato the presence of 
 his Father, and the endearing lan- 
 guage recorded of him is — " Can 
 a woman forget her sucking child, 
 that she should not have compassion 
 on the son of her womb? Yea, they 
 may forget, yet wiE I not forget 
 thee. Behold I have graven thee 
 
236 
 
 INVOCATION OP [5tt &emng. 
 
 upon the palms of my hands'; thy 
 walls are oontmually before me." 
 " JFor the moimtains shall depart, 
 and the hills be removed, but my 
 kindness shall not depart from 
 thee, neither shall the covenant 
 of my peace be renewed, saith the 
 Lord, that hath mercy on thee." 
 And, moreover, he expressly asserts 
 (Ileb. vii. 35), he is " able to save, 
 to the uttermost, all that come to 
 God through him." He does not say, 
 " all that come unto God through 
 St. Peter, or through St.JPrancis, or 
 through saints or angels of any 
 kiud," but he is able to saVe, to the 
 uttermost, all that come unto God 
 TKBOTJGH HIM, at once through him, 
 seeing " he ever liveth to make 
 intereession for them." I had in- 
 tended to enter on some further 
 illustrations of the gross super- 
 stitious results to which this tenet 
 in the Greed of Pope Pius the 
 Eourth has necessarily led ; but as 
 I have scarcely a mmute more, I 
 can only call your attention to the 
 real dehnition of the doctrine which 
 is to be discussed. Remember, the 
 question is not whether one saint mm/ 
 ash the praters of another on earth, 
 nor is it whether a saint in heaven 
 may pray for saints on earth; but 
 the question is directly narrowed 
 to the limits within which the 
 Church of Eome has placed it : — 
 
 WSETHEII WE, ON EARTH, MAT 
 PKAT 10 SAINTS IN HEAVEN ? I 
 
 have no doubt my opponent will be 
 perfectly prepared to demonstrate 
 how it is, that St. Eranois, or St. 
 Peter, or any othet finite saint in 
 heaven, can hear a prayer offered up 
 at Edinburgh, another prayer offered 
 up in London — a prwer offered up 
 in Paris — a.prayer offered at Kams- 
 ohatka, and a prayer offered up 
 in the frozen regions of the north 
 — it remains, m short, for my 
 antagonist to show how the saints 
 can be finite, and yet have attri- 
 
 butes that proclaim them to be — 
 infinite ! 
 
 [The reverend,gentleman's houi 
 here terminated, after which some 
 little confusion ensued.] 
 
 Mt.Pkench. — Ladies and gentle- 
 men — ^It is a very old and a very 
 trite observation — ^Every man ha* 
 his peculiar talent. My friend, my 
 reverend friend, was evidently born 
 with a singular aptitude for oratory. 
 I was bom, if I may be allowed to 
 analyze my own little talents, with 
 an equally decided aptitude for logic. 
 I have listened very attentively this 
 evening for something hke close 
 reasoning on the part of my learned 
 friend, for that is what I am fond 
 of; and I can find, actually, no de- 
 ductions of any kind but what are 
 drawn as usual from " oriental" 
 premises. The learned gentleman 
 has told you, and has repeated it 
 over and over again since we com- 
 menced this discussion, that the 
 fathers of the Church are all at 
 variance with each other, or, to use 
 his own elegantly illustrative ex- 
 pression, " knocking their heads 
 continusjly against one another." 
 [Laughter, aim. cries of "Order."] 
 My answer to that is (and I will 
 prove it this evening), that upon 
 the doctrine of the Invocation of 
 Angels and Saints, as well as on 
 aU other fundamental tenets of our 
 PAITH, they are to our adversaries 
 most gaffingly harmonious and con- 
 cordant. And, my friends, if they 
 are found at any time " knocking 
 their heads" against anything, it is 
 with one combined, weU-compaoted, 
 well-directed battering-ram, "knock- 
 ing" them against the fortresses 
 and bulwarks of Protestantism. 
 Yes, I will prove to my friend, 
 gentlemenj this evening, as upon 
 former occasions, that upon funda- 
 mental points and vitals of Chris- 
 tianity,, there is the most perfect 
 
Mr. French^] 
 
 SAINTS AND ANGEtS. 
 
 2t7 
 
 agreement between them. But 
 there is a great degree of latitude 
 and of liberty allowed to Catholic 
 divines, as weU as to Catholic 
 laymen, ia interpreting those pas- 
 sages of the Bible, concerning which 
 no man can pretend to speak ora- 
 ctdarly except my learned antago- 
 nist, whom you have just this 
 moment heard, aaad whose infalli- 
 bility, when he rises with the Bible 
 in Ms hand, is so unquestionable. 
 [Laughter]. You have had a spe- 
 cimen of this his oracular self- 
 importance in his interpretation of 
 "the golden censer," of which he 
 gave you so lucid an explanation, 
 condescending even to bnng in St. 
 Augustine in corroboration of his 
 own intuitive vrisdom. For once, 
 therefore, "the execrable, the abo- 
 minable" St. Augustine (as he was 
 called by my learned friend, in my 
 presence, on a former occasion), for 
 once St. Augustine furnishes him 
 with an argument. Now, I take 
 (I would answer) — I take the liberty 
 of differing in my interpretation of 
 the passage in question from St. 
 Augustine, even backed as he is by 
 my reverend opponent ; for I have 
 that liberty (however my learned 
 friend may smile when I assert it) 
 with regard ' to everything figura- 
 tive, of which the meaning is not 
 oB^iously determined by the laws 
 of common sense. Every man, I 
 maintain, may interpret such a 
 passage as he Kkes, provided it does 
 not run counter to the established 
 articles of our faith. There are 
 many passages where St. Chrysos- 
 tom and St. Augustine interpret 
 variously, and we candidly acknow- 
 ledge it — and that is the grand dis- 
 covery my learned friend has made, 
 and which he boisterously calls their 
 "knocking their heads one against 
 the other" — ^but I will prove to him 
 that, on the Intocation of Angels 
 and Saints, as I have before proved 
 
 on Tbassubstantiation, and the 
 Sacbitice of the Mass, they are 
 all most harmonious and concurrent. 
 The learned gentleman has indulged 
 himscK in a little good-natui-ed 
 raillery, which certainly I have no 
 time to answer ; and if I had, I 
 could not answer it vrith that en- 
 viable kind of smartness which is so 
 conspicuous in aU the repartees of 
 my very grave-faced, laughter-loving, 
 reverend antagonist. Still, however, 
 when he alludes to my " long prac- 
 tice at the bar" — ^which is evidently 
 " oriental" [laughter] — in point of 
 allusion, I can only say, I wish my 
 reverend logician could prove that 
 I have had any experience at the 
 British bar entitled to be called 
 "long practice," as easily, as con- 
 vincingly, as satisfactorily as I wiD 
 prove to you, gentlemen, this even 
 mg, that the practice of the Invo 
 cation of Angels and Saints is ol 
 long standing in the Chubch of God. 
 The learned gentleman differs 
 from the fathers, and I also differ 
 with him, concerning the view taken 
 of three essential words, namely, 
 veneror, SouXeum, and adoro. He 
 has been taking dovrn the lexico- 
 graphers of ancient times, in order 
 to dive into the peculiar meaning of 
 the words. I have not had recourse 
 to the same labours — I have that 
 knowledge, thank God, in my me- 
 mory (the gracious gift of heaven), 
 without the necessity of pulling 
 dovpn immense folios to refer to. 
 That the word veneror in Latin is 
 frequently used in the elegant, clas- 
 sical sense to which he has affixed 
 these words, I do not deny ; but as 
 it is possible for a man to say in 
 good Latin veneror Deum, I adore 
 God, so it is good Latin to say, 
 veneror istum, senem, cujus capill^— 
 as my reverend, benevolent friend 
 characterized me in one of thejplay-- 
 ful, wanton sallies of his wit, m 
 which he alluded to a few gray hairs 
 
238. 
 
 INVOCATION OF 
 
 \5tA livening. 
 
 on my kead — mere stragglers, by- 
 the-bye [laughter] — veneror isttm, 
 senem cujm cc^pille sunt respersa 
 senectutis eanitie, I venerate that 
 old man whose locks are sprmlded 
 with the hoariness of old age. There 
 veneror would mean to venerate, not 
 to adore with religioiis worship. 
 
 Again, in illustration of this, I 
 would say AovXevqi, in the Greek, 
 comes from Aoi/Aoj, a slave, and, 
 taken figuratively, we say Aoi/Xeuo) 
 rois ypaii/iacn, I am a slave — ^that 
 is, I am passionately addicted — ^to 
 literature. My reverend friend has 
 said,-alludiag to some constantly- 
 revolving phrase, " I find this nine- 
 teen times iu the Bible." Well, he 
 is most indubitably a very accurate 
 counter ; and I also am going to tell 
 the learned gentleman, this evening, 
 oefore I sit down, wha/t I find m 
 that book, and I think that my 
 finding wiU be quite as good as any 
 discovery which he has been enabled 
 to make, in the spirituality of Ms 
 investigation, ay, and nineteen, times 
 better and more appropriate. 
 
 The learned gentleman next has 
 told you that I complained most 
 bitterly of his having fiie last word. 
 I did complain, but I did not com- 
 plain with any tears in my eyes, nor 
 with any symptoms of anguish in 
 my countenance. [Laughter]. I 
 complained that he was about to 
 use the last hour in giving me the 
 bitter ashes of declamation and of 
 ranting, instead of the solid food of 
 sound, logical argument. And, my 
 Mends, you must own we have had 
 a little specimen of it this evening. 
 The learned gentleman having a 
 large field of argument before Mm, 
 to which Protestants who are se- 
 riously bent upon the elucida,tion of 
 the truth generally turn, at least the 
 members of the Church of England 
 — Shaving, I say, such an extended 
 space ot argument before him, if 
 tile learned gentleman would confine 
 
 himself to that solely, and not fly 
 into the different extravagances and 
 vagaries said by one man and com- 
 mitted to writing by another, he 
 would show a much more honour- 
 able, straightforward way of acting ; 
 indeed, he would please his Ca- 
 tholic audience much more, and 
 indispose the nnrming part of his 
 Protestant audience much less. 
 
 My reverend politics-disclaiming 
 argumentator next observes, that 
 Don Carlos appointed the Blessed 
 ViBGiN generalissimo of his army. 
 Well, I say, that is most apparently 
 an oriental expression ; of which, 
 had .the learned gentleman only 
 chosen to have exerted his " orien- 
 tal" capacity, he would have told 
 you the meaning in a moment. 
 Why, the sole meaning is, my 
 Mends, since the reverend theolo- 
 gian will not condescend to explain, 
 that he, Don Carlos, put himself 
 and his army under the protection 
 of the Blessed VmeiN, that she 
 might intercede for binn with the 
 Lord of Hosts. But I do acknow- 
 ledge, at the same time, that in our 
 sober, unoriental English it would 
 be a very ina,ppropriate mode of ex- 
 pression; but the learned gentleman 
 must know, that what is perfectly 
 admissible according to the genius of 
 one language, is totally inafinissible 
 according to the genius of another; 
 and yet even here I cannot altoge- 
 ther acquit my learned friend of an 
 endeavour to wound the feelings of 
 Catholics, instead of arguing fairly, 
 when he descends to such observa- 
 tions. But, my Mends, the real 
 burden imposed upon me by my 
 learned and reverend friend this 
 evening (as it appears to me) is to 
 prove most satisfactorily to thisf 
 audience, that the doctrine of the 
 Livocation of Angels and Saints, 
 laid down by our divines and prac- 
 tised from age to age in the Catho- 
 lic Chuboh, is neither unprifiiiiive, 
 
Mi: French.l 
 
 SAIN'IS ASK iNGKLS. 
 
 239 
 
 nor vnscnptural. This, gentlemen, 
 is a burden very easy for me to 
 sustain, and I .shall not in the least 
 stagger under the weight of it, 
 ■whatever may be the anticipation of 
 my learned friend. Eut, my friends, 
 I shall proceed logically, not orato- 
 rioally, to prove that it is not ■unpri- 
 mitive — ^notwithstanding my learned 
 friend's vehement outbreaks against 
 appealing to the fathers. To provej 
 I say, that it is not wnprimitive, the 
 plain and obvious way that suggests 
 itseK to me, seems to be to open 
 the pages of history ; and, to prove 
 that it is not unscriptwal, the 
 equally plain and obvious way is to 
 open the pages of Scrvptme. The 
 learned gentleman — ^if he could con- 
 trol me, if he could play the tyrant, 
 as he is wishing to do secretly now, 
 ■would say. Away vrith the fathers, 
 throw them to the bats and to the 
 moles, and come to Scripture ! I 
 answer him like a bold Briton, I will 
 not. You shall not control me; 
 I will chalk out my own liae of 
 walking, and vrill not be obstructed 
 by any undue, imperious interfer- 
 ence. This is the mode, gentlemen, 
 which I shall adopt to confute my 
 learned adversary m his attempt to 
 impress on your minds that the doc- 
 trine of the Invocation of Angels and 
 of Saints, as well as other funda- 
 mental tenets of our HoLr Catho- 
 lic RELiGiosr, are nothing more 
 than so many pious frauds and 
 specious delusions — [Interruption]. 
 (feeally there is such a noise it is 
 impossible to proceed.) [The Chair- 
 men having restored order, the 
 learned gentleman continued] — are 
 so many pious frauds and delusions 
 imposed upon the belief of Chris- 
 tians in some dark, ignorant and 
 unlettered age. This task which 
 1 have chalked out to myself re- 
 quires, my friends, some little eru- 
 dition ; but the way I shall take to 
 display this little erudition, which 
 
 I may have been able to amass by 
 laborious study, is quite the re- 
 verse to that which is generally 
 adopted— (Really there is such a 
 noise that I cannot go on. Is it 
 done on purpose ?) 
 
 [On the restoration of order, the 
 learned gentleman proceeded.] 
 
 I shaU pursue a course quite the 
 reverse of that which is gencsrdly 
 adopted by my learned friend in his 
 argumentation, which is that of 
 perplexing and darkening every 
 thing, which it is the province of 
 leaming to simplify and elucidate. 
 He tells me that " I am going (I 
 have noted down his words) to take 
 a deep plunge iato the eather? " 
 and he uttered the expression, gen- 
 tlemen, with a visible 'kind of tre- 
 mour all over his body. [Laughter, 
 and. cries of "Order."] -ReaUy, 
 gentlemen, my ingenious and ta- 
 lented friend, my hyperbolically ora- 
 torical friend, seems to be labouring 
 under a very serious spiritual disease. 
 You have all heard of that malady, 
 that hard word called Hydrophobia, 
 — I am rather inclined to designate 
 my friend's disease as one of a much 
 more alarming nature, namely, that 
 spiritual malady which I would call 
 Pantophobia [laughter] — that is, a 
 cold, fiiuddering, inherent dread of 
 touching the pages of the pathbhs ; 
 an affection of the soul, wliich I am 
 afraid is perfectly irremediable, or, 
 in plain English, incurable. How- 
 ever, gentlemen, I have no doubt — 
 at least 1 give liim the credit of it 
 — that he is perfectly satiated with 
 these fathers ; but, whatever may 
 be his nausea as to that, water of 
 benediction which flows so beauti- 
 fully through the pages of the 
 fathers, savouring as it does, in its 
 every drop, of the pages of the 
 Bible, I must inform him that I 
 have not as yst liad my fuH glut of 
 it. They, the lathers, who are such 
 a bugbear to my learned, spiritually 
 
2i0 
 
 INVOCATION OF 
 
 [5M Eeenhui. 
 
 diseased friend, form a very lucid 
 and a very bnlliant point in the 
 map and panorama of every amial 
 and event which ecclesiastical his- 
 tory spreads before the eye of the 
 spectator. Their pages must he 
 opened, if we wish to know what 
 was " the antiquity of ancient 
 days ;" and, when we shall have 
 referred to them, it shaR be my 
 business to show how tiiey coincide 
 ■with the pages of the Bible. And 
 mark, my friends, I wish to deal 
 candidly and equitably with rsg anta- 
 gonist — a dealing which I have 
 never jet experienced from his 
 courtesy. If I were to defer the 
 fathers tiU the end, as I have the 
 last speaking this evening, and I 
 have the opportunity of giving him 
 " a good scourging," to use his own 
 expression, [laughter] — if I wish to 
 act unfairly I should reserve the 
 FATHEKS to the last. But no, I 
 win marshal them forward in the 
 very van of the dispute, and then 
 1 wiE appeal solely to the Bibie 
 My friend cannot comjilain of my 
 making that appeal, inasmuch as he 
 knows all the Bible by heart, and 
 can take any ingeniou;* advantage 
 over me in that way. There is a 
 masim, my friends, of the great St. 
 Augixstine, who flourished in the 
 year 391, a father whom Calvin 
 called, though so much disesteemed 
 by the Calvinists of the present day, 
 Jmelissimtis testis antiquitatis (for 
 I must hammer that into the mind 
 of my learned friend by mere dint 
 of thundering repetition) — " the 
 most faithful witness of all anti- 
 quit/' — it is an observation of the 
 great St. Augustine, which may be 
 very appropriately called to mind on 
 the present occasion, that "what 
 the , CHiraiCH: has observed in all 
 times and in. all places, is ofAsos- 
 loLicAii Tbadition." I really must 
 repeat it once again — "That what 
 the Church has observed in all times 
 
 and in. all places is of Jpostolical 
 TraditioH." 
 
 Now, my friends, amid these ob- 
 servances, flourishing " in all times 
 and in all places," I shall clearly 
 prove to you this evening, not after 
 the manner of my "oriental" friend, 
 by supposition, and presumption, and 
 arbitrary deduction, but by a series 
 of close and solid argument, that 
 the practice, of Invocating Angels 
 and Saints is one of the most con- 
 spicuous. As to the antiquity of 
 the practice, it is, gentlemen, sus- 
 ceptible of very easy proof. So far 
 from the doctrine being new or 
 uaheard of, or the ofFsprmg of one 
 of those convenient dark ages, that 
 very convenient, unfathomable, in- 
 explorable depth into which it is the 
 custom of Protestants to plunge 
 every event headlong (the date of 
 whidi, it is said, cannot be ascer- 
 tained, if it seems to make against 
 the antiquity of their doctrine) — so 
 far, I say, so far from being the 
 offspring of one of those dark ages, 
 as the learned divines of the Church 
 of England and Scotland most un- 
 leamedly contend, we find, on the 
 contrary, on openir^ the page of 
 ecclesiastical historians, that the 
 man who first had the daring to 
 raise his voice against it, namely, in 
 the year 376, struck the wiole 
 Church of God with horror and 
 astonishment. Who that is really 
 versed in ecclesiastical history — 
 (and I will give my friend credit 
 for being well versed in it— too well 
 versed in it, indeed, to be willing to 
 pour forth his treasures to this 
 assembly upon it)— who, I say, that 
 is really well versed in ecclesiastical 
 history, has not heard of the name 
 Vigilantius, that impious innovator, 
 who, at that early period, namely, 
 in the year 376, firstcalled the doc- 
 trine of the Invocation of AjfGEts 
 and Saints in question ? Who, on 
 the other haaid,lias not heard of the 
 
.] 
 
 SAINTS AOT) ANGELS. 
 
 241 
 
 illustrioTis St. Jerome, of whom it 
 has been the fashion among aU the 
 learned dimes of the Church of 
 England to speak ■with sentiments 
 of the deepest reverence ? Who, I 
 repeat, has not heard of St. Jerome, 
 who has handed down to all poste- 
 rity, in his beautiful writings, the 
 sense which the Church enter- 
 tained on that subject? The Chuuch 
 of God, you wUl there find, arose 
 with one voice in every part of the 
 world, against the shameless effron- 
 tery of V igilantius, the counterpart 
 of my learned friend, who had the 
 audacity to stigmatize the dootnne 
 of the Invocation of Angels and 
 Saints as a base depravation of 
 Christianity. The words of the 
 illustrious St. Jerome are^" If," 
 says St. Jerome (in refutation of his 
 slander upon the Church), " tlie 
 apostles and martyrs, whilst still in 
 their iodies on earth, could pray Jbr 
 others at a time when they ought to 
 have b^en solicitous concerning their 
 own welfare, how much more natural 
 is it that they should do so now, after 
 the dbtainment of their crowns, their 
 victories, and triumphs ! Paul, the 
 apostle, tells zis, that two hundred 
 three score and sixteen souls in the 
 
 prayers ; and am I to helieee, that 
 the moment he was dissolved and 
 began to be with Ghrist, that then his 
 voice was hushed for ever ? that he 
 had no longer the power even 
 breathe a prayer for those who had 
 been evangelized by his preaching ? 
 In one word, am I to believe that the 
 dog Vigilantius living is of more 
 power and energy than that lion, the 
 mighty Paul, dead?" — St. Jerome's 
 Epistle. 
 
 And here let me ask of any candid, 
 impartial hearer, who is neither 
 prepossessed nor prejudiced against 
 our doctrine bytne wild declama- 
 tion of my l^fcned friend, how- 
 ever elegant an^verflowinglymeta- 
 
 phorical it may be (for I give him 
 credit for knowing how, in a most 
 practised manner, to feed the minds 
 of his audience vrith tropes and 
 figures in substitution for argu- 
 ment),let me ask, I say, of any calm, 
 unbiassed auditor, who is not capti- 
 vated by mere sound, if Vigilautius, 
 who, according to all history, was in 
 the whole tenor of his Kfe a stain 
 and foul blot upon the features of 
 Christiaaiity, is to be listened to, 
 when he calls the glorious doctrine 
 of the Invocation of Angels and 
 Saints superstitious, in preference 
 to the 'lUjistrious Jerome, who 
 declared, at the same period, tha* 
 it had been uninterruptedly trans- 
 mitted.from the apostles? Is there 
 any one acquainted vrith ecclesias- 
 tical history that would prefer the 
 testimony of Vigilantius to that of 
 St. Jerome ? Is there any one who, 
 judgingprofoundly on these matters, 
 would put on one side of the scale 
 Vigilantius and all the heretics who 
 have since lived, with my orthodox 
 friend on the right [Rev. Mr. C] 
 throvra over all as a make-weight 
 [Laughter] — is there any one, I 
 ask, who would dare to say that aU 
 combined would preponderate, when 
 " the dead lion" the illustrious St. 
 Jerome, is thrown in on the other ? 
 But although at this epoch, at which 
 St. Jerome tells us that the Invo- 
 cation of Angels and Saints was the 
 established usage over the whole 
 Christian world; although this was 
 the practice es .abhshed in that age, 
 stUl, my friends, the Catholic takes 
 not his stand solely at the threshold 
 of the fourth century in order to 
 prove the primitiveness and the 
 antiquity of the practice, not daring 
 to uplift his eyes to any preceding 
 century, and thus to trace it by 
 regular gradation to the very days 
 of the apostles. ShaU we, my 
 friends, dread to inspect the pages 
 of yet earlier fathers, lest we should 
 
242 
 
 INVOCATION or 
 
 l^ithEvemng. 
 
 discover in them any direct dis- 
 avowal of our doctrines,, or a total 
 silence oonoeming them ? No, my 
 friends, it is a field into which I 
 willingly invite my learned gladiator 
 against CATHOuciTr to follow me 
 (for that is a word which has been 
 suggested to me in a little conver- 
 sation I had with him before enter- 
 ing this room, and he knows I used 
 it good-naturedly.) Wa have al- 
 ready consulted the illustrious St. 
 Jerome, in the year 376. Now let 
 us mount a little higher, and mount 
 gradually at the same time. I go 
 to the year 351, to St. Cyril of Jeru- 
 salem, who wrote in Greek; St. 
 Jerome wrote in Latin, and this is 
 only a quarter of a century before 
 St. Jerome. Let us see what he 
 says concerning, the doctrine: — 
 " Note when the spiritual sacrifice 
 
 over, the victim of propitiation, we 
 supplicate Oodfor the common peace 
 of the churches, for the tranqmllity 
 of the world, for kings, for their 
 armies and their allies, for the sick 
 and the afflicted, and in a word, we 
 pray and offer this sacrifice for all 
 who stand in need of assistance. T~ 
 next commemorate those who are gone 
 before us — the patriarchs, apostles, 
 prophets, and martyrs — begging that, 
 throttgh their prayers and interven- 
 tion, God would receive our suppli 
 cation. We then pray for the holy 
 fathers and. bishops that are dead, 
 and for all the faithful departed, 
 believing that their souls receive very 
 great relief from the prayers that are 
 offered for them while this holy and 
 tremendous victim lies upon the altar." 
 —Catech. Mystag. v. n. 3. 9. pp. 327, 
 328. Edit. Bened. Paris, 1720. 
 
 Now, mark, my friends, whilst St. 
 Cyril of Jerusalem thus catechizes 
 the faithful in the year 351, we hear 
 not one syllable as to the doctrine 
 being oppugned in any part of the 
 world. No Vigilantius. was then 
 
 aHve. We hear not a mirrmur 
 against it as being unpritnitive or 
 unapostolical. Wlere, I may ask, 
 where were all the Calvini^s of 
 those early days ? In what vale, on 
 what mountain, was the sun smiling 
 upon those pure lilies of Sharon? 
 [Laughter.] Surely they could 
 have no mutual fellowsnip and 
 society with men so totally unscotch- 
 like in their rituals as St. Jerome 
 and St. Cyril? 
 
 But, gentlemen, let us ascend a 
 Kttle higher, to times yet more re- 
 mote, and not forget to dte the 
 testimony of another Ulustrious 
 compeer of St. Cyril, namely, the 
 Gbeat St. Htlaby'; he Hved in 
 the year 315. St. Hilary says, — 
 " To those who wish to stand firmly, 
 there is not wanting the custody of 
 the saints nor the guardianship of 
 the angels. We recollect that there 
 are many spiritual powers that are 
 called angels, who preside over 
 churches ; and as the Lord teaches, 
 ' the angels of the little ones 'always 
 see God.' It is not the character of 
 the Deity that stands in need of this 
 intercession, but it is our infirmity 
 that requires it." — St. Hil. Coram, 
 in Psalm cxsiv. 1 Ed. Bened. 
 Paris, 1693. 
 
 And mai'k, my friends, though I 
 am now citing the testimonies of 
 father upon father, yet when those 
 fathers cite Scripture in corrobora- 
 tion of their doctrine I do not omit 
 that Scripture; although my learned 
 and reverend friend will, as usual, 
 when he arises, with all gravity 
 imaginable affirm, that total sEenoe 
 as to Scripture is, as usual, my 
 grand defect. Yes, my friends, 
 and such iS the gaping nature of 
 the intellects of some part of this 
 audience, that such exclamation on 
 the part of my reverend antagonist 
 will immediately pass with them 
 iox demonstrative reason and testi- 
 mony against the whole tenor of my 
 
Mr. French.'] 
 
 SAINTS AJID AlfGELS. 
 
 243 
 
 argument. So inoxuable is the 
 disease of wiLdly-growing, deeply- 
 rooted fanaticism in the plains of 
 Hammersmith ! But to return to 
 my subject. These are the words 
 of the Great St. Hilary, for he is 
 caRed The Gkbat by all the diviues 
 now Kving at Oxford and Gam- 
 bridge, when they write against the 
 Unitarians, an occasion on which 
 it is natural they should magnify 
 his name : the &reat St. Hilary, so 
 celebrated for his immortal combats 
 against the Arians, those deniers of 
 the diviriity of Christ. I ask, there- 
 fore, gentlemen, shaU we, when we 
 look at the authority of those saiuts, 
 so justly renowned ia the annals of 
 the Christian world, shall we be 
 affected by the extemporaneous 
 declamation of my learned friend, 
 who has at command, on every sub- 
 ject which he thinks proper to 
 degrade and vilify, a copious loqua- 
 city not to be paralleled, perhaps, 
 even by any improvisatore of the 
 nineteenth century ? 
 
 No, gentlemen, begging his par- 
 don, I win retain my love for vener- 
 able antiquity, and when I want to 
 know what was primitive beKef, I 
 will not go to Glasgow, to Edin- 
 burgh, or to any of those northern 
 regions, but I will take, with 
 Ms permission, what he calls " a 
 plunge," a deep, decisive plunge 
 into those pure wells of water, 
 flowing from the Bible and from 
 tradition conjointly into the writ- 
 ings of the illustrious fathers of 
 the Church. [Laughter.] Again, I 
 say, let my rev. friend deny — for I 
 see he is determined to say we aie 
 persisting in an erroneous, an idola- 
 trous worship — can my reverend 
 opponent deny that the imposture, 
 if jtbe one, is at least extremely 
 old? K my friend caU it an im- 
 posture, I ask, ought he not, the 
 next time he mounts his Calvinistic 
 pulpit, ought he not to inform' his 
 
 congregation, ought he not to have 
 the candour to inform them, that 
 the Catholic, in advocating the 
 Invocation of Angels and Saints, 
 has at least great antiquity to sanc- 
 tion his belief? While he calls 
 them superstitious, benighted, and 
 idolatrous, ought he not to say, in 
 the same breath, if at the end of 
 his long-vrinded invective against 
 our idolatry he can breathe at all 
 [Laughter] ; ought he not, I say, te 
 observe — But I am bound in can- 
 dour and in conscience, my Oakin- 
 isiic primitives, to acquaint you 
 that the benighted Papists can sub- 
 stantiate their arguments in favour 
 of such Invocation of Angels and 
 Saints by many a long roU of time- 
 worn, musty records of most indu- 
 bitable authenticity ? 
 
 That is J the way, I think, in 
 which he ought to address his au- 
 dience next Sunday when he mounts 
 his pulpit. But now let us ascend 
 again with some rapidity, and reach 
 the age in which St. Cyprian flou- 
 rished — St. Cyprian, who threw such 
 lustre over the Church of God in 
 the year 248. We have, therefore, 
 got very comfortably up to the 
 year 248, near Christ : — " Let m be 
 says St. Cyprian, " of 
 
 mind and mth one hea/rt, in, this 
 world, and in the next; let -us 
 always pray with mutual charity, 
 -'''■■ our sufferinas and afflic- 
 
 tions ;. and may the charity of him 
 who, by - divine favour, shall fin« 
 depart hence, still persevere before the 
 Lord; may his prayers for his bre- 
 thren and sisters not cease." — Se 
 Eahitu Virg. p. 181. Edit Bened. 
 Paris, 1726. 
 
 Now let us pause awhile, my 
 Christian friends, and consider when 
 was this written ; not, as in the cool 
 and placid moment which we are 
 enjoying in this room, where my 
 learned friend may dogmatize at his 
 
24.4 
 
 IB VOCATION OP 
 
 pleasure, with the new lights of this 
 19th century, and laugh aU-leisurely 
 at me, who am come with my learn- 
 ing from the musty records of anti- 
 quity; but he, Cyprian, writes this 
 at a time when hundreds and thou- 
 sands, all over the Uoman empire, 
 were immured in the damp and the 
 deadly precincts of dvmgeons and 
 dark pestilential mines, expecting 
 daily and nightly to be dragged 
 fori;n to be broken on the rack, or 
 scathed and devoured either by' the 
 wild beasts or by the flame, and thus 
 have the honour of dying as mar- 
 tyri to the faith, in the cause of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ. St. Cyprian 
 himself — that great, inexpressibly 
 great saint, to any one who has an 
 eye for genuine sanctity, and who 
 will condescend to read his celes- 
 tially eloquent productiops — ^I say 
 St. Cyprian was himsefi, at the 
 time that he wrote this,, panting 
 for the immortal palm of martyr- 
 dom, which he eventually obtained; 
 and his name has been uniformly 
 held in veneration, and his inter- 
 cession uninterruptedly been prayed 
 for, until those two dismal, gloomy, 
 and unhallowed ravagers of all the 
 glorious fields of antiquity arose 
 m the sixteenth century, to plant 
 their anti-christianstandards,Luther 
 and Calvin! Let me hope, there- 
 fore, at aU events, that when my 
 reverend opponent arises, he will 
 disclaim ttet wild notion, that this 
 doctrine of ours was the invention 
 of some dark modem age. For if 
 he does not, he must go as far as he 
 can do to expunge that glorious 
 saint from the record, where his 
 name so transcendantly shines 
 among the uncontested martyrs of 
 the Church. But, my friends, I ask, 
 Shall the Gkeat St. Ctpkian be 
 silenced by these rude, these unhal- 
 lowing tramplers upon everything 
 antiquity held sacred, these divines, 
 as they call themselves forsooth, of 
 
 the nineteenth century? or shall 
 they themselves, the reverend 
 divmes of the Church of England 
 and the Church of Scotland, stand 
 convicted by the testimony of St. 
 Cyprian, of calumniating the Ca- 
 tolic, who, in this said century, 
 inculcates precisely the same doc- 
 trine which that illustrious saint 
 received from apostoKo tradition, in 
 the year of our Lord 248 ? No, I 
 am persuaded that every sincere 
 Protestant investigator of truth 
 (and there are many. such in this 
 room at present) will entertain a more 
 exalted notion of St. Cyprian than 
 of aUthesemodem columns of ortho- 
 doxy, towering with their proud 
 hea^ together, without any other 
 foundation to stand upon than that 
 of gratuitous assumption in im- 
 pressing the tenets of their creed. 
 With what rface, with what con- 
 gruity, let me ask, will the Church 
 of England or the Scotch divine 
 henceforth urge the testimony of 
 this anti-Nicene father, the great 
 St. Cyprian, against the Unitarian, 
 in order to prove the divinity of 
 Christ, if they wiU not admit the 
 testimony of the same father to be 
 of the least validity in proving the 
 Invocation of the Angels and Saints ? 
 Alas for the cause of my reverend 
 antagonist! though propped up and 
 assisted as it is by the various sec- 
 tarians that are this day thicken.. 
 ing around him, and smibng encou- 
 ragement in his face, whilst I am 
 filling it with perplexity and terror! 
 No, my friends, it is not in the 
 power of all the sects around him, 
 be they Anabaptists, Methodists, 
 or Lringites, to extricate hini this 
 day from his strange embarrassment. 
 I say this, gentlemen, because my 
 reverend antagonist, you may re- 
 member, upbraided me, in one of 
 his addresses to you, with courting 
 the smiles of Anabaptists and others, 
 in order, if possible, to band them 
 
Mr. FrenchJ] 
 
 SAINTS ANTl ANOBLS. 
 
 245 
 
 in my cause [against his Calvinistio 
 Cbnrch. What ! /court the smiles, 
 or be ambitious of the applanse, of 
 those who are alien to my Church ? 
 What ! I, seated on the imperish- 
 able, the impregnable rock of ages, 
 seek for joy or consolation from the 
 applauding eye of any of these 
 new-sprung mushrooms around me? 
 No, my friends, I come with diyine 
 and unquestionable records, and I 
 defy you to invalidate the stamp of 
 theu authenticity. [Sensation.] I 
 do not mean to speak disrespect- 
 fully of any one, but I only mean 
 that, when compared to the grey 
 hairs which adorn and dignify the 
 forehead of CathoKc antiquity, there 
 is a contemptible juvenility about 
 your various churches that makes me 
 deeply blush at their aspiriag .and am- 
 bitious turrets. As to the Baptists, 
 IwiU say this in their-favour — that, 
 if tradition is to be discarded, and 
 the Bible alone is to be tiie rule of 
 faith, they are, in their practice, as 
 to the rite of baptism, entitled to 
 the profound respect of every re- 
 flecting Christian in the universe. 
 You see, therefore, gentlemen, that 
 St. Cyprian received from' apostolic 
 tradition, in the year 24i8, the doc- 
 trine of the Invocation of Ajstgeis 
 and Saints. 
 
 I know not how solicitous the 
 learned gentleman may be to enter 
 into the field with the Unitarians, 
 but it appears to me, from what I 
 have been able to collect from some 
 few transient remarks, that he is 
 totally unsoHeitous as to admioister- 
 ing to them the least enlightenment 
 on that subject. Come we now, my 
 friends, to a father who flourished at 
 a still earlier period, and let us see 
 whether the nearer we approach to 
 the times of the apostles the more 
 my learned opponent vrill have cause 
 to indulge in a smile of satisfaction 
 and of triumph. 
 
 Oeigbn, who lived in the year 
 
 203: — "r/w can doubt," says 
 Origen, " that our holy fathers aid 
 us by their 'prayers and strengtlien 
 and excite its by the example of their 
 actions, as also by the writings whici 
 they have left behind them? Urein 
 teaching and instructing us how to 
 fight against the adverse powers, 
 and in, what manner these contests 
 are to be maintained. Thus they 
 fight for us, and advance armed 
 before us" — Orig. Homil. 26, in 
 Num. torn. ii. p. 373. Ed. Bened. 
 Paris, 1773. 
 
 Again, " And of all the holy men 
 who have quitted this life, retaining 
 their charity towards those whom they 
 left behind, we may be allowed to say 
 that they are anxious for their salva- 
 tion, and that they assist them with 
 their prayers, and their mediation 
 with Ood." 
 
 Again, " T?ie angels are everywhere 
 present ; come, then, thou angel, re- 
 ceive him that is changed from his 
 former error, from the doctrine of 
 demons,from loud-speaking iniquity" 
 — Horn, in Hzeh. t. iii. p. 358. 
 
 Again, " / will fall down upon my 
 
 of my crimes, to present my prayers to 
 Qod, I will invoke all the saints to 
 my assistance. ye saints of heaven, 
 I beseech you, with a sorrow full of 
 sighs and tears, fall at the feet of the 
 Lord of mercies for me, a miserable 
 sinner. Addressiug himself to holy 
 Job, he says, " Pray for us unhappy 
 creatures, that the mercies of the 
 terrible God may deign to protect us 
 iu all our tribulations in. the midst 
 of the snares spread by our enemy.'' 
 — ^Lib. xi. isepi Job. 
 
 " What a disagreeable uniformitj 
 in these anti-Protestant fathers !" 
 — methinks I hear the reverend 
 gentleman muttering with himself 
 [laughter] — methinks I hear him 
 say, " I shall treat them all, when I 
 rise, with contemptuous defiance, 
 waving my parliamentary Bible in 
 
INVOCATION or 
 
 5tA EBening. 
 
 my liaud." But now, my friends, 
 if we throw the various testimonies 
 of the hallowed nature of such a 
 worship iu these learned fathers 
 whose extracts I have just laid 
 before you, is it not Icmd-meaking 
 iniquiiy (if I may use the phrase of 
 the father last cited) in any divine 
 of the Church of England or of the 
 Church of Scotland, who is really 
 versed iu ecclesiastical antiquity, to 
 «ome forward and dispute the doc- 
 trine inculcated by all the champions 
 of Christianity ia those days — I 
 mean the Invocation of Angefe and 
 Saints ? And to combat them with 
 no other weapons, mark ye ! than 
 shallow conclusions, arbitrary, un- 
 authorized, and presumptuous ! 
 
 As to aU the high-flLown rhapsody 
 of my reverend antagonist, with 
 reference to the iustantaneous, the 
 heaven-storming ef&oacy of prayer, 
 directed straight to heaven, without 
 the intervention of saints, in the 
 Old Testament, if that argument is 
 to deter the Catholic from address- 
 ing himself to angels and saints, and 
 from giving the least heed to the' 
 Apostles' Creed, where it says, " I 
 believe in the communion of saints," 
 it ought equally to have operated 
 upon St. Paul to have deterred him 
 from requesting the prayers of his 
 brethren, and to have upbraided hiTn 
 with the impiety of so palpable a 
 departure, as my learned antagonist 
 contends it is, from the ancient faith, 
 as that of having recourse to the 
 intercession of another. No, my 
 friends, depend upon it St. Faul had 
 read, as often as the reverend gentle- 
 man has done, the sentencewhich he 
 has this evening dwelt upon with 
 such an apparent air of triumph as 
 to its perfect applicability to the 
 case in question, namely. Rim that 
 cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast 
 out; and yet St. Paul, over and 
 over again, says to his various 
 fiiends, with profound humility and 
 
 intense fervour, "Pray for me." 
 Now, if all mediation save that of 
 Christ be blasphemous, St. Pan] 
 must come in for his share also in 
 the wide-sweeping anathema of my 
 Oalvinistic thunderer against Catho- 
 lic dogmas. Yes, St. Paul, applyii^ 
 for any mediation save that o± Christ 
 Jesus alone, is most indubitably;',iii 
 the daring language of CalviiuStic 
 impiety, a blasphemer. Indeed, the 
 strain of reasoning adopted by the 
 learned gentleman strikes at the 
 very root of Christianity. If it be 
 adioissible in the Calvinist thus to 
 reason against the Catholic, the 
 Deist win adopt the seK-same strain " 
 in reasoning against us both. Prayer 
 in the mouth of Enoch, he will say, 
 was available without circtimcisioti ; 
 what need, therefore, of the latter, 
 in Abraham and Isaac, to make 
 prayer more acceptable ?-^nay, what 
 need of the cross ? Did not Abra- 
 ham's prayer storm heaven without 
 it ? In one word, the Deist would 
 say, nature teaches me prayer and 
 thanksgiving to God ; " I vriU cry 
 unto Mm in the day of trouble, and 
 he wUl save me out of my distresses," 
 without the mediation of the Bible. 
 
 But, my friends, I shall refrain 
 from quotmg any more of the fathers 
 on the present occasion, as I know 
 my friend, during the whole of these 
 citations, has been in a perpetual 
 state of bodily tremor and mental 
 agitation. [Laughter.] The solu- 
 tion, then, of this much-agitated 
 point is to be found in the pages of 
 the i-ATHEas, in all the ancient 
 LiTUBGiES of the Church — those 
 authentic monuments of antiquity, 
 which are acknowledged to be 
 authentic by all the learned of the 
 Church of England — acknowledged, 
 1 say, now by the whole Christian 
 world to be authentic monuments of 
 genuine undepraved antiquity — and 
 yet the learned gentleman, last 
 evening we met, had the teme- 
 
Mr. French,.'] 
 
 SAINTS AND ANGELS. 
 
 247 
 
 rariousness to call them in question 
 — temerarious, I say, it was in the 
 extreme. Yes, unwarrantably te- 
 merarious, for I must qualify my 
 words, lest I should use one of too 
 strong a nature. And, now I am 
 upon this subject, I ask the learned 
 gentleman to point out, in Cardinal 
 Sona, and give me the passage, 
 where Cardinal Bona said that the 
 Liturgy of St. Jaiies was false. 
 I maintain that he was one of their 
 staunchest supporters, and that that 
 illustrious cardinal wrote vohimes of 
 panegyric on the liturgies. So that 
 to addtipe the testimony of Cardinal 
 Bona against the said liturgies v., 
 on the part of my learned friend, 
 one of the most unfair, unequitable, 
 nay, most iniquitous modes of en- 
 deavouring to extinguish their broad 
 . eifiilgence that was ever invented 
 by thei subtlety of an ingenious 
 enemy, having recourse to all the 
 lawlessness of guile, where he finds 
 himself conquered and laid prostrate, 
 by mere strength, in the field of 
 legitimate argument. No, Cardinal 
 Bona, thou glorious asserter and 
 prover of the said liturgies, this 
 stain attempted to be cast upon thy 
 fair, unsuUied name shall not cUng 
 to thee, it shall rebound upon thy 
 defamer ! Depend upon it, accord- 
 ing to the testimony of your own 
 writers, these liturgies are of un- 
 questionable authority. Your own 
 bishops and archbishops express that 
 they come next to the inspired 
 ■\vritings. " After those," they ex- 
 claim, "take the ancient liturgies 
 of the Church!" Eor mj part, 
 therefore, again I contend, (for I go 
 from the liturgies to 'the fathers, and 
 the fathers to the liturgies, ever 
 and anon, and what grieves my re- 
 verend friend most sorely is, that 
 those said fathers ever have the 
 Bible in their hands) I contend 
 most strenuously, that there is 
 among these liturgies and these 
 
 fathers the most perfect unanimity, 
 in contradiction to my learned friend, 
 on vital and fundamental points, 
 which was one object I had to prove 
 in expatiating upon them this even- 
 ing. It win remain for you, therefore, 
 to decide, my friends, in the calm 
 exercise of your judgment, not being. 
 the slaves of sentences melodiously 
 tuned by either party, but being 
 wrapt up in admiration only at 
 soundness of argument — it will re- 
 main, I say, for you to decide, 
 whether this doctrine of invocating 
 the angels and saints of God has 
 been established by the testimonies 
 which have been alleged: it is for 
 those who are hostile to the doctrine 
 to account for this its early appear- 
 ance, to inform us how the Church 
 could have been in error from the 
 beginning, and to specify the period 
 when the dark-scowKng, Calvinistic 
 inveteracy against the doctrine, 
 which ye have all witnessed on the 
 brow as well as in the language of 
 my learned friend, was the inveteracy 
 of the universal Church. 
 
 If the reverend gentleman, in an- 
 swering this mv hard question, 
 should wish to indulge in conjecture 
 as io its origin, the example of soma 
 learned Unitarians may pejchance 
 assist him. " The doctrine of the 
 Trinity," say they, "was the off- 
 spring of the foiirth, or as it is 
 sometimes called in disparagement, 
 theAthanasian age." Unfortunately, 
 however, for my learned friend, 
 upon this occasion, the fathers of 
 the first centuries, whose testimtDnies 
 I have cited, deprive him of such a 
 refuge I Again, my friends, attend 
 most particularly to this cironm- 
 stance! These liturgies of the 
 Church are universally aoknow- 
 ledged^even by those heretics who 
 separated from us in the fifth century, 
 the Nestorians and the Butychians, 
 whom, to the no inconsiderahle an- 
 noyance of my reverend friend, I 
 
248 
 
 lirVOCATION OF 
 
 l&a 'Evening. 
 
 dwelt so much upon on a former 
 eyening ; they have prayers to their 
 saints, and still persist in praying to 
 angels and saiats, as a doctrine re- 
 ceiyed by tradition from the apostles 
 to the present day. Their liturgies, 
 which are of apostolic origin, con- 
 tain the identical prayers with the 
 CathoMo Jiturgies to the present 
 day. And oh! my friends, mark 
 this ever-memorable fact which I 
 am about to state to you, and which 
 is (for 1 here defy my learned an- 
 tagonist to dispute it) most ihcon- 
 testablytrue. It is this : The liturgy 
 of Milan has actually been in use.in 
 that city, Milan, ever since the days 
 of St. Ambrose, who flourished m 
 the fourth century, down to the 
 present moment ; and this, mark ! 
 notwithstanding manyserious efforts 
 made by the popes to induce them 
 to use the liturgy which is used in 
 the Church of Rome — though there 
 is no difference as to dogmas. No, 
 they would never consent to give up 
 that liturgy ; but their uniform an- 
 swer has been, We received it from 
 St. Ambrose, who received it from 
 the apostles, and we will cHng to it ; 
 and at one time there was a serious 
 kind of quarrel on the subject. But 
 the Pope has not absolute authority ; 
 he only has the casting voice at a 
 general council of the Church. It 
 IS a counoU of the Church, vidth a 
 Pope at its head, that decides a 
 dogma of faith. But to return 
 to the liturgy in question. They 
 never would give or relinquish their 
 liturgy ; they retain it to this day, 
 and it is in perfect accordance with 
 all the liturgies u^edin the Catholic 
 CmmcH. 
 
 It is, therefore, most indisputably 
 evident, my friends, from these 
 fathers of the Church which I have 
 quoted, that to honour saints is to 
 honour God, who is the author of 
 their sanctity, the great bestower 
 of their bliss. It is evident, that to 
 
 demand of them a participation in 
 their holy prayers, m the language 
 of these liturgies and these fathers, 
 is to associate ourselves with " the 
 spirits of the perfectly just, with the 
 (Siurch of the first-born who are in 
 heaven." So holy a practice must 
 ever be the solace and delight of the 
 truly pure and holy, who, deeply 
 reflecting on the words of that 
 creed, believe in "the communion 
 of saints," and that the members of 
 the Church triumphant in heaven 
 are accessible to the prayers of the 
 Church militant on earth. Above 
 alii the sons of Catholicity have 
 in every age gloried in cBferishing 
 the most tender sentiments of devo- 
 tion to Maey, the blessed' mother 
 of Jestjs, our adorable Redeemer. 
 They believe that she who obtained 
 the working of the fli'st glorious 
 miracle at the marxiage-teast of 
 Cana,, before his day for working 
 miracles was come, can still obtain, 
 by her holy influence, the working 
 of yefemore miraculous conversions, 
 and yet more glorious and stupen- 
 dous graces, for the imploring sinner 
 at the present day, as we have re- 
 ceived from apostoHcal tuabihon 
 We do most strenuously deny that, 
 when the Church prays for her inter, 
 cession in the following manner — 
 "Hail, Mart, fuU of grace ; blessed 
 art thou among women," &c. we do 
 most strenuously deny that there is 
 in this prayer the least semblance, 
 the least tincture of idolatry. Every 
 word of this, and all other prayers, 
 however "oriental" they may ap- 
 pear to the cool, sober-judging mind 
 of my learned friend, are expressive 
 of the unspeakable glory of "FTim 
 alone who hath the power to give, 
 and of the high exaltation of her 
 who, in his presence, has the power 
 to obtain. Every degree of com- 
 parison between the Mother and the 
 Son is blasphemous ; none of such a 
 nature ever enter into the thoughts of 
 
Mr. French.'] 
 
 the Catholic from the first dawn of 
 reason to his last expiring moment, 
 which is frequently cheered and 
 
 fladdened by the utterance of this 
 ea,venly orison. But, gentlemen, 
 whilst we most unflinchingly main- 
 tain, and most firmly beHeve, ac- 
 cordiag to sound Catholic ortho- 
 dox instructions, in the beatitude of 
 the saints, as infinitely diversified in 
 the scale of exaltation and of glory 
 according to their respective indi- 
 vidual merits (which merits flow 
 from gratuitously bestowed grace), 
 we have been taught by the uiuform, 
 unvarying tradition of successive 
 ages, to ascribe unto the blessed 
 mother of our God, the ever-¥irgin 
 Mary, a pre-eminence of glory amidst 
 all the sanctities of heaven thatiave 
 been exalted by her Son Jesus. 
 
 We pronounce not the name of 
 her whom the archangel Gabriel 
 pronounced to be " blessed among 
 women," without feelings of deep- 
 felt reverential awe, wMch all the 
 powers of human speech are utterly 
 madequate to express ! Yet witn 
 this reverential feeling, these inex- 
 pressibly sweet and glowing senti- 
 ments of filial affection towards her, 
 we do most invariably maintain, in 
 every age, that it is unlawful, sinful, 
 nay impious and criminal, and blas- 
 phemous, to pay to her divine 
 homage, or to attribute to her any 
 power that does not directly ema- 
 nate from Christ. Our uniform 
 language is completely the opposite 
 of my learned friend's exaggeration;' 
 and the doctrine attributca to us, 
 that of adoring her whose sole hap- 
 piness consists in the adoration of 
 her blessed Son, is one of those 
 envenomed arrows of malignity with 
 which falsehood contends with truth, 
 or, in other words, blaspheming 
 error with sound orthodoxy. The 
 decisions of our Church proscribe 
 all divine honours paid to any one 
 in heaven or earth, save and except 
 
 SAIKTS AND ANGELS. 
 
 249 
 
 to God, the glorious and undivided 
 Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy 
 Ghost. 
 
 Our catechisms in every country, 
 and in every language, express the 
 same doctrine ; 3l tenets contraiy 
 to this, originate in defamation; 
 they are the scandals engendered by 
 impiety; they are the suggestions 
 of the devil, seeking to combat 
 against that Chubch, which has it 
 in its destinies not to be shattered 
 by aU the gates of heU [sensation] ; 
 which has in its destinies, I repeat, 
 to be propped up in all ages by the 
 arfii of Infinite Power, and illumi- 
 nated by Infinite Wisdom. Nothing 
 can be more evident in ecclesiasti- 
 cal history than this elevation of 
 the Church, from its earliest da-rn, 
 to the blessed Mother of our Ke- 
 deemer. All the primitive Chris- 
 tians (and who would not listen to 
 them in preference to any dogma- 
 tizing antagonist?) cherished the 
 name of Mary vrith the most invio- 
 lable affection. 
 
 The awful sanctity of that woman 
 who was selected by Almighty Pre- 
 science 'to be the mother of Jesus, 
 is contemplated by the CathoKc 
 Church in the present day precisely 
 as it was in the primitive ages of 
 the Church; and as my reverend 
 friend has appeared to call this in 
 question, I can only say, that if he 
 win but condescend to open the 
 pages of St. Ambrose and St. Au- 
 gustine, he will there find that it is 
 so, even as it was in the case of all 
 those saints who illustrated our 
 Church in its earliest ages — aU those 
 glorious virgins who, ever mindful 
 of their white baptismal garments, 
 rushed with intrepid fortitude to 
 martyrdom — a St. Agatha, a St. 
 Barbara, a St. Catherine, a St. 
 Cecilia, a St. Blandina, and all the 
 long list of glorified saints, both 
 male and female, who endured the 
 sufferings of martyrdom, and now 
 
350 
 
 INVOCATION or 
 
 wear its immortal, its unfading 
 crown. 
 
 These, these, I say, holy virgins, 
 the spouste Ohristi, as I wiU boldly 
 caU them, though the expression, I 
 kuow, is a gnasher of the teeth to 
 the cold-hearted Scotch Calvinist — i 
 these, together with aU the glorified 
 martyrs who passed through life 
 pure and unsullied with the pollution 
 of the world as the new-bom babe, 
 cultivated this same devotion to the 
 queen of all purity,, and unwea- 
 nedly solicited her aid, at their 
 morning, at their noon, and at their 
 evening prayers. So far from its 
 beiilg true that the Litany of Lo- 
 retto — (that melody so sweet to my 
 ear, but which is so harsh, so painful 
 to the Athenian ear of my learned 
 philosophic antagonist) — so far from 
 its being true that the litaay of 
 Loretto was, as to the cast of its 
 expressions, the product of some 
 dark and some benighted age, as 
 my learned antagonist will contend,, 
 they can be traced up by the closest 
 evidence to the days of the Apostles; 
 yes, they can be found in our most 
 ancient records — ^records, whose au- 
 thenticity it is not in the power of 
 all the myrmidons of blaspheming 
 Calvin to subvert. These liturgjes, 
 stand out, ia every age, as glorious 
 and colossal monuments of our 
 faith, preaching, in impressive and 
 •JO. feelmg accents, the doctrine of 
 primitive antiquity. 
 
 There is no exalted title struck 
 out in the holiest raptujes and tran- 
 sports of devotion, that, in their 
 view, could adequately pourtray the 
 blessedness, the prodigality of hea- 
 venly grace, ■ftthich was bestowed by 
 heaven upon the inother of Jesus. 
 She was their acknowledged guide 
 and protectress, without the least 
 derogation from stiH more supernal 
 aid. To her they prayed repeatedly, 
 and with all the fervour which the 
 words breathe in the liturgy of St. 
 
 \Zth Evening 
 
 Yes, iu that magnificent 
 effusion of apostolic holiness, which 
 grates such harsh discord to the ear 
 that has been long accustomed to 
 the harmonies of the Scotch bag- 
 pipe [laughter], but which sounds 
 so melodiously to those who, like 
 the seraphic St. Augustine, have 
 swelled their souls from the days of, 
 their iofancy to the heaven-upraising 
 peals cf the loud CathoKe organ. 
 [Sensation.] 
 
 The words of St. James' litprgy 
 are as follows : — " mother of inef- 
 fable light, honommg thee with 
 cmgelic hymns, we eifalt, we magnify 
 It is meet and just that 
 
 we pronounce thee truly blessed. 
 Mother of God, ever blessed, and in 
 all the ways of thy life unblameable 
 and pure ! Mother of our God, in 
 dignity and honour above the cheru- 
 bim, and in glory above the seraphim; 
 thou who, without spot or stain of 
 human corruption, didst bring forth, 
 God the. Word, thee truly do we exalt 
 
 "To thee, full of grace, every 
 created being pours forth its congra- 
 tulation ; the choir of angels ana the 
 assemblies of men ! To thee who art 
 
 'e, th 
 
 paradise, the glory of virgins, from 
 whom God assumed flesh and became 
 a child, the God who is before all 
 ages ! Truly did he make thy womb 
 a throne, that heaven itself could 
 not surpass in glory. The whoh 
 universe resounds with thy praise and 
 congratulation, ever extolling thee 
 our m^st holy, most undefiled, super- 
 eminently blessed queen. Mother of 
 the Lord, ever-Virgin Mary! 
 Thou who didst bring forth the true 
 God, pray to him, virgin, in our 
 behalf, tluit he would bless and save 
 our souls !" 
 
 Such, gentlemen, is, the payer 
 to the Virgin, to be found in the 
 liturgy of St. James the Apostle, and 
 which is as sweet an uiiction to the 
 
SAINTS AND ANGELS. 
 
 Mr. Fretiok] 
 
 soul of a Catliolic, as it is bitter to 
 the soul, and wiU. prove a source, 
 if I can predict aught, of bitter- 
 tongued reviUug ou the part of the 
 modem divine who. is about to 
 address you. 
 
 You must have observed, my 
 friends, in the liturgy of St. James, 
 the expression, " Spiritual Para- 
 dise" applied to the Virgin ; and 
 I take this opportunity of adding 
 another ancient authority, one which 
 has not hitherto, I believe, fallen 
 under the notice of my deeply-read, 
 investigating friend of the Scotch 
 Calvinistic, or rather I should say 
 ■unhenighted church. It is to be 
 found in the fragments of Dyonisius 
 Alexandrinus, who wrote in the 
 vear of our Lord 360, published by 
 llouth, a Protestant clergyman of 
 the Church of England. It runs 
 thus : — " Eor the only begotten 
 Godi who came down from heaven, 
 was conceived and born of the 
 Virgm Paradise!, that possesses all 
 things; or, as the Greek has it, 
 fXO"" TO Traura. The Holy Ghost 
 overshadowed her, and the holy 
 thing that was bom was the child 
 Jesus — ^the mighty God, the power- 
 ful, endured the cross, despising the 
 shame." 
 
 In addition to this, Theodoret 
 tells us that, from the earliest anti- 
 quity, the heralds of the orthodox 
 faith,, according to apostoHoal tradi- 
 tion, taught us to name Mary, 
 Moiher of God. The word Bcotokos, 
 or Mother of God, is also to be 
 found in Origen, inhis Commentary 
 on Deuteronomy xxii. and xxiii, and 
 upon Luke. We find it also used 
 in the disputation between Arche- 
 laus and Manes, in the year of our 
 Lord 337. ' 
 
 After these documentsi (hard 
 'pieces of digestion for my learned 
 friend), to prove that not only our 
 devotion to the Blessed Virgin, but 
 that the very cast of expression 
 
 251 
 
 used by us as descriptive of her 
 merits, when raised to the highest 
 and most encomiastic strain, is of 
 apostoKc origin, have we Catholics, 
 think ye, my Protestant friends, 
 any reason to blush when we im- 
 plore her intercession, rejoice in the 
 sounds of her praise, and glory in 
 her patronage? 
 
 No ; we were persuaded — ay, let 
 me tell my learned, my philosophi- 
 cally sermonizing friend, we are 
 most unalterably persuaded, that, 
 whilst we expatiate upon the glories 
 of the ever-blessed Virgin Mary, 
 which are derived, though with an 
 ■incomparably superior lustre, from 
 the same source as that of all the 
 other saints, that we do not derogate 
 in the most slender degree from the 
 adoration which is due to God alone., 
 We do most solemnly declare, we 
 CathoKcs present, in the name of 
 hundreds of miUions of Catholics 
 over the whole world, that we never 
 hear her blessed name pronounced 
 without awakening the remembrance 
 of our Redeemer, without an im- 
 mediate incitement of pious reflec- 
 tion that centres ultimately, as it 
 ought to do, in her divine Son, 
 Christ Jesus ! Where is the idolatry 
 of such doctrine ? 
 
 What low servility to terrestrial, 
 down-groveUing thoughts shall ever 
 teach the Catholic to believe that the 
 prayers of one living man oifered up 
 for another at the throne of grace 
 and mercy sie of the least avail ; 
 and to believe, at the same time, 
 that the intercession in our behalf 
 of the ever-blessed, ever-Virgm 
 Mary, is of no validity? [Sensation.] 
 
 But it is time, as I am informed, 
 to conclude suddenly ; a warning I 
 shall most willingly attend to, as I 
 perceive the workings of a high 
 impatience in the countenance of 
 my learned antagonist. 
 
 [The learned gentleman's hour 
 here terminated.] 
 
252 
 
 INVOCATION OP 
 
 [5 (A Evening. 
 
 Rev. J. Gumming. — I will plainly 
 and honestly confess, my Cliiistiaa 
 hearers, that if it had been left to 
 me to select a specimen of what I, 
 as a Protestant, and what I know 
 every Protestant in this assemhly 
 would prononnce to be gross ido- 
 latry, Ishonld jnat have read those 
 passages with which my learned an- 
 tagonist concluded his speech. I 
 make no comments on that most 
 extraordinary extract ; I leave it to 
 speak for itself, and I know that 
 it will speak to every Protestant 
 heart with a terrible and resistless 
 logic. I only wish every iRoman 
 CathoHc, while he hears or reads it, 
 to compare with it the simple lan- 
 guage of Scripture recorded of St. 
 Stephen, when he sealed his faith- 
 fulness by martyrdom : — " Lord 
 Jesus, receive my spirit." I told, 
 you, however, in reference to the 
 hyperdoulia worship of the Vir^ 
 Mary — and more especially wath 
 reference to the extracts I brought 
 forward corroborative of this most 
 superstitious homage, that I should 
 take occasion to pursue it still 
 further ; I shall, therefore bring 
 forward further arguments next 
 evening, when I shall restrict my 
 observations, exclusively, to the 
 practical worship which is given 
 to the Virgin m the Church of 
 Rome. 
 
 Mr. Eeench. — This night [to 
 the Rev. J. Gumming] finishes the 
 subject. 
 
 Rev. J. Gumming. — I do not 
 finish this evening. 
 
 Mr. Peench (rising). — I will 
 allow you the time that you stop, if 
 you wiU just let me explain. 
 
 Rev. J. Gumming.— -Very well. 
 
 Mr. Pbench (in explanation). — 
 We agreed in the beginning that 
 Transubstantiation and the other 
 (the Sacrifioe of the Mass) would 
 probably take two nights, and that 
 the others would afterwards take 
 
 one. But 1 am not pugnacious i 
 about it. [Laughter.] 
 
 Rev. J. Gumming. — My learned 
 antagonist requested two nights for 
 each subject — I, only one. 
 
 Mr. Peench. — ^And you did too, 
 certainly. 
 
 Rev. J. Gumming. — Weil, weE, 
 let it drop. Next evening I sha:! 
 restrict my observations to the prac- 
 tical worship given to the Virgin, 
 and I will show to you, my Rom^n 
 Gatholic friends, to demonstration, 
 that if the now glorified and happy 
 Virgin could come down to earth, 
 she would call on you to silence 
 for ever the idolatrous accents Ave 
 Maria, and teach you to breathe in 
 language, heartfelt and believing — 
 Abba — Father ! I told you exactly 
 the course which my learned anta- 
 gonist would pursue. He threat- 
 ened twice or thrice to appear in 
 clear water, into which I invited 
 him ; and, in my joy, I thought he 
 would search among the apostles 
 and evangelists at once ; and I anti- 
 cipated Es testing every dogma by 
 their words. But, the moment that 
 he touched them, it seemed as if 
 they had been infected with the 
 plague, or some contagious fever; 
 lor he instantly rushed away, and 
 plunged again mto the dark depths 
 of the muddy and contradictory 
 fathers. 
 
 On a .previous evening I showed 
 you, and I am prepared to satisfy 
 my friend on the fact, that Gy- 
 prian, to whom he has appealed 
 apparently so triumphantly, is, de 
 facto, anathematized, by his own 
 Church — iinark that ! St. Cyprian 
 disclaims, by implication, the supre- 
 macy of the Bishop of Rome ; he 
 says all the apostles were equal in 
 jurisdiction, and therefore repudi- 
 ates the supremacy of the Pope. 
 But if St. Gypnan had dared to 
 rise up in days when he could have 
 been laid hold on, and to abjure 
 
Rev. J. Cummint/.^ 
 
 the supremacy of the Pope, or 
 to affirm that Peter was equal to 
 Paul or Paul to Peter, rest assured 
 St. Cyprian, would not have slept 
 the next B%ht in the bed in which 
 he was accustomed ordinarily to 
 repose. [Laughter]. I might show 
 you, also, that St. Jerome yirtually 
 comes under the anathema of Trent, 
 because he excludes the Apocrypha ; 
 I can show you that St. iugustine, 
 " the glorious St. Augustine," is 
 opposed to appeals to the Church 
 of Rome — that St. Ambrose rejects 
 the assumed judicial power of the 
 priests — that St. Irenseus gives the 
 Creed as the one only tradition — 
 that St. Chrysostom (as St. Jerome 
 did before him) advocates the indis- 
 criminate readmg of Scripture, and 
 that St. Athanasius excludes the 
 Apocrypha ; and, before I have 
 done with Mr. French on the Rule 
 of Faith, I will make him cast 
 every one of them overboard in 
 the same style in which he has 
 treated some of them on former 
 occasions. 
 
 Now, in reference to the' fathers, 
 he has expressed himself to the 
 effect that I have some sort of dis- 
 ease, for which he, in his own happy 
 nomenclature, has found out a new 
 word, or perhaps, has coined it — 
 namely, jpatrophobia. Now I dis- 
 tinctly protest that I have no fear 
 from the fathers being brought for- 
 ward. When he saw me, as he 
 sUeges, in a tremor, it was literally 
 for my poor wandering antagonist, 
 fearing he woidd again expose him- 
 self — running away from the word 
 of God, and diving in the muddy 
 depths of the imsty fathers for 
 illustrations and for proofs of 
 this most extraordinary tenet. 
 Laughter.] I have no tremor on 
 my own account. And why? " if 
 God be for us, who can be against 
 us?" If my antagonist had all 
 the fathcK on his side, which I most 
 
 SAINTS AND ANSELS. 
 
 2f;3 
 
 completely dispute, and which I am 
 prepared most clearly to disprove, 
 yet if one apostle (as I have stated 
 before) distinctly protested in favour 
 of these truths which I hold, that 
 apostle, let every one remember — ' 
 even according to Mr. French's own 
 admission — would be right, and ah 
 the fathers who contradicted that 
 apostle would be utterly and neces- 
 sarily wrong. I do not 'dread Mr. 
 French's going to the fathers; I 
 only deplore that he should play the 
 undutiful part of a Ham, and expose 
 their nakedness and their wretched- 
 ness ; I would rather act the part 
 of a Shem or Japhet, and, retirmg, 
 cast a mantle over them ; I grieve 
 only ttiat they are dragged from 
 their graves, and all their contra- 
 dictions and their infirmities dis- 
 played before the eyes of sober 
 and' reflecting men. But my friend 
 insists that their very ghosts shall 
 be evoked from their sepulchres, 
 that their mouldering ashes shall be 
 disturbed ; that their contradictious 
 — their " knocking their heads one 
 against each other"-^as he himself 
 most elegantly phrased it — shall be 
 displayed to this assembly ; he has 
 boldly thrown dovm the gauntlet 
 on the subject; I accept it, and 
 wiU therefore show again to you 
 what the fathers are, not accord- 
 ing to Protestant authority, but 
 according to the testimony of the 
 learned of his own. church, and, 
 among others, the learned and cele- 
 brated Dupin. 
 
 The first statement which I shall 
 advance on this subject, is the fact, 
 that ' we have not in our possession 
 the T.Ay.T PATHEES. This now is a 
 positive fact — we have not in our 
 possession the eauly eathebs. We 
 nave only a few fragments of the 
 second century; we have not got 
 any thing like aU the writings of 
 the most celebrated fathers who 
 lived in iVQ first jmd second cen- 
 
254 
 
 INVOCATION or [_5iA Eveniitg. 
 
 Mines; we have but a handful. We 
 have, I repeat' — (and I want the 
 reporter to place this fact in large 
 letters) — ^WE have got tebt pew 
 
 lEAGMENTS OP IKE WHITINGS OP 
 THE EAIHEES IN THE IIKST AUD 
 
 SECOND CENTiraiES. Por tHs fact, 
 I quote, as an authority. Dr. Dela- 
 hogue, an authority which my Mend 
 wifl. not dispute. This weU-known 
 professor of Eomam Oathohc theo- 
 logy in the royal college of May- 
 nooth, page 233, De Oullm Sanc- 
 torum, says : — " But if in the first 
 and second centuries many proofs 
 of the Invocation of Saints are not 
 to be found, this ought not to 
 appear wonderful; for in those 
 days, when persecutions raged, the 
 pastors of the Church were more 
 solicitous about instructing and, pre- 
 paring the faithful for martyrdom 
 than writing books. And, besides, 
 very few momtments of those ages 
 have reached us." 
 
 You observe, Delahogue asserts, 
 " Many proofs of the Imiocation of 
 Saints are not to be found in the first 
 and second centuries." He gives 
 the reason : — " This does not appear 
 wonderful, for iu those days, when 
 persecution raged, the pastors were 
 better employed than in writing 
 books." This, then, was the em- 
 ployment of the early fathers : — 
 " They were more anxious and solici- 
 tous about preparing their people for 
 martyrdom thm to be writing books. 
 And besides," he adds, " there are 
 few monuments of those ages that 
 have reached us." Now mark these 
 words, my friends : — the fathers and 
 early saints were too busy with 
 their flocks to sit down apd write 
 elaborate treatises on Christian doc- 
 trine, and, therefore, very few. Dr. 
 Delahogue says — ^very few of their 
 writings have reached us. Now 
 might it not so be that the very 
 parts of the fathers that are lost — 
 or the greatest part of the fathers 
 
 that are lost — ^may itnot be that those 
 very parts that are lost, might have 
 contained the strongest statements 
 we coiild possibly nrge against the 
 interpolated, mutilated, and cor- 
 rupted fragments that have come 
 down to us ? Now that is my first 
 position. 
 
 In the next place, I qnote from 
 the learned Duein. He says, in re- 
 ference to the fathers of the Churei 
 prior to the fourth century of Chris- 
 tianity, vol. ii. p. 3, in the life of 
 Jlusebius : " For the most part these 
 authors and their works, which were 
 more ancient than Eusebius, have 
 been lost since his death by the 
 injury of time ; and therefore we are 
 mightily obhged to Eusebius, who 
 has preserved in his history, not 
 only the memory of -those authors, 
 but some considerable fragments of 
 their works. In short, without the 
 history of Eusebius we should scarce 
 have any knowledge, not only of the 
 history of those fi/rst ages of the 
 Church, but even of the authors tliat 
 wrote at that time and their works, 
 since no other writer but he has 
 given account of those things." — 
 Supin, vol. iiT p. 3." 
 
 Dnpin says, that " we have not 
 the writings of the early fathers. 
 We have merely some fragments 
 vrithout the context, which contro- 
 versialists may twist and turn tc 
 sundry purposes." 
 
 All the writings of these fathers 
 are some fragments contained in the 
 history of Eusebius (the volume I 
 hold m my hand), which I could 
 almost put in my waistcoat pocket, 
 if printed as books are now printed. 
 So that, in short, vrithout the his- 
 tory of Eusebius we ,nould have no 
 knowledge at all of them. In fact, 
 we depend upon the honesty and 
 infalKbility of Eusebius for the 
 words as well as correctness of 
 almost all the fathers that preceded 
 him. Delahogue admits they left 
 
SAINIS AKD AUGELS. 
 
 Uev- J. Otmmiitj.j 
 
 little behind them ; but a tenth part 
 of that little we are not possessed 
 of. This is the candid admission 
 of the Eoman-Catholio historianj 
 Dupin, teUing us that we have a, few 
 fragments only of the writings that 
 were composed in the first and 
 second and third centuries — that 
 we obtain even these fragments at 
 second hand — that we nave not 
 their distinct and separate works 
 — ^that we are wholly indebted to 
 a small history compiled by Euse- 
 bius, in which he has quoted pas- 
 sages from them, and thus preserved 
 them. 
 
 My opponent's next remark (as 
 far as I recollect) related to the 
 sentiments entertained by St. Jerome 
 on the Invocation of Angels and 
 Saints. Now, mark you, whilst I 
 show that the fathers are not 
 Papists, I do not place one feather's 
 weight on their authority. Though 
 all the fathers said one thing, and 
 the Bible said another, the Bible 
 would be right (as I told you before) 
 and the fathers would be wrong. 
 But stiU I am not disposed to con- 
 cede that feather, for I 'can show 
 you that the Fathers contradict the 
 Church of Rome even on vital ques- 
 tions, as I have often proved to you 
 before. When you heard so many 
 and so strange quotations from St. 
 Jerome, y oumight instantly conclude 
 that St. Jerome advocates the Inter- 
 cession of Saints — ^that, in fact, this 
 doctrine is held by him. You will, 
 therefore, be anxious to know of 
 what worth St. Jerome's authority 
 is J because, as my friend has now 
 given up St. Augustine, most mag- 
 nanimously asserting, that " if St. 
 Augustine says so and so, I take 
 the liberty to differ from Augustine," 
 I may also induce liim to place St. 
 Jerome in the same category. . The 
 whole force of my friend's battery 
 has been directed from the fathers, 
 and he has kept from the word of 
 
 255 
 
 God as from something that might 
 palsy and paralyze his powers ; and 
 yet, most strange! he says, " if 
 Augustine says so and so, I beg 
 leave to differ from Augustine." I 
 win, therefore, read you an extract 
 relative to his next favourite— the 
 illustrious St. Jerome; for the fickle 
 advocate no sooner gives up one 
 than he adopts another. Hear, then, 
 from Dupin, the Roman-Catholic 
 historian, of what value St. Jerome 
 is. This opinion settles all Mr 
 French's quotations. I quote at 
 page 103. Dupin says — " He 
 ever argued on principles which 
 made mm contradict himself. His 
 genius was hot. and vehement. He 
 fell upon his adversaries with fierce- 
 ness. He often carries his sub- 
 ject too far, being transported with 
 his ordinary heat; he commends, 
 blames, condemns, and approves of 
 things, according to the impression 
 which they make- upon his imagina- 
 tion. He often sets down the 
 expositions of different commen- 
 tators without altering any thing, 
 and without naming those &om 
 whom he took them ; nay, he intro- 
 duced such explications as he did 
 not approve himself." — Diipin, 
 vol. ui. p. 103. 
 
 This is Jerome, mind you, from 
 whom my opponent fired such a tre- 
 mendous battery in favour of the 
 Invocation of Saints ! [Laughter.] 
 " He teaches," continues Dupin, 
 " that the angels may sin ; upon the 
 Epistle to the Bphes-ians, that Christ 
 died for angels ; and upon Ecclesi- 
 astes, that the sun and stars have 
 souls. In St. Jerome's Commen- 
 taries there are also several opinions 
 that savour of Jewish superstition 
 and the too great credahty of the 
 first Christians." 
 
 Now, perhaps, you will feel it your 
 duty to throw St. Jerome over- 
 board [to Mr. French], and treat 
 him in the same cavalier style in 
 
256 
 
 INVOCAHON or [_5ik Ihiemng. 
 
 which you treated " the glorious " 
 St. Augustine ? 
 
 Again Dupiu says : " If he is 
 too scrupulous ia some places, in. 
 others he seems a little too free." 
 Dupia adds, that many of his most 
 extravagamt opinions " he rejected 
 when he refuted Origen." P. 104. 
 Oiigen was another father my oppo- 
 nent quoted. You say that the 
 fathers are very unanimous! St. 
 Jerome refutes Origen. TMsisIrish 
 unanimity. 
 
 Pupin adds: — "St. Jerome 
 sometimes rives aUegorioal senses 
 to things which are to he under- 
 stood HteraUy. These, are some 
 of the faults which have been 
 taken notice of in St. Jerome's 
 Commentaries, and which crept in 
 by the too 'great precipitancy with 
 which he wrote them." 
 
 Now, here is the authority of a 
 distinguished Roman Catholic his- 
 torian, Dupin, on the merits i of St. 
 Jerome. I long to know, after this 
 expose, whether my friend wiH appeal 
 to St. Jerome, or say, " Well, if 
 St. Jerome says so and so, I beg 
 to differ from St. . Jerome." My 
 learned antagonist does not, I find, 
 apraoTC of the phraseology applied 
 by Don Carlos to the Virgm Mary, 
 
 • when he appointed her generalis- 
 simo of his forces in the recent 
 war. I gave it you from the news- 
 paper — the Times said so — I know 
 it can tell lies [laughter] as well as 
 the Gkroniele, and, in fact, all the 
 public prints of aU shades of dis- 
 tinction. But I shaU. give you 
 other illustrations as sunerstitions as 
 these — quotations thatliave the seal 
 and authority of the Church — quo- 
 tations containing the most extra- 
 
 ■ ordinary tales conoeming the saints 
 and their marvellous doings. I shall 
 read to you a few extracts from thp 
 works of the Bolandists. I stated 
 in the outset of my remarks that 
 the practice of the worship of 
 
 saints was a degrading and gross 
 superstition — that the whole of 
 Europe during the middle ages in 
 consequence was deluged with lying 
 fables. I have quoted one fact 
 respecting this already; I shall, 
 therefore, quote another from the 
 life of St. Dominic, as recorded by 
 the learned and distinguished Bolan- 
 dists: — "Behold nine women of 
 rank, entering the Church, fall at 
 his feet, saying, ' servant of 
 God, suooour us. If the things 
 which thou hast preached to-day 
 are true, the spint of error has 
 for a long time blinded our eyes ; 
 for we have given faith to those 
 persons: whom thou callest heretics, 
 but whom we call good men, even 
 up to the present day, and have 
 adhered to them with our whole 
 heart. But now we are in doubt. 
 Aid us, servant of God, and pray 
 the Lord your God to make known 
 to us his faith, that we may live in 
 it, die in it, and be saved.' 
 
 " Then the man of God, standing 
 for a short time, and praying within 
 himself, shortly said to them : 'Be 
 of good courage and firmly hope. 
 I trust in the Lord my God, that ne 
 who desires no one to perish vnll 
 now show to you the kindTof master 
 you. have hitherto obeyed.' Im- 
 mediately they beheld jump up from 
 the midst of them a frightful cat, 
 ^larger than a great dog, which had 
 great flaming eyes, and a long broad 
 and bloody tongue han^ng out, 
 which reached to the navel, with a 
 short tail, tucked up behind, that 
 exposed his hinder parts, and from 
 him there issued an intolerable 
 smell. And when he had turned 
 here and there round the matrons, 
 for the space of an hour, leaping up 
 the bel-rope, and ascending by this 
 means up above, he disappeared, 
 sHpping down by the steeple, and 
 leaving the stench behind him. 
 — Se Sancto Domiidco Confessvre, 
 
Sev. J. Cumming.l 
 
 ■August itk Ada Sanctorum, torn, 
 vi. Antverpice, 1688. 
 
 " It happened there also, that this 
 man of God, who had watched till 
 the middle of the night in prayer, 
 departing from the Church, wrote 
 by candle-light, sitting at the head 
 of his domutory. And behold the 
 devil, who appeared in the form of 
 a monkey, begaa strutting about 
 before him, making ridiculous ges- 
 tures with grimaces. Then the 
 saint beckoned to liitn ta stand still, 
 
 fiving him a lighted candle to hold 
 efore him, _ and he, although he 
 held it, continued to make his gri- 
 maces. Meanwhile the candle was 
 finished and began to bum the 
 monkey's fingers, aud he began to 
 lament as if tortured by the lames, 
 whereas, he who bums in the flames 
 of hell ought not to fear a bodily 
 flame. But the saint beckoned him 
 to stand still. Why should I say 
 more ? He stood, then until the 
 whole of l^is. forefinger was burnt 
 down to the soAet, crying out more 
 and more loudly from the torture. 
 Thus the man of God, strong in 
 faith, having taken him in who 
 sought to impose upon him, gave 
 him a sharp blow with a cane, which 
 he always carried with him, saying. 
 Depart, thou wicked man ; and the 
 blow sounded as if he had struck a 
 dry bladder full of wind. Upon this, 
 casting himself against the nearest 
 wall, he disappeared, leaving behind 
 him a stench which discovered who 
 he was. Truly, this man is to be 
 extolled' among the angelic powers, 
 who so powerfully confounds and 
 reproves diabolical wickedness. — 
 Acta Ampliora S. Bominici- Confes- 
 soris, August 14. 
 
 Now, mind you-ra'[the laughter 
 throughout the reading of these ex- 
 tracts was incessant.] 
 
 Mr. Pkench. — [turning, to Mr. 
 Gumming.] If yon do not wish to 
 excitelaiighter,youhadbetterdesist. j 
 
 SAINIS AND AUGELS. 
 
 257 
 
 Rev. J. Gumming. — I do not 
 wish to excite laughter at all — I 
 only wish 
 
 A Voice. — He is reading from, a 
 book — what business have you to 
 interfere ? [to Mi-. Jrench.j 
 
 Rev. J. CuMMiNa. — Now, re- 
 member, my friends, all that is 
 disgusting is to be attributed to 
 the distinguished Bolandists, best 
 edition, bearing on it the sanction 
 or imprimatur of the Church of 
 Rome. 
 
 Mr. Peench. — No, no, no ! 
 
 Rev. J. Ctjmmingt. — ^I have a list 
 of these most extraordinary legends 
 [showing the book]. I have read 
 you specimens from these Boland- 
 ists, who wrote under the sanction 
 of the Church, of Rome; and I have 
 read to you from the life of St. 
 Francis of Assisi, and shcjwn you 
 the pictures illustrative of some 
 extracts, containing the most dis- 
 gusting legends that were ever 
 palmed on acredulous and misguided 
 people. But all that is disgust- 
 ing belongs to the Church of Rome, 
 and those who sanctioned them, not, 
 certainly, to him who drags them to 
 light and esposes their errors and 
 absurdity. If the statements of the 
 Church of Rome vriU not bear the 
 light, she must look, to the preten- 
 sions of her doctors and her cardi- 
 nals ; for he whose deeds are right 
 wiU not shrink from coming to the 
 light, that they may be proved; 
 To show you how truly these acts 
 of the saints are authorized by the 
 Church of Rome, you must recollect 
 that her severe censorship was in 
 the habit of sanctioning what she 
 deemed good books, and of pro- 
 hibiting Dad. books. I know the 
 fact, that in the Index Mpurga- 
 torius some of the most important 
 and' distinguished works have been 
 placed; but how happens it that 
 these works of the Bolandists have 
 never been put there ? Now, is 
 
368 
 
 INVOCATION OF [5tt Eoening. 
 
 it not strange that the Chnreh of 
 Home should have so great disgust 
 for these extracts professedly similar 
 to the feeling •which this audience 
 has manifested, and yet should not 
 hare fixed them in the index ? 
 Why did not the censors of their 
 books, who episcated aU the claims 
 of what books were to be prohibited 
 and what to be allowed, why did 
 they not prohibit these ? Nay, I go 
 further : Whj^ have they, the accre- 
 dited organs of the Roman Chureli, 
 actually given their sanction and 
 imprimatur to them ? Why have 
 they done so ? Why did the censors 
 of bad books and authorizers of 
 sood actually give their stamp and 
 s»H)r«ma^«r to these writings? out of 
 which I have give you but a dis- 
 proportionate sample, whereas I 
 might give you ten thousand of the 
 same stamp. 
 
 But what is the drift of my re- 
 marks, when I state these things ? 
 All I wish is to bring your attention 
 to this point — that the moment 
 men leave the oracles of God, and 
 ' begin to have recourse to the tra- 
 ditions and writings of man, no 
 arithmetic can calculate the tre- 
 mendous results that will follow, or 
 the awful spirit of delusion into 
 which they may be plunged. My 
 friend asserted in his speech, that 
 the Roman church alone has re- 
 eouise to primitive antiquity, and 
 we not. My learned antagonist 
 knows that the word "primitive" 
 is derived from the word primus, 
 signifying first. Now, therefore, I 
 ask, who were the primi, who were 
 first? — who but the apostles and 
 «Bimgelists ? That, surely, is primi- 
 tive authority. They were the ^nm. 
 I go to primitive antiquity. He 
 dares not touch true primitive anti- 
 quity — the apostles and evangelists 
 — because he knows they denounce 
 his superstitious dogmas. 
 
 My friend next alluded, in no 
 
 ceremonious terms, to the members 
 of the Church of Scotland, to Epis- 
 copalians, Baptists, Wesleyans, &c. 
 To you I would say, my friends. You 
 are worshipping God by the one 
 only way ; you can appeal to the 
 apostles and evangelists for your 
 doctrines. My antagonist dares not 
 appeal to them for the Invocation 
 of Saints. Again and again, my 
 friend asserted, "I am coming to 
 Scripture" — "I go to Scripture!" 
 Now, I ask, did ne produce one text 
 from Scripture ? Not one ! Again 
 and again he said, "I am not afraid 
 of Scripture !" but he seemed to 
 me like a child in the dark, who 
 keeps calling out, " I am not afraid 
 in the dark," or whistles as he goes 
 for want of thought, or in order 
 to keep himself m good spirits ; ' 
 whereas he knows he is trembling 
 at every inch lest something in the 
 dark should lay hold of him. Again, 
 he has made a statement to the 
 effect, that he does not like to go 
 to Glasgow and Edinburgh, and 
 some of those places, for lus theo- 
 logy, but that he wishes to go to 
 pnmitive antiquity. Why then has 
 he not gone to the Apostles anJd 
 Evangeiits, instead of wandering 
 at so immeasurable a distance from 
 them ? To them he prefers Kam- 
 schatka and Pekin. He has good 
 reason for not going to Glasgow or 
 to Edinburgh, for there are some 
 
 food hard-headed men there who 
 ave learned from St. Paul the su- 
 perstitions of the Mass, the absnx- 
 dities of Transubstantiation, and 
 the idolatries of the Invocation of 
 Saints. 
 
 Now, as I know the only texts to 
 which my opponent can refer, I will 
 just draw out a few of his teeth, 
 before he enters on his closing 
 speech, which I do not dread^l 
 assure you. My first reference is 
 to the prophet Ilosea, xii. 3. " He 
 took his brother by the heel, in tLu 
 
■Rev. J. Outmiing.] 
 
 womb, and by his strength he had 
 power wth God. Yea, he 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." Now, my 
 friend, as usual, will quote that 
 passage, and here he will stop; I 
 venture to say he will stop here. 
 He here finds that Jacob had power 
 over the angel and prevailed; but 
 just read the fifth verse that follows : 
 — "Even ihe Lord Ood of Hosts j the 
 Lord is his memorial," — that is the 
 angel, the Angel of Jehovah, the 
 Ai^el of the Covenant, the mighty 
 God, Wonderful Counsellor, the 
 Prince of Peace, is the Lord God 
 of Hosts. And to show you that I 
 am not at all giving a fanciful inter- 
 pretation of this, but a faithful and 
 true one, I shall refer to the origi 
 nal account. Gen. xxxii. 24, 29 : — 
 "And Jacob was left alone, and 
 there wrestled a man with him until 
 the breaking of the day. Jacob 
 asked him, and said, Tell me, I pray 
 thee, thy name; and he said, Where- 
 fore is it that thou dost ask after 
 my name ? And he blessed him 
 there. And Jacob called the name 
 of the place Peniel, for I have seen 
 God face to face, and my life is pre- 
 served." There can be no mystery 
 as to who this angel was, "over 
 whom he had power and prevailed." 
 Again, when we refer to Exodus 
 iii. 2, we find, "the Angel op the 
 Lord appeared unto Moses in a 
 flame of fire." This angel is de- 
 clared to be Jehovah. " And God 
 said unto Moses, I am that I am ; 
 and he said. Thus shalt thou say 
 unto the children of Israel, I AM 
 hath sent me unto you. And God 
 said moreover unto Moses, Thus 
 shalt thou say unto the children of 
 Israel, TheLord God of your fathers, 
 the God of Abraham, the God of 
 Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath 
 sent me unto you ; this is my name 
 
 SAINTS AND ANGELS. 
 
 259 
 
 for ever, and this is my memorial 
 unto all generations." 
 
 This great Being is expressly 
 called the Angel Lord, who appeared 
 unto Moses in the bush (v. 2). 
 You win find the words " Jehovah" 
 and " Angel" very distinctly syno- 
 nymous terms ; and, in fact, I will 
 go to the original Hebrew, and give 
 the precise words, and any Hebrew 
 scholar in the room is at liberty to 
 correct me. The words are Jeho- 
 vah Melek, "the Angel Lord," the 
 second person in the glorious Tri- 
 nity, namely, Jehovah Messiah, or 
 the Sent One. But the chapter 
 from Hosea shows this angel who 
 appeared in the burning bush, and 
 Jehovah the Lord of Btosts, to be 
 one and the same Being. "He 
 made supplication unto the Angel; 
 and now what is his name of the 
 Angel? "The Loud op Hosts is 
 his memorial." So tliat there is 
 not the slightest room for the ador- 
 ation of angels and saints there. 
 The Being adored is Jehovah. 
 
 Another passage quoted is — 
 "And he blessed Jacob— blessed 
 Joseph, and said 
 
 Mj. French. — What is it ? 
 
 Rev. J. Gumming. — It is from 
 Genesis xlvui. 15. My friend will 
 likely read the sixteenth verse and 
 there stop. Now mark if I am 
 not a true prophet in these things ! 
 " And he blessed Joseph, and said. 
 God, before whom my fathers Abrs 
 ham and Isaac did walk, the Goa. 
 which fed me all my life long unto 
 this day, the Angel which redeemed 
 me from aU evil, bless the ladsj 
 and let my name be named on them, 
 and the name of my fathers, Abra- 
 ham and Isaac ; and let them eroW' 
 into a multitude in the midst of the 
 earth." Angel and God, as the 
 very grammar shows, are one ; the 
 God that did so and so— the Angel 
 that did so and so— one single per- 
 son is spoken of throughout; and 
 
260 
 
 mvocATiON or 15 ti Evening. 
 
 therefore the passage is an Invoca- 
 tion of God, but there is not one 
 particle of proof here on the Invo- 
 cation of Samts. 
 
 The next passage which my friend 
 will most probably quote is, from 
 the Book of Joshua, v. 13 : " And 
 it came to pass when Joshua was 
 by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes 
 and looked, and behold there stood 
 a man over agaiust him with his 
 sword drawn in his hand ; and 
 Joshua went unto him and' said unto 
 him. Art thou lor us or for our 
 adversaries ? And^he said, Nay; but 
 as Captain of the Host of the Lord 
 am I come. And, Joshua fell on 
 his face to the earth and did wor- 
 ship, and said unto him. What saith 
 my Lord unto his servant? And 
 the Captain of the Lord's Host said 
 unto Joshua, Loose thy shoes from 
 off thy feet, for the place whereon 
 thou standest is holy ; and Joshua 
 did so." Now I call your attention 
 first to the words, " Loose thy shoes 
 from off thy feet, for the place 
 ^hereon thOu standest is holy ;" for 
 you win find that, when God appeared 
 m the midst of the burning bush to 
 Moses, (Exodus ui.) a parallel com- 
 mand was made, " Loose thy shoes 
 from off thy feet, for the place 
 whereon thou standest is holy." 
 The parallel passages distiuctly imply 
 that the Captain of the Host whom 
 Joshua worshipped was none other 
 than Jehovah, the Lord of Hosts. 
 Is not Christ also emphatically and 
 distinctly declared to be in Scripture 
 "the Captain of our Salvation?" 
 And therefore, the more you look 
 into this passage, and the more closely 
 you analyze it, the more distinctly 
 do you see that it refers exclusively 
 to Christ, and that the worship here 
 given was worsliip given to Christ. 
 I have quoted passages in my first 
 speech, and passages also in my last, 
 all of wliioh you observe have been 
 tortured by the Church of Rome, 
 
 by a most subtle and extraordinary 
 logic, into the doctrine of the Invo- 
 cation of Saints ; but aU of which, 
 when looked fairly in the face, de- 
 monstrate that worship is to be 
 given to God only, and that "reli- 
 ^ous service" (in the lan^age of 
 Delahogue, which he says is to be 
 given to saints,) is to be given unto 
 God on^. But when my opponent 
 refers to the Old Testament, he errs; 
 for, according to his Church, the 
 Invocation of Saints under the Old 
 Testament economy would be con- 
 trary to the principles of the faith ; 
 for then all the saints were in limbo, 
 and if in limbo before the resur- 
 rection of Christ, there can be no 
 proofs of Invocation of them prior 
 to that. Having made these re- 
 marks, let me add, that I do not see 
 the necessity there is (though this 
 is not an argument, as I stated 
 before) for the Invocation of Sabits. 
 I read in that sacred book, that 
 God the Father has his most merci- 
 ful bosom ever open to receive you ; 
 that God the Son intercedes for you 
 on the right hand of the Fatner ; 
 that God the Holy Spirit dwells in 
 the heart of believers, interceding 
 for them " with groanings that 
 cannot be uttered." This surely is 
 enough ! 
 
 In addition to this .blessed tr th, 
 consider the completeness of the 
 admission made by Delaliogue, that 
 aU this worship or Invocation oi 
 Saints is not de fide — is not essen- 
 tial ; therefore my friend might give 
 it up with the greatest possible ease, 
 without compromising nis principles 
 as a Kdmau Catholic. 
 
 Mark now, my friends, the glo- 
 rious position in which Protestant 
 Christianity places us. It tells 
 that we have God the Son inter- 
 ceding at the throne above ; God 
 the Holy Spirit interceding in our 
 hearts within us ; that thus we are 
 borne up in the eternal arms of 
 
Rev. J. Oumminff.} 
 
 God; and "if this God be for us 
 on earth and in heaven, who can be 
 against us?" What necessity (if 
 so) can there be for the Invocation 
 of Angels and Saints on the part 
 of those who have such a Saviour 
 at the right hand of the Pather, 
 and such a Holy Spirit dwelling 
 within us ? 
 
 I find the following happy illus- 
 tration of the non-necessity of the 
 interposition of saints, and the in- 
 finite delight of, God to receive 
 sinners :— Did the Prodigal Son, 
 after he had ceased to feed on " the 
 husks that the swine did eat," and 
 had come to himself, say, "I wiH 
 arise and go to my brethren ?" No. 
 To servants ? No. To the saints ? 
 No ; but, " I win arise and go to 
 my faiker's house, for there is 
 plenty !" And we read, that when 
 the fother saw hJTin " a great way 
 off'" (his father was, no doubt, 
 standing on some lofty eminence or 
 tower of his castle, looking to see if 
 there was the least shadow in the 
 distant horizon — ^the least symptom 
 of the return pf the poor, pemtent 
 prodigal), and the instant he caught 
 one gnmpse of his return, he rushed 
 forth to meet him, and welcomed 
 him home with all the gladness of 
 an anxious and affectionate father. 
 My dear Roman Catholic friends, 
 we have such a father in God in 
 heaven ! He stands in high heaven, 
 looking out for the first movement 
 of the returning pemtent ; and if you 
 will only rise and leave the kusks of 
 the Church of Bome, and come to 
 yoitr Father and your God, the ne- 
 cessity of the interposition of saints 
 will appear contemptible indeed; 
 for God!^is w illin g, waiting, anxious 
 — longing to receive you. Let this 
 be your language this night — the 
 language you breathe at the throne 
 of grace : — " I will arise and go to 
 my Father ! and I will say tonim, 
 Father! I have sinned against heaven 
 
 SAINTS ANT) ANGELS. 
 
 2S1 
 
 and before thee ! I will go to my 
 father's house, for he has plenty to 
 spare." 'Jbid, rest assured, the 
 sweetest anthem that wUl be heara 
 in heaven wiU be heard over those 
 who have washed their robes and 
 made them white in the blood of the 
 Lamb — who have come . to their 
 Father, and found him iadeed to be 
 their Father and their God. "If 
 ye, being evil, know how to give 
 good gifts unto your children, how 
 much more wiH your heavenly Father 
 
 five the Spirit to them that ask 
 im !" Ask of God as of a father 
 He looks upon you as his children ; 
 and if an earthly father will not 
 refuse a gift to his earthly son, oh, 
 much less will that Father, whose 
 mercies are hke the great mountaias, 
 and whose compassions are like the 
 great deep — ^much less will he re- 
 fuse your fervent and affectionate 
 prayer ! 
 
 Again, I find in Scripture, among 
 very beautiful similitudes of the 
 character of believers, one apposite 
 to our present subject frequently 
 referred to : — " They rise on eagles' 
 wings." " He reneweth our youth 
 like the eagle's." Now mark, if 
 this be the fact, what valuable 
 lessons does it necessarily lead to. 
 You know the eagle builds its nest 
 always on the highest rock — it never 
 builds it on the ground : it never 
 builds it ia the furze-bush, but 
 always on the highest cliff of the 
 craggy rock. And thus should it be 
 with you. Build your hopes, I im- 
 plore you, on no creature short of 
 the Amighty, the everlasting God, 
 "theRockofAges,"your"Fortress," 
 your " High Tower," your " Eock." 
 Again, it is well known that the 
 eagle rises higher than any other bird 
 of the air ; he soars to a far greater 
 altitude than any. Now you know 
 what is the consequence of rising 
 high above the earth. Those men 
 who have ascended in balloons, and 
 
862 
 
 INVOCATION OF ' [BiA Eveiitiiff. 
 
 who have looked down, have stated 
 that St. Paul's cathedral appears no 
 bigger than a black beetle. Thus 
 w3l it be with you. The higher you 
 rise, the less significant wiU all crea- 
 tures on earth appear ; and thus the 
 nearer you rise to God and his glo- 
 rious presence, the less the greatest 
 saints wiR look. There is another 
 fact respecting the eagle to which a 
 believer is iu Scripture compared. 
 The eagle alwms fastens Ms eyes 
 t^on the sun. iou might show mm 
 a burning torch, or the most splendid 
 stars that stud the blue firmament, 
 but he win not look at them ; he 
 rivets his bright eye on the blazing 
 sun, the source of continual vitality 
 and lustre ; and so must you, my 
 Roman Catholic friends. Hivetyour 
 eyes on Christ, the Sun of Righteous- 
 ness; let no tiny glow-worm light 
 of saint or of sinner take ofp your 
 attention ' from him. Fasten your 
 CTes intensely and entirely upon 
 Christ by faith, who is gone mto the 
 immediate presence of the Father, 
 who win make you kings and priests 
 unto God. Through faith in Christ, 
 call God your Father, and he will 
 call you his sons and his daughters. 
 There is yet another point of simiK- 
 tudebetweenthe eagle and a believer. 
 When in the moulting season the 
 eagle loses its feathers, it is a well- 
 known fact, that the way he adopts 
 to recover those feathers is to go 
 out and bask in the sunshine, as 
 every naturalist will tell you ; when 
 he has lost his plumage, he does not 
 skulk into the cave, but basks in the 
 sunshine. Even so do you — "In 
 all time of your tribulation, in all 
 time of your wealth, in the hour of 
 death, and in the day of iudgment." 
 Bask not in the taper-lignt of saints 
 in heaven or saints on earth, but 
 come to the glorious light of the Sun 
 of Righteousness ; court not, like 
 the owls, and moles, and bats, the 
 light of the stars and moon, and 
 
 the dark night ; but, like the eagle, 
 soar and seek the full light of the 
 meridian day. I caU on yow, sir, 
 [to Mr. French] to come out from 
 the murky twilight of these moles 
 and bats, the fathers and pseudo- 
 saints of the Church, and assert your 
 right to the full blaze of that fight 
 which is transmitted from the Sun 
 of Righteousness, the source and 
 fountain of all light. 
 
 My next remark from this simili- 
 tude is a beautiful illustration of 
 what believers should do. The cir- 
 cumstance of the eagle's fluttering 
 over her young in the nest, and 
 teaching them to engage with her in 
 flight, IS beautifully described in 
 Deuteronomy xxxi. : — " As am eagle 
 stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over 
 her young, spreadeth abroad her 
 wings, taketh them, beareth them 
 upon her wings, so the Lord alone 
 did lead him, and there was no 
 strange god with him." The eagle 
 teaches and trains her young to rise 
 and soar towards heaven, to fix 
 their eyes on the sun. It thus' 
 forms a beautiful illustration of the 
 way in which the faithful minister 
 or parent would teach and train 
 believers committed to his care. He 
 is no minister of Christ who would 
 teach you to fasten your eye on 
 fathers or on saints, even the no- 
 blest and most illustrious of them 
 all ; but he alone is a true Christian 
 priest who wiU teach you to rivet 
 youi eye on the Sun of Righteous- 
 ness, to rise above the dusky atmo- 
 sphere and the muddy element that 
 saints and fathers grope in, and to 
 pursue your course right upward 
 and onward with firm and unwaver- 
 ing pinion toward that Sun in whose 
 rays there is life, and under whose 
 wings there is the healing of the 
 nations. 
 
 [The reverend gentleman's hour 
 I here terminated.] 
 
Mr. French.} 
 
 [Mr. Feench, on rising, expe- 
 rieaoed some little interruption, 
 springing from what cause we are 
 not a-yare ; and the learned gentle- 
 man, before again entering on the 
 subject, said, " I trust you will make 
 as little noise as possible, and allow 
 each of us fair play." The confusion 
 increasing, the learned gentleman 
 continued: — ^"I certainly cannot go 
 on with this noise ; it ' is utterly 
 impossible." 
 
 John Kendai, Esq. (Catholic 
 chairman) then rose, and succeeded 
 in effectually restoring order.] 
 
 Mr. Pbench again rose and spoke 
 as follows : — I rise to answer, or 
 rather to resist, not an overwhelm- 
 ing tide of argument, but a large, 
 copious, and nauseating effusion of 
 Calvinistic gaU. Such, my friends, 
 are the expressions that I use to- 
 wards an adversary who adopts so 
 ungenerous a proceeding as my 
 friend has had recourse to this 
 evening. I can bear to be called" 
 idolatrous, superstitious, and to be 
 overloaded with all those epithets 
 which no one but a gentlemau of 
 that persuasion would use when 
 reasoning with a Roman CathoHo — 
 I can b^ar with such epithets, 
 lavished upon me, as my reverend 
 friend has poured out, night after 
 night, since this discussion com- 
 menced : but to hear a gentleman, 
 coming into this room, and most 
 deliberately attributing to me that 
 as an article of my creed which ie 
 knows not to be an article of it — to 
 hear him solemnly and gravely as- 
 cribing to me concessions which it 
 would be ridiculous on my part to 
 make, and which I most unequivo- 
 cally disclaim — such a disingenuous 
 mode of proceeding, I say, on his 
 part, is unworthy of a man who is 
 bound by any honourable ties ui the 
 field of fair, amicable, argumentative 
 disputation. I am really competed 
 
 SAINTS ASD ANGELS. 
 
 263 
 
 to tell him so, and to teE him, 
 moreover— though he knows it wel. 
 — ^that, notwithstanding his recent 
 miglity soar into the regions of the 
 clouds, with his "eagles," like an- 
 other Pindar [laughter], he knows 
 it is not in his power to daunt a man 
 of my temper and caUbre. No, he 
 has neither power to intimidate me 
 by those florid and high-sounding 
 metaphors, that he has bandied 
 about for years past from one end 
 of England to the other, and those 
 texts which he has committed so 
 faithfully to memory [laughller], nor 
 to perplex, by his exasperating lan- 
 guage, the even flow of my thoughts, 
 or disarrange the tenor of my sys- 
 tematic argument. 
 
 And now, gentlemen, having 
 thus candidly declared my sen- 
 timents as to this indecorous be- 
 haviour of my learned friend, I 
 cannot refrain from observing, that 
 it is really a relief — a kind of 
 anodyne to my wounded feelings, 
 after listening so long to the m- 
 furiated declamation of wild, raving, 
 unmitigable bigotry (though I am 
 not courting, as I told you before, 
 the smiles of the Church of Eng- 
 land, or of any other denomination 
 of Christians), but really, it is 
 a kind of relief to me to cite the 
 observations of a Bishop of the 
 Church of England, after listening 
 to the outrageous rhodomontade of 
 my learned and reverend antagonist. 
 [Laughter.] It is Dr. Montague, 
 the Protestant Bishop of Chichester, 
 who writes these remarks. His 
 words, talking of the Invocation of 
 Angek and Saints, are these : — This 
 is the common voice, with general 
 concurrence, without contradiction of 
 reverend and learned antiquity, for 
 aught I could ever read or under- 
 stand; and I see no cause or reason 
 to dissent from them touching inter- 
 cession in this hind. — Dr. Montague, 
 p. 103. 
 
264 
 
 nrvooATiON of 
 
 [5th EBemx^f, 
 
 Mark, my friends, the expression 
 of this fair and hoiioiirable opponent 
 of Catholicity, this Protestant bishop 
 of the Chnrch of England — mark the 
 expression — mth general concur- 
 rence, without contradiction of re- 
 verend and learned antiqmty; yes, 
 that reverend and learned antiquity 
 which my learned and reverend an- 
 tagonist despises and sets at nought, 
 as being constituted of nothing 
 more nor less than so many fac- 
 similes of us Catholics at the present 
 day, namely, men unlearned, idola- 
 trous, unapostoKc, unbiblical. But 
 let me cheer, if possible, the dark- 
 ening brow of my reverend friend, 
 with another httle quotation from 
 this calm-reasoning bishop of the 
 Church of England : — " I grant (he 
 says) Christ is not wronged in his 
 mediation: it is no impiety io say, 
 'Holy Mary, prayf or m,' 'Ho^ Peter, 
 pray for me.' I tee no repugnancy 
 at all to holy Scripture to say 'Holy 
 angel guardian, pray for me.'" 
 
 The other Protestant divine al- 
 luded to is the Eeverend Dr. Thorn- 
 dike, Prebendaiy of Westminster, 
 c. xxii. 159. His words are:— 
 "This doctrine may be proved by the 
 tameargumentsascommonChristianity 
 is proved, namely, by the Scriptures 
 interpreted by the perpetual practice 
 of God^s Church." 
 
 I say, gentlemen, it is a relief, 
 after hearing my learned friend, to 
 listen to the cahn, plam. reasoning of 
 a bishop of the Church of England ; 
 and it ought, and would, no doubt, 
 make the cheek of the learned gen- 
 tleman blush deeply, had it not been 
 so long estranged to such an ho- 
 nourable suffusion. [Laughter.] In 
 one of the towering flights of the 
 learned gentleman's eloquence, look- 
 ing down triumphantly from the 
 clouds, he advised us Catholics to 
 throw away, with ineffable disdain, 
 the Intercession of Saints, which 
 we had received from the tradition 
 
 of ages, and which I will cling to to 
 my very latest breath with pure un- 
 smhed conscience, unreproached as 
 it is by learned and' reverend an- 
 tiquity, and unsolicitous as it is 
 concerning the suffrages of unlearned 
 and impious modernism. 
 
 My reverend friend tells us to cry 
 out — Abba, Eather ! as if we never 
 offered up a prayer to the God of the 
 universe, as if we neglected to adore 
 with all the powers of our soul, our 
 crucified Saviour. I wiR answer his 
 virulent and malignant declamation 
 against us (for such it really was) 
 by endeavouring to persuade you 
 that we are by no means such akens 
 to that pure and genuine worship 
 which he tells us it is the duty of a 
 Christian to offer, 'by showing you a 
 Kttle humble effusion of my own, in 
 honour of my blessed Redeemer. It 
 flowed -vrarm from my heart — ^it was 
 the effort of a few moments, nay, I 
 might almost say of an instantanepus 
 
 fiance at the glorious original, the 
 latin of St. Bernard. I shall beg 
 leave, therefore, to read it to this 
 assembly, ia order to prove to my 
 Protestant brethren, that we Cathor 
 lies know how to pray to the blessed 
 Jesus, with all the fervour, aU the 
 unction of souls nurtured with the 
 true bread of life. When I shall 
 have read it, it wUl prov« sufficiently 
 to this audience, without the neces- 
 sity of any other argument, that we 
 Catholics need no exhortation from 
 our sermonizing antagonist, in order 
 to stimulate us to love with ardour 
 the blessed, the immortal Jesus. Its 
 diction may be poor, jejune, and 
 unomamented; but this I know — 
 that its substance could have flowed 
 from no other source than that of 
 the hallowed fountain of the Catholic 
 Eucharist. 
 
 ^ O Jesus ! name to memory dear, 
 Embalm'd with many a grateful tear. 
 The thoughts of thee with sweets my hosom 
 
 fiU, 
 But oh f thy presence ia far sweeter stiU 
 
Mr, French.'] 
 
 SAINTS AlfD AJTGELS. 
 
 265 
 
 No sound in heav'n or earth is heard 
 So sweet as that melodious word, 
 
 That sweetest charm by which all hearts are 
 won, 
 
 The name of Jesus, God's eternal Son ! 
 
 O glorious day-spring, heav'nly mom 
 
 Of sinners desolate, forlorn I 
 To seek thee, Jesus ! is a sweet employ. 
 But oh I to find thee, who can tell the joy t 
 
 Jesus ! true sweetness and delight ! 
 
 O living fount of splendour bright I 
 Filling the bosoms that in thee believe 
 With joys no tongue can tell, no heart 
 conceive 1 
 
 Alas ! how languid and how faint 
 Is eloquence thy sweets to paint ! 
 Tis he that tastes thee who alone can know 
 What streams of joy the raptur'd soul 
 o'erflow. 
 
 O Jesus ! King of power divine. 
 Whose glories so triumphant shine; 
 S weetness ineffable ! eternal iire. 
 Consuming with insatiable desire I 
 
 O source of bliss, with me remain, 
 
 Sole monarch of my bosom reign, 
 
 And whilst all tongues thy heav'nly deeds 
 
 proclaim, 
 Shed o'er the world the sweetness of thy 
 namef 
 
 This anthem, O celestial King, 
 With heart- devout: to thee' I sing, 
 That when death spreads around its gloomy 
 
 shade. 
 My soul, sweet Jesus I may enjoy thy aid. — 
 Amen. 
 
 Rev. J. CuMMiNG [ia an tuider- 
 tone.] That is scriptural. 
 
 Mr. Ebbnce.— That is the Kttle 
 tribute which, in mj humble efforts, 
 I have paid to my diviae Redeemer; 
 it came, as I told you, warm from 
 a heart glowing with love for him, 
 who for me bled and agonized on 
 Mount Calvary ; but oh ! may this 
 ' hand whither— may this heart cease 
 to beat within me — ^nay, may this 
 tongue be blasted, if ever it forget 
 to implore the intercession of that 
 transoendently glorigus saint, his 
 ever-blessed Mother!' — ay, if lever 
 forget to resound with joy, in unison 
 with hundreds of millions of Catholic 
 tongues, in every part of the uni- 
 verse—" Hail Mary, ftJl of grace, 
 OUT Lord is with thee ! blessed art 
 thou amongst women, and blessed 
 is the fruit of. thy womb, Jesus !j 
 
 Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray 
 for us sinners now,, and at the hour 
 of our death. Amen." 
 
 yye have been taught to apply it 
 W. all the doctors of the Church of 
 God— by the uninterrapted voice of 
 tradition, which cannot be iavaU- 
 datedby the finest flourishes of my 
 learned friend's ever gaudily-spread- 
 ing aad oriental rhetoric. We have 
 have been taught it by the holiest 
 men that ever breathed' upon this 
 earth — the hohest fathers of the 
 Church, and the holiest women that 
 ever adorned the history of Chris- 
 tendom. I will not, therefore, 
 listen to you, sir [turning to the Rev. 
 Mr. Cumming] when you sermonize 
 me and my fellow-Catholios, in the 
 plenitude of your wisdom ; no, sir, 
 / stand in need of the prayers of 
 the saints ; and when the awful hour 
 of death approaches, as I shall not 
 go to the great tribunal with the 
 confidence of a Cahinist, who is a 
 child of the covenant — a child of 
 predestination — a child of the self- 
 explained gospel^a child of pre- 
 ordained dory ; certain of the 
 realms of dKss hereafter; certain, 
 not only for himself but for all his 
 posterity — as, I, say, 1 am not one 
 of those self-exalted beings, but one 
 that will go trembKng to appear in 
 the awful presence of my God ; so 
 shall I not cease to the last hour of 
 my existence to cry out, in the 
 language of the Church — " Oh,, 
 blessed Mary, Mother of my God, 
 pray for me, a poor miserable sinner; 
 smooth, by thy holy intercession 
 with thy divine Son, this my awful 
 passage from tune to eternity!" 
 
 Yes, my Protestant friends, listen- 
 ing to the voice of the Church which 
 has existed in every age, I am en- 
 joined thus to do — and, as I told 
 you at the commenceme:^t of this 
 dispute, if you can show me auy 
 other Church ever co-existent with 
 it, and if you can trace the exist- 
 K 3 
 
nrvocATiON OF (5^A Evemng, 
 
 ence cf. any other Church in every 
 age, save and except the Catholic 
 Church, I -wifl become a member of 
 it to-morrow. And now, gentlemen, 
 if I may bestow a few words on my 
 very reverend and learned friend, 
 who has lavished so many on me, I 
 must, in all equity, give him Credit 
 for possessing a vast torrent of 
 " onental " eloquence ; he can talk 
 of eagles, and bats, and moles, and 
 draw from them, as well as from 
 ten thousand other birds and reptiles 
 in existence, beautiful, apt, ingeni- 
 ously-wrought, unexceptionable me- 
 taphors and similes ; m one word, 
 whatever he chooses to take for the 
 subject of his oratorical amplifica- 
 tion, he is ever extremely happy, and 
 at times original ; the only fault I 
 hare to find with him (and that in 
 polemical discussion is a mortal sin) 
 IS, that he is never argumentative. 
 And yet, my friends, grievous as 
 this imputation which I cast upon 
 him undoubtedly is, would - to 
 heaven it were the greatest of his 
 faults ; but no, my reverend anta- 
 gonist calumniates the holy fathers 
 of the Church, and is actually guilty 
 of blasphemy when he talks of 
 tenets which they held sacred, and 
 which they have transmitted in their 
 writings to aU posterity; expressed 
 in language too plain to be either 
 clouded or distoEted, even by the 
 artful sophistry of a Calvinistic 
 theologian. Let me, therefore, my 
 fnends, let me now invite you — 
 after having heard so often the 
 accents of blasphemy— let me now 
 beg you to listen to the accents of 
 hoEness and truth from the pens of 
 those whom he has so unwarrant- 
 ably calumniated. You have heard 
 the fathers of the Church misre- 
 presented, and I shall, therefore, 
 now recJtify these misrepresenta- 
 tions. The learned gentleman tells 
 you that St. Jerome contradicts 
 nimself, and is not our advocate. 
 
 and that St. Cyprian was not a 
 father of the Catholic Church. Now 
 I happen to have their words, their 
 sentmients, in my own little book ; 
 and I think it time to quote them, 
 in order thiit I may expose such an 
 erroneous assertion of Calvinistic 
 audacity, for I wUl not ofi^end by 
 saying Calvinistic disregard of truth. 
 St. Jeroine writes a letter to Pope 
 Damasus, in which he thus con- 
 founds either my learned friend or 
 me. These are his words : — " Beati- 
 tudicd tuse, id est Cathedrse Petri, 
 communionc consocior ; super iHam 
 petram sediflcatum Ecclesiam scio. 
 Quicunqueextrahanodomum agnum 
 oomedent, profanus est;i si quis in 
 area Noe non fueritiperibit regnante 
 diluvio:" "lam linked incommunion 
 with your Holiness; that is, with the 
 chair of St. Peter. Upon that rock I 
 know that the Church was founded. 
 Whosoever out of this building 
 shall eat the Lamb is unholy. He 
 that shall not be found within the 
 ark of Noah shall perish in the over- 
 whekning deluge. — St. Jer. Epist. 
 ad Pap. Bamamm. 
 
 Now, my friends, after this 
 extract, listen, if you can, with 
 Christian patience to my reverend 
 antagonist, whilst he euMavours to 
 persuade you that St. Jerome and 
 St. Cyprian were not sons of the 
 Church of Rome ! 
 
 The fact is this, and it is just 
 what I allowed him in the beginning, 
 and I repeat it again: — ^In all the " 
 fathers, Greek and Latin, there may 
 be certain discrepancies, certain 
 differences, upon mmor points ; but 
 what I maintain most strenuously 
 is, that they all cling inseparably to 
 the chair of St. Peter, the Great 
 Head, appointed by the holy Founder 
 Q>1 the CiTHOiic Religion. The 
 learned gentleman, if he have grace 
 sufficient to try the experiment, 
 might enter into our Church to-mor- 
 row, and not violate any essential 
 
Mr PrenchJ] 
 
 commandment of that Church, if he 
 never uttered one prayer to the 
 Blessed Virgin, or to angels or 
 saints ; but he would certainly be 
 estranged from aveiy salutary prac- 
 tice, according to the tradition of 
 ages. But if my reverend friend 
 can show that St. Cyprian or St, 
 Jerome disapproved of such a prac- 
 tice, and branded it with the name 
 of " superstitious and idolatrous," 
 he then would come forward with 
 something like soKd objection to 
 the practice, instead of that wild 
 incoherent declamation which now 
 renders him so weak and powerless 
 ■as an argumentative reasoner. 
 
 To come now to St. Cyprian. 
 He wrote about the year 350. Was 
 he a Catholic, or was he a Pro- 
 testant ? If you ask St. Cyprian 
 himself, in his works, he says most 
 clearly and emphatically, yes, he is 
 a Catholic — if you ask the Reverend 
 Mr. Cumming, he says, most auda- 
 ciously, no, he is not. Bead then 
 his letters, and judge for yourselves, 
 whether a more faithful and devoted 
 son of the Church of Rome ever 
 existed than St. (^rian. There 
 was, I confess, a difference existing 
 between him and the Pope concern- 
 ing baptism, which it would take 
 time to explain. 1 will, however, 
 go over it in as rapid a manner as 
 
 Eossible; and that is what my 
 iend alludes to, I suppose. St. 
 Cyprian affirmed of heretics, that 
 their baptism was not valid, even 
 although they should be properly 
 baptized by water, " in the name of 
 the Father, and of the Son, and of 
 -the Holy Ghost. Amen." 
 
 This was the contested point with 
 him and the Pope ; but it is well 
 known by every one acquainted with 
 the character and humility' of St. 
 Cyprian before martyrdom, that if 
 he had heard the decision of the 
 Church, and what that decision said, 
 namely, that baptism, though admi- 
 
 SAINTS AlfD ANSELS. 
 
 267 
 
 d. by a p 
 
 Church, if administered properly 
 as to" the mode, is valid, and is not 
 to be repeated ; had St. Cyprian, I 
 say, lived to hear this decision pro- 
 mulgated, St. Augustme, as well as 
 all the Catholic writers of the time, 
 loudly testify that he (St. Cyprian) 
 would have most submissively and 
 instantaneously bowed his head to 
 the voice of the Church. Indeed, 
 the least acquaintance with the 
 writings of that saint would easily 
 convince any unbiassed reader, that 
 such would have been his conduct, 
 in that much-agitated question; 
 yes, that he would have been the 
 very first to show docility and sub- 
 mission to the chair of the great 
 St. Peter. 
 
 To prove this, let us open his 
 works. Listen, I beseech you, most 
 attentively : — " Deus unus est, 
 Christus unus, una Ecolesia, et 
 Cathedra una, supra petram Domini 
 fundata ; aliud altare constitui, aut 
 sacerdotium novum fieri, prseter 
 unum altare, et unum sacerdotium, 
 non potest :" " There is one God, 
 one Christ, one Church, one Chair, 
 founded hy the voice of the Lord 
 upon a rock. No other altar can 
 be erected, no other priesthood can 
 be instituted, but the one altar and 
 the one priesthood." 
 
 Again : " Adulterum, impium, 
 sacruegium est, quodcunque humano 
 furore instituitur, ut dispositio di- 
 vina violetur :" " Eeery institution 
 that is engendered by the madness 
 of man, in violation of this divine 
 economy, is adulterated, is impious, 
 is sacrilegious." f 
 
 Again, writing to certain persons 
 who bad associated themselves with 
 heretics in their devotions, the saint 
 exclaims — " Ne putetis vos Evan- 
 ;elium asserere, diim vosmetipsos a 
 Christi grege, et ab ejus pace et 
 Concordia, separastis :" " Bo nut 
 imagine that you can thus proftss 
 
268 
 
 iNVocATioir as 
 
 [5^A Evemnp. 
 
 the Gospel of Christ, yon who have 
 separated yourselves from the flock 
 of Christ, and from its peace and 
 
 Again : " Cum Deo manere non 
 possvmt qui esse in Ecclesia vuia- 
 niaiiter noluerunt :" " They cannot 
 be with 6od, who would not abide 
 unanimously in the Church" 
 
 Nay, he goes furtlier, and asserts 
 what will immediately direct the 
 miad to Protestant martyrs like 
 Latimer, Bidley, Cranmer, &c. — 
 " Inexpiabilis et gravis culpa dis- 
 cordise est, neo passione purgatur. 
 Esse martyr non potest, qui in 
 Ecclesia non est :" " The guilt of 
 discord in matters of faith is enor- 
 mous, is inexpiable. It is not to be 
 sufferings. He 
 
 Church." 
 
 In another place, writing con- 
 cerning certain persons who had 
 fallen into heresy, he says, — " Si 
 aKquis 3orum fuerit apprehensus a 
 persecutoribus, non est quod sibi in 
 confessione nominis Cmisti blan- 
 diatur, cum constat, si occisi eins- 
 modi extra ecclesiam fueiint, fldei 
 coronam non esse, sed poenam potius 
 esse perfidice, nee in domo Dei inter 
 unanimos hahitatores esse, quos 
 videmus de pacifica et divina domo 
 furore discordise recessisse:" "If 
 any one among them should be seized 
 upon by the persecutors {of Chris-' 
 iianity), let him not soothe himself, 
 with the flattering thought that he, 
 confesses the name of Christ! since 
 it is certain that should persons of\ 
 this description be even put to death, 
 that it is not to be considered as 
 the crown of faith, but rather as the 
 punishment of perfidy, and that those 
 whom we see receding, in the fury of 
 discord, from the divine house of 
 •peace (the Church) shall not be inha- 
 bitants of the celestial mansions, 
 where all is perfect unanimity" 
 
 Such were the sentiments of the 
 
 holy Cyprian as to those Christians 
 who, valuing themselves upon the 
 strength of their own understand 
 ings, and disdaining to he guided, 
 like " children of obedience," by 
 the ever visible, ever inspired 
 Church, fondly persuaded them- 
 selves that they could either lead a 
 life or die a death pleasing to God, 
 in a state of total disconnection 
 from its sacred pale. Nor was 
 this doctrine peculiar to St. Cyprian: 
 St. Augustine, speaking of one who 
 had shed his blood for the true 
 religion, says of him — " Martyr 
 est, non quia pro Christi nomine, 
 sed quia pro Christi nomine in 
 gremio anilatis occisus est :" " Me 
 is a martyr, not because he was slain 
 for the name of Christ, but because 
 he was slain for the name of Christ 
 being in the bosom of unity. 
 
 So that, my friends (what I prin- 
 cipally wish to inculcate by these 
 quotations), you may see, most 
 clearly, that a Cyprian, endued with 
 such sentiments, would instantane- 
 ously have renovmoe'd his opinion 
 concemiag re-baptization, had he 
 not been martyred previous to the 
 grand decision of the Church ; that 
 IS, had he Kved to have it an- 
 nounced to him. 
 
 But now let me grapple with my 
 learned friend more closely. In 
 order to prove that the doctrine of 
 the Invocation of Angels and Saints 
 is not only unprofitable but unscrip- 
 tural, he tells me of Daniel, and of 
 Solomon, and of Moses, and of a 
 long catalogue of others who in 
 ancient times obtained blessings of 
 God without the importunity of 
 saint or angel to assist them; he 
 tells me what he finds recorded 
 in the Bible upon those respectivi 
 patriarchs : and it is now high time 
 tor, me to teU. him what I also find 
 recorded in that book, which, whilst 
 he takes it in his hand as his rule of 
 faith, is the cause of aU his wande]> 
 
¥i\ French?\ 
 
 SAfNTS AUD ANGELS. 
 
 269 
 
 ings, omng to tlie contracted manner 
 in -which he peruses it. Accordingly, 
 I find, with regard to those blessed 
 spirits whom my learned antagonist 
 represents as so powerless in the 
 cavtse of man, that St. Paul differeth 
 from him; and, without the least 
 intention of showing disrespect to 
 my learned friend, I must avow, 
 that I prefer St. Paul's authority to 
 that of the Reverend Mr. Cummmg. 
 SpeaJdng of angels, the apostle 
 says — " Are ikey not all ministering 
 spirits, sent forth to minister for them, 
 who are the heirs of salnaiicn ? " — 
 Heb. i. 14. . 
 
 Again, I read in the Psalms : — 
 " Por he shall give his angels charge 
 
 over thee, to keep thee in all thy 
 ways." (Psalm xci.) And again, I 
 find, what the perspicacity of my 
 Bible-reading friend, it seems, has 
 never yet been able, or at least 
 willing, to discover (for he is not a 
 man likely to open his eyes when he 
 thinks it seasonable to shut them) ; 
 I find that angels, according to his 
 rule of faith, the Bible itseK, have 
 not only prayed for man, and been 
 prayed to by man, but I find the 
 prayers of each recorded by the pro- 
 phet, to the eternal confusion of all 
 gainsayers — ^my very reverend an- 
 tagonist not excepted. 
 
 And first, my friends, you shall 
 hear man praying to an angel : — 
 " The angel which redeemed me from 
 all evil bless the lads" Now, here, 
 if my learned friend should contend 
 that this was Christ, not an angel, 
 as his infallibility will no doubt de- 
 clare it, I as boldly deny the Pro- 
 testant deduction; let appeajing 
 angels not be confounded, I say, 
 with the great God of heaven, 
 whom no mortal man in this world, 
 if Scripture speak truth, "can see 
 and live" But by what higenious 
 
 distortion will my reverend opponent ^ ... 
 
 make the prayer of the angel for I cease to talk about ubiquitous, om- 
 Jerusalem, as recorded in Zacha jnipresent angels. There is not. 
 
 riah, fade into evanescence, when I 
 shall have placed it in full blaze 
 before him ? 
 
 Listen to its solemn accents ! 
 Listen, ye CathoUcs, with joy and 
 triumph, and thou, my reverend 
 friend, with confusion and dismay : 
 — " Then the angel of the Lord an- 
 swered and said, Lord of Hosts, 
 how long wilt thou not have mercy on 
 Jerusalem, and on the cities ofjudah; 
 against which thou hast had indigna- 
 tion these threescore and ten years?" 
 " And the Lord answered the angel 
 that talked with me, with good words, 
 and comfortable words." (Zach. i. 
 13, 13.) 
 
 See ye, my Protestant friends, in 
 demolition of all my friend's tower- 
 ing arguments, that the angel not 
 only prayed for men, but obtained a 
 favourable answer to his supplica- 
 tion? See ye not, that He who 
 says in Psalm xci. 2 — "Por he 
 shall give his angels charge over 
 thee, to keep thee in all thy ways," 
 gives us angels that know how to 
 sympathize with us in our' miseries 
 — ^not cold, marble-hearted beings, 
 such as the frigid philosophy of my 
 Calvinistio friend would depicture ? 
 And when he cries out, as he has 
 done. How can angels possess the 
 faculty of omnipresence or ubiquity ? 
 I cry out, in my turn, to him as 
 loudly, to explain to me (for he can 
 explain anything) ^low it is, by 
 what process it takes place, that 
 the angels of the little ones " do 
 always behold the face of my Father 
 which is in heaven," (Matt. xvni. 
 10,) and yet should at the same time 
 "be ministering spirits, sent to minister 
 for them who are the heirs of salva- 
 tion?" ' Whilst they are full of 
 solicitude for the heirs of salvation 
 here below, how can they always 
 behold the face of God in heaven? 
 Let my friend, I say, answer this, or 
 
270 
 
 dVOCATioif OB [5iA Meemnp. 
 
 am well aware, any theological com- 
 plication throughout the whole of 
 Scripture which my uigenious friend 
 cannot in an instant analyze into its 
 just principle. I shall be curious to 
 see Ms experiment upon this. 
 
 But, to follow the learned gentle- 
 man as closely as I am able, he tells 
 me, that Chnst stood by the silent 
 and mouldering dead, and said, 
 " Come forth !" and Lazarus came 
 forth ! Yes, I answer, I know the 
 fact as well as you do, and believe 
 it quite as finnly ; but I know, at 
 the same time, that he who called 
 Lazarus out of his grave, and raised 
 Mm from the dead, (St. John xii. 17,) 
 he, I say, Christ, o toC jjXiou iroitj-rris, 
 the Creator of the solar orb ; who 
 might, with equal facility as that with 
 which he resuscitated dead Lazarus, 
 have bidden light to rekiadle in the 
 orbits of the blind, at one time thought 
 proper to touch them, and by the 
 efficacy of that touch their eyes were 
 'ipened. (Matt. is. 30.) At another 
 time "he spat on. the ground, and 
 ■made clay of the spittle, and he 
 anointed the eyes of the blind man 
 with the clay, and said to Mm, Go and 
 wash in the pool ofSiloam, which is,, 
 by interpretation, Sent. He went Ms 
 Kay, therefore, and washed, and came 
 teeing." 
 
 Now, knowing all this as I do, 
 I ask, if my learned antagonist be 
 true to his principles, and reasons 
 consequentially, why does he not 
 here exclaim. What need of the in- 
 strunientality of the simple touch, at 
 one time, and of the clay made of 
 ^ittle at another, in order that the 
 omnipotent Creator should dart a 
 ray of light into the eye-baiis of a 
 benighted creature ? And yet, my 
 Protestant friends, a strain of rea- 
 soning parallel to this is that by 
 which your own cloud-capt orator 
 would reason you into blindness, 
 and would shade your eves, lest they 
 should perchance beholdj vrith firm 
 
 faith, like that cultivator of all 
 purity in thought, word, and deed — 
 the CathoHo — ^your guardian angels 
 for ever at your side. 
 
 unto Jesus the elders of the Jews, 
 beseeching that he would come and 
 heal his servant" (Luke vii. 3.) I 
 behold the Lord of heaven and earth 
 approached by those who were me- 
 diators, and I behold those mediators 
 sent by one who might have gone 
 himself to the Son of man, relying 
 on the comprehensive and attractive 
 declaration (to use ipsissima verba, 
 the very words of my friend), " Rim 
 that Cometh unto me I will in no wise 
 cast out." Again, when Mary, the 
 blessed mother of my Lord Jesus, 
 procures the water to be turned to 
 wine at the feast of Cona, those 
 that were solicitous for the wine 
 saw before them him that created 
 the source from which wine flows ; 
 they saw him, I say, and yet they 
 had recourse to Mary ; and Mary, 
 without one word from the blessed 
 Jesus, significative of his intent to 
 perform a miracle "before his hoar 
 was yet come" (John ii. 4,) bids the 
 vessels to be placed in order, and 
 " the water was made wine!' (v. 9.) 
 Now tell me, my Protestant friends 
 and attestators of the truth between 
 us, does not this, to use the expres- 
 sion of the Evangelist, manifestforth 
 the intercession of Mary ; this same 
 miracle, I say, by which was mani- 
 fested forth the glory of theAlmighiy 
 Jesus ? 
 
 And now one word as to the wor- 
 shipping of angels alluded to by St. 
 Paul — ^namely, " Let no man beguile 
 you of your reward in a voluntary 
 humility and worshipping of angels. 
 (Coloss. ii. 18.) Myleamed friend 
 knows fuU well that we Catholics 
 abominate that species of worship, 
 at least as much as he does ; and I 
 know that we abominate it more, 
 inasmuch as we shudder at all heresy 
 
SAIKTS AUD ASSELS. 
 
 Mr. French.^ 
 
 — ^he only at this and some others. 
 But what, after all, is the meaning 
 of this passage ? Why it is simply 
 this, as he well knows, but wfll not 
 have the candour to communicate to 
 his metaphor-gaping, swallowing ad- 
 mirers : — The apostle is branding 
 the wicked doctrine of Simon Magus 
 and others, who taught angels to be 
 our mediators, and not Christ, and 
 prescribed sacrifices to be offered to 
 them, meaniTi|r indifferently the bad 
 angels as well u" the good ; against 
 wMch doctrine St. Augustine dis- 
 putes, (Kb. 8, 9, 10, de Civit. Dei,) 
 as he condemns also the' same wor- 
 ship (Kb. 10, Confess, cap. 42,) and 
 which same doctrine is condemned 
 also by St. Jerome, (10, adAfflasmm,) 
 and yet this same St. Jerome, as I 
 have proved to you before from his 
 writings, brancis Vigilantius as a 
 heretic, for having attempted to 
 eject from the Christian creed the 
 apostoKc usage of Invocating Angels 
 and Saints. But my learned anta- 
 gonist stiU goes on floundering in 
 his usual manner. He says, quoting 
 Heb. vii. 25^" He (Christ) is able 
 to save, to the uttermost, aU that 
 come to God through him." I grant 
 it, is my reply ; but does thathjnder 
 soub from coming to God through 
 St. Paul, or St. Peter, or through 
 the Virgin Mary? Listen to St. 
 Paul, for I know my learned friend 
 win not join with all generations in 
 calling the Mother of God blessed : — 
 "If by any means I miff At provoke to 
 emulation them which are my flesh, 
 and save them." — ^Rom. ii. 14. 
 
 'What ! St. Paul, canst thou save 
 souls ?,' I should be apt to exclaim, 
 had I been tutored in Calvinistic 
 schools — but no ! I see, at one 
 
 fiance, the meaning of St. Paul — 
 e means to say (and I -submit it 
 to the judgment of my infallible 
 friend), Throughmyinstrumentality, 
 my preaching, my prayers, " that I 
 mi|ht save them;" according to the 
 
 271 
 
 inculcation of the apostle James . — 
 " And pray for one another that ye 
 may be healed I!" (James v. 16.) 
 The old question, therefore, here 
 recurs again — H prayers bv one 
 man, living on earth, offered up for 
 another, be efficacious, according to 
 mv sound, orthodox antagonist, by 
 what oracukr authority is it de- 
 nounced as inefficacious, when offered 
 up by one, we will suppose, who has 
 just shed his blood for Christ Jesus, 
 and arrived in his holy presence ? 
 Does the presence of Christ torpify, 
 deaden, extinguish the all-conquer- 
 ing energy of prayer? Oh the mighty 
 sovereignty of death over the soiil 
 that has been once unfettered from 
 its, corporeal clogs ! The gates of 
 heaven, where the Church triumphant 
 sits crowned with glory, the very 
 moment they have obtained their 
 celestial palms, are immediately 
 barred against all communication 
 with the Church militant on earth; 
 or, to define Calvinism stiU more 
 accurately, instead of sleeping in the 
 Lord, the good old phrase used for 
 dying, in primitive antiquity, their 
 gloomy doctrine virtually, though not 
 professedly, is. Death is an eternal 
 sleep — ^how then can the saints hear 
 us ? Whereas the CathoKc still 
 cries out, and will never cease to 
 cry out to his God, even whilst he 
 is here on earth,, conscious as he is 
 of their innumerable surrounding 
 wings, in the language of the Psalm- 
 ist, "I will praise thee with my 
 whole heart; in the sight of the 
 angels I will sing praise unto thee." 
 (Ps. cxxxvii. 1.) 
 
 The Catechism of the Council of 
 Trent, moreover, explains to us 
 with, the utmost clearness and pre- 
 cision, and with all coherence and 
 propriety, the vast difference there 
 is between imploring God, and that 
 of imploring the intercessory assist- 
 ance of saints. Its explanation is 
 — " We pray to God either to grant 
 
ETVOOATION 07 \^th Euemnff. 
 
 us good tliirigs, or to deKver us 
 from evil; but because the saiuts 
 find greater favour and acceptance 
 in Hs sight than we, we beg of them 
 to plead in our behalf, and to obtain 
 of God for us whatsoever graces we 
 deem most needful. Hence it is 
 that we make use of two forms of 
 prayer, widely different from each 
 other ; for to God we properly say, 
 ' Have mercy on us, hear as ! ' but to 
 a saint wesay, ' OAjoray /or MS,-' by 
 which we are given to understand, 
 in whatever terms the prayers ad- 
 dressed to saints are couched, the 
 intention of the Church and of the 
 faithful reduces them always to this 
 form and this combination. The 
 words of the Council itself are, that 
 
 Christ offer ap their prayers to &od 
 for men ; that itis good and saluta/ry 
 humbly to invoice them, by recurring 
 to their prayers and, assistance, in 
 order to obtain benefits from God 
 through Jvsus Christ, his only Son, 
 our Lord, who alone is our Redeemer 
 and Saviour.' " In fact, it is only 
 through Jesus, and his name, that 
 we obtain anything through the 
 mediation of the saints ; because the 
 saints themselves pray only through 
 the mediation of Jesus Christ, and 
 are heard only iu his name. As tq 
 the objection against this apostolic 
 practice which has been most in- 
 sisted upon by apostates from the' 
 Catholic Church—namely, that by 
 addressing our prayers to the saints 
 we ascribe, as it were, omnipresence 
 or ubiquity to them, or at least a 
 power of discerning what passes in 
 the inmost recesses of the human 
 mind — it cannot, surely, be exalting 
 the creature above the possibility of 
 'his exaltation to say, that he has 
 some knowledge of things which 
 God communicates to it. The ex- 
 ample of the prophets, to whom God 
 was pleased to manifest even the 
 secrets of futurity, though these 
 
 appear to be much more peculiarly 
 reserved to his own infinite know- 
 ledge, is incontrovertible evidence 
 of the point in question ; — ^indeed, 
 wiE the reverend theologian whom 
 I am combating deny that God 
 Almighty could, if it so pleased 
 him, dart into my mind, at the pre- 
 sent moment, the knowledge of 
 transactions that are going forward 
 in the remotest regions of the world, 
 in Europe, Asia, Africa, or America ? 
 No Catholic, however, ever imagines 
 that the saints of themsehies are ac- 
 quainted with our necessities, or the 
 desires of 'our souis, whilst we are 
 addressing them. " The Church, says 
 the illustrious Bossuet, remains sa- 
 tisfied with teaching, as all antiquity 
 has taught, that these prayers are 
 exceedingly profitable' to such as 
 have recourse to them; whether 
 the saints .comprehend us . by the 
 intercourse or ministry of angels, 
 who being established ministers of 
 God in the work of our salvation, 
 know, as the Scripture testifies, 
 what passes amongst us ; or whether 
 God himself discovers Ms desires to 
 them by a particular revelation ; or, 
 in one word, whether he discloses 
 the secret to them in his infinite 
 essence, where all truth whatsoever 
 is comprehended. So that the Church 
 has decided nothing as to the means 
 which it may please God to employ, 
 for this purpose, though my learned 
 antagonist has most peremptorily 
 decided, in his own oracular bosom, 
 that no means whatsoever can be 
 devised, even by Omnipotence itself, 
 for them to attain it. 
 
 But, be those means what they 
 may, it is a certain truth, that no 
 one of the Divine perfections is 
 attributed to created beings by the 
 Church as was attributed to them by 
 the idolaters whom St. Paul stig- 
 matizes, and whom my reverend 
 friend so charitably confounds with 
 us ; since it does not acknowledge, 
 
SAINTS AND ANGELS. 
 
 Mr. French.'] 
 
 even in the most eminent of the 
 saints, any degree of excellence that 
 does not emanate from God, nor 
 any distinction in Hs sight ■which 
 does not arise from their rirtues, 
 nor any virtue that is not a gift of 
 his grace, nor any knowledge of 
 human affairs hut what he commu- 
 nicates, nor any power to assist us 
 but that which they exert by prayers, 
 nor any other bliss or fehcity than 
 that which springs from a perfect 
 conformity and submission to his 
 divine will. Hence it is easy to 
 collect, what kind of honour, how 
 different from the Bpijo-nfia rav 
 ayyeXiov — the divine worship of 
 angels alluded to by St. Paul we 
 give exteriorly, the exterior worship 
 being established as a testimony of 
 the interior homage of the soul; 
 and if we sometimes entreat the 
 saints not to pray, but to give and 
 act, every instructed and educated 
 man must know that the ancients 
 did so likewise, and, like us, under- 
 stood it in that" sense, which attri- 
 butes favours received not only to 
 the sovereign who distributes them, 
 but also to the intercessors who 
 obtain them. Upon this article, 
 therefore, as upon all others, we 
 should be tried by our own pro- 
 fessed tenets, notoy the distorted 
 rules of our calumniating adver- 
 saries, one of the most virulent 
 of which, I must say, is the reve- 
 rend gentleman with whom I am 
 contending. 
 
 And now, gentlemen, permit me' 
 to lay before you another very preg- 
 nant text from the New Testament, 
 a book, which, if we may beheve 
 our learned friend,, is no magnet of 
 attraction in the eye of a Catholic : 
 — " I say unto you that likewise joy 
 shall he 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 
 
 iT6 
 
 God over one sinner that repenteth." 
 — Luke XV. 7, 10. 
 
 The reason, my friends, that in- 
 duces me to bring this text before 
 you, after having already crushed 
 my antagonist by so many texts 
 that he has not yet recovered from 
 their stunning noise and re-echo, 
 [laughter,] is simply this : — I made, 
 the day before yesterday, a Kttle 
 excursion into the country, to a 
 place called Thatcham, not very far 
 from ReSdiog in Berkshire ; and 
 the object of that excorsion was to 
 enter the Hsts of theological dispu- 
 tation with some part of that decla- 
 matory brotherhood of my learned 
 antagonist, who had just lighted iu 
 that village, in that grand tour of 
 charity which they aimuaUy make 
 in this country, to inflame the breasts 
 of men with love for the Bible and 
 hatred to their Catholic neighbour. 
 Accordingly I , attended the meet- 
 ing which the holy peregrinators 
 had convened in a large bam hold- 
 ing about five hundred auditors, 
 ladies, gentlemen,- farmers, farmers' 
 wives and daughters, and rustics ol 
 every description, to whose purses 
 a most powerful appeal was in turns 
 made by six or seven clergymen of 
 the holy brotherhood above alluded 
 to. I waited a long, a very long 
 time, in hopes of finding some 
 plausible opportunity of interiect- 
 ing, if possible, some few words of 
 mine, to season the dull uniformity 
 of endless repetition on the part of 
 the reverend declaimers. This, you 
 may easily conceive, soon presented 
 itself, when the patience of the 
 audience began to oe exhaiisted by 
 their never-ending speeches. Some 
 way or other, one of the orators, 
 rolling about his eyes from one side 
 to another in quest of some new- 
 subject to speak upon, hit upon this 
 very text to which I just called, your 
 attention, and immediately taking it 
 up with great delight, "0 yes (he 
 
274 
 
 INVOCATIOII OP 
 
 exclaimed) there is no douljt of it — 
 the angels of heaven are at this 
 blessed moment looking doim iipon 
 the good inhabitants of Thatcham, 
 as weW. as upon the Bible that lies 
 on that table, and on that plate 
 which Hes near it ready to receive, 
 my pious and zealous mends, those 
 contributions which I am not so 
 unskilled, in penetration into the 
 human character, as not to know 
 win flow into it largely from the 
 inhabitants of Thatcham, especially 
 from the ladies." Here, as you 
 •may easily imagine, there was 
 loud applause, when, instead of 
 the plate, I rose up. . 
 
 " Gentlemen," said I, " as one of 
 the Roman Catholic persuasion, I 
 beg leave to say a few words, not 
 against the Bible, the contents of 
 which I would gladly see prospering 
 throughout the land, but a few 
 words in defence of my much be- 
 loved and rfevered Doctor Milner, 
 whom one of you has so grossly 
 slandered, as one who threw every 
 impediment in the way to the diffu- 
 sion of the Bible. Gentlemen, it 
 is not so ; nor do we Roman Ca- 
 tholics imbibe from our pastors any 
 other sentiments with reference to 
 that holy book, than those of the 
 holiest awe and most profound 
 veneration. Nay, sir, being myself 
 deeply versed in that sacred volume, 
 I was quite delighted to find, from 
 your recent quotation from it, that 
 you acknowledge that the angels of 
 heaven do know what is passing 
 here, since, according to you, they 
 are now looking down upon that 
 Bible, and pantiiig, as it were, for 
 the speedy circulation of that plate, 
 which I am sorry to say I have 
 somewhat retarded by my unsea- 
 sonable rising!" Here some turbu- 
 lence of opposition beginning^ to 
 manifest itself, I sat down, amidst 
 loud applauses, and not a few Msses. 
 Resuming, however, my speech, I 
 
 cried out with a tlundering voice, 
 — " But give me leave to ask you, 
 reverend gentlemen, why, when the 
 Catholic prays for the intercession 
 of angels and saints, you laugh at 
 him, as praying to those who, 
 having not ubiquity or omnipre- 
 sence, cannot hear him; and yet have 
 the fond credulity to imagine that, 
 aroused by your, clamours, they are 
 now looking down upon the Bible 
 and the plate; yes, that they are now 
 clothed with ubiquity, with omni- 
 presence !" And, my friends, this 
 same question I now put to my 
 reverend antagonist, who has been 
 listening to this anecdote, which 
 has created so many smiles around 
 me, but which he has heard with 
 such undisturbed gravity of counte- 
 nance. [Laughter!] I shall, there- 
 fore, now only observe, gentlemen, 
 that from this grand text alluded 
 to, without the least glance at any 
 plate circulating for my interest, 
 that I do most seriously collect, 
 that the angels and saints of heaven 
 do take a lively interest in what is 
 spiritually going forward among the 
 members of the church mihtant 
 here on earth ; one of the members 
 of which glorious church militant 
 I flatter myself I am, who am 
 now engaged in active warfare 
 against one of its most implacable 
 enemies. 
 
 But, gentlemen, for what pur- 
 pose, let me ask, in all seriousness, 
 has the learned gentleman entered 
 into this room ? I am come to prove 
 that my Christianity is of the pi- 
 mitive stamp, and his of the nnpri- 
 mitive. Now he (myreverend friend) 
 proves the unprimitiveness of his 
 Christianity, by the very mode of 
 arguing by which he would fain 
 uphold it. Throw away, he cries 
 out incessantly to me and my feUow- 
 Catholios — ^throw away to the bats 
 and the moles the superstitious tales 
 of your nurseries; disencumber 
 
Mr. French.] 
 
 SAINTS AND ANGELS. 
 
 275 
 
 your religion of your idle doctrines, 
 your Invocation of Angels and 
 Saints, your Purgatory, your Masses, 
 your Transubstantiation ! Such, my 
 friends, is the logical battery by 
 which my learned antagonist would 
 endeavour to shake the rock of 
 ages, on which I this day so proudly 
 stand. But see, my friends, the 
 consequence of such a strain of 
 argument once admitted: — Disen- 
 cumber your religion, your Scotch 
 kirk, cries out the "Unitarian with 
 equal vehemence to my reverend 
 antagonist, of its idolatrous ado- 
 ration to a mere man, as if he were 
 a God ; and. Disencumber your reli- 
 gion, cries out the Deist to the 
 Unitarian (as you have already made 
 some advance to the altar of reason 
 by rejecting the divinity of Christ) 
 of all its lingering veneration to 
 Christ Jesus as a man ! save your- 
 self, by living up to the laws of 
 morality; rely not on the ideal 
 efficacy of another man's suffering 
 to atone for your delinquencies, or 
 for those of your primeval ancestor, 
 Adam! Lastly, comes down the 
 Materialist, crying out to each 
 and to all of us together — Chris- 
 tians of all denominations, disen- 
 cumber your thoughts of all reli- 
 gious fears or hopes, of whatsoever 
 shape or form they may be ; let the 
 enjoyment of this short, perishable 
 hfe be the sole object of your care 
 —your sole ambition; Nature is 
 your God, let Nature be your guide. 
 So, my friends, would a Hume or a 
 Rousseau exclaim; and from the 
 pages of a Rousseau it is, I am 
 flrmlv persuaded, my learned friend 
 has Dorrowed the lustre of those 
 vainly-glittering diamonds of ora- 
 tory with which his speeches abound, 
 in counter-play to those which I use, 
 ever invigorated as they are by the 
 interposition of a solid body of 
 argument. 
 My reverend friend looks aghast. 
 
 and yet if, since the beginning of 
 this discussion, my learned anta- 
 gonist would wish to see thrown, 
 as it were, into a balance, the 
 whole weight of liis argumentation 
 against the CathoHo rehgion, he 
 has nothing to do but to tiun. the 
 eye of his mind to the weight of 
 that argumentation used by the 
 Unitarian against him, and by the 
 Deist against the Unitarian, and by 
 Materialist against the Deist, and 
 he win know how to estimate its 
 exact value ; yes, Le will then see 
 the weight of that gaudily-painted 
 bubble that iHes about this room, 
 night after night, in the shape and 
 mimicry of argument, and which is 
 so greedily swallowed by the mouths 
 of the fond, admiring, gaping audi- 
 tors around him. Eor, verily speak- 
 ing, Protestant friends, it is high 
 time to inform you, that your 
 minds are whirled around too rapidly 
 by the torrent-pouriug orator that 
 opposes me, to find a resting-place 
 for the pause of reason. Were the 
 fervid wheel of my learned friend's 
 imagination but condemned to move 
 slowly — in plainer language, were 
 he compelled to speak as I do, with 
 slow and sober meditation, you 
 would soon, very soon be made 
 sensible, my friends, that no tem- 
 pestuous current of oratory, how 
 delightful soever to the ear may 
 be its effusion, could atone for 
 the harsh dissonance of illogical 
 deduction. 
 
 Well, be this as it may, I am 
 condemned, it seems, to follow the 
 learned gentleman through all his 
 wanderings. The Invocation, of 
 Angels and Saints is the question, 
 and he'now brings in the ponderous 
 folios of the Bollandists to throw 
 at my head, instead of ai-gument. 
 What have they, I ask, in the name 
 of common sense, to do with this 
 discussion? He cites them, but for 
 what purpose ? Why, solely wit? 
 
276 
 
 INVOCATION OP 
 
 [5H Hvemnfl, 
 
 this deep logical intendment — to 
 persuade you, my friends, that if the 
 TBoHandists, in recording the Hves of 
 sairits, were too credulous or fabu- 
 lous in their narratives. Here/ore, 
 aR the Scripture which I have 
 quoted in proof of that invocation 
 falls to the ground as so many 
 idle texts, totally annihilated in an 
 instant. But, my friends, though I 
 win not condescend to dwell on such 
 puerility in debating, I will say'this, 
 'and say it energetically— namely, 
 that I would rather credulously 
 swaUow every tale recorded in that 
 ponderously voluminous composi- 
 tion alluded to, namely, the lives of 
 saints written by the BoHandists — 
 nay, I tell him that I would rather 
 be the most ignorant and illiterate 
 old woman that ever believed in 
 apparitions and ghosts, and, to com- 
 plete the climax, in ranting speeches 
 riaughter] of Scotch impromsaiores, 
 than I would assert with Calvin — 
 impiously assert — as an article of 
 my creed, in explaining that passage 
 concerning the descent of our 
 Blessed Saviour -into the regions 
 below, that he actually went into 
 hell, and suffered for awhile the 
 pains of the damned! [sensation.] 
 There 's shuddering blasphemy, my 
 friends ! This it is that tenders 
 harmless the superstitious dotage of 
 old women and little children. Who 
 can hear it, that has been brought 
 up in the school of Christianity r — 
 who can hear such a tremendous 
 doctrine, without feeling a congeal- 
 ing horror in every part of his body? 
 He then tells me of St. Paul. He 
 eries out, Paul cannot help you — 
 Peter cannoi help yon : it is God, 
 it is Christ our Blessed Lord and 
 Efideemer, that alone X!an help you! 
 I say, again and again, What mcon- 
 sistency is this ! what a wandering 
 from ail logic is it to go on in this 
 manner, time after time, when a 
 standing doctrine of your own 
 
 Church admits the mediation of 
 any man on earth, without inter- 
 fering with the great mediation of 
 Christ Jesus ! It is iUogioal in the 
 extreme to reproach ,the Roman 
 Catholic with adoring with any 
 low servility the angels and saints. 
 They are the means of purifying 
 our minds, too much occupied by 
 terrestrial things, and of directing 
 them to the attainment of a loftier 
 happiness than is ever to be enjoyed 
 by man, whilst moving amid earthly 
 things, and among scenes of poEu- 
 tion, where his eyes and his ears 
 are defiled in this great capital — are 
 defiled vidth blasphemy and roaring 
 declamation against everything that 
 is holy, and heavenly, and sublime. 
 How absurd, my fnends, is it to 
 suppose that the prayers of living 
 man may ascend to a throne of grace ; 
 and that the pure spirit, the moment 
 that it has reached the regions of 
 bliss, is simultaneously deprived of 
 all power of mterceding for friends 
 and relatives below ! as if there were 
 to be no communion between men 
 on earth and the inhabitants of the 
 heavenly Jerusalem ; as if it were 
 something congenial to the feelings 
 of human nature, that the moment 
 the spirit is released, and, in its 
 glorified state, receives a crown of 
 glory, that it is to be insensible 
 to the things of this world ! [Sen- 
 sation.] 
 
 Oh! my friends, how. clearly does 
 all this prove, what even Southey, 
 the Protestant Poet Laureate and 
 Wesleyam enthilsiast, has himself 
 asserted, that the Bible, read with- 
 out the instruction of lawful pastors, 
 may lead to error, as it may lead to 
 truth! So says Southey, and so 
 says his far greater, " the rock on 
 whom the Cnurchwas built," the 
 immortal St. Peter, in reference to 
 the works of St. Paul — " wherein 
 are some things hard to be under- 
 stood, which the unlearned and 
 
Mr. French^ 
 
 SAINTS AND ANGELS. 
 
 m 
 
 imstable wrest to their own dam- 
 nation." 
 
 Now, my friends, I read m Scrip- 
 ture — (I will give you another little 
 specimen of Scripture to-night) — I 
 read in Matthew xviii. 10, that 
 there are guardian angels ; and, 
 when I read this, I exclaim. Why 
 should my learned friend, who is not 
 more versed in sacred things than 
 myself, and whose breast is not, I 
 tmnk, animated and glowing with a 
 more fervent love for the blessed 
 Redeemer than myself — why should 
 he teach me to scorn this doctrine 
 which Scripture teaches me, that we 
 have guardian angels (as our Cate- 
 chism tells us), and that it has been 
 taught in every country from the 
 days of the apostles ? Why should 
 I be ashamed when I go home to- 
 night, and when I fall prostrate at 
 the feet of my cruciiix, where I see 
 the image of my expiring Redeemer 
 — why shorld I be ashamed, among 
 my other prayers, to say — " Oh ! 
 blessed and holy angel guardian, 
 watch over me, I beseech you, this 
 night and all the days of my life, 
 preserving me in all purity of 
 thought, word, look, and deed, and 
 defending me from all harm, both of 
 soul and body, by thy holiest inter- 
 cession. Amen." 
 
 Wliy, I say, should I be ashamed 
 to offer a prayer of this nature, 
 when I find that it, or something of 
 a similar nature, has been offered 
 from age to age from the time of 
 the apostles in every part of the 
 world, and especially those offered 
 up to the Virgin Mary, in fulfilment 
 of the grand prophecy, " all genera- 
 iions shall call me blessed ?" 
 
 Now here, as I am about to quote 
 a father, let not the learned gentle- 
 man exclaim, that I will not go to 
 the Scriptures : let him at length 
 be persuaded that my fathers always 
 come mth the Bible in their hands. 
 St. Augustine says— "It is a proof 
 
 of a kind regard towards the dead, 
 when their bodies are deposited 
 near the monuments of saints. But 
 hereby in what are they aided, unless 
 in this, that, recoUectmg the place 
 where they he, we may be induced 
 to recommend them to the patron 
 age of those saints for their prayers 
 to God ? CaJling, therefore, to mind 
 the grave of a departed friend, and 
 near the monument of the venerable 
 martyr, we naturally commend the 
 soul to his prayers. And that the 
 souls of those will be thereby bene- 
 fited who so lived as to deserve it, 
 there can be no doubt." — St. Aug. 
 Be Cura pro Mortuis Qerenda, c. iv. 
 t.vi.p.519. Ed.Bened. Paris 1679. 
 But they are our advocates, not by 
 their ovm merits, but as members 
 luuted to their head. He is truly 
 the only Advocate, " who, sitting at 
 the right hand of the Father, inter- 
 cedes for us." — Aug. de Civ. Bei, Hb. 
 viii. c. 27. 
 
 Now, gentlemen, here the dis- 
 pute ought to end. My friend 
 ought not to insist on parleying for 
 another evening on this subject;' 
 this ought really to terminate it, 
 because it is not in the power of all 
 the subtlety and casuistry of the 
 learned gentleman, and all his me- 
 taphorical eloquence, which he has 
 so inexhaustibly at command, to 
 give any other possible doctrine on 
 CathoKc antiquitv than that given 
 by him, namely, SI Augustine, whom 
 Calvin declares to be its trustiest 
 preserver and most uneorrupt ex 
 pounder. 
 
 Again, What means, I ask my 
 friend, the passage I quoted from 
 Zachariah ? Is there not contained 
 in it a most ardent prayer, full of 
 tenderness and commiseration for 
 Jerusalem ? " Then the angel of the 
 Lord answered and said, O Lord of 
 Hosts, how long wilt tl iu not have 
 mercy on Jerusalem ?" &o. If the 
 learned gentleman, in his pathetio 
 
278 
 
 INVOCATION OP [5tA Jthemng. 
 
 strain and melodious voice, were to 
 turn to me and to exclaim, " Oh, 
 dear fellow -Christian ! Ok, dear 
 Boman Catholic ! how long wilt 
 thou not listen to the kind advice 
 of thy fellow-Protestant, and enter 
 witkm their comfortable harbours, 
 where thy soul is sure to be saved ?" 
 should I be wrong in asserting that 
 my friend made a tender entreaty 
 to mOj that I would come over to 
 his Church ? The words could admit 
 of no other meaning — he would be 
 praying to me to come over to his 
 Church and embrace his baleful, his 
 dismally soul-ruining tenets. And 
 here let me ask my Bible-read, 
 my Bible-steeped antagonist, when 
 Chi-ist says to me, to "take heed 
 lest I scandalize one of these little 
 ones, /or thai their angels do always 
 behold the face of Us Father which 
 is in heaven" — am I to listen to 
 Christ telling me that they have 
 guardian angels, or to the Efiverend 
 Mr. Gumming, telling me that they 
 have none? I would ask also, Is this 
 text from the fathers ? Is this from 
 St. Ignatius ? Is this from Irenseus ? 
 Is this from Justyn Martyr ? 
 
 Again, if I were to ask my 
 learned friend, who is not only a 
 combatant for his own Calvinistic 
 doctrines, but a combatant also, en- 
 gaged ty a most extraordinary com- 
 mission,, in fighting the battles of 
 the Church of' England, and of the 
 Baptists, and of the Wesleyan Me- 
 thodists, and, for aught I know, of 
 the Welsh Jumpers [laughter] — if I 
 were to ask him to explain that 
 prayer in the Common Prayer Book 
 of the Church of England — " 
 everlasting God, who hast ordained 
 and constituted the services of 
 angels and men in a wonderful 
 order, mercifully grant, that as thy 
 holy angels siways do thee service 
 in neaven, so by thy appointment 
 they may succour and defend us on 
 earth, through Jesus Christ our 
 
 Lord" — would he arise and say, 
 that the only ground on which to 
 account for it was, by his favourite 
 subterfuge, a little "orientalism," 
 just as by an ex post facto argument 
 the other evening, lie wanted Dr. 
 Watts's Hymns to act upon the 
 pages of the fathers ? [laughter] — 
 the pages of Dr. Watts, who was 
 known to cherish the vilest anti- 
 pathy for the Catholics, and spoke 
 against them on all occasions most 
 virulently, and even in the intro- 
 duction to his Logic, in the very 
 preface, as well as iii other parts of 
 the work. And it is, forsooth, this 
 wiseacre, tHs see-saw hymn-maker, 
 Isaac Watts, who, in his contemp- 
 tible jargon, called by my learned 
 friend beautiful poetry, is, by his 
 using the words, " This is my real 
 body, my real blood," &c., which 
 every one knows, from the life and 
 writings of Isaac Watts, he uses 
 figuratively — that is made by the con- 
 sequential reasoning of my learned 
 antagonist to act upon the pages of 
 the fethers. Yes, this Isaac Watts 
 is to make them who were never 
 known by their lives or writings to 
 gainsay that doctrine ; but, on the 
 contrary, were ever known to de- 
 clare solemnly and unanimously, that 
 they meant reality, not figure— 7he 
 is to make them, I say, by tins ex 
 •post facto species of argumentation, 
 all sound Protestants ! Wonderful 
 magic-working logician ! His rea- 
 soning runs thus : — "If Isaac Watts, 
 in his uymns, using the words, ' This 
 is my real body and my real blood,' 
 still is known to you all to mean it 
 figuratively ; therefore it follows by 
 all the laws of just reason, that 
 when Christ uttered the words. This 
 is my .body, this is my blood, Christ 
 must have meant it figuratively." It 
 follows, as a matter of course, ac- 
 cording to my learned co-reasoner, 
 that the best commentary on the 
 -wor<ls of our Lord and Saviour, in 
 
Mr. Frmch.'] 
 
 his last testameat, must be the 
 meaning which Isaac Watts attaches 
 to similar words used by him, in his 
 poetical legacy to his Protestant 
 brethren, called hymns. 
 
 Such was the beautiful specimen 
 of the learned gentleman's ex post 
 jyKto logic. But, gentlemen, that 
 is not the mode of argument in 
 which to proceed, or the mode in 
 which I iatend to proeecd. Let me 
 give one fair and honourable advice 
 to my learned friend before we part 
 this evening — ^not to let the deci- 
 sion of this mighty case depend 
 upon tropes or metaphors, or the 
 wildness of declamation ; let it de- 
 pend on solid reasoning, on learned 
 investigation. Let us, on Thursday 
 next, if he thinks proper, keep the 
 fathers out of the question ; let us 
 come to the Bible ; let us come to 
 the New Testament; and let us 
 fight the battle there. Let him 
 leave my saints alone, and I will 
 leave his Calvinistic venerated over- 
 tur-ners-of-altars alone, as well as 
 those, his late predecessors in bi- 
 gotry, who attempted to deluge the 
 streets of London with blood, in 
 their fanatical fury, some years ago, 
 and by wh<jse sanguinary hands, 
 had it not been for my guardian 
 angel, I had fallen a sacrifice in the 
 days of my infancy. Let us aban- 
 don, I say, all recrmiination on both 
 
 SAINTS AKD AKGELS. 
 
 S79 
 
 Rev. J. CuMMiNG. — Hear ! hear! 
 
 Mr. Pkench — [in continuation.] 
 Let us argue like men and soldiers 
 for the truth — for the truth, and for 
 the truth alone. I own I have a 
 desire of doing away with the old 
 prejudice that subsists in this coun- 
 try against the religion of my an- 
 cestors. I have studied that religion 
 deeply and laboriously, and I know 
 that those who come to embrace it 
 will be saved to all hoHness ; that 
 they vrill become more and more 
 enamoured, every day they live, of 
 
 our blessed and immortal Redeemer 
 — that aU-meek Redeemer, I say, 
 who is so much on my frienas 
 tongue, even when he is pouring 
 forth a torrent of virulent invec- 
 tive a,gainst his Catholic neighbour. 
 This is not the way to open to us a 
 pathway to heaven. I tell him so, 
 because he HteraUy compels me to 
 retort his insulting language. I do 
 it; not for the sake of discharging 
 my heart of any rancour harboured 
 there against him, but to show that 
 it is just <is easy for one man to 
 reply, as it is for him to utter hard 
 unpalatable things. Let us cease 
 to use language of this kind, and 
 throw away every trifling, extrane- 
 ous argument. On Thursday let us 
 argue fairly and act honourably. I 
 wm fight the battles of the Catholic, 
 and he may fight in the cause of 
 Calvin. Let us both seek vidth 
 earnestness for that inestimable 
 jewel, truth; and after we shall have 
 listened to the voice of ages, telling 
 us where it is to be found, commu- 
 nicate respectively to the same 
 audience the fruit of our investi- 
 gations. 
 
 Gentlemen, I shall only add, that 
 from these concurrent testimonies 
 of texts from the Bible, and extracts 
 from the holy fathers of the Church, 
 every Protestant that considers them 
 impartially must, by this time, be 
 convinced that this doctrine of ages, 
 this Intercession of Angels and Saints, 
 is not to be invalidated by the puny 
 theologians ,of the nineteenth cen- 
 tury, however potent they may be 
 in all the delusive tricks of oratory, 
 and however skilful they may be m 
 drawing your minds away into re- 
 mote digressions, far from the field 
 of argument. The priests, you may 
 see, of the CathoKe Church have 
 firmer props than falsehood and 
 cunning to support their tenets, 
 although their adversaries cannot 
 impose upon their flocks by any 
 
280 
 
 INVOCATION or [5li. Moeiimg, 
 
 other artifice than that every-day 
 one with which they have the vmhal- 
 lowed daring to upbiaid the Catholic 
 priesthood, namely, that of keeping 
 the people in profound ignorance as 
 to the tenets of primitive Christi- 
 anity. No : the priests of the Ca- 
 tholic Church have no reason, to 
 make it the study of their Kvcs to 
 seek with acuteness how to evade 
 the pages of the fathers, or to 
 subtilize and refine upon them ; the 
 language which thev speak is in 
 exact consonance with the declara- 
 tion of the primitive Church, and 
 with the uniform practice of that 
 same descending Church, now for 
 nearly nineteen centuries, in eveir 
 region of the Christianized world. 
 To those whose churches are built 
 upon adverse principles, artifice is 
 as necessary to give those principles 
 plausibility, as is their daUy food for 
 th^ support of their animal exist- 
 ence. Yes, it is necessary for mi- 
 nisters like these to smother the 
 testimonies of the fathers, which 
 otherwise would cry out with such 
 irresistible evidence against then- 
 new-fangled doctrines. They have 
 no resource left but to persuade 
 their congregations that the doc- 
 trine . of Invooating Angels and 
 Saints, instead of having taken root 
 in the apostolic age, and flourished 
 with unfading verdure from that era 
 down to the present period, is a 
 scion of superstition that sprouted 
 
 up in the land of Christianity in one 
 of the darh ages ! 
 
 Gentlemen, I have a few mo- 
 ments more, but I have exhausted 
 my argument, at least I have ex- 
 hausted myself. I wish, on the 
 following evening, that my learned 
 friend wiU come animated into this 
 room with more of the gentle spirit 
 of Christianity. 
 
 Rev. J. Cummins. — ^Hear ! hear! 
 
 Mr. Pkenoh. — And I promise 
 him that he shall not have to re- 
 proach me with wandering from the 
 argument or the pages of the Bible. 
 To that line of conduct I should 
 wish the reverend gentleman's assent 
 before we part [turiiing to the E,ev. 
 J. Cumming, who misunderstood the 
 allusion]. 
 
 Rev. J. Ctjmming [rising]. — I 
 would most distinctly aeclare that 
 I wish aU kind of personality should 
 cease — [the reverend gentleman 
 was here interrupted; some persons 
 fearing that he was about to enter 
 on a speech. The reverend gentle- 
 man continued.] — I am not going to 
 make a speech. [Laughter.] * 
 
 Mr. Fkench. — I do not accuse 
 you of personality. In every res- 
 pect the learned gentleman is a man 
 of the most conspicuous talent that 
 can be found ; I only wish that he 
 was more of my texture of mind, 
 and my way of thinking. [Laughter], 
 
 [The learned gentleman's hour 
 here terminated.] 
 
 Sixth Evening, Thuesdat, Apeil 18, 1839. 
 
 SUBJECT : 
 
 INYOCATION OE SAINTS AND ANGELS. 
 
 (Continued.) 
 
 Rev. J. Gumming. — On the last 
 occasion on which you were ad- 
 dressed from this spot by my learned 
 
 antagonist, Mr. French, you may 
 rccolleot that he indulged m what I 
 pronounce to be a very unoaUed-for 
 
Rev. J. 
 
 ■J 
 
 SAINTS AISTD AII&ELS. 
 
 281 
 
 and gratuitous description of the 
 modewhioh I had pursued in laying 
 open the errors (and their results) 
 of the Roman Catholic Church upon 
 the one hand, and in confuting those 
 errors from the word of God, and 
 showing up the contradictory nature 
 of the Statements of the fathers on 
 the other hand. Now I am most 
 anxious to disahuse the mind of 
 Mr. French, and of every Roman 
 Catholic in this assembly, of any im- 
 pression leading them to suppose 
 that I cherish one atom of hostile or 
 bitter feeling toward the humblest 
 or the highest individual in the 
 room. I can, most honestly and 
 conscientiously, as in the sight of 
 the great Searcher of Hearts, say, 
 "My heart's desire and prayer to 
 Grod for them is, that they may be 
 saved ; " but, seeing them going 
 about to reject the righteousness of 
 Christ, and to establish the ' right- 
 eousness of the creature, I feel it 
 my sacred duty, and my sweetest 
 privilege, to warn them against the 
 error of their way. Let me also 
 add, I own, notwithstanding the 
 love I bear to every individual, I 
 cherish — and I should not be honest 
 if I did not say so — I cherish the 
 intensest antipathy to the system of 
 which they are the unhappy and 
 perishing victims. I believe that 
 system — (and Mr. JFrench knows 
 that this was my impression at the 
 outset) — I believe that system to 
 be dishonourable to God ; I believe 
 it to be dangerous to your precious 
 soiils; and I do feel that I display 
 my love to you most strongly, when 
 I refute and reprobate the system 
 you cMng to most decidedly. I 
 know it will give pain to some sen- 
 sitive feelings, and stari;le many a 
 mind long accustomed to revere the 
 system as sacred and apostolical. I 
 know it must have given pain to my 
 learned antagonist, to have been ob- 
 liged to heat exposed the system he. 
 
 has been trained to in all the breadth 
 of its corruption, and in all its 
 native deformity in which it is re- 
 presented, though diluted as it is 
 recognised in Rome's accredited do- 
 cmnents • but then I feel that the 
 exhibition of the uuscriptural and 
 unprimitive character of the system 
 is the very way to emancipate those 
 who are its victims. 
 
 On this subject I am reminded of 
 an incident recorded to have taken 
 place when the dome of St. Paul's 
 cathedral was being painted, in 
 London. It is stated, that the cele- 
 brated painter, who had erected a 
 scaffold in the interior of the dome, 
 had sketched some exquisite de- 
 signs and paintings upon the wall ; 
 and the scaffolding havmg no outside 
 railing to defend him, he was walk- 
 ing backwards, admiring and con- 
 templating the proportions and 
 perspective of the work he had just 
 executed. He kept walkiag back- 
 ward and backward, until his heels 
 trembled on the very verge of the 
 scaffold, from which another step 
 would have precipitated him to a 
 depth of some two hundred feet, 
 and left him a mangled corpse on 
 the floor below. A friend who was 
 on the scaffold, seeing the awful 
 jeopardy in which the painter was 
 placed, and knowing that if he had 
 called out he would probably have 
 taken another step further, and have 
 thus been dashed to pieces, and 
 feeling his danger, rushed forward 
 and threw a large pot of paiat upon 
 the exquisite work which he had 
 painted on the wall. Immediately 
 the painter, anxious for the safety 
 of hiS work, rushed forward to save 
 the painting from the threatened 
 destruction, and thereby learned, ia. 
 life, the vidsdom of his friend. Now 
 this is just an illustration of my 
 course with Mr. Irenoh and the 
 Roman Catholics before me. I know 
 it will grieve vou while I destroy 
 
S83 
 
 INYOOATION OP 
 
 the bright, the glittering, the fasci- 
 nating visions by which you are so 
 oaptirated and charmed ; but then I 
 know that the only way of saving 
 your souls is to blast, by fair means, 
 and by just, and open, and legiti- 
 mate reasoning, that dark, apostate 
 system (for I must still speak ho- 
 nestly, as I have done throughout) 
 of which you are the prey. In God's 
 sight, this may be your great guilt 
 — I say, in God's sight, your error 
 may be your great guilt ; but in my 
 sight it IS your deep and youi pain- 
 fiu misfortune. I regard it as your 
 misfortune — God alone can regard 
 it as your gmlt. J, feeling it tb be 
 your misfortunp, should act a most 
 unchristian part, if I did not say 
 throughout, that my prayerful and 
 heartfelt desire is, that the system 
 may be unceasingly detested and 
 ultimately abjured, and that those 
 who have been beguiled by the cup 
 of its enchantment may be brought 
 to sink every other name in com- 
 parison, and to behold exclusively 
 the Lamb of God that taketh away 
 the sias of the world. And, there- 
 fore, I hope I have indulged (you 
 can all bear me witness) in no viru- 
 lent or vituperative invective; I 
 ha.ve scrupulously avoided it. I have 
 spoken courteously but plamly; I 
 never felb that my antagonist had 
 treated me with bitterness or viru- 
 lence, till, no doubt from the failure 
 of aU. argument and of aU logic, last 
 night, when I think (unhappily for 
 the impression made upon the au- 
 dience) he, for a moment, forgot the 
 courtesies of Christian conduct. I 
 know and hope he wOl be the first 
 to correct himself for having used 
 anj expressions calculated to dis- 
 turb the harmony which has hitherto 
 prevailed ia canvassing this vital 
 and most important question. 
 
 Let me observe, in the next 
 place, that I find, in my notes, that, 
 in making some extracts from the 
 
 celebrated writings of the Bollandists, 
 I was called to order, as quoting a 
 work not authorized or recognised 
 in the Church of Eome. I candidly 
 admit that it does not bear the sesu 
 and stamp of actual infaJlibUity, or 
 Roman Catholic inerrabUity ; but 
 when I wished to illustrate my as- 
 sertion, that the doctrine under 
 review had led to most superstitious 
 results, and to bring before you 
 specimens of the superstitions to 
 which the Invocation of Saints had 
 naturally led, I did not have re- 
 course to any paltry work that I had 
 taken from some hole or corner, 
 and which might have contained 
 sentiments and expressions not war- 
 ranted or recognised by the Church 
 of Eome ; but I went to what the 
 celebrated Leibnitz (as quoted by 
 Charles Butler, the distinguished 
 advocate of the Church of Eome) 
 has declared to be " the most 
 splendid work of the Jesuits." I 
 went to the eighty large folios, con- 
 taining the lives of the saints, col- 
 lected by the Jesuits,' the most 
 learned body of the Church of 
 Eome, and aU of which are com- 
 posed by recognised doctors and 
 members of the Eoman Catholic 
 communion. I took these eighty 
 large folios, which Mr. Erench 
 knows to be pure Eomanism. That 
 caamot be a hole-and-corner pro- 
 duction j these cannot be a paltry 
 perf(3rmance collected and composed 
 by an unknown Jesuit. These eighty 
 folios are quoted, with markea ap- 
 probation, by Charles Butler, Esq. 
 
 Now, observe, this is the favour- 
 able verdict of the learned Leibnitz 
 on these works of the Jesuits to 
 which I have referred — a verdict, 
 you observe, not concealed or dis- 
 claimed, but brought forward, openly 
 floried in, and prominently displayed 
 y a distinguished advocate of the 
 Church of Eome, Charles Butler, 
 Esq. Therefore, in quoting from 
 
Rev. J. Cummin^.'] 
 
 these works, I quoted from one of 
 the most important, one of the most 
 voluminous, and one of the hest 
 known productions of that most 
 distinguished order in the Church 
 of Rome; and I do think that if 
 the quotations I made on miracles, 
 on the acts of saints, the appearances 
 of Satan, and all the absurd and 
 wretched legendary lore which it 
 contains, if they hurt the feelings of 
 any Roman CathoUc before me, then 
 I pray you, visit the Jesuits — ^visit 
 tAem with your withering contempt 
 — with your indignation, and re- 
 nounce the Church that sanctions 
 them. I hold it to be a most extra- 
 ordinary fact, that the Church of 
 Rome, being in the habit of addiag 
 her imprimatur sanction and ap- 
 proval, through appointed agents, 
 to every book that might be profit- 
 ably read — and if she found any 
 passage in that book against the 
 Church, having it in her power to 
 cancel those passages, or of refusing 
 to permit the book to be circulated, 
 never condemned the BoUandists — I 
 do say, that if the Church of Rome, 
 by her appointed and accredited au- 
 thorities and censors, suffered such 
 a book to be recognised, and to be 
 signed and circulated, and yet re- 
 pressed and withheld many nobler 
 and glorious monuments of human 
 
 fenius and learning — ^I do feel that 
 am guilty of no unfair imputation 
 when I father on the Church of 
 Rome the responsibility of those 
 eighty folio volumes. 
 
 At the close of his speech my 
 learned antagonist quoted Doctors 
 Montague an'd Thomdyke, who had 
 at a previous period been bishops of 
 the Ghurch of England, and who, it 
 appears, had said that the Invocation 
 of Saints does not amount to idol- 
 atry. My simple reply to this is 
 just what Mr. Erench returned to 
 me when I quoted Mr. Nolan : they 
 ore " a couple of weeds," which I 
 
 SAINTS AJID angels. 
 
 2sa 
 
 cast with the greatest satisfaction 
 into his garden. And, therefore, if 
 he finds that the sentiments of these 
 men, who wore Protestant surplices 
 and subscribed to Protestant articles, 
 and were in the habit of saying Pro- 
 testant prayers, were popish — if 
 these men chose to hoist false co- 
 lours — in other words, if they be- 
 longed to the Church of Rome, 
 whilst they derived their emolu- 
 ments from the Protestant Church, 
 then let not the Protestant Church 
 be saddled with their sentiments ; 
 for her articles, her homUies, and 
 creeds, repudiate and reject them. 
 
 Mr. Prench, in the next portion 
 of his speech, quoted one, I think, 
 of the most sweet and beautiful 
 hymns, addressed to the Lord Jesus 
 Christ, that I have heard for many 
 a day. It was a hymn that does 
 credit to the poetic genius of my 
 antagonist, and that shows he is a 
 poet of no mean order, and that he 
 has some devotion to his Lord Jesus, 
 which I pray may be so fostered and 
 fanned by the Holy Spirit of God, 
 that his devotion to Jesus may ab- 
 sorb and consume all his devotion 
 for Mary and for saints. His hymn, 
 I say, was exceedingly scriptural 
 and exceedinglybeautuul; and when 
 I draw up (as I intend to do, one 
 day) a collection of hymns, I mean 
 to write to Mr. Erench and request 
 that beautiful and scriptural hymn, 
 and I have no doubt that he wiU 
 give it me with the greatest plea- 
 sure. But having heard Mr. French's 
 "private" hymn, it is important, I 
 think, that you should lay it side by 
 side with some other hymns that are 
 possessed of far greater authority, 
 and are in more extensive circulation 
 in the Church of Rome. You have 
 heard an individual's hymn ; now 
 I wish to let you hear a hymn with 
 episcopal sanction, taken from the 
 " Garden of the Soul. A new and 
 amended edition, by lawful au- 
 
S81 
 
 DfTOOATION or 
 
 ZtA "Eoemnq. 
 
 ttority," bearing the imprimatur of 
 Dr. Walsh, Bximan Catholic bishop 
 of the midland district. He 
 says, "The present edition of the 
 Garden of the Soul receives my 
 cordial approbation, and is recom- 
 mended by me to the general use 
 of the clergy and laity. * Thos. 
 Walsh." 
 
 a hymn to the blessed viegin. 
 
 Hail, thou resplendent star, 
 Which shinest o'er the main, 
 Blest Mother of our God, 
 And ever Virgin Queen. 
 
 Hail, happy gate of bliss, 
 Greeted by Gabriel's tongue, 
 Negoeiate our peace! ! 
 And cancel Eva's wrong 1 1 
 
 Loosen the sinner's bands ; 
 And evils drive away ; 
 Bring light unto the blind. 
 And for all graces pray. — Page 312. 
 
 Now you have heard Mi. French's 
 Beautiful and scriptural hymn to 
 Christ, and eJso another from the, 
 formularies of his Church. I reject' 
 private interpretations and poetical 
 effusions. I must deal fairly, and 
 have recourse to authorized docu- 
 ments. My opponent's effusion is 
 good — that of his Church is rank 
 idolatry. His Church is infallible ; 
 he is fallible. Again I quote, from 
 the same document, a portion of 
 the Litany of our Lady at Loretto, 
 which is recommended by the same 
 Homan Catholic bishop to every one 
 in his diocese. It begins first with 
 a prayer to God, a prayer to Christ, 
 a prayer to the Hofy Spirit, to have 
 mercy upon us ; and then it oaUs on 
 Mary, " Pray for us." But what I 
 wish to call your attention to are 
 the attributes and titles of Mary. 
 
 Holy Mcwp, 
 ' Holy Mother of God, 
 
 Holy Virgin of Yirgins, 
 
 Mother of Christ, 
 
 Mother of divine grace. 
 
 Mother most pure. 
 
 Mother most chaste. 
 
 Mother undeflled, 
 
 Mother untouched, 
 
 Mother most amia,ble, 
 
 Mother most admirable. 
 
 Mother of our Creator, 
 
 Mother of our Redeemer, 
 
 Virgin most prudent. 
 
 Virgin most venerable. 
 
 Virgin most renowned. 
 
 Virgin most powerful. 
 
 Virgin most merciful. 
 
 Virgin most faithful. 
 
 Mirror of justice. 
 
 Seat of wisdom. 
 
 Cause of our joy. 
 
 Spiritual vessel. 
 
 Vessel of honour, 
 
 Vessel of singular devotion. 
 
 Mystical rose. 
 
 Tower of David, 
 
 Tower of ivory. 
 
 House of gold. 
 
 Ark of the covenant. 
 
 Gate of heaven. 
 
 Morning star. 
 
 Health of the weak, 
 "* Eefage of sinners. 
 
 Comforter of the afflicted. 
 
 Help of Christians, 
 
 Queen of angels, 
 
 (iueen of patriarchs. 
 
 Queen of prophets. 
 
 Queen of apostles. 
 
 Queen of martyrs. 
 
 Queen of confessors. 
 
 Queen of virgins. 
 
 Queen of all saints. 
 Li this long string the choicest 
 epithets which the Holy Ghost ap- 
 plies to Christ are dishonestly filched 
 and applied to a creature, Mary. 
 She is the "Morning Star !" What 
 an awful falsehood! Christ hath said, 
 " J am the bright and the Morning 
 Star ;" the Cnurch of Rome says, 
 Mary is "the health of the weak, 
 the refuge of sinners." But in the 
 sacred Scriptures, and in the forty- 
 siith Psalm, God is described as 
 "the refuge for sinners;" but here 
 Mary is said to be " the refuge for 
 sinners." She is described not only 
 
Rev. J. Cnmming.'] 
 
 as " Queen of Heaven," but " the 
 conxforter of the afflicted." But 
 our blessed Lord declares, " I will 
 send you another Comforter, even 
 the Spikit of Tbuth, who shall 
 abide with you for ever." And in 
 this, collection there is one prayer to 
 be offered to Mary the most awful 
 I ever read. I am sorry to be 
 obliged to read these ; but though 
 thej are of so awful a nature, I feel 
 it is my bounden duty to show the 
 tendency of that article of your 
 creed which says, that saints are to 
 be venerated. I wish to show yoa 
 plainly what your Church is made 
 up of; and however beautiful it 
 may appear when told by a silver- 
 tongued defender of his Church, the 
 practical effects of the theory are of 
 a very different stamp. 
 
 " We fly to thy patronage, holy 
 Mother of God; despise not our pe- 
 titions in our necessities, bat obtain 
 our deliverance from ajl dangers, 
 ever glorious and blessed Virgin. 
 
 "Pray for us, holy Mother of 
 God. 
 
 " That we may he made worthy of 
 the promises of Christ." 
 
 Gard. of Soul, ^. 379. 
 
 " Grant, O Lord, we beseech 
 thee, that we thy servants may 
 enjoy health of mind and body ; and 
 that by the intercession of the ever 
 Blessed Virgin, all thy saints Kke- 
 vidse interceding for us, we may be 
 dcKvered from present sorrow, and 
 hereafter enjoy eternal happiness. 
 Amen." — Ibid. 
 
 I now leave the volume itself, 
 having made these few extracts 
 illustrative of its principles' and cha- 
 racter. Now you have heard Mr. 
 ^French's beautiful scriptural poem, 
 and you have now heard the poems 
 of his Church, invested with far 
 greater authority. I ask. Which is 
 the correct exhibition of the Eoman 
 
 SAINTS AND ANGELS. 
 
 2?5 
 
 Catholic faith ? The two cannot 
 coalesce. If an effort be made to 
 arnalgamate the two, then the result 
 will take place which my friend is 
 acqi^ainted with from his classical 
 reading, as stated by Horace in his 
 "Art of Poetry." 
 
 " Humano capiti cervicem pictor equinam 
 Jungere si velit, et varias inducere plumas 
 Undique coUatis membria, ut turpiter 
 
 atrum 
 Desinat ia piscem mulier formosa su- 
 
 pernS; 
 Spectatum admissi, lacrymas teneatis, 
 
 amici ?" 
 
 If my opponent holds nothing 
 additional to his poem, he wiU be 
 left in purgatory, and it in the Index 
 Prohibitorius, 
 
 The next remark in the closing 
 speech of my learned antagonist 
 was. How can Mr. Cumming pre- 
 sume to stint the omnipotence of 
 God, especially as applicable to 
 saints in heaven hearing the prayers 
 of those who are on earth? He 
 said, " May not God give power to 
 the saints who are in heaven to hear 
 and receive prayers offered upon 
 earth?" Now I am no judge of 
 what God might do ; the rule of my 
 faith is not the omnipotence of 
 God, but the written word of God. 
 The question, you observe, is not 
 what attributes God might be 
 pleased to endue saints in heaven 
 withal ; but the question is. In 
 what position has he placed saints 
 that are in heaven, with reference 
 to their hearing those prayers that 
 may be offered up by those on earth ? 
 Now, when I refer to the book 
 which is my rule of faith, and which, 
 I believe, is part of the rule of 
 faith of my learned antagonist, I 
 find every disproof of saints on 
 earth being authorized to pray to 
 those who are in glory. If the 
 Bible declare the doctrine untrue, 
 we have no right to ask whether it 
 could have been otherwise. Por 
 instance, in Ecclesiastes is. 5, 6, 
 
386 
 
 INVOCATION OF 
 
 "For the living know that they 
 shall die : but the dead know not 
 any thing, neither have they any 
 more 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." 
 My friend asks how saints iu hea- 
 ven can hear the prayers lifted up 
 to them on earth r My answer is, 
 they cannot, because "they have 
 not any more a portion iu any thiug 
 that is done under the sun." I 
 quote another illustration from 
 Scripture of the ^impossibility of 
 saints in heaven (as far as it is 
 revealed to us) hearing prayers 
 offered up to them from those on 
 earth. (2 Kings ii. 9.) And it came 
 to pass, when they were gone over 
 (the river), that Elijah said unto 
 Elisha, "Ask, what I shall do for 
 thee before I be taken away from 
 thee;" implying that if Elisha 
 wished to possess any benefit or any 
 kind token from Elijah, he must do 
 it before Elijah was taken away from 
 him ; and that very statement im- 
 plies that Elijah in heaven could do 
 nothing for Elisha on earth. I wiU 
 give you another proof of the same 
 great fact. In the second of Kings, 
 xxii. 20 : "Behold, therefore, I mU 
 gather tliee to thy fathers, and thou 
 shalt be gathered into thy grave in 
 peace ; and thine eyes shall not see 
 all the evil that I wiU bring upon 
 this place ;" another intimation, you 
 observe, that Josiah in heaven should 
 not " see the evil that God would 
 bring on that place." Again, Isaiah 
 Ijdii. 16 : " Doubtless thou art our 
 Father, though Abraham be igno- 
 rant of us, and Israel acknowledge 
 us not : thou, Lord, art our 
 Father, our Redeemer; thy name 
 is from everlasting." Here it is 
 stated that Abraham is ignorant of 
 those he left on earth, and that 
 
 Israel, or Jacob, in heaven, has no 
 intercourse with the children of 
 Israel that were left on earth. 
 
 The next remark I have to make 
 was in reference to my learned anta- 
 gonist's treatment of Dr. Delahogue, 
 and I really must congratulate my 
 learned friend on the rapid progress 
 he is making. We have induced 
 him, you recollect, to throw Aquinas 
 overboard, and to disclaim all sym- 
 pathy with his sentiments. After 
 this we got him to give Augustine 
 one of the most mortal wounds he, 
 has ever received from his great 
 patron and friend, my learned and 
 accomplished antagonist ; for he 
 very candidly and iugeniously stated, 
 " Well, if St. Augustiue said so and 
 so, I beg to differ from St. Augus- 
 tine." So much for his treatment 
 of the glorious St. Augustine. Then 
 we got him to cast overboard — 
 whom do you think ? The learned 
 and illustrious Delahogue, who has 
 written five volumes on Roman Ca- 
 tholic Theology, and who was the 
 teachSr in Maynooth of a whole 
 generation of Roman Catholic Irish 
 priests, and who refer to his works 
 (mind you) as guides and as depo- 
 sitaries of Christian knowledge and 
 Clu-istian truth ; yet the Professor 
 of Maynooth, that learned and ac- 
 complished author, the able Dr. De- 
 lahogue — my learned friend tells me 
 that he is not of any authority, and 
 overboard he goes also. [Laughter.] 
 Now I just wish my friend to take 
 one step further, and to cast the 
 whole fabric of superstition over- 
 board after them, and bid a final 
 vale! to the Roman Catholic doc- 
 trine of the Invocation of Saints. 
 In reference to the distinctions of 
 Latria and Bcmlia, I quote Scrip- 
 ture to show that it does not recog- 
 nise a distinction between any two 
 such words. And while I admit in 
 the fullest maimer, that the Roman 
 Catholic Church does make au arbi- 
 
jRev. J. Oumming.'] 
 
 SAINTS ASB ANGELS. 
 
 287 
 
 trary distinction 'between Latvia 
 (whicli is the worsMp to be given 
 to God) and Boulia (tke worship to 
 be given to saints) and Mi/per-doulia, 
 or worship to be given to the Virgin 
 Mary ; yet I hold that no such ms- 
 tinction exists in Scripture. I ad- 
 mitted that the Roman Catholic 
 Church preserved the distinction in 
 theory — ^it is quite another question 
 whether it be also observed in her 
 practice. 
 
 The next argument brought for- 
 ward by my antagonist, was from 
 the Gospel of St. Luke, xv. 6, quot- 
 ing from the tenth verse : "And 
 likewise, I say unto you, there is 
 joy in the presence of the angels of 
 God over one sinner that repenteth." 
 Now, observe you, while I do not 
 disclaim my belief in the tenet 
 that angels rejoice over repentant 
 sinners, yet I maintain that the only 
 way angels know it, is by receiving 
 information to that effect. At all 
 events, whatever be the views you 
 hold as to angels as " ministering 
 spirits," or " angels rejoicing in 
 heaven," this passage, I contend, 
 gives not the least ground for be- 
 lieving that the angels themselves 
 do actually, from personal know- 
 ledge, sympathize with converted 
 sinners upon earth. I wiU refer to 
 the passage. You observe, the pic- 
 ture is that of a shepherd who, 
 having lost one of Ms hundred 
 sheep, leaves the ninety-and-nine 
 and goes after the one which is lost ; 
 and when he comes home, he is here 
 represented as calling together his 
 friends, and telling them he has 
 found the sheep that was lost, and 
 bidding them rejoice : " So there is 
 joy in the presence of the angels of 
 God over one sinner that repent- 
 eth ;" that is, according to the 
 parallel, God announces to angels 
 that a sinner iS converted, and bids 
 them rejoice. The other emblem 
 employed in the chapter, is that of 
 
 a woman who lost a piece of money. 
 She is represented as going in search 
 for it with a candle, sweeping the 
 house until she finds it. She then 
 bids her neighbours rejoice ; so 
 " there is joy in the presence of 
 God over one sinner that repent- 
 eth." The passage implying, that 
 i'ust as this woman calls together 
 ler friends, proclaims to them the 
 news, and bids them rejoice ; so, at 
 God's command, the tidings that a 
 sinner is converted, circulate and 
 thrill through the realms of the 
 redeemed, and angels are bidden to 
 rejoice. And the father of the pro- 
 digal son, when the prodigal has 
 arisen from the husks that he was 
 eating, and is received again into 
 his father's bosom and his father's 
 home, the father calls his family 
 and his friends together, and bids 
 them rejoice, because his son " was 
 lost and is found." The three pa- 
 rables prove that angels learn from 
 God what occurs on earth. And, 
 moreover, you observe, even if this 
 were not the parallel, is there one 
 particle of precedent or Scripture 
 reason for praying either to angels 
 or saints, in this chapter ? Angels 
 in heaven rejoicing over the ran- 
 somed on earth is one thing, but 
 saints or sinners on earth praying 
 to angels in heaven is a totally op- 
 posite thing ; and it will be indeed 
 a most extraordinary specimen of 
 that logic, about which my learned 
 friend has been so prosy and gar- 
 rulous, and for which he has been 
 so anxious, if he can show that the 
 one necessarily or at all establishes 
 the other. 
 
 The next pass^e he quoted was 
 Matthew xviii. 18, where it is said 
 of children, "Their angels do always 
 behold the face of my Father 
 who is in heaven." Now, that ^is 
 the simple, unvarnished statement, 
 namely, that angels do always behold 
 the face of the Father of these chil- 
 
S8S 
 
 nn'OCATiON OP l&A Moentuff. 
 
 dren in heaven. Does the 
 breathe one syllable about the wor- 
 shipping of angels? Does it give 
 one precedent for the Invocatrng of 
 Saints? By what sort of extraor- 
 dinary alchymy will my learned 
 friend extract the Invocation »of 
 Saints from the simple historical 
 statement of Scripture, that angels 
 in heaven behold? the face of the 
 Father of these children on earth ? 
 I cannot see that such a, quota- 
 tion has anything to do with the 
 BuWect. 
 
 The next passage quoted was 
 Zachariah i. 8, where it is said, 
 " Zachariah beheld an angel among 
 the myrtle-trees." Now, in the 
 first place, I would observe, this 
 angel is distinctly shown by parallel 
 references, and by the reading of 
 the whole context, to be the Lord 
 Jesus Christ, Jehovah, the Angel, 
 the Lord of Hosts. The same angel 
 that appeared to Moses, as recorded 
 in Exodus, that appeared to Ma- 
 noah, to Jacob, and to other saints 
 throughout the Old - Testament 
 Scripture. And in the next place, 
 the prophet was standing on the 
 earth, and the angel on the earth 
 also. " And the angel (it is added) 
 spoke comfortable words unto him." 
 JBut, observe, my antagonist must 
 not perplex and mystify the real 
 question; it is not whether one 
 saint may say to another oh the earth, 
 " Pray for me," — ^for that is most 
 scriptural and right, and I trust 
 you have obeyed the irnnnction I 
 gave you to pray for Mr. iPrenoh, 
 that his mind may be enlightened 
 with " the knowledge of the glory 
 of God in the face of Christ Jesus ;" 
 but mark you, this is a totally dif- 
 ferent question — ^whether you are 
 to pray to saints and angels in, hea- 
 ven. God forbid that I should ever 
 preach such a theology as that, in 
 the face of the clearest announce- 
 ments of inspiration to the contrary. 
 
 The next "passage he quoted was 
 from Job, and in reference to one 
 saint speaking to another. Now, 
 the language here also is evidently 
 applicable to saints on earth; but 
 you will reooUect I stated, at the 
 outset of my remarks last night, 
 that as regards the Old Testament, 
 my friend will be most effective 
 when he is most silent, because he 
 knows that the sentiment of his 
 Church is, that the saints of the 
 Old Testament were in limbo ; that 
 no prayers could be offered to saints 
 under the Old-Testament dispensa- 
 tion; they could not help them- 
 selves out of limbo, much less 
 others ; and therefore, on the very 
 passage which he has had the daring 
 to quote to-night from the Old- 
 Testament, he most recollect that 
 his mouth is shut by his Church, 
 and that he dare not quote an Old- 
 Testament text for a proof of this. 
 
 There is one instance of a prayer 
 to saints in the word of God, and 
 there is just one. But it is one of 
 the most disastrous precedents for 
 Roman Catholics that can be quoted. 
 It is that of the rich man in hell, 
 who prayed to Abraham in heaven 
 to give him a drop of water to cool 
 the tip of his tongue. Now, was 
 it answered? No, my friends, there 
 was no answer in return. The case 
 indeed is not exactly parallel, be- 
 cause he was in hell and we are on 
 earth. But an instance and illus- 
 tration of a sinner praying to a 
 saint in glory, is that of the rich 
 man in hell praying to Abraham in 
 heaven, and receivmg a negative to 
 his petition. Poor encouragement 
 for every Roman Catholic ! Poor 
 precedent, my friends, to risk the 
 possibility of idolatry on ! Poor and 
 paltry ground for addressing (IwiU 
 speak honestly and plainly) what I 
 believe to be blasphemous prayers 
 to the Virgin Mary and to saints, 
 some of whom were the greatest 
 
Rev. J. Oummi'nff.] 
 
 SAINTS AND ANGELS. 
 
 rogues on earth and now tlie tenants 
 of Pandemonium. I stated last even- 
 ing that I should confine my remarks 
 especially to the Hyper-douUa or 
 interior worship given to the Virgin 
 Mary ; for it is to be remembered 
 that the Roman Church gives Doulia 
 to the saints of God, and what 
 they call Hyper-donlia to the Virgin 
 Mary; that is, a- worship much 
 greater than Doulia and not so great 
 as Latria. The Romish doctors 
 split hairs with the most exqifisite 
 skill. But the terrible result of it 
 is, that the poor Roman Catholic 
 who is not able to divide hairs with 
 such mathematical precision may 
 be plungiag into fearful idolatry, 
 leaving the fountains of hving water, 
 and drinking from broken cisterns 
 that can hold no water. I -hold in 
 my hand a document, well known 
 to every Roman Cathohc in this 
 room, called the Sacred Heart of 
 Jesus and of Mary. The title is 
 as follows : — 
 
 " TheDevotionandOffice of tlie Sacred 
 Heart of our Lord Jesus Christ ; 
 with its Nature, Origin, arid 
 Progress, including the Devotions 
 to the Sacred Heart of Mary. 
 Twelfth Edition, with an Ap- 
 pendix and the Indvlt of his 
 Holiness, Pope Pius, in favour of 
 it. For the Use of the Midland 
 District. Keating and Brown." 
 
 After theMissal there is no book 
 of greater authority among EngHsh 
 Romanists. The book, I may ob- 
 serve, may be found at London, 
 and is now being reprinted at Duke- 
 street. I read fiom this book. 
 Section I. : — 
 
 " As the adorable heart of Jesus 
 was formed. in the chaste womb of 
 the Blessed Virgin, and of her 
 blood and substance, so we cannot 
 in a more proper and agreeable 
 manner show our devotion to the 
 sacred heart of the Son than by 
 
 dedicating some part of the sacred 
 devotion to the ever pure heart of 
 the Mother. 
 
 " Go then, devout client, to the 
 heart of Jesus, but let your way bi 
 through the heart of Mary" 
 
 '♦This form and method of 
 worshij) is the doctrine and the 
 very spirit of God's Church: it is 
 what she teaches us in the unani- 
 mous voice and practice of the 
 faithful, who will by no means that 
 Jesus and Mary should be sepa- 
 rated from each other in our prayers, 
 praises, and affections." 
 
 K you are indignant at the lan- 
 guage that I quote here, you must 
 vent that indignation against the 
 Church which has misled you, and 
 not against the faithful friend who 
 would warn you of the precipice 
 towards which you are approach- 
 ing. 
 
 " Come, then, hardened and inve- 
 terate sinner, 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 
 
 proof 
 
 tations and inspirations of the Holy 
 Ghost !.'! fling yourself at the feet 
 of this powerful advocate !" 
 
 This is downright blasphemy, 
 and yet it is the doctrine of Rome. 
 
 Now, the next sentence is fearful ; 
 it is equally blasphemous. It is to 
 the effect : — 
 
 " Hail Mary, lady and mistress 
 of the world, to whom all power 
 has been given both in heaven and 
 earth." p. 305. 
 
 " Rejoice, O most glorious Virgin, 
 such is thy favour with God, such 
 the power of thy intercession, that 
 the whole treasury of heaven is open 
 to thee and at thy disposal. When 
 thou art pleased to intercede in 
 favour of a sinner, his case is in 
 sure hands : there is no danger 
 
 L 
 
S-JO 
 
 INVOCATION OP [6t& Sbemn^. 
 
 of refusal on the part of Heaven 
 when thy mediation appears in his 
 behalf." p. 256. 
 
 " You are the gbeat media- 
 trix BETWEEN God and man, 
 obtaining for sinners all they can 
 ask and demand of the Blessed 
 Ti-inity." 
 
 Such are the fruits of this doc- 
 trine; such the rank idolatry im- 
 posed on you in tlie injured name 
 of God and Christianity. 
 
 These are not all the specimens 
 of these devotions of the Church 
 in reference to the worship of the 
 Virgin Mary! I hold in my hand 
 also another document, a portion of 
 which I have been reading, and a 
 portion of which I have probably 
 read to this audience on a former 
 occasion. It is called the Glomes 
 OE Mart, Mother oe God. It 
 is dedicated to Mary, ever a Virgin, 
 and translated by a iRoman Cathoho 
 priest. The deffication to the third 
 edition is — 
 
 " To Mary ever Virgin; the most 
 humble and most exalted of all 
 pure creatures, the Queen of Angels 
 and of Men; the Mother of God.' 
 of whom was born Jesus, who is 
 called the Chirst, who shall be 
 styled Blessed by all generations ; 
 who destroys all heresies through- 
 out the world, and through whose 
 powerful intercession the sacred 
 deposit of faith once delivered to 
 the saints has always been pre- 
 served in suffering Ireland. This 
 volume, designed to iru:rease the 
 number and fervour of her clients 
 in this island, is with all vene- 
 ration a/nd respect, most humbly 
 dedicated by the most unworthy of 
 her servants, tlie Translator." 
 
 Its authority is decisive, as its 
 following prefatory remarks evince : 
 — ^The work from which I take the 
 extracts were "examined by infalli- 
 bility and prbclaimed faultless. It 
 
 is, therefore, not the views of St. 
 Liguori, but of his Church : — 
 
 " The holy father himself, in bis 
 brief for commencing the proceed- 
 ings, said that he loved Luguori 
 during his life, and remarked in 
 him the most extraordinary piety and 
 devotion. 
 
 " The Sacred Congregation of 
 Rites having made the most rigor- 
 ous examination of the writings of 
 the saint, to the number of a hun- 
 dred or more, pronounced that there 
 was noihing in them deserving of 
 censure, and this sentence wa8 ap- 
 proved by Pius VII. in 1803. 
 
 " His successor, Leo XII., ac- 
 companied his brief to the editor of 
 the works of the blessed LiguOri, 
 by a golden medal. To this exami- 
 nation succeeded that of the virtues 
 of Liguori: the goodness of the 
 cause appeared at once so evident, 
 that the Pope dispensed with the 
 decree of Urban VIII. whichforbade 
 this special scrutiny to be made until 
 after the expiration of fifty years 
 from the death of the person in 
 question. The cardinals were itna- 
 NiMous (a thing very uncommon) 
 that the virtues of the deceased had 
 attained the heroic decree, which 
 the Pope confirmed by his solemn 
 decree of the 7th of May, 1807. - 
 
 " The process of his beatifkaUou 
 specifies that more than a hundred 
 miracles were performed by the 
 saints during his life ! and twenty- 
 eight after death. The brief de- 
 claring him blessed, dated September 
 6th, 1816, authorized the cele- 
 bration of a mass in his honour, for 
 which the Pope prescribed suitable 
 prayers every year in the dioceses 
 of Nocera and St. Agatha. In con- 
 sequence of numerous solicitations, 
 his holiness was induced, on the 
 28th of PebruaiT, 1818, to si^. 
 the decree, which introduced the 
 cause of this blessed man for 
 caQonization. At length, the decree 
 
Rev. J. Cttmmiiiff.'] 
 
 SAINTS AND ANGELS. 
 
 291 
 
 of his caEonization was publishea 
 by Ms late holiness. Pope Pius VIII. 
 on the 16th of May, 1830." 
 
 Of Liguori, the author of the 
 following idolatries, it is said in this 
 preface : — 
 
 " ' That which most of all con- 
 ibuted to preserve his innocence,' 
 says the author of ' Reflections on 
 the Do trine and Sanctity of the 
 Blessed Liguori,' ' teas Ms tender 
 devotion, to the Blessed Virgin, to 
 horn he was espeeially consecrated. 
 Replenished with love for and con- 
 fidence in Mary, he addressed himself 
 to her in all his wants, and felt quite 
 asmred of obtaining all he asked 
 t'lr'ough her intercession' This 
 Blessed Virgin, whose praises he 
 was never weary of recounting in 
 the pulpit and in his writings, 
 loaded him with the most signal 
 favours. She often appeared to 
 him in his most tender infancy, 
 and deigned to become his instruc- 
 tress." 
 
 I maintain, that if the Pope had 
 canonized the worshippers of Jupiter 
 and Juno, he had sanctioned no 
 greater idolaisers than Liguori, whose 
 me was spent, not in preaching 
 Christ and glorying in the cross, but 
 in worshipping and praising Mary. 
 
 T read you one or two extracts 
 and prayers from this volume : — 
 
 " During the pontificate of St. 
 Gregory the Great, the people of 
 Rome experienced in a most strik- 
 ing m mier the protection of the 
 Blessed Vir^. A frightful pesti- 
 lence raged in the city to such an 
 extent that thousands were carried 
 off, and so suddenly, that they had 
 not tune to make the least prepa- 
 ration. It could not he arrested bg 
 the vows and pragers which the holy 
 Pope caused to be offered in all quar- 
 ters, until he resolved on having 
 recourse to the Mother of Qod. 
 Having commanded the clergy and 
 people to go in general procession tc 
 
 the church of ■ our Lady, called St. 
 Mary Major, carrying the picture 
 of the Virgin, painted by St. Luke, 
 the miraculous effects of her inter- 
 cession were soon experienced; in 
 every street as they passed, the 
 plague ceased, and, before the end 
 of the procession, an angel in human 
 form was seen on the tower of 
 Adrian, named ever since the Castle 
 of St. Angelo, sheathing a bloody 
 sabre. At the same moment, the 
 angels were heard singing the 
 anthem, ' Regina coeli, &c. Triumph 
 Queen, and AHeluia.' The holy 
 Pope added the words, 'Ora pro 
 nobis Deum :' ' Petition God our 
 souls to save ! ' The Church has 
 since used this anthem to salute the 
 Blessed Virgin in Easter time." 
 
 Again : " Mary, my most 
 amiable Mother ! how is it that I 
 your child so little resemble you ? 
 You so perfect, and I so perverse — 
 you all inflamed with divine love, 
 and I wholly alive to creatures' — 
 you so rich in grace, and I so poor 
 in virtue. Oh how unworthy I am 
 of my Mother ! but do not forbid 
 me to call you Mother, in punish- 
 ment of my' ingratitude : this amia- 
 ble title consoles me, it redoubles 
 my tenderness for you, animates 
 my confldence in you, and reminds 
 me of my obKgation to love you. 
 May I then invoke you durinj^ 
 life, and die when calling on Mary 
 my Mother, my blessed, amiable 
 Mother ! " 
 
 Again : " Mother of my God 
 you whom the Church styles the 
 refuge of sinners, behold me at your 
 feet imploring your compassion ; be 
 moved at my miseries, 1 conjure 
 you by the inestimable price of our 
 redemption, and in the name of all 
 it has cost your Son to rescue us 
 from the captivity of the devil." 
 
 Again : " O Holy Virgin I deign 
 to manifest your generosity towards 
 me a miserable sinner. If you grant 
 
392 
 
 INVOCATION OP 
 
 [6ii Woemng. 
 
 me your aid, wkat can 1 fear ? No, 
 I shall no longer apprehend either 
 my sins, «noe you can repair 
 them ; or the dfivils, since you are 
 ijiore powerful than heU; or your 
 Son, justly irritated, since' one word 
 from you wiU appease him. I shall 
 only fear myseu', and that, forget- 
 ipg to invoke you, I may be lost. 
 But this wfll not be the case. I 
 promise you to-day to recur to you 
 m all my wants, and that, during 
 life and at my death, your name 
 and remembrance shall be the 
 delight of my soul. Amen." 
 
 Again : " my tender Mother ! 
 what shall be the end of the miser- 
 able siimer that is before you ! 
 When I think of the terrible moment 
 at which I shall have to render to 
 God an account of my conduct, and 
 when I remember how often I have, 
 by my sins, written the sentence of 
 my own condemnation, fear pene- 
 trates my bowels, and dries up the 
 very marrow of my bones. con- 
 solation of the afflicted ! have pity 
 on me : remorse of conscience gnaws 
 me, my best actions are but imper- 
 fectly performed — heU awaits to 
 carry off my soul — divine justice 
 must be satisfied — ^what then shall 
 become of me? what shall be my 
 eternal lot ? Alas! without yov, I 
 am lost: obtain for me a true sorrow 
 for my sins, grace to amend and per- 
 severe dterinff life; but, above, all, in 
 the agonies of death. Mary, my 
 hope, henceforth more than ever, do 
 not abandon me, but support my 
 confidence, lest I fall into despair. 
 Amen." 
 
 " purest of Virgins ! I vene- 
 rate your most holy heart, trhich is 
 the delight of the Lord, the sanc- 
 tuary of purity and humility, the 
 abode of divine love. My heart 
 which I present to you is of clay ; 
 sin has therein; made most dreadful 
 wounds — ^Mother of mercy, cure it, 
 sanctify it, refuse mot your pity to 
 
 him whom Jesus has not refused 
 his blood." 
 
 Again : " It is impossible that a 
 true servant of Mary should be 
 damned. This assertion may seem 
 hazardous, but, before it is con- 
 demned, let us see how it is sup- 
 ported. By true servants of Mary, 
 we do not mean certain devotees, 
 who seem to take advantage of some 
 pious practices in honour of the 
 Mother of God, to sin with more 
 freedom ; these are presumptuous 
 persons, who occasion some to con- 
 demn us for boasting of the cle- 
 mency of Mary, as if thereby we 
 encouraged vice, which deserves 
 chastisement instead of mercy. It 
 is not then of such we speak ; but 
 rather of those who, to the homage 
 they render the Mother of God, join 
 a sincere desire of being converted; 
 and we again affirm, that they can- 
 not be lost. Father Crasset, Vega, 
 Mendoza, and many other theolo- 
 gians, are of the same opinion. But 
 to prove that they have not lightly 
 advanced it, let us see how far they 
 are supported by the doctors of the 
 Church. 
 
 '"Blessed Virgin,' savs St. An- 
 selm, 'as it is impossible that he 
 who neglects and despises you can 
 be saved, so it is impossible that he 
 who has recourse to you sincerely 
 can be lost.' 
 
 " St. Ephraim styles devotion to 
 our Lady, the charter of freedom 
 from the slavery of hell, &c. He 
 calls her the protectress of those 
 who are miming to their damnation ; 
 and if it is true (and St. Bernard 
 affirms it), that the blessed Virgin 
 wants neither wiU nor power to 
 save us — both, because her prayers 
 must be heard, and that she is 
 more interested for our salvation 
 than we ourselves — are we not 
 warranted in concluding, that a 
 true servant of Mary's cannot 
 perish P 
 
Sev. J. Ournming.l 
 
 SAINTS AND ANGELS. 
 
 293 
 
 " A religious man, of the order 
 of St. Bernard, used to say the 
 ixisary every day before dmner : 
 once it happened, that being at 
 table, he remembered that he had 
 not paid his accustomed devotions 
 to Mary ; he immediately withdrew, 
 and no sooner began his prayer than 
 the Mother of God appeared, clothed 
 in a mantle all ornamented with 
 Hail Marys, except one little comer. 
 •■ Complete the few Aves which re- 
 main unfinished,' said she, ' and I 
 vriU conduct you to heaven.' He 
 redoubled Ids devotions, and in a 
 few days this good Mother, after 
 consohng him on his death-bed, ia- 
 troduced his soul into the kingdom 
 of her divine Son." 
 
 Again : " O Jesus \ O Mary ! 
 may your names live in my heart, 
 and in the hearts of all men ! May 
 I forget all other names, in order to 
 remember your admirable names 
 alone ! O Jesus, my Redeemer ! 
 Mary, my Mother ! when my 
 last hour shall come, when my som 
 shall be at the eve of its departure 
 from the world, grant, I beseech 
 you, that my last words may be, 
 Jesus ! Mary ! I love you ! Jesus ! 
 Mary ! I give you my heart and my 
 soul. Amen." 
 
 The word of God says, "Thou 
 shalt love the Lord thy God vrith all 
 thy heart." The Church of Rome 
 virtually says, "Thou shalt love 
 Mary with all thy heart." To show 
 you stiU further the idolatrous re- 
 sults of this tenet, I hold in my 
 hand a document desoribiag the 
 state of Rome, a.d. 1S3S, duriiig 
 the ravages of the cholera. On this 
 occasion the removal of the pesti- 
 lence is declared to have been 
 effected by the carrying of a wooden 
 doll, supposed to be a miraculous 
 image of the Virgin Mary, through 
 the streets, accompanied by the 
 pope and cardinals, and chanting of 
 prayers and litanies : — " Prudent 
 
 people, whom no imperative neces- 
 sity retained in Rome, hastened to 
 leave the city. A second clerical 
 ordiaance, commanding eight days' 
 prayers before a miraculous image 
 of the Virgia, which was carried m 
 procession from Mary's Church to 
 Jesus' Church, the pope and cai- 
 diuals themselves joining in the so- 
 lemnity; the conversion of the whole 
 city into a church, by the general 
 and solemn illuminations ; spparate 
 processions, chiefly composed of 
 women and young girls, who, with 
 crucifixes and Madonnas at their 
 heads, went barefooted through the 
 streets, at night, praying and la- 
 menting ; — all these were increasing 
 proofs of the violence of the diseast. 
 The pope invited all the faithful to 
 repair to the churches, under the 
 promise of dispensations and indul- 
 gences for a hundred years. He 
 expressed his confidence that the 
 angel of the Lord, armed vrith de- 
 struction, would (as once before 
 Jerusalem) now pause before the 
 city, which was recognised as the 
 centre of the Christian Church, and 
 for whose welfare there were so 
 many mediators in heaven." 
 
 In the eleventh edition of " Go- 
 binet's Instruction for Youth,'' one 
 of the books used in the national 
 schools of Ireland, and recommended 
 and sanctioned by the Irish Roman 
 authorities, I-find the following in- 
 structions on the worship of Mary : — ; 
 
 " By her we may receive all ' the 
 assistance which is necessary for us. 
 She is most powerful with God to 
 obtain from him all that she shall 
 ask. History is full of examples of 
 saints who have preserved this great 
 virtue of chastity in their youth 
 by the assistance of the Queen of 
 virgins. 
 
 " Your devotion to the blessed 
 Virgin must be religious and holy. 
 Have a great apprehension of dis- 
 pleasing her by mortal sin ; and, if 
 
294. 
 
 IKVOCATION 01 [6M TJhening. 
 
 you shall fall into that misfortune, 
 have recourse instantly to her, that 
 she may be your intercessor in re- 
 conciling you to her Son." Chap, 
 xis. p. 81. 
 
 How different the words of John 
 the Evangelist ! " If any man sin, 
 we have an advocate with the 
 Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." 
 
 These, you observe, are specimens 
 of the kind of worship actually paid 
 to the Virgin Mary by the Roman 
 Church. You have heard the the- 
 "i-etical distinction maintained by 
 t..yman Catholicsj that saints are 
 simply to be venerated and in- 
 vocated, and that it is lawful to pay 
 only a kind of subordinate and in- 
 ferior worship to the saints and the 
 Virgin Mary. You have now also 
 lieard passages from the " Sacred 
 Heart of Mary," from the " Glories 
 of Mary," by Liguori, from the 
 " Garden of the Soul ;" and I now 
 ask you in your ovra consciences 
 and judgments, whether there are 
 not prayers in these authorized 
 formulanes addressed to the Virgin 
 Mary that do amount to the most 
 decided idolatry of which language 
 can be the vehicle ? I unhesitatingly 
 charge the Church of Borne with 
 the guilt of idolatry and blasphemy. 
 I say not that any individual in this 
 assembly is an idolater, but I do 
 proclaim, that if the Scriptures are 
 truth, and if these are Romish do- 
 cuments, that these prayers, be they 
 offered by Roman Catholic or by 
 Protestant, be they offered by any 
 individual under heaven, are fraught 
 with poison; that they are dis- 
 honourable to God, degrading to 
 man, and directly opposed to the 
 injunction of our blessed Saviour, 
 wno has said, in language the most 
 emphatic and decisive, "Come" (not 
 to Mary, not to saints,) but " come 
 unto ME, all ye that labour and are 
 heavy laden, and I wUl give you 
 rest." And again, " Whatsoever ye 
 
 shall ask in my name, I •'^rS^ do it, 
 that the Father may be glorified in 
 the Son." And again, m Acts ii. 
 21 — "Wliosoever shall call upon 
 the name o/'^A«io?-(? shall' be saved." 
 And again, our Lord has recorded it 
 in Luke ii. 2; when the disciples 
 came to him and said, " Teach us to 
 pray," what did our Lord reply ? 
 He said unto them, "When ye pray, 
 say" (not "OMary," but) "Our 
 Father, who art in heaven," &c. 
 Our Lord made no such distinctions. 
 They, the apostles, said, " Teach us 
 how to pray," in the absolute extent 
 of the words ; and our Lord taught 
 them to pray. Beautiful indeed, and 
 impressive, was the spectacle which 
 was then presented : the great Lord 
 of heaven and earth bending his 
 knee as a Mediator between God 
 and man, with his ransomed and 
 redeemed family around him, himself 
 officiating as their spokesman, and 
 saying, "Our Father, who ai-t in 
 heaven ; hallowed be thy name ; thy 
 kingdom come ; thy will be done," 
 &c. This the disciples necessarily 
 understood as prayer to God, and 
 that our Lord, when teaching them 
 to pray, taught them to pray only 
 unto God ; prayer meaning of neces- 
 sity petition to God. But my learned 
 antagonist will admit that prayers 
 and praises are described in Scrip- 
 ture as spiritual sacrifices. You 
 will aU recollect that these are the 
 only sacrifices instituted under the 
 New-Testament economy; viz. the 
 spiritual sacrifices of prayer and 
 praise. Hence we read inScripture 
 that we are to "offer sacrifices of 
 prayer and praise to God con- 
 tinually." Now, my opponent wiU 
 admit that sacrifice is to be offered 
 to God only ; and if sacrifices are to 
 be offered only to God, and if prayer 
 and praise be the Christian sacrifice, 
 then I contend that our sacrifices 
 (for " we are priests unto God ") 
 ai-e to be laid on Christ, who is the 
 
31r. French.] 
 
 SAINTS A2fD ANGELS. 
 
 395 
 
 eternal and indestructible altar, and 
 to be offered to God in. tbe name of 
 Jesus Christ, through, the strength 
 and inspiration, of the Spirit. 
 
 Upon these grounds, therefore, 
 and others which I shall state pre- 
 sently, I do maintain that tie wor- 
 ship given to saints is impiously 
 stolen from God, and that which is 
 practically given to the Virgin Mary 
 in the Church of Rome , is most 
 superstitious and idolatrous ; and I 
 call on my learned antagonist to 
 bring forward sound and satisfactory 
 reasons vs'hy we are not to pronounce 
 such a verdict on that worship, and 
 further to adduce from the pages of 
 inspiration such proofs of Doulia 
 and Hyper-doulia being rendered to 
 the Virgin Mary, as will satisfy every 
 dispassionate hearer, whether Pro 
 testant or Eoman CathoKc, that the 
 worship thus rendered is not idol 
 atrouB, but scriptural, and consonant 
 with Christian worship. For my 
 own part, I have been ta^ht 
 throughout, that it is unworthy 
 even of man — fallen as he is, changed 
 and guilty as he has become — ^I hold 
 it, I say, derogatory even to the re- 
 mains of man's moral dignity, to bow 
 the knee before the most exalted 
 creature, and to pay the worship to 
 that creature, which is given, in the 
 formularies and rituals of the Church 
 of Rome ! No ; my Roman Cathoho 
 friends, assert your true dignity'! 
 you are called to be "priests imto 
 God " — ^you are invited to become 
 ransomed believers by the blood of 
 Jesus : assert your dignity ; go into 
 the Holy of Holies at once, which 
 has been flung wide open, when the 
 vail of the temple was rent in twain, 
 " Go with boldness," says the apo- 
 stle, " to a throne of grace, and ask 
 mercy and grace to help you in time 
 of need." Banish far from you 
 every saint of earth. If they were' 
 to come and stand in your way, tell 
 them, ' I need not vour assistance; J 
 
 have a Father, whose bosom is a 
 ready refuge for the poorest sinner. 
 I have a most gracious Saviour and 
 Lord, washed in whose blood I shall 
 be made "whiter than snow;" I 
 have a Holy Spirit to guide me in 
 reading his holy word, and to enable 
 me to give expression to my wants 
 and woes in prayer; and having 
 God interceding in heaven, and God 
 dwelling and pleading in my heart, 
 I am borne up in the everlasting 
 arms of mercy and love, and neither 
 saint nor sinner shall debar me from 
 the sweet and exalted privilege of 
 going at once to God, in the name 
 of Christ Jesus our Lord.' 
 
 [Here the rev. gentleman's hour 
 termmated.] 
 
 Mb. Eeenoh.- — Ladies and gen- 
 tlemen — I never rose more disap- 
 Eointed in the whole course of my 
 fe than I do this evening. 1 did 
 expect, after the solemn pledge 
 which I gave my learned friend, 
 namely, to confine myself entirely to 
 the Bible this evening, that he would 
 have taken up that sacred book into 
 his hands in an awful and in a se- 
 rious manner, and not have launched 
 out into the bitter invective, the 
 ridicule, the taunts, and the sneers 
 of the infidel, in which he has in- 
 dulged in alluding to the different 
 practices of our rehgion. The learned 
 gentleman tells me he is totally 
 exempt from anything Eke bitter 
 feeling towards the CathoHo, and he 
 repeats this avowal over and over 
 again, with his usual flowing, unob- 
 structed, meUifluousness of tongue ; 
 but step by step, as he proceeds, he 
 takes an opportunity of persuadmg 
 me, and persuading aU Catholics 
 present, that the maxim I conceive 
 to be uppermost in his mind, on en- 
 tering this room this evening, is the 
 same which he has exemplified on 
 the former ones ; namely, the maxim 
 of Horace, which he .«eems system- 
 
2yt) 
 
 atically to have impressed on his 
 memory, and which he himself has 
 at length quoted, as being the quin- 
 tessence of wisdom in theological 
 disputation :■ " " ' ' - ■ • 
 
 nsum teneatis amid ? " The broad 
 meaning of which Latin verse of 
 niy learned friend's quoting is — ' I, 
 (Gumming) being totally unable to 
 encountermy antagonist, Mr. French, 
 with the weapons of logic, will make 
 my most formidable onset on his re- 
 ligion with the weapons of ridicule, 
 by making that which is the subject 
 of his reverence and veneration the 
 subject of your laughter. Yes, if I 
 cannot crush the Catholic champion 
 with the solidity of argument, I will 
 overwhelm him by the weight of 
 ridicule and satire.' The learned 
 gentleman, however, would do well 
 to remember, that, in adopting such 
 a line' of disputation, he is treading 
 precisely in the steps of the apostate 
 Julian. The reverend gentleman 
 tells me (I use his own words) that 
 he wishes "to blast our dark and 
 apostate system with spiritual wea- 
 pons." Now I also would wish with 
 equal eagerness to blast that whole 
 system of sacrilegious pollution, and 
 roaring, beUowmg, wide-yawning 
 fanaticism, which passes under the 
 name of Scotch Ceivinism ; but my 
 ambition is, to knock its standard- 
 bearers on the head with the staif of 
 solid, substantial argument, for I 
 know no other. But it does appear 
 to me, that my reverend antagonist 
 is much more deeply read in the 
 writings of the apostate Juhan than 
 in those of the holy fathers ; the 
 
 fraud lesson of that apostle of 
 aganism to his disciples was, in 
 their disputes with Christians, not 
 to descend to the seriousness of 
 argument, but to make them writhe 
 and smart under the lash of raillery 
 and derision ; to point the finger of 
 scorn at their idolatrous altar, their 
 man of God, their ablution of sin by 
 
 INVOCATION OP [<i/i Eveninff. 
 
 plunging into water, in one word, 
 their holy and adorable trinity. Yes, 
 my friends, this apt scholar of that 
 mighty master, Julian the Apostate, 
 has read, no doubt, with peculiar 
 attention, those pages of his works 
 where he so emphatically recom- 
 mends to the Pagans not to draw 
 the pen and vrield it in a serious 
 manner against the awful mysteries 
 of our religion ; but to wound, knd 
 gall, and mortify the feelings of 
 Chnstians by every species of con- 
 temptuous ndieule — \)j laughing at 
 their good men, " as pleasant child- 
 ren " — by ridiculing everything they 
 deemed sacred— by making them 
 the objects of incessant and never- 
 ending ridicule. Such was the pre- 
 cept of the apostate Julian, and my 
 learned friend, this evening, acts up 
 to its fuU spirit and its widest 
 compass. 
 
 My learned friend tells me he 
 has a most confirmed antipathy to 
 the system, but that he has none to 
 us as individuals Really, gentle- 
 men, wishing to give him credit for 
 a good heart and sincere intentions, 
 it IS very difficult to be so charita- 
 ble on such an occasion as to acquit 
 him of all intention of giving us 
 pahi. Why has he not the common 
 honesty to come forward into the 
 field of argumentation, to combat 
 our articles of faith, and to keep to 
 those alone, and never wander from 
 them by giving us a long list ol 
 different books, and the opinions of 
 different divines in different col- 
 leges, such as Delahogue and several 
 others ? I told him before, that I 
 have a right to differ from Dela- 
 hogue, or amy other divine or theo- 
 logian, salva compage Jidei, except 
 on articles of faith — that if, taking 
 up the Bible this evening, I light 
 on a passage of a metaphorical na- 
 ture, susceptible of a twofold, or a 
 fourfold interpretation, I have a 
 right to take which I hke, without 
 
Mr. French^ 
 
 SAINTS AND ANGELS. 
 
 297 
 
 paying the least deference to Dela- 
 hogae, or St. Liguori, or St. Augus- 
 tine, or St. Jerome, or any other 
 man. Why, then, does he dwell on 
 so unessential a point ? Why does 
 he not meet, me foot to foot, and 
 discuss the question fairly ? He 
 begs of us Catholics, in his usually 
 pathetic manner, to sink aU our 
 difFerences into the cause of Christ 
 Jesus. I have told him over and 
 over again that that sacred Name, 
 at the sound of which the Catho- 
 lic, whether here or in church, 
 evej: inclines his head, but to which 
 the Protestant (by some strange in- 
 consistency) does not bow to except 
 in the church — that that sacred 
 name, I say, ought not to be thus 
 desecrated by such familiar mention 
 on his part, at a time that he is 
 violating the holy precepts of him 
 that bore it, by calumniating' the 
 most fervent of his adorers. I have 
 told the learned gentleman repeat- 
 edly that we never say a prayer to 
 tne Yirgia that does not centre ulti- 
 mately in our ardent love for the 
 blessed Jesus ; and I have told him, 
 over and over again, that it is the 
 same with aU the saints, of the 
 Church; and I now teU. him, by 
 one sweeping answer to all this 
 long list of calumnies against us, 
 that he has not been able — ^notwith- 
 standing the " oriental" epithets 
 which are applied to the Virgin — 
 and which I most sincerely approve 
 of — notwithstanding aU that — and 
 it .is an inability that has grieved 
 him to the heart — he has not 
 been able to point out one single 
 prayer where we have said, " 
 ■Virgin, have mercy upon us!" or 
 where we have spoken to her in any 
 other language than, "Pray for us !" 
 or where that prayer has not ended 
 in the name of the Father, or of the 
 Son, or of the Holy Ghost, Amen ; 
 or through the name of Jesus 
 Christ ! No, I have told him, ia as 
 
 emphatic language as I could do, 
 that degrees of comparison between 
 the mother and the Son are blas' 
 phemous and idolatrous. 
 
 And now let me ask, my friends, 
 what has been the result of all his 
 ransaoli;ing of Catholic prayer-books, 
 and ranging through ail their diver- 
 sities of expression, in imploring 
 the intercession alluded to ? WTiy, 
 gentlemen, it has been a total frus- 
 tration of those hopes and wishes 
 which he had raised among you, 
 namely, of detecting us in manifest 
 and gross idolatry. He has proved, 
 by every prayer that he has read, 
 that through Jesus Christ our Lord 
 every favour -from this intercessory 
 practice is uniformly sued for and 
 expected. In one word, he has 
 confirmed, he has proved our theory, 
 by layiug before you our rule of 
 action, which carries with it its own 
 explication, and needs no other to 
 defelid us from the uncharitable dis- 
 tortion of my reverend antagonist. 
 He has laid considerable emphasis 
 on the word negotiate, which he 
 finds in one of our prayer-books — 
 a word, which, however inelegant it 
 may be, is extremely apt in express- 
 ing our meaning in this our re- 
 course to angels and saints, namely, 
 to solicit for U5 that^ which of 
 themselves they cannot give. The 
 utmost, therefore, that the learned 
 gentleman has been able to eifect, 
 by all his vast profusion of words 
 upon this subject, is, to point out 
 some ineleganoies, some imperfec- 
 tions of diction in the prayers we 
 use — some phrases which have had 
 the power of exciting his risibihty ; 
 but not one single expression has 
 he been able to lay before you ca- 
 pable of giving the least enlarge- 
 ment to our tenet, and brmging us 
 in guilty before you of investing 
 angels and saints, either with the 
 dignity, the power, or the majesty 
 of God. 
 
 I, 2 
 
298 
 
 INVOCATION 05 [BiA Evening. 
 
 Again. My learned friend, who 
 professes to be so consummately 
 skilled in the Hebrew, has told you 
 that, in the book of Joshua, v. 13, 
 the angel says, "As Captain of the 
 Lord's Host am I come. And Joshua 
 fell on his face and did worship ;" 
 and that this Captain of the Host 
 whom Joshua worshipped was none 
 other than Jehovah, the Lord of 
 Hosts ; but what the learned gentle- 
 man, fiebraically learned, has for- 
 gotten to tell you is, that the arch- 
 angel Michael is called Captain iu 
 Daniel — "And at that time shall 
 Michael stand up, the great captain 
 which standeth for the children of 
 thy people." . (Daniel xii. 1.) And 
 mark, though your Bible translates 
 " prince" (as our Bible uniformly 
 does), the Hebrew word ought to be 
 translated here " captain," if cap- 
 tain be the accurate translation iu 
 the text referred to in Joshua, inas- 
 much as the Hebrew word (sar) is 
 the same in both, as my Hebrew 
 friend weU knows, or at least ought 
 to know. So that I contend, that 
 this captain of the Lord's Host was 
 the archangel Michael — ^that identi- 
 cal spirit that disputed with Satan 
 about the body of Moses ; the same 
 of whom it is said in Revelation 
 xii. 7 : " Michael and his angels 
 fought against the dragon." And 
 I contend, moreover, that it is 
 equally derogatory to the majesty 
 of the tremendous God to come 
 down on earth, either to wrestle 
 with Jacob, or to dispute with 
 Satan. Such interpretations are 
 worthy the mouth- of one whose 
 tutelary angel, in studying the Holy 
 Scriptures, is no other than ' the 
 gloomy Calvin. 
 
 Thus, you see, my friends, I will 
 not yield to my reverend antagonist, 
 who assumes to be lord of the Bible, 
 to make it speak whatever language 
 he thinks proper, bestriding it like 
 a huge colossus, and crying out per- 
 
 petually, that he alone comprehends 
 "what is Us breadth, and length, 
 •and depth, and height." I, for my 
 part, spurn away the dictates of his 
 infallibility with inexpressible con- 
 tempt and scorn. (1 wiU no more 
 believe that God Almighty, as is 
 suggested by the reverend gentle- 
 man, condescended to wrestle vrith 
 Jacob, )han I wUl believe that he 
 condescended in Jude to contend 
 with Satan for the body of Moses. 
 No, my friends, it is a foul explana- 
 tion of the Bible ; it is a glance at 
 the sacred page unworthy of a ce- 
 lestial eye, but such as might na- 
 turally l)e expected from one that 
 has been accustomed from its first 
 opening to roll in the clouds and 
 obscurity of Calvinistic theology. 
 To admit such a doctrine would tie 
 at once to annihilate all intercourse 
 betw'een heaven and earth, without 
 the immediate descent of God him- 
 self. When Gabriel was sent down 
 to the Virgin Mary, according to 
 my friend's logic, it must have Dee» 
 a mere figurative expression for the 
 descent of God himself ; that is, it 
 must bitand for God sent himself in 
 the form of an angel. 
 
 The Litany of Loretto has been 
 read through with infinite delight, 
 in doing which my reverend friend 
 has aeted with steady adherence to 
 the precept of that exalted master, 
 in whose school he seems to have 
 been so regularly trained, and so 
 sublimely nurtured, namely, the 
 apostate Julian. The Litany of 
 Loretto — a litany which I repeat 
 every morning and night with infi- 
 nite satisfaction, because I know I 
 am at the same time paying homage 
 to the blessed and adorable Jesus 
 — ^I know there is no "oriental" 
 phrase in the Litany o,f Loretto, 
 which goes beyond that which 1 
 yesterday read you from that im- 
 movably - authenticated monument 
 of antiquity, the Liturgy of St. 
 
Mr. French?- 
 
 SAINTS AND ANGELS. 
 
 299 
 
 James, where, you may remem- 
 ber, she is called "the Spiritual 
 Paradise." If the apostle James 
 could call her so, are not we justi- 
 fied, iu the niaeteenth century, in 
 repeating words similar to that 
 kind of expression, when we wish 
 to paint in mortal language the 
 summit of all excellence, conferred 
 upon a created being by the blessed 
 arm of its Creator ? She, the blessed 
 Virgin, is also called in that litany 
 " the Morning Star." This excited 
 all the indignation of my friend — 
 this sounds in his ear Kke blas- 
 phemy and idolatry ; in mine, none. 
 Do I not find in the Gospel, which 
 my friend declares he is so attached 
 to — do I not find in Scripture, from 
 the mouth of God, that glory is 
 to be attributed to him, and to him 
 alone ? do I not find that very word 
 by Christ ■ himself, and by his in- 
 spired writers, applied to men ? 
 This is what I am going to prove 
 this evening, and show you also that 
 the word " adore " in Hebrew is 
 used for the worship of God and the 
 worship of men. Are you not told, 
 I say, that glory is to be given to 
 none but God? Are you not told 
 also, that glory and honour are attri- 
 butable to man ? 
 
 Prov. xxi. 3.1 : "He that foUow- 
 eth after righteousness and mercy, 
 findeth life, righteousness, and ho- 
 nour." Prov. XXV. 2 : "It is the 
 glory of God to conceal a thing ; but 
 the honour of kings is to search out 
 a matter." Here mark, my friends, 
 the unjustifiable change of the same 
 Hebrew word glory into honour, when 
 the Psalmist applies it to man. 
 This Protestant alteration is totally 
 nnoountenanced by the Bible. The 
 CathoHo version, ever conscien- 
 tiously true to the divine original, 
 has it thus : — " It is the glory of 
 God to conceal the word, and the 
 olory of kings to search the speech." 
 And yet, wny this change r Does 
 
 not St. Paul say, "'Byi.i glory, honour, 
 and peace to every man that worketh 
 good, to the Jew first, and also to 
 the Gentile ?" JRom. ii. 10. 
 
 Now, as to the expression Morn- 
 ing Star, which my learned antago- 
 nist deems to be one too transcen- 
 dent to be applied to Mary, I would 
 again refer you to St. Paul, for 
 proof that (Eversity of shades of 
 meaning, in the application of the 
 self-same word, is not at variance 
 with the usage of the Gospel. St. 
 Paul says — "There is one glory oj 
 the mn, and another glory of the 
 moon, and another glory of the stars ; 
 for one star iiffereth from another in 
 glory." 1 Cor. xv; 41. I would 
 say, therefore, when I call the 
 blessed Virgin the Morning Star, 
 my meaning solely is, that she was 
 ^^JfaserfafflOM^woweB, who brought 
 forth into the world that Messed 
 fruit called Jesus, without whom 
 both Mary and the stars themselves 
 would be destitute of one ray of 
 glory. Where, I ask then, is the 
 want of coherence and propriety in 
 calHng Jesus the MorMng Star in 
 one sense, and Mary the Morning 
 Star in another ? By the light of 
 the Morning Star, Mary, I seek the 
 Illuminator of all the stars of the 
 firmament, and I adore Him without 
 adoring her; asthe Jfaj'Jbythelight 
 of the ghttering star, which by 
 them might not be inappropriately 
 called the Morning Star, sought and 
 found the blessed Infant, and fell 
 down in adoration at his feet, ho- 
 nouring, but not adoring, the aU- 
 blessed mother who presented to 
 them the Man-God ; — and who was 
 consequently more worthy, for such 
 a presentation, to be designated by 
 the name of Morning Star, in point 
 of intrinsic brightaess, than that 
 luminous body itself by the light of 
 which, in the canopy of heaven, 
 they were conducted to the lowly 
 mansion where the lord of glory 
 
300 
 
 INVOCATION OF 
 
 lay unfolded in the arms of Mary. 
 Away, then, my friends, with the 
 convulsive straans of my reverend 
 antagonist, to merge the ever- 
 Catholic veneration for the name of 
 Mary into the gulph of idolatry. 
 
 Again, my reverend antagonist 
 has ridiculed the idea of the blessed 
 Virgin being the " Refuge of Sin- 
 ners." True, she is, incur Church, 
 looked upon and revered as the 
 refuge of sinners ; but mark, my 
 friends (what my antagonist prays 
 you most earnestly noi to mark), it 
 IS in her intercessory character only 
 that we assign to her this title. It 
 is not a vain nicety of distinction 
 which we ingeniously strike out in 
 order to conceal our idolatry, as my 
 antagonist, in the gloomy suspicions 
 that deform his mind, will probably 
 exclaim ; but it is a soM and eter- 
 nal distinction between Jesus and 
 Mary, which I hope, once for all,to 
 impress upon your ininds for ever 
 — namely, that we pray for the 
 iprayer oi Mary, and nothing more ; 
 yes, my friends, every thing beyond 
 that, as to any power of Mary, is 
 calumny, is virulence — ay, the base, 
 malignant imputation of enemies, 
 eternally confounded in argument, 
 and Cacus-like, ever-breathing forth 
 from their pestilential jaws volumes 
 of new-collected smoke against us. 
 
 What, then, my friends, is the 
 true meaning of this subordinate 
 intercession ? To describe the great 
 intercession of our blessed Lord (if 
 I must go to the etymology of the 
 language), intercedo means to walk 
 or go between ; and, in the sense in 
 which it is used, it means walking 
 between God and man, and recon- 
 ciling God to man ; and no one can 
 accomplish this grand task but the 
 Saviour, by the bloody death he 
 suffered on the cross. As to that 
 ^eat intercession, there is but one. 
 But that there are other kinds of 
 intercession, my friend knows, from 
 
 the pages of that book which he 
 oUngs to so unrelinquishably when 
 it suits his purpose, and which he 
 abandons on other occasions vrith 
 such facile elasticity of bound, when 
 it does not suit his purpose. My 
 learned friend knows that in that 
 very book St. Paul employs the 
 most ardent prayers to his fellow- 
 creatures here on earth. For in- 
 stance — " Now, I beseech you, bre- 
 thren, for the Lord Jesus Christ's 
 sake, and for love of the Spirit, that 
 ye strive together with me in your 
 prayers to God for me." Rom.xv.SO. 
 
 Oh ! my friends, why was not 
 St. Paul interrupted at the utter- 
 ance of this request, by a sudden 
 burst of indignation on the part of 
 some roaring enthusiast^ reminding 
 him of the one, sole, grand inter- 
 cession, and directing him, with the 
 infallible authority of my learned 
 antagonist, to throw the vile prayers 
 of mortals " to the bats and moles," 
 and to cry out "Alia, Father?" 
 
 But, to speak with aU serious- 
 ness. My friends, is it not prepos- 
 terous — ^is it not most nauseatingly 
 repulsive, to hear a theologian, vmo 
 would fain be denominated also a 
 logician forsooth, and not a mere 
 tinsel orator — to hear such a man, 
 I say, most bitterly reproving the 
 Catholic for having recourse to the 
 intercession of the blessed Virgin, 
 when St. Paul himself, in the most 
 lowly, suppliant manner, soHoits the 
 mediation of one as far inferior to 
 the Virgin in glory as the learned 
 gentleman, even vrith all the illumi- 
 nation of Calvinism around Mm, is 
 inferior to the great St. Paul. Por, 
 tell me, is there not intercession 
 there, my friends ? Is it in the power 
 of any fair, rational system of logic 
 to do away vrith intercession there ? 
 By what authority can the learned 
 gentleman, may I know, prononnce, 
 that the moment St. Paul is dead, 
 his prayers become inefficacious ? 
 
Mr. French.'] 
 
 What infaEibility is invested on the 
 rook (as he calls it) of the Scottish 
 Church, that should teach him to 
 lay it down as a recognised tenet 
 of my creed, that the very moment 
 the most illustrions of apostles and 
 evangelists is swept away from 
 this earth, he, forsooth, is nothing, 
 from that moment, but dead inani- 
 mate matter, sunk like the volup- 
 tuary, in his expectations at least, 
 'uto the tomb of everlasting silence ? 
 Then the learned gentleman seems 
 to have caught me in a kind of en- 
 tanglement — namely, that saints of 
 the ancient Testament could not 
 possibly be available to us by their 
 prayers, since they were m limbo 
 before the ascension of our blessed 
 Saviour. That is not an article of 
 my creed, or an article with regard 
 to the saints in purgatory. I must 
 beg the learned gentleman to be a 
 little better versed in our principles 
 before he again enters on such an 
 argument. It is not ! On the 
 contrary, if I know a man has 
 lived a virtuous and a pious life to 
 have gone to the other world, ad- 
 mired by every one for his well- 
 attested sanctity and his virtue, for 
 aught I know he might be in pur- 
 gatory; but if the traces of Ms 
 virtues and his piety were deeply 
 impressed on my mmd, I confess 
 I might be induced to breathe a 
 prayer for his assistance, and I have 
 no doubt that, if in purgatory, he 
 might assist me by his prayers to 
 heaven. 
 
 The learned gentleman then calls 
 my attention to the rich man in 
 hell praying to father Abraham in. 
 heaven, and he tells me very gravely 
 (forgetting the illogical concession 
 he is making) he tells me that he 
 received a negative ! Why, gentle- 
 men, if that be the case with regard 
 to hell, I must say, in the first place, 
 it is an. article of our faith to be- 
 lieve, in infemk nulla redemptio : 
 
 SAINTS AND ANGELS. 
 
 301 
 
 in heU there is no redemption. 
 There, any one who has had the 
 misfortune to shut his ears against 
 the voice of truth, and has not regu- 
 lated his life according to the prin- 
 ciples of piety and vii-tue, and of 
 the religion which Christ came to 
 estabhsh, there remains no hope to 
 him, no alternative of any kincf 
 
 I need not acquaint my friend that 
 the chief good of this discussion 
 wiU consist in the truth being 
 elicited on the one side or on the 
 other; and, as all have to answer 
 for it at the last dread assize, it 
 wilL certainly be the incumbent 
 duty of you all, not to weigh in the 
 balances, with nice discrimination, 
 who was the more glowing, the 
 more flowing orator of the two, or 
 who tickled your fancy most by the 
 charms, the fascination of his elo- 
 quence, the vividness of his ideas ; 
 but who it was that used the most 
 convincing and overpowering argu- 
 ments — who traced his religion up, 
 the most clearly and unerringly, to 
 the days of the apostles and evange- 
 lists. But I was going to observe, 
 my friend said that the rich man 
 received a negative. I ask him — 
 (for this is what 1 call an illogical 
 concession) — I ask him, how he 
 could receive a negative? How 
 could Abraham in heaven, accord- 
 ing to his doctrine, know any tiling 
 about it? That is the entangle- 
 ment to which I allude. IJow 
 could Abraham know anything- 
 about things in hell? He asks 
 me (if I implore the intercession of 
 saints) Have they ubiquity ? have 
 they omnipresence ? Now we do 
 not maintain it as an article of our 
 creed that the saints are acquainted 
 with what passe.= in this world, 
 except through the medium of some 
 instantaneous intuition given to 
 them by the AlmightyLord. But 
 is it not as easy for Clirist to commu- 
 nicate instantaneously whatever he 
 
302 
 
 INVOCATION OP \^th]immngk 
 
 ■wills to the spirits ia heaven, as it is 
 for him to commvmicate things to ns 
 by his prophets on eaj?th? My friend 
 ■will not deny that the prophets have 
 been suddenly acquaiated^with things 
 from the Almighty ■which they 'were 
 ignorant of before, and which he 
 commanded them to malce known. 
 My learned friend then calls my 
 attention to the Bollandists, and he 
 says that the CathoUc Church must 
 be charged with the responsibility 
 of their eighty folio volumes. I tell 
 the ISamed gentleman (as I told 
 him before, whenever he has repeated 
 that charge as to the Bollandists) 
 that they are not obliged to be be- 
 L'eved in by any part of the Christian 
 community. There is a great deal of 
 laborious research in the Bollan- 
 dists, a great deal of knowledge 
 various and extensive, set off vrith 
 aU the beauties of style ; but there 
 may be in them a great number of 
 tales — legendary tales — in these 
 Bollandists, ■winch we CathoKcs 
 smile at quite as much as the learned 
 geiitleman does, though perhaps 
 more innocently, because, in smiliag 
 at them, they mean to wound the 
 feelings of no mortal being on 
 earth. 
 
 Gentlemen, I really have to apolo- 
 gize to you for having squandered 
 so much time in the refutation of, 
 I must say, charges apparently so 
 malevolent. Whatever Tmay tliink 
 of the good nature of my fnend in 
 general, I think, after the severe 
 manner in which I retorted his 
 treatment the other evening', that 
 he might have come imbued ■with 
 the mili of Christianity a little more 
 sweetly into, this room this evening. 
 It quite unnerves me, I candidly 
 confess. Such is the devotion which 
 I cherish towards the mother of 
 God (and, as I told you before, that 
 devotion always hinges on an ardent 
 affection for our Blessed Redeemer), 
 Wiat I cannot hear what sounds iii 
 
 my ear like blasphemy without being 
 shattered in my nerves, and almost 
 rendered incapable of proceeding 
 ■with my usual facility. But, gentle- 
 men, I must not even so be driven 
 from the subject. Having esta- 
 blished, on the last occasion when I , 
 had the honour of addressing you 
 — having established, by a regular 
 and connected series of proofs, 
 drawn from historical records of 
 antiquity, the primitiveness of the 
 religion which I profess — having 
 established it by documents, not 
 only uncontroverted, but even un- 
 contested by my learned antagonist 
 — I raise my front this evening with 
 the conscious dignity of bearing two 
 glorious titles impressed upon it — 
 namely. Catholic and Apostolic ; 
 and I wiU endeavour to prove to 
 you, every step I take, by continued 
 appeals to the sacred archives in 
 vvhich that most precious of all 
 volumes (the Bible) is enrolled, my 
 rightful, my indisputable title to 
 those glorious adornments. And 
 now, gentlemen, though I am fully 
 satisfied that you are Dy this time 
 amply convinced of my vriUingness 
 to appeal to the Bible m corrobora- 
 tion of every Catholic dogma, stOl 
 I cannot pass over unnoticed one 
 observation of my learned friend. 
 
 Perhaps the learned gentleman, 
 in endeavouring to impress upon you 
 that I was averse to substantiate 
 my tenets by the Bible, perhaps be 
 may have confounded one subject 
 with another. I have more than 
 once — ^indeed I believe in his hear- 
 ing — on former occasions expressed 
 something of a feeling of nausea 
 at the contamination of the liquid 
 stream that runs through the sacred 
 book by the admixture of Protestant 
 Musion; in iuming, I say, that 
 stream into our vernacular lan- 
 guage. That, my friends, is. what my. 
 opponent calls my averseness to the 
 Bible. . The plain logic of his posir 
 
Mi: Frmck] 
 
 SAINTS AKD ANGELS. 
 
 303 
 
 tion is — Because I do aot admire 
 tli&arm iliat darkens and corrupts 
 it, therefore I do not love the splen- 
 dour emitted by it, in, its uncor- 
 ru^ed state. , 
 
 JBefore, however, I proceed once 
 more to open the Bible, I must do 
 away with another error which my 
 learned antagonist endeavoured to 
 inculcate upon you : which is, that 
 Dr. Doyle — our celebrated Dr. 
 Doyle — was an encomiast of the 
 English Bible. Now, gentlemen, it 
 is not so ; Dr. Doyle admired it as 
 to the beauty of its style, but he 
 deprecated it as to the mfldelity of 
 its translation. In fact, my friends, 
 on some future occasion I hope to 
 show you that you have not the 
 whole Bible, that you have but a 
 part of the Bible. I hope to show 
 you, likewise, that in the part you 
 have retained there are many gross, 
 palpable, indefensibly gross and 
 palpable errors, deliberately cun- 
 mitted by the translators, in order 
 to impose upon the British public. 
 The Bible of the Church of England, 
 or call it (if you please) the Bible of 
 the Church of Scotland — (I take it 
 to be a twin-brother) — the Bible of 
 the Church of England, I say, can- 
 not be better characterized than by 
 the pithiness of expression by which 
 a French critic described a transla- 
 tion, from the Greek of the histo- 
 rian Thucidydes, into his language, 
 namely, la belle infidele, which, 
 translated into English, signifies, 
 " the beautiful traitoress." The 
 reason I mention this on the pre- 
 sent occasion is, because, in the 
 line of argument I am about to 
 adopt — though I have abundance of 
 matter to' argue upon in those por- 
 tions of the Bible you retm, to 
 refute all the assertions of my anta- 
 gonist — stiU I am defrauded by the 
 mutilation that has been made at 
 the Reformation, only about three 
 centuries past — I am defrauded of a 
 
 vital part of the Bible, where I 
 could have proved to you stiE more 
 clearly the Invocation of Angels 
 and Saints. Though I shall not 
 dwell upon these arguments on the 
 JDresent occasion, still I shall beg 
 leave, before I begin to repeat them, 
 to state that, in pledging myself to 
 limit myself entirely to the Bible, I 
 never pledged myself to only a part 
 of it, or that I would abandon what 
 I call the original Bible, in all its 
 integrity. Tobias, which you caU 
 the Apocrypha — and which all the 
 Catholic world, ever since the 
 Council of Carthage in three hun- 
 dred and ninety-eight, enumerating 
 the canonical books, called canon- 
 ical, — and which the whole world 
 received until the Reformation, 
 when it pleased the wise heads of 
 this nation (the parliamentary heads) 
 to lop off certain books of the 
 Bible, and hand you down a part of 
 it — I say untU then this Bible was 
 received in the whole world. The 
 other churches who separated from 
 us receive it still over the whole 
 world, and look on it as canonical 
 as any other book. In the book of 
 Tobias, xii. 12, the angel Eaphael 
 says, " When thou didst pray with 
 tears, and didst bury the Head, and 
 left thy dinner, and didst hide the 
 dead by day in thy house, and by 
 night didst bury them, I offered up 
 thy prayer to our Lord." 
 
 ]5. " Eor r am Eaphael, an 
 angel, one of the seven which assist 
 before the Lord." 
 
 And in the Second Book of Mac- 
 cabees, XV. 12, Judas relates a vision 
 in the following manner : His words 
 are, " And the vision was in this 
 manner ; Onias, who had been the 
 high priest, a good and benign man, 
 reverend to behold, modeit of man- 
 ners, and comely of speech, and 
 who from a child was exercised in 
 virtues, that he, stretching forth 
 the hands, prayed for all the people 
 
304 
 
 rsrvocATlON of \^thEoetmg, 
 
 of the Jews. After this, that there 
 appeared also another man, marvel- 
 lous for age, and glory, and for the 
 part of great dignity about him. 
 And that OniaSj answering, said, 
 ' This is a lover of his brethren and 
 of the people of Isreal : this is he 
 N that prayeth much for the people, 
 and for the whole city, Jeremy, the 
 prophet of God.' " 
 
 And now, my friends, as onr 
 Catholic annotators on the passage 
 say, Protestants have no better 
 evasion, when pressed with its 
 inonmbent force, than by denying 
 the authority of the book ; in plain 
 English, Protestants have an inspi- 
 ration that the author of it was 
 not inspired! Yes, every Protestant 
 reads inspiringh, or rather impiredli/, 
 that the subWe author of tms 
 book, who thus describes the punish- 
 ment of the impious Antiochus, 
 swelling in anger against the people 
 of God, was altogether uninspired 
 when he wrote it : — " And he that 
 seemed to himself to rule even over 
 the waves of the sea, replenished 
 with pride above the measure of 
 man, and to weigh the heights of 
 mountains in the balance, now being 
 humbled to the ground, was carried 
 in a portative seat, testifying the 
 manifest power of God in himseK." 
 — Mao. ix. 8. 
 
 Oh! what a fehoity is it to have 
 the ■understanding irradiated by the 
 inborn light of Protestantism, so 
 as to distinguish in an instant, pn'mo 
 intuitu, the language of celestial 
 intelligence from the mimic accents 
 of the terrestrial ! But, gentlemen, 
 I keep this out of the question on 
 the present occasion ; for though I 
 adhere with firm unrelinquishing 
 grasp, not to be -loosened by an Act 
 of ParUasnent, to that book as a 
 vital part of the Gospel, without 
 believing in whicn I could not 
 obtain salvation, because I must 
 either have the whole Bible, or no 
 
 Bible at all — I day, though that be 
 the case, I shall not use it as any 
 part of my corroborative argumen- 
 tation this evening. I need it not. 
 I shall direct the attention of my 
 learned- friend once more, by a kind 
 of tout ensemble gla,nce, to PsaJm 
 xxxiv. 7 :-r" The angel of the Lord 
 enoampeth round about them that 
 fear hun, and dehvereth them." 
 Then, Psalm xci. 11: — "Por he 
 shall give his angels charge over 
 thee to keep thee m all thy ways." 
 Then, same Psahn, 13 :— " They 
 shall bear thee up in their hands, 
 lest thou dash thy foot against a 
 stone." Then, Psabn ciii. 20 : — 
 " Bless the Lord, ye his angels, that 
 excel in strength, that do his com- 
 mandments, hearkenir^ unto the 
 voice of his word." [Some inter- 
 ruption here ocourxed, and the 
 learned gentleman requested si- 
 lence J Then Revelations, i. 4 : 
 — " John to the seven churches 
 that are in Asia, Grace be unto you, 
 and peace, from Him which is, and 
 which was, and which is to come, 
 and from the seven spirits which 
 are before his throne." I caU the 
 particular attention of my friend to 
 this, and should be glad if he will 
 honour me so far as to comply 
 with my recommendation to note 
 dovra every word of it. Let us 
 ponder deliberately upon this, and 
 not run over it vidth the breathless 
 rapidity with which my learned 
 friend would wish to whirl me along, 
 when I hold that sacred book in my 
 hand. " Grace and peace .'" Now, 
 drink in tKfe words — " Grace and 
 peace unto you." Peace from 
 whom ? " Prom Him who is, and 
 who was, and who is to come." 
 If you ask who that is, of course I 
 shall reply, with my learned friend, 
 the Lord Jesus Christ. But mark, 
 it says, " and from the seven 
 spirits which are before his throne," 
 from which tlirone, it appears, they 
 
"Mr. French.'] 
 
 SAINTS A2fD AUGELS. 
 
 305 
 
 possess tlie power of sending that 
 " ffrace and peace" nnto ns. Eeally, 
 1 wonder that the learned gentle- 
 man does not start up from Ms 
 place and cry out blasphemy, when 
 I talk, even with John the Evange- 
 list to embolden me, of angels send- 
 ing Aovn grace and' peace to mortal 
 men! Again, I quote Eev. v. 8 : — 
 " And when he had taken the book, 
 the four beasts and the four-and- 
 twenty elders fell down before the 
 Lamb, having every one of them 
 harps, and golden vials fall of 
 odoui's, which are the prayers of 
 the saints." 
 
 Again, Rev. viii. 3 : — "And an- 
 other angel came and stood at the 
 altar, having a golden censer, and 
 there was given unto him much in- 
 cense, that he should offer it, with 
 the prayers of all saints, upon the 
 golden altar which is before the 
 throne." Why, gentlemen, if my 
 learned friend will permit me to 
 judge for myself, in reading Scrip- 
 ture (as I am determined to do this 
 day), I declare, with all the so- 
 lemnity of truth — and I could ratify 
 it by an oath^hat if there ever 
 was a lively description of the sub- 
 limity of our Holy Cathohc Church 
 upon earth, I beheve the prophet 
 had it in view when he penned this 
 magnificent and sublimely-beautiful 
 description, and, from that day that 
 he wrote this dovni to the present 
 day, I believe that lively image of it 
 has been stamped on its fcajestic 
 columns, and on those of no other 
 church whatever ; and, moreover, 
 that from that day to this — that 
 from that Church prayers have as- 
 cended to the blessed God, through 
 the intercession of saints and of 
 angels. Again, I quote Luke xv. 7 : 
 — "Likewise I say unto you, there 
 is joy in the presence of the angels 
 of God over one sinner that re- 
 penteth." I told you that no later 
 than a few days ago, when I was at 
 
 Reading, at a Bible meeting, one 
 gentleman there present, in order to 
 ehoit sums of money from the gaping 
 rustics around him, told them that 
 the angels in heaven were actually 
 looking down, at that moment, re- 
 joicing at the circulation of the 
 Bible, which circulation would be 
 rapidly increased that evening by 
 theirdonations. [Laughter.] Ot, 
 thought L this is a curious thing ! 
 How often have I been told by 
 Protestants, when I pray to saints, 
 I have been asked, " Can they hear 
 my prayers ? " This question has 
 been put to me over and over again, 
 and yet, when the Bible is to be cir- 
 culated by large sums of money, 
 then come the angels, looking down, 
 and rejoicing at the proceedings on 
 earth ! But, gentlemen, depend on 
 it, it is not by the circulation of the 
 Bible that you vriH ever convert 
 nations to God. Take but the lives 
 of the missionaries, as mentioned by 
 Milner, the Protestant historian — - 
 look at the divine spirit by which 
 they were prompted — their self- 
 abnegation-;-their contempt for aU 
 earthly pleasure in the cause of 
 their Redeemer, for whom they 
 were willing to suffer. Look at 
 what is going forward at the present 
 moment! Look at the virulent 
 pages of the Scottish magazine 
 called " Blackwood's Magazine " — 
 look at whole pages fiUea with all 
 the virulence of invective against 
 us ; and yet, at last, in order to 
 stimulate you Protestants to exer- 
 tion, acknowledging, that though 
 Protestauts cannot get into China, 
 yet that — to your shame — the Ca- 
 tholic priests have got there, and 
 been put to the rack and the torture 
 by hundreds and thousands; and 
 there they are, at the present day, 
 shedding their blood exultrngly m 
 the cause of Him in whose holy 
 service they grew poor, at least as 
 to worldly substance, whilst ye 
 
- 306 
 
 INVOCATION or 
 
 [turning to Mi. Cmnming], minis- 
 ters of Protestant churches, grow 
 rich, and do nothing but live daintily 
 and preach gaudily. So much as to 
 these idolatrous priests, who pray 
 for the sympathy of saints, and the 
 iiitercession of the Blessed Viii&in. 
 Read the life of a St. Francis Xavier 
 ■ — look at the innumerable Pagans 
 ctjuverted by his' holy Kfe; look. at 
 tue admissions of Protestants — ^look 
 at the pages of some of your Me- 
 thodists, who actually wanted to rob 
 the Catholic Church of that glo- 
 rious missionary, by declaring that 
 he (St. Francis Xayier) was a Me- 
 thodist. Look and see the purity of 
 their lives, wherever you are — what- 
 ever climate you may visit, look 
 narrowly at the persevering Catho- 
 lic priest, and you will see that he 
 is a man of God at every step, in 
 every action of his life ; and if at 
 any time it should please the 
 Almighty to send some conspicuous 
 " scourge to take vengeance for our 
 (Judith vii. 20,) "to 
 
 ([Numb. xiv. 13,) to afflict us, for 
 instance, vrith the long-visiting a!id 
 keenly-remembered cholera, "for the 
 trespass that we have trespassed 
 against him," (Levit. xxvi. 40) — 
 (iepend upon it, my aidently-beloved 
 Protestants — for whose salvation I 
 am so unfewnedly solicitous — you 
 win ever find the Catholic priest in 
 the cottages, or rather, I should 
 say, in the hovels of the suffpring 
 and the poor, administering to them 
 spiritual consolation. Called up in 
 the dead of night, he goes through 
 the pelting storm with alacrity, to 
 perform the functions of his duty ; 
 and many and many a time have I 
 myself seen the late Cardinal Weld 
 thus moving onward to the perform- 
 ance of his duty. Such instances, I 
 frant, may occur in the Church of 
 Ingland, as weE as in ours ; but oh, 
 how rare ! At Winchester, about 
 
 forty years ago, when a pestilential 
 contagious disease broke out in that 
 town, the Catholic priests were to 
 be found among the people, to the 
 number of about five or six hundred 
 ■ — ^Frenoh priests, fugitives from the 
 great atheistical revolution, went 
 about visiting the poor, at a time 
 when many of them were dying 
 without the consolations of religion ; 
 when not a parson, amidst imiume- 
 rable parsons, was to be found of 
 spiritual daring sufficient to out- 
 brave the danger, and "to make 
 Israel strengthen himself and sit upon 
 the bed." (Gen. xlvui. 2.) It was 
 then (for the contagion at length 
 reached the house in which the 
 Catholic priests resided), whilst the 
 Protestant servants of their com- 
 munity were dying .one after the 
 otlier, shamefully, dastardly, fraudu- 
 lently deserted by their Protestant 
 pastors, that those same Pi'enoh 
 priests alluded to took up the pen 
 and vn-ote an expostulatoij letter to 
 the primates, saying, "It was a 
 shame to let the sheep of their fold^ 
 die like dogs." And mark, my 
 friends, when these deserted sheep 
 saw the zeal, the fervour, the de- 
 votedness of the true priest, many 
 of them exclaimed, with their dying 
 lips, " Oh ! this, beyond doubt, 
 must be the true religion ! " 
 
 And now, my friends, mark the 
 plulosopbically-wise, spontaneously- 
 flowing answer from the sons of 
 self-interest, the dignitaries of the 
 Church of England, in that seat of 
 Protestant learning and orthodoxy, 
 the town of Winchester : — 
 
 " Gentlemen of the French clergy, 
 we have received your expostulatOry 
 letter, and can only say, in reply, that 
 althoi^h we do not shrink from death 
 more than you do, in the exercise 
 of our pastoral functions, yet we owe 
 it to our duty, at the same time, not to 
 run the risk of carrying a contagious 
 fever into the bosom of our famiSes." 
 
Mf. French?\ 
 
 S.UNIS AND ANGELS. 
 
 307 
 
 Suoli was the pucport of the 
 letter. I quote from memory. Here, 
 gentlemen, in this acting of Pro- 
 testant clergymen, you have experi- 
 mental evidence that St. Paul did 
 not overpaiut the thing when he said 
 — " He that is not married oareth 
 for the things that belong to the 
 Lord, how he may please the Lord. 
 JBut he that is married careth for 
 the things of the world, how he 
 may please his wife." (1 Cor. vii. 
 32, 33.) Whereas, the Catholic 
 priests above aRuded to had ever 
 uppermost iu their minds the ex- 
 hortation of that same Apostle, "I 
 beseech you therefore, brethren, by 
 the mercies of God, that ye pre- 
 sent your bodies a living sacrifice, 
 holy, acceptable unto God, which 
 is your reasonable service." Rom. 
 xii. 1. 
 
 Such, then, as to our Catholic 
 Clergy, is the glorious record. Talk 
 of idolatry ! Oh, sublime idolaters ! 
 oh, ardent lovers of your crucified 
 Lord and Saviour — ye believers in 
 guardian angels-r-ye angelical livers 
 — how are ye calumniated ! Oh, I 
 could cry out, most appropriately 
 (turning to my reverend antagonist), 
 " Keep thy tongue from evil, and 
 thy lips from calumny and gvule," 
 and thou wilt work out thy salva- 
 tion vrith much greater security. 
 " I say Tmto you, there is joy in the 
 presence of the angels of God over 
 one sinner that repenteth, more 
 than over ninety and nine just per- 
 sons that need no repentance." My 
 friend has quoted this, and he will 
 correct me if I am wrong : — " My 
 little children, these things I write 
 unto you that ye sin not ;" but he 
 quoted the latter part also, namely, 
 "And if any man sin, we have an 
 advocate vnth the Father, Jesus 
 Christ the righteous, and he is the 
 propitiation for our suis." 
 
 Now, what my reverend friend 
 wanted to inculcate on you is, that I 
 
 we make the blessed Vii-gin a pro- 
 pitiation for our sins. If we do, we 
 are guilty of gross blasphemy, and, 
 mark this, my reverend friend, we 
 shall be lost to all eternity. It is 
 by the blood of Christ Jesus alone 
 that we are redeemed; he alone is 
 the true propitiatory — that alone is 
 the real ransom wlaoh he paid for 
 our sins ; he is the sole iateroessor. 
 By any other intercessor — by any 
 other mediator of the New Testament, 
 "they which are called will never 
 receive the promise of eternal inherit- 
 ance." Heb. ix. 15. But mark! 
 that does not do away with the plain 
 declaration of the Gospel, and of the 
 Bible, which I shall prove to you 
 before I finish this evening, (though 
 I have not sufficient time to intro- 
 duce aU my arguments)— that does 
 not in the least interfere with the 
 doctrine of the Invocation of Angels 
 and Saints, which has been j;rans- 
 mitted from age to age from the 
 times of the apostles, as I have 
 proved to the oonvincement of every 
 candid and impartial hearer in this 
 assembly, and which stands imoon- 
 tradicted by any one argument on 
 the part of my learned friend, save 
 and except that of frothy declamar 
 tion. when I proved to you, the 
 other evening, the advocacy of 
 angels and saints from that sublime 
 monument of antiquity, St. James's 
 Liturgy, what was his philosophical 
 mode of proceeduig upon the occa- 
 sion ? Why, it. was one that would 
 certainly have met with the warm 
 approbation of that exquisitely 
 delightful judge ia these matters, 
 the apostate Julian, with his risum 
 teneatis amid. [Laughter.] I mean, 
 gentlemen, his resort was, to cast 
 his eyes around him, and see if there 
 was not some laughing face to which 
 he might make appeal, and then to 
 ask triumphantly tne ovmer of that 
 face, and its fanatical fac-similes in 
 abundance at its side, whether those 
 
308 
 
 iuvocAiiON OP [6tt Evening. 
 
 said liturgies did not amply speak 
 lor themselves, without the necessity 
 of any comment, tliat they are vain 
 things, and a work of errors worthy 
 to be laughed at. But is this thie 
 way, my friends — ^is this Julian-the- 
 Apostate way to be adopted ia po- 
 lemics, as 01 acknowledged efficacy 
 in invalidatiug works of antiquity 
 demonstrably proved; and primi- 
 tiveness, with the most methodical 
 accuracy regularly traced and veri- 
 fied ? No, my friends, these litur- 
 gies " stand fast for ever and ever, 
 and are done in truth and upright- 
 ness." Psahn xci. 8. 
 
 Gentlemen, if the task was ever 
 gloriously performed of tracing up 
 my Church and all its articles to the 
 days of the apostles, it was per- 
 formed on the last everdng. " The 
 memory of the just is blessed," says 
 the prophet, (chap. x. ver. 7,) "but 
 the name of the wicked shall rot." 
 Again^ " The righteous shall "be iu 
 everlasting remembrance." (Psahn 
 cxii. 6.) The name of the just, 
 therefore, being blessed, according 
 to the Scripture phrase, we say, 
 " Blessed Sj. Athanasius, pray for 
 us ; blessed Ignatius Martyr, pray 
 for us ; blessed Catherine, pray for 
 us; blessed St. Agnes, pray for 
 us ;" or to any other saint, as he or 
 she may have been eminent and 
 illustrious for either his or her vir- 
 tues, we attach the term " blessed ;" 
 and we sin not in so doing, but we 
 increase in love every day of our 
 iives most strenuously for our 
 blessed Redeemer, by the veneration 
 which we pay to his saints ; neither 
 does it detract from his honour or his 
 glory; nay, to speak plainly, it is mad- 
 ness, it is bold and wring blasphemy, 
 it isproudliuoiferianiiprising against 
 every passage of the Bible alluding 
 to it, to say that the Intercession of 
 Saints invalidates the ^and media- 
 tion, or is the least disparagement 
 to the glory and honour of God. I 
 
 vriU now call the attention of my 
 friend to St. Luke ; and here, again, he 
 will try to do away with the strength 
 of this irresistible passage — ^this pre- 
 diction, which we prove accompKshed 
 every day of our lives in our church, 
 but which is not so in yours — I say, 
 he wiU endeavour to do it all away, 
 because the phrase, " blessed for all 
 generation.s," is used in other parts 
 of ancient Scriptm-e. " Blessed art 
 thou among women," said the angel ; 
 and she said, " Whence is this to me, 
 that the mother of my Lord should 
 come to me?" Now, the Bev. 
 Dr. Burton, in his Treatise against 
 Unitarians, who was Professor of 
 Divinity at Oxford a few years ago — 
 Dr. Burton, Professor of Divinity at 
 Oxford, says that " unless you mean 
 to become an Unitarian, you must 
 say that 'the mother of my Lord' 
 means the 'mother of my God.'" 
 That is Dr. Burton's opinion ; it is 
 mine also; can it be said, this 
 evening, it is not the opinion of my 
 infallible friend ? [Laughter.] 
 
 And now, my friends, though I 
 am about to give my learned oppo- 
 nent no invitation to hilarity, mas- 
 much as (if Ecclesiasticus speak 
 right) " music in mourning is a tale 
 out of time," (Ecclus. xxii. 6,) and 
 my learned friend is very visibly 
 dejected at the course my argument 
 is taking [laughter] — turn we to 
 the Magnificat! yes, my friends, 
 turn we to that divine hymn ; for 
 to me, I candidly confess, in the 
 words of the same inspired writer 
 just cited — " Its remembrance shall 
 be sweet as honey in every mouth, 
 and as music in banquet of wine." 
 Ecclus. xlix. 3. 
 
 " And Mary said ; My soul doth 
 magnify the Lord, and my spirit 
 hath rejoiced in God my Saviour. 
 Because he hath regarded the hu- 
 mility of his hand-maid : for behold 
 from henceforth aU generations shall 
 call me blessed. For ho that is 
 
Mr. French.'] 
 
 SAINTS iND iNSELS. 
 
 309 
 
 mighty hath done great things to 
 me^ and holy is his name. And his 
 mercy is from generation to genera- 
 tion, to them that fear him. He 
 hath showed nnght in his arm : he 
 hath scattered the prond in the con- 
 ceit of their heart. He hath put 
 down the mighty from their seat, 
 and hath exalted the humble. He 
 hath filled the hungry with good 
 things : and the rich he hath sent 
 empty away. He hath received 
 Israel his servant, being mindful of 
 his mercy. As he spoke to our 
 fathers, to Abraham and to his seed 
 for ever." 
 
 Here let me ask, Have Protes- 
 tants ever had generations to f ulfil 
 this prophecy? or, even had they 
 existed before the sixteenth century, 
 would they, could they, have accom- 
 plished it — they who glory in dero- 
 gating, by every possible manner, 
 from her graces, her blessings, and 
 her honours ? 
 
 No, my friends, the Bible still 
 triumphs in its veracity as to. its 
 every particle ; Catholic generation 
 after generation — ^before your Pro- 
 testant progenitors were yet in the 
 womb of time — in the long tract of 
 imiumerable days — permitted not 
 one of them to steal away in silence, 
 unbailed by the cheering sound 
 of Mary; not a single dawn has 
 ever gladdened the saints of God's 
 Church, since its foundation to the 
 present hour, that has been unsa- 
 luted by its multitudinous tongues, 
 calling Mary blessed, m strict con- 
 formity to the laws of prophetic 
 harmony, from which she can no 
 more wander than can the stars in 
 heaven from the course and order 
 appointed to them by their great 
 Creator. [Sensation.] 
 • "Por behold, from henceforth all 
 generations shall call me blessed." 
 
 Yes, Mary ! Mother of my divine 
 Redeemer, for whose ineffable glory 
 L am ready, at any time, to shed the 
 
 last drop of my blood, the Churcn 
 still calls thee " blessed," with sen- 
 timents and feelings utterly inoom 
 munieable to the dark, to the 
 cold, unelevated heart of a Calvinist. 
 My reverend antagonist -will not, 
 of course, admit that sublime pre- 
 diction to be daily and hourly ac- 
 complished in the Catholic Church, 
 though I have placed a luminous 
 body of such incontrovertible evi- 
 dence before him, which might enable 
 him to see it. 
 
 Eev. J. CuMMlNa. — -No, no ! 
 
 Mr. Pbench. — But let us not 
 leave the glorious Magnificat vrith 
 that precipitate celerity which my 
 learned friend so eagerly seems to 
 wish for, in the writhing anguish 
 of his heart, wkUst I prove Mary 
 " blessed." 
 
 " And his mercy is on them that 
 fear him, from generation to gene 
 ration." v, 50. 
 
 And so say we Catholics : and 
 Ms mercy is on them that glory in 
 the fulflmnent of his predictions, by 
 incessantly calling Mary " blessed." 
 
 "He hath shown strength with 
 his ai-m, he hath scattered the 
 proud in the imagination of their 
 
 TFIw are "the proud ?" Why they 
 who rise up agamst the loud voice 
 of ages, that has taught the Chris- 
 tian to dehght in the praise of Mary 
 — ^those are the proud, the seu- 
 opinionated men, the self-exalted 
 great ones, who elevate their proud 
 crests against the Church of God, 
 and consequently despise Mary, and 
 deny her blessedness. I view, there- 
 fore, my friends, (and my learned 
 antagonist, I trust, will condescend- 
 ingly permit me to take my own 
 view of Scripture prophecies) I view 
 in this uninterrup'tedly resounded 
 Magnificat at once a standing proof 
 of the glories of the Catholic Church, 
 and of the glories of Mary. Just 
 as, in ray conception of things, that 
 
310 
 
 INVOCATION or 
 
 l&th Bvenmff, 
 
 grand prophecy of Malachi is visibly 
 and perpetually accomplislied by the 
 ever-duriag Onnreli of Christ cele- 
 brating Mass, by so many thou- 
 sands and tens of thousands of 
 altars, erected over the whole 
 world — just so is that grand pre- 
 diction of Mary, that " all genera- 
 tions shall caU her blessed," yearly, 
 daily, hourly, being accomplished 
 in the Church of the living God. 
 You see, therefore, my Protestant 
 friends, the high state of exaltation 
 to which the merits' of Mary have 
 raised her. 
 
 And here, gentlemen, having 
 mentioned the word " merit," give 
 me leave to explain it, for I am 
 aware it is one that is ill brooked 
 by many, especially by the sons of 
 Calvia. All merit, iu the paths of 
 Christian warfare, flows from Christ.- 
 This is a settled principle m the 
 CathoKo Church. The word used 
 in the New Testament for the re- 
 ward of our struggles in this 
 world for the obtainment of the ce- 
 lestial palm, is, in Greek, iu&6oSj 
 which signifies, "pay, stipend, wages 
 of one hired." We have, however, 
 no merit to ourselves ; but God is 
 vriEing to accept our ignoble efforts 
 in working out our salvation ; be is 
 willing to accept them as merits, 
 though, in fact, all merit flows from 
 grace, and grace alone. I should 
 wish the doctrine to be set clearly 
 before you. But, my friends, as I 
 have explained it in a little compo- 
 sition of mine, which I sent some 
 months ago to a Calvinistio friend, 
 a, man of leairdng and genius, whom 
 I wished, if possible, to ■uncalmnize, 
 I shall take the liberty of reading 
 it aloud. I hope it will not offend 
 my learned antagonist, if I tell him 
 in verse, instead of doing it in prose, 
 what we Catholics tliink of good 
 works, what we think of the doc- 
 trine of grace, and chiefly what we 
 think of the merits of the saints. 
 
 ON FAITH WITHOUT GOOD WORKS. 
 
 "What doth it profit, my bre- 
 thren, though a. man say he hath 
 faith, and have ngt works? Can 
 faith save him?" — St. James's Gen. 
 ii. 14. 
 Even so faith, if it hath not 
 works, is dead, being alone." — 
 Id. 17. 
 
 "..'.. And though I have all 
 faith, so that I could remove moun- 
 tains, and have not charity, I am 
 nothing." — St. Paul, 1 Cor. xiii. 3. 
 
 " But in every nation he that 
 feareth Mm and worketh jtistice, is 
 acceptable to liim." — Acts x. 35. 
 
 "Be not deceived, God is not 
 mocked ! for whatsoever a man 
 soweth, that shall he also reap." — 
 St. Paul, Gal. vi. 7. 
 
 "And I heard a voice from hea- 
 ven saying to me. Write, blessed 
 art the dead that die in the Lord 
 from henceforth : Yea, saith the 
 Spirit, that they may rest from their 
 labours ; and their works do foUow 
 them." — Rev. siv. 13. 
 
 VERSES ON" THE ABOVE TEXTS, 
 Sent to a Friend of the Catvinistic Creed. 
 
 Shorn of good works, the Chilistian tree lies 
 
 dead : 
 Though Faith shoot forth fair blossoms from 
 
 its head, 
 In vain the beauteous pl^nt may seem to 
 
 grow, 
 Unless sweet fruits of piety it show ; 
 How bright soe'er the blooni of Faith may 
 
 shine, 
 Death, inward death, consumes the sap 
 
 divine. 
 Not each that cries out " Lord, O heavenly 
 
 Lord, * 
 By me believ'd, own'd, dreaded and adored !" 
 Shall find on Faith the beams of mercy play, 
 Upon the last, the great avenging day. 
 Unless true Faith with works of love shall 
 
 glow, 
 True Faith itself shall prove his bitter foe. 
 Better, far better, to have never known 
 Celestial Faith, than trust to faith alone. 
 What though thy Faith, the gift of heavenly 
 
 grace, 
 Coulct move vast mountains from their solid 
 
 base. 
 Say, can its power, where sins and crimes 
 
 control. 
 Wash the deep stains from off thy guilty 
 
 soul? 
 
3ir. French.'] 
 
 SAINTS AND AN&EIS. 
 
 311 
 
 Twas Luther first that impious dogma 
 
 taught — 
 Man could he sav'd, though no good works 
 
 he wrought, 
 By Faith alone ;— good works he taught were 
 
 vain, 
 Nay, all infected with a mortal stain. 
 Proud Luther thus the ancient creed o'er- 
 
 threw, 
 While to his banner guilty nations flew, 
 Who still tlie merit of good works disown, 
 And teach "Man justified by Failh alone." 
 Yet man, ev'n Luther own'd, might fall from 
 
 grace, 
 And by foul sin all sanctity efface. 
 Not thus stern Calvin : he more impious far, 
 'Gainst old religion wag'd a deadlier war. 
 If Faith, he argues, can thus cleanse from 
 
 sin, 
 And trust in Faith can make man pure 
 
 within, 
 This trust in Faith should equally relate 
 To make man certain of his future state. 
 If prayer and trust make man of grace secure, 
 Then prayer and trust can make salvation 
 
 sure. 
 Be man no more in clouds of tempest tost, 
 Grace once receiv'd, is never, never lost. 
 Though monster of pollution, foul and dark, 
 No mass of crime can quench th' etherial 
 
 spark, 
 Unburied, unextinguish'd grace still lives, 
 And crime on crime committed still forgives; 
 Away repentance with dissolving tears. 
 Faith dwells within, and knows nor doubts 
 
 nor fears. 
 Nay more — the father's justice, he contends. 
 From sire to son inherited descends. 
 In a whole lineage, if but one be just, 
 AH his descendants in his grace may trust ; 
 In a whole lineage, if one bad we find, 
 All his forefathers are to hell consigned. 
 Born in the Covenant, no sin can taint 
 The offspring, in his mother's womb, a saint; 
 The font of Baptism is view'd with scorn. 
 Or us'd, but as a seal of grace inborn. 
 Such the new dogmas, such the shuddering 
 
 creed, 
 Of Calvin's pure predestinated seed ; . 
 Dogmas through Cliristendom untaught 
 
 before ; 
 Oh ! how unlike the Apostolic lore ! 
 With fear and trembling and liiborious 
 
 strife. 
 To struggle for the -palm— eternal life. 
 To make thy lamp of Faith around thee 
 
 shine, 
 Fed by good works that flow from grace 
 
 divine ; 
 Good works that, flowing from celestial 
 
 spring, 
 Yet please, as if our own, th' Almighty King. 
 This Faith taught Paul, with love seraphic 
 
 fired. 
 This Faith th' Evangelists with pens in- 
 spired, 
 This Faith the Gospel breathes in every 
 
 page, , 
 
 This Faitti the Church proclaims from age 
 
 to age ; 
 This Faith alone th' immortal soul can save, 
 And rise triumphant o'er the gloomy grave. 
 
 Come then, stern combatant in Calvin's 
 
 field. 
 Gird on the genuine, adamantine shield,* 
 Faith, t deok'd with works that crown the 
 
 man divine. 
 And tlirough eternity resplendent shine ! 
 
 SucHj gentlemen, is our view of 
 that intricate and difficult doctrine 
 of grace. The Calvinists have pe- 
 culiar notions concerning merits. 
 Grace with them, once obtained, 
 cannot be expunged by crime ; and 
 this shuddering doetrme is grounded 
 in their theology on the eleventh of 
 St. Paul to the Komans, verse 39 : 
 " Tor the gifts' and calling of God 
 are without repentance." There 
 are many, I believe, in this assem- 
 bly, who, whenever we mention the 
 merits of saints, not understanding 
 the meaning, are, as Protestants, 
 naturally offended with it. Btit I 
 would have them to know — for I 
 have been particularly requested by 
 a gentleman, who has taken great 
 interest in this disputation, to ex- 
 plain -what it means ; and I could 
 not do it in a more pithy manner 
 than by reading to you those verses 
 I have written — but we would have 
 you know, that of ourselves we are 
 "dust and ashes," "vilera^s," as 
 tbe apostle has expressed it ; but" 
 that blessed Lord, from whom aU 
 grace flows, - and without which 
 grace, even by the little virtues of 
 life, we are not pleasing in his 
 eyes, — He is willing, having given 
 us grace, which acts within us as 
 long as we live a pure and unsuUied 
 Hfe, and do not expel it, He is 
 pleased to accept oux efforts in 
 working out our salvation, as so 
 many merits. But, remember, it all 
 hinges on the oriffinal infusion of 
 grace into our soxus by the Spirit, 
 wliich so long as we cherish, our 
 works are numbered in heaven, and 
 
 * '* Putting on the breastplate of faith 
 and love."— 5/. Paul, Thess. v. S. 
 
 t *' And now abideth faith, hope, and 
 charity, these three ; but the greatest of theao 
 is charity."— 5i. Faul, 1 Cor. xiii. 13, 
 
S12 
 
 INVOCAIIOS OP 
 
 [61A Mvening. 
 
 looked on as merits, and therefore 
 it is said in Kevelations — " Their 
 works do foilo'w them." Now they 
 oovdd not follow them if they 
 were not merits in the sight of 
 Jesus ; they are now merits, uias- 
 much as they flow from the Foun- 
 tain of all Grace. 
 
 And now, having explained this 
 subject, a few words as to the mean- 
 ing of the word "worship." "Exalt 
 ye the Lord our God, and worship 
 at his footstool, for he is hoh;," or, 
 "ioTit is holy;" for the Hebrew 
 word will bear either interpretation. 
 It has been variously translated — 
 "it is holy," or " he is holy."^ 
 Npw, gentlemen, I have here to 
 find fault — and I do not wish to 
 take the learned gentleman by sur- 
 prise — with the infidelity of the 
 EngKsh translation. " Exalt ye the 
 Lord our God, and worship at his 
 footstool." I maiutaiu that the He- 
 brew is " worship his footstool," 
 and I win prove it to you. " He is 
 holy:" it may be translated "it is 
 holy." Li some books it is "it is 
 holy." But that is very immaterial 
 ■ — ^we will not combat as to books. 
 The Hebrew word will admit of 
 either the feminine or masculine 
 gender (they have no neuter), and, 
 therefore, you may say " ^ is holy," 
 or " it is holy." 
 
 Uev. J. .Gumming. — What is the 
 Hebrew word ? 
 
 Mr. Eeench. — ^The Hebrew word 
 is " hishtakhavoo ;" that is, " to 
 adore." 
 
 Rev. J; Gumming.- — I mean the 
 Hebrew word for he. 
 
 Mr. Feench. — It is included in 
 " kadosh," "holy," or rather in. the 
 verb which is understood. 
 
 Rev. J. Gumming, [several times.] 
 ■ — ^The Hebrew for it, if you please. 
 
 Mr. FaENCH. — I have told you 
 it is included in the verb in the same 
 manner as " quia sanctum" would 
 mean "quia sanctum est." Here, in 
 
 that case, would be understood hoe 
 
 [John Kendai, Esq. here an- 
 nounced the expiration of the 
 learned gentleman's hour, who was 
 desirous of finishing the quotation. 
 The Chairman then consulted the 
 Rev. J. Gumming,- who replied that 
 " he did not mind it."] 
 
 Mr. F'aENCH [to Rev. Mr, Gum- 
 mu^.] — I don't wish to take you 
 at aQ unfairly ; you may have more 
 time. lonly wish to finish this. [Mr. 
 Gumming mtimated his assent, and 
 the learned gentleman proceeded.] 
 Nay, more, even if the footstool 
 were the temple, as their forced con- 
 struction is, still would my argu- 
 ment hold good, inasmuch as David 
 does not say, ■worship the footstool, 
 or at the footstool, but worship 
 the footstool, " adorate scdbellum" 
 as Jerome has it; and Jerome, 
 I maintain, was one of the most 
 perfect Hebrew scholars that ever 
 existed. Ask any Jew at the pre- 
 sent day, and he wiH tell you that 
 his translation is the finest pro- 
 duction of any scholar. Jerome 
 always translates it " adore his foot- 
 stool." Now my object is to show 
 you in the whole of this argument- 
 ation, that the word " adore" or 
 " worship" is used for God indis- 
 criminately, or angels, or inanimate 
 beings. There was a veneration 
 paid to inanimate things ; a vene- 
 ration different entirely from that 
 which we call " Latria ;" that is, 
 the prostrate adoration of all the 
 powers of our soul to the one only 
 feod. ^ 
 
 [The learned gentleman then sat 
 down.] 
 
 Rev. J. Gumming. — ^If ever, mv 
 Ghristian hearers, there was a speech 
 of which the verdict might with the 
 utmost confidence.be pronounced, 
 De nrnltis rebus et quihiadam aliis, 
 it is the speech of my learned and 
 
Rev. J. 
 
 •] 
 
 SAINTS AUI) ANGELS. 
 
 313 
 
 most persevering opponent. He 
 has first of all introauced to your 
 attention tlie proprieties and the 
 correctness of the translation of the 
 Bible of King James ; the autho- 
 rized Bible of the Church of Eng- 
 land, and the Church of Scotland, 
 and of all the Dissenters before me. 
 He has also introduced a discussion 
 on the merits of the Apocrypha — 
 which he says belongs to the original 
 canon of Scripture, and which I 
 shall snow you has no pretensions 
 to that rank, for one ^simple and 
 satisfactory reason — ^that the writers 
 themselves disclaim inspiration in 
 the most express and significant 
 manner. Not satisfied, however, 
 with these remarks on the merits 
 of the Apocrypha, the value of the 
 English version, the forged liturgies 
 of St. James, and the merits of 
 Julian the Apostate, he wound up 
 his eccentric and elaborate y2»^,<i!^o 
 in defence of saint worship, with 
 telling us that the original Hebrew 
 in Psahn xcix. 5, should be ren- 
 dered " worship God's footstool!" 
 Now the Psalmist tells us that God's 
 footstool is " the earth," and I 
 therefore should not be surprised 
 were I to see my learned antagonist 
 bowing down and worshipping the 
 earth, as one of the Dii Minores. 
 I expect soon to hear that the Earth 
 will be added to the roU of saints, 
 and figure in the calendar, and 
 we shall by-and-by have prayers 
 offered up to Saint Earth as super- 
 stitious as those addressed to the 
 Virgin. 
 
 At the close of his speech he de- 
 fined to you the ideas of the Roman 
 GathoMe Church on the subject of 
 merits. And, as usual,' he brought 
 forward an extract from one of his 
 poems, as an exposition illustrative 
 of the Roman Catholic faith. Now 
 when I want to get an exposition 
 of the faith of the Church of Eng- 
 land, I take one of the Thirty-nine 
 
 Articles. I do not have recourse to 
 the poetic whims and crazy imagi- 
 nations of any poet who may chance 
 to come across my path, but I go 
 at once to standard authority. Does 
 my opponent dread the expeditions 
 of his own Church? He is surely 
 net afraid of the canons of the 
 Council of Trent ? Yet I have not 
 caught him referring to these canons, 
 or to the Creed of Pope Pius the 
 Pourth, for some time. Instead, he 
 has constantly produced little bits 
 of poetry, concocted under the 
 inspiration of the muses, in which 
 he has given his own lucid expo- 
 sitions of the Roman Catholic faith. 
 As to his poem on human merits, 
 aU that I ask additional is. Does 
 Mr. Prenoh's poetry agree with the 
 canons of the Couneu of Trent? 
 To ascertain this, I shall just read 
 to you the thirty-second canon, De 
 Justificatione : — " If any shall say 
 that the good works of a justified 
 person are in such wise the gifts of 
 God; that they are not also the 
 good deserts of the justified person 
 himself, or that a justified person 
 does not truly deserve increase of 
 grace and life eternal, and the 
 attaining eternal life, provided he 
 departs in a state of grace, and 
 even an increase of glory, by the 
 good works wrought by the grace 
 of God," &e. 
 
 Now, I leave my friend the pro- 
 blem of reconciling the poetry con- 
 cocted under the guidance of the 
 muses, and the canons concocted 
 under the guidance of the popes 
 and bishops and cardinals of the 
 Church of Rome. I say, I leave 
 the solution of this difficult pro- 
 blem in the hands of my ingenious 
 friend. I venture to say that it 
 will take him toil and time to 
 make them harmoniously tally,_or 
 to enable him to give anything like 
 a satisfactory exposition of the dif- 
 ference. I Snd, also, that, notwith- 
 
sit 
 
 INVOCATION or l6tA M)eiii»ff. 
 
 standing all I said, lie ha 
 introduced Calvin, and seems still 
 to imagine that Calvin is my Pope. 
 I am to be brought, per fas aut 
 nefas, to acknowledge Calvin, and 
 to fall down and offer to him prayers 
 something bke those offered to 
 saints ana the Virgin Mary in the 
 Church of Rome. Por the tenth 
 time I repeat, Calvin is not my Pope ; 
 Calvin's Institutes are not the confes- 
 sion of my faith. Though he were 
 to consign Calvin, as he has done 
 Augustine and Aqiiinas, to the 
 depths of the ocean, my creed would 
 still remain untouched and un- 
 scathed; imperishable as the God 
 that gave it — immortal as the Bible 
 that reveals it. I have nothing to 
 do with Calvin ; I appeal " to the 
 Law and to the Testimony;" and 
 if Calvin speak not according to 
 that, I treat him with the utmost 
 indifference. 
 
 . My learned antagonist next classi- 
 fied me, ia the exercise of his most 
 extraordinary charity, with Julian 
 the Apostate — in a word, with Infi- 
 dels, Atheists, Socinians, Socialists, 
 and Deists. I cannot charge my- 
 self with having used towards my 
 opponent an opprobrious or an 
 ungenerous word. I have spoken 
 faithfully and truly respecting that 
 baleful superstition, under the 
 eclipse of which he has lost his 
 view of " the Sun of Righteous- 
 ness, the Lord Jesus ;" but respect- 
 ing my opponent I have spoken in 
 terms . the most endearing ; and I 
 have prayed (God can bear me wit- 
 ness) — ^I have prayed that his soul 
 may be graciously enlightened, and 
 that it may- please Goato lead him 
 to the acknowledgment of the truth. 
 I have never used one disrespectful 
 terra towards him, either in lus pre- 
 sence or in his absence. Surely it 
 does argue a rather questionable 
 CEvuse which requires to be backed 
 up by personal reproaches, and 
 
 classifications of an opponent with 
 Julian the Apostate, and Infidels, 
 and others. I would only add, 
 that had Julian the Apostate heard 
 of the worship of Mary, and of the 
 saints, he would have made greater 
 havoc of Christianity. Had it been 
 in his days, Christianity would not 
 have lived so long, but must have 
 perished, not only under the attacks, 
 but under the scorn of the Atheists 
 and Infidels of the time. My 
 frifend has spoken much about the 
 kind of worship given to the yirgin, 
 and that when he adores her it is 
 by no means derogatoir to the inter- 
 cession of Christ. Now I hold in 
 my hand a document, known to Mr. 
 French, a volume of the Breviary of 
 the Church of Rome, to which is 
 added a service called the Office of 
 the Blessed Virgin. To give you 
 practical proof of the worship that 
 IS paid to Mary, I quote from this 
 well-known document a pai't of the 
 sermon of St. Bernard : — " Por 
 there is need of a mediator to the 
 Mediator Christ, nor is there any 
 other more useful to us than Mary. 
 Why should human frailty tremble 
 at approaching Mary ? There is 
 nothmg austere or terrible in her." 
 
 It is necessary, you observe, that 
 between Christ and us there should 
 be a mediator, and that that media- 
 tor should be the Virgin Mary. It 
 is taken from the sermon of St. 
 Bernard the abbot. Lecture fifth : 
 " In short, Mary has made all things 
 to all, and by a most copious charity 
 she made herself debtor to the wise 
 and foolish. She opens the bosom 
 of her mercy that all may receive 
 of her fulness, the captive re- 
 demption," &o. 
 
 Here is language, you observe, 
 surely beyond all due boundary and 
 limit. I ask any honest and dis- 
 passionate inquirer. Does not this 
 trench on the sacred prerogative 
 of Christ? " In him," says the 
 
Rev. J. Cumming.'] saints and angels. 
 
 31 
 
 apostle " all fulness dwells : " but 
 here it is stated that in Mary " all 
 fahess d-weUs," and that we are to 
 receive that fulness from her. 
 
 Again : " Let na seek grace, and 
 let ns seek it through Mary." 
 
 Again : " We beseech thee, 
 Lord, to pardon the offences of thy 
 servants, that we, who cannot please 
 thee by our own doings, may be 
 saved by the intercession of thy 
 Son our Lord," p. 565. 
 
 I quote the words that follow as 
 they are used and recognised in the 
 Breviary by the Roman Catholic 
 Church. I quota Lectio 8 : — " But 
 perhaps you fear also in Christ, the 
 Divine Majesty, because, though he 
 was made man, he was still God. 
 Do you desire to have an advo- 
 cate with him ? Have recourse to 
 Maiy. I do not hesitate to say 
 that she also wiU be heard for her 
 own sake." 
 
 It appears from these documents 
 there is a chasm, a blank, between 
 Christ and us, and that that blank 
 must be filled up by the intercession 
 of Marj/. Now I wiE show you, 
 before I conclude this evening, that 
 so far from there being a moral 
 vacuum, or a chasm, between the 
 Lord Jesus Christ and the poorest 
 viidow, or the meanest orphan that 
 hfl,s not a home to dwell in, that he 
 hEis come down to the lowest though 
 sinless depths of our humanity — 
 " sin only excepted" — that he has 
 wrapped himself, as it were, in our 
 sympathies, and steeped himself in 
 our sorrows — that he has wept our 
 tears and borne our sius — that " in 
 all points he was tried like as we 
 are;" " that we have not a high- 
 priest that cannot be touched with 
 the feeling of our infirmities, but 
 that " he was ru aU points tried hke 
 as we are, yet without sin." And 
 therefore, " let us come with bold- 
 ness to a throne of grace, that we 
 may obtain mercy and find grace to 
 
 help us in time of need." I quote 
 once more from another document 
 in general use among Eoman Ca- 
 tholics, called "The Glories of 
 Mary," by Liguori, who was canon- 
 ized, as the preface tells us, in 1816, 
 by Pius VII. ; and the sacred con- 
 gregation of Rites, after a rigorous 
 examination of this book, pro- 
 nounced it faultless. Successive 
 popes and cardinals lauded Liguori 
 and his works, and set their solemn 
 and infallible seals to the foUowiug 
 blasphemies : — ■ 
 
 " Mother of God, liope of 
 mankind, dispensatrix of the divine 
 grace." p. 106. 
 
 " Mary! my refuge, how often 
 have I not rendered myself the 
 slave of hell ! you have broken my 
 bonds, and snatched me from the 
 hands of my enemies ; but I dread 
 falling again under their dominion, 
 for they continually seek to carry 
 off my soul, and flatter themselves 
 it shall become their prey. Holy 
 Virgin, defend me ! protected by 
 you, I am sure of victory; but 
 grant that I may never forget to 
 mvoke you, especially during my 
 last combat, the most terrible of all. 
 Place then your holy name, with 
 that of your divine Son, on my 
 hps and in my heart; and grant, 
 that expiring, while invoking Jesus 
 and Mary, I may iind myself 
 at thy feet in heaven. Amen." 
 p. 114. 
 
 " O Mary, our faithful mediatrix! 
 Virgin full of grace! Ladder of 
 Jacob ! Gate of heaven! Treasury 
 of divine grace ! may all Christians 
 honour you with aU their hearts — 
 to use the beautiful expression of St. 
 Bernard, and cling to you with the 
 utmost fidelity. Let us implore 
 grace, but let us do so through 
 you ; in fine, let us present to God, 
 through your sacred hands, aU the 
 prayers and good works in our 
 power, if we desire that this our 
 
316 
 
 INVOCATION 01' [6tt Ihmittff. 
 
 incense may te acceptable to the 
 Lord." p. 133. 
 
 " Mary is all my confldenoe; 
 Mary is tlie foundation of my 
 hope." 
 
 " Hear how the Holy Ghost 
 makes Mary speak in the Canticles ; 
 ' I am the defence of those who 
 recur to me ; my mercy is to them 
 an impregnable tower ; and hence 
 the Lord has established me a 
 mediatrix of peace between him and 
 sinners .' ' This powerful mediatrix, ' 
 says Cardinal Hugo, ' procures 
 
 Eeacefor those who are at war — by 
 er, pardon is granted to the guity, 
 salvation to the lost, mercy to those 
 who are in despair.' " p. 153. 
 
 " Eather Justin assui'es us, that 
 one sigh from Mary can do more 
 for us with God than all the prayers 
 of the saints united together : the 
 devil himseK acknowledged the 
 same to St. Dominic, by the mouth 
 of a possessed person." 
 
 " St. Germanus says to Mary, 
 ' You, holy Virgin, have over 
 God the authority of a mother, and 
 hence you obtain pardon for the 
 most obdurate of sinners.' St. 
 Bridget heard the saints say to 
 Mary, ' Q,ueen of heaven! elect of 
 the Lord ! what is impossible to 
 you ?' To this corresponds a cele- 
 brated adage of a certain father : 
 ' You, holy Virgin, can effect by 
 your prayers all that God can ope- 
 rate, by his power.' " p. lil. 
 
 " Mother , of mercy, appease 
 youi Son! While on earth you occu- 
 pied only a small portion of it; 
 but now, elevated to the highest 
 heavens, we regard you as the pro- 
 pitiation of all nations ; grant us 
 your prayers so desirable, so pre- 
 cious — prayers, holy Mother, which, 
 in propitiating the Most High, will 
 obtain us grace to expiate our sins, 
 to practice virtue, to confound our 
 enemies, and triumph over their 
 designs. Amen." p. 196. 
 
 "We read m the Chronicles of 
 St. !Prancis, that brother Leo once 
 saw in a vision two ladders, one red, 
 at the summit of which was Jesus 
 Christ, and the other white, at the 
 top of which presided his blessed 
 Mother. He observed, that many 
 who endeavoured to ascend the iirst 
 ladder, after mounting a few steps, 
 fell down ; and on trying agam, 
 were equally unsuccessful, so that 
 they never attained the summit ; 
 but a voice having told them to 
 make trial of the white kdder, they 
 soon gained the top, the blessed 
 Virgin having held forth her hands 
 to help them ! ! " pp. 180, 181. 
 
 Such is the monstrous idolatry in 
 which neither popes nor cardinals, 
 on solemn and inquisitorial search, 
 could see any fault or ^aw. Every 
 Roman CathoKc knows the book, 
 and not a few before me possess it. 
 I do ask. Is not such language de- 
 rogatory to the glory, mediation, 
 and iatercessionof the Son of God? 
 And yet, aU these extracts are taken 
 from the writings of a saint who 
 has been canonized in the Church 
 of B^me, and in whose writings, I 
 repeat, the Sacred Congregation of 
 the Lidex could find nothmg detri- 
 mental to the faith, piety, and 
 morals of the faithfxd I Instead of 
 replying by elaborate argum,ent (as 
 I might do), I quote the produc- 
 tions of my antagonist's Church — 
 the recogmsed and authorized pro- 
 ductions of his Church ; and I do 
 appeal to the judgments of you all, 
 if I say not the truth when 1 affirm; 
 that if ever dishonour, deep and 
 dismal, was inflicted on the raediar 
 torial character of the blessed Jesus, 
 whom I worship, in whom is my 
 sole trust, in whom I live, and in 
 whom I hope to die, and from whom 
 I expect all that can make me holy 
 here and happy hereafter — if ever 
 there was foul dishonour perpe- 
 trated and heaped upon that blessed 
 
Rev. J. Cumminff.'] 
 
 SAINTS ASD ANGELS. 
 
 317 
 
 name, all this and worse is perpe- 
 trated in the vile and pestilential su- 
 perstition contained m this volume. 
 I do not hesitate to characterize it 
 thus, because it trenches on the 
 Lord of glory, whom 1 love. If 
 you saw an individual in thi^ country 
 a tempt to injure the sacredness of 
 o X throne, or tamper with the 
 person of our Queeu; — if you saw 
 the hand of some traitor put forth 
 to tarnish her crown, or to tear it 
 from her temples, there is not one 
 in this assembly, either Protestant 
 or Roman CathoHc, who would not 
 dash that hand aside, in order to 
 vindicate his Queen, even though it 
 were the hand of a brother, a father, 
 or a friend. And thus is it in re- 
 ference to Christ. I care not whose 
 hand it is that is put forth to tarnish 
 his royal crown and tamper with his 
 glory ; I feel it my sacred duty, as 
 well as my great privilege, as far as 
 in me Hes, and as far as God's word 
 permits me, to thrust aside that 
 hand, and allow the glories of his 
 priesthood, his righteousness, and 
 his sacred mediatorial character, to 
 stream down in one unbroken blaze 
 upon dying sumers that need to be 
 enlightened. [Strong sensation.] 
 
 Again, my friend objected, in the 
 course of his speech, that I was 
 quoting unauthenticdocuments; and 
 he asked, " Why go to these for- 
 mularies, and not to the articles and 
 the canons ?" I went to them at 
 the outset for definitions ; but na- 
 turally anxious to know what is the 
 precise meaning which the Roman 
 Church attaches to her creed, I now 
 look at those formularies and docu- 
 ments which she commends to- her 
 worshippers and members. If I 
 want to know the meaning which 
 the Church of England attaches to 
 her articles, I look into her Prayer- 
 book, there to find in her services 
 the full development of her prin- 
 ciples If I want to know the 
 
 meaning of the canons of the Coun- 
 cil of Trent, I look into her author-, 
 ised and recognized formularies, and 
 find a fuU exposition of the mean- 
 ing of them there. Therefore, I 
 contend that these documents which 
 I have read to you are a fuU, fair, 
 and just development of those defi- 
 nitions which the Church of Rome 
 has laid down; and to prove the 
 accuracy of this, we need only read 
 the canonization of the writers, and 
 the illustrious sanction under which 
 these idolatries appear. 
 
 The next remarks of my learned 
 antagonist were in reference to the 
 Liturgy of St. James. I told you 
 that Cardinal Bona objected to the 
 Liturgy of St. Peter — that the ce- 
 lebrated Dupin, one of the histo- 
 rians of his own Church, objects to 
 the Liturgy of St. James, and de- 
 clares that it never was composed 
 by St. James, because it speais of 
 events subsequent (!) to the death 
 of that apostle. I might here read 
 again the quotations from Dupin, 
 as they are full of conclusive argu- 
 ment ; but time wiU not allow. It 
 is enough to say that he justly dis- 
 putes its being composed by St. 
 James, not only on account of allu- 
 sions to circumstances after his 
 death, and its containing contra- 
 dictory language, but for other and 
 more cogent reasons. My opponent 
 quoted the apostlft Paul, beseeching 
 the Ephesians and Colossians to 
 pray for him. I told him, again 
 and again, with marked reiteration, 
 that if I ask you to pray for hin, 
 or you to pray for one another, it is 
 correct ; and that it is one thing for 
 a saint on earth to ask another 
 saint on earth to pray for him ; but 
 that it is a totally different thing 
 (and I wish to make this distinc- 
 tion quite clear to my opponent) 
 for one on earth to pray to another 
 in heaven. If Paul had been a 
 Roman Catholic, he would have ad- 
 
3iS 
 
 INVOCATION 0"P 
 
 [&iA Bvening. 
 
 dressed tte chui-oh in Heaven : — 
 " Pray for me ;" but being inspired 
 by the spirit of Protestantism, he 
 asked his audience to pray for him. 
 
 Again, I find my friend contra- 
 dicts my statement, that his Church 
 holds that the saints of the Old 
 Testament were in limbo until the 
 resurrection of Christ. This is 
 stated ia the Douay Bible. Even 
 the Church of Rome will 'not hold 
 it expedient for the faithful to pray 
 to the saints suffering in purgatory, 
 to pray 
 
 Mr. Fkekch. — No, no. I did not. 
 
 Hey. J. CuMMiNG.' — I stated that, 
 on your own principles, it is illegi- 
 timate to quote from the Old Tes- 
 tament in favour of prayers to 
 saints, for all the saints were in 
 limbo till the resurrection. You 
 contended it was legitimate [turn- 
 ing to Mr. French.] 
 
 Mr. Fkench. — iegitimate or 
 eflegitimate, which did you say ? 
 
 Rev. J. Gumming. — i^gitimate. 
 
 Mr. Pkench. — Very well. 
 
 Rev. J. Gumming [in continua- 
 tion]. Observe then : that is all I 
 want. If I expressed myself wrong, 
 I am sorry for it. In asserting this, 
 my learned friend casts the illus- 
 trious Cardinal BeHarmine over- 
 board, for he most plainly declares 
 it to be illegitiraatdt [Laughter.] 
 We are advancing — we have seen 
 hiTn cast his favourtf e Aquinas over- 
 board, next the illustrious St. Jerome 
 — next Augustine, and then Dela- 
 hogue ; in the same admirable and 
 sweeping march over ruined doctors, 
 he brushed away the eighty folio 
 volumes of the Bollandists, anS now, 
 at length, he turns adrift the illus- 
 trious Bellaimine ! Really I have 
 stronger hopes still of the final con- 
 version of my learned and ingenious 
 opponent. I expect that at length 
 he wiU discountenance the whole 
 Roman faith and cast Pope Pius' 
 Creed overboard also. I cannot, I 
 
 may add, as he wishes again and 
 again, concede the term Catholic 
 to his church. I have given him 
 the most courteous term, that of 
 Roman Catholic. He would not let 
 me use terms which I deem fittest ; 
 and in delicacy to his feebngs I 
 have forborne to use one epithet 
 which was harsh, imperious, or 
 severe. 
 
 My friend next discussed the 
 merits of the Protestant Bible, and 
 in doing so, used expressions neither 
 the most happy nor correct. Dr. 
 Doyle -pronounced the Protestant 
 version " a noble version." Now 
 I have read portions of it in the 
 Hebrew, and the whole of the New 
 Testament in Greek, over and over 
 again ; and I am prepared to take, 
 verse by verse, in Hebrew and in 
 Greek, and to show that our version 
 is the most just and accura,te version 
 that was ever made ; and I am pre- 
 pared to prove that every passage 
 that has been altered in the Douay 
 version for the last fifteen or twenty 
 years has been an approximation 
 to the translation of the Protestant 
 Bible : and that in the version of 
 Dr. Murray, in many of its passages, 
 the Roman translators have adopted 
 the precise translation which the 
 Protestanttranslators adopted before 
 them, thus attestir^ its genuiaeness 
 and validity. If the production of 
 the Church of Rome be a faithful 
 version, why is it that the longer it 
 lives, the nearer it comes to our 
 Protestant version? The assertion 
 that our version is " abomination," 
 comes with a monstrous bad gracB- 
 from my friend, because he is aware 
 that his own doctors and bishops 
 must believe it to be the best, 
 seeing they regard their own 
 as approaching perfection in the 
 ratio in which theirs approximates to 
 ours. And were I to enter on the 
 merits of the Romish version — 
 which I allow contains much that 
 
Hit;. J. Cumminff.] 
 
 SAINTS AND ANGELS. 
 
 310 
 
 is good, but, at the same time, some 
 of the worst and most odious para- 
 phrases ever palmed upon the world 
 — were I to submit a critical disqui- 
 sition on the comparative merits 
 of the two versions of Scripture, it 
 were easy to point out the corrupt 
 and wilfully mutilated character of 
 the translation contained in the 
 Douay Bible. But I must take up 
 the next quotation which my oppo- 
 nent quoted, wiiich was from the 
 book of Tobias. Before he read it 
 he made some preliminary remarks 
 as to Protestants not having the 
 whole Bible. Now I contend that 
 we have the whole Bible — "the 
 wiiuLE Bible, and nothing but the 
 Bible" — when we hold this sacred 
 book in our hands. And to show 
 you fhat the books to which my 
 opponent referred — ^viz. Tobias, and 
 first and second of Maccabees, and 
 Baruk, and Esdras, and other apo- 
 cryphal books — ^have no claim to be 
 enumerated in the sacred canon, I 
 shall give yoa the following facts. 
 Let me ^dd, en passant, I might 
 quote from the Apocrypha, to show 
 that the Invocation of Saints is by 
 no means countenanced even there. 
 I observe, First — Tlie Apocrypha 
 was never written in the Hebrew 
 tongue,^ in which the whole of the Old 
 Testament was written. Secondly — 
 It was never recognised hy the Jews, 
 to whom were committed the oracles 
 of God. Thirdly — It is not quoted 
 in the catalogue of the books of the 
 Old Testament, in the pages of the 
 celebrated Jewish historian, Jose- 
 phiis, who ought to have known his 
 own eanon. In the fourth place — 
 That our Lord and the Apostles never 
 quote from the Apocrypha, and yet 
 they quote from almost every other 
 book of the Old Testament. In the 
 fifth place, I hold in mjr hand the 
 Catawgues of the Canonical Books 
 given Dy St. Jerome and others of 
 the fathers, who have excluded from 
 
 their catalogues at least niae-tem.hs 
 of these very books which the 
 Roman Catholic Church claims to 
 belong to the sacred canon. But 
 what IS the best evidence, after all, 
 whether the Apocrypha belongs or 
 belongs not to the Bible? Why 
 surely, the testimony of the writers 
 themselves ! My friend has referred 
 me to the Book of Maccabees. I 
 go to it. I quote from fifteenth 
 chapter of the Second Book of Mac- 
 cabees, verses 38, 39 : — " I also will 
 here make an end of my narration, 
 which, if I have done well, and as 
 it becometh the history, it is what 
 I desired ; but if not so perfectly, 
 it must be pardoned me." 
 
 Conceive an inspired writer mak- 
 ing use of such phraseology ! Now 
 conceive St. Paul asking pardon for 
 errors in the Epistle to the He- 
 brews ; or St. Peter asking pardon for 
 those in his two epistles ; and then 
 you will at once perceive that the 
 writers were far more honest than 
 the Church which claims them 
 They disclaim, you see, all claims 
 to inspiration. Nay, if my friend 
 is prepared to adopt part or all of 
 the Apocrypha — and I will give him 
 much more on this when we come 
 to a subject for which I long much, 
 the Eule of Paith — he must add to 
 the creed of his Church a new 
 article, justificatory of suicide ! as 
 it is applauded in one of the books 
 of the Apocrypha. It is here re- 
 corded in the Second Book of Mac- 
 cabees, xiv. 41 : " Now, as the mul- 
 titude sought to rush into his house 
 and to break open the door, and to 
 set fire to it, wien he was ready to 
 be taken, he struck himself vrith his 
 sword, choosing to die nobly rather 
 than to fall into the hands of the 
 wicked and to suffer abuses unbe- 
 coming his noble birth." 
 
 Here there is a sanction given, 
 indirectly, but most deoidealy, to 
 the practice of suicide. The rest of 
 
330 
 
 INVOCATION OP l&i/tEvemnff 
 
 the quotations of my ant-agonist from 
 sacred Scripture have really notlung 
 to do witli the subject. He quoted 
 Psalm xxxiv. 7 : " The angel of the 
 Lord encampeth round about them 
 that fear him, and dehTereth the>n ;" 
 ergo, says hej you are to pray to 
 angels! Now I can see no con 
 nexion between the premises and 
 conclusion. I am so blind as to see 
 none. He next quoted Psalm xci. 
 11 : " Eor he shall give his angels 
 charge over thee." Now you' will 
 recollect that Salan also quoted that 
 text to our Lord when he was 
 tempted in the wilderness. He 
 quoted it wrong, for he left out the 
 path of duty, " to keep thee in all 
 thy ways." I wiU Aot say now, 
 though I have the opportunity, that 
 my learned friend has been follow- 
 ing a very, very bad example ; but 
 certainly, to say the least, he has 
 had recourse to a very extraordi- 
 nary process for, proving, that be- 
 cause they have charge over us, it 
 follows that we are to worsliip them. 
 It was said of our Lord, " the 
 angels have charge of ihee," and 
 therefore, according to my learned 
 antagonist's patent aud peculiar 
 logic, the inference ought most un- 
 doubtedly to be, that our Lord 
 ought to worship the angels ; for 
 the prediction is not in reference to 
 us, but to Christ. But if the text 
 respected us, and I admit it is re- 
 corded that "angels are rainister- 
 ine servants to us," it does not 
 follow that we ai'e to pray to them. 
 We next had the passage which 
 alludes to " the seven spirits which 
 are before the throne," (in Revela- 
 tions i. 4.) and you may recoUeot he 
 called particular attention to it. He 
 said, " the seven spirits " must 
 mean angelic spirits before the 
 , throne. Now, suppose it did mean 
 so, I see not the least jot or tittle 
 of evidence in favour of worship- 
 ping thfem. This text from the 
 
 Apocalypse is, " Grace and peace 
 from the seven spirits which are 
 before, the throne;" but this proves 
 not t^at you are to worship them. 
 But let me, once for all, shut my 
 friend's mouth on this subject by 
 a quotation from " tzie glorious Au- 
 gustine," his great and admired fa- 
 voujite ; and I am sure that if St. 
 Augustine ' pronounces one way on 
 the seven spirits, and my friend 
 another, he will not fail to give 
 Augustine another slap for daring 
 to contradict him in his unanimous 
 interpretations of Scripture. Au- 
 gustine says : — "Which Holy Spirit 
 IS commended to us in the Sorip' 
 tures by the number seven, or the 
 seven-fold number, as well in Isaiah as 
 in the Apocalypse, where the seven 
 spirits are most evidently set forth." ' 
 — Hxpos. ofPsa. ol. tom. iv. p. 1693. 
 
 And then I quote 
 
 Mr. French [to the Catholic 
 Chairman, John Kendal, Esq.] — ^The 
 arrangement was, that we- should 
 not quote from the fathers to-night. 
 
 [John Kendal, Esq. then inti- 
 mated the same to Gboese Pinch, 
 Esq., the Protestant Chairman, who 
 forthwith reminded Mr. Gumming 
 of a pledge he had entered into on 
 the previous evening, which he ap- 
 peared to have forgotten.] 
 
 B.ev. J. Ctimming. — I am not to 
 quote, I find, from the fathers to- 
 night ! 
 
 Mr. Peench. — ^But you have 
 done it ; it does not matter. 
 
 Rev. J. Gumming. — ^I thought it 
 would be more satisfactory than any 
 exposition of my own ; and really, 
 recollecting no such pledge, I gave 
 the quotation. I can coimrm it by 
 another quotation from another dis- 
 tinguished father, Gregory Nazien- 
 zen : — " The precious spirits were 
 called seven. Por Isaiali, I think, 
 was accustomed to call the opera- 
 tions of the Spirit, spirits." — Forty- 
 first Oration, p. 733. 
 
Rev. J. Gumming.'] 
 
 SAINTS AND ANGELS. 
 
 sai 
 
 Now it seems I have satisfied him 
 from the Fathers that " the seven 
 spirits " mean the one Holy Spirit, 
 as we read that there are seven 
 churches to represent the whole 
 Chiirch. Our Lord is also repre- 
 sented with seven eyes, to show his 
 perfect wisdom. The number seven, 
 m fact, is received and recognised 
 as "the symbol of perfection." 
 Hence the seven spirits are descrip- 
 tive of the Holy Spirit. These 
 parallel passages most distinctly 
 show — ^unless I am to reject them, 
 and thus to imitate the example of 
 my learned opponent, who casts 
 Augustine overboard when he of- 
 fends liim — these passages show 
 that the seven spirits are the Holy 
 Spirit, and not angels or saints be- 
 fore the throne. The nest passage 
 he quoted was Apocalypse viu. 3 : — 
 "Another angel stood before the 
 altar, having a golden censer, and 
 there was given to him much in- 
 cense, that he should offer up the 
 prayers of all saints upon the golden 
 altar which is before the throne of 
 God." (Bouay Bible.) Now, said 
 he, here is a proof, at once, that 
 worship is to be given to angels. 
 Now, observe, in the first place, it 
 is not asserted hi the passage, that 
 you are to pray to this or any other 
 angel. But let that go. In the 
 next place, can we show who was 
 the angel with the golden censer ? 
 This question is solved in the Epistle 
 to the Hebrews, is. 24 : — "For Jesus 
 is not entered into the HoHes made 
 with hands, the pattern of the true, 
 but into heaven itself, that he may 
 appear now in the presence of God 
 for us." The Holiest of all had the 
 golden censer. (Heh. is. 4, Douay 
 version.) Christ is also called "the 
 Angel of the Covenant," the Angel 
 Jehovah, as I explained a^ain and 
 again, last Tuesday evening. In 
 the next place, if it be one of the 
 angeb merely t^t is here mentioned. 
 
 then it must follow that he was in- 
 vested with omnipresence and omni- 
 potence, being able to present the 
 prayers of all saints ; all the prayers 
 of the Virgin; all the prayers of 
 Peter; «W the ten thousand prayers 
 of ten thousand saints, scattered 
 throughout the whole world, and 
 existent in every age. Can he have 
 been finite to have done this ? No ; 
 he must have been infinite in power 
 to have presettted the prayers of 
 " all saints," from the Fcul down to 
 the close of the Gospel history. 
 And therefore the very act in which 
 the angel is engaged before God, at 
 the altar, and vrith the golden cen- 
 ser, is a fair demonstration to me. 
 that he must be the Angel of the 
 Covenant, the Angel Jehovah, Jesus 
 Christ, " God over all, blessed for 
 ever." 
 
 The next reference made was to 
 the words, "There is joy in the 
 presence of the angels of God over 
 one sinner that repenteth." Now» 
 I showed you before that the con- 
 text shows the intimation io have 
 been, conneyed to these angels of the 
 salvation and penitence of the sinner. 
 You win find that it is not stated in 
 the passage, that the moment the 
 lost sheep was found, the angels re- 
 joiced. But it is said it was God 
 the Father who first rejoiced, and 
 afterwards we read of the angels 
 rejoicing. I therefore contend that 
 God the Father rejoices over the 
 restitution of the lost; that Grod the 
 Son, when he sees the travail of his 
 sou], is satisfied ; and that the Holj 
 Spirit is glad when another sinner is 
 ailded to the company of the blest, 
 and that then the timngs circulate 
 through heaven, and angels- are also 
 bidden to rejoice. But it is a most 
 extraordinajy logic tiat would infer 
 from this passage a proof of the 
 point under discussion, namely, the 
 propriety of the invocation or wor- 
 ship of angela. There is not one 
 
332 
 
 INVOCATION OF 
 
 [6a 
 
 particle here about the worship of 
 angels. — My learned friend next 
 related a chapter of his own transac- 
 tions. He was pleased to go to a 
 Kble meeting, and to interrupt a 
 dissenting minister at the meeting, 
 who told the audience that " angafe 
 rejoiced over the circulation of the 
 Bible." If the orator in question 
 chose to say so, and to perpetrate 
 such an "orientalism," I am surely 
 not to blame for it. Christianity is 
 not answerable for sdl that men say. 
 Were I the' superior of the minister 
 who said so, I would bring him to 
 book. Neither he nor others are my 
 rule of faith; the oracles of the 
 living God aloae are binding on me. 
 
 We next had a disquisition upon 
 the merits of the Jesuits and otner 
 Papal missionaries who had gone to 
 Chma. I could give you startling 
 facts about these gentlemen, if time 
 only permitted. He talis about the 
 priests of the Church of Home rush- 
 ing out by storm and cahn, and by 
 night and day, to the assistance of 
 persons in sickness and disease, and 
 that thev will attend at any hour 
 you wisn them to come. I can 
 solemnly declare, that if word were 
 sent me from a dying widow or 
 orphan, at any hour of the night, or 
 day, I would go and pray wim and 
 solace them, whatever the personal 
 inconvenieuoB, though I must con- 
 fess I cannot promise either of them 
 a viatieum to heaven. [Laughter.] 
 And I bdieve there is not a Pro- 
 testant minister before me who 
 would not deem it his duty, no less 
 than his privilege, to go in similar 
 circumstances, whether he be a 
 Church-of-England man, or Baptist, 
 or a Weslevan ; for he is unworthy 
 the name«i a minister of the Gospel 
 if he will not go forth when God's 
 providence ce31s him, and when 
 God's grace may enable him. 
 
 Again : my friend referred to the 
 ancient liturgies, accompanied with 
 
 other remarks and ideas, which exist 
 nowhere on the face of the earth, 
 and in nobodv's judgment, except 
 in his own wild fancy, which. Hie 
 Jerome's, as I read you from Dupin, 
 seems to be rather warmly inclined; 
 to " orientalism " and oratory to- 
 night. I shall not, therefore, touch 
 them. In reference to the worship 
 of the Virgin Mary, on which I have 
 already made some remarks, I shall 
 lay before you some scriptural pas- 
 sages most surely rather opposed to 
 it. Luke i. 16 :— " My soul doth 
 magnify the Lord, and my spirit 
 rejoiceth in God my Saviour." She 
 did not say, I am his " wife," I am 
 "Queen of Heaven," I am the 
 " Spouse of the Holy Spirit ;" but 
 Mary felt her position the loftiest 
 when she became an humble wor- 
 shipper of Christ, and said, " My 
 soul doth magnify the Lord, and my 
 spirit rejoiceth in God my Saviouh.' ' 
 My opponent quoted, with seeming 
 triumph, the succeeding passage, in 
 which it is said, " Henceforth all 
 
 fenerations shall call me blessed." 
 Ivery Protestant in the Church of 
 England reads these words in the 
 Prayer-book every Sunday evening ; 
 and every Protestant, when he reaids 
 them in the Bible, admits them to 
 be chaste and just. But then every 
 Protestant feels that the inference 
 my opponent draws from the words 
 is most extravagant. He says these 
 words, "all generations shall call 
 me blessed" mean, " all generations 
 are to give me worship," as is ex- 
 pounded in the "Sacred Heart," 
 which my B.oman Catholic auditors 
 can refer to at home. My friend 
 complained of my figurative lan- 
 guage. Who is there thai now 
 uses oriental licences P :Surdy it is 
 the man who says that these words, 
 " All generations shall call me 
 blessed," mean, "You shall offer me 
 hyper-dcmliaa adoration," such as is 
 reoommendfid in Liguorif. I refer 
 
SAINTS ANB ANGELS. 
 
 Rev. J. Cumming.j 
 
 to Matthew v. 3, and we find there 
 others blessed as well as the Virgin. 
 " Blessed ar^ the poor in spirit, for 
 theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 
 Blessed are they that mourn, for 
 they shaU be comforted. Blessed 
 are the meek, for they shall inherit 
 the eaith. Blessed are they which 
 do hunger and thirst after right- 
 eousness, for they shall be fified. 
 Blessed are the merciful, for they 
 shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the 
 pure in heart, for they shall see 
 God. Blessed are the peace-makers, 
 for they shall be called the children 
 of God." If my opponent's logic is 
 good, and "blessed" means worthy 
 of worship, we find in these words 
 reason for falling down and worship, 
 ping the "peace-makers" them that 
 " mourn," or them that are " perse- 
 cuted for righteousness' sake." But 
 mark the disastrous consequences it 
 necessarily involves. Mf friend 
 says, " All generations shall call me 
 blessed,'' means, "aU generations 
 shall worship me;" and 'nDlessed art 
 thou among women," proves that she 
 is tohave the worship oityper.-doulia. 
 Pray follow me to the book of 
 Judges, V. 23 : — " Curse ye Meroz, 
 said the angel of the Lord, curse ye 
 bitterly the inhabitants thereof ; be- 
 cause they came not to the help 
 of the Lord against the mighty. 
 
 BlESSED AIOVE WOMEN SHAIi JaeL, 
 
 THE WIPE or Hebee the Kenite, 
 BE; blessed shall she be above 
 women in the tent." Now if Mary 
 being pronounced "blessed among 
 women " implies that Maiy is to be 
 worshipped, a fortiori, Jael, the wife 
 of Heber the Kenite, ought to be 
 worshipped, for " blessed shall she 
 be ABOVE women ;" and therefore I 
 would recommend the Church of 
 Rome, in th-sse reforming times, in 
 times when all sorts of corruptions 
 may be removed, to remove Mary 
 from the calendar, and, with more 
 consistency and scriptural force, 
 
 323 
 
 insert Jael in her room and niche. - 
 It win be at least a step nearer to 
 the Bible, though it falls infinitely 
 short of it. 
 
 In the next place, to show you 
 how Kttle precedent or encourage- 
 ment for worship to be given to 
 Mary is to be gathered from the 
 statement of our Lord, I will read 
 Luke xi. 27:— "And it came to 
 pass as he spake these things, a 
 certain woman of the companyEfted 
 up her voice, and said unto him. 
 Blessed is the womb that bare thee, 
 and the paps which thou hast 
 sucked." But he said, " Tea, rather 
 blessed are they that hear the word of 
 Ood, and heep it." In other words, 
 our Lord said to those who, accord- 
 ing to the Roman Catholic supersti- 
 tion, were inclined to give homage 
 to Maiy, " Yea, rather blessed are 
 they who hear the word of God and 
 do it." And, therefore, I pronounce 
 every Protestant in this assembly 
 who hears the word of God and does 
 it, more blessed than the Virgin ; I 
 pronounce every Roman Catholic 
 who does so, more blessed than the 
 Virgin ; and if more can be said, I 
 should say that "she was more 
 blessed (according to a quotation 
 which I might bring from the 
 fathers) for having believed in Christ, 
 than for having been the mother of 
 Christ," Again, in John ii., at the 
 turning water into wine, I find our 
 Lord saying, " Woman, what have I 
 to do with thee ? " You observe, 
 this is language as it is recorded, not 
 of disrespect, I admit, but stiU lan- 
 guage which gives not the least 
 foundation for the hyper-doulia given 
 to the Virgin in the Church of Rome. 
 Again ; there is a. passage in_ St. 
 Augustine on that very question; 
 but my friend has forbidden me to 
 read the fathers this evening. 
 
 Mr. Pbench. — ^You can do what 
 you like. 
 
 Rev. J. CTTMMDfG. — Augustine 
 
834 
 
 INVOCATION OF 
 
 [GtA Evemnp. 
 
 says, " It is written in the Gospel, 
 that when the mother and brethren 
 of Christ, that is, his rektions after 
 the flesh, were announced to him, 
 and waited withont, he answered, 
 ' Who is my mother, and who are 
 my brethren ? ' and, pointing to his 
 disciples, he said, 'These are my 
 brethren; and whosoeyer shall per- 
 form the will of my Father, he is 
 my brother, and mother, and sister.' 
 What else did he teach ns by this, 
 but that we should prefer our sprri- 
 tnaltoourcamalrelationship? Mast 
 
 THEEBPOEE WAS MOB.E BLESSED IN 
 ADOPTING THE TAIIH OP ChKIST 
 THAN CONCEIVING HIS PLBSH ; for 
 
 when some one said to him, ' Blessed 
 is the womb that bare thee,' he 
 answered, 'Yea, rather blessed are 
 they that hear the word of Grod, and 
 keep it.' Thus, also, Marjfs maternal 
 
 'nothing, if she had not borne Christ 
 more blessedly in. her heart than in 
 
 ch. iii. Jar. 6, p. 342, 
 
 That is the testimony of St. 
 Angustine ; " more blessed in believ- 
 ing the testimony Of Christ than in 
 conceiving his flesh." There is sal- 
 vation in no other name but that 
 exalted name, the name of Christ 
 Jesus, at which every knee shall 
 bow. And to show you the high 
 privileges with which Christ has 
 mvested us, we read : — " Let us 
 therefore come with boldness to a 
 throne of grace, that we may obtain 
 mercy, and find grace to help us, in 
 time of need." "Because ye are 
 the sons of God; God hath sent 
 forth the spirit of adoption into 
 your hearts, saying, Abba, Tather." 
 Let me add, in conclusion, that 
 there is no reason in the world why 
 we should have recourse to Mary's 
 mediation or intercession ; for, our 
 Lord being God and man, we con- 
 tend that, in virtue of his Godhead, 
 he lays his right hand on the throne ; 
 
 and in virtue of his perfect humanity, 
 he lays his left hand on the poorest 
 and most abject of the children of 
 men, thereby biin^g together 
 earth and heaven, men and God. 
 He is Job's perfect "Daysman" be- 
 tween God and ns. He is so high 
 that the loftiest archangel is not 
 beyond his control, and yet he 
 comes down so low that the poorest 
 orphan and the humblest widow may 
 share in his sympathy and love. 
 Whilst he listens to the archangels 
 song, offering to him the tribute of 
 adoring homage, let it never be for- 
 gotten that he hears the humblest 
 orphan's prayer. In the natural 
 world there are the telescope and 
 the microscope. Now the Roman 
 CathoKc Church allows the use of 
 the telescope, to show you the far 
 distant and mighty works in which 
 Christ is employed. She withholds 
 from you the microscope, to enable 
 you to see minute things the objects 
 of his care, and to see that, anud all 
 his greatness and aniid all his glory, 
 he nevertheless condescends to the 
 lowliest creature upon earth. Whilst, 
 in the natural world, he weaves the 
 gossamer wmg of the insect, and 
 adorns the violet with tints of love- 
 liness, he also wields worlds in their 
 orbits. While he listens to the 
 prayers of the afiBicted, and the sighs 
 of the widow and the orphan, he 
 also receives the anthem ped of 
 worshipping cherubim. The least 
 and the loftiest are alike under his 
 cognizance. Look by faith at Grod 
 in NATOBE, and you cannot see him, 
 you cannot reach him, he is shrouded 
 m almost impenetrable darkness ; 
 look at God in the law, and you 
 dare not approach him, he is " a con- 
 suming fire;" but look at Gtod in 
 the countenance of Christ, through 
 his mediatorial work, and there you 
 find him Immanuel, God with us. 
 In heaven he "appears for us : " as 
 it is stated in the language of the 
 
Hev. J'. Cumming.] 
 
 S \ INTS AND AMGELS. 
 
 325 
 
 Book of Revelations, " I saw a lamb, 
 as it were netoh/ slain," the marks 
 of death and craoiflxion still being 
 visible about Mm. We may, there- 
 fore, well say of Christ, what a great 
 poet makes Antony say of Caesar, 
 when he pointed to the wounds that 
 had been inflicted on the emperor's 
 body — "Show you sweet Csesar's 
 wounds, poor clumb mouths." So 
 those dumb mouths, which Christ 
 has borne into Ms Father's presence, 
 have each " a tongue in them," and 
 plead with piercing and prevaihng 
 eloquence for all who come unto 
 God tMough him. What can injure 
 us if Christ be our advocate ? Can 
 sin ? " His blood cleanses from all 
 sin." Can the law ? "It is mag- 
 nified." Can Satan ? He is " brmsed 
 under our feet, and fallen Hke light- 
 niag from heaven." " If God is for 
 us, wha can be against us ? " Who 
 can condemn ? it is God that justi- 
 fieth. Moreover, it is the especial 
 office of CMist to plead for us. It 
 is the office of the law to condemn; 
 it is the office of Satan to accuse ; 
 but it is the office of Christ to inter- 
 cede and to plead for us. And, 
 according to the quotation made also 
 by my learned opponent, " Christ is 
 our advocate, not our petitioner" 
 My opponent knows, the office of 
 the advocate is to make clear the 
 law of a case, to make patent all the 
 claims of a case. If Christ is the ad- 
 vocate, whom besides want we ? and 
 who can doubt but that every sioner 
 who goes by faith to Christ shall 
 have a verdidt of acquittal ? 
 
 Christ is represented as the hus- 
 band of Ms Church. Now what 
 would you think of a wife being so 
 afraid ot her husband that she 
 dare not ask for money for domestic 
 purposes, and for her family, unless 
 by the intervention of a neighbour? 
 You would say. This cannot be the 
 husband, or she cannot be the vidfe. 
 But Christ is the husband, and his 
 
 spouse is Ms Church; and therefore 
 the wife may go with boldness to 
 the husband without troubling 
 -saints, and ask for grace to help 
 her in her time of need. You 
 are aware of tMs, that by the law 
 of the country, when a man marries 
 a vrife, the husband becomes respon- 
 sible for all her debts — ^it is the law 
 of the land, that the husband be- 
 comes responsible for all her debts. 
 Now let me tell you, my dear 
 Roman Catholic friends, that you 
 have only to go and take Christ, 
 by faith, as your spiritual husband, 
 your only husband, to whom alone 
 you vrill render soul obedience and 
 worship, and He will be answer- 
 able for all your past) debts ; He 
 will cancel them with Ms blood; 
 .yea, he will nail the hand-writing to 
 the cross: and rest assured, virith 
 such a husband, " neither death nor 
 hfe, nor principalities nor powers 
 shall be able to sepaiate you from 
 the love of God, which is in Christ 
 Jesus our Lord." Again ; Christ is 
 called "the Head," and we are 
 called " the members." Now if 
 my little finger is injured, the sen- 
 sation is immediately carried to the 
 brain, and all the members of the 
 body sympathize with it. It is so 
 with Christ the head of the Church, 
 and the members, who are believers. 
 K the weakest and the poorest 
 member suffer, that suffering is 
 carried to heaven, and Christ sympa- 
 thizes vrith Ms suffering member. I 
 might show you many other pas- 
 sages of a simdar nature. You have 
 in the Lord Christ Jesus a perfect. 
 Mediator, a Mediator acceptable to 
 the Father, a Mediator possessed 
 of infimte and boundless love. And 
 if you wish to know what is the 
 sight of God, you,may realize that 
 wish by sfip. lfmg him in Christ. I 
 will refer you to a passage in 
 Exodus, xxxiv. 6. Moses said unto 
 God, " Show me thy glory;" and 
 
32G 
 
 INVOCATION or 
 
 [6iA Ihening. 
 
 God instantly replied, " Get thee 
 up into tlie rook, and I will make 
 all my glory to pass before thee." 
 Now remember, the apostle says 
 that " rock was Christ Jesus." 
 Now I am going to tell you, my 
 Roman Catholic friends, what a 
 si^ht you may see by faith, if you 
 wiU turn saints aside. Take Christ 
 as your only " rock," your only 
 advocate, your only intercessor. 
 Moses went into the " rock," and 
 the Lord passed before him, and 
 " proclaimed the Lobb the Loud 
 God, merciful and gracious, long- 
 suffering and abundant in goodness 
 and truth, keeping mercy for thou- 
 sands, forgiving iniquity, transgres- 
 sion, and sin." 
 
 Now only mark what you can 
 learn from this, if you only lean 
 on Christ, and trust in him! 
 The name of God is Jehovah; 
 he who creates something out of 
 nothing, a clean heart where there 
 is none. But you may say, I am a 
 guilty and a wicked smner. Then 
 the next sight which Moses saw, 
 was the Lord God, M, the strong 
 God, the God of infinite power and 
 might, the God who can " change 
 the heart of stone into a heart of 
 flesh." If you say, I am a sinner, 
 I am afraid to go near him, my 
 answer is. That in Christ, by faith, 
 he is " merciful ;" the meaning of 
 which is, he is the God who for- 
 gives sin, because in Christ he is 
 " merciful." And if the Eoman 
 Catholic should still say, " Oh, but 
 I have nothing to give him for his 
 mercy, nothing to give him in re- 
 turn," then the next character in 
 his name is that he is " gracious;" 
 he gives gratuitously, " without 
 money and without price." If you 
 should say, I have sinned ten, 
 twenty, thirty, forty, seventy years, 
 the answer I make is, That he is 
 " long-suffering," and will bear with 
 vou wng, and will not be angry 
 
 with you for ever. If you say, 
 " But I fear my sins are so many, 
 that I have exhausted God's mercy," 
 the answer is. He is " abundairt 
 in goodness and in truth." You 
 may say, " But surely, after five 
 thousand years of the world have 
 roEed by, God's mercy must be 
 exhausted, and there is none re- 
 maining for me;" the answer is, 
 " He keepeth mercy for thousand 
 generations." If you should say, 
 "1 have been gmlty of original 
 sin, of actual sin, of sm in thought, 
 word, and deed," the next feature 
 in his character, which is laid 
 before you, is " forgiving iniquity, 
 transgression, and sin," i. e. aU sorts 
 and kinds of sin and of vricked- 
 ness. Now this is just the very 
 God which sinners want ; this is 
 the God, my friends, without whom 
 we cannot live, or attain to final 
 everlasting happiness. Now the 
 question is. Where are we to find 
 this God? Is it through Jlf«jy.'' ^^ >. 
 Is it through Paul? No. Is it 
 through his distinguished and illus- 
 trious, saints ? No ; it is alone 
 where Moses saw him, in the 
 " B,ocK," and that rock, my Ifriends, 
 is Christ. And rest assured, if 
 you will go to God by faith through 
 Christ, yon will find in that God 
 every mercy and every blessing of 
 whidi you stand in need, both for 
 time and for eternity ; and oh ! 
 remember this glorious truth, he 
 is " able to save to the uttermost 
 all that come unto God through 
 him." " Christ is able to save to 
 the uttermost." Tell me the limits 
 of uttermost. Is it not infinitude 
 itself; without begmning, without 
 end; without bound or circum- 
 scription? Now, whom is he able 
 to save to the uttermost ? " Those 
 who conie unto God." Is it through 
 MaiT ? Not a word about it. 
 
 Mr. French inquired for the 
 reference. 
 
Sev.J. 
 
 .1 
 
 SAINIS AIs'D AUGBJiS. 
 
 327 
 
 Rev. J. Gumming. — I am quoting 
 from Hebrews vii. 35. Is it those 
 who come unto him through Peter, 
 ot Paul, or James ? Not a ■word 
 about these : " He is able to save 
 to the uttermost all who come unto 
 God through him," (Christ.) Let 
 me add, that sin is a tremendous 
 gulf between earth and hea,ven. 
 Now Christ Jesus is the pathway ; 
 he calls himself " the way, the 
 truth, and the bfe;" he is the plank 
 placed across that gulf; the one 
 end of the pathway, being his 
 Godhead, is at the foot of the 
 eternal throne ; the other end, being 
 his humanity, completely spans the 
 gulf, and reaches mankind; so 
 that the thief hanging on the cross, 
 should he by faith enter on that 
 pathway, will be borne onward 
 and upward until he reaches the 
 bosom of his Eather and his God. 
 " Seeing that Christ ever liveth to 
 make intercession for us." My 
 friends, he ever intercedeth»for us, 
 and therefore the aid of saints 
 csnnot be necessary, because if I 
 go to the Father (let me call the 
 special attention of my Roman 
 Catholic friends to this), because if 
 I go to the Father (I quote from 
 your own Bible, the Douay), " what- 
 soever ye shall ask the Father in 
 my name, I will do it, and the 
 Jb'ather shall be glorified." Now 
 mark the safety of Protestantism. 
 You may be wrong;' xiay, if my 
 reasoning be correct, you must be 
 wrong ; but even on your own 
 principles, we Protestants are safe, 
 because Christ is able to " save to 
 the uttermost all that come unto God 
 through him." Again: "Whatsoever 
 ye sh3l ask the Father iu my name, 
 I win do it." And, therefore, we 
 Protestants, who ask the Father in 
 the name of Christ, must be right, 
 And if ever you should need a pas- 
 sage to encourage you in the hour 
 of trial, read in Ephesians, ui. 18 : 
 
 " For through him we have access 
 by one Spirit to the Father." You 
 observe, there is no need of saints 
 between us and Christ ; in Christ 
 we have "boldness." The Uterai 
 translation is, " freedom of speech, 
 the utterance of ideas in confi- 
 dence ;" and the apostle adds, " Be- 
 cause we have such an High-priest, 
 let us come boldly to the throne of 
 grace to find mercy, and to seek 
 grace to help us in the time of need." 
 
 Again : we read, " Whosoever 
 shall call upon the name of the 
 Lord shall be saved." And again : 
 (I address it to my Roman Cathohc 
 friends) " We have not received the 
 s|>irit of bondage again to fear, 
 but the spirit of adoption, whereby 
 we cry, Abba, Father." When you 
 want an intercessor, have recourse 
 to no other, for it is stated, 
 " through Him we have boldness to 
 enter into the holiest, by the blood 
 of Jesus. Ye have not received 
 the spirit of bondage, but the spirit 
 of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, 
 Father." Oh, take with you, my 
 dear friends, these words. Turn 
 to the Lord, and not to Mary; 
 cleave to the everlasting Creator, 
 and not to the dying creature, 
 "He that seeketh, shall find me; 
 to him that knocketh, it shall be 
 opened." " If ye, being evil, know 
 how to give good g;ifts unto your 
 children, how much more vriU yoiir 
 heavenly Father give the Spirit 
 to them that ask him !" Rememoer, 
 you are all responsible before wit- 
 nessing heaven, for the reception or 
 rejection of these truths. As I 
 told you before, " we shall all stand 
 at the judgment bar of Christ." 
 
 And if, my friends, notwithstand- 
 ing the light of Scripture which 
 you have received, you persist in 
 leaning on " broken reeds" and 
 drinking from " broken cisterns," 
 in having recourse to Mary and ten 
 thousand other saints, you will 
 
328 
 
 INVOCATION or 
 
 most inevitably perish. You mav 
 go to God by faith, I assure you, 
 with no other intervention than 
 Christ : — " For ye are not come 
 unto the monnt that might not be 
 touched, and that burned with fire, 
 nor into blackness, and darkness, 
 and tempest, and the sound of a 
 trumpet, and the voice of words, 
 which voice they that heard en- 
 treated that the word should not be 
 spoken to them any more. But ye 
 are come unto Mount Zion and 
 unto the ci^ of the living God, the 
 heavenly Jerusalfem, and to an 
 innumerable company of angels; to 
 the general assembly and Church 
 of the firstborn, which are written 
 in heaven, and to God the Judge 
 of all, and to the spirits of just men 
 made perfect, and to Jesus, the Me- 
 diator of the new covenant, and 
 to the blood of sprinkling, that 
 speaketh better thmgs than the 
 blood of AheV'—Heb. xii. 18. 
 
 I implore, you therefore, by the 
 mercy of God, despite what your 
 Church, your priests, or your popes 
 may say, to have recourse solely to 
 the doctrines of the sacred oracles. 
 If your Church speak at aU con- 
 trary to that sacred book, it is 
 because " there is no truth in it." 
 
 Here the loud voice of a Catholic 
 was raised at the extremity of the 
 room to the foUowmg boisterous 
 effect : — "It does not ; it never wHL 
 do ;" upon which the reverend gen- 
 tleman repeated the climax of his 
 speech with greater emphasis than 
 before. Both the Chairmen rose 
 to order. One gentleman insisted 
 that the person so dissenting should 
 give up his admission ticket, upon 
 which 
 
 Mr. French rose, and address- 
 ing the audience, said — I am really 
 sorry that any Catholic should so 
 far forget himself. The Protestants 
 conduct themselves, I must say, 
 with great propriety, with but very 
 
 few exceptions. There have been 
 some, but not any so violent as that. 
 [After the lapse of a few mo- 
 ments the learned gentleman (on 
 the restoration of attention) began 
 his second address.] 
 
 Mr. Fkench. — My learned oppo- 
 nent has been most amusingly flut- 
 tering about for the last hdf-hour, 
 to use his own expression, as it 
 were, " on the light wing of the 
 gossamer ; " but, m his usual man- 
 ner, has rambled fai, far away from 
 the field of argument. I however, 
 shall not foUow his example. No, 
 my friends, despising the vain thing 
 called the gossamer, I shall dart at 
 once on the wings of the eagle 
 into the fax distant regions of anti- 
 quity ; and lighting at the feet of a 
 true disciple of the apostles, the 
 blessed Irenseus, who flourbhed in 
 the year of oui Lord 177, of Mm 
 inquire, whether Mary maj with 
 just p#opriety be called our advocate 
 or not. Now listen to his words : 
 
 "And as Eve was seduced to 
 fly from God, so was the Virgin 
 Mary induced to obey him, that she 
 might become the advocate of her 
 that had fallen." — ^t. Iretue. adv. 
 Hares. 1. v. 2—19, p. 316. Edit. 
 Benedict. Paris, 1710. 
 
 Really, my friends, my eagle, you 
 must acknowledge, has conducted 
 me on triumphant wing through the 
 space of ages ! What ' wiB my 
 learned friend now say in answer- 
 to this glorious evidence ? The best 
 shift I could recommend to my 
 baffled foe would be, to cry out most 
 lustily, "Why, that said Irenseus 
 was a rani Papist, or he never 
 would have called Mary our (tdvo- 
 cate." [Laughter.] My antagonist 
 asserts that it is superstitious, that 
 it is idolatrous so to call her. Of 
 course, he means to assert that it 
 is something novel in Christianity, 
 and of no ancient date. Does the 
 
Mr. French.] 
 
 learned gentleman mean serionslj 
 to majntain, that the year of onr 
 Lord 177 is not an ancient date ? 
 And if he acknowledge it to be 
 ancient, with what front will the 
 reverend gentleman continue hence- 
 forward to laugh the Catholic to 
 scorn for calling Mary our ad/oocate, 
 when one of the earliest of those 
 very fathers whom, when occasion 
 suits, the reverend gentleman him- 
 self quotes as corroborative testi- 
 monies in his own cause, positively 
 calls her by that very name, against 
 which he has been so violently 
 storming for this long time past, to 
 my no smaU astonishment, bnt to 
 my infinite delight, whilst I was 
 silently coUecting aU the strength 
 of that irresistible thunderbolt from 
 the archives of antiquity, by which 
 my antagonist in argument now lies 
 prostrate at my feet. Yes, Mary 
 being thus clearly proved by L-enseus 
 in the year 177 to be ow advocate, 
 who will listen to my reverend an- 
 tagonist in the nineteenth century, 
 furiously and tempestuously voci- 
 ferating that she is not ? 
 
 Thus you see, gentlemen, there is 
 nothing like darting on the wings 
 of an eagle, when one wishes to 
 arrive swutly at the place of desti- 
 nation. At all events my metapho- 
 rical friend will long remember the 
 luckless introduction of his ffossamer 
 into a discussion of this kind ; 
 never can the name of that ffemis 
 volatile be mentioned hereafter in 
 the learned gentleman's presence, 
 without calling to his mind, by 
 association of ideas, tie eagle and 
 
 SAINTS AND ANGELS. 
 
 329 
 
 To come now to my learned op- 
 ponent's general train of reasoning, 
 especially in his allusions to Scrip- 
 ture. The argumentative way of 
 proceeding on the part of my learned 
 mend would have been, to prove 
 that in some age, some distant age, 
 Drayers were not otfef ed up by the 
 
 Church of God. But instead a* 
 doing" that, he gives us his own 
 arbitrary ipse dixits and arbitrary 
 declamation on the meaning of the 
 Gospel, where, even in the most 
 figurative parts, whether apocryphal 
 or apocalyptic, he has a most ready 
 explanation, and pours it forth in 
 the most didactic and imperious 
 manner. But I at once deny his 
 interpretation. I deny that those 
 angels which were worshipped by 
 Isaac and others — I deny that they 
 were the Lord God. I maintain 
 most strenuously that they were 
 real angels. And at all events, if 
 they were not angels, when Isaac 
 paid them the devotion and ador- 
 ation which is mentioned in Scrip- 
 ture, 1 affirm that he was under a 
 delusion at least, and that, oven if 
 it was God, he thought it was an 
 angel. The learned gentleman never 
 can contradict, and I could logi- 
 cally establish my position by the 
 pages of the Gospel, that it was 
 lawful to venerate angels ; and I 
 win prove it most circumstantially 
 and most clearly in what I have 
 prepared to lay before you this 
 evening. Before I go on, however, 
 I am determined to notice those 
 disingenuous proofs which my friend 
 has collected from the pages of the 
 Testament. With respect to the 
 book of Maccabees, I maintained 
 that it was canonical, because it 
 was settled by the fathers of the 
 Council of Carthage between the 
 years 300 and 400. It was then 
 that those books were settled. Prom 
 that time down to the period of the 
 Reformation they were uniforinly 
 received by the whole Christian 
 world, as comprehending and con- 
 taining the authentic Bible. At the 
 time of the Reformation the doc- 
 trine of Purgatory incurred dislike 
 and was expunged, about the reign 
 of the eighth Henry. And what 
 are the arguments oy which the 
 m2 
 
330 
 
 IMVOCAIION or [6tt Evening, 
 
 learned gentleman wishes to perpe- 
 tuate and ratify the expunging of 
 the book of Maccabees r Observe 
 how weak and indefensible they 
 are ! One appears to be because the 
 author excuses himself as to his 
 impoverished style ; he says he has 
 " done ■ his utmost." Well ! and 
 did not St. Paul, talking of his ovm 
 writings, declare that some things 
 were of his own, and not inspired ? 
 Pid he not at other times say, "I 
 am rude in speech," that is unsToHed 
 in the minutise and elegances qf 
 language ? My learned mend well 
 knows that the word rudis in Latin 
 signifles unskilled; and what is that 
 but a downright apology for inele- 
 gance of language and style ? Aiid 
 does Maocabseus say more ? And if 
 he does not say that the subject was 
 under inspiration, he at least says 
 nothing to invaHdate its worth. 
 But who would ever wipe away a 
 book which has been received so 
 long without murmuring, settled 
 by an early Council, merely in con 
 secjuence of a few observations of 
 this kind ? If so, then let us reject 
 the Gospel of St. Luke, for he says, 
 " forasmuch as many have taken in 
 hand to set forth in order a decla- 
 ration of those things which are 
 most surely believed among us, even 
 as they deKvered them unto us, 
 which from the beginning were eye- 
 witnesses and ministers of the 
 word ; it seemed good to me also, 
 having had perfect understanding of 
 all things from the very first, to 
 write unto thee in order, most 
 excellent TheopMlus, that thou 
 mightest know the certainty of 
 those things wherein thou hast been 
 instructed." Now I most firmly 
 believe every tittle of this book of 
 the Gospel written by St. Luke to 
 be divinely inspired ; out if I am to 
 
 ?ive way to his train of reasoning, 
 must say that it is not inspired, 
 and that most clearly so, by reason 
 
 of Ms saying, " It seemed good to 
 me also, havmg had perfect under- 
 standing of all things from the very 
 first, to write unto thee in order, 
 most excellent Theophilus;" instead 
 of saying, "It seemed good unto 
 the Holy Ghost," &o. &c. I say, if 
 we are to adopt this human kind of 
 reasoning, if we are not to receive 
 the authentic sanction of age after 
 age, from the time of the Council 
 of Carthage till now, then we must 
 expunge this book from the creed 
 of a Christian land. Nay, even the 
 Song of Solomon, if we are to judge 
 in this way with the eyes of the 
 natural xmderstanding, must also 
 be expunged ; and if you were to 
 appeal to the Christians of the whole 
 universe, and to ask them whether 
 they would even have suspected 
 them to be inspired, they would 
 answer, if they spoke truth. No, they 
 never could, unless they knew it 
 from the authority of the church ? 
 What church!' wnat church ? The 
 Calvinistic Church ? — it was never 
 heard of ! The Lutheran ? — ^it was 
 never heard of ! The Anabaptist ? — 
 it was never heard of i The Society 
 of Eriends ?-^they were never heard 
 of I No ; the Catholic Church 
 settled its character, and handed 
 down that book to posterity, other- 
 wise they would not have known 
 that it was inspired. And there is 
 not a candid man in this assembly, 
 if he were to take it up and con- 
 sider the expressions therein used, 
 that would affirm, unless he had the 
 guide and the authority of the 
 church, that it was divinely inspired. 
 I say, therefore, it is a most unfair 
 and uncandid way of thus defao 
 ing the completeness of the Bible, 
 and of defrauding — deliberately, 
 wickedly, impiously defrauding the 
 British nation of that solid food, 
 immutable and eternal. 
 
 Another observation I have to 
 make, before I go to the subject- 
 
M.r. French.'] 
 
 SAINTS AND ANGELS. 
 
 331 
 
 matter of discussion, is with regard 
 to the learned gentleman's attempt- 
 ing to defend the Church of England 
 Biole, which is palpably notorious 
 over the whole world for infi^ehty 
 and mistranslation — ay, on the vital 
 points too, done, not by the igno- 
 rance of men unversed in the Greek 
 language, but by men who dehbe- 
 rately sat down to pervert and 
 vitiate its sacred and inviolable 
 doctrines. The learned gentleman 
 tells us he has read it over and 
 over again in Greek. 
 
 Rev. J. Gumming. — I said, in 
 Hebrew. 
 
 Mr. Pbench. — ^What ! <he New 
 Testament in Hebrew ? [Laughter.] 
 
 Rev. J. Gumming. — No ! I said 
 the Old ia Hebrew? and the New 
 Testament in Greek. 
 
 Mr. Ebbnch. — Oh, very well ; 
 "the New Testament in Greek." 
 Now he must well know how fre- 
 quently unfaithfnl it is. I have not 
 time to go into many proofs; but 
 there is one which I shall present 
 to the notice of this assembly, to 
 show you how infamously mistrans- 
 lated it is. I call my friend's atten- 
 tion to ] Cor. vii. 9 : " But if they 
 cannot contain, let them marry, for 
 it'is better to marry than to bum." 
 Now, my friends, that is not the 
 original. It is a falsehood imposed 
 on you ! It is not the sacred word 
 of God. It is the impious word of 
 interpolating man ! The original is 
 here : ei Se ovk lyKpaTevovTai, that 
 is, "if they f^o not contain, let them 
 marry." What could authorize men 
 to sit down and put the words "if 
 they cannot?" Had it been "if 
 they cannot," the Greek would 
 have been ov Swavrai. Do not 
 interpreters like these draw down 
 upon themselves the imprecation de- 
 nounced against those who add any 
 thing to, or take anything from, 
 that sacred book ? But, my friends, 
 there was good, soUd reason at the 
 
 time for mistranslating. The re- 
 formers in this country, who had 
 taken solemn vows to God that they 
 would never marry, took this pM- 
 sage which is thus mistranslated, 
 and pointed to it in palliation of 
 their crime. Now, my friends, to 
 show vou how that would act on 
 the Bible, " they cannot contain," 
 I call your attention to the second 
 chapter of the first Epistle of Peter, 
 V. 11 : " Dearly beloved, I beseech 
 you as strangers and pilgrims, ab- 
 stain from fleshly lusts, which war 
 against the soul." 
 
 Again, listen to St. Paul : " For 
 the ^ace of God, that bringeth sal- 
 vation, hath appeared unto all men, 
 teaching us, that by denying un- 
 godliness and worldly lusts we 
 should live soberly, righteously, and 
 godly in this present world." Titus 
 S. 11, 12. 
 
 If my time would permit it, I 
 would notice innumerable other mis- 
 translationij of a still more flagrant 
 and iniquitous cast ; but I am di- 
 verted from the direct subject of 
 remark, and I am sorry for it, 
 by those observations upon Dupin 
 which my learned antagonist has 
 made. I told him that Dupin was 
 a man who, so far from bemg au- 
 thorized in our Church, had oeen 
 fulminated against at the time he 
 wrote that abominable history by 
 the heads of the Church ; and I 
 doubt whether he was a CathoHc 
 at aU. I will read to you a quota- 
 tion on this subject from Chalmer's 
 Dictionary. 
 
 You must remember that this is 
 a Protestant vmter. It gives the 
 worst account of things ; but, bad 
 as it is, it will do for my purpose 
 this evening. 
 
 " The first volume of his ' Bib- 
 liotheque,' (says Chahner,) was 
 printed at Paris, 1686, 8vo; and the 
 others in succession, as far as five 
 volumes, which contained an aoi 
 
332 
 
 IirVOCATION OF 
 
 count of the first eight centuries. 
 The freedom, however, which he 
 had used in criticizing the style, 
 character, and doctrines of some of 
 the ecclesiastical writers, roused 
 the prejudices of the celebrated 
 Bossuet, who exhibited a complaint 
 against Dupin to Harlay, Arch- 
 bishop of Paris. "The Archbishop, 
 accordingly, in 1693, published a 
 decree against the work, yet with 
 more deliberation than might have 
 been expected. His Grace first 
 ordered the work to be read by four 
 doctors of divinity of the faculty of 
 Paris, who perused it separately, 
 and then, combining their remarks, 
 drew up a report which they pre- 
 sented to the Archbishop. 
 
 " Dupin was then summoned 
 before the Archbishop and the Doc- 
 tors, and after several meetings, 
 gave in a paper in which he delivered 
 his opinion on the objections made 
 to his book in such a manner as to 
 satisfy them that, however liberal 
 his expressions, he was himself 
 sound; but the work itself, they 
 thought, nevertheless, must be con- 
 demned, ' as containing several pro- 
 positions that are false, rash, scan- 
 dalous, capable of offending pious 
 ears, tendmg to weaken the argu- 
 ments, which are brought from tra- 
 dition to prove the authority of tlie 
 canonical books of Holy Scripture, 
 and of several other articles of faith; 
 injurious to general councils, to the 
 Apostolic See, and to the fathers 
 of the church ; erroneous, and lead- 
 ing to heresy.' " 
 
 Such, gentlemen, is the extract 
 from Lupin; and such is the Ca- 
 tholic evidence brought forward by 
 my reverend antagonist, namely, the 
 evidence of a man convicted of 
 writing works leading U heresy, and 
 " injwriom to the holy Apostolic 
 See." Such, I say, is the evidence 
 whereby he would give a concus- 
 .sion to those grand Uturgies of the 
 
 church, which all learned Protest- 
 ants, vying in zeal for them with 
 all learned Catholics, cry out una- 
 nimously. Ilia manent immota locis, 
 neque ab ordine cedunt, that is, they 
 are propped upon an immovable 
 basis. G«), then, my reverend friend, 
 I exclaim; and when you bring 
 again Catholic witnesses against Ca- 
 tholic writings, see that they come 
 not with the brand of heresy on 
 their fronts. 
 
 But again, is it not unfair in the 
 learned gentleman, who knew this, 
 to come and bring Dupin against 
 us ? I stall merely quote one more 
 extract, with reference to that cele- 
 brated passage : " Woman, what 
 have I to do with thee ?" ISl ow the 
 fact is, that this has been frequently 
 urged by men who have not re- 
 flected deeply on the Bible. There 
 is one way of reading the Testa- 
 ment which consists ia merely read- 
 ing the words, and another which is 
 to dive profoundly into their mean- 
 ing. In the first place, the learned 
 gentleman knows, because I heard 
 him at a lecture explain and ac- 
 knowledge, that the word " woman" 
 is not the same in signification ia 
 Greek as it is in English. 
 
 Rev. J. Ctjmming. — ^No ! 
 
 Mr. Pbench. — Well, at least it 
 was Mr. Parkinson, on the learned 
 gentleman's side. [Laughter.] Mr.P. 
 admitted it. He had the candour 
 to say, that in Greek it was a far 
 softer appellation, and did not sound 
 so harshly in the Greek as it does in 
 English ; but that it was a tender, 
 and soft, and endearing appellation. 
 I shall, however, translate it myself. 
 I declare that it is susceptible of 
 both translations. But this is cer- 
 tain [the learned gentleman here 
 alludes to the marriage feast at 
 Cana], there was a perfect intelli- 
 gence and understanding between 
 the Mother and the Son. TheVir^ 
 knew what was going on in the mmd 
 
Mr, Frenckl 
 
 of the Saviour; for, without one 
 word from him, she orders the 
 servants to get ready the vessels, 
 and not a word intervened, significa- 
 tive of any such desire from the 
 Saviour. And thus the first great 
 miracle was wrought before his time 
 for the working of miracles was 
 come, to show the eminent dignity 
 of the blessed woman, who was to 
 he " blessed throughout all genera- 
 tions ;" to show that, in the language 
 of St. Irenseus, " she was to be re- 
 cognised as our advocate without 
 destroying the intercession of the 
 great Mediator." But, my friends, 
 were I to listen to the learned gen- 
 tleman's flights of eloquence and 
 rhetoric for whole days and years, 
 he never would convince me, or any 
 man who knows what the laws of 
 reasoning are, that there is greater 
 propriety in one sinful man demand- 
 mg the prayers of another on earth, 
 than of a man asking the prayers of 
 a glorified spirit in heaven. Por 
 my friend knows that the Bible says 
 saints are equal to the angels : they 
 are made perfect — are equal to the 
 angels. What part of the Bible 
 can my friend bring forward to prov e 
 his position — that strange incon- 
 sistency, which he repeats over and 
 over again in his didactic style — 
 namely, that it is lawful to ask the 
 prayers of a neighbour, but not to 
 
 five you permission to pray to the 
 lessed, vmo are before the throne 
 of grace, and enjoying the rich 
 beatitudes of heaven? — declaring 
 that it is preposterous; that it is 
 interfering with the one great Inter- 
 cessor ! Well, my answer to that 
 is just as dogmatical and didactic as 
 his own. I say that it does not 
 interfere at all ; that it is a custom 
 that was established in the first 
 ages of Christianity, and has been 
 transmitted to me from the apostles ; 
 and I win cling to it to the very 
 end of my life. 
 
 SAINTS AND ANGELS 
 
 333 
 
 Now, gentlemen, I shall show 
 ypu that this adoration or venera- 
 tion of saints Jnd angels, and holy 
 things, is sanctioned m many of the 
 passages of the New Testament. In 
 the first place, I quote, "Exalt ye 
 the Lord and worship at his foot- 
 stool.'" Now, I have told you, that 
 net vrithout reason is it called the 
 footstool of the Lord, for it was 
 placed over the propitiatory ark, as 
 if it were the seat of God, which 
 was held by the hand of the che- 
 rubim, as we find in the beginning 
 of the psalm. And here, by-the-bye, 
 I will answer another passage 
 brought against us with respect to 
 images and statues, from which we 
 are charged with idolatry by our 
 malignant enemies. And I would 
 here mention that the carvings of 
 the cherubim were appointed by 
 God himself. I quote from Fsalm 
 xxxii. 7. "We wiU go into his 
 tabernacles, and we will worship at 
 his footstool — adoraUmus scabellum 
 pedum ejui." I contend that this is 
 a gross mistranslation. It is " we 
 mil worship his footsiool," and not 
 " at his footstool." Now it is ma-r 
 nifest from these places that some 
 species of adoration is directed to be 
 observed, from the words " to wor- 
 ship ;" and lastly, that this worship 
 is not of a civil institution, is fully 
 evident from the words of David 
 himself; "for it is holy," that is, 
 "the footstool is holy." l said the 
 adjective may be feminme or mas- 
 culine. Agam, I quote 1 Ohron. 
 chap. xsix. ver. 20 : " And David 
 said to all tlie congr^ation. Now 
 bless the Lord your God ; and all 
 the congregation blessed the Lord 
 God of their fathers, and bowed down 
 their heads and worshipped the Lord 
 and their king." There, you see, is 
 the same word applied for the wor- 
 shipping God and kings ; which at 
 once overturns my friend's whole 
 argument as to its being unlawful 
 
i),A 
 
 INVOCATION OF 
 
 [6iA Evemng. 
 
 for us to venerate and worship the 
 saints of God. Here we have the 
 same word "worship" applied to 
 God and to kings. Of course the 
 same species of worship was not in- 
 tended to be conveyed, but the same 
 word is used, and that is enough to 
 confound my friend for ever.' 
 
 Mr. Gumming here whispered to 
 some persons next him, upon which 
 Mr. French continued: Do you 
 deny my position P 
 
 Rev. i. CumminGt (smiling or 
 laughing). — Do you mean to make 
 a distinction between the two ? 
 
 Mr. Pkench. — ^If you laugh at 
 the argument, it is unseasonable for 
 me to proceed till you get into a 
 serious mood. I say that the word 
 is used indiscriminately, and is 
 either significant of worship due to 
 God, or worship due to kings, and 
 therefore to saints. But the wor- 
 ship of God is a prostration of aU 
 the powers of the soul in humble 
 adoration : the prostration to saints 
 is an inferior kind; it is a mere 
 veneration of them, as being persons 
 infinitely honoured and exalted by 
 the Lord Jesus Christ. But the 
 ark is not said to be worshipped on 
 account of any civil honour or pre- 
 eminence, but because it is sacred 
 and holy, since it is the footstool of 
 God. In the second place, in Scrip- 
 ture, wherever we find any one 
 worshipped, the construction is uni- 
 formly made with Lamed, as in 
 Genesis vii. 3i,3 : " And Abraham 
 stood up and bowed himself to the 
 people of the land, even to the 
 children of Heth." Now it says, 
 " he bowed himself to the people of 
 the land:" that is, he worshipped 
 by prostration of body. There, you 
 bee, the word is again used. In 
 Latin it wiU be Adoravit Abraham 
 populum feme — " Abraiham adored 
 or worshipped the people of the 
 land." TmrdlT, admitting it to 
 signify temjle, still the same thing 
 
 would be signified, for the Hebrew 
 word is, "Bow yourselves down to 
 that king, or worship the footstool" 
 — Incureate vos ad iilam rem. The 
 learned gentleman may pride himself 
 on his knowledge of Hebrew, but I 
 can tell him thatCardinalBeUarmine 
 was equal to hini or any man now 
 living, in Hebrew ; and these argu- 
 ments are drawn from a fountain 
 that will stand against any of the 
 theologians of the present day. But 
 all this is proved, most irrefragably, 
 by adverting to other places in the 
 Bible. I quote 1 Sam. vi. 19 : — 
 "And he smote the men of Beth- 
 shemeth, because they had looked 
 into the ark of the Lord ; even he 
 smote of the people fifty thousand 
 and threescore and ten men, and the 
 people lamented because the Lord 
 had smitten many of the people vrith 
 a great slaughter." You see that 
 for only looking into the ark so 
 many were kiUed ; no wonder that 
 he says they fell down before the 
 ark, and paid it an inferior kind of 
 worship and adoration. Again, 
 2 Sam. vi. 6 : — "And when they 
 came to Nachon's threshing-floor, 
 Uzzia put forth his hand to the ark 
 of God, and took hold of it, for the 
 oxen shook it ; and the anger of the 
 Lord was kindled against Uzzia, 
 and God smote him there for his 
 error ; and there he died by the ark 
 of God." Now, certainly it was not 
 for merely shaking the ark of God 
 that this vengeance was inflicted; 
 for certainly no injury could be in- 
 flicted on its mighty inmate. Lastk, 
 on account of the honour due to the 
 ark, no one dared to enter into the 
 holy of holies where it stood, ex- 
 ceptingthe high-priest once a year, 
 as St. Paul tells us in the 9tn of 
 Hebrews. Again, it is proved by the 
 worship exhibited to angels by 
 pious and prudent men, m Gen. 
 chap, xviii. (now I wish to call your 
 attention to this chap xviii. ver. 1.) 
 
Mr. Fretich.y 
 
 SAINl-t AND ANGELS. 
 
 Z-i5 
 
 —" And the Lord appeared to him 
 in the plains of Mamre, as he sat in 
 the tent-door in the heat of the day ; 
 and he lift up his eyes and looked, 
 and lo ! three men stood by him ; 
 and when he ssw them he ran to 
 meet them from the tent-door, and 
 iowed himself toward the ground." 
 Now, that very word "bowed 
 himself toward the ground," is in 
 other places translated " worship or 
 adored." " And he said. My Lord, 
 if now I have found favour in thy 
 sight, pass not away, I pray thee, 
 from thy servant. Let a little water, 
 I pray you, be fetched, and wash 
 your feet, and rest yourselves under 
 the tree. And I will fetch a morsel 
 of bread, and comfort ye your 
 hearts ; after that ye shall pass on; 
 for therefore are ye come to your 
 servant; and they said. So do as 
 thou hast said." Now is it not 
 evident that they were looked upon 
 as angels, and not as the Lord God ? 
 Is it not evident that in falling down 
 to adore therif, he committed no act of 
 idolatry? Is it not most evident 
 that, had it been an idolatrous act, 
 the prophet would have branded 
 it as such in the pages of the Bible 
 to all posterity ? Then, with re- 
 gard to the circumstance of refresh- 
 ments addressed to these angels, 
 would it not have afforded scope to 
 the ridicule or the wit of a Julian- 
 the-Apostate, or any Deist in those 
 days, quite as plausible as the wit 
 indulged in by my reverend anta- 
 gonist, in laughing at ouf tenets 
 where they happen to differ from his 
 own? So easy a thing is it to 
 laugh at sacred things, but so diffi- 
 cult is it to confute the sound 
 usages of antiquity transmitted 
 from age to age down to the present 
 time ! Again, Gen. xix. 1 : "And 
 there came two angels to Sodom at 
 even, and Lot sat in the gate of 
 Sodom ; and Lot seeing them, rose 
 up to meet them, and he bowed 
 
 himself with his face towards the 
 ground." There is another prostra- 
 tion, which is the adoration for the 
 worship of SouUa, and you see that 
 it was paid to angels in Scripture. 
 But I wiU prove that it went yet 
 further, and that it was frequently 
 paid to men : " And he said. Behold 
 now, my lords, turn in, I pray you, 
 into your servant's house, and tarry 
 aU night and wash your feet, and ye 
 shall rise up early and go on your 
 ways. And they said. Nay ; but we 
 wiU abide in the street all night. 
 And Abraham got up early in the 
 morning to the place where he stood 
 before the Lord; and he looked 
 toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and 
 toward all the land of the plain, and 
 beheld, and lo, the smoke of the 
 country went up as the smoke of a 
 furnace. And it came to pass when 
 God destroyed the cities of the plain, 
 that God remembered Abraham, and 
 sent Lot out of the midst of the 
 overthrow, when he overthrew the 
 cities in which Lot dwelt." Then, 
 chap. XX. ver. 17 : — "Lo, Abraham 
 prayed unto God, and God healed 
 Abimeleoh, and his wife and maid- 
 servants, and they bare children." 
 So that you see Abraham's prayer 
 was heard by God. Now, therefore, 
 I ask. Upon what principle of phi- 
 losophy, upon what principle of 
 Christian pmlosophy, is it main- 
 tainable, that when a man is once in 
 the regions of the blest he is no 
 more to be heard ? Again, I quote 
 from Numb. xxii. 33 : " And God's 
 anger was kindled before he went, 
 and the angel of the Lord stood in 
 the way for an adversary against 
 him. Now he was riding upon his 
 ass, and his two servants were with 
 him ; and the ass saw the angel of 
 the Lord standing in the way, and 
 his sword adrawn in his h?.nd; and 
 the ass turned aside out of the way, 
 and went into the field ; and Balaam 
 smote the ass, to turn him into tho 
 
336 
 
 mvocAXlON OP [6(A Evening. 
 
 way. But the angel of the Lord 
 stood in the path of the vineyards, a 
 wall being on this side and a waJl on 
 that. And when the ass saw the 
 angel of the Lord she thrust herself 
 into the wall, and cmshed Balaam's 
 foot against the wall; and he smote 
 her again. And the angel of the 
 Lord went ftirtiier, and stood in a 
 narrow place, where was no way to 
 turn either to the right hand or to 
 the left. And when the ass saw lie 
 angel of the Lord she fell down 
 under Balaam ; and Balaam's anger 
 was kindled, and he smote the ass 
 with a staff. And the Lord opened 
 the mouth of the ass, and she said 
 onto Balaam, What have I done :unto 
 thee, that thou hast smitten me 
 these three times ? And Balaam 
 said unto the ass. Because thou hast 
 mocked me ; I would there were a 
 sword in mine hand, for now would 
 I Idll thee. And the ass said unto 
 Balaam, Am I not thine ass, u{>on 
 which thou hast ridden ever since I 
 was thine unto this day ? Was I 
 ever wont to do so unto thee ? And 
 he said. Nay. Then the Lordopened 
 the eyes of Balaam, and he saw the 
 angel of the Lord standing in the 
 way, and his sword drawn in his 
 hand : and he bowed down his head, 
 and fell flat on, Ms face. And the 
 angel of the Lord said unto Balaam, 
 Wherefore hast thou smitten thine 
 ass these three times? Behold, I 
 went out to withstand thee, because 
 thy way is perverse before me. And 
 the ass saw me and turned from me 
 these three times ; unless she had 
 turned from me, surely now also I 
 had slain thee, and saved her ali^re." 
 Such is> the circumstance, weU 
 known in the Bible, of the ass 
 speaking. Now I ask, gentlemen. 
 If thisMok had not been handed 
 down to you as inspired — having 
 been kept and fostered in our 
 libraries from age to age, and copied 
 out carefully byourEbrarians— now 
 
 would you have knosra it to be in- 
 spired? Should I not hear my 
 friend roaring out, " Can 1 believe 
 in it?" No; and how is it he 
 does believe at all, but by the testi- 
 mony of the Catholic Church, that 
 it is inspired? I believe every 
 miracle recorded in the Bible from 
 one end to the other; from the 
 alpha to the omega, became it is 
 corroborated by the ever-living, ever- 
 preaching voice of the Catholic 
 Chtjbch. There was no other in 
 existence, from age to age, to testify 
 what was the BMe and what was 
 not. It was thus alone that we re- 
 ceived Christianity. In the descrip- 
 tion I have read to you, Balaam 
 most unquestionably did not wor- 
 ship before he recognised the angel. 
 Again, chap. v. ver. 13, "Audit 
 came to pass, when Joshua was by 
 feioho, that he lift up his eyes and 
 looked, and behold there stood a 
 man over against him with a sword 
 drawn in his hand ; and Joshua went 
 unto him, and said unto him, 'Art 
 thou for us, or for our adversaries ?' 
 And he said. Nay, but as Captain of 
 the Biost of the Lord am I now 
 come. And Joshua fell on his face 
 to the earth, and did worship, and 
 saith unto him. What saith the Lord 
 unto thy servant ?" Now my friend 
 maintained the other evening that 
 this was "the Lord God, the^reat 
 Jehovah, the Captain of his own 
 Host." " And the Captain of the 
 Lord's Host said unto Joshua, Loose 
 thy shoes from off thy feet, for the 
 place whereon thou standest is holy. 
 And Joshua did so." And why? Be- 
 cause it was the archangel Michael, 
 just basking from the presence of 
 the Almighty God in the midst of 
 heaven, and the place whereon he 
 stood bright with celestial radiance 
 became that moment hallowed. If 
 I were in the same manner to see 
 the archangel Michael at this mo- 
 ment, I should fall prostrate without 
 
Mr. French!] 
 
 SAINTS AM) ANGELS. 
 
 337 
 
 committing an act of idolatry. 
 " Here -most indubitably," says 
 BeUarmiiie, " we see the mediate 
 honour wiiich I am endeavonring to 
 substantiate ; for that Joshua did 
 not imagine him whom he was wor- 
 shipping to be God, is evident, since 
 the angel had said that he was the 
 minister of God. But the angel 
 also exacted of him stUl greater 
 honour, saying, 'Loose thy shoes 
 from off thy feet, for the place 
 whereon thou standest is holy.' 
 iFor that place was not holy except 
 on account of the presence of the 
 angel; for Joshua was not in a 
 sacred place, but in the country 
 fields of Jericho." And who was 
 this Captain of the Lord's Host ? 
 Listen to Jude — " Yet Michael, the 
 archangel, when, contending with 
 the devU, he disputed about the 
 Dody of Moses, durst not bring 
 agamst him a railing accusation, 
 but said. The Lord rebuke thee." 
 Our Church is inclined to imagine 
 that it was Michael the archangel. 
 Again (Rev. xii. 7), " And there 
 was war in heaven. Michael and 
 his angels fought against the dragon, 
 and the dragon fought and his 
 angels." Here again our Church 
 contends that this captain was 
 Michael the archangel. Yet one 
 thing is certain: whether it was the 
 archangel, or whether it was the 
 Lord, Joshua took him for the 
 angel, and prostrated himself in 
 adoration before him in that species 
 of adoration and worship which is 
 due to angels. And it is not repre- 
 hended either by the angels or the 
 prophet, and therefore all was right; 
 and therefore the Catholic Church 
 is right in the worship which she 
 pays at the present day to saints. 
 Again (1 Sam. xxvui. 14), " And 
 Saul perceived that it was Samuel, 
 and he stooped with his face to the 
 ground and bowed himself." Now 
 here is tue adoration which was 
 
 paid to men. And mark here that 
 the species of adoration which is 
 paid to God goes under the same 
 word as it does to men, but that it 
 is a different species of worship. 
 
 So that when I hear my reverend 
 antagonist inculcating upon you that 
 we pay religious worship to Mary, 
 I tell him boldly, that the salvation 
 of his soul is at stake for such a 
 daring assertion, unless he proves 
 clearly that the Catholic pours forth 
 that adoration which is due to God 
 to the Virgin Mary. And I teE my 
 rev. friend, with much shuddering 
 awe, that that will be the grand sin 
 he win have to answer for before 
 the bar of divine justice — it vrill 
 be the perpetual virulence with 
 which he assails the Catholic, by 
 stating over and over again that 
 we give that worship to Mary 
 which is to be given only to the 
 great Lord of Heaven. I say it is 
 the breath of slander, and he who 
 " slandereth his neighbour" cannot 
 enter the regions of eternal beati- 
 tude. He may wash it away by re- 
 pentance, — and God grant that he 
 may live long enough to do so, as 
 well as to enter the portals of the 
 Catholic Church ! Again (1 Kings 
 xviii. 7), " And as Obadiah was m 
 the way, behold, Elijah met him ; 
 and he knew him and fell on his face 
 and said. Art thou my Lord Elijah?" 
 Obadiah here, a holy man, worships 
 Elijah, prone on the earth, Now 
 this cannot be a civil honour ; for, 
 as to human distinction of society, 
 Obadiah was in a more elevated 
 station than Elijah. Elijah was a 
 private man ; Obadiah was one of 
 the princes of the people. He 
 worships him, therefore, as a pro- 
 phet, and as a man of God endowed 
 with pre-eminent sanctity. Again, 
 (3 Kings ii. 15,) " And when the 
 sons of tlie prophets which were to 
 view at Jericho saw him, they said. 
 The spirit of EKjah doth rest on 
 
338 
 
 INVOCATION OP 
 
 [6M Uveniiiff. 
 
 Elisha. And they came to meet 
 him, and they bowed themselves 
 to the ground before him;" that 
 is, they worshipped him. Again 
 (Daniel ii. 46), « Then the king 
 Nebuchadnezzar fell upon his face, 
 and worshipped Daniel, and com- 
 manded that they should offer an 
 oblation and sweet odours unto 
 him. The king answered unto 
 Daniel, and said, Of a truth, it is, 
 that your God is a God of gods, 
 and a Lord of kings, and a revealer 
 of secrets, seeing thou couldst 
 reveal this secret." Here we see 
 Nebuchadnezzar worships Daniel. 
 Now who would either maihtain or 
 believe that one of the captives, 
 such as was Daniel, would be wor- 
 shipped by this mighty and power- 
 ful king by way of oivH homage ? 
 He worshipped him, therefore, reh- 
 
 fiously, as a man fuH of God ; nor 
 id he worship him erroneously. 
 Now as Daniel was, according — I 
 think I may say — according to the 
 admission of my reverend oppo- 
 nent [turning to Mr. Gumming] — 
 
 Eev. J. CirMMiNG. — I admit that 
 he offered him heafhen worship. 
 
 Mr. Ebench. — Do you admit 
 that Daniel was a man fuU of God? 
 That is my point. 
 
 Bev. J. CfuMMiNS. — ^Tes. 
 
 Mr. Peench. — Well, then, I take 
 the concession. He was a man full 
 of God, and if so, Daniel was bound 
 to protest against it ; if it were 
 improper or incorrect, he was bound 
 to lelfhim, " No! you must not offer 
 this worship to me, but to the livii^ 
 God." But all was correct accord- 
 ing to the usages of the time. He 
 worshipped him as a man fuU of 
 God, nor did he worship him erro- 
 neously. Nor is there here any 
 difficulty, my ingenious friend, ever 
 on the watch to perplex and darken 
 what is clear as noon-day — there is 
 here, I say, no difficulty on the 
 ground of that sacrifice which is 
 
 due to God alone, and which Daniel 
 would have rejected. For-the sacri- 
 fice peculiar to God is ^e immo- 
 lation of animals, which is called 
 in Hebrew Zebha. — Immolam Diis 
 eradicabitiir pristerguam Domino 
 soli. Tor there it is in Hebrew 
 Zebha. But Nebuchadnezzar offered 
 to Daniel, not Zebha, but Minchah, 
 that is, " gifts and odours," each of 
 which it was customary to offer as 
 weE to God as man. So says Car- 
 dinal BeUarmine, and I tmnk he 
 knew Hebrew as well as any man 
 in the present age. We read in 
 1 Sam. X. 27, that some of the 
 Israelites would not recognise Saul 
 as king, nor send ' him presents ; 
 where the word for presents is 
 Minchah. Again, St. Paul (Bam. ii. 
 10), " But glory and honour and 
 peace to every man that worketh 
 good ; to the Jew first, and also to 
 the Gentile." Now we know that 
 " glory and honour" are said to be 
 due to God alone in Scripture, and 
 yet we here find it, according to 
 the apostle Paul, that "glory and 
 honour" are due to " every man 
 that worketh good ;" and if a man 
 is to have glory and honour on earth 
 for workii^ good, surely, ■(vhen in 
 heaven, his prayers may avail and 
 revive him ! And shall I be taught 
 by a learned tutor of the nineteenth 
 century, who contradicts the great 
 lights of sound antiquity, that if the 
 bones of a dead man could revive, 
 the prayers of living saints in the 
 realms of beatitude are of no vali- 
 dity whatever ? What puerile and 
 superficial reasoning is this ! — un- 
 worthy a man endowed with sound 
 faculties ! I can only say, in termi- 
 nation of this discussion (of this 
 subject at least), that I came pre- 
 pared to answer the objections of 
 my antagonist seriatim, in a calm, 
 cool, and dispassionate manner, 
 but I must say I have had my 
 nerves considerably irritated by the 
 
Mr. French-I 
 
 SAINTS AND ANGELS. 
 
 339 
 
 mode of argument which has been 
 adopted. My learned friend has 
 taunted me with several usages 
 and peculiar notions, and the cruel 
 practices of persons \fhich were cir- 
 cumstantially incorrect, and which 
 I regard with the utmost contempt. 
 But his oriental epithets attributed 
 to the Virgin meet with my concur- 
 rence ; and I contend it is accord- 
 iog to the usage of sound antiquity. 
 Only I am offended at the circum- 
 stance of his attempting to draw 
 ridicule on them ; for, as I told you 
 before, it is no article of my faith. 
 I am not bound to say the Litany 
 of Loretto. I may be a staunch 
 member of our Church without 
 ever saying one prayer to the Virgin, 
 to angels or saints. AH I would 
 say is, that it is according to the 
 practice of all sound antiquity, and 
 an extremely salutary practice, to 
 procure her mediation with her 
 blessed Son Christ Jesus. That is 
 all the doctrine; and it is unjust, 
 therefore, to bring forward what one 
 man and what another says. I am 
 not acting contrary to the Church 
 if I differ, as I do, from many of 
 the explanations of Bellarmine on 
 different subjects. I am not acting 
 contrary to the Church if I differ 
 with Delahogue on many poiuts. 
 . — Again (2 Kings xiii. 31) : "And 
 it came to pass, as they were bury- 
 ing a man, that behpld they espied 
 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." 
 Here we have, gentlemen, the cir- 
 cumstance of the body's touching 
 the dead bones of Elisha, and of the 
 man reviving; and why, let me 
 ask the rev. gentleman, who laughs 
 at rcKcs, may not the bones of 
 saints have the same efficacy at 
 the present day ? Gentlemen, when 
 I take a retrospect of the whole 
 
 of my arguments on this question, 
 I am satisfied with the arguments 
 I have laid before you to prove that 
 the doctrine is apostolical, and not 
 a product of the " dark ages," as 
 my antagonist contends. I have 
 heard nothing but wild declamation 
 against these usages ; nothing but 
 expressions of horror at my prefer- 
 ring the testimony of Irenseus, 
 given in the year of our Lord 177, 
 to that of the Rev. Mr. Cumming, 
 solemnly deposed against them m 
 the year of our Lord 1839, accom- 
 panied with expressions of tender 
 sympathy for the salvation of my 
 soul. Let me and my fellow-Ca- 
 tholics, I say, save our souls for 
 ourselves, according to the precepts 
 of those holy men who evange- 
 lized this nation and all the nations 
 of the world; who went about 
 preaching and^jractising their doc- 
 trines and pure morality. Those 
 men who handed down the Bible to 
 us, — they ought to know some- 
 thing of the pure meaning of the 
 Bible, feeding on it as they did 
 from morning to night ; they ought 
 to know what interpretation to 
 affix to it. And here, by-the-bye, 
 the way my learned friend adopts is 
 not that which would, persuade any 
 of the Roman Catholics in this room 
 to quit their Church and join the 
 establishment of my learned friend. 
 If my learned friend would conde- 
 scend to give them solid proof whi/ 
 they should quit the Church of 
 ages, he would be more likely to 
 succeed — if he plausibly show cause 
 why they should enter into the 
 various dissenting tabernacles and 
 conventicles of the day, where 
 they are all fighting with one 
 another and identifying themselves 
 with that description of men in the 
 Bible, where it is said, "And I will 
 set the Egyptians against the Egyp- 
 tians ; and they shall fight every- 
 one against his brother, and every 
 
340 
 
 IKVOCATION r,B [6ch Evening. 
 
 one against Lis neighbour; city 
 against city, and kingdom against 
 kingdom." Such is precisely the 
 state of all the Protestants in this 
 kingdom — all sects of Protest- 
 antism fighting with one another. 
 Where alone on earth is perfect 
 unanimity to be found? It is to 
 be found alone, if you ■vrill but 
 exert the eyes of reason, in the 
 bosom of the Catholic Church. 
 Look at the same dogmas believed 
 from age to age by all nations, 
 speaking different languages — the 
 Arminians, Cyrians, Copts, Euty- 
 chians, Nestorians, Greeks — all 
 nations alike adoring their God ui 
 the one same sacred service, and 
 all contributing to the accomplish- 
 ment of that one great prophecy of 
 Malachi — that sacrifices should 
 continually be offered until the final 
 consummation of tisae. All vener- 
 ating and invocating saints and 
 angSs ; all adhering to the doctrine 
 of purgatory, which we are about 
 to discuss, and which is the next 
 subject for debate ; aU, in one word, 
 having a rule of faith which, I shall 
 easily prove to you, wiU put your 
 tortuous and inconsistent rule to 
 the blush, when we come to examine 
 them together, 
 
 But, my friends, I shall call on 
 my learned antagonist to the end of 
 this discussion, and I shall never 
 cease to remind him of it, in order 
 that he may tell us satisfactorily 
 how it is that all these tenets which 
 we are engaged in defending are 
 stiU adhered to by nations who 
 separated from us in the fourth 
 Bentury. Can any learned Pro- 
 testant divine, or any learned Pro- 
 testant near my : learned friend, 
 whisper anything to his ear whereby 
 ne can extricate himself from this 
 insupenble difficulty? What an 
 extraoidinary combination must 
 that have been amongst those sects, 
 who hate the Cathohc Church with 
 
 as much reality as my friend abomi- 
 nates our tenets — what an extra- 
 ordinary combination,. I say, must 
 that have been, in some dark age, 
 when the Eutyohians and Nesto- 
 rians combined with the Church of 
 Rome to impose upon the world 
 the doctrine of the Invocation of 
 Saints and Angels ! Again, if you 
 are to take the Bible as your rule 
 of faith, it is your duty to see that 
 you have the whole Bible, and not 
 a mutilated Bible, But your Bibb 
 is most notoriously false in its 
 integrity. It has rejected many 
 of those books which have been 
 reteived unmurmuringly by the 
 whole Catholic Church through 
 twelve centuries. And by wlmt 
 right is it that you are robbed of 
 these books ? This is the way that 
 I enter into argument, not by orni- 
 thological disijuisitions 'as to the 
 proper moultmg season for the 
 eagles, and the supreme efficacy of 
 crying out Abba, Father! and several 
 other rhetorical flourishes which 
 have nothing to do with the subject. 
 I argue, as I told you in the begin- 
 ning, like a logician. It is this 
 cloud-soaring propensity of my 
 learned friend, when put in contrast 
 with my sober march upon the terra- 
 firma of rational argumentation, my 
 Protestant brethren, that encou- 
 rages me to hope most ardently that, 
 at the termination of this dispute, 
 many of you wiU come to be in- 
 structed at the feet of our reverend 
 priests. There is the ^e^awe priest 
 m succession from the days of the 
 apostles. The members of the 
 Church of England say they re- 
 ceived ordination from us at the 
 time of the Keformation. We denv 
 that we ever gave it them; we 
 deny that they are priests, or have 
 any apostoHoity about them. There- 
 fore, of course, since they boast of 
 having been originally ordained by 
 us, on the other nand, they acknow- 
 
Mr. French.'] 
 
 SAINTS AUD ANGELS. 
 
 341 
 
 ledge tlie validity of our ordination; 
 but, on the other hand, if 1 were 
 a priest, as I told you before, and 
 ■were to turn Protestant, I coald 
 mount the pulpit and preach their 
 doctrines immediately; whilst, if 
 the Archbishop of Canterbury or 
 York were to turn Catholics to- 
 morrow, we should tell them, " You 
 are not ordained in our Church, 
 which alone can prove its descent 
 from the apostles." But so it is in 
 this land; I might almost call it 
 this land of inSdeUty. You are 
 defrauded not only of the Bible, 
 but there is no vahd priesthood in 
 the land, recognised by all sects, 
 except the Roman Catholic ; and to 
 that priesthood I recommend my 
 friend with as much earnest solici- 
 tude as he endeavours to wean 
 Catholics from the rock of ages. 
 To that priesthood I would advise 
 my Protestant brethren to have 
 recourse. There you wiU have a 
 rule of faith expounded to you 
 which win surpass every other in 
 purity and in excellence; there 
 you will float into a harbour of tran- 
 quillity, and find that calm and 
 refreshing rest which a mutable 
 doctrine to the soul of man can 
 never possibly administer. 
 
 It is no later than a few years 
 ago that you used to offer a prayer 
 to St. Michael the Archangel. Yon 
 have that prayer still in your own 
 prayer-books — a fact which must 
 condemn Protestants on the ground 
 of mutabihty of doctrine. There 
 has not been one shadow of muta- 
 biKty amongst us ; but we see an 
 eternal vacillation, a perpetual ten- 
 dency to change, in yours. Take 
 the Creed of St. Athanasius, in the 
 Thirty-nine Articles, which creed de- 
 clares that " out of the true Church 
 no man can be saved," declaring that 
 " absque dnbio in. astermtm, peribii." 
 If you beHeve that yours is the true 
 Church, then you must believe that 
 
 every one out of that Church must 
 be damned ; and yet you rail against 
 the Catholic because, immutable in 
 his tenets, he sheds bia tears and 
 prayers for the dead, and offers up 
 his orisons to the blessed. 
 
 Gentlemen, as I have but a few 
 moments left, I am desirous of call- 
 ing your attention to this passage 
 from Isaiali xxxv. 8 : " And an high-; 
 way shall be there, and a way, and 
 it shall be called the way of holiness; 
 the unclean shall not pass over ic ; 
 but it shall be for those, the way- 
 faring men, though fools shaU not 
 err therein." This "way'* has been 
 opened to you clearly and directly 
 during the course of my discussion. 
 It is' this "way" into which I pray 
 you may aU enter. The Church 
 has been visible from age to age ; 
 the rook of ages stands \raere it did 
 in the days ot Irenseus, who teUs us 
 that, "on account of its superior 
 headship in cases of difficulty, all 
 other churches must have resort." 
 " Ad hanc ecclesiam propter potiorem 
 principalitatem necesse est omnera 
 convenireeeclesiam." — Irena.Advers. 
 Hares. Hb. iii. cap. iii. 175. — [Here 
 the learned gentleman was obUged 
 to close abruptly, the usual hour 
 having expired.] 
 
 John Kendal, Esq., the Chair- 
 man on behalf of the Catholics, 
 then rose and announced a fresh 
 fsubjeot for discussion on the Tues- 
 day following, viz. — Ptirgatoet; 
 upon which subject Mr. French 
 would deliver the leading address. 
 The assembly, which was much 
 crowded, then separated in its 
 usually characteristic orderly man- 
 ne"-, at about half-past ten o'clock. 
 
 We certify that this Report is faith- 
 fully and correctly given. 
 
 J. Gumming, M.A. 
 D. Pbench, 
 
 Barriater-at-Law. 
 
 Chas. Maybuby Akchee, 
 
 Reporter. 
 
342 
 
 Sbvbnth Evening, Tuesday, April 23, 1839. 
 
 PUEGATORY. 
 
 Mr. French. — ^If ever there was 
 an occasion when I rose to address 
 this assembly, and felt myself little 
 inclined to be lavish of words, or to 
 indulge myself in any preliminary 
 remarks, it is the present. And the 
 reason of it is, gentlemen, because I 
 wish to embo(&, in iny part of the 
 disputation, such a mass of evidence, 
 as will be totally incompatible with 
 anything like an indulgence in me- 
 taphorical flourish and display, and 
 all the fine gauderies of rhetoric. I 
 wish, gentlenien, to adhere solely 
 and exclusively to argument, and 
 not to put it in the power of my an- 
 tagonist to reproach me with any- 
 thmg Kke a deviation from it. In 
 arguing upon this great- subject (on 
 which we may be erroneous in our 
 view, and on which, if we be so, I 
 agree with my learned friend that 
 we are so most fatally ; and if he, 
 on the other hand — ^if the doctrines 
 of his Church be founded on error, 
 on this subject, as well as on others 
 which we- nave discussed, he will 
 certainly be proved to have wan- 
 dered egregiously from the line 
 of apostolical tradition) T shall en- 
 deavour to pay my usual reverence 
 to the laws of reasoning. Before, 
 howeVer, I enter upon the argument, 
 I would wish to read you what is 
 the plain exposition of our doctrine 
 upon Purgatory. I wish to call 
 your partioulai attention to the 
 exposition of the doctrine of Purga- 
 tory, as it has been laid down from 
 age to age in the CathoHo Church, 
 ever since the times of the apostles. 
 " Catholics hold that there is a Pur- 
 satory, that is to say, a place or state, 
 
 where souls departing this life, with 
 remission of their sins, as to the 
 guilt or eternal pain, but yet liable 
 to some temporal punishment, stiU 
 remaining due; or, not perfectly 
 freed fr6m the blemish of some de- 
 fects which we call venial sins, are 
 purged before their admittance into 
 heaven, where nothing that is defiled 
 can enter." 
 
 " We also believe, that such souls 
 so detained in Purgatory, being the 
 living members of Christ Jesus, are 
 relieved by the prayers and suffrages 
 of their feUow-members here on 
 earth. But where this place may 
 be — of what nature or quality the 
 pains may be — ^how long souls may 
 be there detained — ^in what maimer 
 the suffrages made on their behalf 
 may be appKed — ^whether by way of 
 satisfaction or intercession, &c., are 
 questions superfluous and imperti- 
 nent as to faith." 
 
 Now, my friends, my learned 
 antagonist comes to fight his battles 
 this dayagainst the Catholic Church, 
 just as he came upon the last occa- 
 sion, when the discussion was the 
 Invocation of Saints and Angels — 
 that is, under the protective shield 
 of a man who in former times was 
 denounced as a heretic by the 
 Church. I allude' to .^rius, in the 
 fourth century. He was the first 
 person, as our ecclesiastical his- 
 torians record it, who raised his 
 voice against the apostolic doctrine 
 of praying for the dead. If you 
 would condescend, my friends, to 
 turn over the leaves of ecclesiastical 
 history, you would find that from 
 the days of the apostles, from the 
 
Mr. French. 
 
 PUBGATOEY. 
 
 343 
 
 very dawn of Christianity, every age 
 has been signalized by the springing; 
 up of someneresy in the Church of 
 God ; and it has generally happened 
 that when heretics have raised their 
 voice against the Church of God, 
 they have been most virulent in 
 calumniating and defaming it. Thus 
 it was with Vigilantius, who rose in 
 the fourth century against the doc- 
 trine of the Invocation of Saints and 
 Angels. Thus it was in the very 
 days of the Apostles and EvangeKsts, 
 that a sect arose denying the divinity 
 of Christ, which called forth the 
 production of that splendid Gospel 
 which we now enjoy, called the 
 Gospel of St. John, to confute the 
 monstrous errors of Cerinthus. 
 Then thete came a host of divers 
 heresies in succession, all marked 
 down by the Catholic Church — ^for 
 they ever had their writers with 
 pens in their hands to note down 
 the springing up of heresies. Then 
 there arose a sect who denied that 
 Christ, when on earth, had a real 
 body; maintaining that he was 
 merely an aerial substance, imma- 
 terial and unencumbered with flesh ; 
 called the Gnostics or Doceti. Then 
 there was another sect, who paid 
 divine adoration to angels — not 
 Catholics, good and virtuous, but 
 wicked men, brought up, indeed, 
 originally in the true Church ; and 
 who began to offer sacrifices unto 
 angels, which is alluded to so forci- 
 bly in the Epistle of Paul concern- 
 ing the worship of angels. These 
 men were anathematized by the 
 Church, and they formed a distinct 
 body and heretical communion. 
 After this, in the fourth century, 
 sprang up the iErians. Now, it is 
 under the auspice's of their champion 
 jffirius, that my learned antagonist 
 intends to establish his position this 
 day. I come as usual, my friends, 
 under the auspices of the firm, iti- 
 diasoluble, infrangible phalanx and 
 
 protection of the patheks of the 
 Church, and I envy not my friend 
 the hereiical banners under which 
 he has come' to fl^ht this day. Yes, 
 my friends, I shall prove to you, as 1 
 have done from the beginning in all 
 my positions, that the fathers of the 
 Church are ever on our side. Those 
 columns of orthodoxy, those models 
 of true sanctity and apo.stolicity, 
 were looked upon as such by all 
 Protestants and aU Catholic authors 
 until the dismal, gloomy century in 
 which we are' now living, where 
 men are perpetually endeavouring 
 to impugn their sanctity and their 
 orthodoxy. My learned friend has 
 frequently, throughout Ms argu- 
 ments, and in the course which he 
 has adopted, endeavoured to weaken 
 the authority of the fathers of the 
 Church, by stating that they are 
 "perpetually knocking their heads 
 against one another ;" in answer to 
 which statement I shall reply this 
 day by showing you its utter ground- 
 lessness. There are particular pas- 
 sages in Scripture which they cer- 
 tainly interpret diversely ; but, as I 
 told him before, and I must repeat it 
 again and again constantly through- 
 oijt the course of this discussion, 
 begging you to bear it in mind, in 
 order that you may know at the end 
 of it whether he or I adhere to 
 truth strictly — ^I, in saying that the 
 fathers of the Church are all unani- 
 mous on the grand, vital, funda- 
 mental articles of our faith ; or he, 
 in declaring most positively and 
 most dogmatically that they are all 
 at war with one another. This, 
 gentlemen, is the grand point for 
 me to impose upon your memories 
 this day ; for if I be borne out in the 
 assertion, that in all the articles of 
 our faith, they are ever combatting 
 for us (as I said before) in one indis- 
 soluble and infrangible phalanx, then 
 the assertion of my friend com- 
 pletely falls to the ground, that they 
 
Hi 
 
 PUKGAIOKY. 
 
 [7tA Eventt!^. 
 
 are always kuockmg their heads 
 against one another. 
 
 The first father of the Church 
 that I shall quote is one whose word 
 is only to be taken on points wherein 
 he agrees with ail the other fathers 
 of the Church; for it is well known 
 that TertnUian, who was born 150 
 years after Christ — it is well known 
 tiiat he fell into a heresy, but at the 
 same time Protestants and CathoHos 
 both quote him on certain funda- 
 mental points. These are'the words 
 of Tertullian : 
 
 TEKTTOLiAif, L. C. — Among the 
 apostolical traditions, received from 
 their fathers, and not enforced by 
 the positive words of Scripture, he 
 reckons " oblations for the dead on 
 the anniversary day." De Cor.Milit. 
 p. 289.— In his treatise on single 
 marriages, he advises the widow 
 " to pray for the soul of her de- 
 parted husband, entreating repose 
 to him, and participation in the first 
 resurrection, and making oblation 
 for him on the anniversary days of 
 his death ; which if she neglect, it 
 may truly be said of her, that, as 
 far as in her lies, she has repudiated 
 her husband." De Monogamia, c. x. 
 p. 955. — "Reflect," he says to 
 widowers, "for whose soul you 
 pray, for whom you make annual 
 oblations." — Exhort, ad Castit. c. xi. 
 p. 9i2. 
 
 I need not call your attention to 
 the fact which stares you so palpably 
 in the face, my Protestant brethren, 
 that, if oui-s be a superstitious and 
 an erroneous doctrme, it is at 
 least extremely old. CTOrian, who 
 flourished 250 years after Christ, 
 says : — 
 
 St. CrPBiAir, L.C. — "Our pre- 
 decessors prudently advised, that no 
 brother, departing this life, should 
 nominate any churchman his ex- 
 ecutor; and should he do it, that no 
 oblation should be made for him, nor 
 sacrifice offered for his repose; of 
 
 which we have had a late example, 
 when no oblation was made, nor 
 prayer, in his name, offered in the 
 Church." Ep. kvi. p. 114. — In 
 other letters he speaks of the 
 same offerings. Ep. xxvui. p. 32, 
 and Ep. xxxvii. p. 50. — " It is one 
 thing to be a petitioner for pardon, 
 and another to arrive at glory ; one 
 to be cast into prison and not go 
 out from thence tiUthe last farthing 
 be paid, and another to receive at 
 once the reward of faith and virtue ; 
 one, in punishment of sin, to be 
 
 Eurified by long suffering and purged 
 y long fire, and another to have 
 expiated all sins by CpremoitsJ suf- 
 fermg ; one, in fine, at the day of 
 judgment to wait the sentence of 
 the Lord, another to receive an 
 immediate crown from him." — ^. 
 lii. p. 72. 
 
 I shall then go to Eusebius if 
 Ctesarea, the ecclesiastical historian. 
 Describing the funeral of the Em- 
 peror Constantine, he thus writes : 
 " In this manner did Constantius 
 perform the last duties in honour o' 
 his father. But when he had de- 
 parted with his guards, the ministers 
 of God, surrounded by the multitude 
 of the faithful, advanced into the 
 middle space, and with prayers per- 
 formed the ceremonies of divine 
 worship. The blessed prince, re- 
 posing in his coffin, was extolled 
 with many praises : when the people, 
 in concert with the priests, not 
 without sighs and tears, offered 
 prayers to heaven for his soul ; in 
 this manifesting the most acceptable 
 service to a religious prince. God, 
 besides, thus continued to show his 
 kindness to his servant. He had 
 bestowed the succession of the em- 
 pire on his sons ; and now, in com- 
 pliance with his ardent wishes, he 
 gives him a place near the bodies of 
 the holy apostles, in order that he 
 may enjoy their blessed feEowship, 
 and in their temple be associated 
 
Mr. Frs/ic.i.'] 
 
 EULIGATOKY. 
 
 345 
 
 wiih the people of God. He would 
 thus also be admitted to a participa- 
 tion iu the religious rites, tne mystic 
 sacrifice, and holy suffrages of the 
 faithful." — De Vita Constant. 1. iv. 
 c. kx., Ixxi., p. 667. 
 . Again, I quote from Amobius, 
 who flourished some time after : — 
 Abnobius, L. C. — " Why were 
 the oratories (of the Christians) des- 
 tined to savage destruction, wherein 
 prayers are offered up to the sove- 
 reign God; peace and pardon are 
 implored for all men, magistrates, 
 soldiers, kings, friends, and ene- 
 mies, for those who are ahve, and 
 for those who have quitted their 
 bodies." — ^L. iv. adv. Oentes, p. 152. 
 Edit. Lugduni Batavorum, 1651. 
 
 I cannot but call your attention 
 here, my friends, for a single mo- 
 ment, en passant, to the circum- 
 stances of funeral pomp which at- 
 tended the burial of the late George 
 the Fourth. At his grave, myfriends, 
 you have the most incontestable 
 evidence of prayers being offered 
 up for the repose of his soul. But 
 to return : St. Ephrem of Edessa, 
 a pious and learned deacon, thus 
 
 St. Ephbum of Edessa, G. C. — 
 In a work entitled his Testament, 
 this pious and learned deacon thus 
 speaks : — " My brethren, come to 
 me, and prepare me for my depar- 
 ture, for my strength is wholly 
 gone. Go along with me in psalms 
 and in your prayers; and please 
 constantly to make oblations for 
 me. When the thictieth day shall 
 be completed, then remember me : 
 for the dead are helped by the offer- 
 ings of the living — evepyfTOVvrai 
 ot BpTjTOi fP npoa-cjiopais avajivr)- 
 aeioi irepi tcov (iovtcdv ayiav. Now 
 listen with patience to what I shall 
 mention from the Scriptures. Moses 
 bestowed blessings on Reuben after 
 « the third generation. (Deut. xxxiii. 
 6.) But if the dead are not aided. 
 
 wJiy was he blessed ? Again, if 
 they be insensible, hear what the 
 apostle says : ' If the dead rise not 
 again at all, why are tley then bap- 
 tized for them ?' (1 Cor. xv. 29.) 
 If also the sons of Mathathias 
 (2Maccab. xii.) who celebrated their 
 feasts in figure only, could cleanse 
 those from guilt by their offerings 
 who fell in battle, how much more 
 shall the priests of Christ aid the 
 dead by their oblations and prayers !" 
 — In Testament, t. ii. p. 234, p. 271. 
 Edit. Oxon. 
 
 And remember, my friends, I 
 wish to impress on you — for I may 
 be probably taunted by my anta- 
 gomst that I am always at these 
 fathers (for I have not the spiritual 
 disease called Patrophobia, which I 
 attributed to my friend), stiU 1 
 wish to impress on you and on him, 
 that the rathers always come with 
 the Bible in their hands, and there- 
 fore, my friend can have no objec- 
 tion to them. Here St. Ephrem 
 alludes to the two books of the 
 Maccabees, which books, of course, 
 wUL be as usual most daringly as- 
 sailed by my bright luminary of the 
 nineteenth century. 
 
 Again, I quote St. Cyril of Jeru- 
 salem. He says, that m the litur- 
 fies of the church — alluding to these 
 turgies which I shall be obliged 
 to cite to you to-night, however re- 
 luctant my friend may be to listen 
 to them, especially as he has not 
 brought one tittle of evidence to 
 shake their authenticity ; (and for 
 tljat purpose he went to Dupin, who 
 is one of those dead weeds which I 
 throw over into his garden very 
 completely ;) St. Cyril says : — 
 
 St. Cykil or Jerusalem, G. C. 
 — " Then (in the Mturgy of the 
 Church) we pray for the holy fathers 
 and the bishops that are dead ; and, 
 in short, for all those who are de- 
 parted this life in our communion ; 
 believing that the souls of those for 
 
SiG 
 
 PURGATOKY. [7M Evening. 
 
 whom the prayers are offered re 
 ceived very great rehef, while this 
 holy and tremendous Tiotim lies 
 upon the altar. This we wiU show 
 you by an example : for I know 
 there are many who say — What 
 good can it do to a soul which is 
 departed out of this life, whether 
 with sins or without them, to be 
 remembered in this sacrifice ? But 
 teU me, I pray you, if a king had 
 sent into banishment some persons 
 that had offended him, and their 
 friends should present him with a 
 crown of great price to appease 
 his anger, might not the. king, on 
 that account, show some farour to 
 the guilty persons ? So do we 
 address our prayers to God for 
 those that are dead, though they 
 were sinners ; not by presenting to 
 him a crown, but by offering up to 
 him Christ, who was sacrificed for 
 our sins, propitiating him, who is 
 so meroiftu, for them and for us." 
 — Catech. Mystag. v. n. is. x. p. 328. 
 
 The fourth Council of Carthage, 
 in the year. 398, says : — 
 
 PouRiH Council op Cakthagb, 
 L. C. (a.i>. 898.)— "Penitents, who 
 have carefully submitted to the 
 laws of the Church, should they ac- 
 cidentally die on the road, or by 
 sea, where no assistance could be 
 given, shall be remembered in the 
 prayers and offerings of the faith- 
 ful." — Can. kxix. Cone. Q-en. t. ii. 
 p. 1306. See also the twenty-ninth 
 Canon of the preceding Cotmoil of 
 Carthage.— 7i5z(^. p. 1171. 
 
 Again, I quote Gregory of Nyssa : 
 
 St. Gbe&gry oe Nyssa, G. C. — 
 "In order that to man might be 
 left the dignity of free-will, and evil, 
 at the same time, might be taken 
 from him, Divine Wisdom thus de- 
 vised. He allows him to remain 
 subject to what himself has chosen ; 
 that, having tasted of the evil which 
 he desired, and learned by expe- 
 rience how bad an exchange has 
 
 been made, he might again feel an 
 ardent wish to lay down the load of 
 those vices and inclinations which 
 are contrary to reason ; and thus, 
 in this life, being renovated by 
 prayers and the pursuit of wisdom, 
 or, in the next,l)emg expiated by 
 the purging fire, 8ta tov KaBapa-iov 
 TTupos, he might recover the state 
 of happiness ' which he had lost. 
 Man otherwise must incline to that 
 side to which his passions tend. 
 But when he has quitted his body, 
 and the difference between virtue 
 and vice is known, he cannot be 
 admitted to approach the Divinity 
 till the purging fire shall have ex- 
 piated the stains with which his 
 soul was infected : — row KaBapcrtnv 
 TTvpos TOV e^fii^^deVTa rrj ^jrvxjj 
 pvTov anoKaBrjpaVTos. That same 
 fire, in others, will cancel the cor- 
 ruption of matter and the propen- 
 sil^ to evil." — ev T6i KaOapcTKp irvpi. 
 Orat. de Befanctis, t. ii. p. 1066, 
 1067, 1068. 
 
 Ajad now, my friends, you will 
 have a very different itlterpretation 
 of " the hay and stubble" from my 
 reverend antagonist, to what St. 
 Augustine and St. Ambrose and all 
 the fathers give. 
 
 St. Ambrose, L. C. — Having, in 
 a preceding part of the chapter, 
 spoken of the effect of penal fire oil 
 what the apostle caUs silver and 
 gold, and hay and stubble, ia our 
 actions, he concludes : ' We miesi 
 all appear before the juigment-seat 
 of Christ, that every one may receive 
 the proper things of the body, accord- 
 ing as he hath done, whether it be 
 good or evil.' (3 Cor. v. 10.) Take 
 care, that you carry not with you 
 to the judgment of God wood nor 
 stubble, which the fire may con- 
 sume. Take care, lest, having one 
 or two things that may be approved, 
 you, at the same time, have much 
 that may give offence. ' If any 
 man's works bum, he shall suffer 
 
Mr. FreiicL'] 
 
 PHUGATORY. 
 
 34V 
 
 loss ; but he himself shall be saved, 
 yet so as by fire.' (ICor. iii. ]5.) 
 Whence it may be collected, that 
 the same man is saved in part, and 
 is condemned in part : — Sahatur ex 
 parte, et condemnatur ex parte. 
 
 " Conscious, therefore, that there 
 are many judgments, let us examine 
 all our actions. In a man th&t is 
 just, loss is suffered; grievous is 
 the burning of some work ; in the 
 wicked man wretched is the punish- 
 ment." — Serm. xx. in Psalm cxYui. 
 t. i. p.T238. — " 'If any man's work 
 burn, he shall suffer loss' False 
 doctrine, which shaR perish, is the 
 work that is said to bum ; for aU 
 bad things must perish. To suffer 
 loss, is to suffer pain. And who, 
 that is in jain, does not suffer loss ? 
 ' But he shall be saved, yet so as by 
 fire.' He will be saved, the apostle 
 said, because his substance shall 
 remain, while liis bad doctrine shall 
 perish. Therefore he said, 'yet so 
 as by fire;' in order that his sal- 
 vation be not understood to be 
 without pain. He shows, that he 
 shall be saved indeed, but that he 
 shall undergo the pain of fire, and 
 be thus purified ; not like the un- 
 believing and wicked man, who shall 
 be punished in everlasting fire." — 
 Comment, in 1 Ep. ad Cor. t. ii. in 
 App. p. 123. See Notei, p. 44. — In 
 Ms funeral oration on the two 
 emperors, Valentioians, he says : 
 " Blessed shall you both be, if my 
 
 Srayers can avail anj thing. No 
 ay shall pass, in which I will not 
 make honourable mention of you; 
 no night, in which yon shall not 
 partake of my prayers. In aU my 
 oblations I will remember you." — 
 In Obitu Valent. t. xi. p. 1194.— Of 
 the Emperor Theodosius he likewise 
 says : — " Lately we deplored toge- 
 ther his death, and now, wmle 
 Prince Honorius is present before 
 our altars, we celebrate the fortieth 
 day. — Some observe the third and 
 
 the thirtieth, others the seventh 
 and the fortieth.— Give, Lord, 
 rest to thy servant Theodosius, that 
 rest which thou hast prepared for 
 thy saints. May his soul thither 
 tend, whence it came, where it 
 cannot feel the sting of death, 
 where it wiU learn, that death is the 
 termination, not of nature, but of 
 sin. — I loved him, therefore wiU I 
 follow him to the land of the Kving ; 
 I win not leave him, tUl, by my 
 prayers and lamentation, he shall be 
 admitted to the holy mount of the 
 Lord, to which his deserts call 
 him." — De Obitu Theodosii. Ibid. 
 p. 1197-8, 1207-8.— On the death 
 of his brother Satyrus, he expresses 
 the like sentiments, and utters the 
 like prayers : he also mentions, that 
 to the celebration of the birth-day 
 succeeded the annual celebration of 
 the day of the death. — Be Obitu 
 Satyri Jratris sui, t. xi. p. 1135-6. 
 — " Wherefore I am of opinion, that 
 she (the sister of'Eaustinus) ought 
 not so much to be a subject of our' 
 grief, as of our prayers. I think 
 that her soul should not be lamented 
 by your tears, but rather recom- 
 mended by oblations to the Lord." 
 — ^. xxxix. ad Faitstimim, t. xi. 
 p. 944. 
 
 Some that be saved, yet so as by 
 fire. Aid so say I, and so says 
 everybody who has been catechized 
 in. the Catholic Church, that has 
 been catechized by the apostles 
 down to the present day ; in every 
 Church throughout the length and 
 breadth of Europe; in all those 
 who separated from us, and to whom 
 I have so frequently called the ;j 
 attention of my friend, but to 
 which he so uniformly turns a 
 deaf ear. 
 
 I hope, by-the-bye, my friend vriH 
 have the goodness to explaqi to you 
 what it is St. Ambrose means by 
 these oblations ; a word which must 
 necessarily be distasteful to the 
 
848 
 
 PDiiGiTORT. \7ii Evening. 
 
 modernized ear of my rererend an- 
 tagonist. 
 
 AgaiQ, St. Epiphaniusj who has 
 ■written a history of all the heresies 
 that have arisen, in which he men- 
 tions the famous heretic JErius, 
 under whose standard my friend is 
 aioui to display Ms talents this day, 
 without, of course, being tainted 
 himself with his infectious princi- 
 ples, — St. Bpiphanius, I say, who 
 has Hkewise given an account of the 
 practices and usages of the Catholic 
 Church in a very elaborate manner, 
 wrote thus : — 
 
 Si. EprpHANiTJS, G. C— " There 
 is nothing more opportune, nothing 
 more to be admired, than the rite 
 which directs the names of the dead 
 to be mentioned. — They are aided 
 by the prayer that is offered for 
 them ; though it may not cancel all 
 their faults, — IV 6 ifiention both the 
 just and sinners, in order that for 
 the latter we may obtain mercy." — 
 Hier. Iv. sive kxv. t. i. p. 911. 
 
 Again, St. Chrysostom, whose 
 works are the delight of every 
 person well versed in the Greek 
 language, wrote thus : — 
 
 St. John Cheysostom, G. C. — 
 " It is not in vain that oblations and 
 prayers are offered, and alms given, 
 for the dead. So has the Divine 
 Spirit ordained things, that we 
 might mutually assist one another. 
 — The deacon (in the Greek liturgy) 
 proclaims : — For them who are dead 
 in Christ, and for them who make a 
 memorial of them. — The victim is in 
 the hands (of the minister) ; aU 
 tilings are ready ; the angels and 
 the archangels assist; the Son of 
 God is present ; a holy horror seizes 
 the minds of the people, while the 
 sacred rite is celeorated. And do 
 you think that this is done without 
 effect ? — Consider weE : the avrful 
 mystery is then announced, that 
 God gave himseK a sacrifice for the 
 world : and then it i? that he re- 
 
 members those who have sinned. 
 Por as when the trophies of war ai-e 
 exhibited, not they only who aided 
 the victory partake of the triumph, 
 but also, on the occasion, prisoners 
 are released from their bonds ; so 
 is it here. It is the moment of 
 victory and trophies : ' As often as 
 you shall eat this bread, ye show forth 
 the death of the Lord.' (I Cor. xi. 
 26.)" Uomil. xxi. in Acta Aposf. 
 t. is. p. 175-6. — "Is the sinner 
 dead ? It is proper to rejoice that 
 an end is put to his sins, that thev 
 can no longer be accumulated. An& 
 now it becomes a duty, as far as we 
 may be able, to aid him, not by 
 tears, but by prayer, and^ supplica- 
 tion, and alms, and offerings. Nor 
 were these means lightly devised; 
 nor is it in vain that, in the sacred 
 mysteries, we mention the dead, 
 imploring, for them, the Lamb that 
 there Heth and that taheth away the 
 sins of the world, begging that he 
 vpill impart some consolation to 
 them. Let us then aid these our 
 brethren. Por if the offering of 
 Job could benefit Ms sons, why 
 should you not believe, if you make 
 offerings for the dead, that they 
 may receive some consolation from 
 them? God grants favours to the 
 prayers of others, as St. Paul 
 teaches : '•Tou helping withal in 
 prayer for as ; that for this gift ob- 
 tained for us, by the means of many 
 persons, thanks may be given by many 
 in our behalf (2 Cor. i. ll.J ■ Let 
 us not grow weary in affording aid 
 to the dead, in offering prayers for 
 them : prayer is the common victim 
 of the world." — Eomil. xh. in j^. I 
 ad Cor. t. x. p. 392-3. — "Let us 
 pity them ; let us aid them as we 
 may be able; let us obtain some 
 comfort for them; small indeed, 
 yet still some comfort. But how ? 
 by what means ? Ourselves praying, 
 and entreating others to do the 
 same, and for them unceasingly 
 
Mr. French.'] 
 
 PUKGATORT. 
 
 849 
 
 giving alms to the poor. Hence; 
 comfort will be derived. God has 
 said : ' / will defend this city to save 
 it for my own sake, and for my 
 servant David's sake.' (2 Kings xii. 
 34.) If the remembrance alone of 
 a just man veas so prevalent, vrhat 
 maj not works effect ? Not vrithout 
 reason was it ordained by the 
 apostles, that, ia celebrating the 
 sacred mysteries, the dead would 
 be remembered ; for they well know 
 what advantage would thence be 
 derived to them. WiU not God be 
 propitious when he looks down on 
 the whole assembly of the people, 
 raising their hands up to him ; 
 when he beholds the venerable choir 
 of the priests, and the sacred victim 
 lying on the altar?" — Homil. iii. in 
 lip. ad Philip, t. xi. p. 217. 
 
 I wonder wnat sacred rite that is, 
 by-the-bye, where he describes the 
 sacred victim lying on the altar ? 
 
 Again, St. Jerome. 
 
 St. Jerome, L.C. — " If he, whose 
 work has burned and suffered loss, 
 (as the apostle says) shall lose the 
 reward of his labour; yet shall he 
 be saved by the trial of Are ; so he 
 whose work shall abide which he bmlt 
 upon shall be saved without Are. 
 Thus there wiH be some difference 
 in the degrees of salvation." Adv. 
 Jovinan. 1. ii. t. iv. Pars xi., p. 215. 
 — " As we believe the torments of 
 the devil and of those wicked men, 
 who said in their hearts There is no 
 Qod, to be eternal ; so, in regard to 
 tjiose sinners who have not denied 
 their faith, and whose works will be 
 proved and purged by fire, we con- 
 clude that the sentence of the 
 Judge will be tempered by mercy." 
 Comment, in c. Ixv. Isai. t. ii. p. 492. 
 — ^He establishes the same doctrine 
 against the Pelagians, 1. i. t. iv. 
 Pars xi., p. 501, &c. — In a letter 
 of consolation to Pammaohius on 
 the death of his wife Paulina, he 
 says : ' Other husbands strew 
 
 various flowers on the graves of their 
 departed wives ; but you bedew the 
 venerable remains of PauHna vrith 
 the sweet essences of charity; 
 knovring, that as water quenches jU-e, 
 so do alms extinguish sin'' — {Eccles. 
 ui. 33.) j^. hv. ad Pammaeh. t. iv. 
 p. 584. 
 
 He establishes the same doctrine 
 against the Pelagians. 
 
 Again, the great St. Austin, who 
 lived in the same century : 
 
 St. AuGtrsTiir, L. C. — " Before 
 the most severe and last judgment 
 some undergo temporal punishments 
 in this life ; some after death, and 
 others both now and then. But 
 not all that suifer after death, are 
 condemned to eternal flames. Wbat 
 is not expiated in this life to some 
 is remitted in the life to come, so 
 that they may escape eternal pu- 
 nishment." — De Civit. Dei, 1. xxi. 
 c. xiii. t. vii. p. 634.^" The prayers 
 of the Church and of some good 
 persons are heard in favour of those 
 Christians who departed this life, 
 not so bad . as to be deemed un- 
 worthy of mercy, nor so good as to 
 be entitled to immediate happiness. 
 So also, at the resurrection of the 
 dead, there will some be found, 
 to whom mercy will be imparted, 
 having gone through those pains to 
 which the spirits of the dead are 
 liable. Othervidse it would not 
 have been said of some with truth, 
 that their sin ' shall not be forgiven, 
 neither in this world nor in the world 
 to come,' (Matt. xii. 32,) unless some 
 sins were remitted in the next 
 world." — Ibid. c. xxiv. p. 643. — 
 " It cannot be denied, that the 
 souls of the dead are relieved bj 
 the piety of the living, when the 
 sacrifice of our Mediator is offered 
 for them, or alms are distributed in 
 the Church. They are benefited, 
 who so lived as to have deserved 
 such favours. For there is a mode 
 of hie, not so perfect as not to 
 
350 
 
 PTJEGATOBT. 
 
 \Jth Evening. 
 
 requij-e this assistance, nor so bad 
 as to be incapable of receiving aid. 
 The practice of the Church in 
 recommending the souls of the 
 departed is not contrary to the 
 declaration of the Apostle, which 
 says : ' We must all appear before 
 the judgment-seat of Christ, that 
 every one may receive the proper 
 things of the body, according as he 
 hath done, whether it be good or evil.' 
 (2 Cor. V. 10.) For this merit 
 each one, in his life, has acquired, 
 to be aided by the good works of 
 the Kving. But all are not aided : 
 and why so ? Because all have not 
 lived alike. When therefore the 
 sacrifice of the altar, or alms, are 
 offered for the dead; in regard to 
 those whose lives were very good, 
 such ofices may be deemed acts of 
 thanksgiving; acts of propitiation 
 for the imperfect; and though to 
 the wicked they bring no aid, 
 rhey may give some comfort to the 
 
 iving." — EneMrid- c. ex. t. vi. 
 ). 338. — '"Lord, chastise me not in, 
 
 hy anger.' May I not be numbered 
 with those, to whom thou wilt say : 
 
 Go into eternal fa-e, which hath 
 leen prepared for the devil and his 
 angels' Cleanse me so in this life, 
 make me such that I may not 
 stand in need of that pnrifying fire, 
 designed for those who shall ' be 
 saved, yet so as by fire.' And why, 
 but because (as the apostle says) 
 they have bmlt ' upon the founda- 
 tion wood, hay, and stubble?' If 
 they had. built 'gold, and silver, 
 andpreciom stones,' they would be 
 secured from both flies; not only 
 from that in which the wicked shafl. 
 be punished for ever ; but likewise 
 from that -fire which wiU purify 
 those who shall be saved by flre. But 
 because it is said, ' he, shall be saved,' 
 that fire is thought lightly of; 
 though the suffering wiU be more 
 grievous than anything man can un- 
 dergo in this Efe." — Enarrat. in 
 
 Ps. xxxvii. t.iv. p. 395. — " It cannot 
 be doubted," kc. See the passage, 
 p. 284. — " We read in the Second 
 Book of Maccabees, (xii. 43,) that 
 sacrifice was offered for the dead ; 
 but though in the Old Testament 
 no such words had been found, the 
 authority of the universal Church 
 must suffice, whose practice is 
 incontrovertible. When the priest 
 at the altar offers up prayers to 
 God, he recoannends in them the 
 souls of the departed. WTien the 
 mind sometimes recollects that the 
 body of his friend has been depo- 
 sited near the tomb of some martyr, 
 he fails not, in prayer, to recom- 
 mend the soul to that blessed Saint; 
 not doubting that succour may 
 thence be derived. Such suffrages 
 must not be neglected, which the 
 Church performs in general words 
 that they may be benefited, who 
 have no parents, nor children, nor 
 relations, nor friends." — De Cura 
 pro Moriuis, c. i. iv. t. vi. p. 516, 
 519. — The same sentiment is re- 
 peated through the whole treatise. 
 
 Gentlemen, when I read the New 
 Testaaient, I read it by myself, 
 without imagining at the moment 
 that I am a Catholic, or thinking 
 whether I am a Catholic or a 
 Protestant, but applying my intel- 
 lectual faculties to it ; and I never 
 come to that passage without 
 deducing from it, according to the 
 laws of sound reasoning, that there 
 are some sins forgiven in the 
 world to come. So says he, and 
 so say I. 
 
 St. Jerome, therefore, notwith- 
 standing the notes which my friend 
 is about to take, alludes to fire in 
 the other world. St. Paulinus, 
 Bishop of Nola, and contemporary 
 vrith St. Jerome, and correspondeiut 
 of St. Augustine, establishes the 
 same doctrine in various passages 
 of his vmtiogs. — See Sibl. PP. 
 t. vi. p. 163, &o. 
 
Mr. French.l purgatory. 
 
 351 
 
 St. Nilus likewise : — 
 
 St. Niltjs, G.C— "To be grieved, 
 to weep, and fast immoderately, 
 for tlie death of a relation, indicates 
 tmbelief and the want of hope. He 
 who believes that he wiU rise again 
 fiom the grave, will feel comfort ; 
 win return thanks to God; will 
 change his tears into joy ; will pray 
 that ne may obtain eternal mercy, 
 and will himself turn to the cor- 
 rection of his own failings." — ^L. i. 
 Ep. cccxi. t. xi. p. 115. 
 
 Amobius the Yonnger : — 
 
 Aenobitjs the Youn&er, L. G. 
 — " They who offer money or gifts 
 to the chuTohes, and die in their 
 sins, do it in order that they may 
 be raised to eternal life by our 
 prayers." — Bibl. PP. Max. t. viii. 
 p. 298. 
 
 Now, gentlemen, you see the 
 wonderful concurrence of the fathers 
 upon fundamental points — ^no frail 
 bond of endearment, by-the-bye, to : 
 induce the Catholic to cherish them 
 in flat contradiction to what my 
 learned friend asserted, that they 
 are always at variance one with 
 another. Tbe battle, therefore, is 
 mine, he must concede, or he must 
 show where the discrepancy exists 
 between them. I come now to 
 those great liturgies, which, next 
 to the Bible, ought to be most 
 venerated by every Christian, unless 
 my friend can this evening do what 
 he struggled to do on a former 
 occasion; that is, to shake their 
 foundation. But — no ; all the 
 learned Protestant bishops — Cave, 
 Bishop Bull, Bishop Jeremy Taylor, 
 and all the learned in that profes- 
 sion, confirm these 'as to substance. 
 
 But my friend will say, when he 
 hears the long string of names 
 which I quote against him, " These 
 are weeds I throw over into your 
 garden." I shall wiUingly receive 
 them if he thus treats Bishops 
 Bull, and Cave, and Jeremy Taylor, 
 
 as he did Thomdyke and the others, 
 And, by-the-bye, some Protestant 
 gentlemen expressed some Kttle 
 mdignation at his calling- them 
 " weeds." They declare that Thom- 
 dyke, and others he mentioned, 
 were an honour to the Protestant 
 religion, and they could only account 
 for it on the ground, that my learned 
 friend having been bred up in Soot- 
 land, scarcely knows the difference 
 of a weed from a flower. [Loud 
 laughter.] Now, therefore, gen- 
 tlemen, I go to the liturgies — the 
 liturgy of Jerusalem. This is the 
 great Hturgy of James the Apostle, 
 and I beg you to pay particular at- 
 tention to its meamng. This is what 
 I contend is called Mass, because 
 'KfiTovpyla is the Greek for mass, 
 or sacrifice, as Hesekius explains 
 it. Did you — [to the B.ev. J. Gum- 
 ming, who was at the moment talk- 
 ing] — say it was not i 
 
 Rev, J. CuiMlNG. — No; I did 
 not. 
 
 Mr. Pkench. — I quote from 
 Hesekius. 
 
 All the Greeks who celebrate 
 mass to this day always call Liturgia 
 the sacrifice of the mass. 
 
 Now listen to the first. 
 
 This was poured forth from the 
 lips of St. James the Apostle: 
 
 Liturgy of Jerusalem, G.C. — 
 " Again and again, we commemo- 
 rate aU the faithful departed, those 
 who are departed in the true faith, 
 from this holy altar, and from this 
 town, and from every country; those 
 who in the true mith have slept 
 and are come to thee, the God and 
 Lord of Spirits, and of all flesh.^ — 
 Be mindful also, Lord, of the 
 orthodox priests, already departed, 
 of the deacons, and ssoular persons, 
 &c. who are departed in the true 
 faith, and of those whom each one 
 specifies in his mind. O Lord, 
 God of Spirits and of all flesh, be 
 mindful of all whom we commemo- 
 
3d2 
 
 PCHGATOEY. 
 
 •Jilt Hvemnff. 
 
 rate, who are gone out of this life 
 in the_ orthodox faith ; grant rest 
 to their souls, hodies and spirits; 
 deliver them from the iafinite dam- 
 nation to come, and make them 
 worthy of that joy which is found 
 in. the bosom of Abraham, Isaac, 
 and Jacob. Impute not to them 
 their sins. Enter not into judgment 
 with thy servants. Grant them 
 rest, and be propitious, and forgive, 
 God, the toUies and defects of us 
 aU, whether done knowingly or 
 through ignorance," &o. — Eetiaud. 
 t. xi. p. 38. 
 
 LiTTiRGY or Alexandkia, G. G. 
 — " Be mindful, Lord, of our fore- 
 fathers from the beginning; of 
 every spirit of those who have de- 
 parted m the faith of Christ, whom 
 we commemorate this day. To the 
 souls of aU these, O Sovereign 
 Lord our God, grant repose in thy 
 holy tabernacles. Give rest to their 
 soma, and render them worthy of 
 the kingdom of heaven." — Ibid. 
 p. 150. 
 
 LiTUKGT OP Constantinople, 
 G. C— " Be mindful of aU, O God, 
 who have slept before us, in the 
 hope of the resurrection to eternal 
 life. We pray for the repose and 
 the remission of the soul of thy 
 servant N., in a place of rest, from 
 wliich grief and lamentation are far 
 removed; and make him to rest 
 where he may see around him the 
 light of thy countenance," &c. — 
 Goar. p. 78. 
 
 • LiTUKGYOP Rome, L. C. — " Be 
 mindful, also, Lord, of thy ser- 
 vants N. and N. who are gone 
 before us, with the sign of faith, 
 and rest in the sleep of peace. To 
 ■whom, O Lord, and to all that rest 
 in Christ, grant, we beseech thee, 
 a place of refreshment, of Mght, and 
 of peace." 
 
 LlTtra&T OF THE NeSTORIANS, 
 
 (who departed from us 1,400 years 
 since) G. C. — " Lord, powerful 
 
 God, receive tms oblation, for all 
 the departed, who being separated 
 from us, have (quitted this world." 
 — Remudot. t. ii. p. 590. 
 
 LiTUBGY or THEODOKTrS, G.C. — 
 
 " O Lord our God, graciously re- 
 ceive from us this saorifloe of thanks- 
 giving — ^that it may be in thy sight 
 a good memorial of all the children 
 of the Holy Catholic Church, of 
 those who have passed out of this 
 world in the true faith : that thou 
 mayest, O Grod, graciously grant 
 them pardon of all the sms and 
 offences, by which, in this world, in 
 a mortal body, and in a soul subject 
 to inconstancy, they have sinned or 
 offended before thee, because there 
 is no one who does not sin^" — Ibid. 
 p. 630. 
 
 LlTUEGY OP NeSTOMUS, G. C. — 
 
 " We pray and entreat thee, O 
 Lord; be mindful of all our brethren 
 in Christ, who are departed out of 
 this life in the true faith, whose 
 names are known to thee ; loosing 
 and remitting to them the sins and 
 offences which, as men liable to 
 error and passions, they have com- 
 mitted before thee, through the 
 prayer and intercession of- those 
 who have been pleasing in thy 
 sight."— ;Ji(^. p. 633. 
 
 Coptic Liturgy op St. Basil, 
 G.C.—" Be mindful, also, O Lord, 
 of aU who have slept and reposed 
 in the priesthood, and in every rank 
 of the secular state. Vouchsafe, 
 O Lord, to grant rest to the souls 
 of them all in the bosom of the 
 saints, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 
 Command &ose, O Lord, whose 
 souls thou hast received, to repose 
 in this place, and preserve us," &c. 
 
 ■Betiaudot. t. 1. p. 19. 
 
 Alexandrian Liturgy op St. 
 Basil, G. C. — " Be nundfnl, also, 
 Lord, of all the sacerdotal order 
 who are now departed, and of those 
 who were in a secular state. Grant 
 that, the souls of them all may rest 
 
Mr. French.] 
 
 SnUGATOBY. 
 
 353 
 
 ill the bosoms of our fathers Abra- 
 ham, Isaac, and Jacob. — To those, 
 Lord, whose souls thou hast re- 
 ceived, graat repose in that place, 
 and vouchsafe to transfer them to the 
 kirigdom of heaven." — Ibid.^. 73. 
 Coptic Liiuegy op St. Grb- 
 GOBY, G. C— "Be mindful, Lord, 
 of our fathers and brethren, who 
 have already slept in the orthodox 
 faith ; grant rest to them all with 
 thy saints, and with those whose 
 names have been commemorated." 
 —IMd. p. 34. 
 
 AlEXAUDBIAN LiTUKGY OP St. 
 
 Gregoby, G. G.— « Be mindful, 
 Lord, of our holy fathers, who are 
 gone before us — and of every just 
 spirit, consummated in the faith of 
 Christ — also of those, who are 
 commemorated this day, and of aU 
 the choirs of saints, by whose 
 prayers and intercessions, have 
 mercy on us." — Ibid. p. 113. 
 
 Coptic Litubgy op St. Cyb.ii, 
 G. C. — " Have mercy, Lord. To 
 our fathers and brethren, who have 
 slept, and whose souls thou hast 
 received, give rest." — I6id. p. 41. 
 
 Now, gentlemen, I shall read to 
 you what the Council of Trent says 
 upon this article : 
 
 COITNCIL OP TBENT. 
 
 " As the Catholic Church, in- 
 structed by the Holy Spirit, has 
 taught in her councils, trom the 
 sacred writings, and the ancient 
 tradition of the fathers, and this 
 synod has now recently declared, 
 that there is a purgatory, and that 
 the souls there detained are helped 
 by the suffrages of the faithful, but 
 principally by the acceptable sacri- 
 uce of the altar — therefore this 
 Aolj synod gives her commands to 
 the bishops, to be particularly care- 
 ful, that the sound doctrine con- 
 cerning purgatory, which has been 
 delivered by the holy fathers and 
 sacred councils, be taught, and held. 
 
 and believed, and be every where 
 preached: thaf all abstruse ana 
 subtle (juestions, which tend not to 
 edification, and from which piety 
 seldom draws any advantage, be 
 avoided in public discourses before 
 the people : that uncertain things, 
 and such as have the appearance of 
 falsehood, be not allowed to be 
 made public, nor be discussed : and 
 that whatever may tend to encou- 
 rage idle curiosity and superstition; 
 or may savour of filthy lucre, be 
 prohibited as scandalous impedi- 
 ments to virtue." — Sess. xxv. Se- 
 cretwm de Pnrgat. p. 386. 
 
 Thus you see, my friends, my 
 position IS established by the con- 
 current and unanimous testimony 
 of the fathers of the Church, and 
 of aU these ancient and venerable 
 monuments of antiquity. And, 
 according to the testimony of these 
 liturgies, the practice of praying 
 for the dead, in order that they 
 may be loosed from their sins, is 
 most unquestionable. But you must 
 add to this, the uniform, living, re- 
 sounding voice of the Catholic 
 Chttbch, never ceasing in every age 
 to preach and inculcate the doc- 
 trine ; calling — most triumphantly 
 caUing — by the voice of her dispu- 
 tants m every theological discussion, 
 on their opponents to state the era, 
 the date, when it first arose to con- 
 laminate the pure belief of Cluis- 
 tians. That is what I again and 
 again call on my friend to do tuis 
 evening, in order that he may in- 
 dulge his taste for conjecture as to 
 what period of time this doctr" 
 arose in the world. Whether he 
 win take, upon this occasion, some 
 fanciful period, as he did on the 
 doctrine of Transubstantiation, 
 plunging into one of those conve- 
 nient dark ages which he knowb 
 nothing about; or whether he will 
 condescend to give it a little more 
 antiquity, and to allow that ii 
 
354 
 
 FDHGATORY. [_7(i Eveninff. 
 
 sprang up in tlie fifth or fourth cen- 
 turies, or iu the second; perhaps 
 he mOT' be beneficent enough to do 
 it. I know not what hue of argu- 
 ment he will adopt ; but certain I 
 am, that he will not dare to look 
 that great argument in the face, 
 — ^that triple argument, I should 
 say, which I bring against him, viz. 
 the liturgies of the Church; the 
 unanimous consent of the fathers 
 appealing to Scripture. Mark that ! 
 not the fathers alone, but the 
 fathers appealing to Scripture, and 
 the ever-living resounding voice, 
 from age to age, of the Catholic 
 Chtjuch. Oh ! my friends, I can- 
 not but exclaim. With what eager- 
 ness would not my learned friend 
 blot out from his mind for ever all 
 these Tmpleasing remembrances of 
 
 1 shall now take the liberty of' 
 reading you an extract from two 
 books which are rejected since the 
 Reformation. It is the fashion, it 
 appears, to reject them foruncanon- 
 icity, though the Catholic Church 
 has received them up to this period 
 from the third Council of Carthage, 
 and received them as canonical 
 in conjunction with others; and 
 though St. Austin and other 
 fathers of the Church quote them 
 as canonical, still my friend, time 
 after time, raises his voice against 
 their authenticity. The first is the 
 book of Maccabees.^ 
 
 2 Maccab. xii. 43, 44, 45, 46. — 
 " The valiant commander having 
 mkde a gathering, he sent twelve 
 thousand drachnlas of silver to 
 Jerusalem, for sacrifice to be offered 
 tor the sins of the dead, thinking 
 weE and religiously concenung the 
 resurrection. Por if he had not 
 noped that they that were slain 
 should rise agaan, it would have 
 seemed superfluous and vain to pray 
 for the dead. And because he con- 
 sidered, that they who had fallen 
 
 asleep with godliness, had had 
 great grace laid up for them. It is, 
 merefore, a wholesome and holy 
 thought to pray for the dead, that 
 they may be loosed from- sins." 
 
 And, my friends, having quoted 
 to you this passage, the authen- 
 ticity of which book I shall endea- 
 vour to substantiate this evening by 
 some few remar^, I beg leave to 
 call your attention to this fact — 
 how the whole coincides with other 
 parts of the Testament which my 
 friend does admit. I quote Matthew 
 ii. 36. 
 
 Then Corinthians. 
 
 Then St. Peter iviii. six. and xx. 
 
 Then Kevelations. 
 
 Now, my friends, this passage 
 from the Book of Maccabees was too 
 glaring -not to dazzle the eyes of 
 the Reformers in the sixteenth cen- 
 tury, when they arose up deter- 
 mined to expunge from the belief 
 of the Christian w^orld the doctrine 
 of Purgatory. They said, and they 
 urged it very systematically — " So 
 long as that book stares us in the 
 face, we never can extinguish from 
 the belief of Christiajis the doc- 
 trine of Purgatory." What, there- 
 fore, remained to be done ? Why 
 to lop it off, and to hand you down 
 only a part of the Bible ; so that 
 those who place their salvation 
 upon the interpretation which they 
 deduce from the Bible, are found 
 in the nineteenth century to have 
 l^een defrauded of a vital part of 
 the Bible. They say that it was 
 not included in the canon of the 
 Jews, but it was included in the 
 canon of the Council of Cartharge 
 by the assembled bishops of the 
 Catholic Church at the Council of 
 Carthage in the fourth century; and 
 it was solemnly declared therein to 
 have been received from the apo- 
 stles as a really canonical book. It 
 was believed in implicitly by all 
 Christendom, until men of the most 
 
Sfr. Ffetii-k.'] 
 
 PUKQATOKY. 
 
 355 
 
 unhallowed daring m the sixteenth 
 century proceeded to expunge it 
 from tae belief of Christians. But, 
 my friends, there is one thing cer- 
 tain, and that is, W hether inspired or 
 not, ■we Catholics most obstinately 
 contend that it is in .unison ■with 
 thi voice of ages. There is one 
 thing certain, that my learned 
 friend will not dare to call in 
 question the antiquity of the book; 
 that it was written brfpre the 
 birth of our Saviour many years. 
 And we know verywell, as to that 
 objection about the Jewish canon, 
 that since the days of Esdras no 
 books were enumerated. The 
 Council of Carthage, therefore, 
 received them among the number 
 of inspired writings^ and the Ca- 
 tholic Church has ever since de- 
 clared them to be a portion of the 
 inspired writings. And we, there- 
 fore, when we argue from Scripture, 
 of course take these as an integral 
 part of Scripture; and if you 
 admit that it is an integral part of 
 Scripture, the question is at an 
 end, and my friend is confounded. 
 
 " ITiese are the books'' — here 
 are the words of the Council of 
 Carthage, to which I call my 
 friend's particular attention. 
 
 Now mark, my friends, in this 
 enumeration are included all the 
 books which Catholics have in their 
 Bibles to this day, not excepting 
 Baruk, which my friend quoted 
 at a lecture after me, which I gave 
 on the Bible some time ago at 
 Hammersmith, before the com- 
 mencement of this disoussioil; I, 
 standing with pen in haaad, calling 
 to my learned friend for the page 
 whence he had taken the assertion 
 that the Boot of Baruk was not 
 inserted in the Council of Carthage. 
 I accordingly read, and could not 
 find it ; and when I applied to my 
 reverend feiend the other day to 
 answer what it was — ^it must in- 
 
 deed have been a wonderful lapsm 
 memoriie — he said he "had not 
 aUuded to Baruk ! I declare so- 
 lemnly 1 took it down as the quota- 
 tion he mentioned at a subsequent 
 lecture to the one I gave, and I 
 found all the books exactly enume- 
 rated, with Baruk included. How 
 this happened 1 leave to the learned 
 gentleman to explain when he rises. 
 St. Austin gives the same enume- 
 ration, and quotes from the Book of 
 Maccabees as canonical Scripture. 
 It was ranked among the Holy 
 Scriptures by Pope Irmocent the 
 First, in his reply to Exsuperius, 
 Bishop of Toulouse, in the year 405. 
 It was quoted by him in that cele- 
 brated epistle, which is now extant, 
 in the year 400. It was quoted 
 as canonical Scripture by Pope 
 Gelasius, assisted by seven bishops, 
 in a decree of the Iloman Council 
 which sat in the year 394. The 
 canonicity, therefore, of this book 
 remains firmly established for ever. 
 And, therefore, when the book of 
 Maccabees declares that it is " a 
 holy and wholesome thought to 
 pray for the dead that they may be 
 loosed from their sins," I think, 
 gentlemen, it is evidence not to be 
 contradicted by any far-fetched or 
 fanciful iaterpretation of my friend, 
 which he chooses to give to certaia 
 favourite texts which have become 
 familiar to him from his infancy. 
 But again, every learned man 
 throughout Europe admits the two 
 Books of Maccabees to be an au- 
 thentic history. Protestant divines 
 of the ChurA of England do ; I 
 do not know what they do in Scot- 
 land; but Protestant divines of 
 the Church of England admit them 
 to be authentic histories ; and the 
 historical fact remains uncontra- 
 dicted, that in the days of Mac- 
 cabees the Jews offered sacrifices 
 for the dead. Josephus, the Jew, 
 informs us that the Jews were 
 
35 B 
 
 PtrRGATORY. 
 
 [7M Evening. 
 
 not in the liabit of pxayine for 
 those who had committed suicide. 
 Granted ; but for whom, therefore, 
 did they pray ? Of course they 
 did not pray for those in Abraham's 
 bosom, or for those in hell, for the 
 gates of heU are equally closed 
 against pardon as against all hope ; 
 therefore, they must have prayed for 
 those who were in a medial state, 
 which we cali Purgatory. And 
 here I must call attention to this, 
 because I dare say it will form the 
 substantial part of my friend's argu- 
 ment that the word " Purgatory," 
 or Purgatorium, was not much re- 
 sounded in the early ages. I grant 
 it; but purgatorial j?re was, which is 
 tantamount, and strongly expresses 
 the pains and torments of the 
 medial state. And, moreover, a 
 man may be a very good Catholic, 
 and never mention the word Pur- 
 gatory now. Again, our Saviour 
 finding this custom established by 
 the Jews, as appears from the Book 
 of Maccabees, which as a book of 
 history is not to be confuted — our 
 Saviour finding it estabhshed, did 
 ie ever find fault with the practice, 
 or did he ever reprehend it ? Why 
 did he not ? He would naturally 
 have exclaimed against it as one of. 
 the superstitious traditions' of the 
 Jews. Why did not the apostles 
 and evangeksts exclaim against it ? 
 Now, my friends, the question 
 naturally occurs as to how these 
 heresies, if they be so, crept into 
 the Jewish Church? — for my 
 learned friend wiU never deny that 
 the Jews have prayers for the dead' 
 in their prayer-books 'to the present 
 day. It was impossible to expect 
 that, upon turning Christians, the 
 Jews should discontinue to offer up 
 prayers as they did in former times, 
 as we learn from theif learned Eab- 
 bis — it is impossible, ■ when they 
 came into -the Christian Church and 
 were converted, that the apostles 
 
 would not reprehend them for bring- 
 ing heresies into the Church, had 
 they continued such prayers. And 
 I stall thank my friend, when he 
 rises with the fathers in his hand, 
 to point out some father finding fault 
 with Christians for the superstitious 
 practice of praying for the dead. It 
 was their bounden duty, as the 
 great champions of Christianity, to 
 have thundered out their denuncia- 
 tions, and to have pointed out for 
 execration so odious, so baneful a 
 heresy, had it been one, as my 
 learned friend most untheologicaUy 
 contends. But no ; aU the fethers 
 of the Church and all the liturgies 
 cry out with one simultaneous cry — 
 " Fraying for the dead is an aposto- 
 
 Prom that text I deduce mani- 
 festly, that there are sins to be for- 
 given in the world to come ; and 
 it is not in the power of sound 
 logic to draw any other distinction 
 from it. 
 
 Most undoubtedly, as a man de- 
 parts out of this life he will have to 
 give an account for every idle word 
 uttered. But will my learned Cal- 
 vinistio friend grant that aU sin is 
 so perfectly equal that he may be 
 damned for a single word? He 
 never wUl do it. I say it is impos- 
 sible, after Christ has shed hi^ 
 blood, that a man should be plunged 
 iuto the flames of hell for that. If 
 a man has psissed the day idlj, or 
 m mere squandering of idle words, 
 he win no doubt have to give his 
 account and be punished. But God 
 forbid that I should ever act on 
 the doctrine of those rigid Chris- 
 tians, who would condemn him to 
 eternal torment! No — but Scrip- 
 ture tells me that I must give an 
 account for them. Is he to be 
 applauded for them ? No ; un- 
 doubtedly he is to be punished for 
 them. Again, I quote that cele- 
 brated passage, which I dare say 
 
Rev. J. Cummin^.'] pnEGAioay. 
 
 357 
 
 will afford luibounded scope to the 
 luxuriance of the oriental fancy of 
 my learned friend. 
 
 Now, I acknowledge that the first 
 part of this the fathers have inter- 
 preted variously. I must also in- 
 terpret it differently from them, 
 which I am at liberty to do. But 
 on the great article of Purgatory, 
 there it is that all the fathers of the 
 Church combine, as well as all the 
 liturgies ; and I deduce from them 
 the doctrine which that Church 
 itself has never ceased to resound in 
 her sacred temples — that " some 
 may be saved, yet so as by fire," 
 meaning, that some maybe saved in 
 the other world, if not in this. Had 
 it been otherwise, my friends, how 
 unjust it would be ! — [Here the 
 learned gentleman closed abruptly : 
 time expiring.] 
 
 Kev. J. Ctjmming. — There are 
 two ways, my friends, in which a 
 man may endeavour to persuade 
 you that he pursues a logical and 
 conclusive course ia bringing his 
 positions to what he thinks a tri- 
 umphant issue. He may reason 
 forcibly, prove his views, and defy 
 his opponent to impugn or contro- 
 vert them. Or he may talk a great 
 deal upon the importance of logic, 
 on the necessity of avoiding figures, 
 " orientalisms," circumlocutions, 
 and metaphors, &c. &c. &c. ; and by 
 such a display of mere moonshine, 
 he may lead some individuals, who 
 are wholly dazzled by gKtter, (jr con- 
 founded by hard names, to believe 
 that he has perpetrated a whole 
 volume of acute and glorious logic. 
 Now, I admit that if this last be 
 reasoning, my opponent has excelled 
 in it to a most surpassing and un- 
 precedented degree. He has en- 
 larged for a whole half-hour on logic, 
 on solid argument, and the im- 
 portance of close reasoning; and 
 declared that he was treatine the 
 
 matter with the utmost intellectual 
 power and the shrewdest acumen, 
 well knowing that if he did not tell 
 you, you would not discover it. 
 After all the bustle and babbKng, 
 vou find that his reasoniag and his 
 logic are just what I anticipated 
 they would be — a vox et preeterea 
 Monies parturiuni gignetur 
 
 After some preliminary extracts 
 taken from Bossuet, he, contrary to 
 custom, condescended, you observe, 
 to quote from the canons of the 
 Council of Trent ; but, according to 
 custom, left out what he found not 
 Kkely to further his cause, lieally 
 it is neither honest, right, nor be- 
 coming in my learned opponent to 
 quote fragments only, and leave 
 other fragments unnoticed; there- 
 fore, I think it is but fair towards 
 the fathers of the Council of Trent, 
 and but just to the tenet of Purga- 
 tory, that I should read on from 
 where my learned opponent was 
 pleased to leave offia quoting the 
 decree. I shall, therefore, read it 
 to you. My cautious opponent con- 
 cluded at the words "filthy lucre ;" 
 "but," continues the decree, "let 
 the bishop take care." 
 
 You observe, this will be found 
 3. profitable ridfiT to the decree, be- 
 cause, if this were left out, there 
 might be no profit realised from 
 Purgatory ; and, instead of its being 
 a valuable mine from which golden 
 ore might be dug "for the main- 
 tenance of the faithful," it might 
 turn ovit to be a mere figment, un- 
 productive as it is unscriptural and 
 irrational. " Let them take care," 
 says the decree, " that the suffrages 
 of faithful men, to vrit, the sacrifices 
 at masses, prayers, alms-giving, and 
 other works of piety, which have 
 been accustomed to be made by the 
 faithful for the faithful departed, be 
 piously and devoutly performed, 
 and let those which are due for them 
 
358 
 
 ruK&ATOBT. [TiA Hvenvng. 
 
 by the wills of founders be dis- 
 charged by the priests," &c. 
 
 This distiaotion I wish you to 
 keep before you, that praying for the 
 dead, is one thing, and Purgatory is 
 another ; as my antagonist seems to 
 think that the one involves the other. 
 
 Now, my learned opponent has 
 brought forward many facts from the 
 fathers, and from the liturgies (of 
 which I have a little to say Tjy-and- 
 by), in all of which there seemed to 
 be the far-distant and shadowy 
 beaming of an idea (for it is some- 
 times cBfficnlt to extract from the 
 w^ija^ewith which they are shrouded 
 the real sentiments of the fathers) 
 that prayers were offered for the 
 faithful dead in ancient times. He 
 may or may not prove this ; but re- 
 member, this is not the question. I 
 think praying for the happy dead is 
 an unscnptural act; but, in my 
 mind, there is just as wide a dis- 
 tinction between praying for de- 
 parted saints and purgatoij, as there 
 is between black and white, or any 
 two extremes whatever. I certaiuly 
 can conceive an individual to pray 
 for those saints who are dead, that 
 the day of their fuU and final happi- 
 ness may speedily dawn — although 
 I would not do so, for I think it is 
 unscriptuxal — ^yet I can conceive an 
 individual to do so, while at the 
 same time he never dreams of or 
 perpetrates the monstrous idea that 
 in some particular region of the 
 earth, or moon, or anywhere else 
 the sapient fathers may determine, 
 there is a region, where " by fire," 
 as_ my friend ijuoted it, "those 
 saints who die in venial sins are 
 purified by fire from those sins," 
 and are made meet for immortality 
 and glory. You observe, the ex- 
 tracts read by my opponent go to 
 show, that it is the souls of the^ioas 
 ' — oi^ii faithful — of the ransomed 
 that enter Purgatory. Now, what- 
 ever the torinents that may be en- 
 
 dured in purgatorial fire — ^whatever 
 purifying inflictions and penal chas- 
 tisements may be there, you are to 
 keep fixed in your mind the fact, 
 that it is not condemned sinner* 
 who, according to the Eoman 
 Church, suffer there, hut those who 
 have " washed their robes" in the 
 blood of the Lamb; those that are 
 justified by Christ's righteousness 
 — ^the ransomed and redeemed, " as 
 by the precious blood of the Lamb." 
 These two points I wish you to re- 
 tain before you — first, that there is 
 
 tory and prayin^g for the pious dead; 
 and, in the next place, that, accord- 
 ing to Borne, it is the souls of the 
 righteom, the redeemed, that enter 
 into Purgatory, and become subj ected 
 to those pimfying processes and 
 penal torments wmoh may be con- 
 tained in the definition of the word 
 "Purgatorjr." My opponent re- 
 curred to his twenty-times-repeated 
 crambe recoeta of onr genealogy or 
 Protestant lineage. He has given 
 us some curious specimens of it, 
 doubtless, in the course of this con- 
 troversy. Popery is so ingrained in 
 my opponent, tlmt, because he has a 
 pope, he thinks every one else must 
 have one too. He traced first 
 every Protestant to Calvin. Then 
 he was not satisfied with that, but 
 thinking it would gratify us, he 
 traced it a little further backward, 
 till he brought ns up to Luther as 
 our pope or father. But, it seems, 
 not satisfied with that sketch of his 
 antiquarian charity, he took us a 
 little further back, and linked our 
 parentage with the Jews who dis- 
 believed Christianity, and who also 
 disbcKeved, as he says, Transubstan- 
 tiation; but now he seems to re- 
 pent his kindness, slips aside in a 
 most dexterous way, and says he will 
 not allow our parentage to extend 
 beyond the fourth century, and, 
 whether I will or not, Mrias is my 
 
(tee. J. Cummingi] 'Puegatoby. 
 
 359 
 
 parent and prototype. I had the 
 honour of being a descendant of 
 Julian the Apostate last evening, 
 and now I have the honour of a 
 descent from ^rius — ^the Socioian 
 iErius. Does nqt this show a wo- 
 ful want of argument ? I have no 
 need of such resources — "rum tali 
 awxilio, non defensoribm istis." But 
 as for himself, most illustrious 
 Hector ! he comes under the banner 
 of the fathers. I ■will show you, be- 
 fore I have done with them, that if 
 ever there was a motley banner, if 
 ever there was " a coat of many 
 colours," it is this same banner of 
 the fathers under which my oppo- 
 nent advances, brandishiug Ms spear 
 like a weaver's beam — magnilo- 
 quently prosy. 
 
 But I protest against the charge 
 that I come under the banner of 
 .Srius. I never saw him. I never 
 read his writings. I come like 
 David to meet the papal Goliath 
 with his clerical shield and sword- 
 bearers, " in the name of the Lord 
 of Hosts," not in the name of 
 .Jlrius, or Julian, pope, uiquisitor, 
 or priest, nor under the auspices of 
 any of the best or brightest of the 
 names of mankind. 
 
 My opponent next introduced a 
 quotation, which I find is from Ter- 
 tuUian, one of the fathers under 
 whose banner he comes. But while 
 quoting, he most ingenuously ad- 
 mitted that he was a heretic. Yet 
 he comes under his banner ! — a 
 heretic's banner ! A " defender of 
 the faith," quoting from TertuUian 
 in support of Purgatory, whom in 
 the very next breath he acknow- 
 ledges had erred in fundamental 
 truth, and whom be pronounces to 
 be a heretic ! March on amid the 
 folds of this ignoble banner — any 
 means will do. 
 
 He next stated that I met the 
 doctrine of Purgatory only on the 
 battle-field of Scripture ; and he was 
 
 right in sayiug so. I meet it and 
 master it on that field from which he 
 shrinks, viz. the word of the living 
 God. If unscriptuial, he said, I 
 must admit that the doctriue of 
 Purgatory was very old ! Yes ; like 
 a variety of bad practices or worse 
 principles in this fallen world, it is 
 very oid. It is delineated, and at 
 length, in the sixth book of the 
 .Slneid of VirgU, where I find a 
 much more beautiful description of 
 Purgatory than Bossuet gives, in 
 the classical lines of the Latin poet. 
 I have also read the same doctrine 
 in the pages of Plato; and, there- 
 fore, I give my friend credit for his 
 statement that it is "very old," 
 since it was knovm, invented, and 
 believed by the ancient heathens, 
 long before it was enrolled in the 
 eclipse of the third and fourth cen- 
 turies among the tenets of truth, as 
 we shall afterwards see to be truth. 
 
 His next quotation was respect- 
 ing a clergyman who had, perhaps, 
 been getting into his dotage, and 
 over whom the bishop was not exer- 
 cising due episcopal control, who 
 had so far forgotten the Thirty-nine 
 Articles, as to pray fcr the soul of 
 George the Fourth, after that mo- 
 narch- was dead. AH that I can 
 say is, that that clergyman did a 
 ve^ fooKsh thing. 
 
 His next remark was, that if 
 Purgatory be unscriptural, how 
 comes it to pass (and this is one of 
 my opponent's favourite positions) 
 that the Nestorians and Entychians, 
 and heretics of various countries, 
 seem to have carried away this 
 "leaven," mixed up with various 
 other tenets which they had imbibed 
 from the Church of Kome ? is not 
 this a proof of its inspiration ? My 
 reply is, that we are not without 
 parallel phenomena. How came it 
 that the Samaritans, who separated 
 from the Jewish Church, carriea 
 away the practice of idolatry as it 
 
360 
 
 PUBGAIOET. 
 
 \7ih Evemng. 
 
 prevailed in the Jewisli Chuich ? Is 
 it to .be for a momfciit supposed that 
 because the Samaritans became idol- 
 atrous, that therefore idolatry was 
 a primitive, and patriarchal, and 
 inspired institution ? How came it 
 to pass that the ten tribes also 
 carried away the same idolatrous 
 custom which had been brought in 
 by the two tribes? Suppose that 
 in the days of our Lord, finding the 
 two tribes guilty of idolatry, and 
 finding that me ten tribes had lapsed 
 into the very same — suppose that 
 jne of the apostles was reasoning 
 with the Jews, and the Jews had 
 replied, "Why, if this be idolatry, 
 if it be not sanctioned by God, how 
 happens it that the very same dogma 
 is cherished by the ten tribes, the 
 Samaritans, and others?" Wliat 
 would be the reply? Why, "By 
 their traditions both have made void 
 the commandments of God," by 
 losing sight of the sacred oracles ; 
 and they have lapsed into all those 
 monstrous consequences which must 
 in such circumstances necessarily 
 foUow. The proper question is. 
 What saith the Scripture ? — " How 
 readest thou?" 
 
 His next remark was in refer- 
 ence to some authors that he 
 quoted, who seemed to hold Pur- 
 gatory ; and, among others, he 
 mentioned Bishop BuU. Now I 
 much question the charge. I am 
 certain it is unfounded. But, with 
 me, the great question is, as I have 
 repeated over and over again, not 
 what Bishop BuU says, or what 
 Thomdyke says ; but " To the law 
 and to tne testimony." And whether 
 it be Bishop BuU, or the Pope, or 
 Mr. Prenoh, who says so, I say it is 
 not to be regarded for a moment, 
 and I have again and again repeated 
 the great truth; and I rejoice to 
 have before me, by-and-by, an op- 
 portunity of proving that the rule 
 of faith among Protestants, in the 
 
 words of the eminent GhiHingworth, 
 a name that ought to be dear to 
 eveiT one, and whose writings ought 
 to be "like household words" 
 among you — "the Bible, and the 
 Sible alone, is the religion of Pro- 
 testants." And, (as it is now sug- 
 gested to me) if one of the clergy of 
 the Church of England be believed 
 to favour any particular dogma of 
 the Church of JRome, there are ten 
 thousand clergy who just state the 
 reverse. And, therefore, if my an- 
 tagonist bring one for his tenet, 
 I bring ten thousand against him. 
 But I win show you that one distin- 
 
 Siished name, high in rank in the 
 hurch of Rome, and no mean 
 authority, disclaims the doctrine of 
 Purgatory whoUy. And I wiU, 
 moreover, show you that many of 
 the authorities to whom he appeals 
 with great confidence, really never 
 seem to have dreamt of Purgatory ; 
 that others, who in their hallueina- 
 tions countenanced such a tenet, 
 seem to have plunge'd into the most 
 extravagant whims about its na- 
 ture and locality, its use, and its 
 necessary results. 
 
 The next question he has asked 
 is. Why did not the apostles and 
 evangehsts protest agamst Purga- 
 tory r Now my simple reply, by way 
 of mterrogatory, is, Why did they 
 not protest against Mahometanism, 
 or Southcotianism, or Owenism ? — 
 Why did they not protest against ■ 
 certain doctrines introduced at sub- 
 sequent eras? But, at the same 
 time, I maintain that the apostles 
 and evangelists employ language 
 which goes alone and distinctly to 
 demolish the whole fabric and foun- 
 dation of Purgatory. Por instance : 
 the apostle says, in 3 Cor. v. 1 : 
 " For we know that if the earthly 
 house of this tabernacle were dis- 
 solved, we have" — what to go to ? 
 Purgatorial fire ? No ; but " a 
 buildinp- of God; a home not made 
 
Rsv. J. Cummmff.] 
 
 PUUGAIUiir. 
 
 361 
 
 wiiA hands, eternal in the heavens." 
 A-iid again the apostle says, in 
 the very same epistle, the sixth, 
 seventh, and eighth verses of this 
 same chapter — "Therefore we are 
 always confident, knowing that, 
 whilst we are at home in the body, 
 we ai-e absent from the Lord ; for 
 we walk by faith, not by sight : we 
 are confident, I say, and willing 
 rather to be absent from the body, 
 to be present with the Lord." You 
 observe, the apostle here distinctly 
 declares, that when a believer is 
 " absent from the body," he is "pre- 
 sent with the Lord ; but the theo- 
 logy of the Church of Rome is, that 
 when a believer is " absent from the 
 bodij" he is present with purgato- 
 rial fires. This surely is a virtual 
 protest against aU that is involved 
 m Purgatory. The views of the 
 Church of Rome and those of the 
 apostles iuthe after results of death 
 never can be reconciled even by my 
 opponent's marvellous logic. 
 
 Before I enter on the scriptural 
 argument, however, I must refer to 
 the importance that is to be attri- 
 buted to those extracts my oppo- 
 nent has with such ridiculous as- 
 sumptions brought forward from 
 the liturgies, and other post-apostoHe 
 documents. Now, let me observe, 
 before referring to Dupiu, from 
 whom I have already quoted so 
 amply, in order more clearly to 
 illustrate the worth or weight of 
 these liturgies even by the Roman 
 doctors — let me observe, that my 
 learned opponent, with a peculiar 
 and characteristic contempt for the 
 anthority of his church, or for its 
 most distiuguished divines, when 
 either dares to dispute his ipse 
 diseits, thinks nothing of casting 
 overboard either fathers, or doctors. 
 Or cardinals, or all who dare for a 
 moment to concur with me in think- 
 ing his logic wordiness and pithless 
 pomposity. Every one in this as- 
 
 sembly win recollect that when 1 
 quoted a passage from St. Augus- 
 tine, whom he had almost adored, in 
 order to neutraKae another senti- 
 ment of the same father, what was 
 thereplyof my antagonist ? — "Well, 
 if St. Augustine says so and so, I 
 beg to differ with him." And when 
 I quoted from the acute Professor 
 Delahogue, he cast him away, as 
 not worthy of a moment's retention. 
 When I quoted Thomas Aquinas, 
 whom he requested me to read, and 
 whose poetry he so strongly com- 
 mended to my attention as a terse 
 and beautiful epitome of Roman 
 Catholic theology, it happened that 
 when I read Aquinas in my leisure 
 hours at home from his " Seeunda 
 Secundce" I found that he incul- 
 cated the most sanguinary and 
 murderous opinions ; and though a 
 saint, with his collect in the Missal, 
 yet my opponent sweeps him over- 
 board. He has thus been slipping 
 step by step from the Vatican ; and 
 I believe, before I have done with 
 my learned opponent, that he will 
 renounce the whole group of fathers, 
 doctors, cardinals, and popes, and 
 that he will come to the truly and 
 only primitive, the truly and only 
 ancient apostolical faith, which is 
 contained within the boards of this 
 most blessed book, so shunned, and 
 so disliked, and so assailed by my 
 opponent , on every question we 
 discuss. Now, at last, we iuid 
 Dupin must go with the rest of the 
 great historians, at the kick of this 
 most learned counsellor. I would 
 just observe, that when I quoted 
 this Roman Catholic historian, my 
 reason for doing so was simply this : 
 if I had taken Mosheim or Mdner, 
 or any other Protestant historian, 
 the reply of my antagonist would 
 instantly have been — " Oh ! a Pro- 
 testant h&toriau ! his words are 
 worth nothing. There is truth onlv 
 in Roman documents." Well ; in 
 N 2 
 
362 
 
 ruiiGATOEK. 17 i& Evening. 
 
 order to avoid the possibility of 
 any suoh charge, I singled out 
 the most distinguished historian of 
 this huge monopoly of truth, or 
 rather falsehood, the Roman Ca- 
 tholic Church — a man, whose in- 
 dustry and genius are universally 
 admitted, whose work^ have been 
 held as established authority — a man 
 whose merits have been canvassed 
 by the severest literary criticism, 
 and on whom eulogia broad and 
 bright have again and again been 
 pronounced. I singled out Dupin, 
 I say, the most distinguished au- 
 thoritv in the Roman Catholic 
 Chnroli, and after I had brought 
 forward his authoritative statements, 
 his indestructible proofs that these 
 liturgies were forgeries and legends, 
 — ^proofs, remember, per se conclu- 
 sive even if Balaam's ass should utter 
 them — he was then pleased to say, 
 " Oh, Dupin was cited by Bossuet 
 before the Archbishop of Paris, and 
 was obliged to make an apology for 
 his writings." It was so. Bossuet 
 was no more the Church of Rome 
 than Mr. Erench. But was the 
 Archbishop of Paris the Romish 
 Church ? If a dozen archbishops 
 had condemned him, as they pro- 
 bably would have done, this would 
 not lessen the authority of this able 
 Roman Catholic historian, who had 
 the moral heroism to think and 
 speak. But was not every advocate 
 of truth and antagonist of the papacy 
 who dared at that period to whisper 
 a suspicion against the pretensions 
 of that Church, and who was found 
 under its authority or within its 
 range of jurisdiction, obliged to 
 make an apology likewise ? Is it 
 ,aot true, that Galileo was obliged 
 to make an apology for stating the 
 great astronomical truth, that the 
 earth moved round the sun ? But 
 because popes and cardinals made 
 C-ralileo recant and tarnish Ms fame, 
 does the fact cease to be true that 
 
 the earth revolves round the sun ? 
 or did the sun and earth exchange 
 places at his holiness's bidding ? 
 
 And if Dupin was obliged to 
 make an apology to an archbishop 
 for stating the truth, does truth, 
 cease to be truth, because suppressed 
 or overcome by the temporal force 
 and coercive, anathemas of an abo- 
 minable inquisition ? Truth con- 
 tinues truth when its advocates are 
 thrown to the wild beasts, or its 
 ministers burned as martyrs. Does 
 it at all foUow that Dupin did not 
 speak the trutli, because ,he was 
 obliged to say, " He was sorry that 
 be had offended against the Church 
 of Rome, or touched its mercenary 
 interests, or trod upon its sorest and 
 its tenderest toe ?" [Laughter.] 
 I find here in a biographical notice 
 I have got of Dupin, that the grave 
 charge against him was just what I 
 anticipated — that some of the sen- 
 timents contained m his work were 
 "injurious to the Holy Apostohe 
 See ! " I indeed admit that his 
 statements are tbus injurious — ^not 
 because Dupin was dishonest, but 
 because Rome was corrupt. Cer- 
 tainly, where his arguments relate 
 to that most delicate subject, they 
 do most signally show the recency 
 of all of those superstitious dogmas, 
 which were palmed on the Christian 
 church by credulous monks in the 
 lapse of ages. The sticklers, for 
 Romanism cannot relish an honest 
 Roman Catholic; and it certainly 
 was the most convenient, though 1 
 question whether it was the most 
 honest course for my opponent to 
 adopt, namely, to apportion Dupin 
 a place with Augustine, Delahogue, 
 and -others, whom, when they con- 
 tradicted him, without the least 
 hesitation he kicked out of his 
 presence as unfit witnesses for the 
 purity and truth of the Roman Ca 
 thoKo faith. But let me repeat, 1 
 rest all the arguments against the 
 
Rev. J. Gumming.] ptjhgatoey. 
 
 363 
 
 spurious liturgies which I brought 
 forward, especially against that of 
 St. James, mt on the ceedit oe 
 Dtjpin, but oa the pacts and 
 ARGUMENTS wMch Dupia adduces. 
 Let my opponent meet these : any 
 body can canvass facts. If Satan, 
 my friends, were to bring forward 
 a solid argument, and thus eclipse 
 my opponent, that argument would 
 be good, even though Satan may 
 have uttered it ; and therefore, what- 
 ever be the worth of the name of 
 Dupin, in connexion with the com- 
 mrniion of which he was a subject, 
 the arguments q,nd facts which he 
 adduces to disprove the liturgy of 
 St. James. 
 
 Mr. EitENCH. — James ! Did you 
 say James ? 
 
 Kev. J. Gumming. — Yes, St. 
 James ? 
 
 Mr. Feench. — You said, the last 
 time, Peter. 
 
 Rev. J. Gumming. — I said James : 
 but I win give you Dupin's solid 
 refutation of the liturgy of St. 
 Peter too, which is quite on a par 
 with that of St. James. That of 
 St. James was the liturgy I quoted 
 to-night. 
 
 Mr. Pkenoh. — ^You denied it. 
 
 Bev. J. Gumming — [in continu- 
 ation']. — As my opponent builds his 
 forlorn hopes on these, I must yet 
 further show you what disproofs of 
 authenticity and genuineness the 
 liturgy of St. James really contains, 
 and what is the precise value, au- 
 thority, and theological importance 
 to be attached to this liturgy of St. 
 James in determining the question. 
 I take its own internal evidence — 
 irresistible evidence, furnished by 
 itself, and so palpable that common 
 sense must pronounce it an impu- 
 dent forgery. Now, remember, my 
 opponent has stated that these litur- 
 gies testify in favour of Purgatory, 
 and that therefore the doctrine must 
 be necessarily true. I can show by 
 
 some extracts from this spurious 
 document that the passages he read 
 scarcely, nay, do not at dl reach the 
 doctrine of Purgatory, as defined in 
 the standards of the Roman Ghurch. 
 I admit that there are expressions 
 employed in it which seem to in- 
 volve the embryo of Purgatory, but 
 not to prove or establish it. 
 
 But for proofs of the forgery : in 
 the liturgy of St. James, the Virgin 
 Mary is called "the Mother of 
 God," a term utterly unknown in 
 St. James's time ! Arid, therefore, 
 the fact appears to be, that " coming 
 events must have oast their shadows 
 before ;" as St. James must have 
 been writing about events not then 
 come, or the liturgy must have been 
 written subsequently to the time of 
 this distinction. Observe also, that 
 these liturgies contain points of 
 ' doctrinal prmoiple and practice that 
 would have been made use of in the 
 edicts and controversies waged in 
 the Council of Nice ; they were too 
 valuable to be passed over, and yet 
 these points are not once alluded to 
 by that Council. Mary is called 
 the Mother of God, and the Holy 
 Ghost is in this liturgy declared to 
 be consubstantial with the Son. If 
 the members of the Councils of Nice 
 and Ephesus had known these to be 
 the words of St. James, assuredly 
 they would have quoted them. We 
 find in this liturgy the doxology and 
 the trisagion, or sanetus and gloria 
 patri, which were not used or gene- 
 rally recognised in these forms in 
 the Church till the fifth century. 
 The introduction of these formulas 
 shows that the liturgy is the acctt- 
 mulation of five centuries, not the 
 production of St. James. 
 
 In this same Htiirgy we also find 
 coEects for those persons who were 
 shut up in monasteries and con- 
 vents. However common these in- 
 stitutions may be now, no Roman 
 Catholic win venture to assert that 
 
364 
 
 PURGATOEY. 
 
 \jlthjEvemng. 
 
 tliey were instituted and organized 
 iu the days of the apostles. Do we 
 read one syllable about monasteries 
 in the writings of the Apostle 
 St. James ? The Roman Catholic 
 Church- must herself admit there 
 were no monasteries in existence in 
 the days of the apostles. In the 
 fourth place, there is an account of 
 the functionaries called "confes- 
 sors," a term which BeUarmine 
 admits to have been unknown in 
 St. James's days. This admission 
 alone of the distinguished cardinal 
 is fatal. 
 
 In the fifth place, in the liturgy 
 of St. James mention is made of 
 "incense and altars." Can it be 
 imagined that these things were 
 used in the days of St. James? — Not 
 a whisper about it in the word of 
 God; one only altar is there — Christ. 
 In the sixth place, we find many 
 quotations from the Epistles of the 
 Apostle Paul ; not in one place, 
 where it might be admitted a slight 
 interpolation had occurred, but re- 
 peatedly, in various places, and in 
 various formulas of devotion. Ob- 
 serve, then, iu these same Kturgies 
 we find quotations from the Epistles 
 of the Apostle Paul; and these 
 epistles (from which the quotations 
 are taken) were actually written after 
 James haa been gathered to a better 
 and a brighter world. The whole 
 texture and ceremonial of these 
 liturgies are foreign to the days of 
 St. James, and so palpable are the 
 evidences of forgery, that the ablest 
 defenders of their genuineness must 
 admit the grossest interpolations. 
 Cardinals Bona and BeUarmine con- 
 fess that certaiu things have been 
 inserted subsequently ; and who can 
 say, if these were tampered with in 
 this way, that Purgatory might not 
 ' have been inserted, as well as the 
 Mass and Transubstantiation ? So 
 that I thiuk there is sufficient evi- 
 dence to prove that there is not one 
 
 of these liturgies which ought not 
 to be crossed and inscribed with 
 forgery. I not only dispute the 
 assertion of my opponent, that Pur- 
 gatory is actusdly recognised in these 
 Kturgies, but I do also maintain, 
 from evidence no ingenuous mind 
 can resist, that these liturgies are 
 spurious ; that they are the forge- 
 ries of a far later age; that St. 
 James never wrote, as far as we can 
 see, one paitiole of them ; land that 
 those evidences which I have sub- 
 mitted of their forged and spurious 
 character depend not on my own 
 ipse dixit, or upon the credit and 
 weight of the historians who ^ave 
 them, but on indestructible tact. 
 On one single point I call on my 
 opponent to meet and explain, 
 namely, by what extraormnary 
 magic, by what unprecedented pro- 
 cess unrecorded and unknown to 
 us, by what new miracle, St. James 
 came -down from heaven to earth 
 and composed his liturgies, quoting 
 from the Epistles of St. Paul, which 
 were written after his death, and 
 yet has left the impression that all 
 were composed before he died. It 
 will require a miracle to substan- 
 tiate these phenomena. It wiU 
 beat Transubstantiation. You can 
 adduce from the BoUandists hun- 
 dreds of miracles, and surely you 
 will find therein that St. James ap- 
 peared at least three hundred years 
 after his death, walked on our world, 
 and was pleased to compose and 
 impose these liturgies, for the sake 
 of giving the Church of Home, and 
 my friend Mr. Erench, an oppor- 
 tunity of demonstrating that the 
 doctrme of Purgatory was an apo- 
 stolical and a Cbiistian practice. If 
 Transubstantiation shakes the cre- 
 dibility of the resurrection, this will 
 shake the credibility of the apostles ; 
 but it will help the Pope. Of this 
 I am abundantly convinced: that 
 i the remark of CMlingworth is the 
 
Biev. J. Gumming.'] purgatoky.. 
 
 3fi5 
 
 feeling of every sound inquirer : — 
 " For my part, after a long, and as 
 I verily believe and hope, impartial 
 search of the true way to eternal 
 happiness, I do profess plainly that 
 I cannot find any rest for the 
 ^ole of my feet but upon this rock 
 only, viz. the Scripture. 1 see 
 plainly, and vrith my own eyes, 
 councils against councils ; some 
 fathers agaanst others ; the . same 
 fathers against themselves ; a con- 
 sent of fathers of one age against 
 a consent of fathers of another age ; 
 and the church of one age against 
 the church of another age." "The 
 Scripture," says Sherlock, " is all 
 of a piece, every part of it agrees 
 with the rest ; the fathers many 
 times contradict themselves and 
 each other. It has often made me 
 snule with a mixture of pity and 
 indignation to see what a great noise 
 the Roman disputants mrfce among 
 women and children with quotations 
 out of the fathers and councils, 
 whom tiiey pretend to be aU on 
 their side." I wish my opponent 
 to cleave to Scripture only ; out, as 
 he shrinks from Scripture, I must 
 thus shake beneath his feet the only 
 ground he attempts to totter on — 
 the liturgies and the fathers. It 
 has been easily done. 
 
 Now I told you on a former occa- 
 sion, that I was most anxious for 
 their own sake to allow the fathers 
 to slumber in their tombs and their 
 ashes undisturbed. My opponent, 
 however, will expose them. I am 
 truly grieved to see these poor 
 mutilated and interpolated fathers 
 dragged before an assembly of rea- 
 ionable men by a plunging " de- 
 fender of the faith" at his wit's 
 end — their contradictions, their 
 infirmities, and their errors — theirs 
 by imputation, not merit — their 
 monstrous and extravagant fancies, 
 woven into their texture at posterior 
 epochs and by dishonest priests 
 
 during the dark and " iron ages," 
 brought forward and exposed be- 
 fore this assembly. But my oppo- 
 nent must patch up Purgatory even 
 at the risk of exposing the fathers. 
 But how will this assembly marvel 
 when I announce that we ttavf. 
 NOT THE EATHEHs of the Ohrijstian 
 church ! I referred to Delahogue, 
 Professor of Theology at Maynooth, 
 on a former occasion, and we found 
 that he states most correctly that 
 " the fathers in the first and second 
 centuries were much better employed 
 than in writing books — that they 
 were . busy in preparing their fol- 
 lowers and' sons for martyrdom." 
 So that we have the sentiments of 
 only a handful of the fathers of 
 Christendom, as a handful only 
 wrote ; and of this handful of 
 writers we have only some fragments, 
 which have been handed down to 
 us in the writings of Eusebius and 
 others. And, therefore, if we have 
 not all, nor even a majority of the 
 early fathers, we may be at perfect 
 hberty to presume that the writings 
 of the^ majority, if they had written, 
 would have embodied doctrines the 
 very antipodes of those which Mr. 
 French has quoted. He gives us 
 the so-caUed sentiments of a mino- 
 rity. But as we have not the 
 writings even of that small minority 
 entire, as, we have only fragments, 
 and these interpolated fragments; 
 a mass of mosaio work arranged 
 and consolidated by interested par- 
 ties ; it is unfair and ungenerous 
 to the dead, to take their mutilated 
 remains and torture these to sup- 
 port any assumed doctrine of the 
 Homan Church. In order the better 
 to show you this fact, I quote 
 chap, xxvii. book v. of the Mcclesy 
 astical History of Eusebius: "Nu- 
 merous works, indeed, -of ancient 
 ecclesiastical writers are stiU pre- 
 served by many, the monuments_ of. 
 a virtuous industiy. Those which 
 
.Sfi6 
 
 MIEGATOET. {7 th Mjeimfft 
 
 we would select, of tliem miglit be 
 the commentaries of HeracUtus on 
 the Apostley the works of Massinas, 
 &c., with many others of whom, as 
 we have no data, we can neither in- 
 sert the times nor any data. Innu- 
 merable others there are also that 
 haye come down to us, even the 
 names of whom it would be impos- 
 sible to give. All of these were 
 orthodox and ecclesiastical writers, 
 as .the interpretation which each 
 gives of the sacred Scriptures 
 shows you, but they are not known 
 to us because the works themselves 
 do not give their authors." If we 
 join this extract with the former 
 taken from Delalogue, we have 
 very decisive testiriiony on the 
 clamis of the fathers we possess. 
 Much of the writings of the ancient 
 fathers and others at present are 
 lost, and the remainder have too 
 evidently been in the alembics of 
 Eome. Dupiiir says, also, " Eor 
 the most pact those authors and 
 their works, which were more 
 ancient than Eusebius, have been 
 lost since his death by the injury of 
 time, and therefore we are mightily 
 obliged to him who hath preserved 
 in his history not only the memory 
 of these authors, but some consi- 
 derable feagments of their works. 
 In short, without the history of 
 Eusebius we should scarcely have 
 any knowledge, not only of the 
 history of those first ages of the 
 Church, but even of the authors that 
 wrote at that time and their works, 
 since no other author but he has 
 given an account of these things." 
 The most part of the authors and 
 writings of the first two centuries, 
 as Dupin observes, are now lost, and 
 are also unknown. And it is reaHy 
 a perfect insult to the fathers to 
 brmg forward from time to time 
 mere mutilated fragments, exces- 
 sively vitiated and corrupted, and 
 then to say that these fragments 
 
 are reprEsentative announcements 
 of the actual sentiments of all the 
 fathers in the first and second cen- 
 turies. "We have not even a catena 
 patrum, much less a confusion, of 
 their united and unanimous faith. 
 My plan has been throughout, you, 
 will observe, however, to leave the 
 fathers as sources of authority, and 
 to go to the apostles and evange- 
 lists : and with infinite reason, since 
 I have shown you, by facts and ex- 
 tracts, evidence the most abundant 
 andincontrovertible, that the fathers 
 contradict each other; one father 
 himself in the same work; and 
 another father another, even by the 
 admission of Cardinal BeUarmine, 
 as weR as of my learned opponent. 
 I have brought forward Augustine 
 saying one thing, and my friend 
 has brought forward Augustine 
 saying another precisely opposite ; 
 at last, so out of humour did he 
 grow vrith the fathers, that the only 
 way in which he. could treat this 
 " Patrum concordia discors" was, 
 notwithstanding his previous idoliz- 
 ing of the " glorious Augustine," • 
 by observing with exquisite naivete, 
 " I beg leave to differ from Augiis- 
 tine." I brought forward the deli- 
 berate opinion of Dupin, the Roman 
 CathoHo historian, aboflt St. Jerome, 
 wherein he stated that St. Jerome 
 was a man of an "extravagant and 
 heated fancy," and that " much 
 credit was not to be attached to his 
 opinions ;" and so incensed did my 
 opponent become with the worthy 
 historian, that, along with many other 
 mighty Grofiahs, he has tlirown 
 Dupin overboard, and will not 
 endure his opinion of St. Jerome, 
 Well ; I have all sorts of pre- 
 scriptions. I brought forward the 
 opinion of a Boman Catholic, which, 
 though fortified with arguments, he 
 set at nought. I now bring for- 
 ward the opinion of a Protestant. 
 As he rejects the historians of hi? 
 
Rsv.J. 
 
 PUHGATOEY. 
 
 367 
 
 own Church, perhaps he will be 
 kind enough to admit one of the 
 historians of our Church. If he 
 reject every one, he must be the 
 pope incog. Mosheim, notwith- 
 standing he has the misfortune to 
 be a Protestant, speaks the truth. 
 I, therefore, quote Mosheim's " Ec- 
 clesiastical History," from the fourth 
 century, and in the following words, 
 a Protestant estimate of Jerome, 
 and of my opponent's redoubted 
 and most harmonious fathers. 
 
 " His complexion was excessively 
 warm and choleric; liis bitterness 
 against those who differed with him 
 extremely keen, and his thirst of 
 glory insatiable. He was so prone 
 to censure, that several persons 
 whose lives were not only irre- 
 proachable, but even exemplary, 
 became the objects of his unjust 
 accusations. AH this, joined to his 
 superstitious turn of mind, and the 
 enthusiastic encomiums which he 
 lavished upon a false and degene- 
 rate sort of piety which prevailed 
 in his time, sunk his reputation 
 greatly, and that even in the esteem 
 of the candid and wise." 
 
 In another part of the same ac- 
 count, Moshenn says, with great 
 plainness but truth, that " he was 
 the foul-mouthed Jerome." . 
 
 So you observe, when I refer to 
 the writings of Dupin, St. Jerome 
 is spoken of in the most contemp- 
 tuous and depreciating terms. When 
 I refer to Mosheim, he is spoken of 
 in the same depreciatory manner. 
 And now I refer to " the glorious" 
 St. Augustine, so often quoted 
 by my opponent. Augustine says, 
 writing of St. Jerome, that "he was 
 unsteady, and that many of his 
 statements in his commentaries on 
 the writings of St. Paid were 
 wrong." Augustine also records that 
 St. Jerome, amid his other vagaries, 
 such as Purgatory, .the Invocation 
 of Saints, and so on, stated that 
 
 there were "officious lies in the 
 Bible;", and St. Augustine writes 
 Kke a Christian and honest man, 
 and remonstrates against the im- 
 pious sentiment. " Therefore," 
 says St. Augustine, " assume your 
 recantation." 
 
 Observe : one father calling most 
 unanimously on another father to 
 recant! Mark, my Roman CathoHc 
 hearers, the beautiful harmony and 
 unanimity! among the fathers ; . and 
 yet neither you nor your defender 
 dare interpret one text or passage 
 of Scripture until you have found 
 the palpable nonentity, the unani- 
 mity of the fathers. Now you see 
 here is one father most boldly 
 caUing on another father " to sing 
 his recantation." [Laughter.] Nor 
 is it to be wondered at that Augus- 
 tine should thus adjure St. Jerome 
 to recant. The wonder is that the 
 Church of Rome, hard as she is 
 driven, should have recourse ta 
 such trash ; should cling to " defen- 
 soribus istis — tali auxilio." 
 
 You have in many of the extracts 
 I refer to the verdict of the 
 " glorious Augustine" upon the 
 sentiments of St. Jerome, viz. that 
 he preached the most infamous and 
 pestilential notions that any indi- 
 vidual could possibly imagine, such 
 as " that the epistles which he 
 viTote were inspired by the Spirit," 
 and " that God had told officious 
 lies." You have next the verdict 
 of Dupin that " he was a man of 
 heated and choleric imagination; 
 that he was a writer and disputant 
 of bitter disposition and temriera- 
 ment, and that he said many things 
 chargeable with orientalism. That 
 he imagined the stars had souls; 
 that he called fancies facts, and 
 made facts fancies, and called the 
 production of his own heated brain 
 the inspiration of God. You have 
 had Mxisheim pronounce precisely 
 the same verdict upon Jerome. And, 
 
368 
 
 therefore, I contend that my friend, 
 so far as St. Jerome goes, is bound 
 to hide his head ashamed ; that he 
 is bound to be mute on the unani- 
 mity of one or all of the fathers o 
 the Church, and that he ought to 
 leave St. Jerome at rest (hoping 
 that he held the one faith) in 
 heaven, and his ashes in the grave ; 
 for, according to St. Augustine, he 
 is no ornament to his Church, nor 
 to any other. In the next place, I 
 must say, that my friend has given 
 you his own, interpretation of the 
 liturgies and fathers ; but I exceed- 
 ingly question the accuracy of my 
 friend's interpretation from the 
 specimen which he gave us the 
 other evening on the Invocation of 
 Saints. I really believe he has the 
 most happy knack of any man I 
 ever saw of extracting something 
 out of nothing, and of proving 
 that because a book is not a stone, 
 therefore, a stone must be a book. 
 You observe he asserted that, 
 according to our interpretation, 
 " worship " is applied to God and 
 to man, and that it is to be distin- 
 guished in this way, viz. that joure 
 religious worship is to be given to 
 God, and civil homage only to man, 
 and my learned opponent brought 
 forward a long stnng of passages 
 which bore nothing on the subject 
 in any shape, or sense, or form. 
 In one of them he insisted we 
 were called upon to worship God's 
 "footstool." Now, if we grant, 
 for argument's sake, that the ren- 
 dering is "footstool," and not "at 
 his footstool," and that the word 
 "worship"mustmean religious wor- 
 ship or religious service ; observe 
 the magniflcent results this theory 
 will lead to. It is recorded in 
 Gen. xxiii. 7, that "Abraham 
 fell down and worshipped the 
 children of Heth," that is, the 
 idolatrous descendants of Cain. If 
 "worshipping" in the passages 
 
 PURGATOEI. [7M TUverdnj. 
 
 quotea by my opponent means 
 giving religious service, then we 
 have here a patriarch giving, reli- 
 I gious worship to the idolatrous de- 
 ) scendants of Cain. But I must 
 I advance a little further. I deduce 
 from my opponent's quotation from 
 Psalm xoix. che conviction that my 
 learned opponent is either grosslv 
 disingenuous and dishonest, which 1 
 win not believe, or I must think 
 that he is utterly ignorant of the 
 Hebrew language ; one or the other 
 I must distmctly charge him with. 
 When he quoted the ninety-ninth 
 Psalm, ver. 5, he said, he also 
 brought it forward as a specimen 
 of our mistranslation of the Bible. 
 He stated that it was "Exalt ye 
 the Lord, and worship his footstool" 
 Now I have the Hebrew words. I 
 have brought my Hebrew Bible this 
 evening, and I find the original 
 Hebrew. 
 
 v^JT Dirt wnDini 
 
 Translated literally, is, " Exalt ye 
 Jehovah our God, and bow down 
 at (or beside) the stool of his 
 feet." My friend, if he knew 
 Hebrew, would know perfectly well 
 that hados has the prefix preposition 
 lamed; .and this prefix preposition 
 signifies beside or x^ar, or in the 
 neighbourhood of, or before, or upon. 
 Now, as in the Hebrew the word is 
 Lahadom with the prefix attached 
 to it, no man acquainted ■^dth the 
 rudiments of Hebrew would expose 
 himself as my learned opponent has 
 done. . But it is time to leave the 
 doctrine of the invocation theore- 
 tically, but practically idolatry, of 
 the saints in the catastrophe in 
 which we have lodged it, and also 
 the too transparent sophistry in 
 which my opponent has decked it — 
 its shroud rather than its vindica- 
 tion — and address ourselves to send- 
 ing Purgatory after it. On Pui-- 
 
Rev. J. Cumming.l puhgatohy. 
 
 gatory, says my opponent, all the 
 fathers are unanimous. This wil) 
 indeed be a miracle if time. Let 
 me take the first specimen at hand 
 of the " unanimity of the fathers," 
 upon one of the most common and 
 confided in passages and props urged 
 by Roman Catholics in. favour of 
 the tenet of Purgatory. I hold ki 
 my hand the first volume of the 
 vnitings of BeUaxraine. You will 
 recoUect that my friend holds the 
 fathers are all unanimous on Pur- 
 gatory. Now I shall not merely 
 take Bellarmine's authority, but 
 refer to the chapter and verse which 
 BeUarmiae quotes, and you wiU find 
 a fair sample of the contradictory 
 expositions presented by the fathers 
 on Purgatory. On the first Epistle 
 of Corinthians, ui. 11, he says : 
 "Let us try dUigently to explain this 
 "position;" and he makes these re- 
 marks : — "There are five difficulties 
 in this place: first, what is under- 
 stood by the builders. Second, 
 what is meant by gold, silver, pre- 
 cious stones. Third, what is meant 
 by 'day of the Lord.' Fourth, 
 what is understood by the fire. 
 Pifth, what is meant by ' so as 
 by fire.'" Por the first, the ar- 
 chitects or builders, Augustine 
 thiiiks that all Christian* are called 
 builders. Chrysostom, Theodoret, 
 Theophylaot, and (Ecumenius con- 
 cur vrith him. Here are five fathers 
 holding this opinion. 
 
 "Very many others think that 
 doctors and preachers only are 
 meant; such as St. Ambrose, St. 
 SeduHus, St. Jerome, St. Anselm, 
 St. Thomas, and more modem 
 writers, Dionysius, Carthusianus, 
 Lyranus, Oajetan, and others." 
 Blere is one batch right agaiast 
 anotlier ; St. Ambrose at war with 
 St. Augustine, and St. Jerome 
 pitched against St. Chrysostom. 
 But so little weight had even these 
 fathers with Befiarmine, that, like 
 
 my learned opponent, that yet more 
 learned cardinal was pleased to differ 
 from them all, and to hazard a con- 
 struction of his own. This'is a full 
 illustration of the glorious unity 
 that subsists ia the realms of infalli- 
 bility, a:nd of the unanimity of the 
 fathers, without which no Roinan 
 Catholic dare venture to interpret 
 the meaning of a text. " The other 
 difficulty," adds the cardinal, " is a 
 Kttle more doubtful, for there are no 
 less than six opinions about it." As 
 to the meaning of the foundation 
 and of T;he superstructure, gold, 
 silver, precious stones, St. Theo- 
 phylaot and St. Chrysostom under- 
 stand by the foundation true but 
 weak faith; by gold, silver, and 
 precious stones, good works ; and 
 by hay, and wood, mortal sins. The 
 cardinal then, right and left, and 
 without mercy, attacks the fathers 
 who differ from him. He says, 
 " This opinion of these two fathers 
 is literally inde,fensible ;" and adds, 
 "It would prove the heubsy of 
 Origen ! " Let it be remembered 
 that Origen is one of the " glorious 
 fathers," "the lights of primitive 
 antiquity," "the soHd doctors whose 
 names frighten one;" and yet Bel- 
 larmine does not scruple to caH 
 Origen a heretic, and his doctrine 
 heresy. 
 
 " The next opinion is, that by 
 foundation is understood Christ; 
 by the name of gold and silver, and 
 precious stones. Catholic interpreta- 
 tions, and by hay and stubble, here- 
 sies. St. Ambrose and St. Jerome 
 seem to teach this. This opinion is 
 indefensible." We have then the 
 advocate of the third and fourth 
 opinions ; and, lastly, Theodoret 
 and (Ecumenius holding a fifth, and 
 both receiving refutation from St. 
 Chrysostom. 
 
 After Cardinal Bellarmine had 
 stated that such and such are the 
 opinions of Theodoret, (Ecumenius, 
 
370 
 
 PtriieATOKY. 
 
 I7ti' Evening, 
 
 and Chiysostom, and that the re- 
 verse are the opinions of Augustine, 
 and Oiigenj and Chiysostom ; that 
 is, had presented three battalions of 
 fathers pitted against each other; 
 holding sentiments different from 
 each other, and different from them- 
 selves on the same point, this car- 
 dinal of the Uoman Catholic Church 
 most maiestioaLly casts them all 
 overboard with the most sovereign 
 contempt. 
 
 *' When Greek meets Greek then comes the 
 tug of war." 
 
 In the next place, the cardinal 
 observes, (lib. iv. cap. iv. De Pur- 
 gatorio) there is a third difficulty 
 about the day of the Lord. On this 
 point, he says, Augustine and Gre- 
 gory hold one view; but (m& flaw 
 in. their view is this only, that " it 
 is against St. Paul ! " Why, my 
 antagonist has reiterated that the 
 fathers were unanimous in their 
 interpretation of the apostle Paul ! 
 but even a distinguished cardinal 
 of his own Church says, that the 
 opinion of the " glorious " Augus- 
 tine and the opinion of Gregory the 
 pope are both opposed on this pas- 
 sage to the doctnne of the apostle, 
 Paul. Now what think you of the 
 fathers, my Roman Catholic friends, 
 not when you hear a " Calvinist," 
 but a cardinal of your own Church 
 asserting, that they are arrayed, not 
 merely one against another, but the 
 most distinguished of them against 
 the apostle Paul? I told you, long 
 ago, that they were against the 
 apostle Paul. You will not believe 
 me ; will you believe a cardinal of 
 the greatest authority in your own 
 Church, when he tells you the very 
 same thing ? 
 
 " And then the fourth difficulty is, 
 what is the fire that will prove it ?" 
 Augustine and Gregory understand 
 the tribulations of this life ; others 
 think it is the fire of Purgatory. 
 
 He then addresses himself to the 
 
 fifth difficulty, and after ransacldng 
 all the fathers, and feeling more 
 puzzled than when he began, he, 
 most Protestant-like, starts his 
 own view, and most Romish-like, 
 pronounces it alone right. 
 
 If Roman Catholics would well 
 read their own doctors, not distilled 
 in the Jesuitical pages of Bossuet or 
 MOner, but as they write in their 
 own pages, they would be convinced 
 that their Church is befooling and 
 deceiving them, when she declares 
 all to be unity in her, and in other 
 communions only diversity and dis- 
 cord. 
 
 Now, on this passage, the strong- 
 hold of Purgatory, we have on the 
 one hand Augustine and Gregory, 
 matched against Chrysostom and 
 Theophylact on the other, and these 
 two last pitted against Mr. Prench 
 and the whole Roman Catholic 
 Church ; and yet all the fathers are 
 honourable men and unanimous, and 
 the Roman Church an infallible 
 Church. Now here we have the 
 fathers against the pope, and the 
 pope against the fathers ! Here is 
 Mr. French again against the fathers, 
 and the fathers fighting against him, 
 and both together against the pope ; 
 and really, if ever there was a per- 
 fect ollapadrida, a gemiine hodge- 
 podge of contradictory opinions, it 
 IS to be found in the fellowship of 
 these fathers. [Laughter.] It is, 
 my friends, so important to show up 
 these fathers, and to drive Roman 
 Catholics from " such unstable re- 
 fuges," that I must enlarge a little 
 further. I know my opponent's 
 forlorn hope, and therefore I blast 
 it before it blooms. BeUarmine 
 quotes the next proof of Purgatory 
 from 1 Cor. XV. 29, " Who are bap- 
 tized for ,the dead." Now on this 
 passage, which my friend has 
 brou^t forward wherewith to sub- 
 stantiate Purgatory, we find, as 
 usual, among the fathers, iust six 
 
Rev. J. 
 
 ■] 
 
 PiniGAIOEY. 
 
 371 
 
 different opiuions ; and if we found 
 only two, this want of tmanimity, 
 according to the second article of 
 the Creed of Pope Pius IV., shuts 
 his mouth on the interpretation 
 of it. 
 
 " I find SIX opinions," says Bel- 
 larmine. " Vhe first is supported by 
 Tertullian, Ambrose, Ansebn, and 
 others ; but this is not true." 
 
 The second is by Sedulius and St. 
 Thomas. 
 
 The third is that of Chrysostom, 
 (Ecumenius and Theophylaot. 
 
 The fourth is by Theodoret and 
 Caietan. 
 
 Pas fifth is that of Epiphanius. 
 
 The sixth, of Ephrem, and this 
 last is the most true. This is una- 
 nimity ! 
 
 The cardinal introduces the third 
 great prop of Purgatory, and Mr. 
 Erench referred to it, also, as de- 
 cisive : 
 
 Matt. T. 25. — "Agree with thine 
 adversary quickly, whilst 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 oflcer, and thou be cast 
 into prison. Verily, I say unto 
 thee, thou shalt by no means come 
 out thence tiU thou hast paid the 
 uttermost farthing." 
 
 Chrysostom gives, according to 
 BeUarmine, an interpretation " which 
 is simply not probable." 
 
 By the "adversary," Origen, 
 Ambrose, OEcumenius, and Theo- 
 phylact understand the devil ; others 
 understand by adversary, the flesh ; 
 Hilary, Anselm, and Jerome, an- 
 other man. 
 
 "It is," says the cardinal, "the 
 truest exposition, that the adversary- 
 is the -law of God. Thus think 
 Anselm, Ambrose, Bede, Augus- 
 tine, Gregory, Bernard." 
 
 But I must stop. So far from 
 any of these texts proving Purga- 
 tory, the doctors and fathers are 
 
 NOT all agreed what is the meaning 
 of the words, or, in fact, whether 
 they have any meaning at all. And 
 along with this let it be borne in 
 mind, that every time you hear 
 Mr. Erench give an interpretation 
 of one of these texts, you see him 
 leaving Roman Cathohc ground — 
 violating his solemn pledge in Pope 
 Pius IV.'s Creed, and, pro tanto et 
 pro tempore, ceasing to be a Ro- 
 manist. 
 
 The bitterest enemy of Roman 
 Catholicism need go no further for 
 its exterminating proofs than to the 
 
 Eages of BeUarmine. I thank God 
 ■om my heart that Christianity is 
 not Roman Catholicism ; — ^that in- 
 fidelity may and must break up the 
 latter ; that the former is inviolable. 
 You again observe, there are three 
 or four fathers holding one opinion, 
 and three or four opposed to it; 
 and niy friend advocates opinions 
 strongfy opposed to both parties, 
 and some opinions almost unknown 
 to any of them. Eor the fact is 
 (and the Church of Rome knows 
 that it is so), that the fathers, with 
 all their imperfections, cast her <rjf 
 in a majority of points. So long as 
 the lathers unconsciously pander to 
 her taste and propagate her doc- 
 trines, so long she glories in them ; 
 but the moment the fathers can be 
 brought to bear against her, as they 
 can, again and again, they are most 
 unceremoniously kicked aside, and 
 mention made of them no more. 
 My opponent has been signally un- 
 happy m referring to these passages 
 for Purgatory, as they have referred 
 me to the errors of fathers ; and yet 
 I know not what else he could have 
 done : the fault is in the cause, not 
 in the defender. We find father 
 against father; the pope against 
 the fathers, and the fathers against 
 the pope; and, lastly, the Church 
 itselt taking shelter under its own 
 boasted inMibiKty ; casting over- 
 
372 
 
 PUKGATOKY. 
 
 \jlth Eoeninp 
 
 board tlie whole " infrangible pha- 
 lanx, of tlie fathers," St. Jerome, 
 St. Chrysostom, St. Origen,, St. 
 Ansehn, CEoumenius, Theodoret, 
 Augustine, and a host of others, 
 just because they dare to utter sen- 
 timnnts against her " piimitive dog- 
 mas," as my learned friend is fond 
 of caUing them. 
 
 The fact is, the dogma of Purga- 
 tory does not seem to be sanctioned 
 by the wildest of the fathers,, so far 
 as the present evidence is concerned, 
 which is sufficiently strong, and cer- 
 tainly (as I shall prove to you) it 
 has not one iota of sanction in the 
 Word of God. 
 
 . Now,^ in concluding these re- 
 marks, I must call your attention to 
 the claims of the Apocrypha, as my 
 opponent quoted from the Macca- 
 bees. When I have sent apocry- 
 phal books along with the tesbmony 
 of the fathers to the grave of all the 
 Capulets, my opponent's defence of 
 Purgatory will be done for. 
 
 The books called the Apocrypha 
 (as I showed you last night) were 
 never written in Hebrew; were 
 never quoted by our Lord; were 
 never recognised by the Jews ; and 
 are not contained in the catalogue 
 of Josephns the historian. These 
 books of the Apocrypha are not in 
 the catalogue given by Oeigen, in 
 the year 200. This catalogue is 
 here on the table. In the next 
 place. Si. Athanasius rejects all of 
 them except the Book of Baruch. 
 Now here are two of the illustrious 
 of the fathers rejecting them, and 
 vet my friend declares, we have 
 teen plundered of part of the Bible. 
 Again, I refer to the catalogue of 
 the Canon by St. Epiphanitjs, a.d. 
 358, and I find lie does not receive 
 one of them. ! Gkegory of Nazian- 
 ZETT does not receive one of them ! 
 AMPHiLOCHnig, A.D. 370, does not 
 receive one of them ! Jekomb, a.d. 
 392, does not receive one of them ! 
 
 Again, Pope Gkegobt .the Great, 
 A.D. 590, {Edit. Horn. 1608._ M 
 TypograpUa Vatican, vol. ii. p. 
 899), rejects the Maccabees. 
 
 Gregory, I say, the great pope of 
 the Koman Catholic Church — the 
 most illustrious of the popes, rejects 
 the Books of the Maccabees, which 
 Pope Gregory XVI. holds in the 
 nineteenth century ! 
 
 Mr. Pkenoh.— [To Mr. Gum- 
 ming.] — Have you got the page of 
 the Jioman edition ? 
 
 Eev. J. Gumming. — Tes ! "Uc- 
 mdna Editio. Printed from the 
 types of the Vatican, 1608, pp. 
 899." 
 
 Now observe, I have given you a 
 list of these distinguished fathers, 
 whom my antagonist would lead you 
 to believe are in favour of the 
 Church of Rome. Btri we pind 
 THE PAiHBES, almost unanimously 
 for once, kejeoting ail the apo- 
 oetphaIj books, vidth the exception 
 of one solitary father, St. Athana- 
 sius (here mentioned), who receives 
 the Book of Baruch. I find the 
 pope of the seventh century reject- 
 mg the Books of Maccabees, whilst 
 his infallible successor in the nine- 
 teenth receives them. I find a 
 whole phalanx of fathers against the 
 Church of Borne, and against her 
 expositions of the doctrine of Pur- 
 gatory. I find popes against fathers 
 as fast as Greek against Greek. I 
 find fathers against popes, and dis- 
 tinguished cardinals against fathers. 
 Again, I find cardinals and popes 
 against the Church, and the Church 
 without any ceremony casting them 
 all overboard. And lastly, here is a 
 whole catalogue of these " ^orious " 
 fathers ("whom Mr. Cumming 
 dreads, and Protestants dread," but 
 which I do not, I assure you), hold- 
 ing to be uneawnical books those 
 apocryphal legends which the Church 
 of Home now cleaves to, as forming 
 part and parcel of the Bible. Ana 
 
Mr. Frettch.\ 
 
 PUHGATOlir. 
 
 373 
 
 thus, my friends, we arrive at the 
 unanimity of the fathers on Purga- 
 tory, and at the texts that prove it. 
 The words of Pope Gregory are (as 
 my opponent seems to doubt their 
 existence — being, if true, fatal) : — 
 
 De qua re non inordinate age- 
 mus si ex libris licet non canonicis, 
 sed tanien ad edifioationem plebis, 
 editis testimonium proferamus. 
 " Eleazar (1 Maecah. vi.) namque 
 in picetis elephantem ferens stravit, 
 sed," &o. 
 
 I am reaUy sorry that my time is 
 expired, as I have scarcely as yet 
 entered on that part of the subject 
 which is most decisive of the anti- 
 christian nature of Purgatory. I 
 have neutralized and dissipated all 
 my opponent's proofs, and shown it 
 not proved. In an hour I hope to 
 show it disproved. 
 
 Mr. Pbench. — My learned and 
 ingenious antagonist has begun as 
 usual by deprecating all wandering 
 from the strict laws of reasoning in 
 conducting this interesting discus- 
 sion, (a fault which he repeatedly, 
 in servile imitation of my charges 
 against him, attributes to me ;) and 
 promising on his part the most 
 inviolable adherence to order and 
 arrangement, in the course of what 
 he is pleased to call the soKdity of 
 his argumentation. I, of course, 
 ia consequence of this his promise, 
 have paid the most marked unre- 
 mitted attention to him, in order to 
 catch, if possible, something like 
 the sounds of logic ; but alas ! I 
 must say, that I have been once 
 more most miserably deceived and 
 disappointed ; a frustration, gentle- 
 men, to which, with the rest of my 
 audience, I have been too long 
 habituated, to permit it to have the 
 least effect upon the serenity of my 
 temper. 
 
 ■ Well, gentlemen, sad as these 
 frequent msappointments are, I do 
 
 not altogether despair of my learned 
 friend; viewing again and again, 
 as he caimot fail to do, the regu- 
 larity with which I establish my 
 premises, and the justness with 
 which I draw my conclusions, he 
 may possibly one of these days be 
 stimulated to rivalship, and burst 
 upon us with a flood of argument, 
 in. exchange for that in which he, at 
 present, seems to pride himself, 
 namely, the sallies of his wit, and 
 the ease and volubility of his 
 speech. But now to the subject. 
 
 The learned gentleman has as- 
 serted that I had misquoted on a 
 former evening (though by-the-bye, 
 the subject ought not to nave been 
 iatroduced, inasmuch as I could 
 not now have expected it, and come 
 armed vrith books to encounter 
 him) ;■ but, he has asserted, I say, 
 that I misquoted . certain Hebrew 
 words, or, that I gave a vitiated 
 translation of them, in order to 
 make out the point of the patriarch 
 worshipping the footstool of the ark. 
 Now, gentlemen, I candidly told 
 him, aud I told you also on that 
 evening, that what I said on the 
 subject was taken from BeUarmine, 
 confessedly one of the best He- 
 braists that ever lived in modem 
 times. I stated Kkewise that the 
 translation, if it was an error, was 
 to be foxm.d from the pen of Jerome 
 and from the Septuagiut. And the 
 learned gentleman this night, in the 
 most extraordinary manner, re- 
 proaches me with my ignorance of 
 the Hebrew language. 
 
 Now, gentlemen, (for, after the 
 unceremonious treatment I have 
 experienced from my reverend oppo- 
 nent, I shall express myself with 
 the utmost unreserve, and in the 
 plainest manner,) although I do 
 not profess to be deeply conversant 
 iu the Hebrew, as the learned gen- 
 tleman does, yet I must take the 
 liberty of turning the cultivation of 
 
374, 
 
 PURGATOKY. 
 
 that language on Lis part to imme- 
 diate profit, wanting as I do the 
 benefit of lucid interpretation, mth 
 regard to a passage likely to throw 
 some light on the question between 
 us, which I request him to give me. 
 Rev. J. CuMMiNe. — What is the 
 
 Mr. iPKENCH. — {In contmaation.'] 
 — ^But then let me impress upon 
 you that I never boasted of being 
 well read in Hebrew. I was asked, 
 in a conversation with Mr. Par- 
 kioson, if I knew anything of it in. 
 this discussion. Is not that the 
 case ? [Turning to Mr. Parkinson, 
 on the right of the Rev. Mr. Gum- 
 ming.] 
 
 Eev. Mr. Pakkinson. — Yes; it is. 
 
 Mr. Peench. — [Coniimied.'] — 
 Therefore, I have nothing further 
 to say upon that subject, but as the 
 learned gentleman has the Hebrew 
 Bible ia his hands, it wUl be a satis- 
 faction, as well as gratification to 
 me, if he win give you the Hebrew, 
 and turn to the first chapter of 
 Jonah, and second verse. — {Twnmg 
 to Mr. Oumming^ 
 
 Rev. J. CuMMiNa. — ^Pray go on, 
 sir. 
 
 Mr. Fbench. — The words are, 
 " Arise, go to Nineveh, that great 
 city, and cry against it ; for their 
 wickedness is come up before me." 
 — [Turning again to Mr. Cunmiing 
 and pausing^ 
 
 Rev. J. CuMMiNG. — What is it 
 for? 
 
 Mr. Pkench. — ^I want it for an 
 illustration of the passage. The 
 remainder of it is : — " But Jonah 
 rose up to flee unto Tarshish from 
 the presence of the Lo' d, and went 
 down to Joppa, and he found a ship 
 going to Tarshish ; so he paid the 
 fare thereof, and went down into 
 it, to go with them unto Tarshish 
 from the presence of the Lord." — 
 pame, looking at Mr. 
 
 Rev. J. Gumming. — Go on; I 
 will read it when I rise to reply. 
 
 Mr. Peench. — ^ ! but I want 
 it now to illustrate my argument. 
 
 Rev. J. Gumming. — Oh, indeed ! 
 I don't wish to give you illus- 
 trations for your arguments ! — 
 [Laughter.] Pray go on. 
 
 Mr. Peench. — [Reiterating his 
 request!] — I wish you to read from 
 the Hebrew. 
 
 A ToicE. — ^He has not brought 
 his Hebrew Bible with him. 
 
 Mr. Gumming. — I have told you 
 what I 'mia do — I will read it when 
 I rise to reply. 
 
 Mr. Peench. — ^If you did it now, 
 it would at once put things to the 
 test. 
 
 Mr. Gumming. — Go on, if you 
 please. 
 
 Mr. Pbench. — If you would give 
 me the Hebrew, I should endea- 
 vour to corroborate my explanation 
 of the word " adore ; but as you 
 refuse to do so, I shall not go on 
 with this argument. 
 
 Mr. Gumming. — ^Very well; I 
 will reriy to it. Go on. 
 
 Mr. lltENCH. — The learned gen- 
 tleman is 
 
 Mr. Gumming. — Will you have 
 the kindness to give me the Hebrew 
 Bible ? I don't read it so fluently 
 as Greek or Latin, but I understand 
 a little of it. [Here a messenger 
 was despatched for a Hebrew Bible, 
 who soon returned with one. A 
 good deal of merriment was caused 
 during this sharp contest of words, 
 after which the learned gentleman 
 directed attention to a different 
 subjectj 
 
 Mr. Pebnch. — ^We have had a 
 very brilliant specimen of. the learned 
 gentleman's logic this evening, endea- 
 vouring to show yon, as he did most 
 eruditely, the mstinction between 
 Purgatory and praying for the dead. 
 Now, gentlemen, I would give the 
 learned gentleman credit for a greater 
 
Mr. French.'] 
 
 PUBGiTOKY. 
 
 S/5 
 
 proficiency iii loaic as ■well as in toords 
 than any man that has ever existed 
 from Aristotle and Cicero down to 
 the present time, if he co\dd show 
 me ■wherein the distinction consists 
 between the doctrine of a third place 
 (for that is all that our Church 
 sanctions) and praying for the dead. 
 Praying for the dead, the learned 
 gentleman seems to think, is ■widely 
 different from a third place. What, 
 I would ask the learned gentleman, 
 means prayers for the dead P Does 
 he mean to tax. the priests of the 
 Church of England 'with f oly when 
 they pray according to the prescribed 
 dogmas of his Church ? If he prays 
 for any one that is dead, does he 
 pray for any one whom he thinks 
 to be in heaven or hell? No, he 
 ■win say. Then he must pray for 
 him somewhere, for some relief or 
 some respite from pain. He prays 
 for their admission into the realms 
 of heaven; or else he prays for 
 nothing, he prays to no purpose 
 whatever. This is what remains 
 for the laws of logic to solve. 
 , Gentlemen, when the decree — [some 
 confusion.] I really ■wish there 
 was silence. When the decree came 
 forth from the Court of Arches 
 a few months ago, to the effect that 
 prayers for the dead was an apo- 
 stolic usage, it did not, as it appears, 
 clash ■with the creed of the Church 
 of England, but was in accordance 
 with it ; but at the same time they 
 would not pronounce that there was 
 a Purgatory. What was the conse- 
 quence? Surely the millions and 
 rmllin ns of Catholics all over the 
 world, understanding something of 
 the primary principles of reUSon, 
 all cried out ■with one voice. What 
 is the meaning of this, uidess it 
 substantiates the existence of a 
 third place ? At Oxford, Dr. Pusey, 
 and all the learned Oxonians, cried 
 out the CathoHos were right ; and 
 ftat Prote.'itants were wandering] 
 
 from all the laws of logic in saying 
 that praying for the dead is la^wfuf, 
 and in saying in one and the same 
 breath there is no such place as 
 Purgatory. And yet this is the 
 reasoiun^ of my learned friend, 
 declaring that there is a. wide dis- 
 tinction. Will he have the good- 
 ness, when he does rise, to spare a 
 little of his precious time from 
 declamation and invective for the 
 purpose of illustrating this inter- 
 esting subject ? Wifl he conde- 
 scend to point out the distinction, 
 and lead us to know wherein it 
 consists ? In the mean time, I can 
 only say that all he has hitherto 
 uttered on that subject, to use his 
 o^wn expressive language, is vox et 
 
 Now, gentlemen, I wiU give mv 
 learned antagonist a little of hTs 
 favourite Calvin. Cal^nn, in the 
 third book of his Institutes, inti- 
 mates that the souls of the just are 
 detained in Abraham's bosom tiU 
 the day of judgment. 
 
 Will my learned friend now throw 
 Calvin aside ? But, moreover — 
 
 Mr. C^UMMiNG. — This is my 
 standard — the Bible. 
 
 Mr. EaENCH. — Well I I wiL' 
 quote from Cottier's history — Col- 
 lier, I say, who was confessedly a 
 good orthodox upholder of the 
 standard Bible : — 
 
 " Bishops Usher, Sheldon, and 
 Blandford believed that the dead 
 ought to be prayed for, and were 
 wont, like the CathoKc, to pray for 
 them." — Collier's History. 
 
 I call upon my learned antagonist 
 to take particular notice of this 
 circumstance, and tell me whether 
 the three bishops, alluded to by 
 Collier, are weeds which he ■will 
 like^wise throw over into our gar- 
 den! 
 
 Melancthon confesses that the 
 ancients prayed for the dead, and 
 says that the Lutherans do not find 
 
376 
 
 PTJEGATOEY. [7ti Bvening. 
 
 fault with. it. — Apolog. Confess. 
 Augsburg. 
 
 Dr. Tnomdyke, Just Weights, ^c. 
 chap. xvi. says, " The practice in. 
 the Church in interceding for them 
 (the faithful departed) at the cele- 
 bration of the Eucharist is so gene- 
 ral and so ancient, that it cannot 
 be thought to have come in upon 
 imposture; but that the same asser- 
 tion will take hold of the common 
 Christianity." 
 
 The Protestant translators of 
 Dupin, page 3, confess, " It is evi- 
 dent from some very ancient re- 
 cords of the Church (nothing can 
 be more so) that it was a custom 
 among Christians, ab antiquo, to 
 pray for the souls of the faithful 
 departed in the dreadful mysteries." 
 And a little after, they tell us that 
 " St. John Chrysostom, in his third 
 HomilyonPhilippians, plainlyasserts 
 that it' was decreed hy the apostles." 
 " And this we find practised," they 
 say, " by many emment fathers of 
 the Church." Again, the Protes- 
 tant Doctor Forbes says : " Let not 
 the ancient practice of praying and 
 making oblations for the deaa, re- 
 ceived throughout the universal 
 Church of Christ, almost from the 
 rery time of the apostles, be any 
 more rejected by Protestants as un- 
 lawful or vain. Let them reve- 
 rence the judgment of the primitive 
 Church, and admit a practice 
 strengthened by the uninterrupted 
 profession of so many ages." — 
 Liscowse on Purgatory. 
 
 " Nay," says Dr. Jeremy Taylor, 
 " we find by the history of the 
 Maccabees, that the Jews did pray 
 and make offerings for the dead. 
 This practice was at first, and 
 nniversal, it being plain in Tertul- 
 Lan, Cyprian, and others." — liberty 
 of Prophesying. 
 
 -Again, Bishop Montague, in 
 his Appeal, chap! xvui., asserts a 
 middle or third place, for he says 
 
 positively, " that the souls of the 
 ■righteous before Christ's ascension, 
 were not in heaven strictly taken; 
 not in that heaven which is now 
 the receptacle of the righteous." 
 Then, ia relation to the texts which 
 seem to restrain the state of de- 
 parted souls either to hell or heaven, 
 he says : — " This is to be under- 
 stood of the final state of souls 
 after the day of judgment, when 
 there vtUI be no more than two 
 conditions of souls everlastingly, 
 viz. heaven and hell; and in tMs 
 both Churches agree." 
 
 Bishop Andrews, ia his Private 
 Devotions, printed at Oxford, anno 
 1675, says, " Give to the living 
 mercy and grace, and to the dead 
 rest, and hght perpetual." — Page 
 326. 
 
 Again, the famous, the really 
 eloquent and learned Dr. Barrow, 
 that bright ornament of English 
 literature, and Dr. Thomdyke, a 
 man Likewise profoundly erudite, in 
 the epitaphs they composed for 
 themselves, request the prayers of 
 the faithful ; the one, that he may 
 find mercy in the day of the Lord ; 
 the other, that he may have rest, 
 and a happy resurrection. "Indeed," 
 say the Protestant writers of the 
 Eucyclopsedia, " the belief in Pur- 
 gatory IS now, by one of those 
 strange revolutions to which the 
 human mind is subject, becoming 
 the general belief of Protestants." 
 
 What were the opinions of the 
 fathers on Purgatory, may be col- 
 lected from the following remark- 
 able confession of Mr. Eulke, in his 
 Confutation of Popery, page 362 ; 
 where he says that "TertulKan, 
 Cyprian, Augustiae, Jerome, and a 
 great many more of the fathers, 
 have erred in believing that sacrifice 
 for the dead was an apostolic tradi- 
 
 m." 
 
 Again, listen to Bishop Cousin 
 upon the prayer : — " That we, with 
 
Mr. French ?\ 
 
 PTJRGAIOET. 
 
 277 
 
 all those that are departed in the true 
 faith of Ood's holy name, may have 
 our perfect' consummation and bliss," 
 says, "And wliatsoever the effect 
 aad fruit of tliis prayer "will be, 
 though it be uncertain, yet hereby 
 we show that chaiity which we owe 
 to aU those that are fellow-servants 
 with us in Christ; and in this re- 
 gard our prayers cannot be con- 
 denmed, bemg neither impious, nor 
 unfit for those who profess the 
 Christian religion." 
 
 In King Edward's Liturgy I read 
 the foUowiug : — 
 
 " Let tjs Pbay. 
 " Lord, with whom do Kyc the 
 spirits of them that are dead, and to 
 whom the souls of them that be 
 elected, after they be delivered from 
 the burthen of the flesh, be in joy 
 and feKcity : Grant unto this ser- 
 vant, that the sia which he hath 
 conunitted in this world be not im- 
 puted to him, but that he, escaping 
 the gates of hell, and pains of eternal 
 darkness, may ever dwell in the 
 rerions of hght," &c. 
 
 Lastly, leading eminent Protes- 
 tant divmes confess, that " all litux- 
 fies published, from the Council of 
 Iphesus to the sixteenth century, 
 Gatholic, Nestorian, Eutyohian, 
 Malabar, Chaldean, Egyptian, Abys- 
 sinian, and Ethiopian ; those of Con- 
 stantiuople, of the Greeks, Syrians, 
 whether orthodox or Jacobite ; those 
 of St. Basil, St. Chijsostom, St. 
 James ; that, in fine, of the apostolic 
 constitutions, written before others 
 in the third century, all are uniform 
 on the subject of praying for the 
 
 Here you have Kiug Edward's 
 account — a Protestant king — sanc- 
 tioning this as an usage of Chris- 
 tianity in those days. And therefore, 
 my Protestant brethren — ^you who 
 come seriously in search of truth, 
 you who can discriminate between 
 vehement declamation and weighty, 
 
 soKd argument — ^you wiU see here 
 that you have been dehberately de- 
 frauded by your instructors of one 
 of the great doctrines of ages, as 
 well as of a substantial part of the 
 Bible. 
 
 So that among them you have 
 been defrauded of praying for the 
 dead ; and yet, if we listen to my 
 boldly-asseverating antagonist, there 
 is nothing mutable in the Protestant 
 religion ! ! ! 
 
 My learned antagonist next makes 
 some remarks upon the subject of 
 genealogy. You will remember, I 
 dare say, that he endeavoured to 
 trace up our priesthood to the days 
 of Cain, and I, therefore, took the 
 same liberty with him, though rather 
 more successfully. But with regard 
 to Tertulhan, it is with a very ill 
 grace that he upbraids me with 
 referring to the pages of a man who 
 died a heretic, out of the bosom 
 of the Church, according to St. , 
 Jerome. 
 
 He is as much considered and 
 quoted by Protestants as a Protes- 
 tant theologian, as he is by us as a 
 Cathohc theologian. I quote him 
 only in his orthodox works. My 
 reverend friend has" quoted Ter- 
 ttdlian against us, and Inave quoted 
 him agamst him ; but where he 
 differs from the orthodox faith, there 
 we leave him. My friend then 
 •alluded to the sixth book of Virgil, 
 as to Purgatory there. Why, the 
 doctrine of Purgatory itself, as many 
 of the divines of the Church of 
 England can teR him, is not only a 
 tenet of the Church, but a feehng. 
 of human nature. Virril was well 
 acquainted with the difference be- 
 tween virtue and vice, between a 
 great crime and a Kttle fault or 
 peccadillo ; and when, in his poetic 
 and fanoifial imagination, he wan- 
 dered through the regions below, he 
 thought it in accordance with nature 
 and common sense to assign to its 
 
378 
 
 PTJEGATOET. \lth Eoening. 
 
 mhabitaiits different degrees of 
 beatitude or of torment. But I 
 ■would ask my learned friend, siace 
 he wanders from CathoHo and Pro- 
 testant commentators to the classics 
 — what is the use of squandering 
 such a multiplicity of words, when 
 Tirgil himselfjinstead of overtnmiag 
 the ease, rather substantiates the 
 doctrine? VireH may have read 
 the Book of lifeocabees. Will the 
 learned gentleman contend that the 
 Book of Maccabees, whether in- 
 spired or not, was not iu existence 
 in the days of Virgil ? I have, my- 
 self, no doubt but that he alludes to 
 the sacred books in one of his 
 Gebrgics, where he says — 
 
 " Primus Idumxas referam tibi Mantua 
 palmaa," 
 
 I have no doubt but his famous 
 eclogue called PoUio was taken, as 
 to its substance, from sacred, books, 
 and clearly preifictive of the birth of 
 our Saviour. The learned gentleman 
 then goes to Aquinas and Dela- 
 hogue. I tell the learned gentleman 
 that Aquinas and Delahogue are 
 strictly orthodox on all the tenets 
 and articles of faith. How often 
 am I to tell hini that we reject those 
 figurative passages to which he 
 afludes, and which we interpret as 
 we Kke, and in which we have the 
 greatest latitude ; but the moment 
 that the interpretation of the fathers 
 and the College of Maynooth differ 
 — the moment Delahogue wanders 
 from the faith of ages, and the 
 learned works of antiquity, as to 
 substantials, that moment he be- 
 comes a heretic, and alien to our 
 Church ; he may enter any modem 
 Church, but he does not belong to 
 us. Till then I cannot throw the 
 ever-venerable Delahogue over into 
 his garden. Again, as to Dupin ; I 
 have told him before (and it is use- 
 less to occupy any more time on 
 the subject), I mentioned from the 
 beginning, and I now repeat, that I 
 
 consider Dupin in his writings as a 
 deadly enemy to the Catholic Church; 
 because, when I admit he is heretical, 
 it is really unfair and ungenerous to 
 proceed in casting Dupin against us. 
 But, my friends, when I come to 
 these liturgies, there I am upon 
 ground upon which I must dwell a 
 Ettle longer. Once more my friend 
 endeavours, and I hope it is his last 
 feeble attempt, to invalidate these 
 noble and glorious Hturgies. It is 
 impossible lor any man of leaming 
 to do it. No man in the present 
 age, save and except himself, would 
 dare to attempt it. As for the litur- 
 gies ascribed to St. Peter, St. Mark, 
 and St. James, says Archbishop 
 Wake — [Some talking on the plat-' 
 form disturbed the learned gentle- 
 man]. Silence, if you please, gen- 
 tlemen, I cannot go on. 
 
 John Kendai, Esq. (Catholic 
 chairman) rose to enforce the learned 
 gentleman's request. 
 
 Mr. Pkench. — \In contimiaUon^ 
 Now, then, I ask, did I ever assert 
 that these liturgies (as we now have 
 them) were written by these men 
 just as they are ? No ; I confessed 
 that additions were made to them; 
 I pointed out the additions. I know 
 they were made to them ; and that 
 is what Archbishops Wake and 
 Bull ever have contended. But 
 listen. 
 
 " As for the litui^es ascribed to 
 St. Peter, St. Mark, and St. James," 
 says Archbishop Wake, "there is 
 not, I suppose, any learned man 
 who believes them written by those 
 holy men, and set forth in the man- 
 ner they are now published. They 
 were, indeed, the ancient liturgies of 
 the three, if not of thefour patriarchal 
 churches, viz. of the Roman (per- 
 haps that of Antioch, too), the Alex- 
 andrian, and Jerusalem Churches, 
 first founded, or at least governed, 
 by St. Peter, St. Mark, and St. 
 James. However, since it can 
 
Mr. French.'] 
 
 PiniGATOiiy. 
 
 379 
 
 hardly be doubted, but that tbese 
 holy apostles and evangelists did 
 give some directions for the adminis- 
 tration of the blessed Eucharist in 
 those Churches, it may reasonably 
 be presumed that some of those 
 orders are stiU remaining in those 
 liturgies which have been brought 
 down to us under their names ; and 
 that those prayers wherein they all 
 agree, in sense, at least, if not in 
 words, were first prescribed in the 
 tame or like terms by those apostles 
 and evangelists. Nor would it be 
 difficult to make a further proof of 
 this oonjecture from the writings of 
 the ancient fathers, if it were need- 
 ful in this place to insist upon it." 
 — Apostolic Fathers, p. 102. "I 
 add to what has been aheady ob- 
 served," says Bishop Bull, "the con- 
 sent of all the Christian Chwches in 
 the world, however distant from each 
 other, in the holy Eucharist, or 
 Sacrament of the Lord's Supper: 
 which consent is indeed wonderful. 
 All the ancient lAturgies agree in 
 this form of prayer, almost in the 
 same words, but fully and exactly in 
 the same sense, order, and method ; 
 which whoever attentively considers, 
 must be convinced that this order of 
 prayer was delivered to the several 
 Chwohesin the very first plantation 
 and settlement of them." — Sermons 
 on Commjm Prayer, vol. i. Serm. T3. 
 This canon was not written till 
 about the beginning of the fifth age, 
 when the danger of exposing all 
 that was most sacred in the mysteries 
 of religion to the derision and blas- 
 phemy of infidels, was not so great 
 as it was in the first two or three 
 centuries : but when the canon was 
 generally committed to writing, it 
 was found to be the same, in sub- 
 stance, in all Christian countries. 
 This showed the unity of its origin, 
 in the unity of that faith which 
 was everywhere taught by the 
 apostles, and vrhich was the spirit 
 
 of the body and language of the 
 'ies. 
 
 Again, Ksten to your own Protes- 
 tant historian of the Church of 
 Christ, the late Ifey. Joseph Milner. 
 These are his words (psige 415) : 
 "I close this digression, if it be 
 one, with remarkmg, that the con- 
 tinued me of these liturgies in the 
 ChurcJies of the West, demonstrates 
 the concurrent testimony of antiquity 
 in favour of evangelical doctrine." 
 
 Now this is all I contended for, 
 and aU I contend for now — that 
 these Kturgies all agree in sense at 
 least, if not in words, and that they 
 were first prescribed by those holy 
 apostles and evangelists — that is all 
 that I contend .for ; and, therefore, 
 let not the learned gentleman spend 
 one more idle word, or he wiU have 
 to give a serious account at that 
 great day for a most wanton profu- 
 sion of them, in attempting to in- 
 validate these liturgies. I have 
 proved the position that in their 
 substantial parts they all do agree. 
 They give every sanction to the 
 Invocation of Saints and Angels ; 
 to the Sacrament of the Eucharist ; 
 to the Sacrifice of the Mass — those 
 noble monuments look down with 
 contempt and scorn on any man 
 who attempts to batter them with 
 such iliogioal weapons as my friend 
 has done this night. The learned 
 gentleman, among other things, has 
 upbraided me with contempt of 
 Dean Milner and Mosheim. I do 
 not contemn the historian Dean 
 Milner, the historian of the Church ; 
 on the contrary, I admire him very 
 much, with the exception of such of 
 his views as those of caUing the pope 
 antichrist, and some others. I think 
 him a man whom I might follow in 
 many of his narrations ; at least, I 
 think him generally in favour of the 
 Catholic Church. 
 
 With regard to these Eturgies, 
 you know, by the extract I have 
 
380 
 
 PURGATOKY. 
 
 \Jth Evening. 
 
 above cited, what he says in oorro- 
 borationof Qiea concurrent testimony. 
 
 Shall I be told after this that I 
 must give up these litergieSj because 
 of the feeble attempt and the storm 
 and indignation that has been raised 
 against them this evening ? When 
 you retire home, examine the ques- 
 tion, by yourselves. It is worth ex- 
 amining, for a great point hangs upon 
 it ; and it is, whether you have been 
 deceived by your instructors at the 
 Reformation, or whether the Catho- 
 Jie Church is speaking the voice of 
 truth at the present moment; when 
 it tells you that the doctrine of 
 Purgatory is indubitable. Another 
 argument which I refuted before, 
 and which scarcely requires aiiother 
 word, was, as to the Mother of God 
 being found in the liturgies. That, 
 however, is not a point on which 1 
 shall dwell. The passage was from 
 St. James ; and the fathers of the 
 Council of Ephesus declared that 
 they had the words "Mother of 
 God" transmitted to them. Dr. 
 Burton says, in his IVacts against 
 Unitarians, that it was known before 
 the Council of Nice. I am sorry, 
 gentlemen, that I am not able really 
 to come to more solid matter. I 
 leave a number of these notes un- 
 answered for want of time. 
 
 Now, doubtless, my learned friend, 
 in his wide and sweeping endeav ours, 
 win throw Dr. Jeremy Taylor over ? 
 However, I wish to give something 
 solid for my friend to answer, in- 
 stead of imitating those excursions 
 he is so fond of making in his wan- 
 dering logic. Lazarus was dead 
 four days ; so we find in the New 
 Testament. I want to have a dis' 
 tinet answer as to where his soiil 
 was, or whither it went to, if there 
 was no third place ?-^whether to 
 bell or heavenr Again, Paul and 
 Onesiphorus. One can scarcely doubt 
 that he was dead when he wrote 
 that epistle. He salutes the family. 
 
 not Onesiphorus, as he was wont to 
 do ; on the other hand, he prays for 
 him after praying for the family. 
 The reason is, Onesiphorus being 
 dead, could not be saluted, or he 
 would have been saluted in the 
 Epistle by St. Paul. But the apostle 
 'prayed, for him. Had Onesipnorus 
 not been dead, he would have asked 
 for him, as he had done for his 
 family, of the ferod of mercy. He 
 says — "The Lord grant that he 
 may find, mercy of the Lord ia that 
 day : and in how maw things he 
 ministered unto me at Ephesus thou 
 knowest very well." A term so ap- 
 propriate, that it was adopted in the 
 early Church for many centuries. 
 Again (Matt, v.): "Agree with 
 thme adversary quickly, whiles 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. Verily, I say unto 
 thee, thou shalt by no means come 
 out thence till thou hast paid the 
 uttermost farthing." Do not I 
 understand here that there is a place 
 of punishment from which you shall 
 not come put until the uttermost 
 farthing be paid? What will the 
 learned gentleman say it was ? — a 
 prison, a heU ? No ; it was a third 
 place, and that is all I want to make 
 out; and as to the fire, which the- 
 learned gentleman insisted on as a 
 Catholic doctrine, it is not an article 
 o.f our faith ; we are not obliged to 
 believe it. Again (2 Sam. xii. 13) : — 
 "And David said unto Nathan, I 
 have siimed against the Lord. And 
 Nathan said unto David, The Lord 
 also hath iput away thy sin, thou 
 shalt not surely die.". Now, then, 
 we see that though the sin was re- 
 moved, yet there was a punishment 
 to be inflicted on him. , My learned 
 friend will say, " Yes, in this Ufe." 
 But suppose a man. to have com- 
 mitted a sin like David, and died 
 
Mr. French.] 
 
 PUKGAIOKY. 
 
 381 
 
 immediately after escaping punish- 
 ment in this life, is it not accordant 
 with every notion of justice that he 
 should have some punishment some- 
 where else P . 
 
 Gentlemen, in conclusion, I beg 
 leave to read an extract from two 
 Protestant writers in great and 
 h%h esteem in the Protestant woirld. 
 What my friend will say to them 
 this night I cannot think. I shall, 
 however, read them, 
 
 [This is worthy of close atten- 
 tion.] 
 
 Listen to the words of Sir Edwin 
 Sandys : — 
 
 " Oh, is it not time at length, in 
 the language of an eloquent writer 
 nearly three hundred years ago, (the 
 span of the Church of England's 
 existence,) "to associate yourself to 
 that church whereunto the custody 
 of this heavenly supernatural truth 
 hath been from heaven itself com- 
 mitted ; to weigh discreetly which 
 is the true church; and that being 
 once found, to receive falthfullT and 
 obediently, without doubt or discus- 
 sion, whatsoever it delivers ? 
 
 " Now, to discover this," con- 
 tinues the same author, " let us 
 reflect, that, except the Roman 
 Church, and such others as are 
 united to it, all other churches have 
 had their end or decay long since, 
 or their beginning but of late. This 
 church was founded by the prince 
 of the apostles, with a promise from 
 Christ to him, 'that the gates of 
 hell should never prevail against it' 
 — (Matthew xvi. 18 ;) and that he 
 himself would be assistant to the 
 consummation of the world. It 
 has now continued sixteen hundred 
 years, with an honourable and certain 
 line of nearly two hundred-and-forty 
 popes, successors of St. Peter'; 
 tyrants, traitors, pagans, and here- 
 tics, in vain raging, wresting, and 
 undermimng it. iJl the lawful and 
 general Councils that ever were in 
 
 the world have, from time to time, 
 approved and honoured it. God 
 hath so miraculously blessed it from 
 above, that many wise and learned 
 doctors have enriched it with their 
 writings; armies of saints with 
 their holiness and virtues, armies of 
 martyrs with their blood, and hosts 
 of virgias with their purity, have 
 sanctified and embellished it. 
 
 "Lastly, in all other opposite 
 churches there are found inward 
 dissensions and contrarieties, change 
 of opinions, uncertainty of resolu- 
 tions, rebeUhig against governors, 
 confusion of orders ; whereas, con- 
 trariwise, in this church there is the 
 unity undivided, the resolutions im- 
 altered, the most heavenly order, 
 reaching from the height of all 
 power to the lowest of all sub- 
 jection : all with admirable har- 
 mony and undefective correspond- 
 ence bending the same way, to the 
 eifecting of the same work : all 
 which do promise no other than a 
 continual increase and victory. 
 
 "Wherefore, let no man doubt 
 to submit himself to this glorious 
 spouse of Christ. 
 
 " This, then, being accorded to be 
 the true Church of God, it follows, 
 that she be reverently obeyed ia all 
 things, without further inquisition ; 
 she having the warrant, that he that 
 hears her, hears Christ ; and whoso- 
 ever hears her not, hath no better 
 place with God than a publican or 
 pagan. { And what foUy were it to 
 receive Scriptures upon the credit 
 of her authority, and/ not to receive 
 the interpretation of them upon her 
 authority also and credit ! 
 
 " And if God should not always 
 protect his church from error, and 
 jet peremptorily command men 
 always to obey her, then had he 
 made very slender provision for the 
 salvation of mankmd : which con- 
 ceit concerning God (whose care of 
 u«, even in all things touching this 
 
B82 
 
 PURGATOEY. [7 (A JEvemtiff. 
 
 transitory life, is so plain and evi- 
 dent,) would render us yery ungrate- 
 fully impious. 
 
 " And iard were the case, and 
 mean had his regard been of the 
 vulgar people, (whose wants and 
 difficulties in this life, and whose 
 capacities will not suffice to sound 
 the deep and hidden mysteries of 
 divinity, and to search the truth 
 of intncate controversies,) if there 
 were not others whose authority 
 they might safely follow, and rely 
 upon. 'Blessed are they who be- 
 lieve aud have not seen,' (Johnxx. 
 29;) the merit of whose religious 
 humility and obedience exceeds per- 
 haps in honour and acceptation before 
 God, the subtle and profound know- 
 led^ of many others." Thus far 
 SirTEdwiu Sandys, a Protestant, in 
 his Europee Speculum. 
 
 Listen also to that renowned 
 doctor of the Protestant Church, 
 Dr. Jeremy Taylor ; a man, who, if 
 splendour of genius can atone for 
 the enormous crime of omitting to 
 embrace that truth which shone so 
 vividly in his eyes, will not be des- 
 titute of a very large reward in the 
 kingdom of heaven. 
 
 " These following considerations," 
 says he, " may very easily per- 
 suade persons of much reason and 
 more piety, to maintaia that which 
 they know to have been the rehgion 
 of their forefathers, which had actual 
 possession and seizure of men's 
 minds and understandings, before 
 the opposite professions had a name. 
 As, first, its doctrine having had a 
 long continuance and possession of 
 the church, which, therefore, cannot 
 easily be supposed m the present 
 
 Erofessors to be a design, since they 
 ave received it for so many ages. 
 And it is not likely that all ages 
 should have the same purposes, or 
 that the same doctrines should serve 
 the several ends of divers ages. 
 " Secondly, its long prescription. 
 
 which is such an advantage that it 
 cannot, with many arguments, be 
 retrenched ; as relying upon these 
 grounds : to wit, tMt truth is more 
 ancient than falsehood; and that 
 God would not, for so many ages, 
 forsake his church and leave her in 
 error. 
 
 "Again, the beauty and splen- 
 dour of that church, their solemn 
 service, the stateliness and magni- 
 ficence of their hierarchy, the name 
 of Catholic, which they claim as their 
 own due, and to concern no other 
 sect of Christianiiy ; the antiquity 
 of their doctrine, the continual suc- 
 cession of their bishops, their, imme- 
 diate derivation from the apostles. 
 
 " Their title to succeed St. Peter, 
 whose personal prerogatives were so 
 great. The honourable expressions 
 concerning this church from many 
 eminent bishops of other inferior 
 sees ; which being old records, have 
 obtained a credibility. 
 
 "The multitude and variety of 
 people which are of their persuasion. 
 Apparent consent with elder ages in 
 matters doctrinal. The advantage 
 which is derived to them, by retain- 
 ing thp doctrine of the church of 
 ancient times ; the great consent of 
 one part with another in that which 
 they affirm to be defde. The great 
 differences which are commenced 
 amongst their adversaries, abusing 
 the liberty of prophesying unto a 
 very great licentiousness. 
 
 "Their happiness in being instru- 
 mental in converting divers nations. 
 The advantage of monarchical go- 
 vernment ; and the benefit which 
 they daily enjoyby it. The piety and 
 the austerity of their religious orders 
 of men and women. The single life 
 of their priests and bishops. The 
 riches of their church ; the severity 
 of their fasts, and other their ex- 
 terior observances. 
 
 "The great reputation of their 
 bishops for faith and sanctity. The 
 
Mr. French.'] 
 
 IfUIUlATOUY. 
 
 3S3 
 
 known holiaess of some of these 
 persons, whose institutes the reK- 
 ^ioiis persons do now imitate aad 
 tollow. 
 
 " Their miracles. The casualties 
 and accidents that have happened 
 to many of their adversaries. The 
 ohKque acts and indirect proceed- 
 ings of many of those who have de- 
 parted from them. 
 
 " And, among many other things, 
 'the name of heretic and schismatic, 
 which they fasten upon all that dis- 
 agree with them," &c. 
 
 Such is the noble concession 
 made to truth in a disiatere'sted 
 hour by Dr. Jeremy Taylor— a man 
 whose keen, penetratmg discern- 
 ment enabled him in a moment to 
 pierce through the mists of sur- 
 rounding error ! And oh that words 
 Hke his, glowing as they are with 
 the spirit of truth, and calculated as 
 they are to allnre others to its sacred 
 fountain, should have failed to pro- 
 duce the due effect in the mind of 
 >iiTin that uttered them ! How is this 
 to be accounted for ? is a question 
 that can be solved only by the.great 
 Inspector of aU. hearts and actions. 
 In the mean time, it cannot incur 
 the imputa,tion of being deficient ia 
 charity, if I observe, that had he 
 possessed a sufficient contempt of 
 earthly splendour to permit him 
 wholly and exdusively to be ena- 
 moured of the celestial, beyond all 
 doubt he would have lived and died 
 eSclaiming with a St. Augustine, 
 " Credo in unam Sanctam Oatholicam 
 et Apostolicam Ecclesiam ; " " I be- 
 lieve in one Holy Catholic and Apo- 
 stolic Church." 
 
 This, I say, is a noble conces- 
 sion made to truth in a disinterested 
 hour by Dr. Jeremy Taylor — a man 
 whose perspicacity and wisdom shone 
 so luminously amid the stupor of 
 surrounding error. Oh! such words 
 as these are indeed worthy of the 
 mind that uttered them ! 
 
 Geokge Pinch," Esq., here m- 
 quired, on behalf of Mr. Gumming, 
 the reference to Jeremy Taylor. 
 
 Mr. Pbench. — I have taken it 
 from one of his works, a large 
 volume by Basil Montagu. I wiU 
 furnish it next time. Now, gentle- 
 men, my friends — my Protestant 
 friends — as this is the last time 
 which I shall have the opportunity 
 of addressing you this evening, may 
 I request your attention to these 
 words of Jeremy Taylor ? It may 
 naturally appear to you a gross in- 
 consistency that he, after having 
 written that divinely-recorded pas- 
 sage, should have hved and died in 
 the bosom of the Protestant Church. 
 I can give you one satisfactory 
 reason for it. There are few men 
 who have a contempt for earthly 
 lucre, disregarding the silver and 
 the gold, and all chance of worldly 
 prosperiiy. Scarcely had a month 
 elapsed after writing that, when 
 he was promoted to a bishopric 
 of IreJand, and from that moment 
 he drew forth his pen with the 
 utmost virulence agamst the Catho- 
 lic religion. 
 
 Certain it is, that the passage 
 came from the pen of Jeremy Taylor, 
 whether he gives it as conveying 
 his own sentiment or not; and I 
 think that the learned gentleman 
 has sufficient acumen to recognise 
 in it the masterly energy of his 
 stvle. On that aUegorical passage 
 allusive to , " stubble, hay, gdd, and 
 silver," the fathers have aU differed, 
 and modem interpreters differ. If 
 any three gentlemen, Protestants or 
 Catholics, were enclosed in closets, 
 and had never read an interpretation 
 of it, and were asked for an inter- 
 pretation of it, they would all come 
 to a different conclusion. But does 
 that make out the case against us, 
 supposing that the fathers do differ 
 on figurative points ? Whether they 
 teach Purgatory^ or the Invocation 
 
S84 
 
 puuGATOPr \lth Evening. 
 
 of Saints, or the Mass, or the doo- 
 truie of the Eucharist, or the doc- 
 trine of the Rule of Paith ; there it 
 is that you see their beautiful and 
 harmonious concurrence, and that is 
 all that I maintain. But th e learned 
 gentleman not only wishes to prove 
 that they are discordant, but he 
 would wish me to tlirow Augustine 
 and Delahogue and others, just as 
 it suits him, oyerboard, as he says. 
 If he can show where Delaiogue is 
 in opposition to the CathoKe faith 
 — ^if he can show where St. Austin's 
 faith differed in fundamentals, I 
 will tuU my learned friend that the 
 Church would have thrown them over- 
 board long ago, and they would have 
 come under their brand as heretics, 
 such as J3rius and Tigilantius. 
 
 St. Austin made public prayers 
 for the repose of the soul of Monica, 
 his mother. He offered up his 
 prayers to heaven for her. And 
 what means his desire that she 
 should be cleared from her sins, 
 which she would have to answer f(5r 
 in 'another world? But as to the 
 part in which he alludes to the 
 stubble and the hay and precious 
 stones, I know that he was not able 
 to draw a satisfactory conclusion 
 from it. I clearly see, • however, 
 that what tjie apostle means is Pur- 
 gatory, when he says some shall be 
 saved yet so as by fire. I cling to 
 it, since it is corroborated by the 
 voice of the tradition of ages ; and 
 ' there is not a Catholic country in 
 Europe where this line is not quoted 
 as decisive on the grand question. 
 Now, will the learned gentleman 
 tell me when it began to be taught 
 m. any catechism? Again, wiH he 
 point out in eveij age when the 
 Catholic youth of every country 
 were found to be thus taught by 
 their reverend apostoKo priests, re- 
 gularly ' ordaiaed and consecrated 
 priesthood, to repeat it as one of 
 the strongest testimonies to the doc- 
 
 trine of Purgatory? "Some shall 
 bu saved, yet so as by fire." Again, 
 can the learned gentleman tell me 
 — can he prove to me by any soKd 
 logic, that it is not so ; that it does 
 not mean, that ? I know the learned 
 gentleman wiH ^ve a very authori- 
 tative interpretation of it, and " ga- 
 thering up all the glorious inspira- 
 tion of Protestantism," as he calls 
 it, win throw my interpretation 
 aside. But let the learned gentle- 
 man remember that I have the 
 liberty of reading the Bible for 
 myself, and in reading that passage, 
 I deduce the doctrine of Purgatory. 
 
 Now, it is most indisputable, 
 my friends, that the ancient fathers 
 prayed for the souls of all the de- 
 parted; and that the custom was 
 kept up by our forefathers until the 
 day when .the Bible underwent a 
 remodelling under your pious Pro- 
 testant instructors, when they lopped 
 off, by an absolute decree, so many 
 books of the Bible — the books df 
 Tobias and Maccabees, and others, 
 without any authority, excmt that 
 of arbitrary proceeding. By what 
 species of argument will the learned 
 gentleman rise this evening to prove 
 that there is no such doctrine, and 
 that it is not of apostolical ages ? 
 
 The learned gentleman tells me 
 that Pope Gregory asserted that the 
 books of Maccabees were not cano- 
 nical. That I call in question posi- 
 tively. And if he did (mark this ') 
 it would not alter the thing; it 
 would be a la-psvs memoriae. Thfc 
 Council of Carthage styled them 
 canonical ; ■ the authority of the 
 Church subsequently settled it ; the 
 Bible was undisputed till the Refor- 
 mation. Now, as to the Book of 
 Maccabees and the fathers, my 
 friend quotes St. Cyprian doubting 
 the book of Maccabees. 
 
 Rev. J. CuMMiKG. — No, no, r6- 
 jecting them. 
 
 Mr. Pkjbnoh. — If he rejected 
 
Rev. J. Cumminff.'] 
 
 PUKGATOKT 
 
 385 
 
 them, what signifies that ? St. Paul 
 to the Hebrews would be rejected 
 likewise : " leMcA epistle," says St. 
 Augustiue, " some ascribe to the 
 apostle Paul, and some iem/ it." — 
 {Aug. ie Civit. Dei, lib. xvi.) . It 
 was only the Covmoil ot Carthage 
 that settled it. The Oouaeil of Lao- 
 dioea mentions nothing about the 
 Book of Revelations. Is the Book 
 of Revelations therefore false ? It 
 was at last settled, when every thing 
 was definitively settled at Carthage in 
 the fourth century, and enumerated 
 3S they are now. Now I want to 
 know by what authority my learned 
 friend can prove the propriety of 
 
 - altering these books, when the 
 Council of Carthage had settled 
 them, and when the whole -world un- 
 murmuringly received them among 
 the canomcal books for so many 
 centuries ? The cause of it was filthy 
 lucre; this was the cause of ex^ 
 punging the' Book of Maccabees. 
 Cranmer and Seymour immediately 
 confiscated all the altars and mo- 
 nasteries, and extmguished the doc- 
 trine of Purgatory, and the Books 
 of Maccabees were blotted out of 
 the Bible, and declared to be a vile 
 thing. But then mark the perpe- 
 tually-descending continuance of 
 this thirst for lucre. At Oriel 
 College they pray for the repose of 
 the soul of its founder ; and why ? 
 Because otherwise the college, with 
 its appurtenances, the sumnmm bonum 
 of celestial Protestant felicity, would 
 be forfeited, according to the con- 
 dition of the original deed of grant. 
 It is a fact that cannot be denied, 
 that year after year, in order to 
 keep the filthy lucre, they do so at 
 Oriel College, and it is done in 
 other parts of England. At Oxford 
 it is, and it cannot be denied by my 
 learned friend. So much for his 
 attack upon us on the ground of 
 
 lucre ; as if the Cathofio priest, 
 forsooth, thirsted after filthy lucre 
 
 with equal avidity and passion with 
 the generality of the Protestant 
 clergy ! 
 
 [The learned gentleman's hour 
 here expired.] 
 
 Rev. J. Ctjmmino. — I am sure, 
 Mr. Chairman and Christian friends, 
 that if ever there was presented a 
 inoral and intellectual spectacle cal- 
 culated to evoke the sympathies of 
 all who beheld it, that spectacle ha^ 
 been presented this evening by my 
 earnest, but fatally misled oppo- 
 nent. He, perceiving that the word 
 of God gives no footmg to the doc- 
 trine of Purgatory; that even the 
 most distinguished doctors of his 
 own Church confess that in the in- 
 terpretation of the very passages 
 that are recorded as its sole pillars 
 and its strong defences, the opinion 
 of father is against father, doctor 
 against doctor, and all against Pope 
 Pius IV., and the present Pope 
 against them all, when it suits the 
 Pope's purpose to be so; — ^I say, 
 finding that almost every father is 
 against him — I say almost every 
 father, for I have given you a list of 
 those fathers who reject the Apo- 
 crypha as imeanonical books; and 
 I have shown you that one of the 
 ci-devant popes of his own Church, 
 Gregory the Great, distinctly de- 
 clares, concerning the Book of Mac- 
 cabees, that they are not canonical, 
 and therefore fitted to demonstrate 
 neither Purgatory nor any other 
 dogma. — my opponent feeling in 
 Purgatory himself, and not knowing 
 what to say or do, closes his extra- 
 ordinary farrago by attacking some 
 odd practice that seems to prevail, 
 according to his account, at One) 
 College, on the one hand ; ' and by 
 referring to certain droU sentiments 
 of Jeremy Taylor, on the other. 
 Now, such logic as this will not 
 most assuredly satisfy my mind. It 
 is neither rhyme nor reason, and it 
 
 
386 
 
 ruEOATOEY. [7iA Eoentng 
 
 cannot satisfy the mind of any dis- 
 passionate hearer, that Purgatory is 
 a doctrine of the word of God. As 
 to the quotation, from Sir Edwin 
 Sandys, I believe that it is a gross, 
 though not, I hope, intentional mis- 
 quotation. I beueve that Sir Edwin 
 Sandys gives just a contrarv opinion, 
 and this my suspicion I shall be 
 able I think to substantiate when 
 I appear again in this room. I 
 beUeve that Sir Edwin Sandys is 
 propounding the Romanist's best 
 opinion of his Church, and not his 
 own sentiments and words. And 
 as to the quotation be made from 
 Jeremy Taylor, I question deeply 
 whether it is actually extracted. 
 Jeremy Taylor was a most deter^ 
 mined enemy of the Church of Kome, 
 and has written most triumphantly 
 agaiast it. 
 
 After this, my opponrait started 
 his old whim for a defence of Pur- 
 gatory, on which he long dwelt, viz. 
 prayers for the dead., Now I wish 
 to impress on your minds what you 
 must have seen — that pj-ayers for 
 the departed faithful, right or wrong, 
 do not iavolve the doctrine of Pur- 
 gatory. We believe, as Protestants, 
 that tne children of God, who die in 
 Christ, have not their happiness 
 t complete until the resurrection of 
 the Dody. We believe that they 
 are made perfect in holiness, but we 
 also believe that their happiness on 
 the mom of the resurrection will be 
 greatly augmented by the resump- 
 tion of their resurrection bodies; 
 and I cm conceive that just as we 
 pray, "Come, Lord Jesus," without 
 intending to imply that the very 
 hour of nis second advent is not 
 fixed, but believing, on the contrary, 
 that the hour is finally and unalter- 
 ably fixed, so we may pray for the 
 resurrection. I say, I can conceive 
 prayers offered for increase of hap- 
 piness to departed believers, and 
 that they may have their happiness 
 
 augmented, without the offerers of 
 such prayers believing in Purgatory, 
 or the departed being necessitated 
 to undergo purifying and purgato- 
 rial fires. I can admit, without 
 sheltering the admission undra: cover 
 of Purgatory, that there is a state 
 of happiness after death, capable of 
 augmentation at the resurrection 
 mom, when the soul and body are 
 to unite in one eternal fellowship, 
 and therefore previous to the fml 
 happiness of believers. So also I 
 can admit the possibility of Chris- 
 tians praying for souls in a condi- 
 tion of perfect glory and holiness, 
 but waiting for the resurrection of 
 the body from the dust, to enjoy 
 the full reward of their faith in 
 Christ ; and yet deny that it neces- 
 sarily follows that the advocate of 
 such a practice believes in the ex- 
 istence of a Pufgatory, a penal and 
 purifying fire, or torments in the 
 world of spirits. So that any ar- 
 gument brought forward in favour 
 of prayers for the departed faithful 
 being offered up by any Christian, 
 does not convey one jot or tittle of 
 proof that he helieved in a Purga- 
 tory, where fires are to bum out our 
 iniquities in order to purify our 
 soms, on ths one hand, and to inflict 
 punishment for venial sins which we 
 have committed in the body on 
 earth, on the other. My opponent 
 quoted again (astonishing boldness!) 
 the liturgies which I thought I had 
 fairly, mally, and mortally dis- 
 patched by snowing that these litur- 
 gies speak of things and events (one 
 of them especially, ascribed to St. 
 James), which took place only three 
 hundred years after the death of the 
 assumed writer, the Apostle. My 
 opponent clings to very crazy craft 
 indeed. 
 
 I may also mention, that one ot 
 these Liturgies ascribed to Basil, 
 contains a passage which is fatal, 
 but wtiich my opponent deems most 
 
Rev. J. Cummi/ig.] 
 
 PURGATORY. 
 
 387 
 
 favourable to Purgatory : — "Be 
 miadfuj, Lord, of thy saints ; 
 vouchsafe to receive all thy saints 
 which have pleased thee from the 
 begioniug; our holy fathers, pro- 
 phets, apostles, martyrs, confessors, 
 and aU. the souls of the just who 
 have died in faith, but chiefly of the 
 holy, glorious, and perpetual "Virgia 
 Marr, the Mother of God, of St. John 
 the Baptist," &c. Do the apostles 
 pass through Purgatory, I ask ? — 
 The Roman CathoMo Church says 
 no ; and yet this prayer of Basil, 
 quoted in the Kturgy ascribed to 
 mm, prays for the souls of the 
 apostles ; and if it proves Pur- 
 gatory, it proves they and Mary 
 have entered it, and that Basil held 
 that she and the apostles passed 
 through Purgatory. He comes under 
 the malediction of the Church of 
 Rome if he does so, and presents 
 another proof of her " glorious 
 . unity." 
 
 But the fact is, the doctrine of 
 Purgatory receives no countenance 
 from this document, nor from the 
 worst legendary lore quoted by my 
 opponent. The oldest and best parts 
 of the Missal are against Purgatory. 
 The Missal of the Roman Catholic 
 Church is, as you are aware, com- 
 posed of some prayers as ancient as 
 the second century. It is, indeed, 
 altogether an amusing piece of moral 
 and spiritual mosaic. In many of 
 the prayers — the more recent ones 
 — the most monstrous ideas are 
 introduced, tessellated with texts 
 torn from Scripture, and cut or 
 stretched to the Procrustes bed of 
 superstition. Por instance : ia one 
 of these prayers of the Missal, it is 
 declared that the dead rest in Christ. 
 — " Be mindful of thy servants, N. 
 and N. who are gone before us with 
 the sign of faith, and rest in the 
 sleep of peaceP But, according tothe 
 Church of Rome, they do not rest in 
 Christ ; they go to Purgatory,, and 
 
 are tormented by literal fire until 
 they have " paid the uttermost far- 
 thing." So that the very extract from 
 their own liturgies in the Missal of 
 the Roman Catholic Church declares 
 that departed behevers rest in 
 Christ ; and yet the Creed of Pius 
 IV., the creed of his own Church, 
 declares that they remain in Pur- 
 gatory tiU they have paid the utter- 
 most farthing. Here is a difference 
 for my learned friend's logic to re- 
 concile ; the one is a direct refuta- 
 tion of the other, and it is what I 
 must pronounce in my humble way 
 to be a totally irreconcileable con- 
 tradiction. 
 
 My opponent next referred to 
 the Jews for proof ; and he added, 
 that Virgil must have borrowed 
 his idBas of Purgatory from the 
 Jews, or it seems likely, as he 
 draws so beautiful and glowing 
 descriptions, that his views are 
 taken most probably from the pro- 
 phecies of Isaiah. And he says, 
 because the Jews admitted prayers 
 for the dead, is lit not a proof that 
 Purgatory is true? Now, if they 
 had practised or commanded prayers 
 for the dead, that would be no proof 
 that it was right, or Purgatory true. 
 Christ had censured them repeat- 
 edly for their doctrines. Are the 
 Jews toprescribe the articles of our 
 faith? Tie Jews made void the word 
 of God by their traditions. The 
 Jews lapsed into scandalous idola- 
 try, but is this to be precedence 
 and authority for us to do the same 
 also? The Jews cried out in the 
 most awful accents, " Not this 
 man, but Baiabbas;" and again, 
 " Crucify him ! crucify him ! " The 
 Jews were plunged in idolatry and 
 corruption; substituting the tradi- 
 tion of man for the word of God, 
 and eclipsing the light of heaven by 
 the gross superstitions .of earth. 
 And, therefore, if we may be war- 
 ranted in receiving as truth all that 
 
3SS 
 
 PUKGAIOKT. [7^^ Enemng. 
 
 the Jews held, error becomes truth, 
 and truth error. 
 
 His next remaik was, that Milner 
 asserts that these liturgies favour 
 evangehoal religion. I am glad my 
 opponent believes that they sup- 
 port and favour evangelical religion. 
 But observe, if he pm his faith so 
 stoutly to these liturgies, why does 
 he not take up their " evangelical 
 religion?" Why does he not re- 
 nounce the Roman Catholic reli- 
 gion, and cultivate that religion 
 which Milner and he both assert to 
 be as ancient as the liturgies ? 
 
 The next quotation was onDavid's 
 suffering the loss of his child after 
 that his sins were forgiven, thus 
 suffering for his sin after pardon. 
 Now he took away the point from 
 his statement and answered himself, 
 by stating that he knew to what 
 I would object — ^namely, that Pur- 
 gatory is punishment after death, 
 and 'that the treatment which David 
 was doomed to receive was inflicted 
 in this life. This simple distinction 
 does away with the applicability of 
 the quotation to Purgatory. But 
 I maintain, that when David's 
 child was smitten by the hand of 
 Ood, it was not punishment. It 
 was chastisement ; there was no 
 wTath in it. It was neither penal 
 nor punitive. " Por whom the 
 Lord loveth he chasteneth, and 
 scourgeth every son whom he re- 
 ceiveth. If ye endure chastening, 
 God dealeth with you as vrith sons, 
 for what son is he whom the father 
 chasteneth not?" (Heb. xii. 6, 7.) 
 Such chastisement was intended to 
 be a prevention of future sin, and 
 to serve as a lesson to others, that 
 when God forgives sin, its temporal 
 and earthly effects survive, not as a 
 punishment to the author of it, but 
 as a warning to others. 
 
 The next quotation of my learned 
 antagonist was from Matt. xii. 72, 
 to which I shall refer. We find it 
 
 stated : — " Whosoever speaketh a 
 word against the Son of Man, it 
 shall be forgiven him : but whoso- 
 ever speaketh against the Holy 
 Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, 
 neither in this world, neither in the 
 world to come." Now, he says, 
 this implies that there is forgiveness 
 in the world tf) come ; ergo, that it 
 proves Purgatory. Now, mark the 
 irrelevancy of tms text — Purgatory 
 is not a place for forgiveness ; it is a 
 place for paying all the debt. Now, 
 if a man pay Me debt to the utter- 
 most farthmg, he cannot surely want 
 to be forgiven, since he gives ^uid 
 pro quo, and is, therefore, entitled 
 by every legitimate reason to escape. 
 Moreover, when my friend asserts 
 expressly that " neither in this 
 world nor in the world to come," 
 refers to Purgatory, I bid him look 
 to the Gospel of Mark iii. 29, where 
 we have the very same sentiment, 
 and almost' the same words, and un- 
 questionably a parallel passage. Now 
 we shall see that the text upoli 
 Matthew has no reference to Pur- 
 gatory whatever. " But he that 
 shall blaspheme against the Holy 
 Ghost hath neveb, forgiveness, but 
 is in danger of eternal damnation." 
 The word never of one evangelist 
 explains what the other evangelist 
 means by " neither in this world nor 
 in that which is to come." And, 
 by thus comparing Scripture with 
 S&ipture, we find the penman's 
 meaning fully and incontrovertibly 
 explained, showing us that forgive- 
 ness is something done through the 
 mercy that is in Christ in this world 
 or never. Purgatory is debt, and 
 doing, and paying, or remaining tiU 
 the uttermost ferthing be paid; 
 but these texts refer to forgiveness. 
 There is not, therefore, one shadow 
 of a pretext for Purgatory in this 
 passage. On the contrary, its sounds 
 of forgiveness seem like angels' 
 accents heard amid the other tones 
 
Reo. J. Cumminff.'] ruitOATOjiTf. 
 
 3S9 
 
 of mercy, and to man's heart pro- 
 claiming that where there is full 
 deliyerance on earth there can be no 
 need of Purgatory hereafter. 
 
 The next passage on which my 
 learned friend commented was 
 1 Cor. ui. 12. Now I engage to 
 shut his mottth on that subject alto- 
 gether. I must merely remind my 
 friend that he is under an obhgation 
 to his creed not to interpret holy 
 Scripture otherwise than according 
 to the unanimous consent of the 
 fathers. I showed you, let it be 
 remembered, that the fathers have 
 the most heterogeneous, the most 
 discordant, and the most extra- 
 ordinary interpretations upon that 
 very passage ; that there was the 
 pope against the fathers, and the 
 fathers against the pope, and the 
 fathers against each other, and 
 BeUarmine against, them all. My 
 friend; in the midst of this babble 
 and in the teeth of his creed, inter- 
 prets the text. How dare you dis- 
 obey your Church ? Must you 
 cease to be a Roman Catholic in 
 order to answer for the faith that is 
 in you ? You had better have left 
 these texts untouched, when you 
 found the tremendous impossibility 
 of the unanimity of the fathers. 
 To be a consistent Roman Catholic, 
 you must put no interpretation on 
 the passage at all. xhe interpre- 
 tation of my learned friend is, there- 
 fore, rash, and in no respect sanc- 
 tioned by the Church of Rome. My 
 learned opponent next asked me to 
 demonstrate that the text from 
 1 Cor. iii. 12 does not refer to Pur- 
 gatory. Now, httle as he holds 
 me to know of logic, I at least know 
 thus much : that it is a monstrous 
 absurdity to ask any one to prove a 
 negative. But I will show you, to 
 gratify mv friend, that it cannot 
 refer to Purgatory; for, observe, 
 the statement here is, that " the 
 fire shall try every man's work, of 
 
 what sort it is ;" but Purgatory js 
 not for trying — it is ioi puri-fying. 
 But tliis Are is to try and put to 
 the test every man's work; the 
 words are to be taken in their fair 
 and just sense. The verses also 
 state that this fire is to try every 
 man's work, but Purgatory is to 
 purify every man's soul. And, 
 theraore, whatever this passage 
 refers to, it cannot by any pos- 
 sibility refer to Purgatory. More- 
 over, it says, " If any man's work 
 abide which he hath bmlt there- 
 upon, he shall receive a reward. If 
 any man's work shall be burned, he 
 shall suffer loss-: yet he himseK shall 
 be saved, yet so as by fire ;" but if 
 this refer to Purgatory, it would 
 imply that some souls in Purgatory 
 may be lost for ever ; whereas the 
 doctrine of the Church of Rome is, 
 that every soul that goes into 
 Purgatory, sooner or later comes 
 out ; that is^ gets out in one way 
 or another. It is "every man's 
 work," but all do not enter Pur- 
 gatory. And, you observe, as my 
 antagonist insisted that the term 
 " by fire" necessarily meant the 
 punfyiag fires of Purgatory, I 
 would show him that the apostle 
 evidently uses a figure. It does 
 not say, " shall be saved by fire," 
 but shall be saved " yet so as by 
 fire." And when you compare 
 kindred passages of sacred writ 
 yon will find it so. If I go, for 
 mstance, to the prophet Zachariah, 
 I there find Joshua represented as 
 " a brand plucked out of the burn- 
 ing;" that is, " saved so as by fire." 
 But you would never surely contend 
 that Joshua was literally a brand, 
 and actually in the pains of Pur- 
 gatory ! 
 
 Again, I refer to the Epistle of 
 St. Jude : — " And others save with 
 fear, pnHing them out of the fire,'' 
 ver. 23. This took place on earth, 
 and it implies plucking them out ot 
 
390' 
 
 PUBeATOKT. ' L7tt Ikening. 
 
 the dangers to ■which they were 
 exposed.* And, moreover, it is 
 known to my friend that this pro- 
 verbial expression occurs in the 
 ancient classics, denoting extreme 
 hazard, extreme difficulty, or scarcely 
 delivered, or scarcely saved. — (Vide 
 (Xcero, pro Dom. 43 ; pro Milone 5.) 
 
 The next passage brought for- 
 ward was, 1 Peter ni. 19, where he 
 says — "By which also he went 
 and preached unto the spirits in. 
 prison; which sometime were dis- 
 obedient, when once the long-suffer- 
 ing of God waited in the days of 
 Noah, while the ark was preparing." 
 He says these spirits that were in 
 prison imply the spirits that were sent 
 to Purgatory to be purified from sin. 
 
 Mr.TKENCH. — To a MW place, 
 I said. 
 
 Rev. J. CiTMMnrG. — Well : limbo, 
 or Purgatory; that is the third 
 place. That is my point. There 
 may be new notions started in the 
 Church of Rome before Christmas, 
 but the only third place sJie has 
 at present is Purgatory. Now as 
 to this passage — " By which also 
 he went and preached unto the 
 spirits in prison." How did he 
 preach? By Noah, who was a 
 preacher of righteousness. Christ 
 
 E reached in his own person while 
 e was in the flesh; he preached 
 mediately in the days of Noah, 
 and by that patriarch, as he now 
 preaches by the ministers of his 
 Gospel in the Church. But I have 
 just one quashing remark as to 
 deducing Purgatory from this place : 
 — Those who died in. the days of 
 Noah, even by the admission of the 
 Church of Eome, were guilty of 
 MOBiAi SINS ; that is, they re- 
 belled against God, and did gross 
 evil in ms si^ht ; but Purgatory is 
 for VEsriAii sms, not for mobtai 
 sins, and therefore the passage has 
 nothing to do with Purgatory at all. 
 • Vide Isaiah xlii. 2. Joel ii. 3. 
 
 Augustine uses actually this very 
 explanation which I have given of it. 
 St. Augustine's testinfony is Pro- 
 testant, not Papal. 
 
 Much has been said this eveniog 
 upon the subject of venial sin, and 
 of Purgatory being prepared for 
 their rectification and cleansing. 
 God forbid that I should announce 
 the monstrous dogma, that all sins 
 are equally heiaons, or deny that 
 there are some sins more heinous 
 than other sins ; but then I maintain, 
 on the authority of God's word, 
 that " whosoever shall keep the 
 whole law, and yet offend in one 
 point, is gniltf of all." I maintain 
 that " cursed " (according to' Gal. 
 iii. 10) " is he that continueth not 
 in aU things written in the law to 
 do them." I contend (according 
 to the language of Scripture in 
 Bom. vi. 23,) that " the wages of 
 sin is death; but the gift, of God is 
 eternal life, through Jesus Christ 
 our Lord." And again, Bzek. xviii. 
 20 — "The soul that simieth, it 
 shall die." I contend that aU sin, 
 such is its exceeding sinfulness in 
 God's sight, has death for its wages 
 and desert, whether it be caSed 
 venial or mortal. It was so with 
 the sin of Adam. Satan called it 
 venial, but Adam found it mortal. 
 I repeat, " the wages of sin is death ; 
 whoever offends in one point is 
 guilfy of all." " Cursed is he that 
 contmueth not in all things written 
 in the law to do them." While, 
 however, I admit that one sin may 
 be more heinous than another, yet 
 I maintain that when the most 
 heinous sin is once washed away in 
 the Redeemer's blood, and when his 
 righteousness is imputed to us, our 
 sins are entirely blotted out, and 
 we need dread neither the fires of 
 Purgatory nor the torments of that 
 place where 
 
 " Hope has withering fled, and mercy sighed 
 farewell." 
 
Reo. J. 
 
 PXJKGATOfiY. 
 
 391 
 
 My dear Homan Catholic friends, 
 there is a Purgatory provided — 
 a glorious PurgatojT. It is peace, 
 not pnnislunent. I glory in pro- 
 claiming it for sinners — ^its utter- 
 ance is the Gospel indeed — ^it is the 
 
 BLOOD OP ChBIST, THAT CLBAJSTSES 
 
 FsoM AiL SIN. Your sins may be 
 mortal, or they may be venial ; but, 
 if God's ■vrord be true, all sin is 
 death. But the Purgatory ia 
 1 John i. 1, can destroy it. 1 can 
 tell you, as I deem it to be my 
 own noblest privilege to tell you, 
 that there " is a fountain opened 
 in the house of David and to the 
 inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin 
 and for uncleanness — ^the blood of 
 Jesus cleanseth from all sin;" — 
 all sin; virhatever be its dye, its 
 desert ; vrhatever its distraction or 
 its doom. 
 
 The theology of the Church of 
 Rome, some observe, is, that Pur- 
 gatory is, in the first place, pubi- 
 fyiNG, and, in the second place, 
 that it is PENAL. We contend 
 that it is neither the one nor the 
 other. But before I refer you to 
 passages I shaU adduce from sacred 
 writ to show you h6w unfounded 
 and unwarranted it is, in order that 
 you may have an idea of what 
 Purgatory is, I will refer to the 
 writmgs of a priest of high autho- 
 rity and sanction, O'Suliivan's Com- 
 pendvum of the Catholic History of 
 Ireland; cum facultate S. Inquisi- 
 tionis et Begis. It is signed and 
 authorized by cardinals, archbishops, 
 and bishops. Its date is 1621. 
 Vol. i. hb. ii. cap. ui. p. 24. We 
 find here a picture of the Purgatory 
 of St. Patrick. 
 
 " There were numbers of men 
 which no arithmetic can reckon up, 
 all lying on the ground, pierced 
 through the body. They uttered 
 iioarse cries of agony, then: tongues 
 cleaving to their jaws. They were 
 buffeted by violent tempests, and 
 
 shattered by repeated blows of 
 devils." 
 
 Now, mark, this is recorded, not 
 of the damned, but is declared of 
 them for whom the Son of God 
 died. 
 
 " The devils drove them into 
 another plain, horrible with exquisite 
 tortures. Some, with iron chains 
 about their necks and Mmbs, were 
 suspended over the fires; others 
 were burned with red-hot cinders. 
 Not a few ivere transfixed with 
 spits and roasted, melting metal 
 being poured into them. Alas for 
 those who do not penance in this 
 world!" 
 
 Such is the jjrospect of every 
 Roman Catholic in tnis room, — as 
 every one has venial sins. Wretched 
 superstition, thus to deceive you ! 
 They would make our heavenly 
 Eather a relentless despot, who, not 
 satisfied vrith the shedding of that 
 blood which cleanses from all sin- 
 not satisfied with the Holy Spirit 
 making us meet for the inheritance 
 of the saints in Hght, demands that 
 all, though pardoned by the first, 
 and purified by the second, shall 
 yet go to this antechamber of heU, 
 and there bum and agonize until 
 every sin is avenged, every satis- 
 faction given ; even tiU " the utter- 
 most farthing," according to the 
 explanation of my learned anta- 
 gonist, has been paid. 
 
 I stated before, that there is no 
 other Purgatory than the precious 
 blood of our omy Lord and Saviour 
 Jesus Christ; in other words, that 
 through his perfect atonement our 
 sinfiil souls are pardoned and en- 
 titled to glory. " If we confess 
 our sins," says the apostle, " God is 
 faithful aadjmt to forgive us our 
 sins, and to cleanse us from all un- 
 righteousness." Again, in Isa. i. 18- 
 — " Though your sms be as scarlet, 
 they shall be white as snow ;" (what 
 can be purer!) "though red aa 
 
392 
 
 PUKGATOKr. [7t/i Evemng. 
 
 crimson they shall be as wool." 
 What can be more complete? 
 Again, the Psalmist, Ps. li. 7 : — 
 "Purge me with hyssop;" — they 
 used to take the blood of an animal 
 slain, and sprinMe it on the guilty 
 sinner ; — " Purge me ■mSn hyssop, 
 and I shall be whiter than snow." 
 We read, and repeat, and repeat 
 again and again, "The blood of 
 t'hrist cleanses from all sin." 
 Through his eternal atonement, we 
 can be made spotless as the virgin 
 heavens, white as the driven snow, 
 and pure as the finest wool. Can 
 purgatorial fires make me more 
 white, or more entitled to the happi- 
 ness and fitter for the fellowship of 
 heaven ? Again, Isa. xliv. 22 : — 
 " I have blotted out as a thick cloud 
 thy transgressions, and as a cloud 
 thy sins : return unto me, for I have 
 redeemed thee." My dear Roman 
 Cathohc fiiends, when you are 
 brought to trust by faith in the 
 atonement of Christ, God blots out 
 your sins hke a cloud, like a thick 
 cloud; there then remains nothing 
 between you and the Holy One of 
 Israel. The cloud that intercepted 
 his beams, and defaced and over- 
 shadowed you, is scattered ; and 
 nothing else is therefore demanded 
 to propitiate God or purify your 
 souls, to entitle and fit you for 
 happiness, immortality, and glory. 
 
 Again, Gospel of St. John, i. 29: 
 —"Behold the Lamb of God that 
 taketh away the sins of the world." 
 This is not the language of the 
 Church of Rome. She tells you in 
 fact, if not in words, to behold Pur- 
 gatory for taking away venial sins. 
 But Christianity, my 'friends, >iiot 
 knowing such a device, and utterly 
 disclaiming such a doctrine as Pur- 
 gatory, gives utterance to her sacred 
 and most merciful voice in her own 
 beauteous and thrilling accents, and 
 proclaims to you this extinguisher 
 of Purgatory — " Behold the Lamb 
 
 of God that taketh away the sins" 
 (venial and mortal) " of the world." 
 And let me counsel you, " in all 
 time of your wealth, in all time of 
 your tribulation, in the hour of 
 death, and in the day of judgment," 
 to look not to Purgatory, nor to 
 saints, nor to angels ; but look to 
 this Lamb of God slain from the 
 foundation of the world, ever watch- 
 ing, ever willing to save. Again, I 
 quote from Acts iv. 12 : — " Nei- 
 ther is there salvation in any other, 
 for there is none other name under 
 heaven given among men whereby 
 we must be f-saved." That name 
 may be Purgatory, or it may be the 
 Church, or it may be tradition, or 
 it maybe saints, or it may be angels; 
 but the record of Grod, which can- 
 not He, and which, even by the 
 admissito of my learned antagonist, 
 speaks infallible truth — the record 
 of that word is in these Purga- 
 tory-explosive accents, that "there 
 is' salvation in none other name 
 than Christ's." Again, we read in 
 Heb. ix. 26 : — "But now once in 
 the end of the world, hath he 
 appeared to put away sin by the 
 sacrifice of himself. If he does 
 this, nothing auxiliary is required. 
 Again, il quote 1 John ii. 2 : — "And 
 he is the propitiation for our sins, 
 and not for ours only, but also for 
 the sins of the whole world." If 
 Christ's blood expiates, Purgatory 
 is useless. The brightness of the 
 Father's 'glory, upholding all things 
 by the word of his power, when he 
 had by himself purged our sins — 
 " made purgation for us," accord- 
 ing to the Douay — sat down on the 
 right hand of God. That is the 
 only Purgatory, my friends ; and 
 after you have obtained by it pur- 
 gation of your sin, none other need 
 be feared, as none other is neces- 
 sary. God does not punish t-wice, 
 the substitute and the sinner too. 
 If Christ have really purged away 
 
Mev. J. dimming.} 
 
 PtTRGATOKTi 
 
 393 
 
 our sins, what need can there be 
 of another Purgatory? Your Pur- 
 gatory is a work of supererogation, 
 to say the least. Christ has purged 
 away our sins in his own blood, and 
 made an end of sin, and brought 
 in everlasting righteousness. Rev. 
 vii. 13 : — " What are these which 
 are arrayed in white robes, and 
 whence came they ?" Why, if they 
 had been in Purgatory, and had come 
 forth from the midst of the flame, 
 punitive and puiifyii^, the answer 
 would have been, " L o! these are 
 they who have purified themsdves 
 in purgatorial fire; for whom 
 milUons of masses have been offered 
 up on earth ; for whom, after death, 
 prayers have been' incessantly made 
 by the Church." But not a word 
 of this. The question is asked, 
 " Who are these ? whence came 
 they ? and why arrayed in white 
 robes ?" The answer is, (and I 
 implore my Roman CathoHc friends 
 to reooUect the answer) — " These 
 are they which came' out of great 
 tribulaiion, and have washed their 
 robes, and made them white in the 
 blood of the Lamb," (they made 
 them white in the true Purgatory, 
 the blood of the Lamb^ '• " therbfokb 
 are they before the throne of God." 
 Behold, my friends, my Roman 
 Catholic friends, and examine for 
 yourselves which is the Church 
 which seems to embody most of 
 the love and mercy of God. Surely 
 it is not that Church which telfe 
 you that, after Jesus our God has 
 suffered that your sins may be 
 forgiven, after his blood has been 
 shed so amply that propitiation 
 might be made, and that you 
 might there by be purged, — ^that after 
 all this has been done, you have 
 yet to go and be tormented in pur- 
 gatorial fire. Surely rather it is 
 mat Church whose ministers tell 
 you that if you have washed your 
 robes in the blood of Jesus, you j 
 
 have thereby made them so perfect, 
 so pure, that the spotless eye ot 
 God, which sees flaws in the firma- 
 ment, and imperfections in the 
 angels, can see not a spot in you, 
 but beholds you, as the word of 
 God describes it, " without spot 
 or blemish." 
 
 Again, I quote Rev. i. 5, 6 : — 
 " To' him who loved us, and washed 
 us in his own blood, and made us 
 kings and' priests unto our God, to 
 him be glory for ever and ever." 
 And what doeS' this mean? Does 
 it imply that Purgatory is the place 
 where our sins may be purged away, 
 and in which all our guilt may be 
 obliterated? On the contrary, it 
 shows that the only Purgatory is in 
 the blood of Christ. We are saved 
 by Christ's -owB blood or STifferings, 
 not by our own- blood or sufferings 
 in Purgatory. 
 
 In the next place,Imustnow show 
 that the children of God when they 
 die do not, according to sacred 
 ■vrrit,.gotoaplace of penal torment. 
 I have shown you that we have 
 A PTJBGATOBy in the blood of Christ 
 which alone purifies, and I have now 
 to show you, in conclusion, that the 
 souls of the children of God do not 
 
 fo to any penal settlement, such as 
 'urgatory ; but that all who die in 
 Christ pass- at once from grace to 
 glory, from time into eternity, from 
 earth, with all its sorrows, its vicis- 
 situdes, its tribulations, to heaven, 
 with its unbroken and never-ending 
 happiness. It is the record of God, 
 that, ." Whether you Kve, you Kye 
 unto the Lord : whether you die, 
 you. die unto the Lord ; that living 
 and dying you are the Lord's." 
 
 To illustrate and prove this, I 
 quote Isaiah Ivii, 7 : " The righteous , 
 perisheth, and no man layeth it to 
 heart ; and merciful men are taken 
 away, none considering that the 
 righteous is taken scvaj from the 
 evil to come." They are delivered 
 2 
 
394 
 
 PUKGATOKT. [7^^ Evening . 
 
 from all future evil, and tWefore 
 from Purgatory, and immediately 
 pass into a state of felicity and" rest. 
 And to show you that in whatever 
 state you die, in that state eternity 
 shall keep you, I quote from Eccle- 
 siastes xi. 3 : — "If the tree fall to 
 the south or toward the north, in 
 the place where the tree falleth 
 there it shall lie." And the verdict 
 of inspiration pronounced at the 
 judgment-seat: — "He that is un- 
 just, let him be unjust still." On the 
 other hand, "he that is holy, let 
 him be holy StiU ; he that is right- 
 eous, let him be righteous still." 
 
 Again, I read John v. 24 : — 
 " Verily, verily, I say unto you, he 
 that heareth my word, andbeUeveth 
 on him that sent me, hath everlast- 
 ing life, and shall not come into 
 condemnation, but is passed _/^o»8 
 death unto life" But the doctrine 
 of the Church of Rome is, that you 
 pass from death into P«wy«^o?y, and 
 then from Purgatory into life eter- 
 nal ; but the statement of the word 
 of God is, that you are passed from 
 death unto life, and shall not come 
 into condemnation. 
 
 Again, I quote 2 Cor. v. 1 : — 
 "Por we know that if our earthly 
 house of this tabernacle were dis- 
 solved, WB HAYE a building of God, 
 a house not made with hands, eternal 
 in the heavens." So soon as this 
 mortal and corruptible tenement is 
 shattered by the stroke of death, 
 that moment the believer in Christ 
 HATH a house, not made with hands, 
 eternal in the heavens. That taber- 
 nacle is thus described : — " In my 
 father's house there are many man- 
 sions. I go to prepare a place for 
 you." Again, I quote the second 
 verse of the same chapter : — " For 
 in this we groan, earnestly desiring 
 to be clothed upon with our house 
 which is from heaven : " "If so be 
 that, being clothed, we shall not be 
 found naked. Per we that are in 
 
 this tabernacle do groan, being 
 burthened; not that we would be 
 unclothed, but clothed upon, that 
 mortality might be swallowed up of 
 life." If there be purgatorial fire 
 immediately after death, the apostle, 
 could neither vrish to be " clothed 
 upon," nor use this language with 
 ordinary propriety. No Koman 
 Catholic can desire immediately to 
 die. He must dread death as, the 
 introduction to torment, because he 
 believes that, when ie dies, instead 
 of going to the bosom of his Pather 
 and his God, he goes to a place of 
 torment ; and that it depends partly 
 upon the number of his venial sins, 
 and partly on the number of masses 
 offered up after his death, (which 
 last depend on -the number of 
 guineas left behind, on a thousand 
 contingencies precarious in every 
 respect,) how long he may continue 
 in the place of torment, and amid the 
 devouring flames of a tei^orary 
 hell. I feel deeply for my Roman 
 Catholic auditors. I vrish I could 
 extricate them from their sad super- 
 stition, so full of fear, so destitute 
 of peace. 
 
 Again, read Luke ii. 29, 30 : — 
 "Lord, now lettest thou thy servant 
 depart in peace," (no dread of Pur- 
 gatory!) "according to thy word, 
 for mine eyes have seen thy salva- 
 tion." Again, I read Luke xvi. 
 25, where Abraham speaks to the 
 wicked rich man, and says, " Son, 
 remember that thou in thy lifetime 
 receivedst thy good things, and Uke- 
 vrise Lazarus evil things ; but kow 
 HE IS coMEOBTED, and thou art 
 tormented." Now, mark you, if 
 Lazarus had passed into Purgatory, 
 as Roman Catholics are presumed 
 to do, who die in venial sins — and 
 none are without venial sins— the 
 record respecting Lazarus, thus 
 depicted immediately after his death, 
 would be, " now he is tormented in 
 Purgatory," not the very opposite 
 
Rev. J. Vuramuiff.] 
 
 PrRGATOBY. 
 
 395 
 
 declaration of Truth, "now he is 
 comforted." The theology of your 
 Chnrch, my dear Roman Catholic 
 friends, and the theology of the 
 Gospel essentially differ; yonr priests 
 dare not say of yonr dead infants 
 and parents, " now they are ' com- 
 forted.' " No ; and I may give 
 yon the representation which my 
 reverend brother (Mr. Parkinson) 
 gave me of what took place in 
 Ireland; there, while the Roman 
 CathoKcs were surronnding the dead 
 body with tears, and sorrow, and 
 lamentation, and wailing for the 
 soul in Purgatory, I understand that 
 the priest in that country goes 
 round, even at the funeral, and asks 
 something more to deliver the soul 
 out of Purgatory ! ! 
 
 Mr. EitENCH, and several other 
 voices (CathoUcs, we presume) 
 mingling. — "No ; no, no !" — [Great 
 confusion.] 
 
 Mr. Gumming. — If this be the 
 fact — [hisses again] — I am stating 
 only what I have received from un- 
 questionable authority — [Renewed 
 turmoil]. 
 
 A Voice. — That is not argument ! 
 
 Rev. J. Cummins. — My Roman 
 Catholic Irish hearers know that it 
 is the fact. — [Loud cries of " No ! 
 no! it is not ;" after which, silence 
 being restored, the reverend gentle- 
 man continued.] I do not think 
 the fact extraordinary, for, according 
 to your theology, the believer at 
 death is not comforted, but tormented 
 in Purgatory ! Suppose you beKeve 
 it not to be the fact, — and I do not 
 wish to lav the least stress on it, 
 and I disclaim the least desire to 
 hurt the feehngs of any Roman 
 Catholic in this assembly ; — yet, if 
 the Church of Rome maintains that 
 the souls' of believers do pass into 
 Purgatory, where they are tormented 
 by Sre, ,the fact is only to be ex- 
 pected; and, I ask. If the soul be 
 in Purgatory, undergoing the pro- 
 
 cess of fiery purification, can it be 
 said of that soul, " it is comforted ? " 
 Is it comfort to be found in St, 
 Patrick's Purgatory, undergoiug 
 the pains of penal torture P Again, 
 I read that when the martyr Ste- 
 phen, in Acts vii. 5, 6, was ajiout to 
 be stoned, he said, "I see heaven 
 opened, and the Son of man sittim* 
 at the right hand of the Father ;*' 
 and he said, "Lord Jesus, receive 
 my spirit." This martyr, at least, 
 believed not in Purgatoiy, for he 
 expected that, the moment he died, 
 Christ Jesus whom he saw enthroned 
 at the right hand of the Father, 
 would instantly receive his spirit. 
 Again,' says the apostle, " To me to 
 live is Christ, and to die is gain." 
 This, the language of the apostle, is 
 utterly destructive of Purgatory. 
 " To me," says he, " to live is Christ, 
 and to die is gain." He does not 
 say, " To me to die is Pubgatoey, 
 but GBBAT GAIN." If he Suffered 
 in this hfe, as he did, and had to 
 pass through Purgatory in the next, 
 then, a fortiori, his suffering here 
 would be nothing to his suffering 
 hereafter. Again, Phil. i. ,23 : — 
 " For I am in a strait, betwixt two, 
 having a desire to depart and be 
 WITH Christ ; which is far better." 
 You observe, the apostle concludes 
 that "the moment he departs from 
 the body, that moment he is " with 
 Christ, which is far better." "With 
 Christ," is essentially heaven. 
 "Without Christ," wMch is far 
 worse, would be the picture of 
 Purgatory. I have one other pas- 
 sage wherewith to conclude the long 
 train of evidence against Purgatory 
 which glows in every page of sacred 
 writ : it is in Luke xxiii. 43, where 
 the penitent thief said to Christ, 
 "Lord, remember me when thou 
 Comest into thy kingdom." Now, 
 mark you, if ever there was a man 
 that had been guilty of venial sin — 
 if ever there was a guilty criminal 
 
395 
 
 PTmGATOBT. [7tA Evenitiff. 
 
 who had need of his sins being 
 purged away, it was the thief upon 
 the cross ; and yet our Lord d!oes 
 not say to him, " To-day shalt thou 
 enter into Purgatory, there to be 
 tortured for a season;" he does 
 not say, " To-day shalt thou be, as 
 needed, tormented for thy sins, and 
 purified from them, and having 
 suffered the appointed corxsequenoes, 
 be ultimately with me iu heaven; " 
 but our Lord at once announces the 
 glorious prospect of every truly 
 penitent and contrite heart, when 
 he says upon the cross, "To-day 
 shalt thou be with me in Paradise." 
 I ask, then, of every dispassionate 
 auditor, Is there any room for Pur- 
 gatory if we appeal to the word of 
 God — to the distinct and express 
 statements of the word of Gtod ? I 
 assert that the whole of Scripture 
 leads us to believe that after death 
 we enter into one of two states, 
 both of which are fMil in hind, if 
 progressive in degree. Purgatory 
 is an antiscripturallegend. We read, 
 I assert, in the Bible of only two 
 places, viz. heaven, as the receptacle 
 of the holy — hell, as the receptacle 
 of the sinM and the lost. We read 
 of only two ways, namely, the strait 
 gate.va&\, leads to heaven, and the 
 broad way that leads to destruction 
 and to hell. We read of only two 
 sorts of characters, namely, heing in 
 Christ, by faith in his blood, and 
 trust in his atonement and inter- 
 cession alone, and being out of 
 Christ, and aliens and strangers, 
 without God, vidthout Christ, with- 
 out any well-founded hope in the 
 world. If you wish for a title 
 to man's forfeited, but Clirist- 
 regained heaven, what is that title P 
 It is in Christ, and in Christ alone, 
 by whom our sins are purged away, 
 and through whom we nave boldness 
 to enter into the holiest of all. And 
 it vriU be experienced by you, my 
 dear Boman Catholic friends, if you 
 
 go to that blessed and only Purga- 
 tory, the blood of Jesus, that the 
 record that shall be registered of 
 you in heaven's everiasting tablets, 
 shaU be, " There is no condemnation 
 to them that are in Christ Jesus." 
 And if you vidsh peace or prepared- 
 ness for heaven, we can tell you of 
 One far more merciful and able, who 
 can purify you as gold and silver 
 are purified in the mmace, namely, 
 the Holy Spirit. Christ gives you 
 a title to heaven through his death, 
 and the Holt Spibit gives you 
 MEETNBSS for hcavcn by working 
 within you " to will and to do of 
 God's good pleasure." I implore 
 you to weigh the statements of my 
 learned antagonist on the one hand, 
 and the scriptural truths, and argu- 
 ments built upon these truths, which 
 I have adduced, upon the other; 
 all showing you that there is no 
 Purgatory but Christ's blood — ^no 
 
 Elace hereafter for believers but 
 eaven, and no softer doom for the 
 unforgiven guilty but heU. I trust 
 that wiese considerations will show 
 you that Protestantism and the 
 Bible are the same, and evoke from 
 every Roman Catholic heart toward 
 the true Catholic Church the re- 
 sponsive address of one of old, 
 " Where thou goest I will go, where 
 thou lodgest I vrill lodge; thy 
 people shall be my people, and thy 
 God my God." If your faith is 
 antiscriptural, you cannot be saved. 
 I beseech you, flee firom the wrath 
 to come. Escape from Babylon to 
 the Church of the living God ; from 
 Antichrist to Christ. It is not 
 enough that we know these things 
 in the head ; we must feel them m 
 the heart. Oh, my poor benighted 
 Roman Catholic hearers, my soul 
 yearns to reclaim you. If you die 
 holding to Purgatory, and looking 
 to it for purification after such evi- 
 dence of its falsity, and without 
 liaving felt on your consciences the 
 
Rev.J.Cummtng.'] pukgvtory. 
 
 purging influence of Christ's blood, 
 without having realized in your 
 heart the sanctifying power of the 
 Holy Spirit, great will oe your ruin, 
 and great indeed -will be your re- 
 sponsibility. It -will be "more 
 tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah" 
 in the day of judgment than for you. 
 I implore you to lay these things to 
 heart. I implore you, my dear^ 
 Roman Catholic auditors, not to 
 come here out of mere curiosity, or 
 to cling to your creed even in its 
 ruins, deceived by vapid, though 
 proud pretensions and assumptions ; 
 for these solemn truths must be to 
 you all either the " savour of Mfe 
 unto Hfe, or of death, imto death." 
 It is the destinies of etenjity that 
 ■we discuss. I implore you to re- 
 member that relimon is either all, 
 or it is nothiffg. I implore you to 
 study the word of God for your- 
 selves. Read it when you lie down, 
 and -when you rise up, and pray to 
 God to reveal its truths to you. My 
 learned antagonist has said there is 
 but one way to heaven, but it is not 
 the Church of Rome, nor the Mass, 
 nor Purgatory. It was proclaimed 
 in Christ's own sweet and impress- 
 ive vrords on the banks of Jordan 
 and on the plains of Bethlehem. 
 " I am the 'way,, the truth, and the 
 life ; no man cometh to the Father 
 but by me." Do not imagine that, 
 because you eonscientiomly believe 
 you are right, that therefore you 
 are right. St. Paul vfas most con- 
 scientious when he persecuted the 
 Christians, but not therefore right. 
 Nor believe that your priests will 
 save you — ^they cannot save them- 
 selves. 
 
 397 
 
 Unless priest and church and con- 
 science be enlightened by the truth, 
 washed in the Redeemer's blood, 
 and purified by the Redeemer's 
 spirit, it is in vain to lean on these, 
 or to say, "Lord! Lord!" for be 
 will begin to say unto you, " I 
 know ye not ; depart from me, all ye 
 workers of iniquity." I also trust, 
 in conclusion, that you Protestants 
 wHl take these truths home to your 
 hearts, live on them, and pray for 
 those ignorant of them; that you 
 will, each and all of you, hear God 
 iniChrist, at the last great day, 
 sajijig unto you, " Come to me, ye 
 blessed of my Pather, for I was 
 hungry and ye fed me ; naked, and 
 ye clothed me; inhekit" (mark 
 that word!) "inherit the kingdom 
 prepared for you from the founda- 
 tion of the world." 
 
 As the meeting was about to dis- 
 perse, after conferring with his 
 fellow-chairman a few minutes, 
 
 GEoaGE Pinch, Esq. rose and 
 said : — ^In consequence of Mr. Gum- 
 ming having pressing engagemems 
 next week for the British Reforma- 
 tion Society, in Exeter HaU, it has 
 been agreed that the Discussion 
 shall be suspended till this day fort- 
 night, when it wiH be resumed on 
 the subject of the Rule of Paith. 
 
 The meeting then separated in its 
 usual :Ordedy manner. 
 
 We certify that this Report is faith- 
 fully and cmrectly given. 
 
 J. CuMMrNG, M.A. 
 D. Pkench, 
 
 Barrister-ai-Law, 
 
 ChAS. MiYBTJRT AbCHEE, 
 Report**'. 
 
398 
 
 Eighth Evening, Tuesday, May 7, 1839, 
 
 RULE OE EAITH. 
 
 This being the day appointed for 
 the re-assembling of the meetiig, 
 
 Geobgb Einch, Esq., the Pro- 
 testant chairman, rose and made the 
 following preliminary remarks :— 
 
 Ladies and Geitilemen. — As 
 some tittle has elapsed since the 
 meeting last assembled together, I 
 hope the persons now assembled will 
 recollect that there is to be no mar 
 nifestation of applause or disap- 
 probation on either side, and no 
 interruption of any sort or kind. 
 
 Rev. J. Gumming then rose, and 
 opened his address as follows : — ^It 
 is, my Christian hearers, with the 
 greatest satisfaction, and in humble 
 reliance on the aid of the Holy 
 Spirit, that I rise to address you on 
 one of the most important, as weE 
 as one of the most prominent ques- 
 tions, that are at issue between the 
 Protestant and Roman Catholic 
 Churches. I need not say that the 
 subject I refer to is the Rttle or. 
 Eaith. But, before proceeding to 
 expose upon the one hand the 
 opinions and definitions of the Ro- 
 man Catholic Church, and to lay 
 open, upon the other, the opinions 
 and sentiments of the Protestant 
 Church, I feel it right and just 
 to my learned opponent, to snow 
 you the tremendous danger of 
 having recourse to any other stand- 
 ard of appeal than the oracles of 
 God; among others, for this simple 
 reason, that when I appeal to the 
 Bible, the most illiterate of you all 
 can refer to it. I am obliged to 
 give you the chapter and the verse, 
 and you can examine and ascertain 
 wbether I have quoted it correctly 
 
 or not ; and if I have erred, either 
 through the fallibility of nature, or 
 throiigh the perversity of my judg- 
 ment, you can call me to account, 
 and show that I have either wiKully 
 perverted, or through frailf^ have 
 misstated facts. But in the Ro- 
 man Catholic Church, and wherever 
 the tribunal is far off, — where the 
 Bible is but one part of the Rule of 
 Eaith, and the traditions of men, 
 and the interpretations of the Church 
 are made to constitute the other 
 part — I say that in such a case there 
 IS a field opened up, so vast in di- 
 mension, and so utterly beyond the 
 cognizance of your judgments, that 
 if a Roman Cathoho pnest, for in- 
 stance, or a Roman Catholic layman, 
 ■should state this or that to be the 
 record, whethar it be right or wrong, 
 it •'is quite beyond your power to 
 contradict him, or otherwise confute 
 llim. He has a mysterious capital 
 on which he can draw to any extent. 
 I will give you an illustration of 
 this fact. XovL all remember, the 
 last evening on which we were as- 
 sembled, that my learned antagonist 
 introduced a quotation respecting 
 the Church of Rome from Sir Edwin 
 Sandys. It was on the discussion 
 of the question of Purgatory. You 
 remember that he quoted from Sir 
 Edwin Sandys, a Protestant, a start- 
 ling description of the glories and 
 valueoftheRoman Catholic Church ; 
 you and I (as well we might) were 
 perfectly amazed at the extract. 
 You heard him read a passage from 
 so Protestant a writer as Sir Edwin 
 Sandys, which seemed to show, perse, 
 that Sir Edwin Sandys had reaUy 
 
Rev. J. Ciimming.\ 
 
 BULE OP FAITH. 
 
 399 
 
 ) all the claims of the Pro- 
 testant Church, and held the Roman 
 Catholic communion to be invested 
 with all that is unrivalled in the 
 hoarjr claims of antiquity — with all 
 that is primitive and apostolical in 
 worship, and just and scriptural ia 
 doctrine. In vain did I doubt it. 
 Now, I ask what verdict this meet- 
 ing will come to on the conduct of 
 my learned antagonist, when I prove 
 Sir Edwin gave the passage as Eo- 
 manism's own most favourable view, 
 in order to refute it, as he after- 
 wards does. I accuse not Mr. 
 French of wilful dishonesty ; I 
 cannot but think he is incapable of 
 it. I accuse him not of wifcil per- 
 version ; I cannot beKeve he would 
 have recourse to such disingenuous 
 warfare. I believe him to be a 
 weak but willing and honest anta- 
 gonist ; but it will devolve on him 
 to give this audience and myself a 
 satisfactory explanation how he ifore<? 
 to say that Sir Edwin Sandys had 
 profqssed what he never did profess. 
 I say, that I trust Mr. IVench will 
 give me an honest and open expla- 
 nation of this fact, how Mr. R-ench 
 read all that Sir Edwin Sandys re- 
 cords, when he puts forward the 
 Church of Home in her best and in 
 her loftiest pretensions, but omitted 
 to say that Sir Edwin at the same 
 time adds: — "This is a view op 
 THE Chubch op Rome taken by 
 HEESELi' ! !" I fear this is a speci- 
 men of Roman Catholic iofaUibility. 
 Either tlffough the infirmity ef mor- 
 tality, or through misapprehension 
 of judgment, or through some other 
 reason, which I am unable to ex- 
 plicate, my antagonist has, most 
 Bnproperly, and most discreditably 
 to the memory of Sir Edwin Sandys, 
 given you an extract as his (Sir 
 Edwin Sandys') opinion of the 
 Church of Rome, whioh was not his 
 opinion. 
 In page 33 of the work from 
 
 which my antagonist took his ex- 
 tract. Sir Edwin Sandys says, after 
 giving the picture quoted by my 
 opponent : — " This is the main 
 course of their persuading at this 
 day, whereby they seek to establish 
 that former foundation, in the un- 
 folding whereof I have been the 
 larger, because trial had taught me 
 that not by man's private election, 
 but as it should seem by common 
 order they have relinquished all 
 other causes, and hbld to this on 
 the more effectual means to insinu- 
 ate their desire." 
 
 Sir Edwin then proceeds to de- 
 scribe the Church of Rome ; and, as 
 my opponent has referred me to Sir 
 Edwm Sandys for a correct view 
 of the Roman CathoKo Church, I 
 take my opponent's advice with him 
 as I did with Aquinas ; and there- 
 fore listen to what my opponent 
 has summoned me to read, as Doing, 
 in my opponent's judgment, a just 
 and accurate portrait. I am sure 
 I am acting fairly in thus obeymg 
 my qpponent. Sir Edwin says : 
 
 " What pomp, what rank compar- 
 able to that of their cardinals ? 
 what severity of life, to their hermits 
 and capudmns ? Who wealthier 
 than their prelates ? who poorer by 
 vow and profession than their men- 
 dicants ? At the one side of the 
 street a cloister of virgins, on the 
 other a sty of courtezans with public 
 toleration. This day all in masks, 
 with all looseness and foolery — ^to- 
 morrow all in processions, whipping 
 themselves till the blood follows ; 
 on one door an excommunication 
 throwing to hell all transgressors — 
 on another a jubilee, or full dis- 
 charge from all transgressions. 
 What prince so able to prefer his 
 servants as the pope, and in so 
 great a multitude ? Who able to 
 take deeper and readier revenge? 
 Where less care or oonscienee of 
 the commandments of God? 
 
400 
 
 EBLE OP fAiTH. [StA JEveninff 
 
 " To conclude : never state, never 
 government in the world so strangely 
 compacted of infinite contraiiefies, 
 all tending to entertain the several 
 humours of all men, and to work 
 what kind of effects they shall 
 desire — where rigonr and remiss- 
 ness, cruelty and lenity, are so com- 
 bined, that, with neglect of the 
 Church, to stir aught were unpar- 
 donable ; whereas, with duty to- 
 wards the Church, and by interces- 
 sion for her allowance, with re- 
 spective attendance on her pleasure, 
 no law almost of God or nature is 
 so sacred which one ^way or other 
 they find not means to dispense 
 with, or at least, permit the breach 
 of with connivance." 
 
 Mind you, this writer was re- 
 ferred to by my opponent as a 
 favourable expositor •of the Chtrch 
 of Eome. 
 
 Sir Edwin Sandys next delineates 
 the practical fruits of the Iloman 
 Catholic Church in Italy: — "The 
 whole country is overflown -and 
 overborne with wickedness, fllthi- 
 ness of speech and beastlmess of 
 actions ; base priests and friars each 
 striving with the other m impu- 
 dence therein, so that what else- 
 where could not be tolerated is 
 there in tigh honour ; what in other 
 places a loose person would be 
 ashamed to confess, these priests 
 and friars refrain not openly to 
 practise." — ^p. 9. 
 
 "It doth grieve me to think, yea, 
 the thought of it must needs bring 
 horror and detestation, what a mul- 
 titude of atheists do brave it in 
 all places; there most where the 
 papacy is most in its prime ; what 
 iTreverencers of God, villanizers of 
 bis saints, and scomers of his 
 service." 
 
 Sir Edwin speaks of Spain in 
 similar terms. 
 
 Is it not a curious aad extraor- 
 dinary fact tiat every writer my, 
 
 opponent has referred me to makes 
 out a case, not in favour of, as he 
 claims, but in utter opposition to 
 the Koman apostasy. In fact, apo- 
 stles, evangelists, fathers, doctors, 
 professors, knights, and squires — all 
 seem, when read, to be instinct 
 with the direst hatred of the papacy. 
 Never was this plainer than in the 
 present case. 
 
 "iSj learned antagonist, quoted 
 Sir Edwin Sandys' statement, and 
 made you fancy that this Protestant 
 writer was mfmov/r of the Church 
 of Eome ; but, observe, I have 
 quoted the rest of the passage, 
 which, as you have always seen, 
 shows that, so far from being in 
 favour of the Church of Eome, I 
 never could concoct words so ex- 
 pressive, or language so accumula- 
 tive, to denote the abominations of 
 any creed or system under heaven. 
 Now, then, the inference I wish to 
 adduce from this is, that, if my 
 learned and honourable antagonist, 
 " a bairister-at-law," accustomed to 
 expiscate . and analyze all sorts of 
 evidence, is deceived when he quotes 
 writers to confirm his own princi- 
 ples, then may not the ordinary 
 priests of the Church of Eome, 
 who are plain men, and some of 
 them in this country not very 
 learned men, be most seriously 
 deceived when they set forth the 
 doctrines of the Church by argu- 
 ments from the Greek and Latin 
 fathers and ancient writers ? What- 
 ever they say, no Eoman Catholic, 
 however monstrous or false the 
 things which they may state, can 
 stand up and quote, as I have done, 
 the rest of the sentence, or re- 
 mainder of the page. Whereas, (to 
 show you the simplicity of the 
 Protestant Eule of Paith,) I refer 
 vou to chapter and verse in this 
 book (the Bible,) and every Eoman 
 Catholic in this assembly can go 
 home, and he can say. If it be so. 
 
Jteo. J. CummingJ] 
 
 RTJLE OF FAITH. 
 
 401 
 
 " Why, Mr. Cmnming has misquoted 
 the chapter and verse, or wilfully 
 withheld the remaiinder of the 
 chapter !" The Protestant rule puts 
 every Boman Catholic in posses- 
 sion of the means whereby he can 
 weigh, and examine, and inves- 
 tigate everv statement that is made 
 from it. The Koman Catholic rule 
 is so complicated, and the Roman 
 CathoHo priests so fallible, that in 
 their hands is lodged the power 
 to deceive you ; to load you with 
 the elements of ruin, while you 
 fancy you have the elements of 
 your salvation. If your priest 
 shoijld happen to be a depraved 
 man, (as 1 am sure neither of the 
 reverend gentlemen by the side of 
 my learned antagonist are,) then what 
 awful results may ensue, history 
 can inform you, and human imagi- 
 nation caji suggest to you. So 
 much, then, for Sir Edwin Sandys. 
 My learned antagonist, let me re- 
 peat, is most unfortunate in his 
 quotations. You reooUeot hebrought 
 from Aquinas a large extract, and 
 in poetry, in favour of the Church 
 of Borne; but when I had .^course 
 to the seraphic doctor's prose, he 
 turned out to be stating apH. writing 
 sentiments whi^h he (Mr. !French) 
 would not countenance for a mo- 
 ment. He has now referred jne to 
 Sir Edwin Sandys ; and when I go 
 to Sir Edwin Sandys, and read the 
 rest of the passage, it turns out 
 that, so far from being enamoured 
 of the Church of Rome, there 
 never was a more decided and 
 determined protester against its 
 corruptions in the world. 
 
 Now for the question for this 
 evening's discussion. We Protest- 
 ants say, that' whatever cannot be 
 proved 6y the written word is not to 
 be received as the inspiration of God; 
 in other words, that the Bible, 
 
 AKB THE BiBLB ALONE, IS THE 
 
 RTO/E of Faith. Now, I. lay down 
 
 this position as that upon which I 
 stand ; our Rule of Paith is the 
 Bible, and the Bible alone. I lay 
 my Rule of Paith on the table 
 [placing the Bible on the platfirm 
 table.'] I have fehown you my Rule 
 of Paith. It is before you. I will 
 call on Mr. French to show his. 
 I repeat it. This, is a challenge. 
 I require him to exhibit his Rule 
 of Faith ; to say what it is, and 
 where it is. 
 
 I show you my Rule of Paith ; I 
 hold it in my hand, and now lay it 
 on the table; and if Mr. Prench 
 win now lay his Rule of Paith side 
 by side vrith it, we shall then be 
 able to contrast the two, and com- 
 pare them — [turninff to Mr. French]. 
 1 pause — I wait for my opponent's 
 Rule of Paith. — [JETere a long, pause 
 ensued. Mr. French showing no incli- 
 nation to comply, the rev. gentleman 
 continued as follows .-] — I confess, 
 my Christian hearers, that, from 
 long investigation of the sacred re- 
 cords, from perpetual and intimate 
 acquaintance with their holy and 
 beautiful contents, I can see in that 
 sacred volume all that is needful 
 for man throughout his pilgrimage 
 below, all that can cheer and 
 animate him in the prospect of that 
 which is to come. I know not that 
 aught else is necessary. ■ I am fully 
 satisfied with the sufficiency of my 
 Rule of Paith, and find it to contain, 
 in the language of a celebrated writer, 
 " depths, indeed, where elephants 
 may swim, shallows where lambs 
 may wade." I find it, it is true, to 
 contain mysteries so profound and 
 glories so efiulgent that man's 
 imagination cannot rise to them, 
 and yet I find that it contains 
 truths so simple and prospects and 
 promises so bright that the way- 
 faring man may understand them ; 
 and we Protestants have been so ac- 
 customed to refer to the Sacred 
 Oracles as our sole depository of 
 
402 
 
 KULE OP PAITH. 
 
 light, and life, and hope, and immor- 
 tSity, that you will no doubt be 
 pTepared to receive some extra- 
 ordinary reasons why we should be 
 dissatisfied with the Bible, and have 
 recourse to some additional reve- 
 lation, or tradition, or whaterer 
 they may be oalle4 in order to 
 complete and constitute the fuU 
 Rule of Eaith. What is there that 
 is not embodied in the word of 
 God? Do you wish to know the 
 nature of man before he fett? I 
 find he walked in the garden of 
 Eden in sweet communion and 
 feUowsliip with God as his father, 
 his benefactor and his friend, the 
 undeflled and the unfaUen. Do you 
 wish to know the character of man 
 after he " brought death into the 
 world, and all our woe," we read 
 that the " ima^ations of the 
 thoughts of his heart are evil con- 
 tinu^ly." I read, furthermore, that 
 the great Registrar of the Universe, 
 lookmg down upon the children of 
 men, recorded the startling, but" 
 expressive, assertion, " There is 
 none righteous ; no, not one." Do 
 you wish to know what is the state 
 of man, and what are the punish- 
 ments to which he is liable in conse- 
 quence of sin ? I read in this same 
 book that "the soul that sinneth, 
 it shall die." I read again, " The 
 wa^es of sin is _ death." I read 
 ugam, " Cursed is every one that 
 continueth not in all things that 
 are written in the law to do them." 
 Do you wish to know how man is 
 to be restored and brought once 
 more to communion with nis God, 
 which the fall had totally inter- 
 rupted P I read in this sacred 
 volume that the great God himseK 
 suffered the death and tortures of 
 the cross, that this guilty world 
 might be redeemed. I read that 
 " the brightness of his Father's 
 glory" became " a maa. of sorrows 
 'and acquainted with grief;" that 
 
 " he bore our sins in his ovm body 
 on the tree;" that he was "pierced 
 and smitten for us," and that he is 
 made to us wisdom and righte- 
 ousness, and sanctifioation, and com- 
 plete redemption." I read in this 
 sacred volume that he is "the way" 
 through which we rise from earth 
 to heaven from the trammels of 
 sin to immortality ; that he is " the 
 life " that quickens me ; " the 
 light" tkit illumines my footsteps ; 
 " the strength" that sustains me, 
 " the Saviour" that receives me. 
 I read in this sacred volume that I 
 have not only a title, through his 
 perfect and finished righteousness, 
 to heaven, but also that he has pre- 
 pared the elements of a glorious 
 meetness for me, " having made us 
 meet for the inheritance of the saints 
 in light." I read that the Holy 
 Spirit works within us, " to wiU 
 and to do of his good pleasure;" 
 that he sanctifies our nature, sub- 
 dues our corruptions, and restores 
 between God and man the sacred 
 harmony which had been broken. 
 This book shows me not. only a 
 title to heaven through Christ's 
 death, but a fitness and preparedness 
 for heaven through the mighty power 
 of his Spirit dwelling in me. So 
 that in looking into this volume I 
 find all that man can want, for time 
 as weE as for eternity. Do you want 
 life?^ — ^it is here. Do you want 
 pardon? — ^it is here. Do you want 
 sanctifioation? — it is here. Do you 
 want a knowledge of yourself be- 
 fore the fall? — ^it is here. Do you 
 want a knowledge of man after 
 the fall ? — ^it is here. Do you want 
 to know how God can be "just, 
 and yet the justifler" of the un- 
 godly? — it is here. And every 
 sacred rescript in al that is viti 
 is so clear, that he who reads may 
 run while he reads. So, you ob- 
 serve, all that relates to man for 
 time and for eternity, lam preuar"-'. 
 
Rev. J. Oummingl] kule op t4.ith. 
 
 403 
 
 to prove that the Bible furaishes, 
 completely and satisfactorily, a light 
 to his feet and a lam^ unto his path. 
 
 Again, if we require the charac- 
 ter of God, I flna that he is de- 
 scribed by his being I am teat I am. 
 If I wish to learn his power, he is 
 here described to be omnipotent. If 
 I wish to know his holiness, I read 
 that angels and archangels pro- 
 strate themselves before mm, and 
 cry. Holy, holy, hok, is the Lord 
 Gk)d of Hosts. If I wish to know 
 his wisdom, the Scriptures say, "Oh 
 the depth of the riches of his 
 wisdom!" If I wish to know his 
 goodness — " Thou, O God, art con- 
 tinually doing good." If I wish to 
 know his truth — " His truth en- 
 duieth for ever." If I wish to 
 know his love — " He so loved the 
 world that he gave his only-begotten 
 Son; that whosoever believeth in 
 him might not perish, but have 
 everlastmg He." So that, you 
 observe, there is not one want in 
 reference to the condition of man 
 which is not embodied in the saored 
 volume. There is not one desire 
 in reference to the character of 
 God and eternity which is not em- 
 ' bodied in the sacred volume ; there 
 is not one rule by which man's 
 moral conduct is to be squared, 
 which is not embodied in the sacred 
 volume. And, therefore, my learned 
 antagonist will have to show you 
 the existence of a necessity for some 
 additional rule, and give satisfac- 
 tory reasons why we should not be 
 satisfied with the sacred oracles 
 alone. 
 
 I know that my learned anta- 
 gonist, according to the policy of 
 his communion, wiU call upon me 
 to prove the genuineness and authen- 
 ticity of the sacred Scriptures. He 
 says we are indebted to Komanism 
 for the sacred Scriptures, and that, 
 if th&re had been no Roman Catholic 
 Church, we should not have had 
 
 the saored Scriptures. Now, never 
 be deceived by such gross fallacy. 
 No man in this audience is likely 
 to be deceived by subtleties .and 
 scholastic sophisms. There were 
 many other churches besides the 
 Roman Catholic. There were the 
 Waldenses; there were the Greek 
 churches ; the Armenian, the Syrian 
 churches. There were many other 
 churches besides the Roman Ca 
 thoHc Church, the most corruptea 
 of all churches of the world. Sup- 
 pose now that there is at Hammer 
 smith a water-company. Suppose 
 I was anxious to have my bucket 
 filled with water, and made appli- 
 cation ; but suppose the water- 
 company came to me, and said, 
 " Sir, you shall have no water from 
 us ; we refuse to give it you ; or if 
 you do take our water, you must 
 wear our hvery, use our buckets, 
 and observe that there is no water 
 in the universe save with us." 
 What would be my reply at the 
 moment ? " Why, gentlemen," (I 
 should naturally say) " there is the 
 GrMid Junction Company ; there is 
 the London Witer-company ; there 
 is the Middlesex Water-company ; 
 there are five or six other water- 
 companies ; and I shall just take the 
 liberty of dipping my bucket down 
 into their streams, and fill it from 
 them. So that I can turn away 
 at once &om you, if you keep to 
 these terms, and yet shall be able 
 to have abundance of water ; I 
 have only to go to the next water- 
 'company, and I shall find an ample 
 supdy." Now, just so is it with 
 the Bible and the Roman Cathohc 
 Church. My antagonist comes for- 
 ward, and he says. You shall have 
 no living waters from our company, 
 the Roman CathoKc hierarchy— 
 [laughter]^ we debar yon from 
 that privilege ; or, if you do take 
 them, you must just give us the 
 credit of being infallible and inerr- 
 
101 
 
 RUUS 01' PAITH. 
 
 able, &c. &c. I will concede no 
 such magnificent assumptions; I 
 will just go to some other ecclesi- 
 astical water-company cotemporaty 
 with you, and I will fill my heart with 
 lining streams from them ; and you 
 shall not have the credit of having 
 given me one particle. 
 
 But, to return. He will call on 
 me to prove the authenticity and 
 
 fenuineness of the Scriptures. 
 Tow there is just one simple fact I 
 would state, as a specimen proof we 
 can produce on this point : — first, 
 if the Bible he not inspired,, gooi 
 men would not have written it, be- 
 came they would not have told a false- 
 hood by claiming inspiration; for 
 they would not have been guilty 
 of claiming that which they had 
 not. In the second place, lad men 
 would not have written it, because 
 
 pure and comprehensive morality 
 which the Bible contains. Then what 
 is the inference ? That Qod must 
 have inspired it, and that, therefore, 
 the inspiration of the Bible, even 
 from this, I would simply premise, 
 must be satisfactory — [turning to- 
 wards Mr. French.'] 
 
 Mr. Prench. — Undoubtedly! 
 
 Rev. J. Gumming. — Mark this 
 admission— rfor I am only laying the 
 foundation of what must be a pro- 
 tracted discussion ; and in order to 
 show you the genuineness of the 
 Scriptures, I will refer here to a 
 very comprehensive and a very 
 beautiful extract : — 
 
 " With respect to the uncor- 
 rupted preservation of the Old Tes- 
 tament, let us bear in mind the 
 great care vrith which the Jews pre- 
 served it. How could the Old 
 Testament have been adulterated 
 previously to the Saviour? Tlie 
 Jews, who were divided into sects, 
 the Talmndists and the Caraites, 
 would naturally watch over their 
 common Scripture with jealousj. 
 
 Could the Samaritans have .been 
 prevailed upon to unite with the 
 Jews in corrupting the Pentateuch? 
 The New Testament has been dis- 
 persed in different countries. The 
 variety of sects which have existed 
 watched it vidth such jealous care 
 that none could have mutilated it." 
 
 We have many ancient transla- 
 tions. Bentley, speaking of the 
 various readings, says as follows : — 
 "I, for my part, would not lament if 
 out of the old MSS. yet untouched, 
 ten thousand more were faithfully 
 colleoted, some of which, vrithout 
 question, would render the text 
 more beautiful, just, and exact, 
 though of no consequence to the 
 man of religion. 
 
 "With respect to the genuine- 
 ness of the New Testament, con- 
 trast' the several books ; mark the 
 coincidence between the history of 
 the writers and their respective 
 writings ; observe the style of each. 
 The Gospel of St. Luke is of purer 
 Greek, Luke being a rfiysician, and 
 learned. We have Hebraisms in 
 the New Testament, which show the 
 writers were Jews." 
 
 Again, I find an admirable sum- 
 mary in HartweE Home, as to the 
 genuineness of Scripture. I shall 
 not, however, read it now, but I 
 shall refer to it on a subsequent 
 occasion, after my learned antago- 
 nist shall have called on me to do 
 so. And let me add, that I hope 
 my learned antagonist will not call 
 upon me to present a fuU demon- 
 stration of tlie authenticity and 
 genuineness of Scripture, else I 
 shall not only have to refer to 
 ancient prophecy, and to its full and 
 satisfactory fulfilment in the New 
 Testament Scriptures, but I shall 
 also have to refer to the book of 
 Daniel ; to the epistles of St. Paul, 
 especially those to the Thessalonians 
 and to Timothy, respecting the ^rea< 
 apostasy ; and I shall have also to 
 
Rev. J. 
 
 B.ULE or FAITH. 
 
 405 
 
 refer to the eighteentli of Revela- 
 tions, to demonstrate that the pre- 
 dictions of the Koman Catholic 
 apostasy are so plain and so impress- 
 ive, that this alone wonld stamp 
 the Bible to have "God for its 
 author, truth without any mixture 
 of error for its matter, and eternal 
 happiness for its final and ultimate 
 issue." I may also just add, that 
 every Jew you meet in the streets is 
 a standing testimony to the inspira- 
 tion of Scripture. I may mention 
 that the wandering Arabs, as they 
 travel from wild to wild, and from 
 desert to desert, are standing testi- 
 monies to the inspiration of Scrip- 
 ture; together with many other 
 proofs that I shall be preM,red to 
 adduce, to show you that we Protest- 
 ants are not all dependent on the 
 RomanCathoKc Church either for the 
 Scriptures which we possess, or for 
 proofs satisfactory enough of their 
 genuineness and divine mspiration. 
 
 Now, I have already shown you 
 what WE hold to be the Rule of 
 Paith, namely, the Bible; and 
 touched scarcely the svmma/astigia 
 of evidence. Let me next refer you 
 to what Roman. Catholics hold to be 
 the Rule of Faith. Por this pur- 
 pose I shall quote from a work with 
 which all Roman Cathohos before 
 me are familiar, and to which I am 
 quite sure they wiU give their 
 assent. It is from "The End of 
 Religious Controversy," by MUner, 
 seventh edition, a.d. 1827. He 
 says, " The Catholic Rule of Paith is 
 not merely the written word of 
 God, but the whole word of God, 
 both written and unwritten ;" in 
 other words, "Scripture and tra- 
 dition, and these propounded and 
 explained by the Cathohc Church." 
 
 Now observe this: my antago- 
 nist's Rule of Faith is the word 
 of God, the whole word of God, 
 imtien and unwritten. Now, will 
 my antagonist be kind enough to 
 
 produce the word of God "un- 
 written ? " I am not an Irishman, 
 but you will allow me, for once, to 
 perpetrate what they call an " Irish 
 bull"— [laughter]— Will my antago- 
 nist — is he able to produce the un- 
 written word ? Because, if he can 
 show me one single line, which he 
 can prove by irrefragable testimony 
 to have been uttered by an apostle 
 inspired by the Spirit of God, then I 
 will receive it as a part of my Rule 
 of Faith; but if he brings some 
 extravagant statements, and vain 
 and vauntittg extracts, from that 
 old stock in trade, tradition, then I 
 really cannot listen to mere vague 
 assertions. I must have something 
 tangible ; something that I can look 
 at ; something that I can test and 
 try, and thenceforth appeal to as an 
 evidence, and as a tribunal by which 
 difficulties are to be determined and 
 questions are to be deduced. I 
 tnerefore repeat that, having laid 
 down my. Rule of Faith, I must in- 
 sist on my antagonist laying down 
 his Rule of Faith upon the table ; 
 and let this audience watch and 
 wait the moment that my learned 
 antagonist produces it. [^Turninff 
 to Mr. French, but Mr. French did 
 not comply. ~\ Now I have given you 
 a description of the Roman Cathohc 
 and Protestant Rules of Faith. 
 Now, mslik the transition. The 
 moment we pass from the Protestant 
 Rule of Faith, " the Bible, and the 
 Bible alone," and go to the Roman 
 Catholic Rule of Faith, — ^namely, 
 " the written word," which is the 
 Bible, and " the unwritten word," 
 which is I know not what, and both 
 expounded and interpreted by the 
 Church — that moment we are m the 
 regions of uncertain^, and doubts, 
 and perplexities. Tradition pre- 
 supposes a few things that exist 
 not. Tradition — look at it in what- 
 ever light you will — ^tradition im- 
 plies (m order to be perfect) that 
 
406 
 
 RULE OF FAITH. 
 
 men, its chaimels, m-asthuve perfect 
 memories. It implies that they must 
 have the highest moral faculties ; 
 perfectly pure and perfectly pious, 
 with no tendency to evil, with no 
 strong tinge of corruption. It im- 
 plies, also, that they must haTe_;Wj^- 
 ments extraordinarily strong; that 
 they must have faithfulness so un- 
 wavering and so firm, that they are 
 prepared, at all hazards, even at the 
 risk of condemning their own con- 
 duct, to hand down this traditionary 
 lore "from sire to son," and from 
 generation to generation, through 
 the eighteen centuries of the world 
 that have now transpired, pure and 
 unpolluted. So that, you observe, 
 while our Rule of Faith is "written," 
 and tangible, and fixed, the Rule of 
 Faith of my antagonist is dependent 
 upon treacherous memories; upon 
 wavering judgments; upon damaged 
 consciences and morals; upon the 
 corruption or incorruptibility of the 
 age; upon ten thousand other in- 
 cidental circumstances which have 
 so modified and mutilated the tradi- 
 tions and legends of the world, that 
 the term "tradition" has become 
 synonymous with falsehood, and 
 " legends " to be a name for the ro- 
 mantic productions of human fancy. 
 Again, observe in the second 
 place, that we do not Jimd in the 
 word of God any order of 'men set 
 apart for the Recife end of convey- 
 ing traditions from father to son, or 
 from one generation to another. I say 
 we do not find any set apart for ws 
 specific purpose. In the third place, 
 we find those who claim to be thus 
 set apart, the bishops and priests of' 
 the Church of Rome, have been " so 
 steeped in corruption," (according 
 to the testimony of one of their own 
 historians, who declares that " the 
 Church of Rome was more aposta- 
 iieal than holy and apostolical,) 
 that pure waters cannot have come 
 through such filthy chanueb. Now, 
 
 if the " traditions " have also come 
 through such a mass of corruption; 
 through perverted judgments and 
 fallacious memories; Qirough in- 
 dividuals who were "steeped in 
 crime ;" whose interest it was to 
 bend all maxims to their morals ; is 
 it not somewhat doubtful that such 
 tradition has come iovm pare .>" If 
 water flows through tainted and 
 corrupted channels, is it not highly 
 probable that it will contract some 
 corruption through every channel it 
 passes ? And 2' " tradition," on 
 which the Church of Rome prides 
 itself, has come through' bishops, 
 and priests, and popes, corrupted 'to 
 the heart's core, is it not probable, 
 nay, is it not morally certain, that 
 these traditions are, more or less, 
 polluted from the nature of tie 
 channels they flow through? But 
 perhaps you say. This is mere asser- 
 tion of yours, that the Church of 
 Rome was corrupted. To show 
 you that it is not any of mine, I 
 vrill refer to the Roman CathoHo 
 Church of some centuries ago, and 
 quote Baronius, a cardinal of the 
 Romish Church. Now, mark, I do 
 not take a Protestant's authority, 
 it is from the Ecclesiastical Annals 
 of Baronius. 
 
 Mr. Fkench. — Oh ! the edition 
 and page, if you please. That is 
 verr particular. 
 
 Rev. J. Ctjmming. — ^I do not 
 think I have copied it — {the reader 
 must understand, the rev. gentleman 
 read the extract from a manuscript 
 paper"]. — Oh, yes ! I have. 
 
 Mr. Pbbnch. — Give it, if you 
 please. 
 
 Rev. J. CuMMiNe. — "Baromi 
 Annates Ecclesiastici, Antverpise, 
 1603," p. 7, An. iv. 
 
 Now, this is a Roman Catholic's 
 statement about the Roman Catho- 
 lic Church. Mark you, do not sup- 
 pose it is a Protestant one. I 
 am goiflg to show the sort of 
 
Hev. J. Cummitiff.'] 
 
 RULE OF FAITH. 
 
 407 
 
 channel through which these tradi- 
 tions came. 
 
 " Behold, the nine hundredth year 
 of the Redeemer hegins, which, hy 
 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 writerSfthe dark 
 age. Standiag upon the threshold 
 ot which we nave thought it ex- 
 pedient, before we proceed further, 
 on account of the crimes which 
 it has been our lot to heboid 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 ABOMnJATION OF DESOLATION 
 
 standing in the temple. What un- 
 worthy, vUe, unsightly, yea, what 
 execrable and hateful things the 
 sacred and apostolic see has been 
 compelled to suffer ! To our shame 
 and grief be it spoken, how mant 
 MONSTBBS, horrible to behold, were 
 intruded by them' into that seat 
 which is reverenced by angels ! With 
 what filth was it her fate to be be- 
 sprinkled which was without spot or 
 wrinkle; with what stench to be 
 infected ; with what impurities to be 
 defiled!" &c.&ic. 
 
 This is not my language. This is the 
 language of a cardinal of the Church 
 of Rome ; the language of a distin- 
 guished Roman CathoHe historian, 
 who asserts that "monsters hokki- 
 BLE TO BEHOLD Were made popes 
 into the apostolical seat." There 
 were popes [to Mr. French, who was 
 seen to smile, we suppose ironically\ 
 — monsters horrible to behold. 
 
 Now, if the cardinal and popes, 
 those conduit-pipes of tradition, 
 were thus filthy and abominable — 
 leaky in morals and loose in judg- 
 ment, how can they have handed 
 down pure tradition? Is it not 
 absolutely certain that, as there 
 were no counter-evidence, these 
 
 monsters would invent lies to pal- 
 liate their crimes, and hand them 
 down as sacred traditions f 
 
 I have not given John Knox's 
 description of the Church of Rome. 
 This IS, not a Protestant's descrip- 
 tion of the Church of Rome ; it is a 
 Roman Catholic's description of the 
 Church of Rome. Then we read, 
 again, in the Aimals of the same 
 Cardinal Baronius, of the year 912, 
 what were then the vices of the 
 Roman Catholic Church. "How 
 foul was it when sordid and aban- 
 doned women ruled at Rome, and, 
 what is horrid to hear, and unutter- 
 able, false pontiffs, their lovers, were 
 intruded into the chair of St. Peter ! 
 Who can affirm that men illegally 
 intruded by wicked women of this 
 sort were Roman pontiffs ? All the 
 canons were closed in silence; de- 
 crees of pontiffs were suppressed; 
 ancient traditions proscribed, and 
 the usages of former days wholly 
 extinct." 
 
 And yet such men occupied the 
 chair of St. Peter, and were infalli- 
 ble. My antagonist represents his 
 Church as pure and infallible — the- 
 succession nnbroken from age to 
 age; and yet "there were false 
 pontiffs." A Roman CathoKc his- 
 torian and cardinal declares that St. 
 Peter's chair "held the greatest 
 monsters of the age :" and is it to 
 be presumed that tradition came hke 
 a pure and limpid stream through 
 the hearts of men tainted to the 
 core with practices from which 
 human nature shrinks and recoils 
 in horror? Baronius adds : — " Lust 
 claimed everything to itself. Christ 
 evidently was in a deep sleep in the 
 ship, and the ship itself covered 
 with waves." Can we expect sweet 
 waters from such bitter fountains ? 
 How delightful that the word of 
 God was preserved far off from the 
 contact of such monster-popes! Not- 
 vrithstanding, this Church boasts 
 
408 
 
 EULE OP rAiiH. [8tA Evenitiff. 
 
 that she is the perpetually " visible " 
 Church ! This is the CWoh which 
 has continued from the first century 
 to the present with all its umty, 
 its SAU CTITT, itsGAiHOLiciTY; here 
 it is weU described by Cardinal Baro- 
 nius, in terms which neither Calvin 
 nor John Knox would have used. 
 
 I would not have 'dared to stigma- 
 tize her thus, lest I should incur the 
 anathema of my opponent, or the 
 exttrminating censure of the present 
 pope : one of the papacy's own 
 sons has sketched Motner Church 
 for us. Then I have some extracts, 
 too, illustrative of the eleventh and 
 of the twelfth century. However, 
 I shall reserve them for another 
 occasion; and rest assured that what 
 you have heard is but a specimen,, of 
 what the Church of Rome was in 
 the twelfth, thirteenth, fourteenth, 
 and fifteenth centuries. 
 
 Now, instead of quoting any more 
 of these, I will simply remind every 
 B,oman CathoMo of this important 
 point, and I wish to rivet it in 
 the mind of every auditor before 
 me. You, Bxsman Catholics, ai'e 
 accustomed to anathematize private 
 judgment. You are accustomed to 
 say it is the mother of all absurdi- 
 ties ; a position which my friend 
 will lay down tliis evening. He 
 will tell you much in prose and 
 rhyme about Jiunpers, and Quakers, 
 and Southcotonians, and many other 
 sects scatteredthroughout the world; 
 and, taking these as the basis of his 
 argument, ne wiU anathematize pri- 
 vate judgment. He will telL you 
 that it is a perilous thing having 
 anything to do with it. But how 
 will you be surprised, my Roman 
 Catholic friends, when I tell you 
 that the whole substance and stiper- 
 structure of your Church depends' on 
 it ! Your very belief in Romanism 
 is a result of this same private 
 judgment, and it forms a leading 
 feature in what you call your Rule 
 
 of Paith. First of all, you observe, 
 before you have got the Rule of 
 Paith which J\tilner lays dovra — 
 namely. Scripture, and tradition in- 
 terpreted hy the Church — what ha^e 
 you to prove ? You have first of all 
 to prove the inspiration of Scripttat. 
 You have to do that, mind you. It 
 is of no use to say that you prove a 
 Church by Scripture, and then Scrip- 
 ture by it. That is not the way; 
 that is "reasoning in a circle;" 
 But you have first of all to prove the 
 inspiration of Scripture ; next, to 
 prove the truth of Christianity. You 
 are, in the thii-di place, to prove by 
 private judgment from Scripture, 
 that there is to be a church to the end 
 of time ; and you have, in the fourth 
 place, to prove what are to be the 
 characteristics of this same church, 
 as these are described in the word of 
 God. In the next place, you are to 
 prove that this church is to be 
 inerrable and infallible ; and then, 
 lastly, (the most difficult of all,) 
 that the Church of Rome is that 
 Church. Now, observe, before you 
 can lay hold of your Rule of Paith, 
 viz. the " written and the unwritten 
 word," interpreted by the Church, 
 you have first to prove the inspira- 
 tion of Scripture ; you have next to 
 prove the truth of Christianity ; you 
 have next to prove that there is to 
 be a Church' to the end of time ; in 
 the next place to prove that this 
 Church is inerrable and infallible; 
 and in the last place to prove that 
 this Church is the Church of Rome. 
 Now these points every Roman 
 Catholic has to prove by private 
 judgment before he gets at his Rule 
 of Paith ; so that the fact is, he first 
 :ets at his Rule of Paith when he 
 oes not want it, and he loses it at 
 the very moment when he ought to 
 have it. 
 
 Por instance, in order to show 
 that the Church of Rome is the 
 Church of Christ, (mind, I am onlj 
 
Rev. J. OummingJ] 
 
 UTILE or PAITH. 
 
 409 
 
 alluding to the last point) my anta- 
 gonist will have to show that the 
 Church of Bome has unity. Now, 
 I will show you something upon 
 that point too. Secondly, that it 
 has sanctity, and that, of coui'se, 
 with Baronius and the moMi^er-popes 
 and women-popes fully before him ; 
 in the next place, her apostolicity 
 during eighteen centuries ; and he 
 will have to show that Purgatory 
 is right, that the Mass is right, that 
 Transubstantiation is right. So 
 that, if I have shaken one single 
 doctrine of the whole system ah-eady, 
 the whole of the Church of Rome 
 falls to the ground, and is a mass of 
 ruins, and nothing more. Observe, 
 then, if you prove private judg- 
 ment is such a precursor and pro- 
 genitor of heresy, as we are so apt 
 to hear it described to be; then, 
 observe, you Roman Catholics cut 
 your own throats ; you are just as 
 much dependent on this same private 
 judgment in interpreting God's 
 word as we are ; for private judg- 
 ment it is, this so-much-scouted 
 private judgment, which leads you 
 to the conclusion of the infaUibility 
 of the Church, which is the great 
 foundation of your system. 
 
 Surely you will allow that, if you 
 can prove au infallible church by 
 private judgment, we Protestants 
 may, in the exercise of private 
 judgment enlightened by the Spirit 
 of Grod applied to Scripture, find 
 out that Christ is God; that there 
 is salvation through his name ; that 
 there is forgiveness through his 
 blood ; sanctiflcation through his 
 Spirit; that there is a moral law by 
 wnich we are to be ruled ? If you 
 can reach to the most important 
 -things by the exercise of private 
 judgment, you wiU surely allow, a 
 /ortiori,that we Protestants, steeped 
 in imorance and unhonoured by the 
 infSibUity of the Church as we 
 are, may discover, notwithstanding. 
 
 those truths which you hold to be of 
 less value. 
 
 Now I wish Roman Catholics to 
 bear this in mind, and not to be 
 dazzled vrith mere foolish show of 
 learning; not to let their judg- 
 ments be darkened by pompous and 
 ostentatious hSrangues about the 
 infallibility of the Church; for you 
 must remember that you onh find 
 that Church by the exercise of 
 private ju(^ment on the Bible. You 
 only find it to be "infallible" by 
 the same exercise ; and lastly, you 
 find out the Church of Rome to be 
 the true Church by the same pro- 
 cess by which I hold it to be a cor- 
 rupt portion of the Church of Christ, 
 as you shall be able to judge. 
 
 Dr. Milner lays down a few marks 
 of the true Church, and quietly 
 takes it for granted that nobody 
 wiU doubt that the Roman Cathohe 
 Church possesses them. He sets 
 out on the position that Rome is the 
 true Church. There is the liitoh. 
 It is very well to try to make the 
 Roman Church pass for it, and 
 to presume most candidly that 
 the Church of Rome is the true 
 church. We Protestants question 
 it; and therefore, my Roman Ca- 
 tholic friends, we would have you 
 to ascertain, by the exercise of this 
 same explodeci and despised private 
 judgment, which is the true church. 
 It IS not enough to take it as 
 granted. Prove it. After all, there- 
 fore, if we are to be charged with 
 all the monstrosities of sect, and 
 system, and persuasion, because we 
 bring private judgment to bear 
 uponthe Oracles.of God, remember, 
 that if (mr foundation is of " sand,'" 
 according to your estimation, yours 
 is mot one whit the better. 
 
 There is yet another point. Sup- 
 pose I want to know " what, is 
 truth?" now what system shall ] 
 pursue? How is the inquirer Ic 
 get it ? Not surely by merely going 
 
410 
 
 KtTLE OF FAITH. \8lh Evemiiff. 
 
 to the Chuieli of £x>me is he to 
 find the attainmeat of truth and 
 aalratiou ; because an mdividual 
 may go to chapel "and hear mass" 
 every Sunday, and yet know nothing, 
 understand nothing, and positiyefy 
 beKeve nothing, fi the Roman Ca- 
 tholic priest says to me, "Why, 
 hear the Church f" I answer, "Well, 
 [ want to hear the Church. It is 
 not surely by the steeple, and by 
 listening to the tinkling of the mass- 
 bell, by the odours of incense, and 
 other puerile solemnities, that I do 
 so ; that is not hearing the Church." 
 Well, what then ? I go to the priest, 
 and he tells me he is " a faUible 
 man," and I show you that this is 
 perfectly true, and that you will 
 frequently find one priest arrayed 
 against another priest. Well! when 
 he has made that admission, 1 ask 
 him, " Where shall I go ? You told 
 me to 'hear the Church :' I go to 
 you as its nearest representative, 
 but ^ou do not instruct me which is 
 ' the way, the truth, and the life.' " 
 I go to the priest, and he tells me, 
 " I am not mfaUible :" well, then, 
 where am I to go ? He says still, 
 " Hear the Church." Well, I think, 
 "Perhaps the Church has given 
 some infallible commentary on the 
 word of God ; if so, you wiU be 
 pleased to produce it," I naturally 
 say. But the fact is this : the same 
 Church which claims to be infalli- 
 ble has never done an infallible 
 deed. She has not a written infal- 
 lible commentary on the word of 
 God — not one. Must she not be a 
 most cruel mother, if she possess 
 " that golden key that opens the 
 palace of eternity and the mysteries 
 of the kingdom of heaven," and yet, 
 by leaving it unused, allow her 
 victims to grope on in " darkness 
 that may be felt?" 
 
 Again, he says, "You are to hear 
 General Councils." Now councils 
 are against popes, and popes pitched 
 
 against councils ; and again, councils 
 are against councils, and vice versa; 
 and we do not know whom we are 
 to hear, because they are all one 
 mass of contradiction and contra- 
 riety. I go to one party in Italy, 
 and they say, "The pope is infal- 
 lible" I go to Mr. Prench, and he 
 says, " He is only infallible at the 
 head of a General Council." I go 
 to a third, and they say, " The le&ole 
 church is infaUible." So that this 
 wonderful attribute of infallibility, 
 like an airy ghost, jumps from your 
 fingers the very moment the word 
 of God is held up to turn it to a 
 profitable account. So that, ob- 
 serve, instead of having a clear and 
 definitive system which would lead 
 an individual to come to a satisfac- 
 tory solution of his diffloulties, I 
 find that all is uncertainty; all is 
 difficulty; all is corruption, during 
 whole epochs and centuries of the 
 Church ; and last of all she drives 
 me further off than ever from the 
 reach of infallible rectitude and 
 truth, of which the Church of Rome 
 claims to be in the exclusive and 
 privileged possession. And, more- 
 over, the Creed of Pope Pius the 
 i'ourth, which every priest sub- 
 scribes to, which IVfr. French, my 
 learned antagonist, subscribes to", 
 both it and he say, that " you 
 are not to interpret Scripture, 
 unless according to the unanmma 
 consent of the fathers." I showed 
 you long ago that these fathers con- 
 tradict themselves ; that one father 
 contradicts another ; and night after 
 night I knocked the fathers' heads 
 against each other, showing, that so 
 far from being unammous, they were 
 the most discordant conclave that 
 ever was presented to intelligent 
 and soberminded men. But never 
 forget, that Mr. Fbench dabe not 
 
 PUT ONE INTBEPBETATION CM OSK 
 
 TEXT or God's wobd, till he has 
 
 FOUND THE FAIHEES TO BE TTNANI- 
 
Mr. French.'] 
 
 RULE OF TAITH 
 
 411 
 
 Mous. If he do, he ahandons his 
 own groimd. Now, I defy him to 
 find them imanimous ; they are con- 
 tradictory throughout; and there- 
 fore, if he is an honest, conscientious, 
 and devoted Roman Catholic, he 
 must shut his mouth, and give no 
 iaterpretation upon one single text 
 till he has found that undiscoyer- 
 ahle thing, " the wnanimity ! of the 
 fathers." I wiH not now go into 
 any new additional matter, as I find 
 that I have only half-a-miaute to 
 spare. Let me, therefore, just add, 
 in conclusion, that I will now, in 
 the first place, call on my learned 
 antagonist to bring forward his 
 Rule of Faith, as I before stated, 
 and deposit it on this table before 
 this audience beside mine. I wiU 
 next call upon him to show plainly 
 and satisfactorily, that his " tra- 
 ditions " have descended to us 
 pure, uncontamiaated, uncorrupted, 
 through the multiplicity of " abo- 
 minable and monster-channels " (to 
 use the language of a cardinal of 
 his own church) through which they 
 have passed. I will next caR on 
 him to show how, if private judg- 
 ment is so treacherous, so preca- 
 rious, it comes to pass, that the 
 Church of Rome believes funda- 
 mental and essential truth in this 
 same exercise, and on the presump- 
 tion of the value and importance of 
 private judgment, which she all along, 
 m words, professes to despise ? 
 
 [Here the reverend gentleman's 
 hour terminated.] 
 
 Mr. Ekench. — ^Instead, my friends, 
 of obeying the different caDs of my 
 learned antagonist, I shall act ac- 
 cording to tlie suggestions of my 
 own will and fancy. I shaE first 
 congratulate you, my friends, espe- 
 oi£^ the enlightened part of my 
 audience, as it has been disorimi- 
 nalely called — I mean the Protest- 
 ants of the company. I congra- 
 
 TuiATE them from my heart upon 
 the re-appearance of their favourite, 
 their redoubted champion once more 
 in this scene of polemical discus- 
 sion. I shall next congratulate my 
 learned opponent (this favourite 
 champion himself) inasmuch as he 
 appears to me, if I may judge from 
 appearances, rather refreshed and 
 invigorated, than in the least im- 
 paired or ediausted by the vehement 
 exertion of his lungs in that spa- 
 cious JEolian mansion called Exeter 
 HaU. — [Laughter.] [The reverend 
 gentleman had been speaking on the 
 Cathohc question at the annual 
 meeting of the British Reformation 
 Society.] I name it ^olian, gen- 
 tlemen, without the least reference 
 to my learned and eloquent friend, 
 who, as you all can witness, is very 
 meek and gentle in his expressions 
 towards us benighted CathoUos !-^ 
 Without the least reference to my 
 learned friend,' it may be most ap- 
 propriately said of every one else 
 who figures on that scene, ia the 
 language of the poet Virgil : — 
 
 " Ilia se jactet in aula 
 ^olus, et clauso rentorum carcere regnet I" 
 
 Yes, my friends, on that "scene, all 
 the winds and waves of Catho- 
 licity are commanded to be stiU, 
 whilst reverend and sanctimonious 
 calumniators, with the Bible ia their 
 hand, mount the stage in succession, ' 
 one after another, to roar out there 
 calumnies, and to disgorge aU the 
 virulence of invective agamsl their 
 neighbour and fellow-man. — [Sensa- 
 tion.] But, gentlemen, on this day 
 we are met on very different terms ; 
 my learned opponent has to grapple 
 with one who weE knows how to 
 reply to all his onsets, whether 
 those onsets be of an argumentative, 
 of a satirical, or calumniating nature. 
 And, gentlemen, having mentioned 
 the word calumniating, I am sorry 
 to be obliged to inform, my learned 
 opponent — ^for whom I profess a real 
 
412 
 
 RULE or TAITH. [8<A E/VCnUlff. 
 
 sentiment of great esteem — ^I am 
 sony to be obliged to inform him 
 that at the very outset of this dis- 
 putation, and on the very last even- 
 mg, he did utter against our holy 
 religion a most unqualified and in- 
 defensible calumny.; and it reflected 
 great honour on the CathoKo part 
 of the audience that they were 
 mindful of the sacred engagement 
 which they were compelled to ob- 
 serve on entering this room ; I say 
 it reflected honour on them that 
 they did not burst out into one 
 general roar of indignation. My 
 Icamed friend knows very well to 
 what I allude ; and it shows how 
 barren he must have been, conscious 
 as he was of deficiency in point of 
 argument, when he declared that 
 evening that he, forsooth, had heard 
 say that a priest at a burial had gone 
 about, cap in hand, asking for more 
 money, in order to secure the repose 
 of the departed soul [strong sensa- 
 tion and continued miuTnurs, when,] 
 
 John Kendai, Esq. (GathoKc 
 chairman) interfered, and at length 
 established order, upon which, 
 
 Mr. IPkence continued. — My Ca- 
 tholic brethren, do not forget your- 
 selves : leave these mortal or venial 
 sins, whatever they be, leave them 
 to my antagonist. I need not in- 
 form my learned friend that hearsay 
 evidence is proscribed by the laws of 
 nis country, that hearsay evidence is 
 not admitted in a court of justice, 
 which is so charitably introduced 
 by my reverend friend in a pole- 
 mical discussion. But the state- 
 ment is false ; and such a thing, if 
 it had occurred, ought not to be 
 mentioned, because it is, after all, 
 but an instance of a priest over- 
 stepping the bounds oi his duty. 
 And where, I would ask, is there a 
 religion, either in this or any other 
 country, that cannot supply in- 
 stances of priests or clergymen, (for 
 there is in leaUty no pnest but the 
 
 CathoUc,) forgetful of their duty, 
 both to God and their fellow-crea- 
 tures? 
 
 Grcntlemen, before I proceed to 
 the systematic order which I intend 
 to pursue this evening, I shall beg 
 leave to advert to an extraneous 
 subject. My learned friend has en- 
 deavoured to question my integrity 
 (not directly, but in an implicated 
 manner) ; it is with regard to a long 
 and beautiful quotation from Sir 
 Edwin Sandys. This said quota- 
 tion I took out of a book iu which 
 there was no context; a book to 
 which there was no name, which 
 came to me seven or eight years 
 ago. Whether written by a Pro- 
 testant or Catholic, I know not ; it 
 was published by Sir Edwin Sandys, 
 and the chapter and the page were 
 
 fiven. I was astonished at it. I 
 ad never taken up Sir Edwin 
 Sandys in my hands in my life. I 
 took this extract, and I say it did 
 honour to Sir Edwin Sandys to 
 insert it in any work of his. I was 
 astonished that he, a Protestant, 
 had not endeavoured to sap the 
 foundation of those powerful Ca- 
 tholic arguments. Well, gentlemen, 
 I read to you an eloquent, a most 
 transcendently eloquent classical 
 production from Sir Edwin Sandys ; 
 and now I am given to understand 
 that it came glowing frgm the lips 
 of a Catholic, and was not an ema- 
 nation from the mind of Sir Edwin. 
 What is , the consequence ? My 
 friend has given Sir Edwin Sandys 
 in propria persona, and a more de- 
 spicable specimen of vile trash and 
 calumny never was poured- forth 
 from the mouth of a raving, illite- 
 rate itinerant. The passage from 
 Sir Edwin Sandys, as there are many 
 gentlemen may have never heard 
 him, I shall beg leave to repeat 
 again, and then ask, if there be not 
 argument here worthy more serious 
 refutation than that which it has 
 
Wr. French.1 
 
 ETTLE OF PAITH. 
 
 113 
 
 experienced from the pen of Sir 
 Edwin Sandys. 
 
 " Now to discover this (Chnrcli)," 
 says Sir Edwin Sandys, "let us 
 reflect, that, except the Roman 
 Church, and such others as are 
 united to it, aU other churches have 
 had their end or decay long since, 
 or their beginning hut of late. This 
 Church was founded by the prince 
 of the Apostles, with a promise from 
 Christ to him, that 'the gates of 
 hell should never prevail against 
 it,' (Matt. xvi. 18 ;) and that he 
 ttimself would be assistant to it to 
 the consummation of the world. It 
 has now continued sixteen hundred 
 years, with an honourable and 
 certain line of nearly two hundred 
 and forty popes, successors of St. 
 Peter ; fyrants, traitors, pagans and 
 heretics, in vain raging, wresting, 
 and undermining it. AU the lawful 
 and general councils that ever were 
 in the world have, from time to 
 time, approved and honoured it. 
 God hath so miraculously blessed it 
 from above, that many wise and 
 learned doctors have enriched it with 
 their vrritings ; armies of saints 
 with their hobness and virtues, 
 armies of martyrs with their blood, 
 and hosts of virgins with their 
 purity, have sanctified and embel- 
 lished it. Lastly, in all other oppo- 
 site churches there are found inward 
 dissensions and contrarieties, change 
 of opinions, uncertainty of resolu- 
 tions, rebellmg against governors, 
 confusion of orders : whereas, con- 
 trariwise, in this Church there is 
 the unity undivided, the resolutions 
 'unaltered, the most heavenly order, 
 reaching from the height of all 
 power to the lowest of aU subjec- 
 tion: all with admirable harmony and 
 undefective correspondence bending 
 the same way, to the effecting of 
 the same work : aU which do pro- 
 mise no other than a continual in- 
 crease and victory. 
 
 "Wherefore, let no man doubt 
 to submit himself to this glorious 
 spouse of Christ. 
 
 "This, then, being accorded to 
 be the tnie Church of God, it 
 foUowSjthat she be reverently obeyed 
 in all things, without further in- 
 quisition; she having the warrant, 
 that he that hears her, hears Christ ; 
 and whosoever hears her not, hath 
 no better place with God than a 
 publican or pagan. And what folly 
 were it to receive Scriptures upon 
 the credit of her authority, and not to 
 receive the interpretation , of them 
 upon her authority also and credit ! 
 
 " And if God should not always 
 protect his Church from error, and 
 yet peremptorily command men 
 always to obey her, then had he 
 made very' slender provision for the 
 salvation of mankind : which con- 
 ceit concerning God (whose care of 
 us, even in aU things touching this 
 transitory life, is so plain and evi- 
 dent,) would render us very un- 
 gratefully impious. 
 
 "And hard were the case, and 
 mean had his regard been of the 
 vulgar people, (whose wants and 
 difficulties in this Ufe. and whose 
 capacities ■will not suMce to sound 
 the deep and hidden mysteries of 
 divinity, and to search the truth oi 
 intricate controversies,) if there 
 were not others whose authority 
 they might safely foUow and rely 
 upon. 'Blessed are they who be 
 Ueve and have not seen;' (John 
 XX. 2S,) the merit of whose reli- 
 gious humility and obedience ex- 
 ceeds perhaps in honour and ac- 
 ceptation before God, the subtle 
 and profound knowledge of many 
 others." Thus far Sir Edwin Sandys, 
 a Protestant, in his Tkropcs Spe- 
 
 And although he delivers these 
 sentiments as Being expressed by a 
 Catholic, yet he leaves them -without 
 reply, and -without endeavouring to 
 
414 
 
 KULE OP PAITH. 
 
 deny the truth of any thing therein 
 contained. 
 
 Listen also to that renowned 
 doctor of the Protestant Church, 
 Dr. Jeremy Taylor ; a man who, if 
 splendour of genius can atone for 
 the enormous crime of omitting to 
 embrace that truth which shone so 
 viyidly in his eyes, will not be de- 
 stitute of a very large reward in the 
 kingdom of heaven. 
 
 "These foUovdng considerations 
 (says he,) may very easily persuade 
 persons of much reason and more 
 piety, to maintain that which they 
 know to have been the religion^ of 
 their forefathers, which had actual 
 possession and seizure of men's 
 minds and understandings, before 
 the opposite professions had a name. 
 As, first, its doctrine having had a 
 long continuance and possession of 
 the Church, which, therefore, can- 
 not easily be supposed in the 
 present professors to be a design, 
 since they have received it lor 
 so many ages. And it is not likely 
 that all ages should have the same 
 purposes, or that the same doctrine 
 should serve the several ends of 
 divers ages. 
 
 " Secondly, its long prescription, 
 which is such an advantage that it 
 cannot, with many arguments, be 
 retrenched; as relying upon these 
 grounds : to wit, that truth is more 
 ancient than falsehood; and that 
 God would not, for so many ages, for- 
 sake his Chiirch and leave her in error. 
 
 "Again, the beauty and splen- 
 dour of that Church, their solemn 
 service, the stateliness and magni- 
 ficence of their hierarchy, their name 
 of Catholic, which they claim as 
 their own due, and to concern no 
 other sect of Chiistianity : the anti- 
 quity of their doctrine, the conti- 
 nual succession of their bishops, 
 their immediate derivation from the 
 apostles. 
 
 "Their title 4o succeed to St. 
 
 Peter, whose personal prerogatives 
 were so great. The honourable ex- 
 pressions concerning this Church 
 from many CDMuent bishops of other 
 inferior sees, which being old re- 
 cords, have obtained a credibility; 
 
 " The multitude and variety of 
 people which are of their persua- 
 sion. Apparent consent witn elder 
 ages in matters doctrinal. The 
 advantage which is derived to them, 
 by retaaning the doctrine of tlie 
 dhurch of ancient times ; the great 
 consent of one part with another 
 in that which they afiirra to be de 
 fide. The great differences which 
 are commenced amongst their ad- 
 versaries, abusing the liberty of 
 prophesying unto a very great hceu- 
 tiousness. 
 
 " Their happiness in being instru- 
 mental in converting divers nations. 
 The advantage of monarchical govemr 
 ment; and the benefit which they 
 daily enjoy by it. The piety and 
 the austerity of their rehgious 
 orders of men and women. The 
 single life of their priests and 
 bishops. The riches of their Church ; 
 the severity of their fasts, and other 
 their exterior observances. 
 
 "The great reputation of their 
 bishops for faith and sanctity. The 
 known holiness of some of those 
 persons, whose institutes the re- 
 ligious persons do now imitate and 
 follow. 
 
 " Their miracles. The casualties 
 and accidents that have happened to 
 many of their adversaries. The 
 oblique acts and indirect proceed- 
 ings of many of those who have 
 departed from them. 
 
 " And, among many other things, 
 the name of heretic and schismatic, 
 which they fasten upon all that dis- 
 agree with them," &c. 
 
 Such is the noble concession 
 made to truth in a disinterested 
 hour by Dr. Jeremy Taylor ; a man 
 whose keen, penetratmg discern- 
 
Mr, French.} 
 
 B,VLE OE PAITH. 
 
 iU 
 
 ment enabled Viinn in a moment to 
 pierce thiough the mists of sur- 
 rounding error ! And oh. that 
 words like his, glo-wing as they are 
 with the spirit of truth, and calcu- 
 lated as they are to allure others to 
 its sacred fountain, should have 
 failed to produce the due effect in 
 the mind of him that uttered them ! 
 H.OW is this to be accotmted for, 
 is a question that can be solved only 
 by the great Inspector of all hearts 
 and actions. In the mean time, it 
 cannot incur the imputation of being 
 deficient in charity, if I observe, 
 that had he possessed a sufficient 
 contempt of earthly splendour to 
 permit him wholly and exclusively 
 to be enamoured of the celestial, 
 beyond all doubt he would have 
 lived and died exclaiming with a 
 St. Augustine, " Credo in 
 
 -" I believe in one Holy 
 Catholic and Apostolic Church." 
 
 Such, gentlemen, is the glorious 
 picture of that Church, the as- 
 tonishing increase of which my 
 learned friend and Ms fellow-co- 
 operators at Exeter Hall are la- 
 menting over in tears of anguish 
 every time that they mount the 
 stage ! Yes ; the increase of the 
 Catholic beligion in this country 
 is going on daily and rapidly by the 
 force of irresistible argument. No 
 bribery ; no finances ; no violence ; 
 nothing but preaching the word of 
 the livmg God by our pious and 
 eloquent priests; and its progress 
 is, thank God, not to be stopped by 
 all the batteries of Exeter Hall. 
 
 Now, gentlemen, before I take 
 up the regular series of argument 
 wnich I intend to impress on you, 
 I would remark, that as my learned 
 friend has told you what his Rnk 
 of Eaith is by successive demon- 
 strations, surely it is highly in- 
 cumbent upon you, my Protest- 
 ant brethren, to inspect narrowly 
 
 whether those who translate the 
 Bible do it fairly, accurately, and 
 not with any sinister views and 
 motives ; and that, as the Bible is 
 to be our guide to heaven, to take 
 care that they do not minister to 
 you poison instead of honey. I am 
 not about to enter into an elaborate 
 discussion this evening upon the 
 various corruptions of the English 
 New Testament and Old Testament ; 
 but I shall merely take one instance, 
 which, on turning over rapidly the 
 leaves no later than yesterday, 
 struck me as the most indefensibly 
 iniquitous translation that I ever 
 met with in the course of my life- 
 time. I shall be happy to hear 
 from my learned friend whether my 
 interpretation meets with his assent 
 from the original Hebrew? — [Turn- 
 ing to Mr. Gumming.] It is at 
 Jer. xvii. 9 : — " The heart is deceit- 
 ful above all things, and unsearch- 
 able; who shall know it?" 
 
 But, if I were to enter more 
 largely upon this particular field of 
 argument ^on the present oeoasion, 
 it would totally interrupt the order 
 which I have laid down to myself. 
 I merely give you this one as a 
 specimen of the innumerable others 
 which, upon a future occasion, I 
 shall take the liberty of pointing 
 out to you. The Protestant Bible 
 runs thus : "The deceitfuluess of 
 the heart is above all things, and 
 desperately wicked. Who can know 
 it ?" Now I maintain, that there is 
 not a single word that could jus- 
 tify the insertion of " desperately 
 wicked" in the original, and I 
 appeal to my learned friend. And, 
 therefore, my friends, if you do not 
 meet with a satisfactory answer 
 here from the original, what must 
 be your opinion of that Bible ? 
 What will you say of it ? What 
 words more appropriate can you 
 use to express the crime that has 
 been committed by such a miscon- 
 
4T6 
 
 Euu: or FAITH. [8ti Mvemng. 
 
 struotion, than hj calling it " despe- 
 rately wicked," the words foisted 
 into the sacred volume ? 
 
 Uev. J. duMMiNB. — Read the 
 ■pouay Bible, tf you please. 
 
 Mr. ]?EENCH. — I have not the 
 Douay Bible here with me. 
 
 Rev. J. Gumming. — That is it 
 [pointing to a Bible on the platform- 
 table]. 
 
 Mr. Pkench. — No, that is a 
 Protestant. 
 
 Rev. JC. Gumming. — WeE ; trans- 
 late. 
 
 Mr. Feench. — Have t/ou your 
 Hebrew Bible with you ? 
 
 Rev. J. Gumming. — No ; I will 
 bring it next time. 
 
 Mr. I^RENCH. — There is a.Hebrew 
 gentleman in the room ; he will 
 translate it, I have no doubt, and 
 you wiU be able to judge of its 
 accuracy. [Here a gentleman of 
 the name of Lyons advanced towards 
 the platform]. 
 
 Mr. r'BBNCH. — This gentleman 
 will translate it from memory. 
 
 Rev. J. Gumming. — Have you 
 got the Bible ? I wish it from that 
 — [To Mr. Lyons.] 
 
 Mr. Lyons. — I can give you the 
 Hebrew, sir. The Bible they have 
 gone to get. 
 
 Rev. J. Gumming. — ^Very well; 
 I would rather wait, and have the 
 Bible. 
 
 Mr. Fbbnch. — [Addressing the 
 aforesaid gentleman, Mr. Lyons.]— 
 Is there a word of "desperately 
 wicked " in it ? 
 
 Mr. Lyons. — No, sir ; no ! 
 
 Mr. PsENCH. — Nothing that can 
 at all justify the assertion ? 
 
 Mr. Lyons.— [Retiring.] — ^None 
 whatever. [Mr. Lyons then wrote 
 out the passage in dispute on paper, 
 in the original characters, which 
 was handed over to the reverend 
 gentleman. It appeared to be im- 
 
 Serfect, having no points under the 
 ifferent characters ; upon which] 
 
 Rev. J. Gumming returned it, 
 and said, " WiU you point it, if you 
 please ? It is without points." 
 
 [Mr. Lyons, having pointed it 
 correctly, returned it ■ again, and 
 nothing further ensued.] 
 
 Mr. PiiENOH. — I shall mention 
 one more instance, because it is a 
 quotation which may be repeated 
 during the course of this disputation 
 this evening. It is this : "The 
 priest's hps i^a//'keep knowledge^ 
 and they shall seek, the law of his 
 mouth, for he is the angel of the 
 Lord of Hosts." 
 
 The priests of the Ghurch were 
 the lawful interpreters of everything 
 that was abstruse and difficult in 
 the Bible,, and the laity were proud 
 to ask their interpretation at the 
 hands of the priests. And so in the 
 Christian Ghurch, the priests are to 
 be consulted as to everything' therein 
 appertaining to articles of faith. 
 But here, in this false, indefensibly 
 false and malignant interpretation of 
 the Bible, which Englishmen call 
 their Rule of Paith, we have men 
 sitting down to draw upon them- 
 selves, wilfully and deUberately to 
 draw down upon themselves, the 
 maledictions imprecated in the book 
 of Revelations upon those who shall 
 alter or add unto the sacred volume. 
 They translated it, "The priest's 
 lips should keep knowledge; they 
 should ask the law at his hands, for 
 he is the messenger of the Lord of 
 Hosts." Why, you might as well 
 translate the command, "Thou 
 shalt not commit adultery," by say- 
 ing, "Thou shouldst not commit 
 adultery." Is there no difference 
 between shtmld and shall!' Is there 
 anything in the original to coun- 
 tenance such a change ? 
 
 [Mr. Erench having paused for an 
 answer, received none.] And now, 
 my friends, to show you how foolish 
 this rule is, as to its acting alike 
 upon all eyes, I shall abide by it 
 
3Ii. French^ ■rxsvs as paith. 
 
 417 
 
 this evening; at least, for some 
 time. I wilil adopt the rule of my 
 learned friend. I -will take it in 
 hand, and see if it speaks alike to 
 aU persons. I understand perfectly 
 ■well a rule of Greek or Latm gram- 
 mar, or English grammar, and I find 
 it speaks the same language to all 
 persons, and you can instantly make 
 it square and tally whenever you 
 wish either to speak or write gram- 
 matically. There is the same ana- 
 logy between a scriptural rule and a 
 literary rule. I take certain texts, 
 and I wish to make my deductions 
 therefrom, without permitting my- 
 self to be dictated to by my learned 
 friend. I shall, therefore, take in 
 hand a few texts I noted down; and 
 which elicited such rapturous ap- 
 plause from the enlightened part 
 of his audience on the last evening 
 of discussion, when, he having the 
 last word, I was obliged to leave 
 several of his texts quoted against 
 the doctrine of Purgatory totally 
 unanswered. Eirst, Ezekiel xviii. 
 21, 22 :— " But if the wicked wiU 
 turn from-aU his sins which he hath 
 committed, and keep aU my statutes, 
 and do that which is lawful and 
 right, he shall surely live ; he shall 
 not die. All his transgressions that 
 he hath committed, they shall not 
 be mentioned unto him; in his 
 generation, in his righteousness 
 that he hath done, he shall live." 
 Now, observe here, even in this it is 
 not faithfully translated, for it is not 
 so in the original ; it is, " Shall not 
 be remembered unto him." I do not 
 say there is anything softened, or at 
 all overstated, m it ; stUl they might 
 as well have adhered literally to the 
 original as wandering from it. Now, 
 1 answer, (according to my reading 
 of the Old and New Testament,) 
 that "not to remember," in the 
 language of sacred writ, is not to 
 bear an eternal, enmity against the 
 • perpetrators of sin. And I am justi- 
 
 fied in arguing in this manner when 
 I look at it in sacred writ ; when I 
 look at the case of David, whose 
 sins vrere forgiven him, because of 
 the sincerity of his extraordinary 
 repentance. Still there was punish- 
 ment, temporal punishment, to be 
 inflicted on him, which the holy 
 prophet endured with patience and 
 resignation ; and you would find 
 that it can mean nothing else, if my 
 learned friend had cast his eyes down 
 a little lower, where it says, (ver. 
 24) : — -"But when the righteous 
 tumeth away from his righteousness 
 and committeth iniquity, and doeth 
 according to all the abominations 
 that the wicked man doeth, shall he 
 live ? All his righteousness that he 
 hath done shall not be mentioned or 
 remembered : in his trespass that he 
 hath trespassed, and in his sin that 
 he hath sinned, in them shall he 
 die." This alludes to the circum- 
 stance of such a man's misdeeds not 
 hindering him from incurring the 
 torments of eternal fire. Still, gen- 
 tlemen, his good deeds, should he 
 repent, are not to be taken from 
 Mm ; his good deeds were to be 
 remembered in this life. So were 
 his misdeeds, should he repent, to 
 be forgiven. StiU, by the same 
 analogy, some punishment is due to 
 these, as some reward to the former. 
 But it is difficult, in a passage of 
 this nature, to come to any precise 
 meaning. I am not certain, and my 
 friend is not certain, as to its mean- 
 ing. There must be some tribunal 
 to refer to, not as to the interpreta 
 tion of particular texts, but as to 
 general meaning ; there must be a 
 Ohukch to pomt out its true inter- 
 pretation for the reception of men, 
 under pain of their becoming " Jiea- 
 then men and pubhcans ; " that is, 
 destitute of all hopes of eternal 
 hfe. And it is a very extraordinary 
 thing, my friends, ' that_ it never 
 entered into the imagination of my 
 
418 
 
 learned friend, when he gave ns his 
 peremptory interpretations, thatthis, 
 so-and-so, is "destructive of the 
 whole doctrine of Pnrgatory," and 
 when stamping his foot in so au- 
 thoritative a manner, and saying, 
 " There, my friends, there is Chris- 
 tianity," with as much pomp and 
 infallibility, surely, as the Pope ever 
 assumed — [laughter] — when he did 
 that, did it never enter into the con- 
 jectural fancy of my learned friend, 
 to invent some plausible reason why 
 the fathers of the Church before 
 the sixteenth century, who studied 
 the Bible from morning to night, 
 never lighted on that very ingemous 
 passage? It is, certainly, one of 
 the most luminous discoveries of 
 modem perspicacity, ia applying 
 texts to the subversion of dogmas 
 as old as Christianity itself. 
 
 Again, Eccles. is. 5 :-:-"!Por the 
 dead know not any thing, neither 
 have they any more a reward ; for 
 the memory of them is forgotten." 
 Now this appeared to my friend a 
 most triumphant and conclusive 
 argument against the doctrine of 
 Purgatory. Now, consider, this is 
 said by King Solomon, in reference 
 to those materialists who not only 
 take away Purgatory, but hell, and 
 who think there is nothing beyond 
 this hfe; who imagiues, as Smlust 
 has put it into the mouth of Caesar, 
 that death is the entire end of man ; 
 that death is the final extinguish- 
 ment of all human calamity; that 
 beyond that goal there is. neither 
 room for joy nor grief. 
 
 "Mortem, serumnarura £nem esse, nou 
 cruciatum ; ultra, neque gaudio neque 
 luctui locum esse." 
 
 It is of the character of the 
 atheist and voluptuary tha,t Solomon 
 is here speaking ; he is not giving 
 arguments to my learned friend here 
 to destroy the doctrine of Purgatory 
 by a:ny means. But it is a very re- 
 markable thing, my friends, that this 
 
 ROES or TAITH. [8tt JBVe«%. 
 
 YBTj identical passage of the Bible 
 which my learned friend imagines 
 to be so absolutely destructive and 
 annihilative of Purgatory, has been 
 singled out by a French philosopher, 
 the celebrated Diderot, as the only 
 sensible part of the Bible compre- 
 hending his doctrine : "Apres moi 
 le deluge ;" — ^when man mes he is 
 nothing else but " a corporeal clod." 
 So felicitous, upon all occasions, is 
 my learned and ingenious friend in 
 his application of texts in support of 
 his novel system — ^texts which have 
 been anticipated by heretics in one 
 age, and by atheists in another, in 
 corroboration of their respective 
 doctrines. 
 
 The next is. Socles, iii. 3 :— "If 
 the clouds be full of rain, they 
 empty themselves upon the earth": 
 and if the tree fall toward the south, 
 or toward the north, in the place 
 where the tree falleth there shall it 
 lie." I have heard this, my. friends, 
 &-om many an old woman before, as 
 crushing to the doctrine of Purga- 
 tory; and as I laughed at the old 
 women, so, in a good-naifared man- 
 ner, I shall smile at my learned 
 friend. [Laughter.] For, look yon: 
 it says in the first place, " If the 
 tree fall toward the south or toward 
 the north," or towards whatever 
 
 glaoe (qziocunjue loco), there let it 
 e ; so that it appears there is a 
 third place, and that it is not con- 
 fined to either the north or the 
 south." But here I answer, that 
 literally the wise man is taUang of 
 corporeal death. He means to say, 
 Such and such a man must die, 
 and that when he is dead, he shall 
 never rise again ; as the wood falls 
 and there remains, and rots in the 
 spot where it fell. But let us, sup- 
 pose that it does make against the 
 doctrine of Purgatory, miat then ? 
 Why it proves too much ! because it 
 proves that there can be no place to 
 which it bears reference but that 
 
Mr. French.'] rule or paith. 
 
 419 
 
 which common sense tells me it 
 refers to, viz. to nothinff hut this 
 world. If it did, it woula overturn 
 the teaching of the Grospel, where 
 we .are informed (whether it be 
 Abraham's bosom, or whether it be 
 the imagiuary place of Calvin and 
 his bright disciples), that there was 
 a place where the souls of the 
 fathers were detained before the 
 ascension, of our blessed Lord to 
 heaven. Any other supposition 
 would destroy that place, togefher 
 with the unquestionable veracity of 
 the Bible ! So happy is my re- 
 verend friend, on all occasions, when 
 he appeals to these his invincible 
 texts — those texts which make one 
 part, I mean the "enlightened" 
 part of his congregation, as they 
 have discriminately been called, to 
 forget their veracity, and burst out 
 into raptures of applause. 
 
 The next is. Matt. xxv. 33 : — ■ 
 "And he shall set the sheep on his 
 right hand, but the goats on his 
 left." And again, mark, "He that 
 believetk and is baptized, shall be 
 saved : he that believeth not shall 
 be damned." I answer, that I am 
 certain — ^more certain here than I 
 have been in any other place, be- 
 cause the whole chapter will bear 
 me out — the evangelist is alluding 
 here to the last judgment, and if my 
 reverend friend reads it with atten- 
 tion, he win come to the same con- 
 clusion. And, of course, then, Pur- 
 gatory wUl be at an end ; and as 
 the whole chapter alludes to the 
 last judgment, surely it can make 
 nothing in favour of my learned 
 friend's positions. 
 
 The next was Luke, where the 
 thief said, "Lord, remember me 
 in paradise." I answer here, in the 
 first place, that, according to what 
 the thief utters, the impression of 
 the Jews was that there was to be 
 another place. Because he says, 
 " When thou comest into th^ king- 
 
 doni,'' as he was on the point of 
 expiiing. He must have expected 
 to loaii somewhere until our blessed 
 Lord did ascend into heaven; but 
 he says, "This day shalt thou be 
 with me in paradise." Now, I 
 answer — [here some slight noise 
 occurred, when the learned gentle- 
 man paused to request silence, ] — 
 and that, too, at a time when he 
 was suffering the most excruciatrug 
 death with patience and resignation. 
 We maintain, in the Catholic 
 Church, that a man who has com- 
 mitted many sins, and is sincere in 
 his contrition, is contrite for having 
 offended so good and holy a God — 
 such contrition as David felt — ^that, 
 without reference to punishment, 
 his sins are blotted out ; and that, 
 in all probability, siace the death of 
 our Redeemer, such a soul would go 
 straight to heaven. But we do not 
 think such conversions are common 
 among enormous sinners ; and we do 
 thiok — we , think, in consonance 
 with every man who consults the 
 great laws of nature and religion, as 
 mterpreted by the Church of Ages — 
 that it would have the appearance 
 of a great injustice, if a man, one 
 who- has cultivated piety with the 
 utmost care and sohcitude all the 
 days of his Hfe, and kept his 
 thoughts, and words, and deeds 
 pure, and adored his God with all 
 the ardour of his soul, calling in- 
 cessantly on the name of ths blessed 
 and immortal Jesus, that there 
 should be no distinction, I say, be- 
 tween Mm and the sinner who has 
 spent all the ilays of his life in the 
 haunts of debauchery, and that, 
 because he happens to be visited 
 with compunction at a time when 
 he feels the power of gratification as 
 it were extinguished; at the mo- 
 ment, I say, that the man who 
 lived a filthy monster dies, that he 
 is fit for the association and com- 
 panionship of angels. {"Suppressed 
 
420 
 
 KTTLE OP FAITH. 
 
 applause.] No, I can never beKeve 
 it. We are forbidden to believe it 
 by the Ctmioli of Ages, and common 
 sense alike forbids it. But sucb a 
 doctrine will go dovm with the 
 Cahinists, who think aU sin equal ; 
 who think that venial sin is of a 
 damning nature. We know very 
 well that, without the blood of the 
 blessed Saviour, no sin can be 
 blotted out ; but that it is by the 
 benefit of that precious blood that 
 all sins, be they mortal or venial, 
 are washed away. But there must 
 be an invariable and eternal distinc- 
 tion between mortal and venial sin. 
 A contrary doctrine would be totally 
 incompatible with the existing laws 
 of society. Indeed, it was on this 
 account that made the city of Berne 
 pass a decree to the effect that 
 Calvin's doctrine should not be 
 taught in that city. 
 •■- Gentlemen, I have one more 
 bbservation that, until now, has 
 escaped me. I have to allude to 
 an extract made by my friend from 
 Cardinal Baronius. I am aston- 
 ished, my friends, that my learned 
 opponent should allude to that 
 subject, when it is a charge that 
 recoils on all the Christian sects in 
 this country. If the circumstance 
 of having bad priests among the 
 fold vitiates the characteristics and 
 fundamentals of religion, what reli- 
 gion, I would ask, can stand the 
 test of examination? It refl.eots 
 great honour on Cardinal Baronius, 
 m painting the enormities of the 
 Pope, which, imless the Catholic 
 Church had handed them down to 
 posterity, my learned friend would 
 have been probably unacquainted 
 with. But will my learned friend 
 tell me, that if Judas the apostle 
 had lived, and had conferred a 
 sacrament, that the efficacy of that 
 sacrament would have been invali- 
 dated because Judas Iscariot was a 
 bad man ? Will my learned friend 
 
 [8tt Eventnff. 
 
 tell me at the present day — (I am 
 merely speaking to those who think 
 baptism necessary to salvation) — I 
 would ask if in this process of 
 baptism, (a doctrine virtually incul- 
 cated by my learned friend), if the 
 baptismal water poured over us 
 would be vitiated by the contami- 
 nated hands that poured it, if the 
 priest was bad ? Why, you would 
 shake the very foundation of the 
 Christian religion by introducing 
 such a doctrine. What! my friend 
 says there were " bad popes," and 
 Cardinal Baronius has the candour to 
 acknowledge it. I acknowledge 
 that there were bad ones ; I acknow- 
 ledge that out of the two hundred 
 and fifty pc^es that have been, 
 there have been twenty of ques- 
 tionable character, and that we have 
 had some six or seven enormously 
 bad and wicked. I acknowledge 
 it. And it is, moreover, a well- 
 attested fact, that the most wicked 
 of tliese popes administered the 
 Church in the strictest and most 
 careful manner, with the exception 
 of those occasions where he wanted 
 to introduce his relatives and friends 
 to power ; but in the general super- 
 intendence of the Church, no one 
 article of the faith was altered 
 — ^no false morality was inculcated ; 
 and a remarkable thing it is that 
 the^ historians who have recorded 
 his 'deeds have handed it down 
 as a fact, that if the bad and vir- 
 tuous men presented themselves 
 before him as candidates for place, 
 he having no favourite in view upon 
 the occasion, he uniformly rejected 
 the bad, and received the good men. 
 But we must all renounce the idea 
 of religion, if we expect to find 
 the , Church unpoEuted by bad 
 persons. There was one bad one 
 among the apostles, and, of course, 
 there will be more now that the 
 blessed Saviour has retired from 
 his Church. You have read that 
 
Mr. French.'] 
 
 HULE OP PAIIH. 
 
 421 
 
 Caiaplias voted for, the death of 
 the blessed Redeemer: he cried 
 out to the Jews to shed the blood 
 of Christ. And Caiaphas, who 
 gave this counsel to the Jews, was 
 high-priest; but, nevertheless, he 
 joined hi Christ's death. And 
 yet Caiaphas,, because he was the 
 high-priest that year, aetuaJly pro- 
 phesied ; and yet a more contami- 
 nated wretch cannot exist than the 
 man who could cry for the shed- 
 ding of blood so pure, so incom- 
 parably innocent. Caiaphas, that 
 abomiaable and poUuted monster, 
 prophesied, and why ? Because he 
 was the high-priest that year ; the 
 temporary high-priest. And mark! 
 Is the high-pnest for life, the 
 Pope of Rome, the iirst bishop 
 of the Christian world, is he inca- 
 pacitated from conferring the bless- 
 ings of every sacrament, and super- 
 intending the spiritual affairs of 
 the , whole world, because he may 
 be a bad man? No! it is quite 
 clear that popes are peccable ; that 
 is, liable to sin. We thini the 
 Pope is fallible in judgment, and we 
 attribute to him no impeccability 
 in moral liviug. We only think, that 
 the Church, the assembled council 
 of Catholic Bishops, with the Pope 
 at their head, and the Pope having 
 only a casting voice in that council^ 
 is infallible : we do pronoimce de- 
 crees emanating from such a body 
 to be infallible. Every thing else 
 in the way of objection to his power 
 is utter loss of time on the part of 
 my learned friend. I know there 
 are some divines of the Church of 
 Borne, who think that the Pope, 
 with regard to faith, is infallible. 
 I am here this day, not to answer 
 for private opinions, but to defend 
 our articles of faith. If I beHeve 
 the Pope infallible, I do not sin ; 
 but I am bound, under pain of sin, 
 to believe a general council with 
 the Pope at its head, to be. infallible. 
 
 There are some of the Catholic 
 divines who have asserted it: we do 
 not beheye it ; it is not an article 
 of our faith ; it is rather repugnant 
 to our faith. But now, my friends, 
 I shall have very Kttle time to speak 
 upon the subject called the liule of 
 Paith. However, I shall make a 
 beginning. I read when I open this 
 Bible, the golden Enle of I'aith laid 
 down by nrf learned friend : when 
 I open the Bible I read for myself, 
 without any assistance of commen- 
 taries on the Ancient or New Testa- 
 ment, and I perceive most clearly 
 that God Almighty in the Old Testa- 
 ment predicted that all nations — 
 all Gentile nations — should be con- 
 verted to the religion of his Son ; 
 and predicted it by the voice of 
 many a holy prophet. , I see these 
 prophecies repeated in the New 
 Testament. They are many in ■ 
 number ; and I shall content myself 
 with two or three that appear to 
 me, in my selection, the most con- 
 spicuous, and which I shall just 
 have time to mention. The first 
 is, Psalm ii. 6 — 8. " Yet have I 
 set my king upon my holy hill 
 in Zion. I will declare the decree ; 
 the Lord hath said unto me," Thou 
 art my Son; this day have I be- 
 gotten thee.. Ask of me, and I 
 shall give thee the heathen for thine 
 inheritance, and the uttermost parts 
 of the earth for thy possession." 
 The next is Psalm xxii. 27 : — " All 
 the ends of the world shall re- 
 member, and turn unto the Lord ; 
 and all the kindreds of the nations 
 shall worship before thee." The 
 next is Isaiah Hi. 10 : — " The 
 Lord hath made bare his holy arm 
 in the sight of all the nations : 
 and aU the ends of the earth shall 
 see the salvation of oar God." 
 The next is Isaiah Ix. 11 : " There- 
 fore thy gates shall be open conti- 
 nually : mey shall not be shut day 
 nor night; that men may bring 
 
iSS 
 
 KULE OF PAITH. 
 
 uflto thee the forces of the Gen- 
 tiles, and that their kings maybe 
 brought." lie next is Bzekiel 
 xxxvii. '27 : — " Moreover, I will 
 make a covenant of peace with 
 them: it shall be an everlasting 
 covenant with them : and I will 
 place them, and multiply them, 
 and I will set my saactuajy in the 
 midst of them for evermore. My 
 tabernacle also shall be with them ; 
 yea, I will be their God, and they 
 shall be my people. And the hea- 
 then shaU. know that I the Lord do 
 sanctify risrael, when my sanctuary 
 shall be in the midst of them for 
 evermore." The next is Hosea 
 iii. 33 : — " Aud I wiU. sow her unto 
 me in the earth; and I will have 
 mercy upon her that had not ob- 
 tained mercy; and I will say to 
 them which were not my people. 
 Thou art my people, and they shall 
 say. Thou art my God." 1 see 
 here mos^ clearly the Church of 
 God predicted. And then I turn 
 to St. Matthew xxviii. 19 : — " Go 
 ye and teach all nations ; baptizing 
 them in the name ol the Father, 
 and of the Son, and of the Holy 
 Ghost; teaching them to observe 
 a,ll things whatsoever I have com- 
 manded you: and lol I am with 
 you always, even unto Ae end of 
 the world." 
 
 Now, my feiends, that religion is 
 to be esteemed the true one, and 
 consequently to be embraced, into 
 which and by which all nations 
 were baptized. " Go teach all na- 
 tions; baptizing them in the name 
 of the Father, and of the Son, and 
 of the Holy Ghost," says Christ. 
 I mention this, because our Lord 
 so often promised in Scripture — so 
 often promised this conversion to 
 the one true faith and worship of' 
 God — a promise which has been 
 fulfilled. But the religion by which 
 "all nations" have been converted — 
 and mark this very attentively, for, 
 
 if I mistake not, I shall obtain 
 very illustrious triumph over my 
 reverend friend this evening — ^the 
 religion by which " all nationi' 
 have been converted is the Catholic 
 KELiGiON, and therefore there can 
 be no doubt that this is the tktjb 
 OMGriNAL KELIGION of Christiamty. 
 Such, my friends, is my deep-sound- 
 ing logic, in contradistinction to 
 my reverend friend's perpetually- 
 revolving chime and linkling eymhal 
 of vain oratory. 
 
 Let us begin our investigation 
 on this point with this centu^ and 
 the two last. Look at China. 
 Look at the indefatigable efforts of 
 the Jesuits to christianize that 
 country; look at other nations of 
 the world where martyrs have fertil- 
 ized the soil with blood out of the 
 bosom of the Catholic Church. 
 Even your own Protestant reviewers 
 — the " Quarterly iReview," and 
 " Blackwood's Magazine," that 
 malignant and auti-Catholic re- 
 view, acknowledges that the Jesuits 
 have entered into China, and have 
 performed wonders there worthy of 
 a better cause ; whilst they say that 
 the Methodists and the Churchmen 
 have not been able so much as to 
 enter. Yes, my friends, biit Black- 
 wood takes great care not to tell 
 you of the hundreds of thousands of 
 priests who have been stretched on 
 crucifixes for Jesus in that infidel 
 country. No; they keep all that 
 in the background, and in silence. 
 
 He does not tell you, that no 
 later than last year, two eminently, 
 super-eminently pious Dominicans, 
 both bishops, laid down their lives 
 in attestation of that Bible concern- 
 ing which ye are so perpetually 
 canting, and doing nothing more. 
 He does not tell you that Jesuits 
 (the very name of which amongst 
 you is a name of obloquy) proved 
 themselves, when stretcnedT upon 
 the rack and the orueiflx, worthy of 
 
Mr. IPrench.'] 
 
 EUEB OP FAITH. 
 
 423 
 
 all your calumniating tongues, by 
 being Jesuits indeed; that is, 
 dying for tbat Jesus, whose name, 
 ■wrhose cause, the whole order siuce 
 its foundation has ever so gloriously 
 illustrated by the splendour of 
 their learning and the innooenoy of 
 their lives. 
 
 Lastly, he does not teU yoii that 
 numbers of the seo\ilar clergy, men 
 of sanctity and learning, not to be 
 surpassed by the orders to which 
 I have alluded, welcomed all the 
 horrors of death vrith iaconoeivable 
 joy and ardour, ia order to seal 
 their doctrines with their blood. 
 
 I say it not out of reproach to 
 any one, but the Catholic, as the fact' 
 is, is in every age alike ; ay, even 
 at the present moment taking up 
 the crucifix, which he deeply vene- 
 rates, and upon which ye impiously 
 trample, and, with that sacred image 
 of his dying Saviour riveted in 
 his heart and in his hand, is ever 
 busied ia converting barbarous 
 nations to the Hving God, in defi- 
 ance of racks and tortures, and all 
 the sanguinary horrors of death in 
 every shape and form. But if we 
 look to your missionaries, what are 
 they doing? Wby, they are cant- 
 ing from morning to night, not only 
 here, but in every distant shore, 
 about the holiuess of the Bible — 
 a book, which they have not the 
 fortitude of soul simcient to vindi- 
 cate with the celestial magnanimity 
 of martyrs, by shedding their blood 
 with joy in attestation of its vera- 
 city, and of their love for Him by 
 whom it was inspired. 
 
 Let us now examiue the succes- 
 sive ages of the Church; for that 
 religion must necessarily be the true 
 one, and ought consequently to be 
 the object of universal adhesion on 
 the part of every sincere inves- 
 tigator into the truth of things ; 
 the Lord God having often pro- 
 mised in Scripture this conversion 
 
 of nations to the true faith and 
 worship ; which promise must most 
 undeniably be fulfilled. 
 
 Psalm ii. 8.—" Ask of me, and 
 I win give thee the heathen for 
 thy inheritance, and the uttermost 
 parts of the earth for thy posses- 
 sion." 
 
 Again, Hosea ii. 23. — " And 1 
 win say to them which ai-e not my 
 people. Thou art my people ; and 
 they shall say. Thou art my God." 
 
 Again, St. Mark xvi. 15. — "And 
 he sajd unto them. Go ye mto 
 all the world, and preach the Gospel 
 to every creature." 
 
 Again, most conspicuously, St. 
 Luke xxiv. 45. — " Then opened he 
 their understandLog, that they might 
 understand the Scriptures." 
 
 Ziji.xlvi. — "And said unto them. 
 Thus it is written," &c. 
 
 Ibid, xlvii. — " And that repent- 
 ance and remission of sins sEoidd 
 be preached among all nations, be- 
 giuning at Jerusalem." 
 
 This, therefore, my Protestant 
 friends, being so clearly and intel- 
 ligibly laid down in Scripture, the 
 religion, I contend, to which all 
 nations in all ages have been and 
 stUl are converted is the Catholic, 
 or, as ye call it, the Roman Cathoho 
 religion; a non est inventa having 
 been returned by the Christian 
 investigator, as to any one of your 
 variegated sects during the lapse 
 of nearly fifteen centuries, l^go, 
 there can be no doubt that this is 
 the true religion of Christ — the 
 true prop and bulwark of the Bible, 
 verifying and illustrating all its 
 
 florious predictions by its ever- 
 owing perpetuity, its unintennitted 
 stabflity, in preserving and in ex- 
 pounding all the articles of faith. 
 
 And now, my friends, to prove 
 all this, turn we from the present, the 
 nineteenthcentury, to tbeeighteenth, 
 and so let us mount upwards from 
 centurj to century, until we reach 
 
i2i 
 
 SXILB or FAITH. 
 
 [8M Svemtiff. 
 
 the apostolic age, gatliering as we 
 ascend all the laurels to be gained 
 by converting nations into the lap 
 of Catholicity. Having first called 
 your attention to this fact, that 
 no later than last year Jesuits and 
 Dominicans, " with a fortitude wor- 
 thy of a better cause" (to use the 
 words of the virulently anti-Catholic 
 "Blackwood'sMagazine"),havebeen 
 found gloriously shedding their 
 blood in the cause of their blessed 
 Redeemer, even in China; "where," 
 says the same writer, " Protestant 
 missionaries have not as yet been 
 able to enter." 
 
 Let us begin our investigation of 
 this point with, the fifteenth, or 
 rather sixteenth century, and trace 
 up our tenets, vpith their diffusion 
 through Christendom, to the sixth 
 century. 
 
 In the fifteenth or sixteenth cen- 
 tury you behold the standard of the 
 cross planted in the Indies and in 
 Japan by the illustrious St. Francis 
 Xavier, whose life has been written 
 by our immortal Dryden, after his 
 conversion to the Catholic faith. 
 
 You behold it spreading in the 
 same age in China, besides in many 
 islands of the Indian seis. 
 
 You behold the missionaries that 
 spread it, suffering year after year 
 eruel, bitter privations of every 
 description, both as to all the ne- 
 cessaries and the comforts of life; 
 you behold them suffering the rack, 
 and tortures of every description, 
 in the sacred cause of our Lord 
 Jesus. 
 
 In the fourteenth century, you 
 behold a single missionary, St. Vin- 
 cent, surnamed Serrerius, convert- 
 ing to the CathoKc faith five-and- 
 twenty thousand, partly Jews and 
 partly Saracens, as testifies St. An- 
 toninus, a celebrated writer of that 
 age. — 3 V. Hist. tit. 23, cap. viii. 
 sect. 4. 
 
 In the thirteenth century vast 
 
 numbers were converted to the 
 Catholic faith in the kingdom of 
 Tartary, by two friars sent thither 
 from the Pope, in the reign of the 
 emperor of Tartary, who is called 
 the great Cam, as you may read in 
 Paulus Venetins, a writer of those 
 times. . 
 
 In the twelfth century the people 
 of Norway were converted to the 
 Roman faith by Adrian the Pourth. 
 This Adrian the Pourth was an 
 Englishman called Nicholas Break- 
 staff, and spread the Gospel ia that 
 country, namely, Norway, before his 
 election to the Apostolic See. 
 
 In the eleventh century were the 
 Hungarians for the most part con- 
 verted, and bishops ordamed and 
 appoiated there by the Pope of 
 Rome, at the request of their king, 
 Stephen, afterwards canonized ; all 
 which we find recorded in the cen- 
 turiators of Magdeburg. — Cent. 2, 
 cap. ii. 
 
 In the tenth century we behold 
 many provinces converted to the 
 Roman faith by the endeavours of 
 Henry the First, Emperor Adelbert, 
 and Methodius, Archbishop of Bo- 
 hemia, as testify the Protestant cen- 
 turiators above-mentioned. — Cent. 
 10, cap. ii. 
 
 In the ninth century you behold 
 the Vandals, Bulgarians, Sclavo- 
 nians, Polonians, with those of Den- 
 mark and Moravia, converted to the • 
 faith, and united to the Romish 
 Chuich.^Cent. 9, cap. vui. 
 
 In the eighth century was con- 
 verted a great part of Germany to 
 the Roman faith by St. Bonifeice, 
 sent thither for that purpose by 
 Pope Gregory the Second, accord- 
 ing to the Protestant centuriators. 
 — Cent. 8, cap. ii. 
 
 In the seventh age were converted 
 the people of Franoonia, or Pranck- 
 Country, by St. KiHan, sent tliither 
 from the Pope of Rome also, as 
 you wiU find by referring to the 
 
Mr. French.'] 
 
 BIILE OP FAITH. 
 
 425 
 
 same Protestant centuriators. — 
 Cent. 7, oa^. ii. 
 
 In the sixth century (and, oh ! 
 my coimtrymen, can ye hear it ■with- 
 out a tear of gratitude, under God, 
 to your great converter Gregory,) 
 were Englishmen converted to 
 the Roman faith by holy, pure, 
 austerely-living, luxury -trampKng 
 monks, sent hither on that subhme 
 errand by the angeKo Pope above 
 mentioned. 
 
 PiriaUy, the people of Brabant, 
 Flanders, HoUand, Priezdand,"West- 
 phaJia, Prance, and other adjoining 
 nations, by whom were they con- 
 verted ? W ere they not converted 
 by the disciples of the Roman 
 Church; namely, by St. Servatius, 
 St. Eloy, St. Rumwold, St. Aman- 
 dus, St. Vedastus, St. Levin, St. 
 Remigius, St. WiUebrord, St. Swi- 
 bert, St. Wulfranc, and others, who 
 were aU staunch members of the 
 Roman Church, the only Church on 
 earth that has any title to the name 
 Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic ? 
 
 It is evidenced, therefore, my 
 friends, by uncontested Protestant 
 history, that aU nations that have 
 been converted from Paganism or 
 Judaism to Christ Jesus, for so 
 many centuries past, were converted 
 ' to the Catholic faith, and incorpo- 
 rated ia that Roman Church against 
 which ye unanimously protest, as 
 being sunk ia damnable idolatry 
 and damnable superstition. 
 
 But, I ask you, my friends, who 
 is there in this assembly that, ma- 
 turely considering these things, can 
 entertain the shadow of a doiibt but 
 that the CathoKo religion is the 
 real, the genuine religion of the 
 blessed, the lovely, the adorable, the 
 immortal Jesus ? 
 
 Tell me, toy friends, do we not in 
 this her sublime, unwearied journey 
 through the track of centuries before 
 the professors of her creed ye hold 
 were ever heard of, do we not see 
 
 fulfilled to the very letter, God's 
 divine promise of the conversion of 
 nations ? 
 
 Behold, my friends, so many re- 
 mote nations taking refuge in her 
 sacred bosom — so many patent 
 kingdoms forsaking their "idolatry 
 abandoning all impurity of life 
 rejecting their multitude of wives 
 forgetting their barbarous and sa- 
 vage manners; banishing all their 
 former unrestrained licentiousiiess 
 of morals, to become meek and 
 tractable, and bending with the 
 docUity of infants under the sweet 
 yoke of Christ Jesus ; voluntarily 
 trampling under foot their former 
 highmindedness and pride, in order 
 to taste the fear of God, which is 
 the beginning of wisdom ; and, in 
 one word, becoming estranged from 
 the love of terrestrial things, in 
 order to become wholly absorbed and 
 inflamed with love of the celestial. 
 
 How is it possible that that re- 
 ligion should Be false and impious, 
 or, as my reverend opponent would 
 say, in his soft and Christian phrase- 
 ology, should be blasphemoas or 
 damnably idolatrous, that can effect 
 such a wonderful supernatural mu- 
 tation in the hearts of barbarian 
 nations ? 
 
 To conclude : How is it possiblft 
 that Divine Providence should per- 
 mit all these nations to be deceived 
 for such a length of years, and 
 especially after they had forsaken 
 their idolatry, so heartily embraced 
 the Gospel, and united themselves 
 to what they deemed to be the 
 Church of Christ ? — no Church of 
 England then, no Lutherans, no Cal- 
 vinists, no Anabaptists, no Quakers, 
 no Irvingites, having as yet been 
 either bom or heard of. 
 
 Is it possible, I say, that God 
 Almighty should thus have plunged 
 those nations, just emerging as they 
 were from the sanguinary lustra- 
 tions of Drujdism, mto the depths 
 
KULB OP TAITH. 
 
 of otter abominable errors, and 
 into the pollution of new idolatry ? 
 
 And, ob ! most unaccountable in 
 the ways of Providence, that He 
 should have permitted all this by 
 the iostrumentality of men holy, 
 just, and pure ; yes, men renowned 
 m their generation for unsullied 
 sanctity of Hfe, wisdom, and, ac- 
 cording even to the confession of 
 Protestant Milner, for the gift of 
 miracles. 
 
 [The learned gentleman's hour 
 here terminated.] 
 
 Rev. J. Cummro. — ^I am sure, 
 my Christian hearers, that if my 
 ieamed and persevering antagonist 
 had brought a pair of globes into 
 this assembly, and had given yon 
 a lecture on astronomy, he would 
 just have done as much to elucidate 
 the Rule of Paith as he has achieved 
 by the speech with which he has 
 now engaged your attention. You 
 heard the various distinctions and 
 illustrations I adduced upon the 
 subject; you heard the positions 
 that I successfully estabhshed re- 
 
 Sjccting the corruption of the 
 hurch of Rome; respecting, I 
 say, the corraption of the channels 
 through which a portion of his 
 Rule of Paith has flowed. You 
 heard me call on my learned friend 
 to lay down his Rule of Paith by 
 the side of -mine; to show it; to 
 adduce it. Where is it? My Rule 
 of Paith lies fuHy and.fairly before 
 rou — there it is, the Bible. I 
 aid it down. Where is the Ro- 
 manist's ? Where is Mr. Prench's ? 
 — Echo answers, Where? It is 
 not to be found. Like "infal- 
 libility," when most wanted it is 
 most missiog. I called upon him 
 in the next place to show some 
 just and satisfactory evidence that 
 my grave and solemn assertion was 
 rmtrue when I alleged, as I do now, 
 that the whole structure of Roman 
 
 fa 
 
 Catholic Infallibility, and other 
 assumptions, is based upon the 
 use and interpretations of private 
 judgment. If it be unworthy of 
 trust, so is infallibility. He has 
 not answered it. In short, if this 
 assembly is content to have the 
 hour set apart for the discussion 
 of a particular topic, taken up by 
 elaborately written out and pre- 
 pared, and separate, and totally 
 distinct subjects, why then, indeed, 
 we are met for a purpose which 
 I did not oontemplate at aU. in the 
 arrangements which were made in 
 opening this discussion. But if 
 we are met ia this assembly for the 
 individual who rises up to reply 
 to the person who has preceded 
 him, then I do protest that my 
 learned antagonist has wandered 
 away, in consequence of his written 
 speech, from the whole subject of 
 this evening's discussion. He has 
 dragged in and discussed Exeter- 
 haU; he has dragged ia all the ora- 
 tors of last week, (the speakers at 
 the different May meetings,) whose 
 accents are evidently, aaid with 
 effect, ringing in his ears ; he has 
 dragged iu Purgatory, in which he 
 seems to have been spending the 
 last ten days in evident and mces- 
 sant torture ; he has brought in, in 
 short, every subject and every 
 question abroad in the world of 
 controversy, save and except the 
 RuuB OP Paith, which is the sub- 
 ject of this evening's discussion. 
 Now you see that I am placed in an 
 extraordinary dilemma. If I reply 
 to the farrago which he has brought 
 forward, de mtdtis rebus et quibusdam 
 aliis, I shall not only have to sub- 
 mit to this assembly the most 
 extraordinary and extensive range 
 of researches ever laid before you, 
 but also to leave unbroken the 
 Romish Rule of Paith. But I can- 
 not afford to consume my time on 
 such irrelevant trash— in vapid 
 
Rev. J. 
 
 ] 
 
 BULIi OP PAITH, 
 
 427 
 
 egotism, ■which has nothing to do 
 with the question. Pvirgatory has 
 once for all been sealed and settled, 
 I would trust, to the satisfaction 
 of my learned friend, on a preced- 
 ing evening ; and if he has felt all 
 the pangs and the agonies resulting 
 from the explosion of that unholy 
 and unscriptural dogma, he must 
 put up with them, for he has only 
 plunged himself deeper into mysti- 
 cism and perplexity by the renewed 
 reference which he has this evening 
 made to it. I must say I do not 
 choose to enter Mr. French's Pur- 
 gatory to-night; I vdU not allow 
 myself to be driven from the real 
 question, and dragged into it. He 
 knows full well what is coming in 
 the Rule of Paith ; he knows what 
 a rod there is in pickle for him, and 
 is most anxious to get a comfort- 
 able opportunity of escaping under 
 cover of some of the monstrous 
 dogmas of his Church, in order to 
 enjoy a comfortable sleep this night, 
 if he is not destined to do so after 
 Thursday .evening. But yet do 
 kindly excuse me, while for one 
 minute I help my tormented oppo- 
 nent out of Purgatory. He quoted 
 two texts which I adduced on a 
 preceding evening. He first stated 
 that Purgatory is parijyin,g, or that 
 it purifies us from our sins : and 
 secondly, that it is penal; or that 
 it inflicts punishment for sin, and 
 that consequently those who commit 
 venial sin endure its burning punish- 
 ment after death. 
 
 In the first place, my opponent 
 says. Purgatory is pmifying. I 
 answer. That if Scripture be true, 
 there is no such place or process 
 hereafter; and that the only Pur- 
 gatory recognised in Scripture is 
 fiiat present and now accessible 
 Purgatory in which every, even the 
 gnilfiest, Roman Cathohc may this 
 evening plunge — " tlie blood of 
 lemi which eleameth from all sin." 
 
 In reference to his second idea of 
 Purgatory, that it is penal, or that 
 there is a place of torture for the 
 ransomed after they have departed 
 this life, I reply. Scripture quashes 
 it. The apostle Paul has distinctly 
 declared, " I long to be absent from 
 the body wA present with the Lord." 
 And again, a voice from heaven 
 cries, " Blessed are the dead who 
 die in the Lord : yea, saith the 
 Spirit, for henceforth they rest from 
 their labours, and their works do 
 follow them." " There is no con- 
 demnation to them that are in Christ 
 Jesus." And again, the apostle 
 says, " Whilst I am absent from the 
 body I am present with the Lord." 
 Again, " Por we know that if our 
 earthly house of this tabernacle be 
 dissolved, we have" (not Purga- 
 tory) "a building of God; a house 
 not made with hands, eternal in the 
 heavens." — ^All these texts denote, 
 without interval, transition from 
 earth to glory. 
 
 But Purgatory is not the question, 
 and with these' short and simple 
 replies to it I leave it, I dismiss it. 
 My opponent denies the fact which 
 I adduced respecting the Irish 
 priest; I merely reply that the 
 facts shaU. be substantiated by pro- 
 per evidence when and where he 
 pleases. But he says, even if the 
 fact be true, every church may in 
 this way be charged with the bad 
 conduct of her priests. 1 simply 
 alluded to the principle which that 
 priest in particular exempMed, and 
 made no allusion to the general 
 practices of the priests of the 
 Church of Rome. But I assert, 
 that priest's conduct was the just 
 and legitimate fruit of Purgatory 
 principles. He acted consistently 
 with Ms creed. 
 
 In the next place, he said he had 
 been deceived m quoting from Sir 
 Edwin Sandys. It may have been 
 so, though odd. I stated that Sir 
 
428 
 
 EirUB OS FAITH. 
 
 Edwin Sandys, of his own free will, 
 eave the " best and fairest" ex- 
 hibition of the Church of Rome 
 that he oonld. He then added, 
 " Now ' this is the best and fairest ' 
 picture of the Chnrch of Rome 
 that she herself can sketch." It 
 was not his opinion of her. He 
 gave his own opinion of the pope- 
 dom in the most externiina,ting 
 accents. But, yon observe, Mr. 
 French claimed Sir Edwin Sandys' 
 apostolical picture of the Church 
 of Rome as a testimony to her 
 
 tlory, and thereby practically con- 
 rmed the remark that I made, that 
 there is great difficulty in detecting 
 the advocates of the Church of 
 Rome when they thus err, when 
 through misfortune or infirmity they 
 pervert any passage they may happen 
 to select. And I would add, that 
 , Mr. Erench is not the only or the 
 first person who has been curiously 
 deceived in quoting such passage. 
 He is not the first. It happened 
 to be quoted also just in the same 
 moment many years ago by Eather 
 M'Guii-e, and the Rev. Mr. Pope 
 happened to detect the fallacy. So 
 that, you observe, the advocates of 
 the Church of Rome are frequently 
 liable to misinterpret on these occa- 
 sions, and their blunder may not 
 very easily be detected by an audi- 
 ence, and hence hundreds of Roman 
 CathoUcs imbibe statements as trae 
 which are notoriously false. The 
 next quotation of my opponent was 
 a favourite one from our Bible. 
 Now what is the passage ? — " The 
 heart of man is desperately wicked." 
 The oiiginal is here. It is lite- 
 rally tiunslated iiL our authorized 
 version, and in the Douay it is 
 not far wrong. ' Unsearchable' is 
 not the translation of the Hebrew ; 
 though, if it be viewed as applying 
 to its deceitfulness, it is expressive 
 enough ; so deep and anfathomable 
 that you cannot get a plummet to 
 
 fatnom it. Nothii^ could better 
 express theProtestant idea than this. 
 " Its deceitfulness is unsearchatle, 
 it is unfathomable, nothing can 
 reach it; who can know it?" — that 
 is to say, God is describing the 
 wickedness of the human heart, 
 and he says, " It is so wicked and 
 so deceitful that no ascent can reach 
 its height, no plumb-line its depth. 
 It is unsearchable in its depravity." 
 
 Mr. Ebenoe — {Hurriedly) — Not 
 at aU. [We presume as an objec- 
 tion to Mr. Cumming's interpreta- 
 tion. But the reverend gentleman 
 was too much taken up with his 
 train of argument to hear it.] 
 
 Rev. J. Cttmming. — Now these 
 are strong expressions to denote 
 the wickedness of the human heart. 
 If the Protestant version has at all 
 erred in rendering it " desperately 
 wicked," L wiH show you by and 
 by that it has erred on the side of 
 lenity and softness, and not on the 
 side of severity. I contend that 
 the language of the Church of 
 Rome, if referred to the heart's 
 depravity, is as expressive as the 
 Protestant rendering, while not 
 so accurate : " It is unsearchable : 
 who can know it ?" 
 
 I read the whole of the parallel 
 passages, audit is described, "Cursed 
 IS the man that trusteth in man, 
 and maketh flesh his arm, and 
 whose heart departeth from ^he 
 Lord." God has described the 
 wickedness of the human heart, 
 and all experience tells us that the 
 severest terms are not too much so. 
 Our translation of the original is 
 not so powerful as it might have 
 been. If our translation is erro- 
 neous, it errs on the side of tender- 
 ness; on the side of lenity, and 
 not of reprobation and severity. 
 But this IS dangerous ground to 
 tamper vrith, and I do believe that 
 if ever there was a convincing evi- 
 dence of the beauty and excellenoe 
 
Bev. J. Oumming.l kule of saith. 
 
 439 
 
 of the Protestaat translation, it is 
 furnished by the paltry objection 
 Mr. Prenoh is pleased to adduce, 
 and to denounce as a Protestant 
 " perversion," as he calls it. In 
 the mean time let me say that the 
 merits of the authorized version 
 have been the subject of frequent 
 eulogia. I have here an extract 
 from the celebrated Dr. Doyle, who 
 pronounces the Protestant version 
 to be one of the noblest versions of 
 the Bible ever executed. 
 
 Mr. PaENCH. — [Turning to Mr. 
 Gumming.] — Be so good as to read 
 the words, if you please. 
 
 Rev. J. Cummins. — [Referring 
 to the said extract.] — He says, " a 
 very noble work." ■. — [Turning to 
 Mr. French.] 
 
 Mr. Peench. — [Smfling.] — Yes ! 
 I grant you, . as to. style ; that is 
 what he means. 
 
 Rev. J. Gumming-. — [In, conti- 
 nuation.] — That is Mr. French's 
 theory. Now, the next passage to 
 which my learned antagonist re- 
 ferred (for as our Rule of Paith is 
 iuvnlnerable, he has no other alter- 
 native than to nibble at our trans- 
 lation) is Malachi ii. 7. He says 
 justly, our rendering of the passage 
 is, " Por the lips of the priest 
 should keep knowledge ;" but moor- 
 reetly that the rendering of the 
 Douay, which is " shall," is the 
 right one. If you mean to imply 
 that his lips shall so keep know- 
 ledge that he shall never err, which 
 must .be the import if " shall" 
 is right, the context wUl show you 
 your error. Then the dill'erence 
 may be reconciled — [turning to Mr. 
 French]. I beg Mr. French's 
 paitioukr attention to this. What, 
 1 would ask, is the difference' 
 Ijetween sJiall and should? You 
 observe, my antagonist wants to 
 construct upon this passage & prin- 
 ciple, viz. that the priests are to be 
 t/ie depositary of knowledge, that we 
 
 should go to them for instruction. 
 That is his principle. The differ- 
 ence betweeii shail and should is 
 mere bagatelle here. But mark 
 what follows : " For the priest's 
 lips, should keep knowledge, and 
 tfiey should seek the law at his 
 mouth : for he is the messenger of 
 the Lord of Hosts. But ye (i. e. 
 priests) are departed out of the way; 
 ye have caused many to stumble at 
 the lawi ye have corrupted the 
 covenant of Levi, saith the Lord 
 of Hosts." And there are a thou- 
 sand other passage!? to elucidate 
 this ; such as, " Ye have made void 
 the law of God," &c. So that our 
 translation in using should gave 
 the plain and expKcit meaning of 
 the passage, whereas the Douay 
 translation embodies a direct con- 
 tradiction. " Should" denotes duty 
 on the part of the priests, which 
 the next verse proves them to have 
 neglected. " Shall" is absolutfc 
 futurity or prophecy, and, if correct 
 rendenng, then God's word has not 
 been fulfllled„ as the succeeding 
 words show. Our translation merely 
 makes man a sinner; the DouSy 
 makes God a liar. Which is true ? 
 If I take the Protestant version, 
 I discover that it contaius in the 
 one verse a declaration of the duty 
 of the priests, and iu the following, 
 a declaration of their declension from 
 their duty; and here, as you will find 
 iu every passage my opponent wiL 
 quote, he falls into his own trap. But 
 he knows there are more priests he- 
 sides the priests of Levitowhom the 
 awful declaration is appended, " Ye 
 have made void the law of heaven 
 by the traditions of men." But, I 
 repeat, translations and their com- 
 parative merits are dangerous ground 
 for him to meddle with ; and I will 
 give you, among many, this reason 
 for it. You are aware that Sixtus 
 the Fifth, not satisiied with the 
 translation furnished in the old 
 
430 
 
 KULK or FAITH. 
 
 Latia Vulgate, had (as he called it) 
 " a correct edition" made and 
 published at Rome, anno Domini 
 1590; and this edition, you will 
 observe, was pronounced by infalli- 
 bility to be- TO correct, that, if I 
 am not mistaken, an anathema was 
 appended to it against any one 
 " who should alter that edition, 
 or make a change, in. mimma parti- 
 cula ;" an anathema was attached 
 to any one who should dare to make 
 an alteration in the text which 
 enjoyed the imprimatur of Pope 
 Sixtus the Pifth, in the mirmtest 
 particulax. Well, was this attended 
 to ? Not at aU. Pope Clement 
 the Eighth, being dissatisfied with 
 many a minima and maxima parti- 
 cula of this edition of Sixtus, 
 got another printed in anno Domini 
 1592 ; and between the two there 
 were some three thousand, or, at 
 fewest, two thousand discrepancies ! 
 One pope, whom the Italian pro- 
 nounces to be " infallible," sends 
 nut one edition of the Bible, and 
 threatens with excommunication all 
 who dare to alter it ; and another 
 pope, also pronounced " infallible," 
 declares that there were at least 
 two thousand blunders in the edi- 
 tion of his infallible predecessor! 
 And, in order to show the minute 
 discrepancy between thetwo, clauses 
 were omitted in the Sixtine editionj 
 but inserted in the Clementine. 
 Nine passages were infalliby omit- 
 ted by the one pope in his, and 
 infallibly added by the other ; and 
 both pronounce an anathema against 
 any who 'shall make an alteration. 
 Then there were clauses inerrably in- 
 troduced into the Sixtine, which the 
 Clementine inerrably omitted. There 
 are at least thirteen passages which 
 relate to some of the Acts of the 
 Apostles, which were introduced 
 into the Sixtine, and omitted in 
 the Clementine. Then there were 
 manifest contradictions between the 
 
 infallibles. Por instance : the Six- 
 tine edition had infallibly " thine," 
 and the Clementine .had infallibly 
 "mine;" the Sixtinenad " w," and 
 the Clementine " thee;" the one 
 had " within" and the other had 
 
 " WITHOTTT." 
 
 Then, if we go to difference of 
 numbers; the one (the Sixtine) had 
 in one text twelve walls, the other 
 (the Clementine) makes mention of 
 none at aU. 
 
 The Sixtine has thirty thousand 
 in one passage where the Clementine 
 has forty thousand. Surely, a Eoman 
 Catholic, even, may see that if thirty . 
 thousand be infallibly right, forty 
 thousand must be infallibly wrong, 
 and therefore that one of the popes 
 was fallible. 
 
 Again, one edition spoke of the 
 five churches, the other ni fifty; and 
 there are many 6t]ier differences of 
 a most extraordinary kind ; so that 
 " those who live m glass houses 
 should be very ' cautious how they 
 throw stones." There ■yvere two 
 passages to which my learned anta- 
 gonist objected ; the force of which 
 objections, I confess, I am obtuse 
 enough not to perceive. I refer to 
 his quotation from Ezekielxviii. 21, 
 " If the wicked man wiU. turn from 
 all his sins that he hath committed, 
 and keep all my statutes, and do that 
 which is lawful and right, he shall 
 surely live : he shall not die." This 
 text, (I know not what bearing it has 
 on the Rule of Eaith,) he asserts is 
 contradictory to verse 2 4 in the same 
 chapter: " But when the r^hteous 
 man tumeth away from his own 
 righteousness, and committeth ini- 
 quity, and doeth according to all 
 the abominations that the wicked 
 man doeth, shall he live P All his 
 righteousness that he hath done 
 shall not be mentioned." The two 
 passages explain each other. There 
 IS no difficulty. If the wicked man, 
 turning from the error of his way. 
 
Rev. J. 
 
 3 
 
 KULE OP FAITH. 
 
 431 
 
 beKeving in Christ as set forth ia 
 the sacrifices of Levi, leaniag on 
 him for acceptance, and looking 
 to him. for forgiveness — if he do 
 so, he is saved ; but the man who 
 has once walked uprightly, and 
 again falls into an open course of 
 sia, after a Kfe of apparent Chris- 
 tian consistency and professed- 
 devotedness to Grod, that man, not- 
 withstanding the previous credit 
 or reality of his virtues, shall die, 
 because he dies in a state of estrange- 
 ment from God, and thereby evi- 
 dences his rejection of the only 
 atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 But these two passages bear nothing 
 on the Rule of Paith; they are 
 mere plans of spinning out the 
 time. They are neither argument 
 on the one side nor the other. I 
 cannot understand for what reason, 
 save for that I have given, my 
 learned antagonist was pleased to 
 quote them. 
 
 He next assiimed, (not proved, or 
 attempted to prove, for this is 
 not his forte,) most quietly and 
 comfortably to himself, that the 
 Church of Rome is the CathoKc 
 Church. Now this I utterly deny. 
 I say it is all very well for him to 
 assume that the Church of ^Rome 
 is the CathoHo Church, and to talk 
 of its being invested from on high 
 with the characteristics and the 
 features of the Church of Christ. 
 The whole question between us is, 
 whether the Church of Rome be 
 
 THE TBTJB ChTJEOH Or Uot. I 
 
 maintain that she is not the true 
 church, but a corrupt and apostate 
 branch of the Church of Christ, 
 broken off for her apostasy. The 
 whole of the omis probandi rests 
 with my learned antagonist. He 
 must show that the Church of 
 Rome is the Church of Christ. 
 
 He proceeded next in the words 
 of all Ms speeches, to prove and 
 declare that I am a Calvinist : this 
 
 is his usual resource when he has 
 nothing else. Now, I have nothing 
 to do but deny, as I have done, aJl 
 subordination to or identity with 
 Calvin. The Bible is my rule of 
 faith, and not Calvin's Listitutes. 
 If the Ifitter were iu flames before 
 you, my rule is intact. 
 
 He then said I intended iu my 
 former address to convey the im- 
 pression that all sins are equal. I 
 never made the assertion. I want 
 soKd argument. This is mere gra- 
 tuitous aspersion, not logic. One 
 sin is more heinous than another, 
 and unquestionably shall receive, as 
 it merits, its degrees of punishment 
 in the world to come. I hold dis- 
 tinctions of guilt, and degrees in 
 sins, but that the least and the 
 greatest are pardonable through 
 faith in Christ. My opponent then 
 indulged in a sentimental excursion 
 of a curious kind — ^that of a great 
 sinner, brought to the close of hfe, 
 who, after having perpetrated many 
 crimes, put faith in Christ, and 
 dies : Is he to be admitted, asked 
 this logician, to the same share of 
 glory as the man who had led a 
 spotless Hfe? Now, my reply i is 
 short and simple. At the eleventh 
 hour there is mercy in Christ for 
 sinners : whensoever the guiltiest 
 sha,U go to God in Christ for mercy, 
 imploring pardon and acceptance 
 through his merits, and heaven's 
 glory through his blood, that sinner 
 shall be justified, sanctified, and 
 glorified. " Such," says the apo- 
 stle, " were some of you ; but ye 
 are washed, but ye are sanctified, 
 but ye are justified." In heaven 
 are degrees of glory : it is written, 
 " As one star differs from another 
 star in glory," so shall one saint 
 differ from another in the amount 
 of his happiness and in the bril- 
 liancy of his glories. But the least 
 and loftiest of the saved wiU re- 
 flect, not their own, but the glories 
 
iSSi 
 
 jiuui OP TAITH. ISt&Eoemnff. 
 
 of Christ. Surely there are de- 
 grees of sin, and as surely are 
 there, in the regions of the lost, 
 degrees of punishment. No sound 
 theologian wiU deny that there 
 are degrees of punishiaent iu hell, 
 and degrees of glory in heaven; 
 but as little •wiO. any enlightened 
 miad dispute the other proposition 
 I have reiterated, namely, that 
 such is sin's malignity, that he who 
 breaks the law in one particular is 
 gmlti/ of all; that " cursed is every 
 ttne that continueth not in all 
 things that are written in the law 
 to do them ;" that " the wages of 
 sitt," venial, or mortal — the wages 
 of sin, in the aggregate, " is death." 
 In fact, the word " venial" does 
 not occur in the Bible; and the 
 distinction of sins into venial and 
 mortal by the Church of Borne is 
 not only utterly absurd, but preg- 
 nant with immorality and crime. 
 
 My antagonist next alluded to 
 my proofs, dravm from Roman Ca- 
 tholic historians, of the corruptions 
 of the priests, and popes, and 
 bishops during the tenth and suc- 
 ceeding centiiries ; and with reluc- 
 tance admitted (what he dare not 
 well deny) that they were of the 
 stamp and character Cardinal Baro- 
 juus declared them to he. I thought 
 Le would treat Baronius as he had 
 treated Dupin, and the whole host 
 of Romish doctors — casting them 
 overboard, along with all that re- 
 sisted his most logical march. But 
 he admitted very ingenuously that 
 there were gross corruptions ; and 
 urged in reply, and by way of reta- 
 liation, " Had not we corruptions 
 in the Protestant Church?" I 
 admit that there have been. But 
 mark the difference ! "We have no 
 oral traditions coming through Pro- 
 testants, depending on the purity 
 of the channels through which they 
 are transmitted ; whereas my oppo- 
 nent and his church ,have Been 
 
 dependent on popes and bishops 
 and priests knee-deep in corruption, 
 for tne truth, the genuineness, and 
 authenticity of vital and essential 
 doctrines. There might be the 
 grossest corruption in the priests 
 and ministers of the Protestant. 
 Church, but our Rule op Paith 
 would remain notwithstanding un- 
 touched and " undefiled," unshorn 
 of one beam of its imperishable 
 briHianoy, uncontaminated in one 
 paragraph of its enduring purity. 
 But if in the Church of Rome there 
 have been centuries of intense moral 
 night, and of corruption — if wicked- 
 ness abounded upon all sides, and 
 pre-eminently covered the priests, 
 the bishops, and popes of the Church 
 of Rome, then, mark you! as they 
 were the depositaries of half the 
 Rule of Paith, of the mysteries and 
 traditions of the Roman Church, as 
 they were the only channels through 
 which a part of the Rule of Paith 
 of the JRoman Catholic Church 
 flowed, to the Council of Trent, 
 that reservoir of corruption, the 
 presumption, nay, the certainty is, 
 that these traditions cavght a 
 poisonous taint from the filthy and 
 unholy channels through which 
 they passed, and that that part of 
 the Rule of Paith of my learned 
 antagonist may and must have been 
 as corrupted and polluted as the 
 channels through which that portion 
 of the Rule of Paith was trans- 
 mitted. Cardinal Baronius speaks 
 of the bishops and priests in terms 
 of the most awful description. He 
 states, for instance, there " were 
 false pontiffs;" and, if so, thej 
 must have handed down false tradi- 
 tions ; that courtezans were the 
 consecrators of popes; that the 
 " canons were closed," " ancient 
 traditions proscribed," and " the 
 usages of former days wholly ex- 
 tinct." In such a sink of repro- 
 bates as the popedom then wss, 
 
Bev. J. Gumming!] kule op paith. 
 
 43» 
 
 by a cardinal's admission, must 
 not those twists, and turns, and 
 colourings have been given to an- 
 cient tradiiions, which are the staple 
 of Popery? 
 
 Earonius again thus speaks of a 
 pope, a depositary of traditions, a 
 tount of infallibility : — " Let us see 
 what remedy they further had re- 
 course to to extinguish this three- 
 headed BEAST WHO HAD ISSUED 
 PROM THE GATES OP HELL." — 
 
 (This cardiual is worse than Dupin, 
 and ought to be excommunicated 
 by Mr. French.) — " A remedy was 
 devised precisely similar to that 
 which the poets feigned in destroy- 
 ing the fabulous Cerberus, namely, 
 the filling of his jaws with a pitchy 
 mouthful, by giving them some- 
 thing to eat, so that he should alto- 
 gether leave off barking. But let 
 us see who it was that prepared 
 that remedy which the unhappiness 
 of the times demanded. Otho faith- 
 fully relates it as follows : A certain 
 pious priest, named Gratian, ap- 
 proached the above-mentioned men, 
 and prevailed upon them, hy money; 
 the revenues of England being 
 made over to Benedict because he 
 appeared to be of chief authority. 
 On this account the citizens elected 
 the aforesaid priest for their pope, 
 and called him Gregory the Sixth." 
 — Baronii An. Eccks. anno ChrisH 
 1044, t. xi. 
 
 Also Genebrard's Chronicles, 
 (book iv. A.D. 1079, Paris edit. 
 1586,) have these words : — " How 
 deplorable the condition of the 
 church was then, and almost resem- 
 oKng our own, we may learn from 
 Siegebert, Vincentius, aadAntonius. 
 There were great contests between 
 the emperor and the pope. The 
 priests were of most depraved 
 morals, and, on that account, both 
 themselves and the sacred things 
 were despised by the people." 
 
 Three contending popes were 
 
 censured by the Council of Pisa as 
 " notorious heretics," sess. 15, a.d. 
 1409. 
 
 This, at all events, is unsparing 
 censure on the ^channels through 
 which the Roman Catholic Kule of 
 Paith must come. I have other 
 extracts to adduce in abundance,, 
 did time permit me, exhibiting the 
 awful corruption and gross heresies 
 of the great mass of the priests 
 and popes of the Church of Rome 
 of centuries bygone. My learned 
 antagonist's assertions have placed 
 me m this position. I now ask. 
 Is it consonant to fact or expe- 
 rience, or to our knowledge of 
 human nature, that unwritten tra- 
 ditions, passing through channels 
 the most tainted, should come out, 
 if they thus entered, truths the 
 most pure ? It is impossible that 
 in bosoms the most polluted, tradi- 
 tions, unfixed by writing, were 
 handed down uncontaminated and 
 unperverted. I say, that, from aU 
 experience of our fallen race, from 
 all the chapters of the story of 
 our species, from every trait oi our 
 common humanity, it is not a mere 
 presumption, but a moral certainty, 
 that one-half of the Rule of Paith 
 of the Church of Rome is corrupt, 
 even as the channels through which 
 it has flowed. 
 
 My opponent^ argued, in justifi- 
 cation of vricked popes, that Caia- 
 phas, the high-priest, predicted 
 events which were immediately to 
 follow in connexion with the death 
 of Christ; and yet was not a be- 
 liever. I admit ' it, and so did 
 Balaam's ass. [Loud laughter, 
 occasioned we presume by the ludi- 
 crousness of the parallel, as opposed 
 to Mr. Prench's argument.] 
 
 Mr. Prench. — [Tunung to Mr.. 
 Gumming, and then to the audi- 
 ence] — Do not laugh at Scripture 
 
 Rev. J. Ctjmmingt. — I do not 
 laugh at Scripture; I deplore the 
 
434 
 
 KULB or PAiiH. [Stk&emng. 
 
 absurditr of your arguments, and 
 the total irreleTancy ol the instance 
 you quoted; and I demand a reply 
 from any one, whether it has any 
 connexion on the face of the earth 
 with the subject? What the ass 
 said is written, and therefore sure; 
 but_ yours is unwritten. I say 
 again, Balaam's ass prophesied; but 
 there is no argument to be de- 
 duced from that fact in favour of 
 the " infallibility" of the ass, or the 
 " infallibility of the Roman Catholic 
 Church." But mark, if Caiaphas 
 did prophesy, I maintain he did not 
 inoie that he prophesied; he was 
 overpowered by inspiration from 
 God; it was a divine and irresist- 
 ible impulse. But surely this 
 jmbeUevrng high-priest is not held 
 by my opponent to have been the 
 first pope ? Because a Pharisee pro- 
 phesiedT by a miracle, it is not 
 therefore true that tradition was 
 preserved uninfected in infected 
 priests, and through " monster- 
 popes ;" for it was not so kept 
 among the .Jews ; and therefore, 
 then as now, the priests " make void 
 the word of God by their trar 
 ditions." 
 
 Again, he says, Eoman CathoHcs 
 do not depend upon popes, but on 
 councils. But oral teaition is 
 neither pope nor council, but half 
 the Bx)man rule of faith. But I 
 refer to one of these councils, as he 
 has sent me to one of the earliest 
 of them — ^the Council of Ephesus, 
 A.D. 438, act vi. decree 6, concern- 
 ing The Faith. If the Church of 
 Rome is guided by councils, she 
 will have to clip off the half of her 
 Creed. 
 
 " The holy synod determined that 
 it should not be lawful for any one 
 to set forth, write, or compose any 
 other creed than that which was 
 determined by the holy fathers who 
 assembled at Nice, in the Holy 
 Ghost; and that if any one shall 
 
 dare to compose any other creed, or 
 adduce, or present it to those who 
 are willing to be converted to the 
 knowledge of the truth, either from 
 heathenism, Judaism, or any heresy 
 whatsoever, such persons, if bishops, 
 shall be deprived of their episcopal 
 office ; if the clergy, of the clerical," 
 &c.— Cone. iii. 68«. 
 
 Now, mark you, the Church of 
 Rome has taken the Nicene Creed, 
 and added to it that of Pope Pius's 
 twelve other articles. He says, he 
 goes to the cotmdh for his faith ; 
 well, I follow him : 7 go to this 
 council of learned and Christian 
 men; and in that council I discover 
 that, in the face of its solemn in- 
 terdict, the Church of Rome tacks 
 to the Nicene twdve other articles, 
 which are, despite the prohibition 
 of the Council, presented for repe- 
 tion to every proselyte to Roman- 
 ism. Por which deed, every bishop 
 of the Roman Church in England 
 is, ipso facto, deposed, and every 
 priest degraded, and on their own 
 principles. 
 
 If I were to abjure the truth of 
 God, and were so left to myself, 
 and to the eclipse of my reason and 
 the revelation of God, as to em- 
 brace the Roman Catholic faith, 
 Mr. Preneh knows, and the two 
 reverend gentlemen who are with 
 him know, that I should have to 
 profess my faith in 'fhe terms of the 
 creed commonly known by the name 
 of the Creed of Pope Pius the 
 Eourth, which is in defiance of the 
 express canon of the Council of 
 Epnesus. Either the Church ot 
 Rome is changed, or councils err. 
 
 A Voice. — The first council. 
 
 Rev. J. Cttmming. — I say, 1 
 should have to take the Creed of 
 Pope^ Pius the Fourth, and repeat 
 it, if 1 were perverted to Roman- 
 ism ; but the bishop or priest who 
 would make me do so, would act in 
 the vervteeti. of «i infaUible council. 
 
EeB. J. Gumming.'] kule op faith. 
 
 43b 
 
 Aie oomioils fallible and infallible, 
 just as Mr. Prenoli blows hot or 
 , cold P My antagonist has not ad- 
 mitted the infallibility of the pope, 
 but he has professed his behef of 
 the infallibility of a council. Do I 
 perfectly understand you ? — [Turn- 
 ing to Mr. Erench J 
 
 Mr. Fkench. — ^Yes ! 
 
 Eevi J. Gumming. — [In conti- 
 nuation.] — Well, then, I go to the 
 ooundil, and the council contradicts 
 Pope Pius the Eourth, and Pope 
 Pius the Pourth contradicts the 
 council. Mr. French proclaims the 
 Council of Bphesns iiifaUible ; and 
 the two priests now on his left 
 violate it every time they receive a 
 convert. Where is the vaunted 
 «««Vy of the "Roman Catholic Church, 
 when I find council against pope, 
 and pope against council, and the 
 priests of the nineteenth century 
 against both? This surely is not 
 the harmony of union ; this is not 
 the sweet and unbroken brother- 
 hood of Jerusalem. It is rather 
 the disorder, the darkness, the apo- 
 stasy of Babel, wherein the clang 
 and clamour, most euphonious, of a 
 thousand discordant tongues are 
 continually rising. 
 
 Again, to present, en passani, 
 another illustration of the papal 
 unity, and presumptive purity of 
 their traditions. The Transalpines 
 declare the pope to be fallible, but 
 the Cisalpines believe that the pope 
 is irlfaUible — [the reverend gentle- 
 man observing signs to the contrary 
 on Mr. rrenwi's part, immediately 
 added,] He denies a notorious fact. 
 Now, I ask again. Where is the 
 unity of your Church ? My learned 
 friend is constantly twitting and 
 taunting us Protestants about our 
 disunion; but when we come to 
 look at his Church, and analyse her 
 proud and lofty assumptions, we 
 find not only council against pope, 
 and pope against council, but we 
 
 find the whole body of the priests of 
 Italy against the whole body of the 
 priests of Prance and Britain. The 
 traditions, therefore, of Pranoe must, 
 of course, be different from those of 
 Italy, and ergo, a contradictory rule 
 of faith. 
 
 My leamedantagonist next quoted, 
 in Ms wanderings, the second Psalm. 
 Now, what on the broad earth has 
 fhst to do with the Rule of Paith ? 
 We read in that Psalm, " The hea- 
 then shall be given to Christ for 
 his inheritance, and the uttermost 
 parts of the earth for his posses- 
 sion." What has that to do with 
 the Kule of Paith ? I can gather 
 this only : that the pope is speedily 
 to lose his despotism, and Rome 
 her tyranny, and Christ to reign in 
 righteousness from the rivers to 
 the ends of the earth. 
 
 Again, he quoted Isaiah vi. H. 
 — " Therefore thy gates shall be 
 open contiQuaHy; they shall not be 
 shut day nor mght, that men may 
 bring unto thee the forces of the 
 Gentiles, and that their kings may 
 be brought." But to apply these 
 predictions to the Soman Catholio 
 Church is a petitio prineipii, a 
 taking for granted that the Church 
 of Rome is the Church of Christy 
 an assumption I can neither give 
 into nor admit. His reference to 
 Ezekiel is as inapposite. It is 
 utter waste of. time, and totally un- 
 worthy of a tolerable advocate, to 
 take .for granted that the prophecies 
 descriptite of the glories of the 
 Church refer to the Roman apo- 
 stasy. This is the very question. 
 The words he had quoted were from 
 Ezekiel xxxvii. 27 : " My taberna- 
 cle also shall be with them ; yea, I 
 win be their God, and they shall be 
 my people." This prediction the 
 prophet previously explains ia the 
 sixteenth verse of the same chapter : 
 ' Moreover, thou Son of man, take 
 thee one stick, and write upon it, 
 
436 
 
 ETJIB OP TAITn. 
 
 For Judah, and for the children of 
 Israel his companions : then take 
 another stick, and write upon it. 
 For Joseph the stick of Ephraim, 
 and for all the house of Israel his 
 companions;" and thus the sacred 
 seer shows that the prophecy re- 
 lates to the restoration of the Jews, 
 and the re-union of the severed 
 tribes of Judah and Ephraim. Such, 
 however, is ray opponent's itching 
 for appropriation clauses, that he 
 tries to filch the glories of the 
 Church of the Jews and that of the 
 Gentiles, to deck out the apostasy of 
 the Church of Bxjme. 
 
 Again, he quoted another pas- 
 sage : " Go ye and teach aU nations, 
 baptizing them in the name of the 
 Father, and of the Son, and of the 
 Holy Ghost, teaching them to 
 
 OBSBBVB ALL THINGS WHATSOEVEB, 
 I HAVE COMMANDED TOU, and lo ! 
 
 I am with you always, even unto 
 the end of the world." Now, my 
 friend did give you these closing 
 paragraphs of the apostle's commis- 
 sion, but he forgot to put particular 
 emphasis on this portion of them — 
 "Teaching all things whatso- 
 EVEH I COMMAND YOIT." This last 
 joifice of any portion of the Church 
 is the condition of the fulfilment of 
 the promise, " I am with you unto 
 the end of the world." If the 
 Church of Rome does not teach 
 what Christ commanded, but the 
 opposite, Christ is not with her. 
 But the twelve articles appended 
 to the Nicene Creed to •form the 
 new one (Pope Pius the Fourth's) 
 do not teach "whatsoever Christ 
 commanded you." I maintain, and 
 [ Lave irrefragably proved, that 
 Christ never " commanded" purga- 
 tory ; that he never commanded the 
 propitiatory sacrifice of the mass; 
 that he never countenanced transub- 
 stantiation ; that he never declared 
 the doctrine of venial and mortal 
 sin to be any part of the Christian 
 
 faith; and unless, therefore, the 
 Church of Home has been teaching, 
 during centuries now merged in 
 eternity, " all things whatsoever she 
 is commanded" to teach, Christ is 
 not with her "to the end of the 
 world." Her whole history, on the 
 contrary, shows before heaven and 
 earth, she is left to herself; that 
 over the awful accents of repro- 
 bation are uttered, " Ephraim is 
 joined to idols : let him alone." 
 
 Again, he adduced as an evidence 
 of the Eoman Rule of Faith the 
 circumstance and the successes of 
 the missionaries of the Churcn of 
 Rome in China. I shall probably 
 be able, if we have time, next even- 
 ing, to give you some illustrations 
 of the peculiar processes and dis- 
 tinctive schemes which they adopted 
 for the conversion of the Chinese. 
 That the Roman Catholic mission- 
 aries and Jesuits have gone into 
 the world preaching and teaching 
 subjection to their creed, is a fact 
 we do not deny. But this only 
 proves them to be more palpably 
 priests of the apocalyptic apostasy; 
 for the word of God has said re- 
 specting the apostasy of Babylon, 
 " AU nations have drunk of the 
 wine of the wrath of her fornica- 
 tion." And again, " By her sor- 
 ceries were all nations deceived, 
 and in her was found the blood of 
 prophets and of saints, and of all 
 that were slain upon the earth." It 
 is one of the features attached to 
 the Roman CathoUe Church by the 
 pen and in the page of inspiration, 
 that she should thus send her priests 
 as the locusts of Egypt, not the 
 lights of the world, to darken all 
 the nations of the earth. 
 
 Again: he asked, wlule the Ro- 
 mish missionaries in past ages,anu 
 the Jesuits, and the followers of the 
 diiferent orders, were among the 
 Chinese, and the Siamese, and Ja- 
 panese, he says, " Where were the 
 
•J 
 
 RULE on tills. 
 
 437 
 
 Baptists, and Indej)endents, and 
 Wesleyans, and Calvinists? where 
 were the Church of Scotland and 
 Church of England., people, and aU 
 the sections of the Protestants, 
 during these periods of the mis- 
 sionary exploits of the Jesuits, and 
 others before them ? I will tell 
 you wiere they were : they were 
 often hiding like outcasts in the 
 caves of the earth from the tortures 
 of the Inquisition, and the yet 
 unextiuKiished fires of Dominic ; 
 thev had to escape from the faggot 
 anctthe furnace, and hide themselves 
 in the mountains and dens of the 
 earth ; to wander in Sheepskins 
 and goatskins ; seeking refuge from 
 the fires persecution was kmdKng, 
 and the engines of torture prepar- 
 ing for their death. My answer to 
 my opponent's question is not to 
 the credit of his Church, when he 
 asks where my forefathers and ycci 
 forefathers all were during the 
 middle ages ? I reply, We were 
 where Elijah and the seven thou- 
 sand were, — adoring God in secret 
 and in silence, whilst the awful 
 Western Apostasy spread itseU from 
 sea to sea, and over vast continents 
 of space, and was planting its in- 
 fl.uences, like some evil genius, 
 amid the fairest and most fruitful 
 isles of the ocean. My learned an- 
 tagonist must never forget the de- 
 cretals of Pope Gregory, the Inqui- 
 sition, and the fourth Council of the 
 Lateran ; the persecution to which 
 the Waldenses and the Piedmontese 
 were devoted. The witnesses of 
 Christ preached, and prayed, and 
 testified, while Home held her dread 
 carnival of blood ; and Protestants 
 by thousands were obliged to con- 
 ceal themselves in the tents of 
 Mesech and the tabernacles of 
 Redar, lest the minister should 
 speedily be the martyr; lest his 
 wife should be left a widow, and 
 his children weepmg orphans. 
 
 If this be the fact, the question 
 is easily answered. As to our Pro- 
 testant faith, it was, and is, where it 
 ever has been — ia God's word, and 
 in the saints' hearts. Ajad now that 
 the superincumbent pressure has 
 been withdrawn ; now that the fear 
 and terror of exterimnatiou is at an 
 end ; now that my antagonist, care- 
 less of preserving unanimity, has 
 abjured all the persecuting prin- 
 ciples of his Church, and, nobly for 
 himself, cast them into the depths 
 of the sea, our missionary and ex- 
 pansive zeal and energies have 
 burst forth in every quarter of the 
 globe ; and such is our united mis- 
 sionary zeal, that we have appeared 
 in this assembly, no man daring to 
 make us afraid, ready to give a 
 reason at any time, and before any 
 person, for " the faith that is in us." 
 
 The next extraordinary and irre- 
 levant statement of my learned an- 
 tagonist was, that the conversation 
 of Englishmen on the continent of 
 Europe was beyond aU parallel ob- 
 scene, disgraceful, and improper. 
 He saw, then, I presume, and heard 
 it. But is my opponent's limited 
 experience to warrant his sweeping 
 assertion ? I am sorry for it if his 
 companions were of that stamp. 
 They were not Pkotestants, eithe' 
 in heart or in practice. They de- 
 graded the name of Englishman, 
 which, on the continent, is syno- 
 nymous vrith Protestant. But we 
 do not hold our Kule of Eaith to 
 be tainted or overthrown by the 
 vicious conduct and corrupt speeches 
 of its professors. This is the dif- 
 ference. The traditions of the 
 Church of Rome must be, and are, 
 more or less affected by the chan- 
 nels they have come through, be- 
 cause dependent on them. 
 
 Again, he stated, we were con- 
 vertad to Christianity by St. Gre- 
 
 tory. Now, let me say, Gregory 
 id not subscribe to the Creed o{ 
 
438 
 
 ■RviiS OP FAITH. [8M Eoemng, 
 
 Pope Pius the Fourtli,' and the 
 Romanism of the Council of Trent. 
 On the contrary, he was a total 
 stranger to many of the tenets in- 
 flicted on the Exjman Church during 
 the fifteenth century. In the next 
 place, St. Gregory rejeeted the 
 books of Maccabees, declared them 
 not to be canonical; while his pon- 
 tifical successor declares that they 
 are canonical. Here again is unity ! 
 In the next place, Gregory declared 
 the fact (and I wish you particu- 
 larly to remember this) that he who 
 should assume the title of univer- 
 sal bishop (sacerdotem universalem) 
 should be the forerunner of Anti- 
 christ. Then it foEows that, if he 
 declared it, all the popes who suc- 
 ceeded him, according to him, were 
 the forerunners of Antichrist; for 
 he states most plainly that " who- 
 ever should claim the title of uni- 
 versal bishop was the foreruimer of 
 Antichrist." And, therefore, .if 
 Gregory is to have the credit of 
 having converted England to the 
 faith, let us learn at the same time 
 that Gregory, a Roman Catholic, 
 abjured the Books of Maccabees, 
 and detected many doctrinal points, 
 for the abjuration of which Mr. 
 Prenoh would be cut off from the 
 Roman Catholic communion, and 
 placed under the ban and anathema 
 of the Council of Trent. 
 
 His next statement is, that the 
 Roman Catholic missionaries had 
 converted many; and from that fact, 
 he presumes that all the charac- 
 teristics of the Church of Christ 
 belong to the Roman Catholic 
 church ! I reply to this, Mahomet, 
 the Arabian impostor, " the false 
 prophet," converted thousands and 
 thousands more ; but I would not 
 infer from that that he belonged to 
 the true church, or that the gross 
 superstitions he taught were the 
 truths of the Gospel, or that the 
 Koran is the Bible, and the mosque 
 
 of St. Omar the cathedral of St. 
 Paul. Robert Owen has several 
 thousand wretched adherents, who 
 are proselyted to his abominable 
 notions, in London ; but non constat 
 that he is a Christian, and Socialism 
 divine. If mere success in pro- 
 selytism is to be held as a test 
 of true Christianity, many wiU be 
 found to lay claim and right to that 
 sacred name, who in the sight of 
 God are destitute alike of its prin- 
 ciples and practices altogether. But 
 let him know that the most success- 
 ful proselytism, to the amount even 
 of the world, is no proof of truth ; 
 multitudes are not always the crite- ■ 
 rion of truth, nor success the crite- 
 rion of rectitude. Let him know, 
 that at one moment in the history 
 of the Church of Christ, a whole 
 nation had bowed the Imee unto 
 Baal, and had been proselyted to 
 his worship ; and Elijah, the prophet 
 of the Lord, was obliged to cry, 
 " And I only am left alone." I 
 protest that if the whole of this 
 assembly, with the exception of one, 
 were to stand up and proclaim in 
 some moment of unhappy delusions 
 " Roman Catholicism is right ;" 
 and if some poor orphan child were 
 to stand up, and say, " Pbotest- 
 ANTiSM is nght," that orphan would 
 be right, and the whole assembly 
 would be wrong. Truth is not 
 contingent on multitudes. Truth 
 is equSly truth when the hosannas 
 of myriads are lifted in her praise, 
 as well as when she lies hid in the 
 dens and caverns of the earth, or is 
 led bound hand and foot by the 
 famiHar to the fire that has been 
 lighted in the inolosures of the 
 Inquisition. Truth is not dependent 
 upon multitudes. Numbers cannot 
 add to her glory and her triumphs, 
 much less injure or depreciate her 
 character. No, my friends, we must 
 appeal " to the law and to the 
 TESTIMONY," Whatever can he 
 
Rev. J. Cwmminff.'] ettue of paith. 
 
 439 
 
 proved by thai is truth ; ■whatever 
 IS disproved by it, though all the 
 ■world profess it, must be error. 
 
 I had intended to enter on a ■wide 
 field of direct disproof of the 
 Boman Catholic Rule of Paith, 
 and in defence of the Protestant 
 Rule of Paith; but I have taken 
 up too much time, I must say, in 
 foUo^wing after the ■wild and irre- 
 levant digressions of my learned 
 antagonist. I therefore have left 
 myself no spare time. But I would 
 yet observe that he must not run 
 away. iVo reply has been given to 
 my opening statement. That he has 
 left totally untouched, remember. 
 You ■wUl recollect that I have not 
 shrunk, even at the risk of loss of 
 time, from following out the ■whole 
 of his most extravagant and utterly 
 inapplicable statements, and reply- 
 ing to them seriatim, et verbatim,, 
 one by one, and sho^wing that his 
 sense and nonsense are alike. Let 
 me, therefore, draw my remarks to 
 a conclusion, by calling your atten- 
 tion for a moment to the estimate 
 which the word of Ood forms of the 
 value and importance of the tradi- 
 tions of men — those traditions which 
 constitute half of the Bxjman Rule 
 of Paith. I quote, for this purpose. 
 Matt. XV. 1, 2: "Then came to 
 Jesus Scribes and Pharisees, which 
 were of Jerusalem, saying. Why do 
 thy disciples transgress the tradi- 
 tions oi the elders? for they wash 
 not their hands when they eat 
 bread." Exactly, you observe, the 
 question which the Church of 
 Rome puts to us Protestants: 
 " Why do ye, adhering to the ■written 
 word, transgress the traditions of\ 
 the priests P Why have ye rejected 
 the twelve articles of Pope Pius the 
 Pourth, added to the Nicene Creed ? 
 Why have ye abandoned the books 
 of Maccabees, and the canons of 
 the Council of Trent?" We reply, 
 as the Son of God replied, (verse 3,) 
 
 " Why do ye also transgress the 
 commandmeiit of God by your tra- 
 dition ?" And again, in the ninth 
 verse, our Lord says : " But in 
 vain do they worship me, teaching 
 for doctrines the commandments of 
 men?' They are here commanded 
 to worship God alone on Scripture 
 principles ; receiving nothing that is 
 based upon tradition alone, having 
 nothing to do ■with " the command 
 ments of men," which are declared 
 here to stamp all raised upon them 
 as "in vain." 
 
 Again, (Mark vii. 5, 6, 8,) — 
 " Then the Pharisees and Scribes 
 asked him, Whj walii not thy disci- 
 ples according to the tradition of 
 the elders, but eat bread with nn- 
 washen hands? He answered, and 
 said unto them. Well hath Esaias 
 prophesied of you hypocrites, as it 
 IS ■written. This people honoureth 
 me ■with their Hps, but their heart is 
 far from me. Howbeit, in vain do 
 they worship me, teaching for 
 doctrines the commandments of 
 men." Again, verse 13 of the 
 same chapter, "Making the word 
 of God of none effect through your 
 traditions:" precisely the Roman 
 Catholic exriolts. Again, (1 Peter i. 
 18, 19) — "Porasmuch as ye know 
 that ye were not redeemed ■with 
 corruptible things, as silver and 
 gold, from your vain conversation 
 received by tradition from your 
 fathers" — received, you observe, 
 by tradition from your fathers. 
 Aigain, (2 Thess, ii.) — "Now we 
 beseech, &c. that ye be not shaken 
 in mind, or be troubled, neither by 
 spirit, nor by word, nor by letter, as 
 from us, as that the day of Christ 
 is at hand. Let no man deceive 
 you by any means, for that day shall 
 not come, except there come a 
 falling away first, and that man of 
 sin be revealed, the son of per- 
 dition." Now, mark! all these 
 passages imply that tradition is 
 
44C 
 
 BTJLE OJ FAITH 18U Aemttff. 
 
 uncertain and deceiving, an i^nis 
 ■ aiuus that leads men astray from 
 heaven to earth, and from God to 
 fallen man ; and that we are at once 
 to abandon the absurdities of tra- 
 dition, that have been received from 
 " the elders," and to adhere only to 
 the ■woED or God. 
 
 Let me draw your attention to 
 the language of the apostle Paul, 
 in describing the word of God as 
 opposed to file traditions of men : 
 "AH Scripture is given by inspi- 
 ration of God, and is profitable for 
 doctrine, /or reproof, /or correction, 
 /or instruction in righteousness." — 
 Why? (verse 17)— " That the man 
 of God may he per/ect, thoroughly 
 furnished to every good work." Now, 
 observe the tradition-exterminating 
 statement of the word of God. 
 Whilst it attaches all that is un- 
 certain, all that is erroneous, dan- 
 gerous, and destructive, all that 
 naturally leads men astray, to " tra- 
 dition," it attaches certainty, sal- 
 vation and perfection to the written 
 word ; it pronounces by the pen of 
 the same mspired vrriter, that the 
 word of God is given by inspira- 
 tion, and \s profitable for doctrine, 
 for reproof, for correction," and so 
 on. Why?— "That the man of 
 God may be perfect" We have per- 
 fection by the written word ; why 
 unwarrantably and unnecessarily 
 thrust tradition on us ? Can you 
 vfish for anything more ? Can you 
 vrish more complete investiture vrith 
 title to glory, honour, and immor- 
 tality, more complete preparedness 
 for heaven, through arwother instru- 
 mentality? Again (Psalm xix. 7) 
 ■ — " The law of the Lord \&per/ect, 
 converting the soul; the testimony 
 of the Lord is sure, making wise the 
 simple." The law of the Lord, you 
 observe, is per/ect; this makes it 
 sufficient, " converting the soul :" 
 there is conversion attributed to its 
 instrumentality;,— "the testimony 
 
 of the Lord is sure, making wise the 
 simple ;" there is the enbghtenine 
 of the understanding attributed to 
 it. Again, our Lord says (Jchn 
 iii. 30) — " Search i\\& Scriptures, {ot 
 they are they which testify of me." 
 The passage, as rendered by the 
 Church of Rome, is scarcely a 
 deviation. " Fe search ths Scrip- 
 tures, for they are they which testify 
 of me." Now the difference is 
 nothing; because, if I take the 
 translation of the Church of Rome, 
 it implies that they (the Jews) 
 were m the habit of searching the 
 Scriptures, (which point I contend 
 for,) and that our Lord approved of 
 this ; or, if I take our translation, 
 it implies that it is our duty to 
 search the Scriptures ; " for in them," 
 observe, not in tradition of any 
 kind, not in the unvn-itten word 
 interpreted by the Church, but in 
 the Scriptures, " ye have eternal 
 lifer Again, (John xx. 31)— "But 
 these are written that ye might 
 beHeve that Jesus is the' Chnst, 
 the Son of God, and that believing 
 ye might have life through his 
 name." Now, observe, the apostlt! 
 again states the sufficiency of Scrip- 
 ture in these words. He says that 
 such is the clearness and fulness 
 of the Grospel of John, that, by 
 reading that alone, the believer can 
 be led to a knowledge of Christ, 
 and to the possession of eternal 
 life. Now, mark you, if the perusal 
 of one solitary Gospel can lead to 
 the attainment of eternal life, a 
 /ortiori it must necessarily foUow, 
 the whole Bible must be abundantly 
 sufficient to lead the siimer, anx- 
 iously reading, but ignorant of the 
 knowledge of eternal life, to its 
 enjoyment. And again, we find 
 it stated that not only have we 
 instruction, conversion, sanctiS- 
 cation, holiness, perfection, and 
 everlasting life through the Scrip- 
 tures, but fiat silso we have 
 
Rev. J. 
 
 ] 
 
 RULE OP FAITH. 
 
 ^1 
 
 joi/, comfort, and peace, through 
 the perusal of the word of God. 
 1 JohiL i. 3 : — " And truly oui- 
 fellowship is with the Father and 
 with his Son Jesus Christ. And 
 these things write we unto you, 
 that your joy may be fall. These 
 things have I said unto you that 
 in me ye might have peace." If, 
 then, I desire the safety of be- 
 lievers, the sanctity of saints, the 
 peace of time, or the joys of eter- 
 nity; if I desire aught that can 
 iUumiaate my mind, quicken my 
 soul, and exhilarate with joy unut- 
 terable and full of glory my spirit 
 that thirsts for God, the living God, 
 I find that the Bible declares, in 
 terms that admit neither of mis- 
 construction nor misinterpretation, 
 and ia terms which ought with 
 honest miuds to settle this contro- 
 versy, that by its iustrumentality 
 alone ye shall have aU in one word. 
 Eternal Life. The Bible !— Its 
 very position proclaims our duty to 
 read it. Suppose a letter were 
 addressed to a son in a far distant 
 land by his anxious father resident 
 in this country, what would that 
 son understand by such a letter? 
 He would at once understand by it 
 that it was a communication of his 
 father's sentiments, and feelings, 
 and anxieties, to him ; and that it 
 was his immediate duty as well as 
 privilege to peruse the letter, that 
 by it he might learn and understand 
 ail the feehngs and desires his 
 parent cherished concerning him. 
 This book is a letter on a larger 
 scale, sent dovm from the archives 
 of heaven by God our gracious 
 rather, beaming with the majesty 
 of truth and paternal love. It is 
 addressed, not to priests, nor to 
 popesi nor to bishops, as such, but 
 it is addressed to " all the faithful 
 who are in Christ, to Greek also, 
 and barbarian, Jews, and Gentiles, 
 saints and sinners," and every one, 
 
 without distinction of rank, of 
 riches, possession, or of character. 
 Every eye is called upon to read it, 
 and every ear to hear, and every 
 heart to feci, and all flesh to search, 
 that all may find everlasting life. 
 Let not priests plunder you, my 
 Roman Catholic brethren, of the 
 boon of the Eternal. 
 
 It is your Bible : read it ; reflect 
 on it. If you say that the Scrip- 
 tures are so obscure you cannot 
 understand them, I vrill Toe prepared 
 to bring text after text, and passage 
 after passage, declaring that the 
 Scriptures may be understood in 
 every important point, and espe- 
 cially by the aid and assistance of 
 the Holy Spirit directing our private 
 judgment, exercised on it as, the 
 Rule of Faith; and much more 
 easily a thousand times than by the 
 aid of aU the rules and infaUibilities 
 of the world. 
 
 I am prepared to bring Scriptures; 
 not assertions, forward to show 
 that, aided by the Holy Spirit, you 
 can understand the Scriptures. I 
 wiU also give instances that show 
 how this understanding of Scrip- 
 ture leads to eternal life. One 
 instance let me prefer at this mo- 
 ment. When Paul came to preach 
 to the Bereans, they did not take 
 his assertions alone, his ijise dixits; 
 but, holding even the inspiration 
 and infaUibuity of the Old Testa- 
 ment, they brought an apostle's 
 preaching to the test of the word 
 of Grod; and if they brought an 
 apostle's teaching to the Old Testa- 
 ment, much more should we bring 
 priests' teaching to the New Testa- 
 ment. " They searched the Scrip- 
 tures daily, whether those things 
 were so; and, therefore, many of 
 them believed." — Acts xvii. 11. 
 And therefore I raamtain that it 
 is your duty also when your priests 
 pireach to you 
 
 [The chairman, J. Kendal, Esq. 
 
412 
 
 EULE OP PAiTH. [8tA Moeitinff. 
 
 here aimounced the expiration of 
 the hotir, and the rev. gentleman 
 closed abruptly. 
 
 [The rev. gentleman had soarcelT 
 seated himsSf, when Mr. French 
 rose immediately, and followed out 
 the rev. gentleman's concluding ar- 
 guments, as follows :] 
 
 Mr. Pbench.— Yes, my friends, 
 "they searched the Scriptures," as 
 the apostle commanded them. But 
 remark, my friends, it was be/ore ihe 
 New Testament was written, that he 
 is telling the Jews to search the 
 Scriptures, in order to be persuaded 
 that Christ Jesus was the true Re- 
 deemer ; and that is the sole mean- 
 ing of the text just alluded to with 
 so mudi emphasis by my learned 
 friend. My learned mend has fre- 
 quently complained before, and he 
 has now reiterated the complaint — 
 the stale complaint — ^in mere and 
 servile imitation of my just and un- 
 deniable charge against him, that I 
 am a very wild and untameable 
 animal in the fields of reasoning and 
 togic — [laughter ;]^in one word, 
 that he cannot tame me; that he 
 cannot domesticate me to his mode 
 of thinking, and so make me fall 
 into the snares he has so ingeniously 
 laid for me — [laughter] — and I own 
 I am wild enough to claim my own 
 prerogative of chalking out a way 
 for myself, without condemning my- 
 self to give set answers to every one 
 of his deviations, and his host of 
 irrelevant remarks. [Strong commo- 
 tion in apwrt of the meeting^ 
 
 [John Kestdal, Esq. rose onbehalf 
 of Mr. Erench to claim silence and 
 attention.] 
 
 A Voice [in strong Hibernian 
 accent, endeavouring to explain the 
 cause of this sudden movement, 
 said,] " Oh, it is a lot of bigots going 
 away." — {A cry of " Turn him out ;" 
 and " Order.") 
 ^ [The meetmg, having assumed a 
 
 tranquil posture of attention, the 
 learned gentleman again rose, and 
 said—] 
 
 And now, my friends, we are 
 arrived at a period of our labours 
 where it would be proper for me to 
 terminate the whole dispute in one 
 moment; yes, my friends, by calling 
 upon my rev. antagonist to biing 
 the tenets of his creed to be tried 
 by his own touchstone, namely, the 
 Bible. Should he fall, as fail he 
 must, in his application to that test, 
 what need, let me ask, of protract- 
 ing the discussion one moment 
 longer ? Come, then, I exclaim, my 
 reverend antagonist [looking point- 
 edly at Mr. Cumming], come, my 
 honoured friend, thou who boastest 
 that the Bible is thy rule of faith, 
 tell me by what licence given to 
 thee in that Bible art thou em- 
 powered to overstep its most solemn 
 laws; to set at nought its most 
 peremptory enactments ? Show me 
 one oleaj; text in that Bible that 
 authorizes, enjoins, or even permits 
 you to keep the Sabbath on a 
 
 Eev. Mr. Gumming. — ^Hear, hear! 
 
 Mr. Ekench. — (In continuation.) 
 You call upon m for a text if we 
 talk of Extreme Unction, which has 
 been practised from time immemo- 
 rial in the CathoUo Church: we 
 Catholics point out to you a text 
 of the most luminously descriptive 
 nature, one that is accurate to the 
 very letter, to its every syllable, 
 when squared by the practice of our 
 Church at the present day ; namely, 
 St. James v. 14, 15 : — "Is any sick 
 among you ? — Let him call for the 
 elders of the o|iurch, and let them 
 pray over him, anointii^ him with 
 oil in the name of the Lord. And 
 the prayer of faith shall save the 
 sick, and the Lord shall raise 
 him up ; and if he have com- 
 mitted sins they shall be forgiven 
 him," 
 
Mr. Frimch.'] eitIiE as taith. 
 
 413 
 
 Well then, my Bible-regnkted 
 theologian, though this does not 
 satisfy ym to prove the doctrine of 
 Extreme Unction, show me, I say, 
 one of half its energy and clearness 
 to sanction you in keeping the 
 Sabbath on the Sunday, and / shall 
 be perfectly satisfied that you are 
 most fixed and unswerving froia 
 your golden rule, instead of denun- 
 ciating, as I now do, your departure 
 from the Saturday as an act of im- 
 pious daring on your part, totally 
 unwarranted by any one syllable to 
 be found either in the Old or New 
 Testament. The day of the Sabbath 
 was solemnly appointed by the pro- 
 mulgation of the Lord God Jehovah; 
 the day was specifically numbered ; 
 there is a malediction of the most 
 tremendous nature in . the Sacred 
 Book upon the heads of those who 
 should dare to keep it at unappointed 
 time; andyetyedoitwithoutasiagle 
 shadow of a text to justify the deed. 
 If, with us, my friends, ye celebrate 
 the Sunday in adherence to CathoHc 
 tradition, ye act according to the 
 apostolical line, and ye are not open 
 to delusion; but, if ye affect to 
 scorn tradition, I pin you to the 
 Bible, and you must this day unfold 
 its pages, and prove most clearly 
 and systematically from them that 
 ye are not at variance with its pre- 
 cepts by keeping the Sabbath on the 
 Sunday. But no, my friends, the 
 Bible stares you in the face : you 
 are acting ia contravention to your 
 leading, your fundamental rule. 
 
 Again, my friends, I ask of my 
 antagonist, who seems to keep the 
 Bible in his hands this daiy but with 
 a slippery hold, where, in What book 
 is to he found one word relative to 
 the baptism, of infants ! — (Acts viii. 
 37.)— "If thou believest with all 
 thine heart," says Scripture, "thou 
 mayest" (be baptized.) What was 
 the answer ? "I believe that Jesus 
 Christ is the Son of God." Now, 
 
 I ask, unless tradition come to the 
 rescue of my learned friend, by what 
 reflniag ingenuity wiU he call upon 
 the Bible to protect him ia baptizing 
 infants, that cannot give the answer, 
 that cannot exclaim, " / believe that 
 Jesus Christ is the Son of Gods'" 
 See ye not, my friends, that my 
 antagonist in argument lies prostrate 
 at my feet ? See ye not that he is, 
 in practice, ia a state of actual hos- 
 tility with the very book which he 
 holM up as the fountain of all his 
 tenets, as the rule of aU his actions ? 
 It is quite a ludicrous thing, say 
 the Anabaptists, to pour water on 
 an unperceiving infant, when you 
 are not so justified by the Bible. 
 But we CATHOLICS, when we follow 
 the ever-sounding voice of tradition, 
 we understand how it is. We know 
 very well that God never meant to 
 instruct and convert barbarian na- 
 tions to Christiauity by the Bible. 
 You tell me that I am " wandering 
 from the laws of logic ; " that I do 
 not adhere punctiliously to the sub- 
 ject. I say I adhere perfectly to the 
 question. My object in the begia- 
 TiJTiff was to prove that the Koman 
 CathoHos converted aU nations unto 
 God, and that without putting the 
 Bible into their hands — converted 
 those who could neither read nor 
 write; for the art of printing was 
 only invented in the fourteenth 
 century. The Bible alone could not 
 convert nations. Yes ; the Roman 
 Catholics were the grand con- 
 verters of nations ; the men who by 
 their chaste, exemplary, and un- 
 suUied lives, showii^ how they could 
 trample upon pleasure and despise 
 aU danger in the cause of C&ist 
 Jesus, and striking the untutored 
 barbarian with a reverential awe 
 which all the parsons in B^land, 
 with aU their innumerable Bibles, 
 landing on some foreign shore in 
 the present age, would never be able 
 to inspire. [Lai:^hter.] 
 
Hi 
 
 IrtJUE OP FAITH. 
 
 rs^A Eegtitnf, 
 
 No; it is the living, breathing, 
 legible impress of true sanctity on 
 the very features of our Catholic 
 MisSioNAiiiES, that at once struck 
 the barbarians vidth awe and venera- 
 tion. It was their acting up to the 
 Bible, with souls deeply impregnated 
 with aU. the fervour, all the unction 
 of piety, and not by idly canting 
 about its wondrous efficacy, that 
 they impressed conviction on our 
 barbarous ancestors. They (our an- 
 cestors) saw a set of men, holy and 
 devout, spuming away the common, 
 ay, even the lawful pleasures of 
 life, and disdaining its allurements, 
 in order that they might serve im- 
 maculately at the altar of their God ; 
 and they said to one another, in a 
 natural outbreak of wonder. Surely 
 these are more Kke angels than like 
 men ! [Sensation.! See them, they 
 exclaimed, vrith their crucifixes in 
 their hands, moving on vrith un- 
 wearied step over mountains and 
 valleys ! How little they subsist 
 upon in their •progress! See their 
 contempt for earthly enjoyment and 
 pleasure; and see them at another 
 time prostrate at their holiest altars, 
 wrapped up in silent contemplation, 
 or soundingforth amidst surrounding 
 multitudes the Gospel of their Lord 
 and Master Jesus Christ ! 
 
 Such, my friends, were the glo- 
 rious, the heavenly-minded con- 
 verters of nations ; and not your 
 dry, musing, moralizing parsons in 
 the nineteenth-century pulpits. — 
 [Renewed sensation.] Gentlemen, 
 though I shall not exactly follow in 
 the path pointed out by my ingenious 
 and subtle friend, I vrill certainly, 
 before I pursue the connected line 
 of argument I intended to adhere to 
 this evening, make one observation 
 upon the authoritative interpretation 
 given by my " incorruptible "friend, 
 to the abominable and gross cor- 
 ruptions of his English version of 
 the Bible. And, whenever he has 
 
 the hardihood, time after time, to 
 rise up and say one word in extenua- 
 tion of its enormous guilt, these two 
 verses vidll stare him point blank in 
 the face. I have been a translator 
 myself, and know how to make 
 allowances for the slumberings, and 
 slips, and ina,dvertences of a trans- 
 lator ; but I cannot pardon any one 
 who has the least pretensions to 
 initiation in Latin and Greek, that 
 shall maintain it to be in analogy to 
 grammatical rule, to translate should 
 for shall, to give the conditional in 
 translation instead of ^e future. I 
 have had the honour of instructing 
 in those languages some of the 
 brightest scholars at Oxford and 
 Cambridge, and never yet have I 
 met with one who, in vpriting, could 
 be guilty of sueh a solecism. I want 
 to Imow, then, on what extraordinary 
 principle of translating, Protestant 
 mterpreters have given us this shmild 
 for shall ? Let me have a direct 
 answer from my learned opponent ; 
 no quibbling about it; nosophistiy; 
 no "special pleading.". Let it be 
 made as clear and as accessible to 
 the understandings of "poor be- 
 nighted Roman Catholics" in this 
 room, as you can [to Mr. Gumming] 
 possibly do, in your unlimited kind- 
 ness and condescension. Again, as 
 to the text, " desperately wicked," 
 I certainly must tell my learned 
 friend that it is indeed a softener— 
 [laughter] — a softener of the mean- 
 mg of the passage — ^truly, a highly 
 softened phrase, a finely-rasped and 
 mollified expression, is it not P There 
 is not a word of it in the original. 
 I appeal to a man (Mr. Lyons) who 
 knows Hebrew as well as I do 
 English. He says there is no room 
 for it. I vnll give it you verbatim : 
 "The heart of man is deceitful 
 above all thugs, and inscrutable, 
 (or anxious.) Who shall know it ?" 
 That is the word; but to say, 
 " desperately wicked ! 
 
Mr. French.'] 
 
 KULB OP FAITH. 
 
 445 
 
 Rev. J. Gumming — [In a soft 
 tone, unheard by Mr. Erench]. — 
 Read it again. 
 
 Mr. Prbnch. — [In continuation.] 
 But, my friends, the reason whi/ 
 they put it m -was this: At the 
 ■ beginningoftheReformation,Lutlier 
 maintained, and Calviu after him, 
 that the very best of human actions 
 were mortal sins — that there were 
 no works of merit — ^that all were 
 defiled with mortal sins ; and they 
 aoeordingly wanted to foist in thS 
 depravation of the sacred text to 
 bear out the doctriae, and thus com- 
 mitted this imposition on the British 
 public. Just as Luther did when 
 he made up his mind to trample 
 under foot the solemn vow he had 
 made to God, and marry, and took 
 a woman who had sworn to pre- 
 serve iuviolable chastity; and, not 
 content with that, he sits down to 
 vitiate that text iu the Bible where 
 it says, " If they do not contaia, let 
 them marry." If they do not con- 
 tain — that is, if they are iu the habit 
 of committiug sin. But, what does 
 Luther do in one of his metamor- 
 phosiug moods? Why, the very 
 same as the BngUfeh translation of 
 the Bible— the notoriously, and 
 proverbially, and abominably false 
 English translation of the Bible : 
 "If they cannot contain, let them 
 marry." These are the abominations 
 I complain of, in this their so much 
 vaunted book of consummate ex- 
 cellence, the parliamenian/ Bible 
 with the crown upon its head I But 
 to pursue my train of argument — 
 although, in my extemporizing style, 
 my sentences may not flow forth 
 quite so fluently and elegantly as 
 those which pour forth ever smoothly 
 fmd fantastically from my friend's 
 oratorical aqueduct. [Laughter.] Mv 
 reverend friend indulged you with 
 long snA. jejune readings"from Baro- 
 nius. Now, in my own connected 
 way, before I proceed further, I wiU 
 
 give him his own immortal Dean 
 Milner, by way of preface and ex 
 planation to my subject matter, to 
 corroborate that train of argument. 
 For I really will not be accused with 
 such impunity, of wandering, as my 
 learned friend does in such elevated 
 strains of eloquence, into the region 
 of rhetoric. My argument, which I 
 place like a standard in the forefront 
 of this dispute, is, that the Catiio- 
 Lics converted all nations to Chris- 
 tianity, and that they did it by 
 following tradition. I ask you, 
 therefore, my respected friends, Wlio 
 is there in this assembly, maturely 
 considering all I have already laid 
 before them ; clearly considering the 
 prophecy of our Lord, declaring that 
 all the Gentiles were to be converted, 
 and the grand commission which 
 Christ gave to his disciples to go 
 and convert them — who is there, I 
 say, looking at the facts and records 
 thus laid before you, can entertain 
 the shadow of a doubt that the 
 Gatholic religion is the real religion 
 of primitive Christianity ? Tell me, 
 my friends, do we not see in her 
 subkme march through every land, 
 in her onward, unwearied journey 
 through the track of ages, before 
 the. name of a Protestant was heard 
 of — do we not recognise in this her 
 glorious career the accomplishment 
 of the divine promise of God, that 
 all nation^ were to be converted 
 through her instrumentality? Do 
 not the most uncontested records 
 of history evidence the fact beyond 
 all controversy ? 
 
 Does not even your own Pro- 
 testant ecclesiastical historian, the 
 Rev. Joseph Mibier, whom I am 
 about to quote to you — ay, even 
 to the surfeit of my reverend anta- 
 gonist — ^historically prove that all 
 nations which have been converted 
 from Paganism or Judaism to Christ 
 Jesus for so many centuries past, 
 were converted to the CathoKo faith 
 
416 
 
 EULE or FAITH. 
 
 and incorporated in that Roman 
 Church ? — against which ye unani- 
 mously protest as being sunk in 
 damnable idolatry and damnable 
 superstition ; but which I this 
 day undauntedly proclaim in the 
 presence of yon all to be the ge- 
 nuine religion of the blessed, the 
 lovely, the adorable, the immortal 
 Jesus. True, they went about on 
 this their subhme errand, without 
 either wives or children. But what 
 then, my friend? Listen to your 
 own favourite historian, Joseph 
 Milner, page 28, in his " History 
 of the Church of Christ," referring 
 to Paul's Epistles : — 
 
 " In answer to their queries," 
 says he, "Paul recommends ceK- 
 bacy as preferable to matrimony, 
 where a man can practise it; and 
 that I think, from general reasons, 
 as more favourable to holiness." 
 And a httle lower on the same page, 
 he says, " I should not wonder if 
 some persons should startle at what 
 I have mentioned as the senti- 
 ments of St. Paul, though it be 
 impossible for any unprejudiced 
 person to understand him otherwise" 
 How, then, again I exclaim, is 
 it possible that that religion, thus 
 planted in every country dv men of 
 the most unquestionable holiness, 
 should be false, and impious, and 
 blasphemous, as my reverend friend 
 would say, in his soft and truly 
 Christian phraseology, that could 
 effect such a wonderful, such a 
 supernatural mutation in the hearts 
 of barbarian nations ? Is it possi- 
 ble that Divine Providence should 
 have permitted all those nations to 
 be deceived for such a length of 
 years? — especially after they had 
 forsaken their idolatry, so earnestly 
 embraced the Gospel, and united 
 themselves to what they deemed to 
 be the Church of Christ ; no Church 
 of England, no Lutherans, no Cal- 
 vinists, no Anabaptists, no Quakers, 
 
 no Irvingites, having as yet been 
 bom or heard of, to cant about the 
 diffusion of their Bibles, and to 
 plan the conversion of nations by 
 outpouring whole cargoes of them 
 iu sident stealth upon every distant 
 shore. Depend upon it, my friends, 
 the more ye ransack ancient annals, 
 the more will ye be convinced 
 that these miraculous achievements 
 were performed by the Catholic 
 Church alone. 
 
 Yes, ye vrill behold so many re- 
 mote nations taking refuge in her 
 sacred bosom; so many potent 
 kingdoms forsaking their idolatry; 
 abandoning all impurity of Ufe; 
 rejecting their multitudes of wives ; 
 forgetting their barbarous and 
 savage manners; banishing all their 
 former unrestrained licentiousness 
 of morals, to become chaste, and 
 meek, and tractable ; in one word, 
 bending down with the docility 
 of infants under the sweet yoke 
 of Christ Jesus, and voluntarily 
 trampling under foot their former 
 highmindedness and pride; being 
 smitten to their very souls with 
 the fear of God, which is the be- 
 ginning of wisdom : to sum up all. 
 Becoming estranged from the love 
 of terrestrial things, in order to 
 become wholly absorbed and inflamed 
 with love of the celestial. Believe 
 me, my friends, such wondrous 
 works were not wrought by the 
 agency of men who bore the least 
 similitude to the Protestant parson! 
 Believe me, too, it is most un- 
 likely that God Almighty would have 
 plunged so many nations, just emerg- 
 ing as they were from the lustra- 
 tions of sanguinary Druidism, into 
 the depth of other abominable 
 errors, and into the pollution of a 
 new idolatry; and least of all is it 
 likely in the ways of Providence, 
 that he should have permitted all 
 this silently to take place by the 
 instrumentality of men holy, just. 
 
Mr. French^ 
 
 RULE OP PAITH. 
 
 447 
 
 and pure— oil yes, men renowned 
 in their generation for imsiiLlied 
 sanctity of life, and, according to the 
 confession even of your Protestant 
 Mihier himself, not improbably 
 endued with the gift of miracles ! 
 
 May it not, let me ask you, my 
 Protestant friends, be said with jus- 
 tice, concemiug the monks of the 
 sixth century, who converted your 
 barbarous ancestors, what Pro- 
 testant Milner says of the monks 
 of the fourth, namely, that they 
 were " the flower of the flock of 
 Christ r" And, my friends, if they 
 were thus incontestably the flower 
 of the, flock of Christ, is it to be 
 deemed nauseating tautology on my 
 part, if I cry out again and again 
 to my Scotch Calvimstic antagonist. 
 Where, in what den, in what cavern 
 were thy ancestors lurking, thou 
 lily of Sharon, when the flower of 
 the flock of Christ, the Catholic 
 monks, were going about from nation 
 to nation, and to thine amongst 
 others, in order to rescue its miser- 
 able inhabitants from the pollu- 
 tions of idolatry? 
 
 Now, gentlemen, I have proved 
 to you from the Protestant Mihier, 
 and from Cathohc historians of 
 all nations, that Europeans were 
 converted by Catholics, and Catho- 
 lics alone. When I call on my 
 learned friend to tell me where the 
 renowned followers of Luther's and 
 Calvin's tenets were at that period 
 — in what page of history are their 
 deeds attested, is their pieiry re- 
 corded — my learned friend tdls us, 
 forsooth, that they were lurking 
 " in the dens and caverns of the 
 sarth " for fear of the Inc[uisition ! 
 What ! so many centuries before 
 Dominic — before the Inquisition 
 was heard of ? — even supposi^ Do- 
 minic was the father of the Eiqui- 
 sition, which is quite an erroneous 
 statement ! But again I ask. Where 
 ■were they before this ? Where were 
 
 they — ^in sight, or within the reach 
 of hearsay r I mean. Where were 
 men to be found, professing the 
 particular tenets professed by Pro- 
 testants of the present day? If 
 they were " in caves" go verify 
 those caves by historic testimony, 
 I say, and I wiU become a Pro- 
 testant — ay, even the mrugo mera, 
 the very scum of Protestantism, 
 a Calvinist ! But the truth is, 
 they cannot show where they were ; 
 they cannot. My reverend friend 
 could not, even with aU his inge- 
 nuity, all the address, the artifice, 
 all the inventive versatility of his 
 genius, devise a plausible tale that 
 might give to an imaginary spot 
 the appearance of realil^. 
 
 And now, my friends, as my 
 learned antagonist is most evidently 
 nonplused — as Calvinism, or the 
 lily of Sharon, as I call it, is not 
 able to tell where it was washing 
 its sweetness in the dews of the 
 earth — [laughter] — ^when the flower 
 of the flock of Christ, the monk 
 Augustine and his lowly followers, 
 were evangelizing this country, let 
 us turn for fresh matter of wonder 
 and astonishment once more to the 
 pages of the said Protestant histo- 
 rian, Milner. Speaking of Irenseus, 
 who flourished m year of our Lord 
 177, he thus writes : — 
 
 " He makes a strong use of the 
 argument of tradition m support of 
 the apostolical doctrine agamst the 
 novel heresies. His acquaintance 
 with primitive Christians justified 
 him in pressing this argument. 
 
 " If there were any doubt con- 
 cerning the least article, ought we 
 not to have recourse to the most 
 ancient churches where the apostles 
 lived? What if the apostles had 
 left us no writings whatever? ought 
 we not to follow the tradition which 
 they left with those to whom they 
 committed the care of the churches? 
 It is what several barbarous nations 
 
u& 
 
 RULE OF FAiia. \&th Eoening. 
 
 do who believe in. Jesus without 
 paper or ink ; haying the doctrine 
 of salvation wiitten on their hearts 
 by the Holy Ghost, and faithfully 
 keejping up to ancient tradition 
 concerning one God the Creator 
 and his Son Jesus Christ. Those 
 who have received this faith with- 
 out Scripture are barbarians as to 
 their manner of speaking, compared 
 with us ; but, as to their sentiments 
 itnd behaviour, they are veri/ wise 
 and very acceptable to God; and 
 they persevere in the practice of 
 justice and charity. Aid if any 
 one should preach to them in 
 their language what the heretics 
 have invented, they would imme- 
 diately stop their ears and flee far 
 off, and would not even hear those 
 blasphemies." 
 
 Here, my friends, you ^ see most 
 clearly the apostolic mode by which 
 Christianity was first planted in 
 this country. 
 
 But, again, let my attentive but 
 nndehghted antagonist listen to an- 
 other sweet extract from Protestant 
 Milner ! Speaking of the illus- 
 trious Cyprian, who flourished in 
 the year of our Lord 248, Milner 
 says, "The African bishop was ever 
 studious of preserving an intimate 
 connexion with the Roman Church." 
 Is' it not matter of some wonder, 
 my friends, that he did not say 
 instead, of preserving an intimate 
 connexion with the Scotch kirk ? 
 But, oh no ; this could not be ; 
 I quite forgot: it was singing, or 
 rather whining, its psalms m dens 
 and caverns, Jor fear of tlie Inqui- 
 sition! Cyprian could not find it 
 out. — [Laughter.] 
 
 Agam, Protestant Mihier, p. 137, 
 makes Cyprian thus write : — 
 
 " The Roman clergy condole affec- 
 tionately with Cypnan : — ' Our 
 sorrow,' say they, ' is doubled, be- 
 cause you have no rest from these 
 pressing difficulties of the perse- 
 
 cution; and because theimmoderate 
 petulance of the lapsed has pro- 
 ceeded to the height of arrogance. 
 But though these things have 
 grievously affioted our spirits, yet 
 your firmness and evangelical stnet- 
 ness of discipline have moderated 
 the load of vexation. You have 
 both restrained the wickedness of 
 certain persons ; and also, by ex- 
 horting them to repentance, have 
 shovra them the wholesome way to 
 salvation. We are astonished that 
 they should proceed to such lengths, 
 in a time so mournful, so unseason- 
 able , as the present — that they 
 should not so much as ask for re- 
 communion with the church.' 
 
 " And in truth, the whole con- 
 duct of the Roman clergy, at this 
 season, reflects the highest honour 
 on their wisdom and their affection ; 
 and affords the most pleasing proofs 
 of the good state of that church 
 at that time. 
 
 " At the same time they lay 
 down a golden maxim, ' that we all 
 ought to watch for the body of the 
 whole Church, diffused through 
 various provinces.' — It was this 
 unity and uniformity of the Christian 
 Church, which hitherto had pre- 
 served it, under God, from the in- 
 fection of heresies. None of these 
 were yet able to mix themselves 
 with the ' body of Christ ;' and the 
 Church, instead of being broken 
 into small handfuls of distuict sets 
 of persons, all glorying in having 
 something peculiarly excellent, and. 
 prone to despise their neighbours, 
 as yet knew no other name than 
 that of Christian; numbers and 
 diversity of place alone prevented 
 their assembling all together; for 
 they were one people. In Italy and 
 Africa the union at this time ap- 
 pears very salubrious ; and the 
 vigorous spirit and sound under- 
 standing 01 Cyprian was enabled 
 to apply the solid graces of the 
 
Mr.FreaoK.I Elle op paith. 
 
 449 
 
 Roman Churcli as a medicine for 
 the reformation of his own dis- 
 ordered flock. 
 
 " The Roman clergy, in a second 
 letter, take notice of St. Paul's 
 eulogium of . their church in thp 
 beginning of his epistle — ' That 
 their faith was spoken of through 
 the whole world,' and they express 
 their desire of treading in the steps 
 of their Christian predecessors. 
 
 " They speak, but not from the 
 word of the Lord : they promise 
 to restore the lapsed, who are them- 
 selves separated from the church. 
 
 " There is one God, one Christ, 
 one Church. Depart, I pray you, 
 far from these men, and avoid their 
 discourse, as a plague and pesti- 
 lence. They hinder your prayers 
 and tears by affording you false con- 
 solations. Acquiesce, I beseech 
 you, in my counsel: I pray daily for 
 you, and desire you to be restored 
 to the Church by the grace of the 
 Lord. Join your prayers and tears 
 with mine. But, if any person 
 shaE despise repentance, and betake 
 himself to Pelicissimus and to his 
 faction, let him know that his re- 
 nto the church mil be 
 
 Now, I would ask my friend, 
 is Cyprian speaking here of the 
 Scotch kirk, or of the Catholic 
 religion ? 
 
 And now, my friends, a word as 
 to Scotia, from the same Protestant 
 MUner! Talking of Catholic mis- 
 sionaries in the sixth century, he 
 thus writes : — 
 
 " Colomban, an Irish priest in 
 this century, came over into the 
 northern parts of Scotland, and 
 laboured with much success among 
 the Picts. The southern parts of 
 Scotland had been evangelized long 
 before by the instructions of Ninias, 
 a British bishop, who had himself 
 been instructed at Rome. Colom- 
 ban lived thirty-four years after his 
 
 passage into Britain. His disciples 
 were remarkable for the holiness 
 and abstemiousness of their Kves. 
 Thus, while the gospel was rapidly 
 withdrawing fro in the East, where 
 it first arose, God left not himself 
 without witness in the most distant 
 parts of the West." 
 
 This, I confess, my friends, is not 
 " milk and honey" for the lips of 
 my reverend antagonist; however, 
 such as it is, I pour it' out unto 
 him. 
 
 Come we now, my friends, to 
 the great St. Gregorj; to him who, 
 in his heavenly sohcitude for the 
 conversion of our barbarous ances- 
 tors, sent over some of the flower 
 of the flock of Christ to sound 
 forth among them the great truths 
 of Christianity. And let us hear 
 the character of the said CathoKo 
 St. Gregory from Protestant Milner, 
 and not Kom the pen of a car- 
 dinal : — 
 
 "He was a Roman by birth, and 
 of a noble family. But being re. 
 ligiously disposed, he assumed the 
 monastic habit, and was eminentl'y 
 distinguished by the progress he 
 made in piety. It was not till after 
 he was drawn back in a degree to a 
 secular life by his employments in 
 the Church, that he became tho- 
 roughly sensible what advantage he 
 had enjoyed for Ms own soul from 
 religious retirement. With tears 
 he owned that he had had the world 
 under his feet, while he was ab- 
 sorbed in heavenly contemplation ; 
 but was now bereft of comfort. 
 ' Now,' says he, ' my mind, by 
 reason of pastoral cares, is oppressed 
 with the business of secular per- 
 sons, and after so fair an appearance 
 of rest, is defiled with the dust of 
 earthly action. And suffering itself 
 to be distracted by exterior things 
 in condescension to many, even 
 while it desires inward things, it 
 returns to them, without doubt, 
 Q 
 
450 
 
 KTOB OP PAITH. 
 
 '_%th Ukening. 
 
 more faintly. I weigh, therefore, 
 what I endure ;' I weigh what I have 
 lost ; and while I look at that which 
 I have lost, my present burdens are 
 more heavy.' 
 
 " No age ever saw a bishop more 
 vigorous, firm, and circumspect. 
 The immensity of ecclesiastical em- 
 ployment, winch went through his 
 hands, seems almost incredible. 
 
 " It is impossible for any impar- 
 tial person who has attended to the 
 spint and conduct of Gregory, as 
 exhibited in his pastoral memoirs,, 
 not to feel a conviction of the emi- 
 nent piety, integrity, and humility 
 of this bishop. 
 
 " Augustine having intimated, 
 that the harvest was plenteous, but 
 that the labourers were few, Gre- 
 gory sent him more missionaries, 
 and directed him to constitute a 
 bishop at York, who might have 
 other subordinate bishops ; yet, in 
 such a manner, that Augustine of 
 Canterbury should be metropolitan 
 of all England. Such were the ru- 
 diments of the English Church. 
 
 " On the whole, Gregory's con- 
 duct with respect to our island 
 appears one of the most shining efforts 
 of Christian charity. His mission- 
 aries, in geHeral, acted laudably, and 
 the real establishment of Chris- 
 tianity was, under God, effected by 
 their means. 
 
 " This great prelate, worn out at 
 length with labours and diseases, 
 slept in Jesus in the year 604, after 
 he had enjoyed, shall I say — or en- 
 dured, Ms bishopric thirteen years 
 and six months. No man in any 
 age ever gave himself up more sin- 
 cerely to the service of God, and 
 the benefit of his fellow-creatures. 
 Power in him was a voluntary ser- 
 vitude, luidertaken not for himself, 
 but for all the world. Even the 
 growth of superstition, with which 
 he was strongly infected, while it 
 secured to him the cheerful obe- 
 
 dience of the laity, contributed 
 nothing to his ease or secular emo- 
 lument." 
 
 So far, my friends, you have a 
 little taste of the product of a Ca- 
 tholic monastery, the great but truly 
 humble St. Gregory. It remains 
 for you to say, whether you dis- 
 cover in it a spice of Scotch Cal- 
 vinism ! [Laughter.] 
 
 "Well ! let us go along with our 
 smoothly-flowing Protestant histo- 
 rian, and enter the seventh century. 
 
 "I avail myself," says Protestant 
 Miker (page 418), 'f of all the help 
 which offers for the supply of ma- 
 terials. But I mean to extol the 
 Church of Christ, wherever I can 
 find her ; nor does a Roman dress, 
 when she appears in it, convey any 
 prejudice to my mind." 
 
 very good mdeed, say I,- Dean 
 MiLaer ; but what a pity is it that, 
 in surveying that age, you could not 
 discover the Church, of Christ with 
 a Scotch dress on it ! A fortiori, you 
 could have had no prejudice in re- 
 cording its achievements ! Now go 
 on. Dean Milner; and let my reve- 
 rend antagonist from the land of 
 Scotia listen arredis auribus ! The 
 words I am about to cite will most* 
 undoubtedly be to him either thistles" 
 or roses, I know not which, nor on 
 which he most delights in feeding ! 
 [Lai^hter.] 
 
 " El this manner I would appre- 
 ciate the characters of the Romish 
 missionaries in England. - Their dis- 
 interested labours, just views ■ of 
 Christian doctrine, and holy and 
 unblemished lives, ought to have 
 exempted them from the intempe- 
 rate censures of writers who seem 
 to think an indiscriminate aversion 
 to the Church of Rome to be one 
 of the principal excellences of a 
 Protestant historian. 
 
 " But it is time to brii^ the 
 English Church history of this cen- 
 tury to a close. That there was a 
 
Mr. FrencL'] 
 
 B.TJLE OJ FAITH. 
 
 451 
 
 real effusion of the Holy Spirit oa 
 England, so that rmnibers were 
 turned from idols to the living God ; 
 that pastors, first of the Roman, 
 and afterwards of the British com- 
 munion, laboured in the work with 
 simplicity and success, has been 
 eyidenced. 
 
 "Let it suffice us to say, that 
 our ancestors saw in this century a 
 blessed time, the fruits of which 
 wiU abide for ever. 
 
 " The erection of many convents 
 in Grermany for the Scotch and 
 Irish, some of which are still extant, 
 is to be aeeounted for from the 
 ecclesiastical connexions of their 
 ancestors. Many persons travelled 
 from Great Britain and Ireland with 
 the laudable purpose of preaching 
 Christ in Batavia, Belgium and 
 Germany. And, however supersti- 
 tion might tarnish their labours, 
 there must have been a nobler prin- 
 ciple to have induced men to un- 
 dergo so much danger, with hardly 
 any possible prospect of lucre or of 
 fame. Mere philosophers are ge- 
 merally but too liberal in censure 
 and raillery : we seldom, however, 
 hear of them engaging in any work 
 of so disinterested a nature. TAe 
 love of God^ in Christ alone can sup- 
 port the spirit of men in stick en- 
 terprises. 
 
 " Oolomban, an Irish monk, dis- 
 tinguished from him of the same 
 name, spoken of before, who was 
 called " the Ancient," towards the 
 close of the foregoing century had 
 extirpated the remains of expiring 
 Paganism in IVamoe.. He also 
 passed the Rhine, and evangelized 
 the Suevi, ithe Boii, and Other 
 German nations. He laboured in 
 the cause to his death, which hap- 
 pened in the year 615. Gal, one 
 of his companions, laboured with 
 much zeal about the lakes of Zurich 
 and Constance. Near the latter 
 lake, at a little distance from Bre- 
 
 gent, he erected a monastery, which 
 still bears his name. In fortitude 
 and laboriousness he was inferior 
 to none of the missionaries of this 
 age." 
 
 We are at length, my friends, 
 arrived at the eighth century. 
 W-^yre, I again ask, aU this time, 
 were the evangelizing Calvinists 
 and Lutherans — ^where were they ? 
 Listen, my friends, whether you 
 can recogmse the praise of a Scotch 
 Calvinist, or a Church of England 
 man in what Protestant Milner says 
 of the venerable Bede ! 
 
 " The church history of our coun- 
 try, written by this renowned 
 father, was contmued to the year 
 731. I have' extracted from it that 
 which suited my purpose. He is 
 said to have died in 735. Of his 
 age the accounts are very contra- 
 dictory. The history of the cen- 
 tury will properly begin with a brief 
 narrative of the life and works of 
 this historian. 
 
 " He was bom near Durham, in 
 a village now called Parrow, near 
 the mouth of the Tyne. Losing 
 both his parents at the age of seven 
 years, he was, by the care of rela- 
 tions, plated in the monastery of 
 Weremouth, was there educated 
 with much strictness, and appeai-s 
 from his youth to have been devoted 
 to the service of God. He was 
 afterwards removed to the neigh- 
 bouring monastery of Jerrow, where 
 he ended his days. He was looked 
 on as the most learned man of his 
 time. Prayer, writing, and teach- 
 ing, were his famiKar employments 
 during Ms whole life. He was or- 
 dained deacon in the nineteenth, 
 and presbyter in the thirtieth year 
 of his age. He gave himself whoUy 
 to the study of the Scripture, the 
 instruction of disciples, the offices 
 of pubho worship, and the com- 
 position of religious and literary 
 works. The life of such a person 
 
462 
 
 KULE or rAiiH. \ith Evening. 
 
 caTi admit of little vanety. It was 
 not, however, for want of opportu- 
 nity that ke Kved thus obscure. 
 His character was celebrated through 
 the western world : the bishop of 
 Rome invited him warmly to the 
 metropohs of the Church ; but, in 
 the eyes of Bede, the great world 
 had no charms. It does not appear 
 that he ever left England; and, 
 however infected with the fashion- 
 able devotion to ths Roman see, 
 ne was evidently sincere and disin- 
 terested. 
 
 " Constantly engaged in reading 
 or writing, he made aU. his studies 
 subservient to devotion. As he 
 was sensible that it is by the grace 
 of God, rather than by natural fa- 
 ,culties, that the most profitable 
 knowledge of the Scriptures is ac- 
 quired, he mixed prayer with his 
 studies. He never knew what it 
 was to do nothing. He wrote on 
 aU the branches ot knowledge then 
 cultivated in Europe. In Greek 
 and Hebrew he had a skill very un- 
 common in that barbarous age ; 
 and, by his instructions and ex- 
 ample, he raised up many scholars. 
 Knowledge, indee.d, in those times 
 was more famijiar in the British 
 isles than in any part of Europe. 
 
 " The catalogue of Bede's works 
 exhibits the proofs of his amazing 
 industry. Has Church History is 
 to us the most valuable, because it 
 is the only British monument of 
 the Church which we have for the 
 seventh century. His expositions 
 and homilies, however, must in that 
 dearth of knowledge have been 
 abu'idantly useful. The ignorance 
 of the times is indeed but too visible 
 in him ; and he followed Augustine 
 and other fathers so closefy, and 
 coEected so much from various 
 authors, that his want of original 
 genius is more than problematical. 
 Genuine godliness, rather than taste 
 and genius, appear on the face of 
 
 his writings. His labours in the 
 sciences show a love of learning, 
 howev»r inconsiderable his acqui- 
 sitions must appear in compaiison 
 with the attainments of the present 
 age. 
 
 " In his last sickness he was 
 afBicted with a difficulty of breath- 
 ing for two weeks. His mind 
 was, however, serene and cheerful ; 
 his affections were heavenly ; and, 
 amidst these infirmities, he daily 
 taught his disciples. A great part 
 of the night was employea in prayer 
 and thanksgiving ; and the first- em- 
 ployment of the morning was to 
 ruminate on the Scriptures, aiid to 
 address his God in prayer. ' God 
 scourgeth every son whom he 
 receiveth,' was frequently in his 
 mouth. 
 
 "Even amidst his bodily weak- 
 ness, he was employed in writing 
 two little treatises. Perceiving his 
 end to draw near, he said, ' H my 
 Maker please, I will go to him from 
 the flesh, who, when I was not, 
 formed me out of nothing. My 
 soul desires to see Christ my king 
 in his beauty.' He sung 'glory to 
 the Father, the Son, and the Holy 
 Ghost,' and expired with a sedate- 
 ness, composure, and devotion that 
 amazed all who saw and heard. 
 
 " But that was not yet the case : 
 superstition itself, though deplor- 
 ably cluldish and absurd, was not 
 incompatible with sincerity and the 
 fear of God. The real nature of the 
 Gospel, and its practical exercise 
 in faith, humility, and true "mortifi- 
 cation of sin, were understood and 
 felt by the Saxon presbyter, whose 
 comments on St. Paul's Epistles 
 are, in depth of understanding and 
 penetration into the sacred sense, 
 even with all the defects of the 
 times, greatly superior to several 
 admired expositions of this, which 
 calls itself an enlightened age." 
 
 And here, my friends, let ui> 
 
Mr. French. , 
 
 EULE OF FAITH. 
 
 453 
 
 anxiously take a dive iuto all the 
 dens and caverns and fastnesses of 
 England as we go along, in expec- 
 tation that we may see at least the 
 shadow of a Protestant. 
 
 But it is time, my friends, to 
 hasten to the eighth 'Century, and 
 hear what your Protestant Milner, 
 the ecclesiastical historian, has to 
 say of it, and especially of venerable 
 Bede. Listen to his first introduc- 
 tory chapter. 
 
 ' ' I shall venture to observe, what, 
 however, no reader wiH he prepared 
 to receive, unless his mind has been 
 seasoned with a degree of expe- 
 rimental religion — that the com- 
 ments of Bede are far more solid 
 and judicious than those of many 
 modern, improperly called rational 
 divines. 
 
 " Our ancestors were, doubtless, 
 much indebted under God to the 
 Roman see. Christianity, before 
 the missions of Gregory, was very 
 low in England. A real spirit of 
 godliness, the sincere practice and 
 true understanding of the Gospel, 
 had been, through the bishops of 
 B.ome, introduced among barbarians. 
 
 " While Bede lived, in no part 
 of the world was godliness better 
 understood and practised than 
 among our ancestors. In a synod 
 held by Cuthbert, archbishop of 
 Canterbury, about the middle of 
 this century, at Cloveshoo, there 
 were twelve prelates, with Ethel- 
 bald, king of the Mercians. The 
 canons of this synod would have 
 done honour to the purest times, 
 and they seem to have oeen inspired 
 by the genius of Bede. The clergv 
 are directed to have fellowship with 
 one another, to serve God m one 
 spirit of faith, hope, and charity, to 
 pray for one another, to attend to 
 the duties of the Sabbath, and, in 
 fine, the same things are repeated 
 which are to be found in Bede's 
 letter to Egbert. 
 
 " The people who served the Lord 
 in the greatest purity and sincerity, 
 seem to have been OUB. ancestors." 
 
 And what people, let me ask my 
 reverend friend, were these ? Why, 
 the consternation so visible in his 
 countenance answers — They were 
 Roman Catholics. 
 
 " The Jehovah of the sacred 
 writings," continues Milner, " and 
 the Aunighty and All-perfect God, 
 which may be discovered by sound 
 reason, is an invisible Being, and is 
 to be honoured, as a Spirit, with the 
 heart and the understanding, and 
 without the intervention of sensi- 
 ble objects, as stocks or stones. 
 ' Thou shalt love the Lord thy God 
 with all thy heart, and vrith all thy 
 soul :' but the history of our cor- 
 rupted nature shows, that images 
 and other sensible objects have, in 
 all ages, offered themselves to men's 
 minds as guides and helps to a con- 
 ception of the Deity; and il, in 
 some instances, these absurd inven- 
 tions of gross idolatry have been 
 rejected by . men of leaming and 
 refinement, it has then generally 
 happened, that intellectual figments 
 of philosophical vanity have been 
 substituted in their place, figments 
 still more atheistical m their nature, 
 and farther removed from the notion 
 of a wise and authoritative Gover- 
 nor of the universe, who enjoins 
 the submission and dependence of 
 his creatures, requires their obe- 
 dience, and dispenses justice im- 
 partially." 
 
 But go we on, my friends, and 
 let us hear portrayed the activities 
 of Catholic saints, from age to age, 
 when Lutheranism and Calvinism 
 were as yet unborn., 
 
 /'Wilhbrod, with other Enghsh 
 missionaries, continued to labour 
 with success in the conversion of 
 the Prisons. His episcopal seat was, 
 as we have seen, at Utrecht ; for 
 fifty years he preached, founded 
 
454 
 
 RULE OP FAiiir. l8iA Hveninff,' 
 
 churches and monasteries, and ap- 
 pointed' new bishops. The conse- 
 quence of his labours was, that great 
 numbers of pagans were receired 
 into the pale of the Church. 
 
 "The great light of Germany in 
 this century was an Englishman 
 named Winfrid, bom at Erton in 
 Devonshire, about the year 680. 
 He was brought up in the monastic 
 life from his mfancy. His residence 
 was in the monastery of NutceU, in 
 the diocese of Winchester, which 
 was afterwards destroyed by the 
 Danes, and was never rebuilt. Here 
 he was made acquainted with the 
 sacred and secular learning of the 
 times. At the age of thirty he was 
 ordained priest, on the recommenda- 
 tion of his abbot, and laboured with 
 much zeal in preaching the word of 
 God. His spirit was ardent, and he 
 longed to be employed as a mis- 
 sionary in the conversion of pagans. 
 The example of a number of pious 
 persons of his own country might, 
 no doubt, have great influence with 
 him ; for we have seen already, that 
 the zeal of spreading the Gospel was 
 peculiarly strong in the British isles. 
 He went over with two monks into 
 Priezeland about the year 716. He 
 proceeded to Utrecht, 'to wateb, 
 where WiUibrod had planted ; ' 
 but finding that circumstances ren- 
 dered it impracticable at present to 
 preach the Gospel there, he returned 
 into England, with his companions, 
 to his monastery. 
 
 "Winfrid returned into Erieze- 
 land, and for three years co-operated 
 with WiUibrod. The pale of the 
 Ohurchwashence enlarged; churches 
 were erected, many received the 
 word of God, and idolatry was more 
 and more subdued. 
 
 "In 732 Boniface received the 
 title of archbishop from Gregory 
 the Third, who supported his mission 
 with the same spirit with which 
 Gregory the Second had done. En- ' 
 
 couraged by a letter sent to him 
 from Bxjme, he proceeded to erect 
 new churches, and to ' extend the 
 profession of the Gospel. At this 
 time he found the Bavarian churches 
 disturbed by an heretic, called Erem- 
 volf, who would have seduced the 
 people into idolatry. Boniface con- 
 demned him, according to the ca- 
 nons, freed the country from his 
 devices, and restored the discipline 
 of the church. 
 
 " About the year 733, Burchard 
 aad LuUus were invited from 
 England by Boniface, who made the 
 former bishop of Wurtzbuig, where 
 Kiliaa had preached, and suffered 
 martyrdom, about fifty years before. 
 He was abundantlysuccessful during 
 the labours of ten years, by which 
 his strength was exhausted; he gave 
 up his bishopric in 752, and died 
 soon after." — Butler, vol. x. 
 
 " Some time after, Boniface wrote 
 to Northelme, archbishop of Can- 
 terbury, in a strain which e(jually 
 shows the charity and sincenty of 
 his spirit, and the superstition of 
 the times. In 738 he again visited 
 B-ome, being far advanced in hfe; 
 and, after some stay, he induced 
 several Bnghshmen, who resided 
 there, to loin vrith him in his 
 German mission. Hetuming into 
 Bavaria, by the desire of the Duke 
 of Odilo, hb restored the purity of 
 the faith, and prevailed against the 
 artifices of some seducers, who had 
 done much mischief both by false 
 doctrine and flagitious example. He 
 established three new bishoprics in 
 the country, at Saltzburg, Krising- 
 hen, and Batisbon. That of Passaw 
 had been fixed before. It must, 
 however, be observed, that the suc- 
 cesses and conquests of the Carlo- 
 vingian princes much facilitated his 
 labours m' Germany. 
 
 "In writing to Cuthbert, arch- 
 bishop of Canterbury, after testifying 
 tiis zealous adherence to the see of 
 
Mr. French^ 
 
 EtJLB OF TAIIH. 
 
 455 
 
 Rome, and his submission to its 
 authority, he exhorts him to dis- 
 charge his duty faithfully, notwith- 
 standing the difficulties to which 
 good pastors were exposed. ' Let 
 us flgnt,' says he, 'for the Lord; 
 for we Kve in days of affliction and 
 anguish. Let us die, if God so 
 please, for the laws of our fathers, 
 that with them we may obtain the 
 heavenly inheritance. Let us not 
 be as dumb dogs, sleepy watclunen, 
 or selfish hirelings, but as careful 
 and \dgilant pastors, preaching to 
 all ranks, as far as God shall enable 
 us, in season and out of season, as 
 Gregory writes in Ids Pastoral.' 
 
 "That Mosheim should inveigh 
 against this missionary is what might 
 be expected from his prejudices. 
 But he should have written with 
 consistency. He speaks of the 
 pious labours of Boniface, of his 
 finishing with glory the task he had 
 undertaken, and of the assistance 
 which he received from a number of 
 pious men who repaired to him from 
 England and Prance. ' His piety,' 
 he adds, ' was Ul rewarded by that 
 barbarous people, by whom he was 
 murdered. If we consider the emi- 
 nent services he rendered to Chris- 
 tianity, the honourable title of The 
 Apostle of the Germans will appear 
 to have been not undeservedly be- 
 stowed.' Who could imagine that 
 tliis pious pastor should, by the 
 same writer, be accused without 
 warrant of often 'employing violence 
 and terror, and sometimes artifice 
 and fraud, in order to multiply the 
 number of Christians ?' He ascribes 
 to him also ' an imperious and arro- 
 gant temper, and a cunning and 
 insidious turn of mind.' 
 
 "Which of these two accounts 
 shall we believe ? for it is as impos- 
 sible that both should be true, as 
 that piety should be consistent with 
 a spirit of violence, arrogance and 
 fraud. But it is thus that men 
 
 1 zealous to propagate divine truth in 
 ithe earth are often described by 
 I those who arrogate to themselves 
 [the whole praise of judgment and 
 I candour. There has seldom existed 
 I an eminent and useful missionary 
 who has not, in this way, been 
 aspersed. In the mean time, I am 
 sensible that the foundation of the 
 strong prejudices agaiast Boniface 
 is his attachment to the Roman see. 
 I cannot observe, however, that he 
 either practised idolatry or taught 
 false doctrine." 
 
 I want to show you, my friends, 
 by these extracts — I wish to prove 
 to you the sanctity and holiness of 
 my Church in every age, notwith- 
 standing the virulent calumnies 
 incessantly poured forth by our ene- 
 mies. I wash to prove to you that 
 a Protestant historian, with a pene- 
 trating keenness and a beautiful 
 style, took the pen in hand to en- 
 lighten all Europe on ecclesiastical 
 history ; and looking around on the 
 broad field of virtue and religion for 
 sanctity wherever he could find it, 
 for pointing and illumining its fea- 
 tures with the glowing touches of his 
 style, can fix on no character in any 
 age to effect his purpose, but that of 
 the devoted Catholic- Ah! my 
 friends, what would my learned 
 antagonist give, if, in these oui- 
 perambulations through the pages of 
 ecclesiastical history, a Calvinist 
 were to rise up and call down upon 
 his memory such bright encomia 
 from the panegyrizing pen of Dean 
 Milner ! — [Laughter.] 
 
 However our missionaries, my 
 friends, may be calumniated and 
 maligned in these successive ages, it 
 would require great power and in- 
 genuity in us to calumniate theirs, 
 for we should not know where to 
 find them. [Laughter. J 
 
 "The most learned writer of 
 this century," continues Milner, 
 " if we except our countryman. 
 
456 
 
 EULE OJ? SAITH. 
 
 ^[8M Evening. 
 
 Bede, seems to have been John of 
 Damascus. 
 
 " In the doctrine of the Trinity, 
 John appears to have been orthodox; 
 in other respects, he was one of the 
 most powerful supporters of error. 
 He was an advocate for the practice 
 of praying for the dead, wbich he 
 regarded as effectual for the remis- 
 sion of sins." 
 
 Then he goes on describing all the 
 glorious missionaries who were mar- 
 tyred in the cause of their ador- 
 able Redeemer, and not — and oh ! 
 mark, my friends — not the hem of 
 a garment of any reforming sect is 
 either to be seen or heard of. TeU 
 me again, "Where lurked ye, pro- 
 found sleepers of antiquity ! ye 1m- 
 
 Well, gentlemen, we have got 
 through the eighth century. Now 
 we wSl go to the ninth century. 
 
 "The great Alfred was indeed 
 raised up to defend his country 
 against them. ' And one of his 
 speeches, deKvered to the soldiers 
 before a battle, displays at once much 
 good sense and a spirit of religion. 
 
 "It Is pleasant to see the ebulli- 
 tions of genius and of strong sense 
 in an iron age like this before us. 
 Alfred would, doubtless, in more 
 auspicious times, have appeared 
 among the first of mankind. There 
 seems no reason to doubt the sin- 
 cerity of his piety. 
 
 " There is reason, however, to be- 
 lieve, that a devotional, and probably 
 an evangelical spirit, prevailed in 
 some parts of the British isles ; 
 for monks, in Ireland and Scotland, 
 who gave themselves to prayer, 
 preaching and teachii^ in the mid- 
 dle ages, were called Ouldees ; that 
 is, Oultores Dei. They were first 
 known in this country by that 
 name, at St. Andrew's pai-tioularly ; 
 but were never settled in England, 
 except at St. Peter's in York." — 
 A. Butler, vol. v. 
 
 Dean Milner then proceeds to 
 describe the different saints that 
 beamed through the ninth century, 
 shedding the kindly influence of 
 divine Lght amidst nations of bar- 
 barian darkness ; and, amongst 
 others, pays a tribute to the virtues 
 of St. Methodius, who flourished in 
 the year 861 ; and of Bogoris, who 
 gave up his crown about the year 
 880, and retired into a monastery; 
 and of Haymo, a monk of Eulda, a 
 scholar of Alcuin, who was chosen 
 bishop' of Haberstadt ia the year 
 841. Page 464. 
 
 He enters fuUy iato the character 
 of St. Ansoarius, the illuminator of 
 Denmark. (Page 465.) Listen to 
 his words) : — 
 
 " In the year 865 this apostle of 
 the north was called to his rest. 
 He had lived six years after the 
 union of the dioceses of Hamburg 
 and Bremen, and had applied him- 
 self to the duties of his office, both- 
 as a governor and a preacher of the 
 Church, with indefatigable assiduity. 
 A terror to the proud, and a comfort 
 to the humble, he knew how to divide 
 the word of truth, and to give to 
 each of the flock his portion in due 
 season. In all good works, and par- 
 ticularly in his care of redeeming 
 captives, he was emiaently distin- 
 guished. He erected an hospital at 
 Bremen, ia which passengers were 
 relieved, and the sick were taken 
 care of; which, in that rude age, 
 was an uncommon instance of liber- 
 ality and compassion. His example 
 and authority had great influence 
 even among those who sold captives 
 to pagans, or kept them in slavery : 
 they were induced by his exhorta- 
 tions to set the prisojiers at liberty. 
 He is said to have had the gift pf 
 miracles; and, though I cannot 
 give fuU credit to the most plausible 
 stories of this nature which are re- 
 lated of him, because of the super 
 stitious credulity and fraudulent 
 
Mr. French.'] 
 
 HULE or FAITH. 
 
 457 
 
 inyeEtions of the times, I must con- 
 fess, with Meury, that if ever the 
 gift of miracles may be supposed to 
 have existed after the first ages of 
 Christianity, it may he believed 
 most probably to have been vouch- 
 safed to those who were concerned 
 ia the first plantation of churches. 
 And it should be remembered, that 
 Sweden and Denmark were, under 
 God, indebted to Ansoarius for the 
 first light of the Gospel. This ex- 
 traordinary person, however, was 
 by no means disposed to value him- 
 self on miraculous powers : as he 
 appeared to have been acquainted 
 with an holy influence of a more 
 excellent nature. (1 Cor. xii. last 
 verse.) ' If I had favour with God,' 
 said he, one day when he heard his 
 miracles extoUed, 'I should beseech 
 him to grant me one single miracle, 
 even his grace to sanctify mynature.' 
 It is remarked of him, that he never 
 did anything without recommending 
 himself first to God by prayer. A 
 short fragment of an epistle to the 
 bishops is the whole of his writings 
 which I can find to be extant. 'I 
 beg your earnest prayers to God for 
 the growth and fruitfulness of this 
 mission among the pagans. Por, by 
 the grace of God, the Church of 
 Christ is now fovinded both in Den- 
 mark and Sweden ; and the pastors 
 discharge their office without mo- 
 lestation. May God Almighty make 
 you aH partakers of this work in 
 godly charity, and joint heirs with 
 Christ in heavenly glory ! ' The 
 centuriators have charged him with 
 idolatry ; but the only proof which 
 they give, is his superstitious at- 
 tachment to relics — an evil so 
 general, I had almost said tjiii- 
 VEBSAL, at that time, that it cannot 
 fix any particular blot on the cha- 
 racter of Ansoarius. I see no proof 
 of his havingpractised or encouraged 
 image-worship. It is true, that he 
 was devoted to the see of Rome. 
 
 And, in those days, how few were 
 not so ! 
 
 " Nelson is of the same opinion. 
 ' Q. Does it seem probable, that it 
 the conversion of mfidels were at- 
 tempted by men of honest and sincere 
 minds, God would extraordLnaiily 
 countenance such a design ? A. 'Tis 
 agreeable to reason to think he 
 would, and in no way contrary 
 to Scripture. I'or as the wisdom 
 of Godf is never found to be pro- 
 digal in multiplying the effects of 
 his Almighty power, so it is never 
 wanting to afford aU necessary 
 evidences and motives of conver- 
 sion.' — Ifekon's Festivals, p. 259. 
 
 " Rembert, his confidant, was 
 appointed bishop of Bremen, by the 
 dymg words ot the apostle. He 
 wrote the life of his predecessor, a 
 treatise which seems to have fur- 
 nished historians with the greatest 
 part of their materials concerning 
 Ansoarius. Rembert himself pre- 
 sided over the church of the north 
 for twenty-three years, and esta- 
 blished their discipline and ecclesi- 
 astical consistence. He was not 
 unworthy of the confidence of his 
 predecessor, and lived and died 
 an example of piety. He began to 
 preach among the people of Bran- 
 denburg, which hitherto had been 
 altogether pagan, and made some 
 progress towards their conversion. 
 He died in 888. 
 
 " Jeron, an English presbyter, 
 went over to HoUand in this cen- 
 tury, and preached the Gospel tliere: 
 and, so far as appears, with faithful 
 ness. He was crowned with mar 
 tyrdom about the year 849. 
 
 " Patto, a Scotch abbot, was 
 appointed bishop of Verden by 
 Charlemagne. The centuriators 
 only tell us, that he strenuously 
 supported Popish corruptions and 
 human traditions. But Crantzius, 
 from whom they collected this 
 account, would have informed them 
 q2 
 
458 
 
 RULE OE EAiTH. [%th Evenifuf, 
 
 also of .better things. Patto, it 
 appears, had great success among 
 the inidels, but was grieved to see 
 Christian professors disgracing the 
 faith by their vices. He faithfully 
 rebuked them ; and for Ms honest 
 zeal in preaching against the sins 
 of nominal Christians was mur- 
 dered about the year 815. 
 
 " Tanes, who had succeeded Patto 
 in the Scotch abbey, after a time 
 left his situation, and followed his 
 countryman in Germany, not so 
 much with a desire of martyrdom, 
 say the centuriators, as of obtainiag 
 a richer benefice. Uncharitable 
 surmise ! There is too much of this 
 leaven to be found in a Work which, 
 in other respects, abounds in piety 
 gjid industry. The same Crantziiis 
 informs us, that Tanes, in fact, 
 laboured in conjunction with Patto, 
 and, after a while, was appointed 
 his successor to the see of Verden. 
 Were the sufferings and hardships 
 which Pa,tto and himself had sus- 
 tained among barbarians bkely to 
 render the bishopric of Verden an 
 enviable object of ambition ? 
 
 " The reader, I hope, has seen, 
 in this dark centu^, a clear demon- 
 stration that the Church of Christ 
 stiU existed." 
 
 Here, my friends, you hear an 
 account of Scotch aboots, Scotch 
 saints, Scotch missionaries, flashing 
 with the cross in hand through the 
 gloom of ages ; all busied in their 
 grand work, the propagation of 
 Christianity amongst idolatrous infi- 
 dels ; and not a single trace of the 
 Calvinist was to be found among 
 them ! 
 
 Let us now hear what Protestant 
 Milner says of the tenth century. 
 " Infidel malice," says Tie, " has 
 with pleasure recorded the vices and 
 the crimes of the Popes of this 
 century. Nor is it my mtention- to 
 attempt to palliate the account of 
 their vrickedness. But let it never 
 
 be forgotten, my friends, that in 
 this tenth century there was many a 
 bright exemplar of the sanctity of 
 the church. St. Ephege and Lan- 
 franc, archbishops of Canterbury, 
 the prelates Burcard of Worms, 
 Pulbert, and Ivo of Chartres, Odilo, 
 an abbot, Algar, a monk, Guitmond, 
 and Theophylactus. The crown was 
 also now adorned with saints. In 
 England shone St. Edward the Con- 
 fessor ; in Scotland," my reverend 
 opponent's birth-place, " St. Mar- 
 garet ; in Germany, St. Hemy; in 
 Hungary, St. Stephen. The cloister 
 was also enriched with the Cistercian 
 Order by St. Robert; the Carthusian 
 Order was founded by St. Bruno ; 
 the Order of Valambrosa, by St. 
 John Gualbert." 
 
 But before we conclude this 
 tenth century, hear Protestant Mil- 
 ner once more : 
 
 " Such," says he, (page 476,) 
 "were the apostolic missionaries. 
 Such in a good degree were the 
 missionaries of the dark ages which 
 we are reviewing." In the same page, 
 speaking of Protestant England, ne 
 has these remarkable words : — 
 
 " With every advantage m our 
 hands for. the propagation of the 
 Gospel, we have done very little 
 indeed ; and the annals of the several 
 dark ages we have reviewed have 
 exhibited a spirit of adventurous 
 charity unknown to those who now 
 boast themselves as the most en- 
 lightened and the most philosophic 
 of mankind." 
 
 Gentlemen, I have not time to 
 record the names of Catholic mis- 
 sionaries in the eleventh century, 
 if we may believe Protestant Milner, 
 who were active in extending the 
 
 Eale of the Church by their pious 
 ibours. I shall content myself 
 with one or two extracts, vdiich 
 I must read with the utmost 
 rapidity. 
 
 " Boniface, in particular, and 
 
Mr. French. 1 
 
 BULE or JAITH. 
 
 4-59 
 
 eighteen otter persons, set out from 
 Germany, to labour among the 
 Prussians, and were massacred by 
 that barbarous people. They seem 
 to have been among the last of the 
 Evuopean nations who submitted 
 to the yoke of Christ. In the 
 zealous attempts made, however, for 
 their conversion, though unsuc- 
 cessful, we see abundant proofs that 
 the spirit of propagating the Gospel, 
 which was the brightest gem of 
 these dark ages, still existed. 
 
 " Nor can I doubt hut many at 
 this day who boast of their ex- 
 emption from papal ignorance, and 
 who caU themselves enlightened, 
 because they have been refined by 
 philosophical and political know- 
 ledge, are themselves much inferior 
 in Ghristiaa Hght and spirit* to 
 many who lived in the daik times 
 of the eleventh century, under the 
 benefit of such advantages of in- 
 struction as the canon T)efore us 
 afibrded." 
 
 He then comes to that solid, 
 
 fenuine, apostolical ornament of 
 Ingland, the immortal Anselm ! 
 " As a divine," says Protestant 
 MUner, "he was the first of cha- 
 racters in this century, and will, 
 therefore, deserve some attention." 
 Now Hsten attentively to what this 
 Protestant historian -says farther 
 with relation to Anselm. 
 
 " Thus did Anselm employ him- 
 self in the defence of divine trutli 
 and serious religion. His know- 
 ledge of the Scriptures was, I am 
 persuaded, so sound, and his love 
 of them so sincere, that if he had 
 met with direct opposition, on these 
 infinitely momentous subjects, from 
 the court of Rome, he would have 
 sooner pronounced the Pope to be 
 aatichnst than have parted with his 
 evangelical sentiments and pro- 
 fession. 
 
 " Indeed, every precious funda- 
 mental of Christianity appears in 
 
 his writiugs. Ilemove the rubbish 
 of superstition, and view the inward 
 man ; and yoii see in Ansehn all 
 that is vital and essential in god- 
 liness. 
 
 " Anselm was one of these. 
 Amidst the gloom of superstition 
 with which he was surrounded, he 
 was yet enabled to describe and^ 
 vindicate every fundamental of 
 evangelical doctrine ; though a 
 papist, he appeals to the Scriptures: 
 he expounds them, by opening the 
 plain grammatical sense of St. Paul; 
 and it behoves men who call them- 
 selves Protestants, or who boast of 
 the superior light of this age, to 
 confute his arguments, or at least to 
 own that they do not believe the^ 
 Scriptures to be divine. 
 
 " It is allowed, even by his 
 enemies, that his life was in the 
 right': and all the true holiness of 
 practice which has appeared in the 
 world has ever originated from such 
 doctrines as he professed." 
 
 We are now arrived at the 
 twelfth century. How does the 
 Protestant historian commence it ? 
 Listen. 
 
 " A great luminaiy strikes our 
 attention at the entrance of this 
 century — the famous Bernard, abbot 
 of Clairval. As tJie general scene 
 of our history still continues dark 
 and gloomy, let us stick close to the 
 splendid object. At least I would 
 wish to exhibit a just estimate 
 of the life, character, and writings 
 of this renowned saint. Por the 
 subject may not only throw a con- 
 siderable hght on the religion and 
 manners of this century, but will 
 also illustrate that connexion be- 
 tween Christian doctrine and prac- 
 tice which it is the principal design 
 of this work to explore from age to 
 age. 
 
 ■ " The love of God appears to 
 have taken deep root in his sou], 
 and seems to have been always 
 
460 
 
 ET;IJ3 01' TAITH. 
 
 steady, though always ardent. His 
 charity was equal to his zeal ; and 
 his tenderness and compassion to 
 Christian brethren went hand in 
 hand with his severity against the 
 heretical, the profane, and the 
 vicious. In humility he was truly 
 admirable ; he scarce seems to have 
 felt a glimpse of pleasure on 
 account of the extravagant praises 
 every where bestowed npon him." 
 
 Nor does this Protestant his- 
 torian, Milner, defraud the Church 
 of its due sanctity ia the thirteenth 
 century. He enumerates the.saints 
 as usual ; — a St. Arsenius, bishop 
 of Constantinople; John Scot, an 
 Englishman, Archdeacon of St. 
 Andrews; the famous St. Francis 
 of Assisium, founder of the Minor- 
 friars; and his contemporary St. 
 Dominic, founder of the. Order of 
 the Dominicans : — and then Pro- 
 testant Milner is most copious in 
 panegyrizing the great St. Lewis, 
 king of Prance. 
 
 " With great pleasure," says he, 
 •(page 567,) " I dwell on a cha- 
 racter so singularly excellent." He 
 then launches out into the most 
 enthusiastic encomiums on the cha- 
 racter of Grosseteste, bishop of 
 Lincoln. Page 571. 
 
 Lastly, in the fourteenth century, 
 an Englishman named Bradwaxdine, 
 archbishop of Canterbury, and St. 
 Eleazar, count of Arian, in Naples, 
 call forth the unboxinded admira- 
 tion of the Protestant historian, 
 lyiilfter. 
 
 glorious Catholicity, how in 
 every age dost thou not extort the 
 praises of thine enemies ! You 
 thus see, my friends, that it is most 
 indisputably evident from this labo- 
 rious reading ; though I would 
 rather be exerting my Wgs another 
 way, and, like my learned friend, 
 rather have indulged my little vein 
 of oratory than have read so much. 
 But I thought it was necessary to 
 
 prove, by Protestant as well as by 
 CathoKc historians, that you are 
 indebted solely for the seeds of 
 Christianity to the missionary 
 efforts of your Catholic ancestors ; 
 that to them is attributable all the 
 piety that reigns in this c'oniitry ; 
 that to them we owe aU those 
 beautiful prayers of true and heart- 
 stirring unctuous devotion which 
 run through some of your Pro- 
 testant books, especially yovir Li- 
 turgy. The great Jeremy Taylor, 
 that bright metaphysical writer, 
 whatever there is of samotity in 
 his beautiful works, it is pilfered 
 from the pages of our Catholic 
 priests, ms brilliant mfetaphors 
 are his ovm, but that is all. To them 
 you owe every thing; ajid ought you 
 no*, constrained by a feeling of 
 gratitude, to suppress these mur- 
 murings against your spiritual bene- 
 factors, your fellow CathoHcs? Why 
 do you take delight in hearing 
 such virulent invectives as are 
 incessantly being poured forth 
 against them from this room; ex- 
 cluding them from the beatitude 
 of heaven, as if they were addicted 
 to idolatry and crime ? And, oh ! 
 my friencfe, whilst you thus have 
 the opportunity of hearing these 
 arguments and illustrations, look 
 narrowly and observantly, I beseech 
 you, for the remaining years of 
 your life, at the practice of the 
 CathoHc reKgion. I do not mean 
 thereby the practice of those who 
 merely preach Catholicity, and call 
 themselves so, without cherishing 
 an inward love and veneration for 
 its practices : but look ye at those 
 who approach our hoKest altars, 
 and who feed on the heavenly 
 manna of Divine love ; look on the 
 conduct of the men and women with 
 whom ye may become acquainted, 
 if placed within reach of those 
 who are in the habit of frequent- 
 ing our holy sacrament; and then 
 
Mr. French.] 
 
 BULE OF PAITH. 
 
 •4.61 
 
 you will see what real devotion is, 
 sucli devotion as you have not the 
 faintest idea of or semblance in your 
 conventicles. AH is certainly very 
 pompous, orderly and solemn in 
 your service ; an eloquent preacher 
 ascends your pulpit with immmer- 
 able texts in store, which he pours 
 forth like Hybla drops with un- 
 paralleled rapidity, having it in 
 his power, by constant practice, to 
 adorn his speeches vrith every 
 species of fantastic embeUishment 
 and studied elegance : aU. this, I 
 grant you, you have in abundance ; 
 but yon must go and behold the 
 Catholic prostrate at his altar, if you 
 want to see the essence of true 
 and heartfelt devotion— [sensation] 
 — as you find it described in the 
 sweet, the unimitated pages of an 
 ever inimitable Thomas a Kempis ! 
 There is a text, my Protestant 
 friends, which I should wish to 
 amplify a little upon this evening, 
 but unfortunately I find I have 
 scarcely time to do it. It is a text 
 which I had marked as being, pecu- 
 liarly appropriate to be addressed 
 to the Cathoho part of my audi- 
 ence rather than to the Protestant. 
 I say it without meaning to give 
 the least offence. It is from Paul 
 (Rom. xiv. 1), " Him that is weak 
 in the faith receive you, but not 
 to doubtful disputation." 
 
 And why, my friends, do I not 
 address thjs equally to my Pro- 
 testant brethren ? — my " enligh- 
 tened " brethren, as my friend cha- 
 racteristically calls them. [A laugh.] 
 It is, my friends, because ye are 
 totally unable to give a person, 
 should any such person be m this 
 room at present, who, having the 
 wish and anxiously seeking and 
 desiring to become a Christian, and 
 looking for the true rehgion, — you 
 are unable, I say, to give such an 
 answer, should he ask you in the 
 words of the man in the Gospel to 
 
 our blessed Saviour : — " What shall 
 I do to inherit eternal hfe?" Ye 
 are unable to give to an inquirer 
 of this kind sueh a rational answer 
 as shall set for ever " all doubtful 
 disputation" at defiance. I speak 
 plainly, my friends. You are totally 
 unable to substantiate the tenets 
 of your respective creeds by any 
 learning, human or divine, saving 
 and except the infallibility of your 
 own dictates in interpreting the 
 sacred volume for yourselves. It 
 is, my friends, because every page 
 of the Gospel, together with almost 
 every page of primitive antiquity, 
 is at open war with your newly- 
 fangled doctrines, and especially 
 with that liberty which ye all alike 
 assume, (Protestants of every deno- 
 mination) the right of interpreting 
 for yourselves the sacred volume, 
 whicn the Gospel itself, as well as 
 the primitive interpretators of the 
 Gospel, aU unanimously declare 
 was to be interpreted by those 
 alone " to whom were committed 
 the oracles of God :" — " the priest's 
 Hps shall keep Itnowledge," (for 
 I insist upon that " shall ") " and 
 ye shall see/c the law at his mouth, 
 for he is the angel of the Lord of 
 Hosts." 
 
 Again : " No Scripture is of pri- 
 vate interpretation," says the apo- 
 stle, according to the Protestant 
 version. But it is not so ; it is 
 badly translated by the English. 
 The original is, " and no Scripture 
 is of private disentangling or unra- 
 velling" alluding most evidently to 
 passages that might, by ignorance 
 or instability, be wrested to the dam- 
 nation of individuals. You must, 
 therefore, have recourse to the 
 Church of Agesf'Ca.i. Church that has 
 ever existed in every age ; that has 
 converted aU. nations ; that has 
 handed down to you that incom- 
 parable boon, the Bible, and has 
 taught you all the soul-saving, soul- 
 
463 
 
 HTJLB OP PAITH. 
 
 [8 */i jsvemiiff. 
 
 elevating views of vital Christianity. 
 Lastly, my friends, it is because by 
 this your usurped liberty of inter- 
 preting for yourselves, that, instead 
 of solemn and sweetest harmony, 
 the offspriog of venerable and primi- 
 tive antiquity, every species of con- 
 trariety, and discord, and " doubtful 
 disputation," is evermore being en- 
 gendered among you. The Ana- 
 baptist has one meamng on some 
 particular text,- the Quaker has 
 another; the Sooinian another, the 
 Calvinist another, the Lutheran has 
 another; and when they diverge 
 from these innumerable dofferenoes, 
 and meet together in one point to 
 oppose Catholicity, then, forsooth, 
 they deal out their fine-spun com- 
 pliments to one another, and say, 
 " Oh, we differ but on some lesser 
 points." No, my friends, such is 
 not a true picture of your manifold 
 differences. I speak the truth, and 
 I speak it boldly — Ye differ in fun- 
 damental points. The Anabaptist, 
 he will tell you that he believes in 
 dipping. He knows vei-y well that, 
 according to his idea, if the Bitle 
 alone be the general guide, our 
 baptism is a mere empty ceremony, 
 and that we are not baptized in a 
 proper maimer. The Quaker again 
 thinks that baptism is not "neces- 
 sary to salvation;" that the words 
 are to be taken "metaphorically," 
 " orientally," and spiritually, and 
 that it must be a spiritual baptism. 
 And these, my friends, are the 
 lesser differences, too minute, for- 
 sooth, to mar or to disfigure the 
 peace and unanimity of Protestants ! 
 The Calvinist maintains that baptism 
 may be demanded as a seal, but is not 
 " necessary ;" and this, too, is an 
 inferior point ! One person says on 
 a certain text, that women are com- 
 manded to be silent in church; 
 another reads that they ought to 
 be loquacious ; and I have actually 
 known a Quaker woman as loqua- 
 
 cious and almost as erratic as my 
 reverend friend. [Laughter.] 
 
 Lastly, gentlemen, u my learned 
 friend, since he has laid down the 
 Bible to be the solid, soul-saving, 
 ' soul-enlightening Rule of Paith to 
 the Christian, wiU he have the kind- 
 ness to point out any text in the 
 Bible which tells him that it is so ? 
 WiU he have the kindness to ac- 
 count for the loss of many inspired 
 books ? Bishop Watson tells us that 
 the Letter of Paul to the Laodi- 
 cean| is lost; that the Epistle to 
 Barnabas is also lost ; and history 
 also teUs us that many inspired 
 books are lost for ever. WiU he be- 
 so good as to tell me how this Rule 
 of Faith could operate for so many 
 centuries before the art of printing 
 was invented? Then, again, I ask 
 him if he cannot teU me, has a new 
 Rule of Paith sprung up 'in the 
 ■nineteenth or fourteenth century ? 
 and is that Rule of Paith, which is 
 confessedly of apostolical and in- 
 spired ages, to be totally set aside ? 
 and the ntoment that n corrupt 
 translation of the Bible was scat- 
 tered over the world, were the priests 
 of Grod to be silenced ; their inalien- 
 able prerogative to cease ; and that 
 part to be eH)unged from the Bible, 
 namely, " The priest's lips shall 
 keep knowledge, for he is the angel 
 of the Lord of Hosts P" No, my 
 friends, so long as the pillars of the 
 earth stand, "so long as the sun 
 and moon endureth," that pass^e 
 wlU stand in unshaken truth. The 
 Jews themselves tel you, that when 
 in their own Church difficulties 
 arose, they were invariably left to 
 the decision of the Church; and 
 the Catholic has unintermittingly 
 preached the same doctrine. But 
 in these present times a set of men 
 have arisen, who, instead of follow- 
 ing apostoKcal tradition, chalk out, 
 with an astonisliit^ degree of self- 
 sufficiency, a tradition for them- 
 
Mr.¥f'ench.'\ kule op paith. 
 
 403 
 
 selves ! My learned friend tells me 
 that I cannot prove tradition; let 
 me, therefore, give him this plain 
 text :— 3 Thess. ii. 15.— "There- 
 fore, brethren, stand fast, and hold 
 the traditions which ye have been 
 taught, whether by word or our 
 epistle." And mark, my friends, 
 it was by " word," and not by 
 "epistle," that the barbarian nations 
 of the earth were converted by oui 
 Catholic ancestors. 
 
 Again, nearly seventy years 
 elapsed before the New Testament 
 was written, and how many years 
 before it was disseminated ! 'think 
 ye, during that time— think ye that 
 the priests of the living God were 
 hiding themselves in caverns ? No, 
 my friends, they were scaling the 
 high mountains of the heathen and 
 barbarian ; they were descending 
 into the deep valleys, as yet slum- 
 bering in the shadows of ignorance 
 and unblessed with the light of 
 Clu-istianity, with the crucifix in 
 their hand, preaching the primitive 
 Catholic religion, and no other ; and 
 you are entirely indebted in this 
 land for Christianity itself to the 
 zealous missionaries of that holy 
 rel^ion. [Sensation.] 
 
 Lastly, my friends, it is because 
 in ancient times the motto of the 
 Christian was, when the Chtjuch 
 wrought these victories, "The .hu- 
 mility of obedience ;" the motto of 
 Protestants is, and ever has been 
 since that day, " The heroism of 
 resistance." Yes, my friends, it 
 was in the full-fledged spirit of this 
 impious, this darmg motto, that 
 your ancestors, the founders of the 
 different sects that now reign among 
 yon, sundered from oui' great mother, 
 the Church, uplifting an heretical 
 iDanner for themselves, and intro- 
 ducing into the house of the one only 
 God the principles of violence and 
 discord, where all before was peace 
 and harmony, brotherhood, and in- 
 
 dissoluble concord. And look, my 
 friends, at what is the consequence 
 —why, the man who allows his 
 mind to be deceived into any of 
 your sects, forfeits all repose and 
 calm of spirit, and makes up his 
 mind to become the subject of the 
 denunciation of the most conspi- 
 cuous text in the Gospel. Yes, my 
 friends, in the language of St. Paul, 
 God must give such a man "the 
 spirit of slumber," that, " having 
 eyes that he may not see, and ears 
 that he may not hear," instead of 
 exerting himself to agree with the 
 doctrines of primitive antiquity, he 
 becomes obnoxious to the Church 
 as " a heathen man or pnbKcan ;" 
 that is, destitute of eternal Ufe 
 Protestants of every sect and deno- 
 mination seizing with avidity every 
 text of the Bible, by the aid of 
 which they may be able to annihi- 
 late the evidence of that Church 
 which Christ himself has founded, 
 by endeavom-iag to destroy obe- 
 dience to it, and erecting in its 
 stead a grievous apostasy. 
 
 Believe me, my Protestant bre 
 thi-en, I mean not to wound your 
 feelings by pointing to your ances- 
 tors. They are not connected with 
 you. You have been misled by 
 dazzling accounts of them. Only 
 read the manner by which they suc- 
 ceeded in estabhshing your en roh 
 or churches, and you will soon be 
 come disgusted. My intention and 
 my wish is, to excite a desire in you 
 to seek for that Church; w ere, 
 holding in your hands the words of 
 primitive antiquity, you may be 
 enabled to exclaim with one mind 
 and with one mouth, that " you 
 now glorify God, even the Pather of 
 our Lord Jesus Christ." The Bible, 
 you all exclaini, is the grand guide of 
 Protestants ; the Bifle, I answer, 
 is part of the sacred tradition of the 
 Church; that is, the Cathohc be- 
 Heres it to be what the Church tells 
 
ibi 
 
 BULE OF PAiTH. \}itliMvemnff. 
 
 him it is, namely, all Divine. With- 
 out that Church we should not have 
 known what the Bible is, and with- 
 out it we have no right to iuterpret 
 any one particle of fundamental text 
 within it. But what is your gain, 
 my Protestant brethren, by thus 
 referring to the Bible ? Why, the 
 very moment that you open it, you 
 see in large and legible letters, 
 written, as it were, and engraven 
 on its frontispiece as with sunbeams, 
 that, under the menace of eternal 
 torments, ye are bound to bow 
 down your proud heads in the spirit 
 of lowliness and submission to that 
 one only Church, which both minis- 
 ters and fulfils the sublime and fare- 
 well commission of the Saviour, 
 
 when he said, on ascending into 
 
 flory : " Go and, teach all naiions, 
 aptizing them in the name of the 
 Father, and of the Son, and of the 
 Holy Ghost ; and, lo ! I am with 
 you always, even unto the end of 
 the world." 
 
 Gentlemen, I have many more 
 
 arguments, and [The chairman 
 
 here announced the expiration of 
 the learned gentleman's time.] 
 
 We certify that this Report is faith- 
 fully and correctly given. 
 
 J. Gumming, M.A. 
 D. Pkench, 
 
 BarriBter-at-Laii}. 
 
 Chas. Maybtibt Abchek, 
 
 Reporter. 
 
 Ninth Evbnihg, Thttrsdat, May 9, 1839. 
 
 SUBJECT : 
 
 EXILE OE lAITH. 
 
 (Continued.) 
 
 flev. J. Gumming. — Ton wiU find, 
 by referring to the original chap- 
 ters of Mimer, that my opponent 
 gives as much of a sentence as ap- 
 pears to serve his purpose, and, by 
 the aJicient usages of his Church', 
 called ".pious frauds;" he then 
 most quietly leaves out the very part 
 that would tell exactly the other 
 way. Mr. ^French's extracts, in 
 almost eveiT instance, are mutilated. 
 The second-hand references which 
 he furnishes do not always direct to 
 the right part. When they do, let 
 the reaider foEow him, and he wiU. 
 see that my opponent had only to 
 read on to meet with the appropri- 
 ate eixtinguisher. This is not fair 
 to the author, nor just to you, nor 
 creditable to my antagonist. I do 
 not dread full, free, and impartial 
 
 discussion. It is a bad cause that 
 stands in need of such support. 
 
 Mr. Prench, I observe, through- 
 out, found it exceedingly conve- 
 nient to quote certain parts, of Dean 
 Miln p.r, and to skip over the inter- 
 mediate and connecting parts which 
 militate wholly against him. Hence 
 he gave a sort of rasa tabula, if I 
 may so express it, of asterisks, such 
 as you sometimes see in public 
 works, and as you will see wUl 
 appear in the reports, if my oppo- 
 nent is just to Milner, by asterisks 
 being placed where should have 
 appeared the parts which he omit- 
 ted, because he found the honest 
 and unmutilated extracts would be 
 detrimental to his argument. The 
 course of his speech may be thus 
 dignified. I must spend some little 
 
Rev. J. Cumming.] rule op faith. 
 
 465 
 
 time in reading to you extracts, 
 from Dean Milner (as my opponent 
 makes him a nose of wax), to show 
 you that Mihier is not the unqua- 
 lified panegyrist of the Roman Car 
 tholic Church. I will refer you to 
 one extract from his works descrip- 
 tive of the state of matters in the 
 fourth century. Eor you wiU re- 
 member that my learned antagonist 
 referred to successive centuries, 
 beginning with the fourth, in all of 
 wmch he would make you t hink 
 Milner saw and praised Popery. 
 He says here [turning to Mj. 
 Erenchj — it is the same edition as 
 your own, page 204 ; indeed, I was 
 so anxious to have the correct edi- 
 tion, that, finding it was an edition 
 published in one volume, I went 
 and purchased it yesterday for the 
 purpose of referring to the same 
 identical passage. Now, mark ! 
 I gave you before, I think, a 
 Roman Catholic historian's descrip- 
 tion, which was black enough and 
 dark enough, I am sure. Now I wiU 
 give you a few extracts from Dean 
 Milner, a Protestant, from whom he 
 has quoted, as to the state of mat- 
 ters when the Roman Catholic 
 Church, according to my antagonist, 
 was alone in her glory, and during 
 several successive centuries before 
 the Reformation. Speaking of the 
 fourth century, Dean Milner says, 
 " Scarce a luminary of godliness 
 existed. This whole period, as well 
 as the whole scene of the persecu- 
 tion, is very barren of such charac- 
 ters. Those who suffered found no 
 pastor to discouutenance their self- 
 will and false zeal. Eusebius ob- 
 serves that pastors of churches were 
 condemned to take care of camels 
 and to feed the emperor's horses." 
 Page 204, 205. 
 
 Then he goes on further to ob- 
 serve, at page 210, "As it was 
 difficult to clear Origen of depre- 
 ciating the divinity of Christ, so it 
 
 is still more difficult to exculpate 
 Eusebius." 
 
 "His sermons breathe Ktlle of 
 Christianity." 
 
 And again, page 211, "The doc- 
 trine of real conversion was very 
 much lost, or external baptism was 
 placed in its stead; and the trut 
 doctrine of justification by faith, 
 and the true practical use of a cru- 
 cified Saviour for troubled con- 
 sciences, was scarcely to be seen at 
 this time." 
 
 At page 212, " Yet feuds, conten- 
 tions, and the most unworthy spirit 
 of avarice and ambition, appear very 
 prevalent. 
 
 " Pure doctrinal truth was too 
 commonly mere speculation." 
 
 Again, I read another description 
 of the fourth century at page 278, 
 at last column, at the bottom of the 
 column. — " Monasticism continued 
 to make rapid progress through the 
 whole century. It is not worth 
 while to trace its progress particu- 
 larly, nor to recite any of the 
 ridiculous frauds, abuses, and su- 
 perstitions which were connected 
 with it. Self-righteous formality 
 made rapid strides in the Christian 
 world." 
 
 Then he goes on to add, " That 
 these countries, which were before 
 the most part void of the doctrine ot 
 Christ, might receive spiritual ad 
 vantage from these superstitious 
 men, is probable, because some 
 genuine piety was doubtless among 
 them. ' S\iperstition drawing with 
 it something of real Christianity, 
 may bring a blessing to countries 
 altogether profane or idolatrous ; to 
 a people already evangelized it can 
 only act as a poison." Page 279. 
 
 Again, I quote another passage 
 from Dean Mikier, from page 373, 
 and first column, on the iifth centuiy. 
 " Superstition had grown gradually 
 in this and the former century. 
 Relics, and various other instruments 
 
4!66 
 
 RULE OE PAilH. l^i&Mvemng. 
 
 of the same class, were fast advancing 
 into reputation. The monastic so- 
 litudes were strongly calculated to 
 augment these evife. The general 
 current of corrupt doctrine was 
 strongly set in: idolatry was too 
 deeply rooted in men's hearts to be 
 eradicated from any except those 
 who were Christians indeed, and we 
 shall ere long see it estab^hed in 
 the formality of public worship." 
 Page 373. 
 
 Again, describing the sixth cen- 
 tury, at page 411, where there are 
 some remarks about Gregory, he 
 says : — " In obedience to Gregory's 
 directions, they proceeded on their 
 journey ; but their hearts failed 
 them when they reflected on the 
 difficulties and dangers to which 
 they thought themselves likely to be 
 exposed. The faith, and zeal, and 
 simplicity of a Christian missionary 
 were grown rare in the world." 
 
 Eromthe extracts of my opponent 
 you would have thought that the 
 millenniura had then dawned upon 
 the world ; whereas the real account 
 of the matter is, that there was such 
 a mighty power accompanying the 
 Gospel, that sR the rampant super- 
 stitions of the growing Roman 
 CathoUo Church were not able to 
 depress or put it down. Its ever- 
 lasting and inherent energies made 
 it spring up with renewed elas- 
 ticity and strength, notwithstand- 
 ing the tremendous corruptions 
 by which it was darkened and over- 
 whelmed ! 
 
 Again, I rea'd at page 438, same 
 edition, respecting Gregory the 
 Second: — "He whoflUed the see of 
 Rome at this time was Gregory the 
 Second, whom, for Ais open defenee 
 and support of idolatry, I shall ven- 
 ture to call the fe-st pope of Rome. 
 I have for the most part been silent 
 concemia^ the Roman bishops, 
 income very little of godliness ap- 
 --"■—-' ■"— ■ The openavowal 
 
 of idolatry was reserved for Gregory 
 the Second." 
 
 Again, at page 451 (century- 
 ninth) : — 
 
 " Here and there a glimmering 
 ray of the sun of righteousness 
 appears. 
 
 " Several circumstances attended 
 the thick darkness which pervaded 
 this century, and they appear to be 
 reducible to the following : — ^Igno- 
 rance and superstition were so 
 predominant, and idolatry was prac- 
 tically supported by the whole power 
 and influence of the popedom." 
 
 Now observe that Milner says 
 here, in plain terms, that the Pope of 
 Rome supported idolatry ; but the 
 extracts which my antagonist quoted 
 from Mihier were intended to show 
 that Milner was friendly to the 
 Roman Catholic Church and to its 
 purity. But observe, he does not 
 hesitate (as my extracts evince) to 
 pronounce the Church of Rome as 
 characterized by idolatry; and draws 
 from it the inference that Pope 
 Gregory the Second, who was one of 
 the early popes, patronized idolatiy. 
 And again, you will recollect that 
 my learned antagonist referred to a 
 fact in the history of Alfred, as to 
 the condition of the Roman Catholic 
 Church throughout Great Britain in 
 the reign of Alfred. He quoted 
 several highly coloured and eulo- 
 gistic passages. Now I think it an 
 unfair thing, when a Roman Catho- 
 lic takes his favourite authors, just 
 to give you a slice here and there 
 according to his own particulsix 
 idiosyncracy. By this you might 
 naturally be led to imagine that such 
 was the case with every writer when 
 treating of the conmtion of the 
 Roman Catholic Church, and that 
 there was nothing in reality to be 
 gathered from them but one over- 
 whelming toiTcnt of applause and 
 panegyric upon the tenets and influ- 
 ence of the Roman Catholic com- 
 
Rev.'J. Owmming.] 
 
 BULE OP PAITH. 
 
 467 
 
 mtmion. But it is not so. As I 
 told you from the very first, read 
 honestly, or read not at all. I have 
 quoted Thomas Aquinas, and Augus- 
 tine, and Jerome. I have quoted 
 cardinals and "seraphic doctors," 
 and- others, and that, too, imme- 
 diately after my opponent's pane- 
 gyrics ; and we found that they 
 inculcated the grossest superstitions 
 or the most exterminatiug principles 
 of persecution ; and my learned an- 
 tagonist, very politely recanting and 
 abjuring his previous praises, cast 
 favourite doctors and fathers com- 
 pletely overboard along with the 
 rest. [A laugh.] I have now shown 
 by actual reference that Milner 
 opposes, not approves, Romanism ; 
 and I now expect that when he 
 rises he wiH treat Dean Milner in 
 the same way that he treated 
 Augustine, Aquinas, &o. Now, 
 what a great pity it is that he did 
 not read Milner beforehand, and 
 thus have superseded the necessity 
 of a third night of vthe discussion ! 
 I speak plainly to my learned an- 
 tagonist [turning to Mr. French] : 
 that Milner was ia any way tinctured 
 with Romanism, must have been the 
 assertion of one who had never read 
 a page of the author ; for the infer- 
 ence which we come to when we 
 open his work is, that he is one of 
 the staunchest of Protestants ; just 
 as if there had fallen on him a shred 
 of the mantle of Knox, instead of a 
 purple and scarlet rag of the vaunted 
 successor of St. Peter. I quote a 
 passage my opponent skipped, I 
 fancy, by the merest accident. 
 
 " In the preface to Gregory's 
 Pastoral, a book translated jnto 
 English by Alfred for the benefit of 
 his subjects, he observes, that when 
 he came to the crown there were 
 very few priests south of the Hum- 
 ber who . understood the common 
 prayers in English, or who could 
 translate a passage of Latin into tne 
 
 language of their country."— Cent. 
 Ninth, page 453. 
 
 Yet no reformation was needed! 
 The middle centuries, forsooth, were 
 so many millennia ! It was a sad 
 blunder for my opponent to touch 
 authentic history. 
 
 You wiU recollect that my learned 
 antagonist was quoting on each side 
 of this passage, passages you fancied 
 to be eulogistic of the state of rcK- 
 gion at that period ; and you recol- 
 lect that when he came to describe 
 the reign of Alfred, and found that 
 the priests of that period could 
 not translate a page of Latin, nor 
 read a scrap of BngKsh, he seemed 
 (to borrow an Irish ULustration) as 
 if he had taken a hot potatoe, sup- 
 posing it had lost its caloric, into 
 his mouth, and was anxious to get 
 rid of it with as little spluttering 
 and as few grimaces as he possibly 
 could [laughter] ; for he hurried over 
 the remote points in this descrip- 
 tion in the most railroad and im- 
 petuous style, and made a dash with 
 infinite glee at what he thought a 
 glowing panegyric on the learning, 
 morals, and glories of that era when 
 no Luthers disturbed the slumbers 
 of the Vatican. Now, really, the 
 state of things was quite the oppo- 
 site of that my opponent's potent 
 logic made out. I will refer again 
 to the passage. It tells us in the 
 plainest and simplest terms, that the 
 priests could not read thg common 
 
 passage of Latin into the vernacular 
 tongm ; and these, mark you, are 
 the channels through which the tra- 
 ditions of Rome have emanated; 
 these are the conduit-pipes through 
 which tradition has come. Surely 
 the presumption is strong, nay, the 
 certainty is absolute, that traditions 
 coming through such ignoramuses — 
 men vmo had been thus steeped so 
 deeply in error and ignorance, could 
 not be very i)ui-e or unpolluted. 
 
46S 
 
 KULE or PAiTH. [WiEveninff 
 
 could not be the primeTal tradition 
 of the truth of the Gospel ; and T 
 ■vrould give you an. immensity more 
 of the same kind from Milner, de- 
 seriptive of the grovth and spread 
 of ignorance and error ; but, hurry- 
 ing on to century the sixteenth, I 
 can only spare time to glance at it. 
 I might refer also to passages which 
 I have not marked, in whioh the Pope 
 is called antichrist in the eleventh 
 century — as I have shown you before 
 that MUner did not hesitate so to- 
 proncunce him. But I pass on to 
 the sixteenth century. Page 660. 
 
 "The sixteenth century," says 
 Milner, " opened with a prospect of 
 aU others the most gloomy. Cor- 
 ruption both in doctrine and practice 
 had exceeded all bounds. TheRoman 
 politiffs were the patronsof impiety." 
 " Scandalous crimes of Pope Alex- 
 ander the Sixth." — "Terocity of 
 Julius the Second." 
 
 And then he goes on to describe 
 what was the whole state of matters 
 ia the fifteenth and sixteenth cen- 
 turies; showing that ignorance, 
 crime, and barbarism had progressed 
 ia a tremendous ratio, and that 
 everything like real and vital reli- 
 gion had 'sunk to a wofuUy low 
 ebb. Let it be distinctly recol- 
 lected, Mr. Prench decMned to ad- 
 mit or acquiesce in those descriptions 
 of the corruptions of the Roman 
 CathoKc Church furnished by Ba- 
 ronius, one of his own historians ; 
 and, in order to neutralize the de- 
 lineations of Baronius, or to re- 
 taliate, had recourse to DeanMUner, 
 one of our historians ; but it now 
 turns out that, of all the references 
 which the learned gentleman in his 
 plunging for a footing could have 
 made, the most unfortunate was his 
 reference to Milner; for you see 
 that instead of Milner being the 
 advocate of Eoman Cathohc pecu- 
 liarities, as he (Mr. Prench) con- 
 tended, he is one of the staunohest 
 
 and most uncompromising Protes- 
 tants, I think, I have quoted, and 
 one such as a Protestant audience 
 must be satisfied with. 
 
 In the outset of my remarks, last 
 evening, I brought forward many 
 positions which you will recoUeet 
 my antagonist has not touched — he 
 did not refer to one of them; but, 
 instead of that, he read to you an 
 elaborate statement in reply to some- 
 thing which I had never said, and 
 supplied something which I had not 
 omitted; and, therefore, I refer my 
 learned antagonist to my opening, 
 speech of that evening, and hope 
 that in his next address he mil 
 reply to it; and I beg him most 
 earnestly, if he would be so kind, to 
 take that speech and tear it in 
 pieces if\i& can. 
 
 You will recollect, I first opened 
 to you the glory, the fulness, and 
 the beauty of our Rule of Paith; 
 you recollect, I laid that Rule of 
 Faith upon the table, namely, the 
 word of God, and the word of God 
 alone, and I requested my learned 
 antagonist to lay his Rule of Paith 
 side by side by it. That he has not 
 done. That he dare not and cannot 
 do. You will recollect that I also 
 entered on the subject of his Rule 
 of Paith, and after I had laid before 
 you the Protestant Rule of Paith, 
 which is the Bible, 1 submitted the 
 claims of the Roman Catholic Rule 
 of Paith ; which is the vmtten word,, 
 and the unwritten word expounded 
 by the Church ; and from that in- 
 stant (after coming to, the Roman 
 Cathohc Rule of Faith) we passed 
 from the regions of light into the 
 regions of murkiness and shadows ; 
 from the noonday of clearness to 
 the midnight of intensest darlmess. 
 Tradition is the capital of the pope- 
 dom. It can be turned to any 
 account, manufactured into any 
 shape, being intended to give power 
 to the priest, not direction to tie 
 
KtJLE 01 PAITH. 
 
 Sgi\ J. Cumntinff.] 
 
 people. It commenced in fraud; 
 it is perpetuated by interested men ; 
 and forms in all controversies on 
 this question a sort of muddy and 
 ever-moving element, in which such 
 saurp-shooters as my opponent may 
 fight and hide, and hide and fight, 
 for ever. The only wonder is, that 
 educated men, who have no purpose 
 to subserve, can keep up so ridicu- 
 lous a piece of imposition. 
 
 Agam, I showed you from my 
 last speech, first of all, that if pri- 
 vate judgment exercised on the 
 word of Grod as the only Rule of 
 Eaith is so liable to uncertainty, 
 and so evidently unsafe, it foUcws 
 that Roman Catholics are exactly 
 in the same position, and liable 
 to the same uncertainty, for they 
 jiave the whole superstructure of 
 their faith, which they believe to 
 be infallible, dependent on the ex- 
 ercise of private judgment on the 
 oracles of God. For, observe, I 
 stated that before a Roman OathoKc 
 can reach his Rule of Faith, he 
 must first of all prove that the Scrip- 
 tures are inspired, then that Chris- 
 tianity is true, theu that there was 
 to be a Church on the earth, then 
 that that Church is to be infallible, 
 and, last, though by no means 
 Jeast," that the Church of Rome is 
 that Church. And then observe, 
 after all these things have been 
 proved by the appliance of private 
 judgment to the word of God (for 
 the Church of Rome absolutely 
 hangs on private judgment, that 
 frail and misguiding ignis fatum, 
 according to her repeated declara- 
 tion) ; .after having done all this, 
 she then proclaims herself the in- 
 fallible interpreter of God's word. 
 She proves her infallibility by the 
 Bible, and the Bible by her infallibi- 
 lity ; and yet, is it not a curious fact, 
 she has never yet produced an infal- 
 lible interpretation of God's word ? 
 Now, what would you say of a per- 
 
 469 
 
 son who had neither bread nor 
 raiment, and who was yet in the 
 habit of making the enormous boast 
 of his having thousands of pounds 
 in his possession, but who never 
 gave you any proof as to its reality ? 
 Would you not very naturally ask 
 him to show you, it may be, even 
 one thousand of this mighty amount, 
 to give a trifte to destitute relatives ; 
 and if he refused to do so, and per- 
 sisted in refusing to let you see it, 
 though you pressed him for it long, 
 why, the presumption would natu- 
 rally be forced on you- that he was 
 making a false uoast ; that he was 
 not possessed of it; that it was 
 mere fancy, and an hallucination 
 that had no foundation whatever 
 in reality ! Now, it is just so 
 with your Church [turning to Mr. 
 French]. Your Church pretends to 
 have an infaUible exposition in her 
 possession, somewhere or another, 
 of the whole of God's word ; and 
 yet, with a cruelty that is the cha- 
 racteristic of a stepmother, not 
 with that affection which is the cha- 
 racteristic of a mother, she with- 
 holds that infaUible exposition of 
 God's word from miUions that im- 
 plore it. 
 
 Again, I maintain, in the second 
 place, that in virtue of the second 
 article of the Creed of Pope I'ius 
 the Fourth, namely, that you are 
 not to interpret Scripture, unless 
 " according to the unanimous con- 
 sent of the fathers," I maintain that 
 your mouths are practically shut 
 for ever on the interpretation of 
 God's word. You well know the 
 fathers are not unanimous. You 
 know they are contradictory of each 
 other; and yet you are solemnly 
 bound and enjoined, according to 
 the Creed of Pope Pius the Fourth,' 
 not to interpret a passage of God's 
 word, unless " according to the 
 unanimous consent of the fathers.'' 
 Remember, my Protestant friends, 
 
470 
 
 STTLE OP TAITH. 
 
 that when a Koman Catholic stands 
 up to give an exposition of the 
 ■word of God, before he can do so, 
 without subjecting himself to re- 
 ceive the penance prescribed hy the 
 priest — before he can do so, he has 
 to ransack and range over the 
 British Museum, (a thing which 
 my learned antagonist is in the habit 
 frequently of doing) in order to find 
 out that undiscoverable thing, the 
 " unanimity of the fathers." 
 . And then, /in the next plaee, 
 I stated that if you were to collect 
 all the fathers and expositors of 
 God's word, all the various scho- 
 lastic divines and doctors and car- 
 dinals that have appeared in various 
 ages in the history of the world, 
 and who constitute the unwritten 
 w9rd, mark what a magnificent ex- 
 position you would have. If you 
 were to take one of Piokford's 
 largest "spring-vans" on the Bir- 
 mingham railroad, it would not con- 
 tain one-tenth of the expositions of 
 fathers and scholastic doctors and 
 divines who constitute part and 
 parcel of the Roman Rule of Faith. 
 [A laugh.] Conceive, then, what 
 a Rule of Paiththe Roman Catholic 
 has — a Rule of Paith that requires 
 a tremendous van — ^[laughter] — to 
 carry, and ten ordinary lives to 
 read ! He must read musty folios, 
 Greek and Latin, dance attendance 
 on doctors, and, after he has spent 
 " threescore years and ten " in 
 searching for an unanimity never 
 yet discovered, and never to be 
 discovered, he sits down and be- 
 comes either an infidel, or puts Lis 
 conscience in the priest's pocket. 
 
 Oh, my dear Roman Catholic 
 friends, you are awfully deceived! 
 I implore you not to feed upon 
 such garbage,, but turn to the Kvely 
 oracles of tr^th, which are able to 
 " make you wise unto salvation, 
 that the man of God may be perfectly 
 furnished to every gnod work." 
 
 You recollect, in the course of my 
 learned antagonist's remarks, he 
 stated that we are dependent on 
 tradition wholly for the change of 
 the Sabbath from the seventh day 
 of the week to the first day of the 
 week. Now I beg, in the first 
 place, to remind my antagonist that 
 Cardinal BaUarmine sees proved in 
 Scripture that the Jewish Sabbath 
 is not binding upon Christians ; and 
 the Epistle to the Colossians is con- 
 firmatory of the cardinal's view, as 
 well as several other places. Let 
 me add, that our. Lord appeared 
 frequently on the first day of the 
 week to his disciples, thereby con- 
 secrating it to solemn services ; and 
 the apostle Paul, who said he was 
 " tau^t nothing by man, but by the 
 revelation of Christ," regarded the 
 first day of the week as the Lord's 
 day, and spake of Christians assem- 
 bling on it for worship as an usual 
 thing. And then, in the Book of 
 Revelations, or the Apocalypse, 
 John speaks of the Lord's day as 
 the Christian Sabbath : " I was in 
 the Spirit on the Lord's day" and 
 the whole of the word of God, as 
 I might show you, did time permit, 
 presents invincible evidence that 
 the Christian Sabbath is the first 
 day of the week. Besides, history, 
 which we respect and revere, while 
 we repudiate all efforts to make it 
 a part of the Rule- of J'aith, and 
 distinguish it in all respects from 
 the "old wives' fables" of Roman 
 tradition, records the fact that the 
 first day of the week was the Chris- 
 tian Sabbath. History, with its 
 thousand tongues, and Revelation, 
 with one, proclaims this truth. 
 
 In the next place, remember, the 
 moral of the fourth commandment 
 is, that a seventh portion of your 
 time shall be given to the service 
 and worship of Jehovah; and the 
 ceremonial, that this seventh por- 
 tion is on the seventh day of the 
 
B^v. J. dimming.'] kttle or paith. 
 
 471 
 
 ■week. To prove that the moral is 
 the main thmg, let it be borne in 
 mind that it alone is everywhere 
 the same ; while the ceremonial is 
 mutable with country, climate, and 
 distance. It will be found that the 
 Jew in London and the Jew in 
 New South Wales do not observe 
 the Sabbath on the seventh day. 
 Our seventh day is the first at the 
 Antipodes. Now, moral law is im- 
 mutsible ; ceremonial is not so. It 
 is therefore evident, that the Chris- 
 tian Church retains the moral, -while 
 the cerem.onial, from sufficient au- 
 thority, has been altered. So that, 
 you will observe, there cannot be a 
 moral obligation to keep the seventh 
 da,y, because from the necessity- 
 arising from differences of latitude 
 and longitude ; while the moral part 
 of the fourth commandment will 
 endure as the sun, the same from 
 the commencement to the close of 
 creation ; but precedent the most ob- 
 vious, and precept the most sacred, 
 warrant believers in observing the 
 Sabbath of the Gospel on the first 
 day of the week. 
 
 The moral part of the command 
 is the consecration of a seventh of 
 yov,r time to the service of God ; and 
 the ceremonial was the dedication 
 of that seventh portion on the 
 seventh day or on the first. It is, 
 therefore, abundantly obvious that 
 -we are not indebted to the Church 
 of iiome, or her traditions (her 
 stock-in-trade), for evidence of the 
 change of the Sabbath. We prove 
 it, and therefore we believe it, ac- 
 cording to the apostolic injunction, 
 "Prove aU things ; hold fast that 
 which is good." 
 
 Should my opponent be yet un- 
 satisfied (for Roman .Catholics are 
 so unaccustomed to prove, that it 
 is difficult to make them understand 
 it), I wiU enlal-ge ajid simplify the 
 argument, in order to reach my in- 
 docile opponent. 
 
 I -was called to prove, in the next 
 place, infant baptism -without tra- 
 dition. Now let me reply, that it 
 is not necessary for me to enter 
 upon proof, because Mr. Erenoh's 
 o-wn Bible (Douay) admits that in- 
 fant baptism can be "proved from 
 the Bible," and that is enough for 
 me. I therefore refer him to the 
 Douay Bible, and to follow me to 
 the index, and read on the subject 
 of baptism. Now, I am pronounc- 
 ing no judgment, mark you, on 
 the scriptural evidence of either 
 infant or adult baptism. , I merely 
 state that the Douay Bible does 
 hold infant baptism to be proveable 
 from the -word of God, and that 
 Roman Catholics and I are agreed 
 on this, and therefore need not 
 waste time in proving it. , 
 
 Mr. French. — Read the passage 
 [to Mr. Cumming]. 
 
 Rev. J. CuMMiNe. — [In compli- 
 ance] — "For the baptism of infants, 
 see St. Luke xviii. 16, compared 
 with St. John iii. 5" — " But Jesus 
 called them to him, and said, Suffer 
 little children to come unto me, and 
 forbid them not, for of such is the 
 kingdom of God." " Verily, I say 
 unto thee. Except a man be born of 
 vrater and the Spirit, he cannot 
 enter into the kingdom of God." 
 
 So you see the Douay Bible admits 
 that infant baptism, right or wrong 
 in the estimate of any before me, 
 can be proved from the word of 
 God ; and therefore it is quite suffi- 
 cient : that I am not required to 
 prove from the Bible, as my oppo- 
 nent admits it is capable of proof 
 from the t-wo texts above. But, as 
 my learned friend is pleased to ap- 
 peal to the Antipeedobaptist part 
 of his audience, and to say that 
 infant baptism is not capable of 
 proof from Scripture, and that they 
 are right in rejecting it on the au- 
 thority of Scripture alone, let hita 
 try to persuade either the Baptists 
 
472 
 
 KULE cs TAITH. [9(& Moenmg. 
 
 or tlieir opponents of any doctrine 
 from tradition. Can he do that? 
 He very well knows that Baptists 
 and Psedobaptistu cast his traditions 
 away from them as " filthy rags," 
 not to be tolerated for a moment. 
 If he cannot so much as prove it 
 from the word of God (and mind, 
 I pronounce at present no judg- 
 ment on the subject, because not 
 required), I maintain that he never 
 can, prove it from the airy and in- 
 tangible traditions of his Church. 
 We must not waste your time on a 
 topic whereon Mr. Prench and I are 
 thoroughly agreed. I have gone 
 to his own Bible, and there it is 
 admitted in the notes, that infant 
 baptism, right or wrong, can be 
 proved from the word of God; and 
 Kkawise, I might refer to authori- 
 ties from writers in his own Church. 
 My opponent, in searching after 
 argument, haaarded the novel and 
 unheard-of assertion, that seventy 
 years had elapsed from the death 
 of Christ before the word of God 
 was written. Now, whether this 
 was a lapsus linguce, or an extract 
 from the treasures of tradition, which 
 generally evaporates the moment 
 you come to analyse them, I cannot 
 say. It is enough to state, that if 
 he will refer to his own Bible, to 
 which he seems a stranger, he will 
 find that, so far from seventy years 
 having elapsed from the resurrection 
 of Christ to the penmanship of a 
 part of the sacred oracles, that less 
 than forty years elapsed ; and what 
 distinguishes these forty from all 
 subsequent years is, that during 
 their lapse the fuU noontide of 
 inspiration radiated the minds and 
 regulated the discourses of the 
 sacred penmen. He also stated in 
 his speech, that before the apostle 
 Paul wrote to Timothy these 
 words — "All Scripture is given by 
 inspiration of God, and is profitable 
 for reproof, for correction, and in- 
 
 struction in righteousness" — ^these 
 were only the Jewish or Old Tes. 
 tament Scriptures; and therefore, 
 that the words of the apostle, so 
 truly Protestant, " All Scripture is 
 given by inspiration of God, and is 
 profitable for doctriue," and so on, 
 " that the man of God may be per- 
 fect, thoroughly furnished to every 
 good work," can have referred to 
 the Jewish Scriptures only. Let 
 me implore the learned gentleman 
 to read his own pet Douay Bible, 
 and thereby cease to.commit himself 
 so often and so grossly ; for, accord- 
 ing to the Soman CathoMc Bible, 
 three of the Gospels were written 
 before this time. Why, is my op- 
 ponent not aware that almost all 
 the Epistles of Paul were written 
 before this time ? Is he ignorant 
 that the first Epistle of St. Peter 
 was written before this time ; and 
 that when the apostle Paul said, 
 " All Scripture is given by inspira- 
 tion of God, and is profitable for 
 doctrine, for reproof, for correction, 
 for instruction iu righteousness," 
 he did not include in Scripture 
 merely the Old Testament Scrip- 
 tures, but the three Gospels, and 
 almost all his own Epistles, and the 
 first Epistle of St. Peter ? And 
 therefore that text, so far from 
 being restricted to the Old Testa- 
 ment Scriptures, I contend, is ap- 
 plicable to a vast proportion of the 
 New Testament. — The next magni- 
 ficent discovery of my learned anta- 
 gonist was, that because the bar- 
 barians were enlightened and con- 
 verted by the preaching of the 
 Gospel, and not the readmg of the 
 Bible, therefore the word of God 
 is not the Rule of Eaith. Now 
 you might just contend exactly in 
 the same way, that, because every 
 blind man cannot read God's word, 
 therefore the Bible is not the Rule 
 of Eaith. [Laughter.] The apo- 
 stle Paul had immediate inspiration 
 
Rev. J. 
 
 ^] 
 
 RULE or TAITH, 
 
 473 
 
 to guide him in Hs preaching; and 
 we, his successors, have that inspir- 
 ation embodied in the Scriptures 
 to guide us. This argument of my 
 opponent tells the other way. If 
 the priests are inspired (and, as far 
 as I can ascertain, their inspiration 
 has in it no tokens of descent from 
 above), they may convert and preach 
 without the Bible ; but we contend 
 that what inspiration was to the 
 apostles, the Bible is to us. We 
 may preach, but our credentials 
 and our proofs must be from the 
 Scriptures. 
 
 Bfe states, in the next place, that 
 before the discovery of the art of 
 printing, the Bible could not be 
 circulated. Now, to show you how 
 gross a mistake this is, and how 
 liable tradition, as its adyocate 
 shows at every step, is to be mis- 
 understood and mis-stated, I refer 
 you to his own "golden mouth," 
 the divine St. Chrysostom, on 
 whom he lavishes praises when with 
 him, and kicks out when opposed 
 to him. 
 
 Ox the Utility of reading the Scrip- 
 tures. — Serm. liii. tom. v. p. 601. 
 "For the reading of1;he sacred Scrip- 
 tures is a spiritual meadow, and 
 a paradise of delights ; a paradise 
 of delights, moreover, far superior 
 to that paradise. For God has 
 planted this paradise, not upon 
 earth, but in the souls of believers ; 
 he has not placed this paradise in 
 Eden, nor in"the east, confining it 
 to one place ; but he has expounded 
 it everywhere upon the earth, and 
 he extended it to the bounds of the 
 world. And that you may see that 
 he has diffused the Scriptures every- 
 where throughout the habitable 
 world, hear the prophet saying — 
 ' Their sound is gone forth into all 
 the earth, and their words to the 
 end of the world.' Whether you 
 transport yourself to the Inmes, 
 whom the rising sun first regards ; 
 
 whether you go to the ocean; 
 whether you navigate the Black 
 Sea, or depart to the southern 
 regions, you hear all everywhere 
 reasoning upon those things that 
 are in the Scriptures, with a differ- 
 ent voice, but with the same faith ; 
 with a different tongue, but with 
 the same faith; Vith a different 
 tongue, but with the same under- 
 standk^. For the sound of the 
 tongue differs, but the practice of 
 religion does not differ; and they 
 speak in a barbarous tongue, but 
 they are wise in understanding ; 
 they commit errors in the sound, 
 but they cultivate piety in their 
 manners. • Do you see the magni ■ 
 tude of the paradise which extends 
 to the ends of the earth? Here 
 there is no serpent, it is a spot free 
 from wild beasts, and it is encircled 
 by the grace of the Holy Spirit ; and 
 this paradise has also a fountain, as 
 had the other one — a fountain 
 whence spring not four only, but 
 numberless rivers. For that foun- 
 tain does not send forth to the 
 Tigris, nor the Euphrates, nor the 
 Egyptian Nile, nor the Indian 
 Ganges-r-but innumerable streams. 
 Who is it who declares this ? The 
 God himself who graciously pre- 
 sented us with those rivers. 'For 
 whosoever believes in me,' he says, 
 ' as saith the Scripture, out of his 
 beUy shall flow rivers of Kving 
 water.' Do you perceive, not four 
 rivers, but an infinite number, flow- 
 ing from that fountain; but that 
 fountain is not only wonderful on 
 account of the multitude, but on 
 account of the nature of the streams. 
 For they are not streams of water, 
 but gifts of the Spirit ; that fountain 
 is divided in each of the souls of the 
 faitliful, and is not diminished ; it is 
 divided, and it is not exhansted ; it 
 is scattered, and it is not lessened ; 
 it is entire amoiig all, and it is en- 
 tire in each. For such are tiie 
 
474 
 
 KULE OF eaith. [9tJi Enemtiff. 
 
 gifts of the Spirit. Do you wish 
 to know the abundance of those 
 streams ? Do you wish to know the 
 nature of the waters, and how it is 
 that they do not resemble the other 
 waters, but are better and "more 
 wonderful ? In order that you may 
 learn the abundance of this fountain, 
 hear again Christ himself saying to 
 the woman of Samaria : ' The water,' 
 he says, 'which I shall give to the 
 believer, shall be m him a fountain 
 of water springing up to eternal 
 life.' He- did not say ' going forth,' 
 he did not say ' poured forth,' but 
 ' springing up,' demonstrating to us 
 its copiousness, by the springing up. 
 Those water-springs are wont to 
 spring up, and to flow on every side, 
 which the fountains cannot contain 
 in their bosoms, but subdued by the 
 frequency of influx, scatter on every 
 side. Wishing, therefore, to point 
 out their great abundance, he said, 
 springing up, not going forth." Do 
 you wish also to learn its nature ? 
 Learn it from its use. For it is not 
 useful for the present life, but for 
 lif« eternal. "Let us therefore pass 
 our time in this paradise ; let us sit 
 beside this fountain, lest that which 
 befel Adam should happen to us, 
 and we should fall from paradise ; 
 lest we should receive ^destructive 
 counsel, and welcome the fraud of 
 the devil. Let us remain within it, 
 for there is great safety therein. 
 Let us remain in the reading of these 
 Scriptures. For as those who sit 
 near the fountain, and enjoy that 
 air, and who, when the heat comes 
 on, continually bedewing their face, 
 drive away the summer heat with 
 the waters, and are easily cured 
 of the suffering of the thirst which 
 vexes them, having the remedy neai' 
 at hand in the fountain — thus he 
 ■who sits near the fountain of the 
 holy Scriptures, although he should 
 perceive the flame of wicked lust 
 troubling himself, would easily repel 
 
 the flame, having washed his soul 
 with those streams ; and if anger 
 should trouble liim, inflaming his 
 heart like a burning cauldron, 
 having imbibed a Kttle of the water, 
 he would immediately restrain the 
 importunity of the suffering, and 
 the reading of the divine Scriptures 
 would rescue his soul from all evil 
 thoughts, as from the middle of the 
 fire. Wherefore, that gi'eat pro- 
 phet, David, knowing the utility of 
 the reading of the Scriptures, com- 
 pares the man who is continually 
 intent upon the Soriptues, and en- 
 joys ^their conversation, to a plant 
 always flourishing, standing near the 
 rivulets of water, saying as follows : 
 — ' Blessed is the man that walketh 
 not in the counsel of the ungodly, 
 nor standeth in the way of sinners, 
 nor sitteth in the seat of the scom- 
 fid. But liis delight is in the law 
 of the Lord, and in his law wiU he 
 meditate day and night. And he 
 shall be like a tree planted near the 
 water courses.' For as that tree, 
 planted near the water courses, 
 standing near those streams, having 
 a continual abundance of irrigation, 
 is unhurt by all the unseasonableness 
 of the atmosphere, and fears not the 
 warmest sunbeam, and does not 
 dread the air when burning hot (for 
 since it has included in itself suffi- 
 cient moisture, it throws off the 
 superabundance of all the heat of 
 the sun falling upon it from without, 
 and dispels it) ; so also the soul 
 placed near the rivulets of the divine 
 Scriptures, and continually drinking, 
 collecting in itself those streams 
 and the dew of the Spirit, shall be 
 unharmed by all calamitous events ; 
 whether disease, or contumely, or 
 calumny, or abuse, or censure, or 
 any kind of irksome delay, or all the 
 evils of the world, should assail such 
 a soul, he wiH easily repel the burn- 
 ing of these evils, receiving a suffi- 
 cient consolation from the reading of 
 
Bei>. J. Gitmming^ 
 
 IIULE OP PAITH. 
 
 475 
 
 the Scripture. Por neither great- 
 ness of glory, nor amplitude of 
 power, nor presence of friends, nor 
 any other earthly thing can so con- 
 sole a man who is in grief, as the 
 reading of the divine Scriptures. 
 And why is this? Because the 
 former are transitory and perishable, 
 and therefore the consolation de- 
 rived from them is also perishable ; 
 but the reading of the Scriptures is 
 conversation with God. Since, there- 
 fore, God comforts him who is ia 
 grief, what created thing can plunge 
 him in sorrow ? Let us apply our- 
 selves, therefore, to this reading, 
 not two hours only (for this naked 
 hearing is not sufficient for our 
 safety), but continually. And let 
 each when he has returned home 
 take these books iu his hand, and 
 review in his thoughts the meanuig 
 of what has been said ; that is to 
 say, if he would derive contiaual 
 and sufficient advantage from the 
 Scriptures." 
 
 Now this extract, mind you, is 
 taken from St. Chrysostom, pa- 
 triarch of Constantinople, a.d. 398, 
 that is, about four hundred years 
 after the birth of our- Lord. We 
 find that men in every part of the 
 world were using and meditating 
 on the oracles of God; and that 
 so far from the Bible not being 
 circulated before the invention of 
 printing, we find by one of his own 
 favourite appeals, that the Bible 
 was circulated in every land, and 
 that there were Bible societies, in 
 fact, if not in theory, in the days of 
 St. Chrysostom. 
 
 The neit point I come to are the 
 unfounded criticisms of my antago- 
 nist's remarks on our authorized 
 translation of the Bible. I had in- 
 tended, if my time had not gone away 
 ad rapidly, I had intended to lay 
 before you an account of the extra- 
 ordinary care, learning, faithfulness, 
 and talent which were concentrated 
 
 in our translations of ttie Scrip- 
 tures . You win also remember that 
 Cardinal AHen, who, I believe, was 
 prosecuted for high treason in this 
 country, and who, in consequejioe, 
 was made a cardinal by the Pope ; 
 this individual, Allen, with a few 
 other broken characters, were the 
 translators of the Douay version of 
 the Scriptures ; and some other 
 individusis of the college of Rheims 
 were translators of the Rhemish 
 Testament ; both of which came out 
 at a very, early period, smothered 
 with pestilential, murderous, and 
 atrocious notes. With respect to 
 our translation of the Scriptures, on 
 the other hand, we find that King 
 James appointed flft'y-four learned 
 men to this important labour, all 
 distinguished for their piety, pro- 
 found and consummate learning. 
 
 Their names alone are evidence : — 
 
 Lancelot Andrews, bishop of Win- 
 chester. 
 
 John, Overal, bishop of Norwich, 
 indebted for his promotion to his 
 great learning. 
 
 Adrian Saravia, tKe friend of 
 Hooker and Whitgift. 
 
 Robert Teigh, spoken of by Wood 
 as a profound linguist. 
 
 Bedwell, the first Arabic scholar 
 of his age. 
 
 Liveley, professor of Hebrew at 
 Cambridge. 
 
 Chadderton, of Emmanuel Col- 
 lege, familiar with , Hebrew and 
 Greek, and versed in B/abbiiucal 
 literature. 
 
 Harrison, vice-master of Trinity 
 College, Cambridge, a first-rate 
 linguist. 
 
 Reynolds, whose knowledge of 
 Hebrew and Greek, Wood says, 
 was almost miraculons. 
 
 Kilby, an Orientalist of profound 
 scholarship. 
 
 Miles Smith, to whom Hebrew, 
 Syriac, and Greek were as familiar 
 as Enghsh. 
 
m 
 
 KCLE OF TAITH. [91/1 J^eititlff. 
 
 Bois, the first Greek scholar of 
 the age. 
 
 BUson, Harding, 8fc. 
 
 I now hold in my hand testi- 
 monies from Dissenters and from 
 Churchmen, and from one Roman 
 Catholic (Dr. Geddes)> all com- 
 mendatory of our version, as one of 
 the noblest versions of any age, 
 and a monument of faithfulness 
 and learning ; and even Dr. Doyle 
 stated, that "with all its faults 
 and errors, it was a noble version." 
 But to show yon how my antagonist 
 deals with the word of Grod, he 
 told you that Luther, and (he added) 
 consequently Protestants after him, 
 in St. Paul's first Epistle to the 
 Corinthians, chap. ii. ver. 5, had 
 translated it thus, " Have we not 
 power to lead about a sister, a wife, 
 as the other apostles?" In the 
 Douay version it is, ," woman and 
 sister ;" and you will recollect he 
 contended that we had notoriously 
 and abominably translated the word 
 yvvr\, by " wife" instead of woman. 
 What will you think of my oppo- 
 nent's ignorance or honesty, when 
 I tell you that in his own Bible the 
 same word is seven times translated 
 wirE in one chapter ? 
 
 Mr. Pkench. — [Aloud.] Where? 
 
 Kev. J. CuMMiNG. — In the Douay 
 Bible. 
 
 Mr. Fbenoh. — Ah! but where ? 
 In what part P 
 
 Bev. J. Gumming. — In the Epistle 
 to the Ephesians, chap. v. ver. 33, 
 (Douay Bible). " Let every one of 
 you in particular love his wife as 
 himself.' 
 
 My opponent must either read 
 more, or speak less at random. The 
 very same word, you observe, which 
 we nave in our version so " abomin- 
 nably " translated w^'e, is so trans- 
 lated in his own Scriptures; but 
 it is not " abominable " when the 
 Church of Rome does it. Again, 
 we have it, (Ephes. v, 23 ; Douay), 
 
 " The husband is the head of the 
 wife." 
 
 Verse 24, " So also let their 
 wives be to their husbands." 
 
 Again, verse 35, " Husbands, love 
 your vrives." 
 
 What a' disastrous reference ! 
 A wife in our version is also " vener- 
 able." In the Roman Catholic, 
 she is " lovely." 
 
 Is it " abominable " to translate 
 yuv^, wife? Then does the Church 
 of Rome suffer justly, but cruelly, 
 from her champion. 
 
 Mr. Fken CH.-[Contemptuouslj.] 
 Pshaw ! I admit it ! — pM^ovmg 
 vexatiously.] 
 
 Rev. J. Gumming. — Oh ! I will 
 make you admit a few more speci- 
 mens presently. [Laughter.] Now, 
 mark — [tumir^ to the audience] — 
 what I say. Do not go away with 
 a wrong impression ? He has com- 
 plained that we have translated yuni) 
 by wUe, instead of woman. I, 
 therefore, go to the production of 
 his own translators, and I find that 
 in one chapter, in the course of 
 seven successive texts, they trans- 
 late it wife, and -not womra. I 
 ask, then. Who are to be saddled 
 with the epithets "abominable" 
 " mistranslation," after such unfair 
 and disingenuous exhibitions as 
 these? In the next place, you 
 will remember he quoted Jeremiah, 
 xvii. 9 — " The heart is deceitful 
 above all tilings, and desperately 
 wicked ;" and he complained most 
 bitterly of this (the Protestant) 
 translation. Now, I have minutely 
 examined the original, and here I 
 give it to you. I have referred to 
 tlie Hebrew word, and the lexicon 
 of Gesenius ; and though I am not 
 a splendid Hebrew scholar, yet I 
 can refer to it with the aid of a 
 lexicon very well. Now, the transla- 
 tion which Gesenius gives under the 
 Hebrew word *w " to he dangeromly 
 sick, malignant, incurable." 
 
Rev. J, 
 
 aULE or I'AITH. 
 
 477 
 
 Tte Italian version is insanabile. 
 
 The Spanish, impenetrabile. 
 
 The IVenoh, desesperement malin. 
 
 The German ergruuden. 
 All more or less according with 
 ours. The only defect in our ver- 
 sion isj that " desperately -wicked" 
 is not strong enough. 
 
 But how win you marvel when 1 
 teU you that the very same word, 
 Anash, which he complains we have 
 translated " desperately wicked," 
 to favour Calvinism, his ozck version. 
 In chapter xv. and verse 18, has 
 translated " desperate, so as to 
 refuse to be healed!" [Surprise.] 
 Is my opponent honest, or is he 
 ignorant? He complains bitterly 
 that we have translated the original 
 Hebrew word Anash " desperately 
 wicked," and yet his own trans- 
 lators, in Jeremiah xv. 18, trans- 
 late the very same Hebrew word 
 " desperate, so as to refuse to be 
 healed." Why translate honestly 
 when an historical fact is in ques- 
 tion, but with gross dishonesty 
 when a doctrine is involved ? It 
 is well that the Pope takes a nap, 
 and, during this " otium cum digni- 
 tate," betrays his fallibility. The 
 pure Scriptures speak the doc- 
 trines of Protestantism, and they 
 must be drugged before they help 
 the popedom. 
 
 The next remark of my learned 
 antagonist was on the impropriety 
 of " CANNOT," for " do not," in a 
 passage which I need not read; 
 it is 1 Cor. vii. 9; " do not" is lite- 
 ral, but " cannot" is the meaning. 
 When, however, we go to a parallel 
 passage where " cannot " occurs, 
 we find that " cannot " is the just 
 and appropriate meaning, and " do 
 not" the literal, but nnidiomatic 
 and absurd; Por instance, Mat- 
 thew xix. 11 : " But he said unto 
 them. All men take not this word, 
 but they to whom it is gjiven." — 
 (Douay.) In our translation .it is, 
 
 AH men cannot receive this sayinar- 
 save they to whom it is given." 
 The _ question is, whether of the 
 two is, not the most literal, but the 
 most faithful rendering ; for every 
 one acquainted with ancient lan- 
 guages must know that a verbatim 
 rendering is not always correct: 
 Which, then, is the real meaning ? 
 I read 'in the Doiiay version, at the 
 end of the twelfth and next verse, 
 " He that can take, let him take ;" 
 thereby explaining the meaning 
 of the former verse to be " All 
 men cannot," and not " do not ; " 
 implying evidently that there are 
 some who can, aud others who 
 cannot : and if there is any mean- 
 ing in the passage at all, " all do 
 not " means " all cannot," because 
 the reason why a man does not a 
 thing he wishes to do, must be that 
 he cannot do it. 
 
 Again, I refer to another passage 
 (Gal. V. 17), where the same thing 
 occurs : " So that," it is in our 
 version, " they cannot do the things 
 that they would ;" in the Douay it 
 is, " So that you do not the things 
 that you would." Now, you will 
 observe, that in our version it is, 
 "ye cannot do;" in this (Douay) 
 version it is " do not." Now, if 
 I will to do a thing, the reason why 
 I do not do it must be that I cannot 
 do it ; because two things are re- 
 quisite to action : first, the will, 
 or voKtion, secondly, the power. 
 Now, if I have volition, or the 
 iBill, but do not do the thing, 
 the natural inference is that I 
 have not the power ; and therefore 
 our translators have faithfully given 
 you the meaning of the passage; and 
 the Douay translators, as in the 
 passage which he quoted last even- 
 ing, have given you a sort of Hter- 
 aKty which ends in absolute non- 
 sense or mystification. Now I 
 have replied to all his objections to 
 our version; and if he bring for- 
 
•178 
 
 KUIE OF PAITH. [9tt Evemitff. 
 
 ward a dozen more' of the same 
 ridioulous and puerile description, 
 I mil reply to them. And what a 
 - splendid demonstration dp they form 
 of the exceUemoy of our version ! 
 Whilst the cavipings of my oppo- 
 nent are supported oy the outward: 
 parade of artificial objection, and: 
 by the use of subtlety and sophism, 
 they appear to be substantial and 
 tenable ; but they show that they 
 are paltry and pitiful shadows, the 
 moment you come to analyse them ; 
 they evaporate into thin air, and 
 disappear as if touched by the 
 spear of Ithuriel, leaving our version 
 untouched and untarnished ra all 
 its unassailable integrity. But 
 having defended our own version, 
 suppose I make a little inroad upon 
 his, in order to show what he has to 
 boast of. I refer you, in the first 
 place, to Genesis iii. 15 (Douay 
 version) : — " I wUl put enmities be- 
 tween thee and the woman, and thy 
 seed and her seed : shk shall crush 
 thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait 
 for her heel." 
 
 This verse is quoted in Roman 
 Catholic documents, in order to 
 prove the propriety of the hyper- 
 doulia worship of the Virgin Mary. 
 If rightly rendered in the Douay, 
 it would not prove their practice, or 
 in any way paUiate the worship of 
 the Virgin Mary. 
 
 The Hebrew femiaine is Hia, (N'ri) 
 masonline Ett, («in) and as a neuter 
 it is rendered it. What confirms 
 this is the fact that, in the Sep- 
 tuagint, the Greek is Airos {he), 
 xefeaiing to Christ ; and yet my 
 opponejit most disingenuously tried 
 to translate the word she, when 
 the Greek and Hebrew (both in 
 the masculine) stand by and si- 
 lently but simultaneously protest 
 against the corruption which he 
 and his Church conspire to perpe- 
 trate. I refer to Ephesians v. 33, 
 where we translate the apostle's 
 
 description of marriage : " This is a 
 great mystery" But this the Church 
 of B,ome translates, " This is a 
 great sacrament" KecoUeot, mar- 
 riage is one of the " seven sacra- 
 ments" of the Church of Rome, 
 and there was a necessity for a 
 proof. In this particular place 
 (Ephesians v. 32) she has therefore 
 translated the word Mva-TTJptov, 
 sacrament; but in twenty-seven 
 other places where it occurs, she 
 has translated it, without exception, 
 mystery. Now, I ask. Why in 
 twenty-seven passages it is trans- 
 lated mystery, and only when it 
 ref^s to marriagi it is rendered 
 sacrament? The answer is. Because 
 the Church had an end in view, 
 namely, to exalt matrimony into the 
 rank and dignity of a sacrament; and 
 if she can compass this, she is not 
 scrupulous about the means. 
 
 Again, the Gospel of Luke (chap, 
 i. 28), the Church of Rome has 
 translated the Greek word, "Hail, 
 Mary, fuU of grace;" but in the 
 Epistle to the Ephesians (chapter 
 i. 6) she has translated the same 
 word, " whom he has graced or 
 favoured in the beloved." Now, 
 why call it " full of grace" when 
 applied to Mary, but " much fa^ 
 voured" as applied to believers, 
 or " much graced," a more diluted 
 expression ? Why call it " fuU of 
 grace" in reference to Mary, but 
 " much graced " in reference to 
 beKevers ? Because there was need 
 of buttressing and propping up the 
 hyper-douli^a, or worship of the 
 Virgin Marv. 
 
 Again, (Douay version) Heb. xi. 
 21 : "By faith, Jacob, when he was 
 a-dying, blessed both the sons of 
 Joseph, and adored the top of his 
 rod." Now, in the Greek it is 
 "adored or worshipped (IttI) upori 
 the top of his staff or rod," leaning 
 upon it — a totally different thing ; 
 and yet the Church of Rome finds 
 
Rev. J. 
 
 ■•1 
 
 RULE OP ?AITH. 
 
 470 
 
 it coavenient to call it " adored the 
 top of his rod," in order to sanc- 
 tion the propriety of giving worship 
 to images. Then again, Psalm 
 xcix. 5, thej have translated " wor- 
 ship Ms footstool," the original of 
 which is a'ln'), LalMchm, worship 
 at, or before, or in the presence of his'; 
 footstool. Again, ,the expression 
 fieravoi/iraTE means " repent ye" in. 
 the Greek, translated in the Vulgate 
 by " agite pemteatiam," and wilfuUy 
 and absurdly, " do penance" in the 
 Roman version. But in certain 
 -passages where " penance'' wonld 
 be too gross, iieravoia is translated 
 "repentance," and only in certain 
 passages, where it is practicable, is 
 it rendered penance. For instance. 
 Acts ii. 38, " Do penance ;" but in 
 Acts iu. 19, "Be penitent, and be 
 converted;" and Acts v. 31, "A 
 Priace and a Saviour to give re- 
 pentance." 
 
 My learned antagonist is classical 
 scholar enough to know that agere 
 viiam means " to hve," agere otiwn 
 "to enjoy retirement;" while the 
 hteral classical rendering or trans- 
 lation would be nonsense, and into- 
 lerable save in monkeries and nun- 
 neries ; and, in the same way, agere 
 penitentiam, means " to repent." 
 But with an iuconsistency too gross 
 to be concealed in certaia passages, 
 they must render it " do penance ;" 
 while in another, where this render- 
 ing would be absolute nonsense, 
 they translate it " repent." Again, 
 to show you the misquotations 
 which are made by my antagonist : 
 he said that our version had ren- 
 dered i-nlXva-eas, " of private inter- 
 pretation," and that this was wholly 
 ina,ocurate. I would only beg leave, 
 my Eoman Cathoho friends, to say 
 that it is the same in his and your 
 own version. 
 
 Mr. Pbeuch.— [Baracstly.J — I 
 do not deny it. I did not blame it 
 at all. — [Turning to Mr. Gumming.] 
 
 Rev. J. Gumming. — pOeliberate 
 ly.] — Oh, very well ! This must have 
 been one of your poetic flights, 
 not to be measvired by prose critics. 
 
 But I wiU conclude the whole of 
 this matter at once : If my antago- 
 nist meddles with our Scriptures 
 again — I mean the authorized ver- 
 sion of our Bible — I am not only 
 prepared to defend every point he 
 attacks, but also to make no incon- 
 siderable inroads on his Romish 
 translation, grossly perverted in 
 many passages ; and show him how 
 he may bitterly repent his temerity, 
 or live to deplore the day when he 
 " strained at a gnat," and the while 
 was in the habit of " swallowing a 
 camel." [Laughter.] But I now 
 specially address myself to my Ro- 
 man Gatholic friends. With the 
 exception of those gross mistrans- 
 lations which I have brought for- 
 ward, and with the exception of the 
 Apocrypha, which was never ac- 
 knowledged by the Gatholie Ghurch, 
 and is no more inspired Scripture 
 than the Waverley Novels, take the 
 two versions (for I know Mr. IVench 
 and your priests wish to drive yon 
 from the Bible in any shape, lest 
 the light of truth should penetrate 
 the darkness that envelopes you), 
 take the Douay version on the one 
 hand, and the Protestant version on 
 the other, and you wiU. find that 
 they substantially agree in ninety- 
 nine cases out of one hundred ; 
 read over the Epistle of St. Paul to 
 the Romans, where justification by 
 faith in the blood of Christ Jesus 
 is proclaimed in aU its purity and 
 power ; compare your version of it 
 with ours, and you will find in 
 ninety-nine-and-a-half cases out of 
 a (hundred they coincide substan- 
 tially, and frequently verbatim. I 
 therefore call on you to remember 
 the fact, that if our version is an 
 " abominable mistranslation," as my 
 antagonist has represented it to be, 
 
480 
 
 -RVLE or PAITH. [9tt 'Shening. 
 
 it equally teUs against your own, 
 because, if ouis ie abominable, yours, 
 mainly and substantially agreeing 
 ■with it, must be " abominable 
 also; and the result of such, un- 
 founded and unwarranted assertions 
 will be, what my antagonist seems 
 delighted to expedite, that the igno- 
 rant infidel will rejoice, and the 
 careless and nominal Christian will 
 have a pretext for his folly. " Tell 
 it not m Grath ; publish it not in 
 the streets of Askelon, lest the 
 daughters of the Philistines rejoice, 
 lest the daughters of the uncircum- 
 cised triumph." Mr. Trench's real 
 object, as far as can be gathered 
 from his words (for I pretend not 
 to search bis heart) has been to 
 drive away, under ridiculous pre- 
 tences, Boman Catholics from read- 
 ing the Scriptures ; and by his asser- 
 tions — (I must call them most un- 
 warranted assumptions and asser- 
 tions) — to induce a belief that we 
 have a mutilated Bible and a cor- 
 rupt Rule of Faith. If such has 
 been his object, I hesitate not to 
 tell him that it is altogether un- 
 worthy of an honourable opponent. 
 He is sure to be exposed, and not 
 only with bis creed gain nothing, 
 but his character will lose much. 
 
 I have battered his Rule of Paith 
 tUl it trembles on the verge of ruin, 
 and he has no help but to endeavour 
 to shake our translation, as he can- 
 not shake our Rule of Taith. I am 
 really sorry my time is so short; 
 but you mil recollect my learned 
 antagonist entered upon the mis- 
 sionary achievements of the Church 
 of Rome. He stated that the Church 
 of Rome was almost the onVy mis- 
 sionary church, and that that proved 
 her to have the right Rule of Paith, 
 and to be the true Church. Now, 
 mark you, a missionary Church is 
 one which obeys Christ's command, 
 " Go and teach all nations, and lo ! 
 1 am with you always, even unto the 
 
 end of the world ;" but, moreover, 
 " teaching them all things, whatsoever 
 I command you" Now, mark these 
 words : but if his Church has been 
 teaching jmrgatory, saint -worship, ' 
 and the mass ; if his Church was 
 teaching transubstantiation, and the 
 hyperdoulian worship of the Virgip 
 MaCT, then the, missioiiaiy efforts oi 
 his Church are more like the odious 
 features of the great Apocalyptic 
 apostasy, than the missionary Church 
 of Christ preaching the Gospel to 
 every nation under heaven. 
 
 He then asserted that we have 
 made no great missionary exer- 
 tions. Now, in the first place, 
 during the Middle Ages we were 
 literally crushed, and the light and 
 force of truth almost extinguished 
 and suppressed. In the next place, 
 after the Reformation, the Reform- ■ 
 ers were busy in keeping off the 
 aggressions and iron despotism of 
 the Roman Catholic Church, and, 
 therefore, in their efforts to main- 
 tain the truth at home, had no time 
 to send the Gospel to the heathen. 
 But now that the light of liberty 
 and unsuppressed freedom has once 
 more broken briUiantly over our 
 land — ^now that they have power to 
 preach and opportunity to act, we 
 find that the Church Missionary 
 Society, the London Missionary 
 Society, the "Wesleyan Missionary 
 Society, the Baptist Missionary So- ' 
 ciety, the Society for Propagating 
 Christian Knowledge, the Scottish 
 Missionary Society, the Church of 
 Scotland Missions, have come forth 
 and shown themselves, the moment 
 the incubus of Rome's domination 
 was removed ; and, from the aus- 
 picious hour of her freedom and her 
 unoorrupted faith, the Church of 
 God has "looked forth, bright as 
 the sun, fair as the moon, and ter- 
 rible as an army with banners." 
 [Sensation]. But again, I contend 
 that (so-called') missionary success 
 
Mr. FreneLl 
 
 HUIE OP FAITH. 
 
 481 
 
 proves nothing. The scribes and 
 Pharisees "compassed sea and land" 
 to make one convert, and when they 
 had found one, they made him ten 
 times more the cmld of hell than 
 "before. We know also that the 
 Mahometans made gigantic efforts 
 to spread their delusions over the 
 world, and therefore, mere effort or 
 mere successful proselytism, how- 
 ever wide-spread, does not prove a 
 church or a sect to be true. You 
 may have read of priests who have 
 endured martyrdom with the cru- 
 cifix in their hands, but such mar- 
 tyrdom is no proof of truth, for such 
 death is emulated by the savage 
 Hindoo wife, who submits to be 
 burned, a willing martyr, on her 
 husband's funered-pile. It iS' well 
 knovni that the Mahometan- devotee 
 vrill submit to privations the most 
 arduous, and to stripes and lacer- 
 ations the most gaUing, to tortures 
 more intense than Jesuit priest ever 
 met — to privations more severe 
 than we have any notion of, in 
 order to make converts to his faith, 
 under the inspiring but fallacious 
 expectation of hereafter, for his 
 reward, entering into a paradise 
 reserved for the faithful, where (as 
 he imagiues) there is one round of 
 perpetual enjoyment, and where life 
 and beauty are alike immortal. I 
 contend, therefore, in conclusion, 
 that mere success in proselytism is 
 no evidence, no criterion of imtA. 
 The Bxjman Church may be the 
 most successful proselytizer, and 
 may, notwithstanding, rival only 
 more closely the speed, and victories, 
 and features of Satan. 
 
 [The reverend gentleman's time 
 here terminated.] 
 
 Mr. Pkench. — ^I never felt more 
 at a loss to know what course to 
 steer than at the present moment. 
 I entered this room totally nnen- 
 
 paratory matter. I had no papers 
 arranged, of which my friend some- 
 times complains. — [Some movement 
 at the extremity of the room, where- 
 upon the learned gentleman paused, 
 and John KendS, Esq., Catholic 
 chairman, rose to order.l The 
 learned gentleman then resumed as 
 foEows :]-— I have entered the room 
 this evening' with the intention, at 
 least, of foUowiog him step by step, 
 in order, if possible, to avoid the 
 reproach which I so frequently and 
 so justly urge against him, and 
 whichj in' return, with mimic accu- 
 racy, I have so often received ftom 
 him, of " wandering" from the sub- 
 ject. I cannot, however, be gmlty 
 of much deviation from the subject 
 in hand if I follow him so closely as 
 I intend to do. The learned gen- 
 tleman began by reading some 
 copious extracts from Dean Mjlner. 
 I shall merely advert to these. I 
 have not time to dwell much upon 
 them, but I shall refer to the first 
 page I have opened, in order to 
 show how inconsistently my learned 
 opponent reasons, and how incon- 
 sistently DeanMjlner reasons, on the 
 subjects relating to Cathoucity, 
 though he states many historical 
 facts, in an unprotestant — that is, 
 in an wnperverting manner. My 
 learned opponent complains that 
 I quoted only those extracts from 
 Dean Milner which I considered 
 subservient to my purpose ; and he 
 thinks it rather extraordinary that 
 I did not entertain you on the lasf 
 evening when we met, vrith all the 
 declamation against our " supersti- 
 tion," and with aU the calumny 
 which he. Dean Milner, utter& 
 against our saints ; and that I did 
 not mis-spend my time by reading: 
 to you those passages where Dean 
 Mihier lays down his opinion that 
 the Pope is antichrist ; and that T 
 
 ^ „_ ^ did not point out the particular 
 
 cumbered with any thia^ like pre- j period when popes became, or might 
 
KTJLE OF PAITH. ['ithEBemng. 
 
 be denominated. Antichrist. "We 
 scorn all sucli calumny, wiether it 
 proceeds from Dean Miliier or from 
 theologians of the present day. I 
 know where to look for Antichrist 
 perfectly accordant with the de- 
 scription given of Antichrist by 
 Scripture. But I shall not at the 
 present moment insult the feelings 
 of any one present by saying where 
 that gigantic form of predicted 
 iniquily rears its towering head. 
 I have it in my own imagination. 
 I know where to look for it, and 
 though I have often heard the 
 Church of Rome called " the lady 
 of Babylon, dressed in scarlet" — 
 [simmeriim) — there is another great 
 scarlet object carrying impiety and 
 wickedness into every region of the 
 globe, the head of which church is 
 clothed in scarlet — a correspond- 
 ence, in my idea, much nearer the 
 accuracy of the description found 
 in the Bible than any which my 
 learned friend can give of the popes 
 of Bflme. In the very first page 
 which he opened of Milner, my 
 learned opponent read the following 
 words : — 
 
 " Scarce a luminary" (speaking of 
 the fourth century) " of godliness 
 existed; and it is not common in 
 any age for a great work of the 
 Spirit of God to be exhibited, but 
 under the conduct of some remark- 
 able saints, pastors, and reformers." 
 — Milner, Hist, of the Chwch, p, 204. 
 
 Now, I shall content myself 
 with this one solitary passage this 
 evening. 
 
 Rev. J. Gumming-.— -[Turning to 
 Mr. French.] — Goon! WiUyouread 
 the next sentence, if you please ? 
 
 Mr. IPkenoh. — ^You have read it 
 once : why should I read it a^ain ? 
 
 Rev. J. GOTonNG, — [Reiterat- 
 ing.]— Read the next, if you please ; 
 it IS very short. 
 
 Mr. Eebnch. — .[Complying.] — 
 The next sentence is : " This whole 
 
 period, as well as the whole scene 
 of persecution, is very barren of 
 such characters — namely, saints, 
 pastors, and reformers."— Ji. 204. 
 
 I am very glad, indeed — [turning 
 to Mr. Gumming, and smiling]—? 
 you adverted to it, for it just 
 corroborates my argument. — [A 
 laugh.] . 
 
 Rev. J. CiJMMiNG. — [Laughing.] 
 Oh,verywell; you are quite wScome. 
 
 Mr. Tbench.— Now, gentlemeji, 
 this is the fourth centu^ ; and an 
 age more fruitful in saints, pastors, 
 and splendid martyrs is not to be 
 found in the whole calendar of the 
 Church of God. ■ It is impossible 
 for any one conversant with eecler 
 siastical histoiy, as my learned 
 friend is, to find more crowded • 
 traces of sanctity to be met with in 
 any age during the persecution of 
 Dioclesian. Even Dean Miker 
 himself, only about ten lines above 
 the place which my learned friend, 
 in his sagacity, singled out in order 
 to throw obloquy on the Church of 
 Rome — even Dean Milner himself 
 win corroborate my assertion ; and 
 I shaE beg to direct you and my 
 learned opponent to but ten or 
 twelve lines on the same page, a 
 little higher. He says : — 
 
 "Afterwards the master of the 
 mines coming thither, as if by an 
 imperial rescript, divided the suf- 
 ferers into classes. Some he or- 
 dered to dwell iu Cyprus, others in 
 Libanus ; the rest he dispersed and 
 harassed with various drudgeries 
 in different parts of Psdestine. 
 'Bov.r he singled out for the examina- 
 tion of the military commander, who 
 burnt them to death. S^lvaniis, a 
 bishop of great piety ; John, an 
 Egyptian; and thirty-seaen others, 
 were the same day beheaded by 
 order of Maximin." — Id. p. 204. 
 
 Now, my friends, this is the age 
 which my learned opponent wishes 
 to call youi attention to, as being 
 
Mr. French.'] 
 
 HUM! OP FAME. 
 
 4S% 
 
 remarkably barren in gentdne piety 
 and sanctity ; whereas it is one ia 
 which every Catholic glories, as the 
 model for all succeeding ages for 
 martyrs and for missionaries, teach- 
 ing them how to Hve, to suffer, and 
 die in the cause of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ. Who is there, I again 
 say, deeply versed in ecclesiastical 
 liistory, that has not indelibly im- 
 Brinted on his memory the sanguin- 
 ary, the exquisitely cruel persecu- 
 tions suffered by martyrs during the 
 reign of the wicked and abominable 
 Dioclesian ? But, gentlemen, before 
 I lay this book out of my hand, 
 there is a short passage which I 
 wish to lay before you, of much 
 more importance than any thing 
 which my learned friend, in his so- 
 phistical train of reasoning, has 
 thought proper to present to you 
 this evenmg. Ton are well aware 
 of the difference between our Rule 
 of Paith and the Rule of Paith 
 which my learned friend threw so 
 ostentatiously down on the table the 
 last time I had the honour of meet- 
 ing him, when he said in such a 
 pompous strain : — " I know not 
 where Mr. French's Rule of Faith 
 is, but there is mine," suiting the 
 action to the word, and throwing 
 down the Bible. Now, gentlemen, 
 I am acting on the defensive, and 
 I am obliged to tr^, but it is totally 
 impossible, to answer the lengthen- 
 ing string of accusations he has 
 brought against us. I shall take 
 them one by one, and give the best 
 answer which I can; and if time 
 should fail me, let him not upbraid 
 me in the end for leaving any thing 
 unanswered. But, gentlemen, I wish 
 to put Am on the defensive. I wish 
 to unpose upon him the onus pro- 
 iandi ; I wish my learned opponent 
 to prove to this assembly, Aow it is 
 that the Bible comes to be yonr Bute 
 of Faith? to prove the authenticity 
 of the Bible; and— (I am going to 
 
 astonish my learned friend not » 
 little) — I deny the authentioity oj 
 that Bible. [The audience seemed 
 surprised at this statement, made as 
 it was abstractedly?^ I think, I shall 
 put my learned friend's ingenuity 
 I considerably "on the rack" this 
 evening, for, argumentandi causa, 
 I say, I deirr the authenticity of 
 the Bible. Be not satisfied, my 
 friends, when my learned antagonist 
 comes to illustrate a point — be not 
 satisfied, I beseech of you, if you 
 seek to be profited, — when he 
 points out text upon text, be not 
 satisfied with every gaudy flourish 
 of rhetoric, and every enthnsiastip 
 exclamation, when laid before you 
 on certain texts, in which he in- 
 dulges in his style of "oriental" 
 diction. No, my friends, listen to 
 sound and serious argument. Let 
 my learned friend teU. you satisfac- 
 torily how he knows these books to 
 be inspired. Let >iim not say, Here 
 is John, Here is Paul, and Here is 
 Peter ; that is not the way to prove 
 it. I must have some solidT and 
 convincing proof that these books 
 were written by inspired evangelists 
 — some solid mtemal proofs; and 
 when he has done that, he wiU have 
 obtained, perhaps, an object for 
 which he has expressed a great 
 anxiety and a great desire — viz. if 
 he rejects tradition, and can prove 
 it without, I have no objection to 
 step over to his religion. In the 
 mean time, as I take tradition to be 
 the ground of the rule by which the 
 world has been Christianized, and 
 the Bible to be but a, part of that 
 sacred tradition, I shall adhere to 
 my plan. I believe in the Bible, 
 because the great Chtjbch fostered 
 it in her sacred bosom from age to 
 age, and tells me undeniably that it 
 is so. I know no other test. It is 
 impossible for the learned , gentle- 
 man to have the effrontery tc^iasserti 
 that if your Protestant brethren 
 
484 
 
 EULE OP FAITH. 
 
 were imaoquamted with the actual 
 books of the Bible, and if they were 
 all suddenly, presented to you in 
 company with fifty other "books, 
 holy books, that may be put with 
 them, written in ancient times — it 
 is impossible, I say, for him to 
 assert that you would all come to 
 the same conclusion, and, by the 
 same natural induction, know the 
 Bible from the rest, and point to 
 this as genuine, and throw away 
 that as apocryphal. If you could 
 find any two men in this audience 
 to doTso, then I would say, let us 
 have it for our Rule of Paith. But 
 it is totally impossible, and I throw 
 down the gauntlet of defiance to my 
 learned antagonist, or to any other 
 man on earth, to prove to me that 
 it is capable of being done. Only 
 let a jury of twelye men sit down 
 deliberately, and would they all 
 come to the same conclusion ? 
 Would they all say. Here is inspira- 
 tion, and here it is not ? Would 
 they say the Song of Solomon bears 
 evident marks of inspiration ? and 
 when they come to passages which, 
 translated into Enghsh — and I must 
 speak the truth, however improper 
 it may be to allude to them — but 
 passages in your version of the 
 Testament which savour of obscen- 
 ity in their English garb, though 
 not in the original one ; without the 
 testimony of the Church, to the 
 effect that these passages are in- 
 spired, what twelve men would 
 come to the conclusion that they 
 are inspired ? No : it is wholly im- 
 possible. Whereas, in rejecting tra- 
 dition, thsBible falls to the ground, 
 there is then no Bible in existence. 
 " Eoangelio ^si non crederem," says 
 St. Augustine, in the fourth century ; 
 " I would not believe in the Bible 
 itself, unless induced to it by the 
 authority of the Catholic Church." 
 There % the test, the onh/%esX ; and 
 the moment the learned gentleman 
 
 rejects that test, he is a mere idle 
 conjecturer as to what book is apo- 
 stoUcal, and apocryphal, and what 
 is not so. To show you, my friends, 
 that, at least, I am speaJdng the 
 language of antiquity, that I am 
 not famng into the fantastic vice of 
 this age of modernism — namely, an 
 incurable penchant for dogmatizing 
 for myself — I shall read to you a 
 passage from Dean Milner. He is 
 talking of Irenjeus, who ig called by 
 the ecclesiastical historian Eusebius 
 " a successor of the apostles." He 
 was a disciple of Polycarp, who was 
 a disciple of St. John the Evange- 
 list. Speaking of Irenseus, he says, 
 " He makes a strong use," says 
 Milner, "of the argument of tra- 
 dition in support of the apostolical 
 doctrine agamst the novel heresies. 
 His acquaintance with the primitive 
 Christians justified him in pressing 
 this argument. The force of it, in 
 a certain degree, is obvious, though 
 the Papists have perverted his de- 
 clarations in favour of their own 
 Church. But what may not men 
 pervert and abuse ? The reasonable 
 use of tradition, as a collateral proof 
 of Christian doctrines, is not hence 
 invalidated. What he observes here 
 concerning the barbarous nations is 
 remarkable. 'If there were any 
 doubt concerning the least sirticle, 
 ought we not to have recourse to 
 the most ancient churches where 
 the apostles lived ? What if the 
 apostles had left us no writings 
 whatever ? ought we not to follow 
 the tradition which they left with 
 those to whom they committed the 
 care of the churches ? It is what 
 several barbarous nations do, who 
 believe in Jesus without paper or 
 ink, having the doctrine of salvation 
 written on their hearts by the Holy 
 Ghost, and faithfully keeping up 
 to ancient tradition concerning one 
 God the Creator and his Son Jesus 
 Christ, Those who have received 
 
Mr. French.^ 
 
 RULE OF FAITH. 
 
 485 
 
 this faith without Scripture are 
 barharianSj as to their maimer of 
 speaidng, compared with us ; but as 
 to their sentiments and behaTrionr, 
 they are very wise and very accept- 
 able to God; and they persevere 
 in the practice of justice and charity. 
 And if any one should preach to 
 them in their language what the 
 heretics have invented, they would 
 immediately stop their ears and flee 
 far off, and would not even hear 
 those blasphemies.' 
 
 " Thus, it appears, that to the illi- 
 terate barbanans, tradition, though 
 a poor substitute, supplied the place 
 of the written word. We may not, 
 however, suppose that their faith 
 was bhnd and implicit. Our author 
 gives a strong testimony to their 
 godliness; and those of them who 
 were taught iudeed of God would 
 have in themselves the strongest 
 and most reasonable of aU proofs of 
 the diviuity of their religion. This 
 t* a valuable evidence of the Holy 
 Spirits influences, and of the native 
 energy of Divine truth on the hearts 
 and lives of very illiterate men." — 
 Mark — you see I read every thing 
 fairly — ^what he says against ujs; 
 yon see he reasons with all the 
 feebleness of my learned friend when 
 he has no soKd ground to go upon. 
 
 And mark, this very Irenseus, iu 
 another passage, which I have not 
 before me, but which I quote menw- 
 riter, talking of the Church of 
 Rome, says : " Ad banc ecclesiam 
 necesse est onmem convenire eccle- 
 siam" — ^that is, " To this Church of 
 Rome must every other church 
 appeal." 
 
 And this same Irenseus points 
 out an occasion where the Pope of 
 Rome was appealed to, and where 
 he excommunicated a certain church 
 in Asia for not obeying him — 
 [Whispering on and around the plat- 
 form,] — but he goes on to say, and 
 this is a very remarkable passage 
 
 pooking at the audience] — demand- 
 ing great silence while it is jead. — 
 [Silence being restored, the learned 
 gentleman read the passage in a very 
 measured and impressive manner. 
 After which he exclaimed — ] 
 
 Just so is it ! The Catholic in 
 the present day who is illiterate, but 
 weH-gronnded in his religion, if he 
 were to meet the learned gentle- 
 man in a stage-coach, and if he 
 (the learned gentleman) were to 
 endeavour to reason him out of his 
 religion, he would pause and shut 
 his ears and say to him, " I am not 
 learned enough to dispute with 
 you, but I am learned in the doc- 
 trines of my religion ; I believe in 
 the sacred traditions of the Church : 
 I leave you to the enjoyment of your 
 learning ; leave me to the enjoyment 
 of my religion." But you see here 
 most evidently, gentlemen, that in 
 ancient times (and that is all that 
 this dispute was instituted for, 
 to prove whether my or his re- 
 ligion be the ancient one,) — and I 
 think you must by this time be 
 thoroughly satisfied that my reli- 
 gion accords with primitive anti- 
 quity, and that his is "the offspring 
 of modem enlightenment," to use his 
 own expression upon one occasion. 
 For you may possibly remember 
 (I think it was on the second or 
 third day of the disputation) my 
 reverend friend maintamed in a most 
 solemn manner, that, instead of 
 having pure Christianity the nearer 
 you approached the days of Christ 
 — that, instead of a true knowledge 
 of Scripture, and a knowledge 
 of pure and unadulterated Chns- 
 tiamty increasing, that it was more 
 bkely to be in its acm6 now that 
 the ndl light of learning, philosophy 
 and science had burst in upon the 
 world, than it was in days immedi- 
 atelysucoeeding the apostles! Now, 
 my friends, I shall quote another 
 passage or two from Irenaius. 
 
4S6 
 
 KUIE or FAIXH. 
 
 St. Irenaeus, L.C. " The Church 
 extended to the boundaries of the 
 eaith, received her faith from the 
 apostles and their disciples. Hay- 
 ing reoeiyed it, she carefully re- 
 tains it, as if dwelling in one house, 
 as possessing one soul and heart : 
 the io/me faith she delivers and teaches 
 with one accord, and as if gifted 
 with one tongue : for though m the 
 world there be various modes of 
 speech, the tradition of doctrine is 
 one and the same. In the churches 
 of Germany, in those of Spain and 
 Gaiil, in those of the East, of Egypt 
 and of Africa, amd in the middle 
 regions, is the same belief, the 
 same teaching. Eor, as the world 
 is enlightened by one sun, so does 
 the preaching of one faith enlighten 
 all men that are willing to come to 
 the knowledge of truth. Nor 
 among the pastors of the Church, 
 does he that is eloquent deliver 
 other doctrine ; for no one is above 
 his master ; nor he that is weak in 
 speech diminish the truth of tra- 
 dition. Eaith being one, cannot be 
 affected by the powers or the want 
 of utterance." — Adversm Htereses: 
 1. i. c. X. p. 48, 49. 
 
 " God placed in his Church apo- 
 stles, prophets, doctors; and the 
 whole operation of the Spirit, of 
 which they do riot partake who are 
 not united to the Church; but by 
 thek own bad designs and actions 
 they deprive themselves of Ufe. 
 Eor where the Church is, there is 
 the Spirit of God; and where this 
 Spirit is, there is the Church and 
 all grace : the Spirit is truth." — 
 Ibid. 1. ui. c. xxiv. p. 323. Vide 1. iv, 
 c. xxxiii. p. 273. 
 
 St. IrensBus, L.C. " The ap6- 
 stoMo faith, manifested to the whole 
 world, they who would behold truth 
 may see in every Church; and we 
 can enumerate those bishops who 
 were appointed by the apostles and 
 their successors, down to ourselves ; 
 
 [9tt Evemnff. 
 
 none of whom ta,ught, or even 
 knew, the wild opinion of these 
 men (heretics.) Had the apostles 
 really possessed any secret doctrines, 
 whicn the perfect only were to 
 hear, surely they would have conj- 
 municated them to those to whom 
 they entrusted their churches. 
 However, as it would be tedious to 
 enumerate the whole list of suc- 
 cessions, I shall confine myself to 
 that of ExDme, the greatest, most 
 ancient, and most illustrious church, 
 founded by the glorious' apostles, 
 Peter and Paul; receiving from 
 them her doctrine, which was an- 
 nounced to all men, and which, 
 through the succession of her 
 bishops, is come down to us. Thus 
 we confound all those, who, thi-ough 
 evil designs, or vainglory, or per- 
 verseness, teach what they ought 
 not. For to this Church, on account 
 of its ' superior headship, every 
 other must have recourse — ^that is, 
 the faithful of all countries; in 
 which Church has been preserved 
 the doctrine delivered by the 
 apostles. They, therefore, having 
 founded and instructed this Church, 
 committedtheadministrationthereoi 
 to Linus. Of this Liaus Paul 
 makes mention in his Epistle to 
 Timothy. To him succeeded Ane- 
 cletus; then, in the third place, 
 Clement, who had himself seen 
 and conversed with those apostles, 
 at which time their preaching yet 
 sounded in his ears. Nor was this 
 alone true of him: many at that 
 time were living whom they had 
 taught. To Clement succeeded 
 Evaristus; to him Alexander; and 
 then the sixth from the apostles, 
 Sixtus ; who was followed oy Te- 
 leophorus, Hyginus, Pius, and 
 Amcetus. But Soter having suc- 
 ceeded Anioetus, Eleutherias, the 
 twelfth from the apostles, now 
 governs the Church. By the same 
 order and succession has the doc- 
 
Mr. French^ 
 
 ETJLE OP PAI'IH. 
 
 487 
 
 trine delivered by the apostles in 
 the Ghurcli, as the preaching of 
 truth descended to us; and the 
 proof is most clear that it is one 
 and the same viTifpng faith, which, 
 coming from the apostles, is at 
 this time maintained and taught." 
 Adv. Har. 1. iii. c. iu. p. J 75. 
 
 " So also Polycarp, mstructed ty 
 the apostles, and having conversed 
 with many who had seen the Lord, 
 was appointed by them bishop of. 
 Smyrna. Him we knew in our 
 youth. The doctrine which he had 
 learned from the apostles he uni- 
 formly taught and delivered to his 
 Church: and this doctrine alone is 
 true. To this all the churches of 
 Asia, and they who have succeeded 
 to Polycarp, bear testimony. Surely 
 he was a witness of the truth, 
 more credible and more faithful than 
 Valentiiius, and Marcion, and others 
 of the like perverse opinions." lb. 
 p. 178. — " Things bemg thus made 
 plain, it is not from others that the 
 truth is to be sought, which may be 
 readily learned from the Church. 
 For to this Church, as in a rich 
 depository, the apostles committed 
 whatever is of Divine truth, that 
 each one, if so inclined, might 
 thence draw the drink of Hfe. This 
 is the way to lite ; all other teach- 
 ers must be shunned as thieves and 
 robbers. For what? Should there 
 be any dispute on a point of so 
 snuJl moment ? must not recourse 
 be had to the most ancient churches, 
 where the apostles resided, and 
 from them collect the truth? And, 
 had these apostles left us nothing 
 in writing, must not we then have 
 followed that rule of doctrine which, 
 they delivered to those to whom they 
 entrusted their churches? To this 
 rule many barbarous nations submit 
 who, deprived of the aid of letters, 
 have the words of salvation written on 
 their hearts, and carefully guard the 
 doctrine which has been delivered." 
 
 Rev. J. CuKMiNG. — The page, it 
 youpleaae. 
 
 Mr. PEENCH.'^Page 178, c. iv. 
 Edit. Bened. Paris, 1710. 
 
 Now together with these views 
 of trath, in addition to them, you 
 see in Scripture this doctrine ; yes, 
 although I quote the fathers of the 
 Church, you shall see it all corro- 
 borated by Scripture. " There- 
 fore, brethren" — it is 3 Thess, ii. 15, 
 [turning to Mr. Cumming,] " stand 
 fast, and hold the traditions which 
 ye have been taught, whether by 
 word or our epistle." 
 
 What I contended, therefore, 
 gentlemen, the last time I had the 
 honour of meeting you here, and 
 what I still most strenuously main- 
 tain is, that the mode by which aU 
 nations were converted to Chris- 
 tianity was by tradition. My learned 
 friend, has quoted a passage from St. 
 Chrysostom to prove that the Bible 
 had had an extensive spread over 
 the nations of the earth; but he 
 forgot to tel you that the nations 
 of the earth could not read the 
 Bible. Surely my learned, friend 
 might have mformed you that it 
 could be only in the "polished 
 comers " of the earth, and among 
 the niore enlightened of the nations, 
 that these fountains of Divine 
 truth were accessible, and even 
 there, my learned Mend must 
 have known, that manuscripts 
 before the art of printing wore 
 extremely difficult to purchase, and 
 exceedingly rare, and were very 
 few in number compared with the 
 religious advantages of the age. 
 
 But why, I ask my friend, does 
 he make such a masquerade of 
 this matter? why does he keep this 
 subject so studiously out of view ? 
 How, I ask him, could our barbarous 
 and benighted ancestors, "plunged 
 in deep and damnable idolatry," 
 how could they ameliorate idolatry 
 by the diffusion of the Bible 
 
1&8 
 
 aULE OF PAIIH. 
 
 or by any other modeB of coaYey- 
 ing Diyine light to the people, ex- 
 cepting through the medium of 
 oral instruction ? My Jriend must 
 know that, when St. Augustine 
 came over to this counfay, our bar- 
 barous ancestors were totally un- 
 acquainted with the use of letters. 
 He must know likewise that what 
 facilitated the greatconquest of the 
 kingdom of God in the conversion 
 of Great Britain was the peculiar 
 sanctity which i&tinguished the 
 character of its first ennghteners. I 
 shall at present — (but here I have 
 such a long list of notes, that I 
 scarcely know which to take first.) 
 But on the kat evening, my learned 
 friend, after having thrown down the 
 Bible, in the manner which I have 
 depicted to you, on the table, said, 
 " There is my Rule of Faith; we 
 must all have recourse to the ora- 
 cles of God if we vidsh to work 
 out our salvation; the most illi- 
 terate can comprehend it; it is 
 within reach of every one's under- 
 standing." I ask then, if this be 
 so. What need of so many parsons 
 Raughter] — so many clergymen in 
 England to inculcate the truths 
 contained in the Bible f What 
 need of this grand hierarchy yclept 
 the Church of England, bmlt up 
 on the model of the ■ Church of 
 Kome — ^whioh Church of England 
 is at the present moment tottering 
 to its very basis ? What need, I 
 repeat, of any spiritual instructor, 
 if the Bible is to speak one plain, 
 uniform, intelligible language to 
 every understanding? How is it 
 to be the Eule of Eaith, if persons 
 come to conclusions so widely dif- 
 ferent the one from 4he other in 
 fundamental points of szdvation? 
 Can that be a Rule of Paith where 
 one man rejects baptism as totally 
 unnecessary, and where another 
 declares that unless you are bap- 
 tized with water you can never 
 
 enter the kingdom of heaven; where 
 one man says that Christ Jesus our 
 blessed Lord is God and man, and 
 where another declares that he is 
 merelyman and not the Son of God? 
 I know v*ry well that my learned 
 friend wiU. probably here say, " I do 
 not admit the Unitarian to be a 
 Christian;" but I am not obliged 
 to listen to such explanation on the 
 part of my learned friend. If 
 the Unitarian be not a Christian, 
 it is in consequence of that pre- 
 rogative with which ,my learned 
 friend gratuitously invests him — 
 namely, the right of interpreting 
 the Bible for himself, spuming 
 the authority ofi the Church of 
 Ages, which teaches us that Christ 
 is both God and man. It is 
 utterly useless for my friend to 
 teU me the Unitarian is not sincere 
 and Christian. What! proscribe 
 all the Unitarians in Englsuid; men 
 of splendid and commanding genius; 
 men of conscience and honour; men 
 of integrity and truth; .men who live 
 and die — die actually with the per- 
 suasion that Christ is mere man, 
 and " Intercessor " — ^who believe in 
 God most firmly! Is it just, is it 
 honourable to say they are not 
 Christians, when it is his_ very 
 system, the system which he himself 
 recommends, that has caused theii 
 unchristianization? Oh, it is really 
 unfair! it is decidedly urikiud, un- 
 generous, and unfair on the part of 
 my learned friend, or on the part 
 of any clergyman of the Church 
 of England or Scotland. Surely, 
 if we are to take texts of Scripture 
 and "mangle" them in that way in 
 which my learned friend mangles 
 his texts, the Unitarian has a great 
 deal to say for himself. "My 
 Father is greater than' I " — ^he re- 
 sounds that in your ears incessantly, 
 continually. Again, "Him the 
 Father hath raised up and showed 
 him openly." Why, the Unitarian 
 
Mr. French^ 
 
 BT7LE or TAITH. 
 
 485 
 
 exclaims, I see most plainly that 
 Christ could not raise himself. It is 
 "the Father," the God of heaven, 
 who raised him, and not his own 
 power that resided within him. 
 He comes, therefore, to the conclu- 
 sion that Christ is not God ; and 
 he comes to it by that very Rule of 
 Faith which my learned friend so 
 ostentatiously threw upon the table. 
 So certain, my friends, is it, that 
 the moment you quit the traditions 
 of the Catholic Church, that 
 you have no anchor whereon to 
 rest, but become " tossed about by 
 every wind of doctrine." Now if I 
 am not prooeediog in consecutive 
 order, no blame is attributable to 
 me, for the next note I have upon 
 my paper is connected with I know 
 not what. But I have taken it 
 down. It is, "There is none right- 
 eous, no not one." If I recollect 
 rightly, this was in reference to 
 Purgatory. It appears here in the 
 abstract ; but even in his interpreta- 
 tion of that point I can bring an- 
 other passage to overturn it, where 
 two holy persons are described iu 
 Luke, as "walking in all4he com- 
 mandments and ordiaances of the 
 Lord blameless." Now here is a 
 flat contradiction. The one says, 
 "There is none righteous, no not 
 one," and yet here are two persons 
 " walking ia ail the commandments 
 and ordinaiices of the Lord blame- 
 less." Who is to be the reconciler 
 of these two apparently discordant, 
 inharmonious passages ? The Church 
 of God — the Chwrch'of Ages, which 
 teaches uniformly in every age the 
 self-same doctrine ! Every Catholic 
 reconciles it at first sight;, the 
 Catholic knows that "a good man 
 sins daUv," and, therefore, he ex- 
 plains this passage without any 
 reference to Ms priest. This pas- 
 sage is truly perplexmg to my 
 learned friend, and all his sophistry 
 this evening wiU not be able to 
 
 throw light upon. the subject. He 
 says in. one place, " There is none 
 righteous, no, not one;" that is, 
 there is none totally exempt from 
 aU stain of venial sin ; " walldng in 
 all the commandments and ordi- 
 nances of the Lord blameless," 
 means they are polluted with no- 
 thing like mortal sin. Thus it is 
 reconciled immediately to sense, 
 grammar, and logic; and none of 
 the rules either of- Scripture or pro- 
 priety axe violated. But in the 
 gloomy system which lays down 
 that all sin is "damnable," and 
 that a man can be saved by faith 
 alone — ^the suffering believer cannot 
 be lost, if his faith be firm, what- 
 ever may be the enormity of his 
 crime — ^in this case there is a repug- 
 nance never to be reconciled. 
 
 My learned friend next alluded 
 to the Sextine edition of the Bible, 
 and demanded an explanation of 
 various discrepancies, amounting, 
 as my friend said, to about two 
 thousand, I think — [the learned 
 gentleman appearing to doubt his 
 own correctness.] 
 
 Eev. J. Gumming.— [Turning to 
 him, in affirmation, said] — Yes ! 
 two thousand. 
 
 Mr. Fkbnchi — Very well ! Why 
 my friends— [the learned gentleman 
 continued] — there is no difficulty in 
 understanding that ! There were 
 several heretieal translations of the 
 Bible in circulation at the time, and 
 the pope of the day thought proper 
 to produce a Bible which should be 
 totally free from gross corruptions. 
 But mark! that pope never pre- 
 tended that any council would ever 
 take upon itself to give an accurate 
 translation of the Bible. Little 
 slips and inadvertences will take 
 place, and they do here, and my 
 friend acknowledges it is so in the 
 English Bible transited by Calvin ; 
 and in all languages there will be 
 little inadvertences. But what I 
 
490 
 
 KTJLE OP iAlTB. [9^^ Esening 
 
 oompkiu of — and he cannot retort 
 the reproach back upon me — what 
 I: complain of is the mehed,, malig- 
 nant, deliberate perversiom of the 
 Gospel of our Lord and Savioui, 
 for no other purpose than that of 
 propping up their own guilty schism 
 and indefensible heresy. That is 
 what I complain of to my friend, 
 and I have proved to my learned 
 friend that he is not able to extri- 
 cate himself from the embarrass- 
 ment. When I proved to my learned 
 friend, some evemms ago, that the 
 translators (rf the English Bible, in 
 order to do away with communion 
 in one kind, instead of translating 
 it, " He that shall eat or drink the 
 blood of the Lord unworthily," &o. 
 in the English Bible had translated 
 it, "He that eats aud drinks the 
 blood of the Lord unworthily," — 
 when I called upon him to "know 
 ■whether that was not a mistransla- 
 tion, he could not deny it. But at 
 our next meeting my fnend came in 
 armed vrith all the learning of the 
 British Museum, and stated he had 
 inspected two manuscripts. He 
 found one of the Copts — heretics, 
 mark ! — reproached of old for having 
 perverted the Bible, and the other 
 an Alexandrian copy of the Bible. 
 WeU, it is a known fact that the 
 English translators of the Bible 
 never saw either of them. It is a 
 known fact, that in the first edition 
 of the Bible printed that they had 
 actually, as it is in our Bible, the 
 word or (ij), and that they wantonly, 
 deliberately, and wickedly imposed 
 upon the British pubKc by changing 
 it into (koi) and. 
 
 Again, as to that passage T 
 brought before you the other day, 
 I brought a man profoundly con- 
 versant in the Hebrew language to 
 prove my position, that the words, 
 " desperately wicked" were foisted 
 in for an iniquitous purpose. How 
 lias my learned friend endeavoured 
 
 to explain it away this day ! Why 
 did not my learned friend do it 
 when the Hebraist was present to 
 confute him ? He (the Hebraist) 
 has looked at this over and over 
 again, and he says he never saw in 
 his Me a more wanton mistransla- 
 tion than that very passage. Here 
 is my Hebrew Bible — [taking up 
 the same, and opening it], with the 
 literal translation under it, word for 
 word, in Latin. Let my learned 
 friend recur to it, and see if he can 
 make out the words "desperately 
 vrioked" by it. — ^[The learned gen- 
 tleman here consigned the book to 
 John Kendal, Esq., Catholic chair- 
 man, saying: — "Hand it over to 
 Mr. Cumming, if you please." 
 Which having been done by George 
 Knch, Esq., and nothing ensuing 
 thereupon, the learned gentleman 
 continued.] Then my friend said — 
 "My learned opponent called your 
 attention to a passage from St. 
 Chrysostom, in vrhich he attempted 
 to prove that the nations of the 
 world were kept supplied with 
 Bibles, and employed themselves 
 in 'philosophizing' on them." — 
 [Laughter.] — ^Now really it does 
 require a little more candour on the 
 part of my learned friend in trans- 
 lating from the Greek. The words 
 he read were these: — "But they 
 are in the habit of pkilosophizii:^ 
 from the Scripture with one mind. 
 
 Now I must call the attention of 
 my learned friend to the word 
 " philosophizing " in Greek. Though 
 we derive ourword"philosophizing" 
 from it, it has no meaning analogous 
 to the English vrord "philosophiz- 
 ing." The Greek of " philosophiz- 
 ing" is badly translated in the 
 English. It means " deriving wis- 
 dom from," and that does not mean 
 philosophijing, because philosophiz- 
 mg, in the English language, is 
 very different 'to the meaning of 
 philosophizo, which is the Greek. It 
 
Mr. French.'] 
 
 ETJLE OE FAITH. 
 
 491 
 
 means to, "derive wisdom from it," 
 and that, my friends, is all that St. 
 Chrysostom meant in saying, "And 
 ■with one mind they derived wisdom 
 from the Scriptures;" which proves 
 most clearly that there could be no 
 other church then in existence but 
 the Catholic Church, because they 
 derived wisdom from it with one 
 mind. The moment you iatroduce, 
 on the contrary, the Bule of Paith 
 laid down by my friend, every man 
 is taught to interpret for hnnself, 
 and it IS an utter impossibility that 
 they should "philosophize with one 
 mind" because no person will come 
 to the same deduction. 
 
 My learned friend then calls my 
 attention to King James's Bible, 
 who appointed so many learned men 
 to attend the translation of it. 
 And why did he do it ? — Because 
 you are told that the Bible which 
 was in use among the common 
 people was so fuH of corruptions. 
 Therefore, gentlemen, when the 
 grand Catholic Church was at an 
 end in this country, it appears King 
 James thought proper to give a 
 better translation of the Bible, in 
 consequence of the innumerable 
 gross mistranslations that defiled it 
 in Protestant translations before 
 that period. What a Eule of Paith, 
 I agaia say, must tiiat have been I 
 and what a Rule of Eaith is, that 
 Bible in which, even if you could 
 prove its authenticity, in which there 
 are such innumerable' mistransla; 
 tions ! My learned friend then, in 
 his usual happy manner, in referring 
 to our authors (though I thought 
 he had been "sickened" by the 
 ineffable disdain with which I re- 
 plied to JDupin), brought forward 
 Dr. Geddes, as a man who lavished 
 many praises on the English trans- 
 lation of the Bible. I have the 
 pleasure to tell my learned friend 
 that "he is a weed," (though I do 
 not like to speak ill of the d^ad) 
 
 " which I heartily and most readily 
 throw over into his garden." — ! 
 [Laughter.] Dr. Geddes was branded 
 as a heretic while he lived ; we re- 
 jected him from our communion, 
 and have no respect for his memory 
 now that he is dead. Then comes 
 the learned gentleman's long and 
 elaborate defence of the iniqui- 
 tous translations of the Bible, wh ch 
 I pointed out to you, where Paul 
 says, " Cannot I take about with me 
 a woman, as the other apostles ? " 
 And as my friend endeavoured to 
 perplex your understandings and 
 minds, I shall endeavour to render 
 everything extremely clear to you, 
 and to show you that no fault, no 
 odium whatever, f aUs on our Catho- 
 lic translation of the Bible. Cer- 
 tainly the word means, originally, 
 "woman." It is applied to the 
 blessed mother of our Saviour. The 
 Saviour says woman, which there 
 means mother. In other places it 
 means wife. We all know that. 
 But mark, my friends, it means 
 likewise woman, and by us Catholics 
 and Protestants alike it is trans- 
 lated woman in several books of the 
 Bible. We aU agree except upon 
 one unfortunate passage, where tney 
 happened to know — and in that 
 the depth of their cunning and their 
 guilt consists — ^where they hap^ 
 pened, I say, to know that it means 
 simply woman, and not wife, since 
 St. Paul himself tells us that he was 
 unmarried. I Cor. vii. 7, 8 : — " For 
 I would that aU men were even as I 
 myself. But eveir man hath his 
 proper gift of God, • one after 
 this manner and another after that. 
 I sajf therefore, to the unmarried 
 and widows, it is good for them if 
 they abide even as I." They, the 
 Protestant translators, knew, there- 
 fore, that St. Paul meant not to 
 allude to a wife, he telling us with 
 his own mouth that he had none; 
 and yet, notwithstanding this their 
 
492 
 
 EULE OF PAITH. [9<A EveiMltff 
 
 knowledge of his unmamed state, 
 uotwithstandmgthe ancient transla- 
 tion of the Latin Vulgate before 
 xheir eyes translating it aeenrately 
 woman, they had the iacredible 
 audacity to translate it iato EngUsh, 
 to their deeply-branded and eternal 
 infamy, iu the following manner :— 
 1 Cor. ix. 5 : "Have we not power 
 to lead about a sister, a wife, as 
 well as other apostles, and as the 
 brethren of the Lord and Cephas ?" 
 where the apostle most evidently 
 means, according to the confession 
 of many Protestant divines, those 
 devout women who, after the man- 
 ner of Jewry, served the preacher 
 with necessaries, of which kind 
 many followed Christ, and sustained 
 hiTti and his followers with their 
 substance. Oh ! is not this, my 
 Protestant friends, too bad — ay, is 
 it not too deliberately courting the 
 maledictions imprecated iu the sacred 
 volume upon the head of him who 
 shall thus deal treacherously in cor- 
 rupting its genuine meaning, and 
 causing thousands, if not nuJlions, 
 to stumble ? VLj friends, the Pro- 
 testant Bible alone furnishes me 
 with an adequate expression to cha- 
 racterize such indefensible, such 
 unqualifled villany — ^namely, by call- 
 ing it — a perversion of the sacred 
 text, — most "desperately wicked" 
 And now, my friends, after this 
 exposition of your Parliamentary 
 Bible, come we to another, where 
 St. Paul says, "It ia better to 
 marry than to bum ; but if they do 
 not contain, let them marry;" but 
 the Protestant has inserted, "if 
 they cannot." I told you the word 
 cannot was ou dvi'oi'rai (" if they 
 cannot contain.") Now, if it were 
 " cannot," it would be this long 
 word, hvvavTai. I ask my learned 
 friend. Is it so — ^viz. ou hwavrai ? 
 No, he will tell me, it is not there. 
 My friend wiH perhaps say it is 
 paiaphrastical, but I do not want 
 
 paraphrasts of the Bible ; I want real 
 solid translation, and I say that no 
 man can commit such an enormity 
 without bringing down upon him- 
 self the curse pronounced upon the 
 profaners of the sacred word of 
 God. 
 
 Let my learned friend show some- 
 thing Kke this in our Sextine Bible, 
 instead of "the little slips and 
 errors of mortality." But let him 
 not think I will permit him to 
 creep out of the difficulty into 
 which be has plunged upon such 
 easy terms. No, my iriend must 
 bring solid, ponderous argv/ment, not 
 shalfow and superficial sophistry! 
 Again, my friend alludes to the 
 word «jri\ver€ffls. He labours under 
 a mistake here, voluntary or in- 
 voluntary. He imagines that I 
 upbraided the English Bible for 
 translating-it "interpretation." I 
 did not. But I merely wished to 
 point out to my friend that it was a 
 much stronger word ; that it meant 
 " disentangfement ;" for he knows 
 very well fliat ours is translated in 
 the same way with his own. And I 
 am going to advert to another where 
 your translation agrees more or less 
 with our own, but still I maintain 
 that they are both wrong ; that is, 
 that they do not come up to th& 
 strength and forcible power of the 
 original. It is where Christ said, 
 investing Peter with his grand 
 primacy, noifuuve ra wpo^ara /lov. 
 He says this to no other apostle, 
 but only to Peter. This strong 
 expressive Greek word means, 
 "Shepherd thou," at " shepherdize, 
 my sheep." The grand commission, 
 therefore, the plenitude of authority 
 thus given by Christ to Peter, runs 
 thus : " Feed my lambs." " Shop- 
 herdize my sheep." "Peed my 
 sheep." (John xxi. 15, 16, 17.) 
 But the English translation en- 
 feebles the middle verse by a tauto- 
 logy whiohourSaviour never uttered^ 
 
Mr. French.'] 
 
 RULE OF PA1TH„ 
 
 493 
 
 rendering it feed, instead of shep- 
 
 My learned friend has vised an 
 expression which certainly does not 
 savour of "the Tni11t of Christian 
 charity." He says of our mission- 
 aries who went into every part of 
 the world shedding their blood in 
 the cause of our adorable Redeemer, 
 that the fruit of aU their labours 
 was but to make their converts but 
 " ten times more the children of hell 
 than they were before." Oh, my 
 friends, is this language which ought 
 to disti from the ups of a Christian 
 minister ? I ask my friend whether 
 he is in the habit of reflecting 
 deeply before he speaks, or whether 
 he pours forth a mere torrait of 
 words which he neither knows how 
 to check nor to direct ? Surely, no 
 Christian minister of any sect in 
 this room can smile with approba- 
 tion on such virulence of language 
 used towards their Catholic bre- 
 thren ! What ! does the learned 
 gentleman mean to say that Fenelon, 
 St. iPraincis Xavier, St. Pranois of 
 Sales, MassUlon, Bossuet, and all 
 the great luminaries of the Catholic 
 Church, were " children of hell ?" 
 I know that Calvin would call them 
 so, just as he calls every one who 
 differs with him as to creed. But 
 my friend professes to be a Cal- 
 vinist and yet totally unconnected 
 with Calvin, which is indeed a most 
 extraordinary paradox. The nex't 
 kind epithet bestowed on the Ca- 
 tholic religion is, that it was "a 
 dark and tremendous apostasy." 
 My learned friend knows that we 
 reproach them with that, from the 
 beginning of their secession to the 
 present ^y. " They went out from 
 us ;" we did not apostatize from 
 the Protestant Church. I proved 
 to you from the beginning that our 
 ancestors planted the Catholic re- 
 ligion in every region in Europe, 
 and that in the sixteenth century 
 
 your different sects impiously sun- 
 dered from us ; you "went out of 
 us ;" you found out a religion for 
 yourselves. You took up the Bible 
 as vour Rnle'of Paith ; and you still 
 call it the Rule of Paith, instead of 
 holding with our Rule of Faith. It 
 is not one Rule of Faith : or, if so, 
 how happens it that your sects are 
 diametrically opposed to each other ? 
 They are variable rules ; and no year 
 passes in this country but it pro- 
 duces a new religion with a new 
 Rule of Faith. 
 My friend alluded next to certain 
 
 E nests in the vicinity of the Hum- 
 er, who were unacquainted with 
 Latin. These men may be well- 
 taught men, thoroughly acquainted 
 vrith the traditions of the apostles 
 and the Church ; but the grave 
 charge brought against them is that 
 they were unacquainted with Latin, 
 and received the Gospel orally, 
 and traditionally, and, not by the 
 Bible. 
 
 But there is not time to answer 
 all the notes which I have taken 
 from my learned friend's speech. 
 I wish to throw the onus probandi 
 on him this evening. I wish my 
 learned friend, in a clear, lucid 
 manner, to inform us by what test 
 he can prove the authenticity of 
 that Bible on which he prides him- 
 self, and which he calls his Rule of 
 Faith. I shall listen very atten- 
 tively to him, reminding Mm that 
 I expect argument,, and not flashes 
 of oratory. I vrish him rather' to 
 take for his guide and model the 
 close reasoning of Aristotle or of 
 Lord Bacon, instead of the mode of 
 reasoning so familiar to my learned 
 friend, not of Demosthenes, or 
 Cicero, but rather of the sophist 
 Libanins. 
 
 Again, though I have proved to 
 you so satisfactorily that the fathers 
 are all unanimous on the grand 
 fundamental articles of the Catholic 
 
ETJLE OS J?AITH. 
 
 faith, again he repeats, that they 
 are all " at variance with one an- 
 other." Upon what, I ask, are 
 they at variance ? — ^Why, merely on^ 
 the same points that my Catholic: 
 friends on the right hand and the 
 left are when they consult the Bible 
 on various passages of unimport-' 
 ance, and deduce from it, as my 
 frieiid does, one one meiuung, and 
 another another. And so have the 
 fathers done ; but no father, how- 
 ever great, could be called any thing 
 but a heretic, who did not agree 
 upon the ftindamental articles of 
 the Catholic faith. "What is this, 
 my friends — I am sorry to use the 
 expression, but my friend may 
 retort it if he Mkes, and call me a 
 sophist — ^but what is it but mere 
 shadowy sophistry, an attempt spe- 
 ciously to darken and perplex a 
 point of the greatest simplicity, 
 by asserting that the fathers do 
 not agree with one another ? When 
 I have opened their volumes, I 
 have proved to you their most una- 
 nimous consent and concurrehoe 
 upon every thing vital ia the Ca- 
 tholic reliffllon. 
 
 Again, I call on my friend to ex- 
 tricate Protestants from the charge 
 of daring impiety, in. keeping the 
 Sabbath on Sunday. What texts 
 of Scripture has he brought to cor- 
 roborate or sanction his doctrine? 
 Why, merely one : — "I was in 
 the Spirit on the Lord's day." 
 What is that, my friends? "The 
 Lord's day" is the day of Jehovah. 
 That is all I deduce from it ; there 
 must be one Lord's day, and it is 
 commanded most specifically to be 
 kept, and it had been kept for ages. 
 There must be something more sub- 
 stantial to overturn the dogma 
 than sucli an ambiguous egression 
 as that. If my fnend intends to 
 
 Erove his Rule of Faith, let him 
 rst prove the manner of keeping 
 the Lord's day from Riday to 
 
 Saturday evening? These are es- 
 sential things ! Let my friend prove 
 the procession of the Holy Ghost 
 from the Father and the Son ; let 
 liini prove the consubstantiaUty, 
 co-essentiality, of the Son with the 
 Father aud the Holy Ghost. This 
 is the burden I place upon the 
 shoulders of my friend ; and if ora- 
 tory can effect the desired object, 
 you will have it in abundance this 
 evening. But let us have argu- 
 ment. I am tired of the rhetorician 
 mving gmdly words, I call for the 
 logician. My friend has to prove 
 the inspiration of that book. He 
 has to prove that it is true which 
 his Church asserts, though upon 
 our authority; for he knows well 
 that several books now termed ca- 
 nonical were the subjects of long 
 debate and disputation in the Ca- 
 tholic Church for several ^es. I 
 find that the Epistle to the Hebrews 
 was doubted m the seventh cen- 
 tury by some persons ; and as to 
 Revelations, there is not a learned 
 man among Protestants that has 
 written within a century past, who 
 has not doubted the authenticity of 
 that book. But, wiping all that 
 out of the question, the grand bur- 
 den I place upon the? shoulders of 
 my learned friend this evening, is 
 to prove intrinsically the oanomoity 
 of that very book, the Bible, which 
 he calls, and is proud so to call, his 
 Rule of Faith — which he caUs " his 
 pride and his glory." 
 
 Again, I ask my learned friend. 
 How is it, if God meant to instruct 
 mankind by the New Testament, 
 how is it that so many have been 
 lost ? how is it that so many of the 
 ancient Testaments have been lost P 
 Did our blessed Saviour command 
 his disciples to write out a Rule 
 of Faith ? did he point out any 
 text in which he told them to do it ? 
 
 This, my friends, is a Quaker who 
 is speakings — a converted Quaker. 
 
liev. J. Camming^ 
 
 EtrtE OP FAITH. 
 
 405 
 
 [The expiration of the usual hour 
 being annoTmced by the chairman, 
 the learned gentleman concluded 
 abruptly by saying] — This is written 
 by a Quaker, a convert within this 
 month past. 
 
 Rev. J. CuMMisa. — ^I demand, 
 my Christian hearers, your most 
 sincere sorrow over the painful 
 spectacle which my antagonist has 
 this evening presented before you. 
 You win observe that he felt most 
 justly and most deeply that tbe 
 ground on which he stood at the 
 outset had been taken from be- 
 neath his ~feet — ^he felt that if he 
 tried to retain it longer he would 
 be hurled from it without mercy 
 or help — that if he tried to keep 
 the position of a Roman Catholic 
 he had not an inch to stand on; 
 and now what, under such circum- 
 stances, has he had recourse to, 
 do you think, in order to prop up 
 the exploded principles which he 
 professes to hold? Wby, he now 
 presents himseK before you, hypo- 
 theticaUy in theory, but truly in 
 fact, in the garb of an infidel, as he 
 has by turns in the blasphemous 
 robes of a Socinian, and oooasion- 
 aUy arrayed in the so-called spirit- 
 ualities of a Quaker. He dare not 
 meet me as a Roman Cathohc : he 
 must stand before you in the posi- 
 tion of an infidel ; he must forsake 
 his own eround^he has practically 
 this evenmg abjured his own Ohureh 
 — he has committed an act of eccle- 
 siastical suicide, and must now stand 
 before you an unblushing and un- 
 disguised infidel. If my learned 
 opponent be really a Roman Catho- 
 hc, I vnlL meet him as a Roman 
 Cathohc ; if an infidel, I will meet 
 Him in that character too. When 
 I entered on this discussion, I pre-, 
 sumed that he was what he pro- 
 fessed himself to be, arid what the 
 eountenance of the several and suc- 
 
 cessive priests, who have night after 
 night accompanied him, showed him 
 to be ; but now he renounces the 
 Papal faith, he takes the ground of 
 a sceptic, denies the Bible, and calls 
 upon me to prove the truth of 
 Scripture, the canonicity of its suc- 
 cessive books, and the accuracy 
 of the authorized translation; and 
 having thus disburdened himself, 
 having thus cast off the Roman Ca- 
 thohc Church — its creeds and its 
 remnants of Christianity yet unex- 
 tinguished — and stood on the yet 
 more degrading and ignominious 
 ground of an mfldel, — ^he, erst the 
 Romanist, arrayed now in the pol- 
 luted garments of Tom Paine, pro- 
 claims infidelity in any of its shapes 
 to be right, and Christianity in all 
 its forms to be wrong ! [Sensation 
 — ^we understand Mr. French looked 
 surprised in the meantime.] Mon- 
 strous resource ! dreadful supersti- 
 tion ! painful alternative ! requiring 
 a mam to extinguish all semblances 
 and hghts of any Christianity in his 
 creed and heart, and to abandon all 
 claim even to the shattered and 
 flimsy superstition which bears the 
 name of Christ, before he can meet 
 and confront his adversary, and de- 
 monstrate PaOTESTiNTISM to be 
 wrong, and Roman Cathohcism to 
 be right ! This is my greatest and 
 most decisive victory. This is Mr. 
 French's honest admission — that 
 his creed is indefensible. It really 
 "speaks volumes" in behalf of the 
 omnipotence of our cause. His 
 conduct to-night, I say, speaks 
 volumes-^t tells you in piercing 
 and impressive tones that the Papal 
 faith, even in my fipponent's esti- 
 mate, has not one nch of ground 
 whereon to repose its hopes of vic- 
 tory, and that his and its only and 
 last chance of escape from utter ruin 
 is to run for shelter to the subtleties 
 of the infidel. My opponent in- 
 voked the patronage of the Aiian, 
 
496 
 
 KTJLE or JfAITH. 
 
 [Oih EBemng. 
 
 then lie adopted the views of the 
 Quaker, and last of all, in order that 
 he may have something to say, he 
 mu t run to the ruins of scepticism 
 for stones to hurl against the for- 
 tress of impregnable, unscathed, and 
 Scriptural Protestantism. [Sensa^ 
 tionj For, observe, every argu- 
 ment with which he set out required 
 this : every stone which he dares to 
 throw at me has to be taken oat of 
 his own citadel. He cannot touch 
 me and keep his own ground intact. 
 This he felt he dare not do ; this he 
 cannot do. He must take his stand 
 on the ruins of the Roman Catholic 
 Church before he can so much as 
 touch the Protestant Church, or 
 take away one particle of its slaim, 
 one fragment &om the indefeasible 
 positions with which I guarded it, 
 and on which I based the hoary 
 claims of our pure and primeval 
 Christianity ! He must commit ec- 
 clesiastical, or papal, or moral sui- 
 cide, in order that, by the atrocious 
 deed, he may defend an atrocious 
 superstition. He now stands before 
 you a proof that Popery has no 
 shadow of decent apology. My 
 antagonist, notwithstandu^ his de- 
 mands, complained that I was so 
 anxious to have three nights or four 
 for the discussion of this topic, and 
 that he wished to terminate the 
 subject in one or two nights. But 
 you win notice that he has called 
 on me, along with this plea for 
 brevity, to prove the canonioity of 
 Genesis, then of Deuteronomy, tnen 
 of Leviticus, then of Exodus, then 
 of Numbers — to prove the canoni- 
 oity of Joshua, then the Song of 
 Solomon, Jeremiah, Isaiah, Gospel^ 
 arid Epistles — [a whispering at Mr. 
 French's part of the platform, which 
 was thus explained to Mr. Gum- 
 ming by] :— 
 
 GiofiGB PrNCH, Esq., P.O. He 
 says " All in a lump." 
 
 Mr. CtnooNe. — Oh ! He a.sks 
 
 me, for my conysnience, to prove 
 them "all in a lump" — even this 
 would require twice two nights. 
 [A laugh.] But is not this audience 
 aware that I gave a specimen in my 
 opening address, and at the outset 
 of this discussion on the B,ule of 
 Paith, of the evidences of Chris- 
 tianiiy, and thereby the practicabi- 
 lity at least of proving the truth of 
 Scripture vrithout the Church of 
 Rome ? I showed it can be done — 
 that it is practicable. Why repeat 
 it ? Does he wish that time should 
 be expended merely in repeating 
 proofs that I have reiterated over 
 and over again, and entering at 
 length into an argument which 
 it would take weeis to finish? 
 Rome allows the Scriptures to be 
 part of the Rule of Paith ; the dif- 
 ference is, that we hold them to be 
 all. I can destroy two-thirds of his 
 rule. Mine he dare not assail. 
 That surely cannot be the straight- 
 forward course of an antagonist of 
 open and honourable convictions : it 
 must be a manceuvre to get out of 
 the position in which he has hitherto 
 been standing, and to stir up a side- 
 fight with an infidel in order that 
 the Church of Rome may escape in 
 the turmoil. While he wears the 
 cloak of the infidel, and leads me to 
 attack infidelity, he knows the 
 Church of Rome will enjoy a res- 
 pite: my opponent is wise in his 
 way. Suppose, (without entering 
 on the arguments by which Chris- 
 tianity is proved,) suppose that Mr. 
 Prenoh declares himself at once an 
 infidel, then, if he will wish to renew 
 the discussion on that footing, I will 
 come night after night to prove 
 Christianity to be true. Come as an 
 infidel or as a Ronmuist, and not 
 both alternately as it suits. But 
 [taking up two books and opening 
 them] — here are two admirable 
 volumes containing an Abstract of 
 the Evidences of Christianity, Now, 
 
Uev. J. Gumming.'] 
 
 KULE OF PAITH. 
 
 497 
 
 instead of entering on the argument 
 myself, I will read a brief recapitu- 
 lation of the arguments on the eyi- 
 dences of Christianity, perfectly suf- 
 ficient to show that such proof is 
 practicable, and that we are not 
 mdebted for one jot of our evidence 
 to the traditions or infallibility of 
 the Papal Church. The existence 
 of the Western Apostasy is proof of 
 the truth of the prophecjes, but this 
 is extorted, not spontaneous. The 
 Rev. HartweU Home thus sums up 
 the evidences of the inspiration of 
 our Rule of Paith : — ■ 
 
 " No nation in the world can be 
 more certain of the genuineness 
 and authenticity of any of their 
 public acts and records, which have 
 been preserved vidth the utmost 
 care, than we are of the genuine- 
 ness and authenticity of the writings 
 called the Scriptures, which are 
 now in our hands. For, in the first 
 place, the manner in which they 
 have been transmitted to us re- 
 sembles that in which other ge- 
 nuine books and true histories have 
 been conveyed down to posterity, 
 and the most acute adversaries 
 of the Scriptures have never been 
 able to invalidate or disprove the 
 fact of their being transmitted .so 
 to us. 
 
 "Secondly. The language and 
 style of writing, both in the Old 
 and New Testaments, are such as 
 prove them to have been composed 
 at the time and by the persons to 
 whom they are ascribed, and, conse- 
 quently, that they are both genuine 
 and authentic. 
 
 " Thirdly. Such a multitude of 
 minutely particular circumstances 
 of time, place, persons, as men- 
 tioned in the books of the Old 
 and New Testaments, as afford a 
 clear and unquestionable proof of 
 their genuineness and authenticity. 
 No forged or false accounts of 
 things superabonnd thus in pecu- 
 
 liarities; in fact, no forger would 
 mention so great a number of parti 
 culars, siace this would be to put 
 into the reader's hands so many 
 criteria by which to detect him. 
 Nor could any forger or relater of 
 falsehoods produce such minute 
 details. 
 
 " Fourthly. The moral impossi- 
 bility of the books of the Old and 
 New Testaments being forgeries is 
 an additional evidence of their 
 genuineness and authenticity, for 
 it is impossible to establish forged 
 writings as authentic in any place 
 where there are persons strongly 
 inclined and well qualifled to detect 
 the fraud. If the books of- the 
 Old Testament be forgeries, they 
 must have been invented either by 
 Gentiles, Jews, or Christians. By 
 the Gentiles they could not have 
 been invented, because they were 
 alike ignorant of the history and 
 sacred rites of the Hebrews, who 
 would never have given their appro- 
 bation to writings invented by 
 them. It is equally certain that 
 they are not the fabrications of 
 the Jews, because they contain 
 various diflcult precepts and laws, 
 and also relate a)l the idolatries and 
 crimes of that people, and the 
 severe punishments inflicted on 
 them by God. Now aU these discre- 
 ditable facts would not be com- 
 prised in those books if they had 
 been invented by the Jews. 
 
 " And the Christians could not 
 have forged the books of the Old 
 Testament, because these were 
 extaat long before the Christian 
 name had any existence. Equally 
 impossible is it that the booKs of 
 the New Testament could have 
 been forged ; for the Jews were tha 
 most violent enemies of Christianity : 
 they put its Pounder to death ; and 
 both Jews and Gentiles persecuted 
 his disciples with implacable fury, 
 and they were anxious to stifle the 
 
498 
 
 ETFtE OF PAITH. 
 
 new religion in its birth. If the 
 writings of the New Testament 
 had been forged, wonld not the 
 Jews have detected the imposture ? 
 Is there a single instance on record 
 where a few individuals have im- 
 posed a history upon the world 
 against the testimony of a whole 
 nation ? Would the inhabitants of 
 Palestine have received the Gospels, 
 if they had not had sufficient evi- 
 dence that Jesus Christ really ap- 
 peared amongst them, and performed 
 the miracles ascribed to him? Or 
 would the churches at Rome or at 
 Corinth have aoknowlegedthe epis- 
 tles addressed to them as the 
 genuine works of St. Paul, if he 
 had never preached among them? 
 Or supposing any impostor to have 
 attempted the iavention and distri- 
 bution of writings under his name, 
 or the names of the other apostles, 
 is it possible that they could have 
 been received without contradiction 
 in all the Christian communities of 
 the three several quarters of the 
 globe ? We might as well attempt 
 to prove that the history of the 
 Reformation is the invention of his- 
 torians, and that no revolution hap- 
 pened in Great Britain during the 
 seventeenth century, or in France 
 during the eighteenth century, and 
 the last twenty years. 
 
 " 3rd. But nave the books of the 
 Old and New Testaments been 
 transmitted to us entire and unin- 
 terrupted? We answer in the 
 affirmative, and upon evidence the 
 most satisfactory that can possibly 
 be required. Por, if they had been 
 corrupted, such corrections must 
 have been introduced either by 
 Christians or by Jews. Pirst, with 
 regard to the Old Testament, the 
 sEenoe of the Jews (who would 
 would not fail to have noticed the 
 attempt if it had been made) is a 
 clear proof that it was never cor- 
 rupted by the Christians. And if 
 
 [9ih Evetitnff. 
 
 the Jews had either mutilated or 
 corrupted their writings, they would 
 have expunged whatever militated 
 against the character or honour of 
 their nation; but the silence of the 
 prophets before the time of Christ 
 and^his apostles fuUy proves that 
 no obliteration or corruption had 
 then been attempted. ' The constant 
 reading of their sacred books in 
 pubKc and in private (which were 
 at once the Rule of their Faith and 
 of their political constitution), and 
 the numerous copies both of the 
 original as well as of the Septuagint 
 Version, together with the nume- 
 rous sects and parties into which the 
 Jews were divided after their canon 
 was closed, and the reverence of 
 every party for their law, all concur 
 to render any attempt at falsification 
 improbable and impossible before 
 the time of Christ ; and, after that 
 event, the same books being in the 
 hands of the Christians, these would 
 instantly have detected the malice 
 and fraud of the Jews, if they had 
 endeavoured to accomplish such a 
 design. Equally satisfactory is the 
 evidence for the integrity andincor- 
 ruptness of the New Testament. 
 Por the contents of its several 
 books are precisely the same now 
 as they were in the first two cen- 
 turies : to which fact we may add, 
 that the multiplicatiDn of copies, 
 which were read both in public and 
 in private, the reverence of the 
 Christians for these writings, the 
 silence of their acutest enemies, 
 who would most assuredly have 
 charged them with the attempt if 
 it had been made, and the agree- 
 ment of aU the manuscripts and 
 versions extant, are all so many 
 proofs of the integrity and in 
 corruptness of the New Testa- 
 ment ; which are ^further attested 
 by the agreement with it of all the 
 quotations from it which occur in 
 the writings of Christians from the 
 
Rev. J. Gumming^ 
 
 KULE or PAITH. 
 
 499 
 
 earliest age to tlie present times. 
 It is true that certain books are 
 dted or referred to ia the Old and 
 New Testaments, which are not now 
 extant; but an examination in detail 
 of those books (which does not 
 admit of abridgment) has shown 
 that none of the genuine or canonical 
 books of Scripture have been lost. 
 
 " 4th. Not less satisfactory is the 
 evidence for the credibility of the 
 writers of the books of the Old 
 and New Testaments. Tor, in the 
 first place, they were so many in 
 number, and lived at such a distance 
 of time and place from each other, 
 that if they had been impostors 
 (which their disinterestedness, inte- 
 grity and impartiality prove them 
 not to have been) it would have been 
 impracticable for them to contrive 
 and carry on a forgery without 
 being detected. And as they neither 
 would nor could deceive the world, 
 so they neither could nor would 
 be deceived themselves. Every page, 
 indeed, of these books proves that 
 the writers of them had a perfect 
 knowledge of the subjects which 
 they have recorded ; and their moral 
 character, through rigidly tried, was 
 never impeached by their keenest 
 opponents. Secondly. If there had 
 been any falsehood in the accounts 
 of such transactions as were gene- 
 rally known, they would have Dfeen 
 easily detected : for these accounts 
 were published among the people 
 who witnessed the events related oy 
 the historians, and who would easily 
 have detected fraud or falsehood, 
 if any such there had been, but 
 who did not attempt to question 
 either the reality of the facts or 
 the fidelity of the narrators. The 
 credibility of the authors of the 
 Old and New Testaments is further 
 attested by the principal facts con- 
 tained in them being confirmed by 
 certain ordinances or monuments 
 of great celebrity, which were insti-, 
 
 tuted among Jews and Christians 
 for the purpose of commemorating 
 particular facts or events ia their 
 respective histories at the very time 
 when these events took place, and 
 which have subsisted foom that 
 time to the present day, wherever 
 either Jen's or Christians are to be 
 found ; but which ordinances most 
 assuredly would not have been 
 thus observed in commemoration 
 of fictitious events. To this consi- 
 deration we may add, that the won- 
 derful establishment andpropagation 
 of Christianity is a most convmcing 
 proof of the entire credibility of 
 the New Testament, and of the 
 religion which it establishes ; which 
 was spread far and vidde by the force 
 of truth that accompanied the 
 preaching of the Gospel, and which 
 has contmued to spread, even to 
 the present time, notwithstanding 
 all the persecutions and oppositions , 
 which it has experienced from its 
 numerous, powerful, and most 
 bitter enemies. Noticing, indeed, 
 but the plainest matter of fact 
 could induce so many thousands of 
 prejudiced and persecutiag Jews 
 to embrace the humiliating and 
 self-denying doctrines and precepts 
 of the Gospel, which they held in 
 such detestation and abhorrence. 
 Nor could any thing but the clearest 
 evidence, arising from undoubted 
 truth, make multitudes of lawless 
 and luxurious heathens receive, 
 follow, and transmit to posterity, the 
 doctrines and writings of the apo- 
 stles, especially at a time when the 
 vanity of their pretensions to mira- 
 'cles and to the gift of tongues 
 could be so easily discovered if they 
 had been impostors — at a time when 
 the profession of Christianity ex- 
 posed persons of all ranks and 
 ages to the greatest contempt and 
 to the most imminent danger. 
 Further, an additional testimony is 
 famished to the credibility, truth. 
 
600 
 
 BULB or PAiTH. [9^A Eventfiff. 
 
 and genuineness of the Scriptures 
 by their agreement with the profane 
 history, both natnral and civil, and 
 by the existence of various coins, 
 medals, ajid ancient marbles, which 
 attest the reality and truth of many 
 of the facts therein recorded. In 
 short, no history in the world is 
 confirmed by such various and con- 
 current testnnonies as that related 
 in the Bible. 
 
 " 5th. Moreover, that the Scrip- 
 tures are not merely entitled to Be 
 received as credible, but also as 
 containing the revealed will of God, 
 — in other words, that they are 
 divinely inspired — ^we have evidence 
 of various kinds, amounting to 
 moral demonstration. Por their 
 sacred origin is evinced by the most 
 illustrious attestations, viz. miracles 
 and prophesying, which carry with 
 them the most manifest proofs of a 
 Divine interposition, and which it 
 cannot reasonably be supposed that 
 the Almighty would ever give, or 
 permit to be given, to an imposture. 
 The miracles were instantaneously 
 and pubHoly performed before mul- 
 titudes, both friendly and hostile to 
 the persons by whom they were 
 wrought; they were sensible and 
 easy to be observed. Memorials 
 were instituted at the time many of 
 them were performed, which con- 
 tinue to be observed to the present 
 time ; a manifest proof this of the 
 reality of those miracles, which the 
 bitterest enemies of the Gospel 
 wno witnessed them could never 
 gainsay or deny, though they faintly 
 attempted to evade them. The 
 prophecies, also, were delivered, 
 durmg a long succession of ages, 
 by persons who lived at different 
 and distant times; they were so 
 numerous, so particular, both with 
 respect to nations and individuals, 
 so opposite, and apparently so irre- 
 concileable, that no human wisdom 
 could have devised them, no human 
 
 power could accomplish them. 
 Many of the predictions which are 
 found in the Old Testament foretold 
 unexpected changes in the distri- 
 bution of earthly power. And 
 whether they announced the fall of 
 flourishing cities, or the ruin oj 
 mighty empires, the event has 
 minutely corresponded with the pre- 
 diction. To mention a few in- 
 stances : Nineveh is so completely 
 destroyed that its site is not and 
 cannot be proved; Babylon is made 
 a ' desolation for ' ever, a possession 
 for the bittern, and pools of water;' 
 Tyre, all voyagers and travellers con- 
 cert in stating, is become ' like the 
 top of a roek, a place for fishers to 
 spread their nets upon ;' and Egypt 
 is ' a base -kingdom, the basest of 
 the kingdonis,' and still tributary 
 and subiect to strangers. But the 
 great oWect of the prophecies of 
 the Old Testament is the redemption 
 of mankind. 
 
 " This, as soon as Adam s fall 
 had made it necessary, the mercy of 
 God was pleased to foretel. And, 
 as the time for its aecomplislnnent 
 drew near, the predictions concetn- 
 ing it .gradually became so clear, 
 that almost every circumstance in 
 the life and character of. the most 
 extraordinary personage that ever 
 appeared among men, was most dis- 
 tmotly foretold. The connexion of 
 the predictions belonging to the 
 Messiah with those wmch are con- 
 fined to the Jewish people, give 
 additional force to the argument 
 from prophecy ; affording a stroM 
 proof of the intimate union whidh 
 subsists between the two dispensate 
 laws of IVKses and Jesus Christ, 
 and equally precluding the artful 
 pretensions of human imposture 
 and the daring opposition of nvmian 
 power. The plan of prophecy was 
 so wisely constituted, that the 
 passions and prejudices of the 
 Jews, instead of frustrating, ful 
 
Sev. J. Oumming.l etile op paith 
 
 5Q1 
 
 filled it, and rendered the person 
 ■whom they regarded the suffering 
 and crudfled Saviour who had beau 
 promised. It is worthy of remark, 
 that most of these predictions were 
 delivered nearly, and some of them 
 more than, three thousand years 
 ago. Any one of them is sufficient 
 td indicate a prescience more than 
 human ; but the oolleotive force of 
 all taken together is such, that 
 nothing more can be necessary to 
 prove the interposition of Omni- 
 science than the establishment of 
 their authenticity; and this,, even at 
 so remote a period as the present, 
 as we have already seen, is placed 
 beyond all doubt. 
 
 " Besides these external attesta- 
 tions, the Scriptures have the most 
 excellent internal characters of truth 
 and goodness, which prove their 
 Divine origin and inspiration, in the 
 sublimity, exceUenoe, and sanctity 
 of the doctrines and moral precepts 
 which they deliver, and their admi- 
 rable adaptation to the actual state 
 and wants of mankind; in the 
 harmony and connexion that subsist 
 between all the parts of which they 
 consist ; in their wonderful preserv- 
 ation, notwithstanding all the at- 
 tempts which were made by their 
 enemies to destroythem; and finally, 
 in their admirable tendency (vrhich 
 is demonstrated by its effects where- 
 ever the Scriptures are cordially and 
 sincerely believed), to promote the 
 glory of God and the good of man- 
 kind, and the course of righteous- 
 ness and virtue in the world; and to 
 prepare men for a Hfe of faith and 
 holy obedience upon earth, for the 
 eternal enjoyment of God in heaven. 
 To which we may add, the infinite 
 superiority, in every respect, of the 
 CJhristian revelation over every 
 other religion which has ever been 
 in the vForld. 
 
 " Upon the whole, we have such a 
 number of evidences of the truth 
 
 of the Scriptures, as no man can 
 resist who duly and emphaticallT 
 considers them: and it is to the vril 
 ful ignorance of those evidences that 
 we are to ascribe that infidelity 
 which at present exists in different 
 parts of the world. 
 
 " Sixthly. "The Bible,' as a late 
 eminent prelate has justlyremarked, 
 ' is not a plan of religion delineaffed 
 with minute accuracy to instruct 
 men as in sojnething altogether new, 
 or to excite a vain admiration and 
 applause; but it is somewhat un- 
 speakably more great and noble, 
 comprehending in the grandest and 
 most magniflcent order, along with 
 every essential of that plan, the 
 various dispensations of God to man- 
 kind, from the formation of this earth 
 to the consummation of all things.' 
 
 " Other books may afford us much 
 entertainment and much instruction, 
 may gratify our curiosity, may de- 
 light our imagination, may improve 
 our understandings, may calm our 
 passions, may exalt our sentiments, 
 may even improve our heart; but 
 they have not, they camiot have, 
 that authority in what they affirm, 
 in what they require, in what they 
 promise and threaten, which the 
 Scriptures have. There is a pecu- 
 liar weight and energy in fhem, 
 which is not to be found in any 
 other writings. Their denunciations 
 are more awful, their convictions 
 are stronger, their consolations more 
 powerful, their counsels more au- 
 thentic, their warnings more alarm- 
 ing, their expostulations more pene- 
 trating. There are passages in 
 them throughout so sublime, so 
 pathetic, so ftdl of such energy and 
 force upon the heart and conscience, 
 yet witnout the least appearance of 
 labour and study for that purpose ; 
 iadeed, the design of the whole is 
 so noble, so well united to the sad 
 condition of human kind; the morals 
 have in them such purity and dig- 
 
502 
 
 BULE OF FAITH. [9M Eoetiing. 
 
 nity, the doctrines, so many of them 
 above reason, yet so perfectly recon- 
 cileable with it ; the expression is 
 so majestic, yet familiarized with 
 such easy simplicity, that the more 
 we read and study these writings 
 with pious dispositions and judi- 
 cicms attention, the more we shall 
 feel the hand of God in them. 
 Thus far are the Scriptures the 
 only Bule of Faith and standard 
 of our lives ; and thus do they point 
 out to us the only way by which 
 to attain soM connbrt, peace, and 
 happiness. But that which stamps 
 upon them the highest value, that 
 which renders them, strictly speak- 
 ing, inestimable, and distingushes 
 them from all other books m the 
 world, is this, — that they, and they 
 only, contain the words of eternal 
 life. In this respect, every other 
 l.iook, even the noblest composi- 
 tions of man, must fail ; they can- 
 not give us that which we most 
 want, and what is of infinit ely more 
 importance to us than all other 
 things put together — eternal hfe. 
 
 " This we must look for nowhere 
 but in the Scriptures. It is there, 
 and there only, that we are informed, 
 from authority, of the immortality 
 of the soul, of a general resurrection 
 from, the dead, of a future judg- 
 ment, of a state of eternal happiness 
 to the good and eternal misery to 
 the bad. It is there we are made 
 aoqiiainted with the fall of our first 
 parents from a state of innocence 
 and happiness, with the gmlt, cor- 
 ruption and misery which this sad 
 event brought on aU their posterity ; 
 which, together with their own per- 
 sonal and voluntary transgressions, 
 rendered them obnoxious to God's 
 severest punishments. But, to our 
 inexpressible comfort, we are fur- 
 ther told in this divine book, that 
 God is fuU of mercy, compassion 
 and goodness ; that he is not ex- 
 treme to mark what is done amiss ; 
 
 that he willeth not the death of a 
 sinner, but rather that he should 
 turn away from his wickedness, and 
 save his soul ahve. In pity, there- 
 fore, to mankind, he was pleased to 
 adopt a measure which should at 
 once satisfy his justice, show his 
 extreme abhorrence of sin, make a 
 suflcient atonement for the sins of 
 the whole world, and release all who 
 accepted the terms proposed tb them 
 from the punishment they had de- 
 served. This was nothing less than 
 the death of his Son Jesus Christ, 
 whom he sent into our world to 
 take our nature upon him, to teach 
 us a most holy, pure, and benevo- 
 lent religion, to reform us both by 
 his precept and example, and lastly 
 to (fie for our sios and to rise again 
 for our justification. By him and 
 his evangelists and apostles we are 
 assured, that, if we sincerely repent 
 of our sins and firmly believe in Him 
 and his Gospel, we shall, for the 
 sake of his sufferings and his right- 
 eousness, have aU our transgressions 
 forgiven and blotted out; shall be 
 justified, that is, considered as inno- 
 cent, in the sight of God ; shall have 
 the assistance of his Holy Spirit for 
 our future conduct ; and if we per- 
 severe to the end in a unifcrm 
 (though, from the infirmity of our 
 nature, imperfect) obedience to all 
 the laws of Christ, we shall, through 
 his merits, be rewarded with ever- 
 lasting glory in the life to come. 
 Thus do the holy Scriptures contain 
 ' all things necessary to salvation ;' 
 so that whatsoever is not read 
 therein, nor may be proved thereby, 
 is not to be required of any man 
 that it should be believed as an 
 article of the faith, or to be thought 
 requisite or necessary to salvation." 
 I might enter upon more exten- 
 sive and elaborate evidence ; and if 
 Mr. IVench will admit that he is a 
 disbeliever in the inspiration of 
 Scripture and the truth of Chris- 
 
Bev.J.CiMming.\ iiulb of paith. 
 
 tianity, I -will gladly meet liim as an 
 Infidel, and ■wiU treat him with 
 arguments similar in tone and power, 
 as an infidel, with which I have 
 treated him as a professing Eoman 
 Catholic, {tii/ming to Mr. French, 
 who began to smile). But let it be 
 distinctly observed, if we Pro- 
 testants cannot ascertain tbe genu- 
 ineness, authenticity, ana" inspira- 
 tion of Scripture on our grounds, 
 miich less can a Roman OathoHo on 
 his grounds. There is a gross 
 Jesuitical faJlaoy in the system of 
 Romish reasoning on this point. It 
 is all very pretty to talk about their 
 sure foundation j but, mind you, if 
 our foundation is frail, their founda- 
 tion is equally so at least. My 
 opponent says. You cannot know the 
 Scriptures but by the Church ; but 
 pray hme does he know the Church ? 
 He answers, and he must so answer, 
 " By the Scriptures." Now what 
 sort of reasoning is this? He 
 knows the Scripture by the Church, 
 and the Church by the Scripture; 
 and is this logic ? — is this a speci- 
 men of Aristotelian logic P Surely 
 it is more like " orientalizing " in 
 its amplest form, than the acute 
 reasoning of Aristotle, to whom he 
 has invited me as to a paragon of 
 logic. If he says, we cannot know 
 the Scriptures but by the Church, 
 I ask, and I demand a reply. How 
 does he know the Church? He 
 must — I call on him to give a reply, 
 when he rises, less ridiculous and 
 childish than "By the Scrroture." 
 He reasons in a circle. To illus- 
 trate this — ^How do you know that 
 A. is honest? B. says so. How 
 do you know that B. is honest ? A. 
 says so. How do you know that 
 both are honest ? A. and B. both 
 say so. This is a specimen of the 
 bewildering nonsense palmed on 
 Roman Catholics in the name of 
 logic and religion. I ask my oppo- 
 nent what he believes : he believes 
 
 503 
 
 what the Church beUeves.. If I ask 
 what the Church believes, he an 
 swers, What I beHeve. Pray what 
 do you both believe ? We believe 
 the same thiag. My learned oppo- 
 nent very hkely calls this reasoning. 
 I call it nonsense ; to believe which, 
 argues weakness of intellect ; and 
 to stand in need of it, shows the 
 wretched foundation on which the 
 whole superstructure of Roman 
 Catholicity depends. I now call on 
 my antagonist to remember that he 
 dare not touch his Rule of Paith, as 
 he cannot find it tiU he has first 
 proved by private judgment the 
 truth of Christianity, next the in- 
 spiration of Scripture, next that the 
 Church is to be mfaUible, and lastly, 
 and the most difficult of all demon- 
 strations, that the Church of Home 
 is that Church. My opponent 
 quoted some passages from Dean 
 Milner, where the mstoriau speaks 
 of the existence of some good men 
 previous to the general corruptions 
 of the times that succeeded the 
 fourth century. Whilst I allow 
 there were some good men in the 
 worst of centuries, yet I feel that it 
 is right to inform my opponent, that, 
 even according to the admissions of 
 the too credulous Milner, they were 
 like "angel visits, few and far be- 
 tween." But I will quote also from 
 Milner, and concerning the same age 
 too. It win thus be seen that no- 
 thing short of a miracle, which was 
 never promised, could have pre- 
 served a pure tradition while it came 
 along wholly polluted channels : — 
 "Scarce a luminary of godliness 
 existed; and it is not common 
 in any age for a great work of 
 the Spirit of God to be exhibited 
 but under the conduct of some re- 
 markable saints, pastors, and re- 
 formers. The whole period, as well 
 as the whole scene of this persecu- 
 tion, is very barren of such cha- 
 racters ; not but that many precious 
 
504 
 
 KTTLE OF TAITH. L^'* Eveninff. 
 
 children of God suffered in moral 
 patience and charity, hut those who 
 suffered with a very different spirit 
 found no. pastor to discountenance 
 their self-will and false zeal^-^ sure 
 sign that the great spirit of martyr- 
 dom was very low compared with 
 what had fonneriy been- the case," 
 Miluer adds, that abouft this time 
 the pastors took care of the em- 
 peror's horses, the council of Lao- 
 dioea had to prohibit clergymen 
 from visiting taverns, practisiag 
 magic and enchantments ; and, " on 
 the whole," addsMilner, " this coun- 
 cil evidences a great and deep cor- 
 ruption to have taken place'in the 
 Church of Christ." And to show 
 you that this is not Milner's opinion 
 alone as to the corruptions of the 
 fourth century, I read- from Vincen- 
 tius Lirinensis, sect. 4 : "Also 
 when the poison of the Arians had 
 contaminated not a small portion 
 but almost the whole world, so that 
 a kind of darkness was suffused 
 over the minds of almost all the 
 Latin bishops, some of them being 
 let in by fraud, what was to be 
 followed by preference in so great a 
 confusion ?'.' Such were the channels 
 of tradition — such the tainted cor- 
 rupters of truth — such the men on 
 whom Rome depends for all. Hence 
 it appears that Arianism had in- 
 fected almost all the Latin bishops, 
 and this I rather suspect is the 
 secret of my friend's ready patronage 
 of the Arians. [A lauffh.j 
 
 He knows that his own Church, 
 ere ripe in apostasy, was infected to 
 the core with Arianism; and yet, in 
 order to make out his point, he 
 cries, ," Shame on the man who 
 would deny the name of Christians 
 to those wno would take the Sun- of 
 Bighteousness from heaven, if they 
 were able, and 'quench his bright 
 and saving beams in Erebus and 
 thick night.'" He most melliflu- 
 ously declares that it is very un- 
 
 charitable to deny that the men who 
 degrade our Lord have any claim to 
 Christian discipleship, or that they 
 have any title to a place in the 
 catalogue of saints. But it is of no 
 avail; they have no title to Chris- 
 tianily ; and he knows that at the 
 Downside Discussion, at which a 
 minister of the Gospel now present 
 [Rev. Edward Tottenham ol Bath, 
 who was this evening present] took 
 a part, it was admitted on both 
 sides that Socinians were not Chris- 
 tians. He asked next about the 
 traditions, and he referred to those 
 which existed in the second and 
 third centuries, and of which I 
 speak. I am prepared to prove 
 that the traditions which existed in 
 the Christian world in the second 
 and third centuries were those em- 
 bodied in the Apostles' Creed. 
 Irenseus thus speaks : — 
 
 " Por the Church, although she is 
 extended throughout the universe 
 even to the ends of the earth, re- 
 ceived the faith from the apostles 
 and their disciples ; which faith is 
 in one God, the Pather Almighty, 
 who made heaven and earth, and 
 the sea, and all things which are in 
 them. And in one Jesus Christ, 
 the Son of God, who was incarnate 
 for our salvation ; and in the Holy 
 Spirit, who predicted the dispensa- 
 tions of Gfod by the prophets, and 
 the advent, and the generation from 
 the Virgin, and the passion, and the 
 resuEtection from the dead, and the 
 ascent in the flesh into heaven, of 
 Jesus Christ our beloved Lord, and 
 his coming from heaven in the glory 
 of the Eafiier to resume all things, 
 and to raise the flesh of all man- 
 kind; so that, according to the 
 good pleasure of the invisiblePather, 
 every knee, of things in heaven, and 
 things on earth, and things under 
 the earth, should bow to Jesus 
 Christ, our Lord and God and 
 Saviour and King, and every tongue 
 
Rev. J. Cumming.] ktjle or faith. 
 
 505 
 
 should confess him; and that he 
 should judge aU. things in righteous- 
 ness, and that he should consign to 
 eternal fire the spiritual things of 
 iniquity, and angels that have trans- 
 gressed and apostatized, and the 
 impious and unjust, and the blas- 
 phemers among men ; and granting, 
 on the other hand, life, and immor- 
 tality, and eternal glory to the just 
 and righteous, and to those who 
 keep his commandments, and perse- 
 vere in his love, some from the 
 beginning, others after repentance. 
 "2. And the Church, albeit she 
 is scattered throughout the whole 
 world, having received this preach- 
 ing and this faith, diligently keeps 
 it, as if she iohabited one house. 
 And in like maimer she beKeves in 
 these things as having one soul and 
 one heart, and she uniformly teaches 
 them and hands them down as hav- 
 ing one mouth. For although 
 there are various languages in the 
 world, yet the strength of tradition 
 is one and the same. And neither 
 do the churches that are founded 
 in Germany believe or hand down 
 otherwise ; nor do the churches 
 which are in Spaiu, or in Gaul, or 
 iu the East, or in Egypt, or in 
 Lybia, or those which are esta- 
 blished in the middle of the world. 
 But as the sun, the creation of God, 
 is one and the same in the whole 
 world ; so also the light, which is 
 the preaching of truth, everywhere 
 shines and enlightens all men who 
 win come to the knowledge of the 
 truth. And neither wiU he who is 
 strong in speech enlarge it (for no 
 one is above his master), nor wiU he 
 , who is weak in speech diminish it. 
 Eor this faith being one, neither has 
 he who can say much respecting it 
 amplified it, nor has he who can say 
 little curtailed it." — Irerueais \st 
 Book against Heresies, ch. x. p. 50. 
 (Bened. edit, printed atParis, 1710.) 
 ■ Again — and I might read another 
 
 confirmatory extract, only it would 
 take me too much time — my oppo- 
 nent said, " If oral tradition be not 
 necessary, what is the use of so 
 many pm-som ? " Now he is here 
 trying to mystify his own matter 
 and your minds together, by endea- 
 vouring, in a very drivelling argu- 
 ment, to identify and to confound 
 the exposition of the Bible with oral 
 tradition, and vrith aU the lying 
 legends which have come down 
 through contaminating and contami- 
 nated channels. We profoundly 
 love the preaching of the Gospel. 
 We hold the preaching of the Gos- 
 pel to be an ordinance of God. We 
 hold it to be the prosecution under 
 Heaven's own seal of the commis- 
 sion, " Go and preach the Gospel ; 
 he that beUeveth and is baptized 
 shall be saved, and he that be- 
 Heveth not shall be damned." 
 Preaching from the Scriptures and 
 according to the Scriptures is to- 
 tally a dififerent thing from pro- 
 pounding legendary traditions as 
 additions or even contradictions to 
 Scripture. We bring our preaching 
 to the Scriptures; yon, the Scrip- 
 tures prackoaUy to your traditions. 
 If an infidel ask me what is the 
 ground whereon I base the great 
 arid saving doctrines of Christianity, 
 I reply, " The lav> and the testimony ; 
 if they speak not according to this 
 word, it is because there is no light 
 in them." 
 
 ifgain, — ^my opponent asked, in 
 reference to the Arians and Soci- 
 nians. Might I not deduce their 
 doctrine by private judgment from 
 the text which he quoted, viz. 
 "My Eather is greater than I?" 
 Now, if I wished oiie text more 
 decidedly Trinitarian than another, 
 it is this very text ; and if I wished 
 one rather than any other to refute 
 the Socinian sophist, it would be 
 this. For, if Christ had been merely 
 man, to say, "My Father is greater 
 
506 
 
 KULB OF I'AITH. 
 
 than I," would have been the veriest 
 truism that ever fell from the lips of 
 a creature. It would have been 
 inconsistent with the wonted and 
 characteristic wisdom and judgment 
 of Him, " who spake as never man 
 spake," when he said, "My father 
 is greater than I." This very state- 
 ment implied that he was more 
 than man, and in office not in natwre 
 less than the Pather; that, as God, 
 he was equal to the Father; that, 
 as man, he was in aU points inferior 
 to the Father, being like as we are, 
 yet without siu. We admit with 
 the Socinian, that if sin be eicepted, 
 there is not an attribute of our 
 common humanity which may not be 
 predicated of Christ; and therefore, 
 all a Socinian can say of Christ we 
 say of him also. But we go farther, 
 and assert of Christ all that can be 
 asserted of God — all of omniscience,, 
 omnipotence, andtruth, and justice, 
 and noUness, that constitute the 
 splendours of that glory which is 
 unapproachable and fnH of light. 
 My opponent iosists that I shall 
 prove the Trinity, and the procession 
 of the Holy Spirit. I answer,, the 
 Father is m Scripture called God, 
 the Son is called God, and the Holy 
 Ghost is called God. One signal 
 proof of the last is in Peter's charfe- 
 im; Ananias with lying to the Holy 
 Ghost — " Thou hast not lied unto 
 man, but unto God," — and yet the 
 Bible says there is but one living 
 and true God. If my opponent 
 wishes for texts demonstrative of 
 so obvious a tenet, I am ready; 
 only there are mysteries he wiUfind 
 it impossible to clear. He next re- 
 quires me to prove the procession of 
 the Holy Spirit. This is soon done. 
 " But when the Comforter is come, 
 whom I will send unto you from 
 the Father, even the Spirit of 
 Truth, which proceedeth from the 
 Father." (John xv. 26.) He al- 
 leges the monstrous inference, that 
 
 Christ could not raise himself. , My 
 opponent is painfully ignoraat of 
 Scripture. "Destroy this temple," 
 (referring to his own body, as he 
 himself expresses it,) " and in three 
 days I will raise it wp" (John ii. 19.) 
 Again — "What things soever the 
 Father doeth, these also doeth the 
 Son Kkevrise." (John v. 19.) Arians, 
 I repeat, are not Christians. They 
 are- infidels, arrayed in, the outer 
 vestments of Christianity. Again — 
 my friend has told you a great deal 
 about the translation of the word 
 ypvT\. Now I showed you that in 
 his own, translation of the Bible 
 it was translated wife, and I -told 
 you that in our translation it was 
 translated wife also ; and I ask him 
 whether the word be rightly trans- 
 lated in both our Bibles in the 
 expression " Peter's wifii mother ;" 
 whether the evangelist means w^e, 
 and dares, in the face of your 
 Church, to say that Peter was mar- 
 ried? If so, the first Fope, so 
 presumed, contrary to the belief of 
 the Church of Eome, was a married 
 man, and necessarily must have set 
 a bad example to all the bishops 
 and priests of the Eoman Catholic 
 communion. [Laughter.] Again 
 — ^he refers to the words (and he 
 dwelt a long time on them), "Feed 
 my sheep;" and he added, most 
 authoritatively, that this implied an 
 infallible authority given to Peter 
 superior to that possessed by aUthe 
 rest of- the apostles. Now, upon 
 this point I go to the " glorious St. 
 Augustine." I know my friend has 
 cast him overboard at length, though 
 he long hugged smd cajded him as 
 "the splendid, the glorious Augus- 
 tine;" but my present reference 
 will remind my opponent of his first 
 love, and though ne in his passion 
 cast him overboard once, he wiU no 
 doubt take him to his bosom again. 
 [A laugh.] Now I quote St. Augus- 
 tine's certificate. 
 
Uev. J. Oummmff.] 
 
 BULB OP PAIIH. 
 
 607 
 
 " I have said in a certain passage 
 respecting the apostle Peter, that 
 the Church is founded upon Mm as 
 upon a rock. * * * 
 
 "But I know that I have fre- 
 quently afterwards so expressed my- 
 self, that the phrase 'Upon tms 
 rock,' should be understood to be 
 the rock which Peter confessed. 
 For it was not said to Mm, Thou 
 art Petra, but, Thou art Petrus, for 
 the rock was Christ. Let the reader 
 select wMch of these two opioions 
 he deems the most probable." — Tie 
 first Booh of his Betractiom, torn. i. 
 p. 33. 
 
 Again — 
 
 " It appears iu many passages of 
 Scripture, that Peter represented 
 the Church, and particularly ia that 
 place where it is said, ' I give to you 
 the keys of the kingdom of heaven.' 
 
 " For did Peter receive those 
 keys, and did John and James and 
 the other apostles not receive them ? 
 
 « » * » 'Wfiat -^yag given to Mm, 
 was given to the Church. There- 
 fore Peter represented the Church, 
 and the Church was the body of 
 Christ." — Serm. 149, tipon the words 
 of l^th ch. of the Acts, vol. v. p. 706. 
 
 Again — 
 
 " When it was said to him, 
 ' Lovest thou me ? Peed my sheep,' 
 it was said to all." — Upon, the Chris- 
 tian, Contest, ch. xxx. tom. vi. p. 260. 
 (Ed. as above.) 
 
 That is to say, the same author- 
 ity which was delegated to Peter 
 was delegated to the rest ; and in- 
 stead of there being a peculiar and 
 exclusive supremacy conferred upon 
 Peter, there was the same identical 
 official power conferred on the rest 
 of the apostles. And had I time to 
 enter on the pretended supremacy of 
 Peter, I should soon be able to show, 
 from the word of God, that it is one 
 of the most impossible points to 
 establish. If Peter was at Rome, the 
 text that is quoted to show it shows 
 
 that Rome is delineated in Rev. xviii. 
 But what has feeding CMist's sheep 
 to do with infallibflity ? Paul en- 
 joined the Presbyters of Ephesus tp 
 feed their flocks : Were they, there- 
 fore infaUible ? Then my opponent 
 foUowed up tMs with some curious 
 remarks on two texts : " There is 
 none righteous, no not one;" and 
 again, as to two saints "walking in 
 all the ordinances of the Lord blame- 
 less." I need not reply to these, 
 so irrelevant to the topic under in- 
 vestigation. Every Protestant who 
 understands Ms Bible, knows that 
 the text, "There is none righteous, 
 no not one," describes the natural 
 state of mankind at large : " Right- 
 eous before Ood," or perfectly jus- 
 tified, " walking in aU the ordinances 
 and commandments of the Lord 
 blameless," in the ei/e of the Church 
 and before the world, is descriptive 
 of the effect and reformation pro- 
 duced by the power of the Holj 
 Spirit in the heart. But where is 
 my opponent's Rule of Eadth ? He 
 has long left it, as a hopeless thing. 
 He quoted from St. Paul's Epistle to 
 the Thessalomans, viz. holmng the 
 traditions; but when we refer to 
 the apostle on Ms meaning, he gives 
 an explanation, namely, the Second 
 of Thessalomans, where he says, 
 (chap. ii. 15,) " Hold the traditions 
 wMch ye have been taught, whether 
 by word or our epistle." He refers 
 them to truths he had spoken, and 
 subsequently written, in a former 
 epistle, commanding them to " hold 
 the traditions," or ordinances, for 
 this is the word. And we find 
 another explanation on referring to 
 the Acts of the Apostles, where St. 
 Paul, in his missionary travels, comes 
 to these same Thessalomans, to 
 whom he addressed Ms epistle ; and 
 here we learn what the traditions 
 were. " They came to Thessalomoa, 
 and Paul, as his manner was, went 
 in with them, and three Sabbath 
 
f08 
 
 KULE Olf TAIIH. 
 
 days reasoned with tliein out Qf the 
 Scriptures, opening and alleging 
 that Christ must needs have svi- 
 fered and risen again from the dead, 
 and that this Jesus whom I speak 
 unto you is Christ." (Acts xvii. 3.) 
 The apostle, after this preaching at 
 Thessalonica, writes his converts, 
 " Hold the traditions which ye have 
 been taught, either by worn, or iy 
 our Epistle?' What were the tra- 
 ditions ? We answer, Those embo- 
 died in his oral address and in- 
 scribed in his epistles. Sere are 
 the traditions. [Biolding up a Bible.] 
 He states them in the Acts of the 
 Apostles. He expounds 'from the 
 word of Grod the truths contained 
 in it; and he moreoYcr reminds 
 them in his epistle to them to ex- 
 pound these things unto the people. 
 
 Now, then, having glanced at 
 these points broached ia the course 
 of the statement of my antagonist, 
 I repeat my challenge, that if he 
 comes into this room as an infidel, 
 and on infidel ground, I desire him 
 to meet me in that character ; but 
 if he be a Roman CathoHo, and is 
 agreed that the Bible is inspired, 
 I am not called on to prove it to be 
 true, but only his traditions added 
 to it to be false. He wants to bring 
 in as sacred truths those traditions 
 which have come down through 
 the tainted and corrupted channSs 
 which I have described to you ; 
 whereas it is my object to show not 
 only that their traditions are unne- 
 cessary, but also contradictory, un- 
 scriptural, and absurd. Keep in mind 
 that the Catholic Church and the 
 Church of Bx)me are not by any 
 means the same ; and that disjoiated 
 fragments from contradictory fathers 
 prove nothing but the insuperable ob- 
 stinacy of Romanists in clinging to a 
 falling ruin ; and you have an answer 
 to ha& of my opponent's speech. 
 
 My opponent has frequently as- 
 serted, that we Protestants differ 
 
 from each other on fundamental 
 points, and he attributed this diver- 
 sity of opinion to. our holding the 
 Bible as the only Rule of Faith. 
 Krst, I deny that we differ in essen- 
 tials. Next, I call upon you to 
 bear in mind that if we differ, it is 
 as ever has been and will be. In 
 the apostolic churches, mid the 
 efFulgence of apostohe preaching, 
 there were also differences — we 
 profess not to prevent them ; but 
 if there be differences in the bosom 
 of the Roman Cathoho Church, she 
 is responsible for those diversities ; 
 and why ?— Because she professes 
 to present a guarantee against all 
 diversities of sentiment in faith. 
 I am prepared to show that the 
 Church of Rome is one moral chaos 
 — one tempestuous hell of conflict- 
 ing tenets, crusted with a thin trans- 
 parency of unity. He asked again 
 and again. Where is your unanimity P 
 after his exposition of the faith of 
 the Quakers, the Socuiians, the 
 Irvingites, and Southcotians, and 
 some other sects which he alleges 
 to have sprung from Protestantism. 
 While we are no more connected 
 with Southcotians than with Pope 
 Joan qr Simon Stock the Stylite, 
 let me add that, amid the noonday 
 of inspiration, there were " one of 
 ApoEos, one of Cephas ;" for we read 
 in 1 Cor. xi. 19, " There must be 
 also heresies among you, that they 
 which «re approved may be made 
 manifest among you." St. Paul pre- 
 dicts the appearance of "grievous 
 wolves," ana of that Apostasy which 
 commands to abstain from meats 
 and from marriage. If it be an 
 argument now against us that he- 
 resies and schisms appear among us, 
 claiming, as we all do, the same 
 Rule of Paith, it must be an argu- 
 ment also, and applying with tenreld 
 greater force against the primitive 
 and apostolic Church, that heresies 
 and divisions appealed among them. 
 
^ev. J. Cumminff.'] bulb of paiih. 
 
 509 
 
 If in the former case it told agjunst 
 the Rule of Eaith jioie, it tells 
 a fortiori against the Rule of Faith 
 in the days of the apostles. 
 
 Again, I go to the primitive 
 Church — allowing it to be primitive 
 in the secondary sense in Mrhich my 
 antagonist is pleased to take it — 
 and there I iina mention of a certain 
 Arian heresy as being in existence ; 
 and so greatly, it appears, did it 
 spread, and so much did it affect the 
 Rule of Paith of my antagonist, 
 that nearly all the ministers and 
 bishops of the Church of Rome 
 became deeply infected with it. 
 
 Again, I find St. Augustine — ^that 
 celebrated friend and favourite father 
 of my opponent — St. Augustine enu- 
 merates m his day more than, mnety- 
 nine (.') different heresies which ap- 
 peared in tliR Christian world. 
 Their names are here — I have a list 
 of them here. There afterwards 
 were the Waldensian, Piedmontese, 
 and so on — and at a period, mind 
 you, when the Roman Cathoho Rule, 
 according to my opponent, was La 
 the ascendant. Thus, you will ob- 
 serve, looking at the heresies which 
 spread during the exercise of this 
 rule, we find even the glorious St. 
 Augustine enumerates no less than 
 ninety-nine at that one period. 
 
 And again, — the Roman Catholic 
 Church holds out a special marantee 
 against the starting up of heresies 
 within her. We read, nevertheless, 
 of the Waldensian heresy, of the 
 Vadois . heresy, of the Piedmontese 
 heresy of the thirteenth century, 
 and at length we find our own re- 
 formers starting up out of the bosom 
 of the Roman CathoMc Church in 
 the fifteenth century ; while she still 
 asserts that her Rule of Faith gua- 
 rantees that there should be none. 
 We find various heresies springing 
 up, according to the testimony of 
 Augustine, of history, and of that 
 juemorable Roman CathoKo insti-' 
 
 tute, the Inquisitic/n. Thus the 
 Rwnan Catholic Rule fails to pre- 
 vent divisions also. 
 
 Fanaticism, the very spirit of 
 fanaticism, appeared at a veiy early 
 period in the bosom of the Roman 
 Catholic Church. My antagonist 
 will probably turn round and retort 
 the charge upon us ; but I would 
 have you again observe this differ- 
 ence between the two : — we cast off 
 and abjure fanaticism, whilst, if it 
 springs up in the heart of the Roman 
 CathoHc Church, it is solemnly ca- 
 nonized and stamped. We have an 
 instance of this in the case of Simon 
 Stylites, who planted himself on 
 the top of an enormous column, 
 sixty feet ia height, and remained in 
 that position for thirty years, whilst 
 pilgrmiages were purposely made 
 from all parts of fiidia to^ witness 
 the penances and inflictions of this 
 fanatical devotee. We read of the 
 Flagellants in the eleventh and 
 twelfth centuries — a sect of men 
 and women who went through the 
 open street half-naked, and whip- 
 pmg themselves till the very blood 
 ran down them — not reprobated but 
 applauded at Rome [excitemeni], and 
 regarded as the lovely offspring of 
 my opponent's Rule of Faith. We 
 read again of the Crusades, begun 
 through the eloquence of Peter the 
 Hermit, in which miUions of mili- 
 tary fanatics rushed to the rescue 
 of the Holy Land, under the in- 
 fluence of one rampant spirit of ter- 
 rible fanaticism — ^not to speak of the 
 innumerable military fanatics, who 
 all sprang into existence from the 
 Roman Cathohc Church, and under 
 her Rule of Faith, which is held up 
 to us as "infallible," and which, 
 moreover, guarantees that there 
 should be no fanatical extravagance 
 in the world, much less within the 
 pale of her own communion. And 
 thus yon wfll observe, that in com- 
 parison of the innumerable instances 
 
510 
 
 KUEE or TAITH. 
 
 of fanaticism and schism which 
 spring up within the bosom of the 
 liomaii Catholic Church, the like 
 instances of fanaticism amongst 
 Protestants dwindle into nothing, 
 and compose a mere handful. 
 
 Agaui,T— not a few instances of 
 infidelity have appeared under the 
 very rule which he himself (Mr. 
 Prench) declares to be the sovereign 
 guarantee against all infidelity, fa- 
 naticism and error. IVance was 
 deluged, in 1793, with such a tor- 
 rent of infidelity, that she wrote 
 upon the graves of her illustrious 
 martyrs, " Death is an eternal 
 sleep ; " and, in that very Church 
 which guarantees that there shall be 
 no infideKty, no heresy or schism, 
 one of her most mstinguished 
 bishops fell down and worshipped, 
 with hundreds of the same faith, an 
 infamous woman, set up by the 
 offshoots of the Papacy, as the re- 
 presentation of the " Goddess of 
 Reason." And yet the Church of 
 Rome, in face of successive proofs 
 to the contrary, boasts of her Rule 
 of Paith as an infaUible recipe 
 against all such heresies, and gua- 
 rantees their impossibility. [Some 
 whispering was here heard at the 
 platform! The reverend gentleman, 
 after a pause, then proceeded to 
 say] — I am reminded that it was 
 the Archbishop of Paris, who did so. 
 Mr. Pkench [in surprise.] The 
 Archbishop of Pans ! [turning to 
 the Rev. Mr. Cumming.] 
 
 Rev. J. Cttmming. — Yes ! I re- 
 peat it — the Archbishop of Paris. 
 
 Mr. Pkench. — He was not an 
 archbishop. 
 
 Rev. J. Cumming. — He was an 
 archbishop or bishop of the Church 
 of Rome, and was then in Paris. It 
 is the fact itself I specially refer 
 to. The Archbishop of Paris, vrith 
 one hundred priests, did so — men 
 who had solemnly undertaken to 
 prevent, by all in their power, the 
 
 occurrence of such infamous idola- 
 tries and heresies ; and the Roman 
 Church is more reprehensible by 
 far for these excesses, because she 
 undertakes to prevent them, than 
 we for modem divisions. That 
 men have appealed to the Bible for 
 authority for that wMch is against 
 it, is true, just as the Church of 
 Rome has done for proofs and war- 
 rants why heretics should be burnt, 
 and Protestants exterminated. But 
 I maintain that the abuse of a thing 
 is no argument in the world against 
 its legitimate use. Our Church is 
 pure within and uncorrupted at 
 the core. Our opponents nave no 
 soundness at all. The Church of 
 Rome incorporates various heresies 
 which spring up within her; while 
 the Protestant Church expels them. 
 The Protestant Church employs, as 
 it were, a centrifugal force in the 
 treatment of heresy, whereby she 
 scatters it abroad and beyond her 
 pale; whilst the Roman Catholic 
 Church has, in reference to heresy, 
 a cetdripetal power, by which she 
 incorporates every heresy into the 
 very midst of her. We Protes- 
 tants are no more accountable for 
 the different heresies that appear 
 among us, than Buckingham Palace 
 is for the rubbish which is thrown 
 on either side of it [laughter] ; but 
 the Church of Rome is accountable, 
 from the very nature of her consti- 
 tution — as much so as if she hung out 
 an enormous sign-board, to the effect 
 that "All sorts of herm^ maybe shot 
 and deposited here." [Laughter.] 
 
 It is said, we have differed from 
 early ages. I need not tell you 
 that the Church of Rome has dif- 
 fered in a majority of her forms 
 since the apostolic age. Penance, 
 for instance, m the primitive Church, 
 was totally different from the mo- 
 dem Papal sacrament. The crimi- 
 nal, whoever he might be, used to 
 confess his sin ''a the bishop, and 
 
Rev. J. Ckmmng.] etjle os rAiTH. 
 
 51i 
 
 after having made this confession, 
 it was customary to go in public 
 procession to get public aosolu- 
 tion, and after, not before, pre- 
 scribed penance. And, therefore, 
 the penance enforced in the Eoman 
 Church now differs essentiaRy from 
 that of the same Church iu more 
 early ages. I n^ed not tell you 
 that the Eucharist is different iu 
 the Church of Rome from what it 
 was in the primitive Church. The 
 cup is noiB withdrawn at the admi- 
 nistration of the Lord's Supper, 
 and the rite is administered no 
 longer in the vulgar tongue. Hear, 
 agaia, as to Baptism. I need not 
 tell you that various ceremonies 
 have been added, not known in 
 the Bible, or the apostoKo age, or 
 in the subsequent five centuries. 
 These ceremonies have been added 
 and heen accumulating by degrees 
 ever since their first existence. ,If, 
 therefore, there be differences 
 among Protestants, there are still 
 greater and vital differences be- 
 tween successive generations of 
 Roman Catholics. Again, I need 
 not teU you of the monastic orders 
 of the Augustinians, the Fran- 
 ciscans, the Eremites, the Benedic- 
 tines and the Dominicans, the 
 Jesuits and military orders. Now, 
 reaUy, if the apostle Peter were 
 to appear among these different 
 monastic orders, all professing to be 
 branches of the apostolic Church, 
 and to see their banners, read their 
 rules, and listen to their quarrels, 
 most assuredly the apostolic man 
 would forthwith exclaun, " Paul I 
 know, and. ApoEos I know ; but 
 pray, gentlemen, who are you? 
 [Laughter.] I never heard your 
 names nor saw your faces before, 
 and yet you proclaim yourselves 
 apostolical, primitive, and scrip- 
 tural." Now with respect to dis- 
 cipline, there are great differences 
 between the Augustinians and the 
 
 Benedictines — betweeil the Fran- 
 ciscans and the Benedictines — and 
 between the Jesuits and the Car- 
 thusians. Now all these are the 
 legitimate offspring, at least the 
 protegees, of that Rule of Faith 
 which the Church of Rome has 
 adopted. She is responsible for 
 these obstinate and refractory chil- 
 dren. They all form part and parcel 
 of that system of religion which 
 claims to be infallible : they are the 
 rank weeds and the poisonous 
 hemlock of this unprimitive, anti 
 scriptural, anti-apostolic Rule of 
 JFaith. We have been twitted with 
 want of unit^. The unity of the 
 Church of Rome is, I contend, 
 a nonentity, a mere assumption that 
 has no reality. Unity flows from a 
 community of life and action — from 
 an internal and regenerative prin- 
 ciple of life, of concord and object; 
 but the unity of the Chxirch of 
 Rome is the result of compression. 
 The unity of the Church of Rome 
 is Kke the unity of the Tipperary 
 volunteers. Several files of con- 
 victs, chained and manacled, were 
 being marched from that Elysium 
 par excellence, Tipperary, towards 
 the convict ship in which they were 
 to sail to a far distant spot, well 
 known as Botany Bay, tor their 
 country's good, as a stranger asked, 
 " What and who are you, boys?" 
 "Ah, your honoxir," exclaimed they, 
 rattMng their chains, " we're Tippe- 
 rary volunteers." 
 
 The ten tribes that revolted were 
 more united at Bethel than the two. 
 Satan and his archangels are per- 
 fectly united. Hell is the site of 
 unity as well as heaven. Unity is 
 also a mark of the kingdom of 
 Satan, for his kingdom is not divid- 
 ed against itself. Better the varia- 
 tions of creed than the unity of 
 erroi:; — far preferable the move- 
 ments and the impulses of life 
 than the quiescence of death ; 
 
512 
 
 HVLE OP PAITH. \9ikEi>eninff. 
 
 better a " living dog than a dead 
 lion." Force and fear make up the 
 union of Rome. The hands of her 
 Tictims are united like those of the 
 Boys of Tipperary, while their 
 hearts are the antipodes of each 
 other. Better far the strong breeze 
 that oooasionafly ruffles the surface 
 of Protestantism, than the dead sea 
 — the stagnant waters of the Church 
 of B,ome. 
 
 All Protestants agree in receiving 
 the twelve articles that constitute 
 the Apostles' Creed — they, as one, 
 uniting in the reception of truth. 
 Our unity is the rejection of error, 
 in our protesting aim voce against 
 the twelve new articles added by 
 Pope Pius lY. above three hun- 
 dred years ago. 
 
 If, therefore, my opponent, and 
 those who coincide with nim in this 
 large assembly, wHl just take a pair 
 of scissors, • and separate these 
 twenty-four articles at the- middle, 
 easting out at the window the last 
 twelve, which are just three hundred 
 years old, and retaining the first 
 twelve only, which are eighteen 
 centuries old, the discussion would 
 terminate this evening, and we 
 should be one. 
 
 We complain of a gross infraction 
 of unity, by appending the rags of 
 Pope Pius Iv. to the seamless 
 robes of Christ. Come, now : let 
 the Bible, like a ploughshare, pass 
 through these weeds ot the Vatican, 
 rooting them up for ever ; and may 
 the Hght of the Spirit of God shine 
 on the ancient and apostolic creed, 
 commending it on our hearts and 
 consciences ! 
 
 But to show you that there is 
 real and enduring unity in the Pro- 
 testant Church, notwithstanding 
 aU the assertions and demurs of my 
 antagonist, also that this is the very 
 unity regarded in our B-ule of Faith, 
 and, with all our differences, mani- 
 fested in. aU its beauty and com- 
 
 pleteness, I refer to the Epistle of 
 St. Paul to the Ephesians, where I 
 find this unity thus described (4th 
 chapter, vers. 4, 5, 6) : "There is 
 one body and one spirit, even as ye 
 are called in one hope of your call- 
 ing ; one Lord, one faith, one bap- 
 tism; one God and Father of all, 
 who is above all, and through all, 
 and in all." Wow, I call your 
 attention to each of these seven 
 points of unity, and then I ask 
 every Protestant before me if, what- 
 ever be the communions he belongs 
 to, he does not cleave to them? 
 There is " One Spirit " — ^the spirit 
 of wisdom, the spirit of understand- 
 ing and fear of the Lord; — ^the 
 spnit of adoption, that is given 
 unto US; whereby we look up and , 
 call God " our Father." This is the 
 first syllable of the septiform unity 
 of the Protestant Church which our 
 Rule of Faith sets before us. The 
 next is " one hope." We Protes- 
 tants look forward to a hope which 
 points to a life beyond the grave — 
 a hope which shall endure when 
 time shall be no more, and repaid 
 more gloriously when the precincts 
 of anoSier world shall surround it — 
 " a hope " which is " a crovm of 
 glory that fadeth not away," — the 
 "blessed hope of the glorious ap- 
 pearing of Christ Jesus our great 
 God and Saviour ;" " bom again to 
 a lively hope from the resurrection 
 of the dead," to "an inheritance 
 incorruptible, undefiled, and that 
 fadeth not away." And feeling, 
 moreover, that we are pUgrims 
 journeying through a wilderness 
 "waste and howung," towards a 
 land of enduring gladness, we are 
 cheered by this sacred substantial 
 hope — ^thatwhen the shadowy things 
 of time shall have departed, and 
 eternity begun its appointed cy^cles, 
 ours shall oe the nch sunshine of 
 " a hope " that cannot begiule ; 
 ours a river untainted by poEution ; 
 
Rev. J. 
 
 ETJLE OF FAITH. 
 
 513 
 
 ours that rest of pvirity and peace, 
 " which remaiaeth for the people of 
 God." 
 
 The third tone in this Protestant 
 concord is " one Lobd :" our Pro- 
 phet, in order to enlighten us ; 
 our only Priest, to intercede for us 
 and to plead for us ; our only King, 
 to rule over us and to restrain us. 
 Do you not, my fellow Protestants, 
 regard him — "the one Lord" — as 
 the way by which you rise from 
 the depths of human corruption 
 even to the bosom of God 4 as " the 
 one truth" which inspires our 
 creed and irradiates the darkness of 
 our paths; as the one life which 
 quickens the de9,d with an immortal 
 and undying life ? Do you not re- 
 gard this on,e Lord as made unto 
 /ou wisdom, and righteousness, and 
 sanctification, and complete redemp- 
 tion? and would not every Pro- 
 testant in this room, if they were to 
 give utterance to the full feelings 
 of their hearts, exclaim, "That 
 Lord is to me all in all ? " 
 
 The next part of our unity is " one 
 faith." Instead of a sacrifice oft- 
 times repeated, whica cat never 
 take away sin, like that of the Mass, 
 we have " One SAcniricB once fob 
 ail" — is not that your faith? In- 
 stead of many priests offering oft- 
 times the same sacrifice which can 
 never take away sin, we have a 
 Priest who has offered up Himself — 
 the altar his Godhead, the sacrifice 
 his humanity ; who has entered into 
 heaven, sprinkling the blood of 
 atonement on the holy place, and 
 ever living to make intercession for 
 -us. Our " one faith" i? that he is 
 the only Purgatory — not the fabu- 
 lous and contemptible locality in 
 which, according to the Roman 
 Catholic Church, material fire is 
 to purify immaterial souls, — but 
 a far more glorious Purgatory, 
 into which to step by faith, is to 
 enter into the region of light, as 
 
 the blood of Christ Jesus cleanses 
 from all sin. Never forget, my dear 
 Boman Catholic friends, that that 
 is the oifiy purgatory through which 
 you pass from earth to heaven. Il 
 vou miss that purgatory you are 
 lost for ever. 
 
 Our next element of unity is, "one 
 baptism." Have we not all one 
 baptism? — the sign and seal of 
 admission to the outward privileges, 
 aud to hearing the great and sancti- 
 fyiag truths of the Gospel — admi- 
 nistered in the same way, in the 
 same holy name. Have we i)ot 
 " one baptism" " in the name of 
 the Father,, and of the Son, and of 
 the Holy Ghost" — our triune Jeho- 
 vah, our covenant God ? 
 
 The next feature is, " one body" 
 — Christ, who ever sympathizes with 
 us, who is ever tender and com- 
 passionate. If my little finger is 
 hurt, the nerve conveys the sensa- 
 tion to the head, and the whole 
 system sympathizes with it. So is 
 the feeling of this " one body." If 
 the least orphan in this assembly 
 suffer the sensation, it goes through 
 all, and touches Christ the Head. 
 
 Again, " one Ood and Father of 
 us aU" His bosom is open to tne 
 reception of us all ; by supremacy 
 of dominion over us all, by provi- 
 dence through us all, by inhabis- 
 ation in us all. Now, then, here are 
 the smen. evidences of the " One, 
 Holy, CathcJie, Apostolic Protestant 
 Church." I ask. the Independent, 
 if there be any in this room. Is not 
 this the Church to which you belong? 
 I ask the Churchman, Is not tms 
 the Church to which you belong? 
 I ask the Baptist, Is not this the 
 Church to which you belong ? I 
 ask the Wesleyan, if any. Is not 
 that the Church to which you 
 bebng ? If there be diversities, 
 they exist in subordinate particulars; 
 but, as regards vital, essential, and 
 fundamental truth, we are all one 
 
3H 
 
 BULE OF FAITH. [9M Evening 
 
 "-essentiafly, etewally one; and I 
 would rather endure martyrdom 
 than abjure thai truth, or appear 
 lO deny it. 
 
 , But the diversities of the Church 
 of Bome exist on fidbiects the most 
 momentous. Oae hdieves in the 
 infallibility of the .pope; another, of 
 the pope with a council ; another, 
 the infallibility of the whole Church; 
 and the most important doctrines of 
 the Church are doctrmes on which 
 so many doubts and disputations 
 necessanly arise, that it is impos- 
 sible ever to come to an haasnomous 
 conclusion. But, we safy; though 
 #e differ in externals, on vital 
 questions we are one. Suppose, now, 
 you had been present at tne field of 
 iVaterloo, and suppose ike command 
 was given for marchiag forth to 
 battle ; you would see the English 
 soldier with his facings of silver 
 and burnished epaulettes, you would 
 See the Highlaader with his belted 
 plaid and philabee, and all tile other 
 parts of Eigbland warlilce costume, 
 you would see the Irishman ar- 
 rayed in his national garb. Sup- 
 pose an ignorMit person was led into 
 the field where they were all regu- 
 larly niarshaUed: he might say, — 
 " Why, these individusds will all 
 arise up one against another ; they 
 cannot constitute one army; they 
 seem to be different battalions, 
 totaEy distinct from each other — 
 surely they cannot be of any ser- 
 vice; they want unity ; they cannot 
 make a united attack." But what 
 is the fact? There exists among 
 them b>it one common feeling of 
 loyalty to the throne, but one fervid 
 affection to their beloved land, and 
 all rush with one simultaneous onset 
 to the attadc — the En^lishmaa, the 
 Highlander, and the Inshman merg- 
 ing all their shades and varieties of 
 calling, association, and habit, into 
 the Dumittg sensation of enthu- 
 fciasni to preserve the throne invio- 
 
 late, and to bequeath unscathed its 
 privileges and blessings to the latest 
 posterity. [Sensation.] So is it 
 with Protestantism — ^we are divided 
 into different regiments, it is true, 
 the corps is made up of different 
 battalions ; but the difference is 
 only, I contend, in uniform, in sub- 
 ordinate regimentals and particniars, 
 and not in aught that is essential 
 and savihg. 
 
 Having thus noticed the vital 
 and monstrous diversities in the 
 Church of Rome, and the small smd 
 insignificant divisions among Pro- 
 testants, I eondnde by repeating 
 what I before stated, — that the 
 Church of Rome, in her capacity, is 
 responsible for all the corruptions 
 and heresies and diversities within 
 her pale ; but we, in our capacity, 
 are not at all responsible for those 
 corruptioHS or heresies which have 
 been laid at our door ; and therefore, 
 I have neutralized his objections of 
 a preceding eveniog. 
 
 Mr. Fbbnch. — Ladies and gen- 
 tlemen, I shall not mis-spend my 
 time in endeavouring to shake or 
 disabuse jour minds of that imput- 
 ation which the learned gentleman 
 has been attempting to affix upon 
 my character — namely, of having 
 clothed myself this evening, in order 
 to gain some advantage over him in 
 this disputation — of having clothed 
 myself, 1 say, in the impious garb 
 of an infidel.; at another time, of 
 having affected to coincide with the 
 prime tenet of the Unitarians ; at 
 another, of appearing to profess 
 myself a Quaker. I appeared, how- 
 ever, ladies and gentlemen, as you 
 can «11 attest — ^and I apprehend my 
 learned friend knew very well what 
 I meaait — ^under no such garbs and 
 in no such character ; but it afforded 
 him a little subject for his playfol 
 oratory, and of course he indulged 
 in it very prettily and romanticallj 
 
Mr. French,'] 
 
 EUIB OP PAITH. 
 
 515 
 
 as usual. I did, gentlemen, cer- 
 tainly did for a moment, by way of 
 argument, very common among lo- 
 gicians in all countries and of all 
 creeds, suppose myself doubting 
 Scripture inspiration and the au- 
 tbentioity of the inspired text. This 
 is admissible ia all places where 
 consecutive reasoning is carried on ; 
 and my consolation is, that in re- 
 sorting to it, my intention was to 
 illustrate and corroborate my ori- 
 ginal positions, and to show the 
 weakness and nntenableness of 
 those of my opponent. In Catholic 
 seminaries, when students in the- 
 ology are endeavouring to render 
 their understandings penetrating and 
 acute, by bringing, as it were antici- 
 patingly, ftU parts of poleadoal war- 
 fare into action, it is very common 
 for one person to act the Protestant 
 in dispute, and with emulous tiiough 
 fictitious ardour, sustain the cause 
 of Protestantism, whilst his fellow- 
 Catholic, nis ant£^nist (as is na- 
 tural enough) by an overwhelming 
 torrent of solid argument, calls forth 
 all his acuteness and aU the full 
 coUeotion of his powers. They 
 attack and reply, alkmis mcibiis, 
 in mutual onset and defence, in 
 order to give acumen to their un- 
 derstandings,, and to enable them to 
 meet with prompt energy all the 
 artifices of heresy, whsa. they ciuit 
 the sham battle and come forth iato 
 the real field of action. And is 
 5uch a mode of argument, in the 
 mind of any man, let me ask, en- 
 dowed with liberality and enhirged 
 by reason, to be coieidered as a 
 kind of stain upon their moral cha- 
 racter ? Oh ! the learned gentleman 
 is merely sportive and good-naturedly 
 satirical, for, I am sure, however 
 grave his countenance, he cannot be 
 serious, and I shall therefore drop 
 the subject. 
 
 But, my learned friend [turning 
 to Mr, Camming], what I wish 
 
 most emphatically to ask you is, 
 whilst soaring into all the regions 
 of hyperbole and metaphor, and in- 
 dulgmg in your usual facile vein of 
 oratory. How is it that you have for- 
 gotten to substantiate the authen- 
 ticity of the Bible, and to prove in 
 every successive age from apostolic 
 days the perpetual visibility oiyour 
 Church? You gave us one reason 
 as to the verification of the Bible, 
 and a specious kind of plausible 
 reason it was. I required jou to 
 take book after book, or, if that 
 was iasufficient for the purpose, 
 I invited you to take them all to- 
 gether, and to prove, without the 
 tradition of the Catholic Church, 
 that grand predominant argmr\ent 
 —to prove, if you can, the sacred 
 infallible aaihentieit^ of any one of 
 those books. Tou were unable to 
 do it; and perceiving with your 
 usual acuteness your confusing, 
 entangling, embarrassing situation, 
 you lapsed, as usual, into one of 
 your somniferous sermons [laughter] 
 and Mideavoured to extinguish my 
 luminous train of argument, as 
 usual, by a cloud of words. You 
 attempted, indeed ; but very feebly, 
 I beheve, even in your own estima- 
 tion, and as unsatisfactorily to your 
 expectant audience. My learned 
 oj^onent, however, for I must do 
 him justice, did, even in these his 
 moments of most visible perturba- 
 tion, make an effort to prove the 
 keeping of the Sabbath — to prove, 
 I say, that Sunday was poiated out 
 in tfc pages of the New Testament 
 as the day of the Lord. But, my 
 friends, it was a most miserable 
 failure !' Indeed, he seems sensible 
 of it, and so he left the subject 
 vrith iaoredible velocity. There is 
 no 'text, my friends, as vou are wel 
 aware, that can possibly lend the 
 least aid in extricating the Pro- 
 testant from the mfllediction of 
 the ancient Testament, denounced 
 
516 
 
 EULE OP TAITH. [9^^ Eoetthlff. 
 
 against those who should impiously" 
 dare to neglect the observance of 
 the specifically appointed day ; but, 
 if you apply to lEADiiioiir, then 
 you can justify it, — if not, he is pro- 
 nounced guilty by that Book, which 
 he pretends to venerate with a kind 
 of predominance of affection when 
 compared to that entertained for it 
 by us Catholics. 
 
 Again, my friend endeavoured to 
 prove the proeession of the Holy 
 Ghost from the Father and the Son. 
 Now, mark how illogicaUy he pro- 
 ceeded — with what vainly toiling 
 diHgeuce, though with his usual un- 
 obstructed rapidity, he turned over 
 the pages of the sacred volume — 
 mark, I say, how illogically he pro- 
 ceeded to prove that there was a 
 Tiinii»y at all ; in the second place, 
 that the Holy Ghost was a person 
 of that Trinity ; in the third place, 
 that he proceeded from the Pather 
 and from the Son. Because, he 
 says, the Holy Spirit is called Gtod 
 — but does it say that he constitutes- 
 one Person of a Trinity? Might 
 not the words "Holy Spirit" be 
 applied to God without violation 
 of any of the proprieties of lan- 
 guage, without superinducing a 
 third Person ? Might not one con- 
 tend, without tradition, that the 
 words were figurative ? My learned 
 friend, one would imagine, would 
 be able to solve this, addicted as he 
 is so much to the spirit of oratory 
 and nothing else — ^for I never ac- 
 cused him of logic. [Xaughter.] In 
 one word, might it not, according to 
 the analogy of language, be con- 
 sidered 'ust as figurative as the 
 word is, when in metaphorical ex- 
 pression I say, " It is the spirit of 
 oratory that actuates, that animates 
 the bosom of my learned friend ; 
 Ipgio never found a dwelling there." 
 But how does he prove the proces- 
 sion from the Eather and the Son? 
 Ift this mode : — " The Spirit whom 
 
 I mil send from the Father." That 
 is literally the text bj| yrhich my 
 learned and authentic friend intends 
 to prove that the third Person pro^ 
 ceeds from the Father and the Son. 
 Oh shame ! shame on such contempt- 
 ible logic ; such puerility ; such 
 gross, palpable undervaluing of the 
 understandings of his audience. I 
 wonder, indeed, he did not blush 
 deeply when he uttered it. [Laugh- 
 ter.] How, again, has he attempted 
 to prove thecbnsubstantiality of the 
 Father and the Son vrith the Holy 
 Ghost ? Why, most ingeniously — 
 namely, by not alluding to it at all. 
 Again, abandoning nis cool rea- 
 sonj he exclaims — The CathoKo 
 Church in early ages was deeply in- 
 fected with Anamsm. If so, I ex- 
 claim in my turn. You have great 
 reason, my Protestant brethren, to 
 be afraid of the authenticity of the 
 Bible. The original of the Bible 
 being lost, where is your prudence, 
 yonr-reasonaUeness, in trusting to 
 'these copies, seeing that you had 
 them from our Church, which is, 
 according to you, a corrupted 
 Church ? Are you not afraid, lest 
 that corrupted Church should have 
 inserted corrupted texts in the 
 Scripture to favour its corruptions, 
 since the Scripture has been under 
 its guardianship and sole custody 
 for so many hundred years ? Who 
 were those who copied out the ma- 
 nuscripts from age to age, before 
 the invention of letters and print- 
 ing, but the monks in our Catholic 
 convents ? Were there no Calvinists 
 lurking in their "caves and caverns" 
 — ^though I always thought your 
 Church [turning to Mr. Cummmg,] 
 was to be " seated on a hill" ac- 
 cording to ancient prophecy, where 
 all might see it [laughter], and 
 where the nations might flow into 
 it ; but were there no Calvinists, in 
 their gloomy pent-up caverns you 
 lately alluded to, copying out the 
 
Mr. French.'] 
 
 RULE Oif fAITH, 
 
 517" 
 
 Bible? I always understood from 
 Lord Bacon, and from Hooker, that 
 the Catholic Church fostered and 
 
 E reserved the Bible in her sacred 
 osom. And I say, if it was so, 
 that Protestants knowing this indis- 
 
 Eutable fact, that the Catholics 
 ■om age to age were the sole pro- 
 prietors and preservers of the Bible, 
 and having such an opinion of their 
 " abominable and idolatrous" dis- 
 position, they should be — my learned 
 friend as well as yourselves — should 
 be deeply suspicious, irremediably, 
 ay, inconsolably desponding and 
 mistrustful, as to the veracity of 
 that Bible. I, for my part, per- 
 fectly agree that the Arians, to 
 whom the learned and eloquent 
 Hooker alludes, where he says, in 
 his " Ecclesiastical Polity" (vol. i. 
 p. 386 ; vol. i. Hanbury's edition), 
 were not groundless in their sus- 
 picion, if my learned friend's pre- 
 mises as to the corruption of the 
 Church be once granted : — 
 
 " They who measure religion by 
 dislike of the Church of Rome, 
 think every man so much the more 
 sound by how much he can make 
 the corruptions thereof more large. 
 Aud therefore, some there are — 
 namely, the Arians in reformed 
 Churches of Poland — who imagine 
 the canker to have eaten so far mto 
 the bones and marrow of the Church 
 of Bx)me, as if it had not so much 
 as a sound belief : no, not concern- 
 ing God himself, but that the very 
 belief of "the Trinity were a part of 
 antichristian corruption" 
 
 Now let my learned friend look 
 seriously to this : it is a question 
 that deserves to be so deeply con- 
 sidered, that my learned friend will, 
 I have no doubt, run away from it 
 with his usual lightness and agiUty. 
 But perchance, my opponent may 
 dare to say that I am professing 
 myself an Arian, by bringing for- 
 ward this extract. No, my friends. 
 
 what I wish to inculcate is simply 
 this : If it be true that the Catholics 
 were such vile corrupters of. every 
 thing sacred in heaven and earth — 
 if it DC true that they were so, I say 
 that the Arians were weE founded 
 in their supposition that the Trinity 
 itself (a name, by-the-bye, not to be 
 found in the Protestant Rule of 
 Paithi namely, the Bible) was an 
 interpolation in the' creed of Chris-' 
 tians on the part of the blasphemous 
 and idolatrous Papist. WiE my 
 learned friend now say, in his uwn 
 exquisitely peculiar logic, that I am 
 now professing Arianism ? No, my 
 friends, whatever he may think 
 proper to insinuate, I will say 
 boldly, that I scorn Arius as I do 
 all otner heretics ; I pity too much 
 the wanderings of human reason to 
 reproach any man with heresy ; but 
 when they attempt to assail the 
 verities of my Church, and to blas- 
 pheme every thing that I deem, 
 sacred, I must tell them to their 
 faces — f^i)\6ov c^ ^fiav. They went 
 out of us ; we did not leave thent. 
 We clave, and still cleave, and vriii 
 for ever cleave most unrelinquish- 
 ably, to the Rock of Ages. We 
 have records of the fact ; we marked 
 the day when their heresy (I mean 
 that of the Arians) arose, as we did 
 when all others arose. St. Augus- 
 tine noted, as nw learned friend 
 told us, ninety-odi heresies at such 
 a period, and other fathers noted a 
 great number more. St. Epipha- 
 nius has left a large bulky volume, 
 full of the heresies of that impugned 
 Church. The great mother, the 
 Catholic Church, always had its- 
 watchmen on her high towers, with 
 the pen in hand, to note down the 
 different heresies and schisms as 
 they successively raised up their 
 proud, their insolently daring heads, 
 at different periods of time, in the 
 vain hope of obscuring her eternal 
 radiance. 
 
B18 
 
 KULE OP FAITH. 
 
 l9tA Evening. 
 
 And I must inform my learned 
 friend that, with ita wonted accu- 
 racy and fidelity, ay, to the very 
 hour, we noted down the heresies 
 of Calvin and of Luther. We hare 
 them marked down in our books, 
 and there they are to be found at 
 this day, with their indeKble brand 
 upon them. 
 
 I say, then, that you have no 
 right to maintain, on the supposition 
 that the Catholics were so depraved 
 and so addicted to idolatry as you 
 inculcate — you have no right to 
 believe the sacred volume to be 
 incorrupt. But what I call on you 
 for is, and what I shall reiterate 
 aloud in an emphatic manner many 
 and many a time — I reiterate, that 
 it is in vain trying to prove the au- 
 thenticity of your Rule of Paith ; 
 you shrink from it. Ton play the 
 sophist and the orator ; and seem to 
 make it matter at once of your 
 solace and your glory, when sunk 
 down by my ponderous argument 
 — that you wiU be enabled, by 
 the powerful allurements of mere 
 words and sentences, however un- 
 connected, to effect more than I can 
 by the most methodical, systematic 
 reasoning. Yes, I repeat it, you 
 flatter yourself that you will be 
 enabled to. predominate over me in 
 the end, by a random outpouring of 
 texts and your poesies of metaphor 
 and rhetoric. [Laughter.] 
 
 Following my notes, I perceive 
 that my reverend antagonist, in re- 
 ference to the doctrine of Purgatory, 
 ridicules the idea of material fire 
 purging the immaterial soul. This 
 is not the doctrine of the Church 
 of Rome, as of faith, that there is 
 any fire at all, material or immate- 
 rial. We only maintain a third 
 state. There is no article of our 
 faith which says there is to be fire, 
 whether material or immaterial. 
 
 But I must say, by this mode of 
 cavilling, the learned gentleman is 
 
 always giving an opportunity to the 
 Deist to ridicule religion in all his 
 arguments. The same mode by 
 which he ridicules material fire — 
 the possibility of material fire reach- 
 ing immaterial spirit — if it affords 
 a subject of ridicule to him, does it 
 not offer the same material, and 
 will it not afford a subject of ridi- 
 cule to the Deist and the Infidel, 
 when he argues against the exist- 
 ence of such a place as heU ? But 
 has my learned friend, of such tran- 
 scendent merit in Bible lore, never 
 read in that his Rule of Eaith of an 
 immaterial spirit eating material 
 food? and is not the one as recon- 
 cilable to his notions of things as 
 the other f Surely, my learned 
 friend is well enough versed in the 
 Hebrew Bible to mid the Hebrew 
 passage to which I allude. 
 
 Again, my Bible-learned antago- 
 nist exclaims, "One Lord, one Faith, 
 one Baptism." Now, does the 
 leaned gentleman attend to tbe 
 meaning of these words ? Our' com- 
 plaint against you is, that you have 
 not one baptism. We CatnoMcs of 
 sdl nations have. But you have 
 various ; you differ in the mode of 
 administering baptism. Some cry 
 out most vehemently for baptism in 
 the proper scriptural form; some 
 cry out that it is a superstition; 
 and yet, with such incoherence, such 
 diversity of views on this vital point 
 amongst your various sects, you 
 have the daring to appeal to them, 
 looking around this room for their 
 sympathies in your favour. Why, 
 the Anabaptist declares that your 
 baptism is invalid,_ and that your 
 baptism of infants is not justifiable 
 by the Gospel. My friend teUs me 
 that some divine oi my Church has 
 asserted that it is pointed out in the 
 Gospel. I care not whether he does 
 or does not — ^I maintain that there 
 is no sanction for it in the pages of 
 the New Testament, ana I call on 
 
Mr. French.'] 
 
 RTJLii or FAITH. 
 
 5iy 
 
 him for texts, or else his religion is 
 at an end, it is a caput mortwum. 
 His baptism is invalid ; and he had 
 much better go over to the Church 
 of the Baptists and join them, and 
 thus reconcile his deed to his words, 
 by holding up his rule on one hand 
 and his line of conduct on the other 
 in strict conformity. 
 
 And now, my friends, a few words 
 as to the " impregnable" " un- 
 scathed" "unassailable" Protest- 
 antism — ^those three lustrous epi- 
 thets applied by iny learned friend 
 to that opaque body of errors. 
 [Laughter.] I shaE soon show you 
 whether Protestantism be impreg- 
 nable, unscathed, and unassailable. 
 I am going now, my friends — I am 
 about now to prove that the 
 E«formation, which so much dis- 
 turbed the order, and deranged the 
 harmony of things in ecclesiastical 
 Europe, which confounded or en- 
 deavoured to trample down all the 
 wisdom of antiquity in the dust, 
 and to erect a multitude of ever- 
 dhanging, ever innovating churches 
 in its stead — that such a work of 
 devastation and unhallowed anarchy 
 could not proceed from the Spirit of 
 God, but that it must of necessity 
 have been incubated over by " the 
 father of Kes." These are strong 
 words : but I vrill prove to you 
 their coherence,- their propriety, 
 and most incontrovertibly their 
 truth; When the Reformation arose 
 in this country, and the Bible was 
 taken as the Rule of jFaith, one 
 would naturally think, my friends, 
 (on the supposition that the Reform- 
 ation is to be called blessed,) that 
 the original founders of your sects 
 must' have been men replenished 
 with the utmost sanctity, and that 
 they must have been assisted, if 
 they were really producing' a good 
 work, by the "Eather of Lights." 
 But, my friends, let us approach 
 this subject with impartial and un- 1 
 
 prejudiced minds, and let us see 
 from their' own writings, whether 
 they were indeed guided by the 
 great God of Heaven, or by that 
 evil spirit that " roameth about the 
 earth seeking whom he may de- 
 vour." Hear, then, Calvin on the 
 Corinthians. Talking of Paul : 
 
 " He is full of cold and heat, of 
 presumption, temerity, and precipi- 
 tation." — Calvin on 1 Cor. vii. 3. 
 
 Such is the reverential way, my 
 friends, in which the man who gave 
 the name tp my friend's church — 
 the blameless, the harmless, the 
 heaven-resuscitated Calvin — charac- 
 terizes Paul, the apostle of the 
 GentUes. 
 
 But Calvin, among reformers, is 
 not the sole champion who hath 
 been siout against the Lord 'with a 
 wildly-blaspheming tongue. Listen 
 to Qmntinus : 
 
 "He was not a chosen, but a 
 broken vessel."— QaM&ra apud 
 Besciam in pr/sf. Himistromachios. 
 
 Again, the centttriators of Mag- 
 deburg, well known to my learned 
 friend, and to every gentleman of 
 the Protestant religion in this 
 room : — 
 
 "He (Paul) was impatient and in 
 desperation during his afflictions in 
 Asia, dissensions towards Barnabas, 
 and hypocritical towards James and 
 others." — Centur. 1st, lib. ii. c. x. 
 
 Such is their estimate of this 
 apostle. 
 
 BuUinger (for blasphemy is epi- 
 demical among these newly heaven- 
 raised teachers), talking of St. John 
 the Evangelist: — "In nis prompti- 
 tude to adore the angel he had sinned 
 in apostasy." — Comment., in xix.v.22 
 
 Quintinus calls the apostle (Paul), 
 
 [Laughter.] — Apnd Besciam, loco 
 citato. 
 
 Luther aflfcms of James, that he 
 was " a perverter of St. Paul's doc- 
 
520 
 
 KULE OT FAITH. [9tt Encmnff-. 
 
 trine — ^that his epistle was bastard, 
 counterfeit, ■wicked, and imapostoli- 
 cal." — Luther, toni.T. folio 439,440. 
 
 Calvin, that is, my learned friend's 
 friend [laughter] and prototype, 
 says of St. Matthew:— "He (St. 
 M!atthew) abused, distorted, and 
 alleged unaptly divers citations." — 
 dalviit in Comm. Matt. ii. 15, viii. 
 13, xxi. 17, xxvii. 9. 
 
 Luther tells us that " St. Lute 
 was excessive in commending good 
 works." — Luth. Acts xv. 
 
 Bravo ! prime workman of the 
 glorious Keformation ! [Laughter.] 
 
 Calvia again says, " The apostles 
 were superstitious, and subject to 
 vice." — Calv. in Acts, xxi. 33. ' 
 
 Now comes on the scene another 
 mighty reformer, full of the efiision 
 of the Spirit, the renowned "Zuing- 
 fius! Let us hear his heaven- 
 inspired doctrine. 
 
 "It is a great error," says he, 
 " of the old doctors, that tWy sup- 
 posed the external water of baptism 
 to be of any value towards the 
 purging of sin." — Zuing. torn. ii. de 
 Bapt., fol. 70. 
 
 One passage from Zuinglius" how- 
 ever, speaks properly, and I would 
 vrish to press it upon my reverend 
 friend's attention at present, as well 
 as upon his memory hereafter. It 
 may perchance contribute to check 
 or silence that eternal bawl of 
 Methodism, namely, " Search the 
 Scriptures." 
 
 His words are: — "Quotiescuhque 
 sive Christus, sive apostoli, ad 
 Scripturam relegant auditores, in- 
 telligimt non suas aut epistolas aut 
 evangelium, sed vetits testamentitm." 
 That is, " So often as Christ or the 
 apostles refer us to the Scriptures, 
 they do not Tinderstarid thereby 
 their Epistles or the Gospels, but 
 the Old Testament." 
 
 Ochinus, another of these lumi- 
 nous reformers, says: — "Non de- 
 bemus plura credere quam aredi- 
 
 dernnt sancti foederis antiqui ;" that 
 is, " We ought not to beheve more 
 than the saints of the Old Testament 
 beheved ia." Whence he infers, 
 that we should not be bound to 
 believe the Trinity, Consubstan- 
 tiality. Sec. — Ochinus, Hb. ii. Dialog. 
 pp. 154, 155. 
 
 This is, my friends, to the heart's 
 content of my rev. antagonist, a 
 beautiful Ulustrationof the one faith 
 of Protestants. [Laughter.] 
 
 But let us sound agaia the grand 
 imposing name — the apostle of re- 
 form himself, the immortal Luther, 
 the man raised up by the right hand 
 of God ! Listen, my friends, atteji- 
 tively: forwhenhe speaks, edification 
 must foUow ! 
 
 His words are: — "Ne ingeratur 
 nobis Moyses ; nos- in Novo Testa- 
 mento Moysem nee videre, nee 
 audire volumus!" that is, "Let 
 not Moses be thrust in upon us ; 
 we, in the New Testament, will 
 not either see or hear Moses." — 
 huth. in Serm. de Moise. 
 
 Now come we — for unity among 
 Protestants must be proved to-day 
 most copiously, or my rev. friend, I 
 know, will be out of humour vrith 
 me— [laughter] — come we to the 
 famous Bucer ! What says he, at 
 the davm of that auspicious era, 
 when the Spirit that dictated the 
 Reformation was in the plenitude 
 of its effusion ? Listen : — 
 
 "If aU be true that the Evan- 
 gelists affirm, Christ must be truly 
 and really in the sacrament. . But 
 whether vre be bound to believe 
 absolutely everything set down by 
 them, I will not judge." — Saunders, 
 de Schism. Ang., Kb. M. p. 332. 
 
 The first, reforming apostle of 
 Moravia, according to rrateolus, 
 derided the notion of there being a 
 Holy Ghost. The words of Pra- 
 teolus are ; — " Irrisit Spiritum 
 Sanctum, dixitque se velle potius 
 redire in coenobium, quam credere 
 
Mr. French,^ 
 
 STJLE OF FAITH. 
 
 52r 
 
 in Spiritum Sanctum;" that is, 
 "He (^the apostle of Moravia) 
 tuined into ridicule the Holy Ghost, 
 saying, he would rather return into 
 the cloister than believe in him." 
 
 Again, my friends, the Baptists 
 will furnish my learned antagonist 
 with another transcendent proof of 
 the glorious inspiration of Protest- 
 antism, and its admirable unity — 
 the Baptists, I say, who ipso facto 
 omit baptism towards cmldren as 
 unprofitable. 
 
 But now, a few words on the 
 Rule of Faith that produces this 
 wondrous unity among the choice of 
 God's faithful, who shone as lights 
 among their respective admirers, all 
 of them being, as ye see, likeminded 
 in the fellowship of the Spirit/ 
 [Laughter.] 
 
 Joajmes Dietenbureius, the Pro- 
 testant, has coUected in Luther's 
 translation of the Bible 874; corrup- 
 
 Bsmerus, who succeeded Luther 
 and Melancthon, has discovered ia 
 it 1,4^)0 falsifications ! ! ! 
 
 Broughton, to the Lords of the 
 Council, affirmed that the Bibles of 
 England -^exe, foully corrupted! ! 
 
 Dr. Reynolds required, "That 
 there may be a new translation of 
 the Bible, because the former were 
 corrupt ! " What a beautiful Rule 
 of Faith! 
 
 The Puritans cried out, that the 
 translations of the Bible cause 
 miUions to reject the New Tes- 
 tament, and to run to eternal 
 flames. 
 
 Calvin declares, talking of Philip 
 Melancthon, " SiPhilippus deolaret, 
 verbo tantum me a sua mente de- 
 flectere, protenus desistam." That 
 isi " If Philip shoidd but intimate 
 that I am in the least point at 
 variance with his conceptions, I 
 will immediately desist." 
 
 Well, see now what are the con- 
 ceptions of Melancthon, and Fro- 
 
 testant unity will reap a fresh laurel' 
 " I would to God," says Melanc- 
 thon, "it were in my power to 
 restore the government of the 
 bishops. For I see what kind of a 
 church we have, such ecclesiastical 
 pohty being dissolved." — He goes 
 on to say, "Video ]jostea multo 
 intolerabiliorem tyrannidemfuturam 
 quam antea unquam fuit ; " that is, 
 "I perceive that hereafter there 
 will be a far more intolerable 
 tyranny than has ever yet existed." 
 This was in regard to bishops ; 
 for Calvin, as you know, had abo- 
 lished bishops, maintaining that 
 they were unapostoKcal, and not to 
 be found in the Gospel. Nay, 
 Calvin himself thus writes to his 
 friend Farel: — "Deus nunc dat 
 videre, quantum prsecipiti judicio, 
 vehementiaque inconsulta abjiciendi 
 ita Pontificis nocuerimus." , That 
 is, " God now shows us most evi- 
 dently what harm we have done by 
 thus, in our headlong inconsiderate- 
 ness and rash precipitancy, casting 
 off the Pope."— .^. ad Farel. 6. 
 
 The Calvinists, however, still 
 continue, as ye well know, to cry 
 out stoutly — and my reverend anta- 
 gonist will, beyond aU doubt, be 
 amongst the most clamorous of 
 them, — " No imposition of hands \" 
 — " No bishops ! " I say, will my 
 learned friend exclaim, most fer- 
 vently, unless, perchance, he should 
 have a mitre in view, — a glittering 
 species of object ia the eyes of 
 Protestantism, of a most irresistible 
 nature. — [Laughter.] 
 
 But why, Etfter all, should any. 
 scruple be entertained on this 
 ground ? since Junius, a celebrated 
 Calvinist, lays it down, that imposi- 
 tion of hands properly means, " a 
 shaking the elected into the assembly 
 by his right hand." [Laughter.] 
 
 The true Scotchman, however, to 
 this day, is most uncompromising 
 upon that subject. His language 
 
522 
 
 BULE OF JiiTU \^th &emug. 
 
 is still that of Ids forefathers, 
 namely, " Sishops are not members 
 of Christ, but of antichrist" "All 
 this proud generation must down : 
 bishops, deacons, archdeacons, are 
 no members of the Church." 
 
 Nov, my friends, judge ye whe- 
 ther the Spirit of God was hovering 
 over jour Church in its infancy. 
 Listen to Calvin, and shudder when 
 I explain his words. My learned 
 friend, I perceive, already begins to 
 tremble, knowing-well what is forth- 
 coming, at least foreboding it, 
 [SibUation.] 
 
 Listen earnestly, my friends, most 
 earnestly, I do beseech you. Calvm 
 is about to teach theology to this 
 assembly: surely, where Protestants 
 are all united in one fraternal bond, 
 Calvin is worth hearmg. Speaking 
 of crimes and their fouutamlieaa, 
 his very words are these : — 
 
 " Quando facimus adulteiium aut 
 ■ omicidium, Dei opus est, motoris, 
 iuctoris, atque impulsoris." That 
 is, my friends, translated with the 
 utmost Uterality : " When we com- 
 mit adultery or murder^ it is the 
 work of Ood, the mover, author, and 
 
 Rev. J. CuMMiNG — l^tdcM^'] — 
 Give me the authority. 
 
 Mr. Pkench. — Oh, to be sure. 
 Calv. Turciem, volume as above, 
 
 Eev. J. Gumming. — ^The page ? 
 
 Mr. Jkench. — ^Page! 1, really 
 wish you'd furnish me with some of 
 those texts you quoted so rapidly in 
 exchange. [Laughter.] But you 
 shall have the page — ^it is p, 691 ad 
 701. 
 
 Zuir^ljus says (for there is, I 
 perceive, upon grand points, some- 
 thing like unity among the prime 
 boys fff the Htformation), 
 
 "Latro, Deo impnlsore occidit, 
 et ssepenumero cogitur ad pecan- 
 dum." That is, and my learned 
 antagonist will warrant that I trans- 
 late with strict fidelity, " The robber. 
 
 by Qod's impulsion or impelling, doth 
 kill, and is ofttimes constrained to 
 kill'' — Zuinglius de Providentio 
 Dei, torn, i, fol. 365. 
 
 Again, Calvin, 1st Institute, Uber 
 1, chap, xni., ever orthodox, as my 
 reverend friend will verify, wishes 
 that the name of the Trinity were 
 buried, rejecting out of his prayer- 
 books the clause, " Glory be to the 
 Pather, to the Son, and to the Holy 
 Ghost." 
 
 Bxjgers, " Contra PamUiam Lon- 
 dinensem," a.d. 1579, art. 24-25, 
 says, " Such is the Family of love, 
 rejecting the Trinity aild Divinity 
 of Christ as Papistical fictions'' 
 
 And indeed, my friends, to speak 
 truth, I declare that they had a 
 right to bs suspicious, after the 
 manner, the distorted manner, in 
 which you attempt to prove the 
 systematic corruption of Christianity 
 by popes and councils. They were 
 perfectly right, I say (supposing* the 
 picture my friend draws of the all- 
 corrupting Papist to be true), in 
 suspecting those dogmas to be an 
 invention of one of the dark ages. 
 
 Again, in Luther we find his 
 soul did detest the word d/ioou<riov— 
 that is, consubstantial, between the 
 persons of theHoly Trinity. — Luther, 
 Enchiridio Precum, 1543. 
 
 And to prove to you, my friends, 
 that the plenteous effusion of Divine 
 grace at the period of the Reform- 
 ation (as your historians uniformly 
 caU it) was producing on this sub- 
 ject at least something like unity, 
 listen to the following fact, with its 
 attestation : 
 
 " The Servetians, that is, the 
 followers of Servetus — whom that 
 meek, that lamb-like Christian, good 
 Calvin, procured to be burned at a 
 stake, — these Servetians, if we may 
 believe Seza, called the Blessed 
 Trinity (great God, whom I adore 
 with aU the powers _ of my soul, 
 forgive me if I give it utterance!) 
 
Mr. French.'] 
 
 liVLK OF PAITH. 
 
 623 
 
 " a three-headed Cerberus, or hell- 
 hound." — ^Beza, ep. 81. 
 
 Not mark, my friends, how tliis 
 anity of opinion; as to fundamenta). 
 points, spread widely among tlie 
 ever-blessed Reformers. A solemn 
 embassy was 'sent by all the Cal- 
 vinists in Poland, to Zurich and 
 Geneva, importuning them to have 
 the mystery of the Trinity abolished. 
 Whilst the Calvinian synod at 
 Vibia, A.D. 1589, May 2nd, issued 
 a pubKo decree, forbidding ministers 
 in sermons to mention the name of 
 Trinity. 
 
 Agaia, let me give yon another 
 impious dogma of this innocent 
 Reformer, Calvin. He afBrms, in 
 his Institutes, the name of God 
 peculiarly to belong to God the 
 Father. — Calv. Inst. c. 14, n. 3, and 
 Contr. Valentin. Hb. 3. 
 
 Again, he affirms Christ our 
 Lord to be but a second king next 
 to God, and a second cause of Ufe. 
 — Cairo: in cap. vi; in Joann. v. 57. 
 
 And yet, my friends, if this your 
 illustrious reformer had ever studied 
 St. Paul, he must have known that 
 Christ, "the Lord of Glory" and 
 " the Prince of life, " thought it 
 not robbery to be equal to God." 
 
 But again, after having thus 
 impiously dogmatized, he launches 
 into fresn blasphemies. He main- 
 taiiis, (in o. 1, Coloss. v. 20,) — 
 " that God in heaven is not dutifully 
 and sincerely served without sin, 
 even by the angels themselves ;" 
 and yet methinks he might have 
 learned from the Book of Reve- 
 lations that "nothing defiled can 
 enter into the liingdom of heaven." 
 
 And BOW, my friends, having 
 thus exhibited to you a drawing of 
 Calvin's mind from his own pencil, 
 let us see what his contemporary 
 Protestants thought of him. 
 
 Stancharius, in Epistola contra 
 Calvinum, N. 4-5, has these words : 
 
 " Cave, Christiane lector, et 
 
 maxime vos ministri omnes verbi 
 Dei, a' verbis Calvini cavete, et 
 prsesertim in articulo de Trinitate.' 
 That is, " Beware, Christian reader, 
 and especially al ye ministers of 
 the word of God, beware of the 
 books of Calvin, and especiaEy on 
 
 THE iJlTICLE OE THE TrINITT."— 
 
 Stancharius in Bpist. cont. Calv. 
 No. 4-5. 
 
 Again, here is Joannes Schutz, 
 another Protestant writer of those 
 times. I am endeavouring, re- 
 member, to substantiate the posi- 
 tion of my learned friend, which he 
 so seriously lays down without the 
 least flickering of a snule on his 
 countenance, that there is perfect 
 unanimity, perfect Uke-mindedness 
 still among Protestants. 
 
 Well ! let us hear the testimony 
 of Joannes Schutz. His words 
 are: — 
 
 " Arianismus, Mahumetismus, 
 Calvinismus, tres fratres et sorores, 
 tres caligEB ejusdem panni." That 
 is, "Arianism, Mahometism, and 
 Calvinism, are three brothers and 
 sisters, three pair of breeches of 
 the same cloth." [Laughter.] 
 
 I did not wish to keep all this 
 Latin as a " bonne bouche," [tum- 
 LQg to Mr. Gumming,] for, my dear 
 and esteemed friend, [laughter] I 
 thought it but fair to let the bulk 
 of the audience enjoy it also in 
 plain English. [Laughter.] 
 
 Rev. J. CtrMMiN&.-— Give the re- 
 ference. 
 
 Mr. Ekench. — Yes! you shall 
 have it — all regularly "cut and 
 dried" — aU ready to afford fresh 
 gratification, when you take ^tne 
 trouble of consulting the original 
 sources from which my learning 
 flows. Note down, then, ad cor^r- 
 mationem rei, Joannes Schutz, in. 
 Lib. 50, eausarum. Causa 40 ; and 
 you will be sure to find it. 
 
 But, my friends, I have not^yet 
 done with Master Calvin; I must 
 
tu 
 
 EULE or PAiTH. [9^i ^emitff. 
 
 let you hear what another celebrated 
 writer of those days, and of Pro- 
 testant celebrity, says of him. Adam 
 Newser writes in these memorable 
 words, and I beg of my reverend 
 friend to hoard them np ia has me- 
 mory. 
 
 " Qui timet ne iacidat in Aiian- 
 ismum, caveat Calvinismmn." That 
 is, " He who has a dread of falling 
 iato Aiianism, let him beware of 
 Calvinism." — Adam Newser, apiid 
 Sclmsenl. c. 13, citato, fol. 9, el in 
 catal. kineat. Lib. i. p. 4. 
 
 Myfriend expressed his sympathy 
 some time ago, lest I should be 
 lapsing into Arianism. Now Calviu 
 his dear Calvin, his learned master, 
 would not, it appears, if he were 
 living, deem it matter of so great 
 lamentation if I did fall iuto that 
 species of heresy. 
 
 And now, my friends, one word 
 mor« as to Calvin and Beza, and I 
 shall lay open anotherj little sour 
 source of learning, as to the won- 
 derful flood of hght that burst in 
 upon the world among those heavenly 
 men of the Tiefonnation in eluci- 
 dating the pages of the Bible. 
 
 Know, then, that Calviu calls in 
 question the siith chapter of St. 
 John, and that Eeza calls in question 
 the eighth chapter! You remember, 
 my friends, how frequently my rev. 
 antagonist, in the ragiog hours of 
 his Pafrophobia, when the disorder 
 was at its height, was wont to cry 
 out : — " Pshaw! these Fathers are 
 for ever knocking their heads 
 against one another." Let us now 
 see how grand reformers hold their 
 heads aloft in conscious pride and 
 sweetest unanimity! 
 
 Upon Christ's entering amongst 
 his disciples after his crucifixion, 
 the doors being shut, Calvin says 
 that he knocked and so obtained 
 entrance. Afterwards he afcms 
 that by his Divine virtue he opened 
 them. 
 
 BulUnger says that an anfcel 
 opened them. 
 
 Aretrus says that they opened of 
 their own accord. 
 
 Peter Martyr says that he en- 
 tered in at the window. 
 
 Simoniua says that he entered in 
 by the chinks of the door. 
 
 Thalman says that his body dimi- 
 nished one-third, and so passed 
 through. 
 
 Others maintained that he entered , 
 in at the tunnel of the chimney. 
 
 This Zninglius, in ridiculing the 
 idea that Ohnst could come out of 
 the sepulchre without removing the 
 stone, which Luther with truth 
 affirmed, has the following words : 
 
 " Crassus Lutheri prsetor rubris 
 idutus caligis, eodem modo quo 
 Christus monumento exivit, egredi 
 potuerit." That is, " Luther's fat 
 servant, appareled in his red . hose, 
 in like manner as Christ went out 
 of the sepulchre, might himself 
 also have issued." — Which, my 
 friends, you must all know, is most 
 impiously affirmed byyour Ueformer, 
 ZuingKus, inasmuch as, if the New 
 Testament speak truth, Christ is- 
 sued from the sepxilchre of his own 
 force and power, without removing 
 the stone. — pLaughter throughout 
 these extracts.] 
 
 But, gentlemen, where should I 
 end, were I to attempt enumerating 
 the various blasphemies of your 
 various Reformers ? 
 
 Calvin asserts, that our blessed 
 Saviour descended into hel, and 
 suffered there the pains of the 
 damned. 
 
 Latimer, your venerable martyr, 
 Latimer, asserts the same shudder- 
 ingblasphemy. 
 
 Rev. J. Cummins.— '[2!Se learned 
 gentleman read these extracts so 
 very rapidly, that Mr. Gumming 
 was obliged to interrupt him, say- 
 ing:"] — The last reference, if you 
 please? 
 
I^r. Freilchl 
 
 RULE OP PAITJl. 
 
 525 
 
 Mr. Peench. — I really have not 
 time. I will if you give me time 
 for it. — [Nothing fvuther ensued.] 
 
 Mr. PiUENCH — {in ■contitmatioiCj. 
 Both Beza and Calvin teach that 
 good works are nugatory, that man 
 was saved hy faUh alone. And 
 Luther had the daring impiety to 
 add the word " aloW' to the words 
 " saved by faith" inhis translation 
 of the Bible. 
 
 Yes, my friends, this is the man 
 inspired by God, forsooth, to Ulum- 
 jnate mankind, and become the 
 Father of that blessed 'Reformation 
 that has engendered all the differ- 
 ent sects which now stand around 
 me and take part with my anta- 
 gonist ; though with him tihey are 
 as vitally, as fundamentally at vari- 
 ance ia points of the highest moment 
 to salvation, as they are with me. 
 
 Again — ^for it is time to advert to 
 another subject — Calvin tells us 
 that the books of the Bible are to 
 be recognised by the inward spirit 
 ■done! 
 
 Here is the great and illustrious 
 master of my learned friend telling 
 tne that the way to prove the 
 authenticity of canonical writing is 
 by " the inward spirit!" And what 
 does not this " inward spirit " 
 prompt men to do ? What odious, 
 repulsive doctrines does it not 
 prompt both men and women to 
 broach? How comes it, I ask, 
 that this " internal spirit" inspires 
 such opposite deductions ? Luther, 
 out of his spirit, gave judgment 
 that the Epistle of James was a 
 strawy or chaffy epistle, unworthy 
 of an apostle. Calvin, by his in- 
 ward spirit, was led to doubt, as I 
 have before proved, the siith chapter 
 of St. John; and Beza was moved 
 by his inward spirit to call in ques- 
 tion the eighth of the same Evan- 
 gelist. Now, my friends, even if' 
 the eloquence of my learned friend, 
 —and I have always acknowledged 
 
 it to be of a very loquacious, luxuri- 
 ating, and unbounded description- 
 could have operated upon me so as 
 to induce me to quit the Old Bflck, 
 covered as it is with such unan- 
 swerable glories and soul-inspiring, 
 never-to-be-obliterated associations 
 of spiritual delight ; for " my dove, 
 my undefiled, is one-," say the Can- 
 ticles, " and her voice is sweet, and 
 her face comely ;" — ^but should I, I 
 say, in an evD. hour be aUufed by 
 thy syren tongue to quit her whom 
 " my soul loveth," and " begin to 
 wander after the flocks of thy com- 
 panions," tell me, I adjure thee, my 
 reverend friend, into the por- 
 ticos of which of your conflicting 
 churches should I enter? Tell me, 
 after having thrown away the light 
 of ages, the lamp of CathoHcity, 
 in which of your diBmal habitations, 
 your howling wildernesses, shall my 
 soul find a secure harbour, so as 
 never to be tossed aboat again 
 by any new wind of doctrine ? 
 In which, I say, of your motley con- 
 venticles, does the Spirit of Truth 
 inhabit by the promise of its God, 
 so that me finger of history, with 
 clearness and perspicuity, shall 
 point out its existence from age to 
 age, and thus rescue it from the 
 imputation of being a mere modem 
 edifice, an upstart invention of yes- 
 terday ? 
 
 By what test is this inward spirit 
 to be tried amongst you? What 
 uniform settled principle of judging 
 prevails amongst you? By what 
 bond of sympathy do ye stand this 
 day united agamst the Cathohc, 
 save and except unrelenting hatred 
 to your ancient mother ? My friend 
 the Quaker tells me (and he is the 
 best and most moral of you all) 
 that baptism by water is not neces- 
 sary; nay, that it is superfluous. 
 The Baptist (and I candidly confess, 
 that if, spurning away tradition, I 
 *;ook the Bible for my sole Bule of 
 
526 
 
 KULE OP TAITH. [9fA Euemtiff. 
 
 Paith, I would rather be baptized 
 in his way than in any other)-^the 
 Baptist, I say, tells me that I must 
 be plunged into water, according to 
 the unquestioned practice of the 
 primitiye Church, and to the true 
 meaning of the -word, Bajm^o, in 
 the New Testament. But I, as a 
 Catholic, teU him, and say to you 
 all, that I must be lost for ever if 
 I " seek that knowledge in my own 
 forum which God commands me to 
 seek at the lips of the priest." Yes, 
 it is there I seek knowledge as to 
 the mode of baptism; under the 
 guidance of " the Angel of the Lord 
 of Hosts," (Malach.) — I am under 
 no apprehension lest I should hare 
 been led to a wrong fountain. No, 
 my friends, my Church was based 
 by Christ himself upon Peter ; each 
 of yours has Mgo for its basis. 
 Were the Bible extinguished and 
 abolished, the Church I chng to 
 would still exist id unimpaired 
 strength, because Grod has promised 
 that the Spirit of all Truth shall 
 abide with it to the consummation 
 of time, and endue it with corre- 
 sponding holiness ; and I am bound 
 to hear the Church, under pain of 
 being " a heathen man or a pub- 
 lican." I am bound to know no- 
 thing but what the Church teaches. 
 I am to look into the Bible which 
 the Church puts into my hand as a 
 sacred book; and the moment I 
 open it, I find that " the priest's lips 
 shall keep knowledge, for he is tie 
 angel of the Lord of Hosts." 
 
 And here my feiend accuses us of 
 translating the word yvvq woman. 
 Why, I would ask him in return, 
 do Protestants translate ayyfWos 
 sometimes " angel," and sometimes 
 " messenger P" Why, for a very 
 deep pm^ose — ^because they wished 
 to take away from the dignity of 
 the priesthood, and therefore they 
 tame it down to "he is the mes- 
 senger of the Lord of Hosts." 
 
 I will, therefore, tell my learned 
 friend, with the utmost candour, 
 that j^ he can prove to me how his 
 Rule of Paith can lead to unity, that 
 he has made considerable progress 
 in weaning me from the Rock of 
 Ages : he will certainly have done 
 so if he can prove its authenticity 
 by any other mode than by that of 
 tradition; I KLy if he can prove 
 that, he wiU be doing much towards 
 approximating me to Luther's or 
 Calvin's Church. But, my friends, 
 I have ^ven him, at his request, 
 two nights longer; and I must say, 
 that though I have beaten him 
 off the field, night after night, 
 [laughter], stiU he comes to the 
 contest with undaunted valour, and 
 seemingU/ unconscious of the least 
 ignommy. Really, he is a Scotchman 
 of the true breed; and I should love 
 the manliuess of character he dis- 
 plays, if it were not in so bad a cause. 
 [Laughter.] I don't myself know 
 a man of more consummate elo- 
 quence, and unconquerable perse- 
 verance in returning to the hopeless 
 charge, than my learned Mend. 
 But let him get up something like 
 a solid phalanx of reasoning tO' prove 
 his Rule of Faith ; let him prove 
 the consubstantiality of Father, Son, 
 and Holy Ghost ; let him prove the 
 procession of the Holy Ghost from 
 the Father and the Son; let him 
 prove the haptism of infants; let 
 him prove that he is not flying iu 
 the face of the Lord God Jehovah, 
 by having the daring arrogance to 
 depart from the strict words of the 
 Bible, in keeping the Sabbath ; let 
 him prove tnat it is lawful (the 
 mode of celebrating the Sabbath 
 having been of old most indisputably 
 to continue it from Friday evening 
 until Saturday evening, as it is 
 amorig the, Jews at present); let 
 him prove, I say, that it is a valid 
 keeping of it, to confine it to one 
 day. Let him bring forward some 
 
Bev. J. Oumminff.'] eule or faith. 
 
 527 
 
 clear, irrefragable text, to justify 
 this curtailment of t^ae in its 
 weekly celebration. No, my friends, 
 the moment he threw down the 
 Bible in that floiinoiag and ostenta- 
 tious manner on the table, which 
 ye all witnessed, that moment I 
 thought within myself, " Friend, in 
 thy arguments thou art a dead man 
 this evening." [Laughter.] Yes, 
 my friends, he wiU go out of this 
 room to-night, wearing high on his 
 head the glittering laurels of a 
 showy eloquence, and applauded by 
 every one of the supporters of hiii 
 fallaoious system; but he will go 
 
 out in truth, his conscience stinging 
 him with the thought, that he has 
 had to argue with a logical ar^a- 
 mentator. Grentlemen, my tune 
 is up! 
 
 The meeting then separated in a 
 very orderly manner, at about half- 
 past ten o'clock. 
 
 We certify thai this Report isfiiith- ■ 
 fully and correctly given. 
 
 J. Gumming, M.A. 
 D. Pbench, 
 
 Bdrritter-at-Law. 
 
 Chas. Matbtjbt Archbb, 
 
 Reporter. 
 
 Tenih Eyemng,, Thtjbsdat, May 14, 1839. 
 
 STJBJECT: 
 
 BULB OP FAITH. 
 
 (Continued.) \ 
 
 Aev. J . Gumming rose and said, in 
 re^ytoMr.French's observations: — 
 
 Before, Mr. Chairman,. Ladies 
 and Gentlemen, I make any re- 
 marks upon the subject that is more 
 immedifl,tely under review, I must 
 say, in reply to the explanatory obr 
 servations of my learned antagonist, 
 that when a meeting was held by 
 the Eeformation Society, on the 
 subject of " BomauCatholio error," 
 and in favour of the great and good 
 objects of that Society, whose de- 
 sire it is to discountenance and to 
 refute Roman GathoKc error, and 
 establish in its j)lace scriptural and 
 GathoUc truth, it was then stated 
 that the members of the deputation 
 were prepared to meet any Roman 
 Catholic priest, in order to discuss 
 the principles that are at issue. I 
 refused to meet a layman, on the 
 simple ground that we had found it 
 general^ to be the case, that after 
 
 we had exterminated his arguments 
 and remarks, we were met with this 
 objection W the priests of the 
 Ghurcb of Eome — " Oh, you have 
 only replied to an unauthorized lay- 
 man, who has no weight, no per- 
 missiouj and no authority : his 
 arguments go for nothing in the 
 estimate of the Ghurch." On this 
 
 Found alone my objection rested, 
 thought that this had terminated , 
 aU prospect of a discussion. But 
 certain mends — Protestant friends 
 — connected with Hammersmith, 
 waited upon me, and stated that 
 Mr. French, patronized by some 
 priests, had been expounding the 
 Roman Gatholic Faitl^ and that he 
 had frequently thrown out chal- 
 lenges to " those superficial indi- 
 viduals" who had appeared to 
 advocate the principles ot the Pro- 
 testant Ghurcn. Mv reply on that 
 ocoasioa was, — "I nave told you 
 
528 
 
 ■EULE OF PA.ITH. [\Qih Enemnff. 
 
 already, distmctly and publicly, that 
 I object to meet an unauthorized 
 layman ; but if Mr. French," (who, 
 I subsequently learned, was a scholar 
 and a barrister,) "will obtain the 
 written permission aad authority of 
 his priest, I shaJl gladly and wil- 
 lingly meet him." However, the 
 Protestants said, — "Eeally, he is 
 making such statements, as to re- 
 quire some person to come forward 
 and expose, not only "their fallacy, 
 but also the daring assumptions 
 they inyolve.". [A laugh from Mr. 
 French.] I said, — " No : we must 
 have the sanction of his priest or 
 some one of the Bomish bishops, 
 and then I will come forward and 
 gladly meet him." But, on looking 
 over a report of a meeting of the 
 Roman Catholic Institute, I find, 
 in the first place, by the rules of. 
 the committee, that "every member 
 of the committee" — for instance,! 
 Mr. £endal (the Catholic chair- 
 man), Mr. !Frenoh, or Mr. Andrews, 
 who are members of that Institute 
 — "that every member of the Ca- 
 thoHc Institute" is atithorized by 
 that Institute, at the iaead of which 
 are the bishops and priests of the 
 Church of Some, " to hold meetings 
 for the furtherance of the objects of 
 that Institute." They are author- 
 ized, you see — Mr. Stench among 
 the rest — authorized to hold meet- 
 ings for the furtherance of the Insti- 
 . tute. Every one knows what the 
 objects of the Institute are. In 
 the second place, Mr. French is, 
 de facto, a preacher, or expositor 
 of the Homan Catholic faith ; his 
 de jure orders his Church can de- 
 termine. At the Windsor Castle 
 he has given successive lectures 
 "—I don't know whether Mr. 
 Trench is ordained, or whether the 
 Windsor Castle* is duly consecrated 
 
 * The name of the Toom in which Mr. 
 French gave his first liectore in Hammer- 
 
 toitli. 
 
 [laughter] ; but he, as an individual 
 menMer of the committee of the 
 Catholic Institute, is so far pos- 
 sessed of episcopal authority. And, 
 thirdly, he has, rightly or wrongly, 
 entered on the office of expositor of 
 the Roman Catholic faith, and, on 
 that account, I said, — "My objec- 
 tions now very much vasoish." I 
 said, — "I am ready to meet him, 
 first, as an expositor of the Roman 
 Cathohc faith ; secondly, as a mem- 
 ber of the committee of the Roman 
 OathoUc Institute, sanctioned and 
 auihorized to hold meetings by the 
 very constitution of that Sstitute ; 
 and, in the last place, to my inex- 
 pressible dcKght, he is sanctioned 
 and authorized by, as you have 
 seen, two, and somsAxmss four priests, 
 evening after evening, giving their 
 countenance and aid to my anta- 
 gonist. 
 
 Mr. Ite.ENCH — [eagerly]. — No: 
 not aid. No such thmg ! 
 
 Rev. J. CuMMHTG. — [in continu- 
 ation] — And I certainly rejoice to 
 see these reverend gentlemen, and 
 to find them in the field. But what 
 still confirms me in the impression 
 is, that Mr. French is in every way 
 qualified to enter into the mscus- 
 sion. I must say it is by no means 
 a discredit to Mr. French. He has 
 made the ablest defence of his creed 
 that I have «ver heard. He ias 
 done mobly ; the only misfortune is, 
 that he has to advocate an unscrip- 
 tural cause. Had he my cause, and 
 I his, I believe he would beat me 
 hollow. [TJaurfiter.] 
 
 Now, then, I again repe&t to him 
 my challenge : — -If, when I have 
 done with Mr. French, although 
 fatigued and worn out with fixed 
 clerical duties that devolve upon 
 me, if he pleases to invite any 
 priest, or bishop, or cardinal, or 
 even the Pope himself, when he 
 comes to consecrate the new Roman 
 Catholic cathedral in Loudon [a 
 
Rev. J. Oummtng.] 
 
 RUtE OE TAITH. 
 
 529 
 
 rumour of this nature was abroad 
 at the time] — if it please him to 
 invite any one of them over, I shall 
 be prepared to discuss all the prin- 
 ciples and differences at issue be- 
 tween us ; and if his HoUness will 
 condescend to honour the British 
 School-room at Hammersmith with 
 his august presence, I shall be de- 
 lighted to discuss with him, vis a 
 vis, the controverted points of this 
 question. [Laughter.] Let me add 
 that, before the discussion, Mr. 
 French did obtain the authorization 
 of the priests. 
 
 In directing you, you remember, 
 to the comparative merits of the 
 Protestant and Bxsman Catholic ver- 
 sions of the sacred Scriptures, I 
 stated that, if our version be so er- 
 roneous as my opponent has repre- 
 sented it, it is an extraordinary and, 
 to me, an inexplicable phenomenon, 
 that the Roman Catholic version of 
 the Bible has, day by day, and year 
 by year, approximated to our version, 
 as if ours were the standard of per- 
 fection. To convince you that this 
 is not mere assertion, but positive 
 fact, I quote, first, from the earliest 
 editions of the Bhemish Testament, 
 St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans, 
 viii. 18 : — " Not dondiffti to the 
 glory to come." Next I quote 
 from the Protestant Bible : — " Not 
 worthy to he compared with the 
 glory." And now I quote Arch- 
 bishop Murray's Bible, the Romish 
 edition at this day, and the same 
 edition as my friend has in his 
 hand: — "Not worthy to be com- 
 pared with the glory." Here you 
 win observe, that the Rhemish ori- 
 ginal has the translation " not con- 
 aign to the glory to come ;" our 
 Protestant version takes the proper 
 rendering, "not worthy to be com- 
 pared with the glory ;" and the 
 Romish version, now put forth by 
 the Romish priesthood, abandons 
 the rendering authorized by its 
 
 parent of Rheims, and wisely con- 
 forms to the just and faithful trans- 
 lation adopted by the Protestant 
 Church. 
 
 Li Hebrews i. 9, the ancient 
 Rhemish stands thus : — " We see 
 not as yet all things subject to him, 
 but him that was a little lessened 
 under the angels. We see Jesus, 
 because of the passage of death, 
 crowned with glory and honour, 
 that through the grace of God he 
 might taste death for all." 
 
 The same passage in the Protest- 
 ant, or authorized Bible, is — " But 
 we see Jesus, who was made a little 
 lower than the angels for the suf- 
 fering of death, crowned with glory 
 and honour, that he by the grace 
 of God should taste death for every 
 man." 
 
 Next I quote from Dr. Murray's 
 Biblej or the modem Douay version, 
 in the hands of Roman Catholics : — 
 "But we see Jesus, who was made 
 a little lower than the angels for 
 the suffering of death, crowned 
 with glory and honour." 
 
 Here, again, the Archbishop re- 
 jects the original Rhemish trans- 
 lation, and adopts our authorized 
 translation; a second testimony to 
 his conviction, that the Roman 
 Cathoho version approaches perfec- 
 tion precise^ as it approaches ours. 
 
 Again, 1 Peter i. 25, from the old 
 Roman Catholic version : — " But 
 the word of our Lord remaineth for 
 ever; and this is the word that is 
 evangelized among you." 
 
 The Protestant version is : — 
 " But the word of the Lord endur- 
 eth for ever ; and this is the word, 
 which by the Gospel is preached 
 unto you." 
 
 Then the modem Douay Bible, 
 having Dr. Murray's imprimatur at- 
 tached thereto, is : — "But the word 
 of the Lord endureth for ever ; and 
 this is the word, which by the Gos- 
 pel has been preached unto you." 
 
530 
 
 KTJLE OP PAITH. 
 
 [lOiA Eoemnff. 
 
 Thus, again, he rejects the origi- 
 nal Khemish translation, which was 
 the origiaal standard of the Church 
 of Rome, and has recourse to the 
 version of the Protestant Bible, 
 which is abominable to Mr. !Prenoh, 
 but lovely to Dr. Murray. Others 
 might be produced to show that 
 though it may be marvellously 
 convenient for my opponent to talk 
 of the errors of the Protestant 
 version of the Bible, yet let him 
 know it is a fact, which I am pre- 
 pared to demonstrate by stiU further 
 evidence, that the very Bible he 
 holds in his hands is every year 
 amproximating to the translation 
 which is adopted in the Protestant 
 Church, as furnished iu the reign 
 of King James iu 1611. In other 
 words, the Church of Eome grows 
 wiser. 
 
 You recoUect, that in the bourse 
 of the remarks of my learned op- 
 ponent, he called on me to prove 
 the change of the Sabbath. His 
 position was, that the change of the 
 Sabbath from the seventh to the 
 first day could not be substantiated 
 without the aid of tradition. Now, 
 the first question is. Why keep the 
 Sabbath at all? I answer. That it 
 is a part of the moral law. It 
 was observed before the oeremonial 
 ritual of the Jews was iu existence. 
 It was kept in the wUdemess, and 
 the very word with which our fourth 
 commandment begins, "remember," 
 impUes the observance of an in- 
 stitution which was previously in 
 existence. 
 • The secoiid question is, Why not 
 keep the Jewish Sabbath, na/mely, the 
 seventh day ? I answer, The Apostle 
 Paul, in his Epistle to the Colos- 
 sians, distinctly absolves us from 
 the observance of the Jewish Sab- 
 bath ; and BeUannine, the Soman 
 Catholic advocate, admits that these 
 and other Scriptures have absolved 
 us from keeping the Jewish Sabbath. 
 
 In the third place, Why keep it 
 on the first day of the week ? The 
 answer is. We are bound by the 
 moral law to keep the Sabbath; we 
 are bound by the New Testament 
 to let go the seventh day; and the 
 Apostles and primitive Christians, as 
 recorded in the Bible, kept it on 
 the first day. Thus I have shown, 
 without having recourse to the aids 
 of Papal or legendary tradition, 
 that it is the express, and direct, 
 and irrefragable inference from sa- 
 cred writ, that the Sabbath should 
 be kept on the first day of the week. 
 
 Mr. Ebbnch. — The reference to 
 BeUarmine P [To Mr. Cumming.] 
 
 Rev. J. CiJMMiNG. — ^The passage 
 I quoted last was not from BeUar- 
 mine. I said BeUarmine admits 
 that the Scriptures absolve us from 
 keeping the Sabbath; and, in the 
 third place, that the iirst day of the 
 week was the day, as proved by 
 various instances among the apo- 
 stles and primitive Christians, uni- 
 versally observed. 
 
 The reiterated statement of my 
 antagonist was. How can you prove 
 the personality and deity of the 
 Holy Spirit, and his consubstantiaUty 
 with the Father and the Son, with- 
 out the aid of his clerical tradition ? 
 Again, I reply to this, first, that the 
 personality of the Holy Spirit is 
 proved by the fact that he is spoken 
 of in Scripture as "tempted" as 
 ''vexed," as "grieved," as "being 
 sent" — expressions applicable to a 
 person only. He is furthermore 
 described in Scripture as calling 
 the apostles, and as "distributing 
 gifts," as " speaking expressly," as 
 "giving utterance," as "making 
 intercession ;" and lastly, the bap- 
 tismal form is, " in the name of the 
 Father," which is a person, "the 
 Son," which is a person, and, by 
 consistency and panty of reasoning, 
 the "Holy Ohoit," which is also a 
 person. 'iaaslyravfiQiS personality 
 
Rev. J. Cumminff.l bttle or faith. 
 
 531 
 
 of the Holy Spirit. He nest asks 
 me to prove the procession of the 
 Holy Spirit. My reference to that 
 is the Gospel of St. John, xiv. 26 : 
 "But when the Comforter is come, 
 whom I will send unto you from 
 the Father, even the Spirit of Truth 
 which proceedeth from the Father, 
 he shall testify of me." Thus the 
 Holy Spirit proceedeth from the 
 Father and the Son. He comes 
 from the Son ("I will send,") hut 
 previously to that he comes from 
 the Father; and therefore that 
 text which (mind you) is quoted hy 
 the Roman Catholic professor. Dr. 
 Delahogue, to prove the very same 
 thing — ^that text proves that the 
 Holy Spirit proceeds from the Son 
 and the Father. I give this as a 
 reply to his question, "How can 
 you prove the procession of the 
 Holy Spirit from Scripture ? " 
 
 [The rev. gentleman, on discover- 
 ing an error he had made in his last 
 reference, thus rectified it :] I 
 find it is the fifteenth chapter of 
 John, and twenty-sixth verse; I 
 made a fnistake in saying it was the 
 fourteenth. The words in the Douay 
 version are — "But when the Para- 
 clete Cometh, whom I will send you 
 from the Father, the Spirit of Truth, 
 who iproceeAeth from the Father, he 
 shall give testimony of me." And 
 the NOTE in the Douay Bible on this 
 very text is, the acknowledgment of 
 Mr. French's own Church that Scrip- 
 ture alone proves this procession 
 without troubling tradition. Hear 
 your Church's note, Mr. French, 
 and be silent on this head for e ver : — 
 
 "John XV. 26. This proves, 
 against the modem Greeks, that the 
 
 Holy Ghost PBOCEBDETH PKOM THE 
 
 Son AS WELL as from the Fatheb, 
 otherwise he could not be sent by 
 the Son." 
 
 When I say this text proves the 
 point he demands, herephes. It does 
 not prove it ; but when his Church 
 
 says so, then, he says. It does 
 prove it. 
 
 You will then observe, that the 
 very argument I am now using ii 
 repeated in a note in the Douay 
 Bible, which states distinctly that 
 by this text the Holy Spirit ^roceerfs 
 from the Father aud the Son. Now, 
 Mr. French will recollect that last 
 evening he had the temerity to 
 assert that my reasoning on the 
 subject was most illogical. Now, 
 if I am reasoning UlogicaUy, then it 
 follows that the notes appended to 
 his own version of the Bible are 
 illogical also. Here is Boman 
 Catholic unity ! Dr. Murray against 
 Mr. French, and Mr. French most 
 justly denouncing the logic of his 
 own Church. My opponent excels 
 aU controversialists levermet with, 
 in the sweepiag extermination he 
 deals around him on doctors, coun- 
 cils, cardinals, &c. &c. 
 
 But what a correct church is this 
 of Rome, to profess to give her 
 children infallible comments, which 
 Mr. French, a member of the com- 
 mittee of the Catholic Institute, 
 patronized by bishops and cherished 
 by the Pope, solemnly and dcKber- 
 atdy declares to be illogioal ! 
 
 The next question my opponent 
 asked was, How I could prove the 
 deity of Christ without the aid of 
 his tradition. He said the Socinian 
 would reply, " The Father is greater 
 than I." Npw, you recolect my 
 observation upon that was, that the 
 very statement — ^"My Father is 
 greater than I " — is, in my mind, an 
 aonouncement which at once im- 
 plies, that Christ was greater than 
 man : because we cannot conceive 
 that a mere human creature would 
 stand up and announce the extraor- 
 dinary truism, "My Father is greater 
 than I." 
 
 But I must show you that the 
 Scriptures are by no means silent on 
 the Deity of Christ. The very re- 
 
532 
 
 ErtE OF TAITH. 
 
 [lOtt Evening 
 
 verse is the fact. The Scriptures 
 more than adequately demonstrate 
 his eternal Godhead and Divinity. 
 For instance, " He thought it not 
 rohbery to be eq^lal tcith God." 
 And again — "Allmen shouldhonour 
 the Son even as they honour the 
 Father." " The glorious appearing 
 of Jesus Christ, our great God and 
 Saviour." "This (Jesus Christ) is 
 the true God and eternal life." 
 
 The next question related to the 
 evidence of Scripture. How could 
 you prove, he asks, the Bible with- 
 out the aid of tradition? Now, 
 again, I wish to make a few remarks 
 on this subject. My ingenious an- 
 tagonist has a very quiet way of 
 trying to mystify youi minds ; he is 
 most anxious, you observe, to lead 
 you to believe wAiSjom^unwriUen 
 ecclesiastical traditions aaiUstorical 
 testimony are to be placed on a par, 
 and on precisely the same foundar 
 tion. Now, no misapprehension can 
 be greater in his mind, and no state- 
 ment can reach yours of a more 
 gross or delusive tendency. We 
 hold the evidence of history to be 
 most valuable : if we reject the tes- 
 timony of history the past is a blank ; 
 we regard many historical writers as 
 admirable autAoritiesior fads, ■whom 
 we do not regard as infallible ex- 
 positors of doctrine. Eor instance, 
 in a Iloman Cathohc magazine, the 
 other week, the editor has spoken 
 of " the tremendous defeat " which 
 Mr. dimming has experienced in 
 the course of this discussion [laugh- 
 ter], and they have given a very 
 luminous description of some of the 
 doctrinal views Drought forward on 
 the different occasions. Now, I 
 hold the Roman Catholic Orthodox 
 Journal to be a very sufficient 
 authority for the simple fact, that a 
 discussion is carried on at Hammer- 
 smith, in such and such a place, and 
 at such and such a time ; but that 
 does not imply that I am to take it 
 
 as an infallible expositor either of 
 the doctrines contamed in the word 
 of God, or of the side which is vic- 
 torious. Now, it is in just the 
 same way I would treat the fathers 
 and historians who have written at 
 preceding periods of the world. As 
 authorities for facts they are most 
 valuable ; as expositors of the doc- 
 trines of Christianity, as I shall 
 show more and more, they are the 
 most coitflicting and contradictor^, 
 thoi^h most frequently opposed to 
 the Roman Church. But if he \}&i. 
 French] shall still persist in asking 
 how I prove Scripture without tra^ 
 dition, I must repeat what I said 
 last evening — that it would take 
 me, on the most moderate calcula- 
 tion, at least six weeks to lay before 
 you a perfect series of proofs relative 
 to the evidences of Christianity. 
 StiU my opponent, to save Roman- 
 ism by brmging in the Infidel con- 
 troversy, repeats his question — 
 How do yon prove Scripture with- 
 out tradition ? — meaning (keep a 
 clear idea of terms) by tradition, the 
 unwritten word — (mmd ydu, docu- 
 ments which he cannot produce, which 
 I challenge him to produce, which, 
 however, ne knows it is impossible 
 to produce) . T!)a.& first proot I have 
 already given, the external evidence 
 — history, miracles, and prophecy : 
 these alone are decisive. There is, 
 secondly, internal evidence of a no 
 less decisive character. There is, 
 thirdly, experimental evidence, which 
 I shall not bring forward on the 
 present occasion, for I believe that 
 is an argument not appreciated in 
 arguing with a Roman Catholic 
 opponent. But hear one plain mat- 
 ter of fact. There may be in this 
 assembly — at this stage of the even- 
 ing's discussion — ^to take the lowest 
 calculation, four hundred indivi- 
 duals : two hundred of these are 
 Protestants. I ask of these two 
 hundred. Are you not persuaded in 
 
Mev. J. Camming.] rule op jpaith. 
 
 533 
 
 your minds that the Bible is in- 
 spired ? are you not satisfied that it 
 is authentic r are you not sure as 
 assurance can make you that it is 
 genuine ? "Well, how did you come 
 to this conclusion ? by what process 
 have you reached it ? You repudiate 
 tradition — ^you scorn the assump- 
 tions of the Papacy — you treat both 
 as " old wives' fables," and yet you 
 are satisfied that the Bible is in- 
 spired, authentic, and genuine. One 
 fact is preferable to twenty syllo- 
 gisms. This one simple fact, re- 
 ceived on the part of two hundred 
 individuals, who are perfectly unani- 
 mous in rejecting the traditions of 
 the Roman Church, and have there- 
 fore reached it without the aid of 
 tradition, is irrefragable demonstra- 
 tion that it is perfectly possible, as 
 it is very common, to attain an 
 assured conviction that the Bible is 
 the word of God, and the inspiration 
 of the Spirit, without the unwritten 
 word or lying legends of the Western 
 Apostasy. 
 
 In the next place I refer to pro- 
 phecy for one powerful and invinci- 
 ble argument m favour of the inspi- 
 ration of- Scripture. Let me refer 
 you to the prophecies respecting 
 our Lord aud Saviour Jesus Christ. 
 Isaiah describes one feature, Jere- 
 miah describes another, Malachi a 
 third, Moses a fourth, and so on. 
 Now, you win observe, their re- 
 spective features of our Lord are 
 apparently so contradictory, as they 
 are disclosed in their several pro- 
 phecies, without the aid of the New 
 Testament light to reconcile them, 
 that you would say that, if an indi- 
 vidual should appear in the lapse of 
 ages answering to all these appa- 
 rently contradictory predictions, 
 these prophets will thereby be 
 proved to have been inspired. I may 
 refer to the Apollo Belvidere statue, 
 — well known as the bust of Apollo, 
 one of the greatest masterpieces of 
 
 ancient statuary — as a case that 
 exactly illustrates my point. Sup- 
 pose an arm had been made at 
 Bome, a leg at Athens, the head in 
 London, the nose atParis, the mouth 
 at Edinburgh, the ears again in New 
 South Wales, and a toe in New 
 Zealand or some other part of the 
 world; but, on bringing all these 
 marble fragments together in this 
 room, they all so exactly suited, 
 hannonizea, and dovetailed with 
 each other, that, when joined, they 
 formed the magnificent statue 1 
 have named — at once the admira- 
 tion of the world, and the most 
 splendid production of the human 
 chisel — ^what would you infer? 
 Would vou not naturally say that 
 a presiinng statuary had superin- 
 tended the movement of every 
 chisel, applied a mysterious mea- 
 surement to every member, and ad- 
 justed by a great standard every 
 lineament, and so guided each artist 
 that while he understood not he yet 
 erred not ? They worked as they 
 were moved and directed by the 
 presiding and superintending power. 
 Now this is one of the processes by 
 which I prove the prophets to be 
 inspired, and Christianity to be 
 divme. Christ is the perfect man, 
 the prophets the statuaries, and the 
 Holy Ghost the moving and direct- 
 ing mind. We find, when their re- 
 spective delineations, various and 
 seemingly antagonistic features and 
 characteristics of the Son of God 
 come to be brought together, they 
 are all found at once to meet and to 
 harmonize in the Lord of glory — 
 the express image of the I'ather ; 
 and to give in this fact the impress- 
 ive demonstration, that "they spake 
 as they were moved by the Holy 
 Ghost." 
 
 I might illustrate the inspiration 
 of the New Testament by the fact 
 that the apostles and evangelists 
 themselves claim to be inspired ; so 
 
534; 
 
 EVUB OF TAITH. 
 
 that either they are impostors the 
 most gross, or they are inspired 
 writers the most infallible : there is 
 no other aJtemative; one or the 
 other they must be. I might also 
 refer, in the next place, to the 
 second Epistle of St. Panl to the 
 Thessalomans, which describes the 
 great apostasy which should appear 
 m the lapse of ages, describing one 
 "who sits in the temple of God, 
 above all that is called God, saying 
 that he is God ;" or when the seer 
 of Patmos records that this great 
 apostacy was to appear on seven Mils 
 — the onaraoteristio of Rome — that 
 it was to be called Babylon, " the 
 great mystery " — " the abomination 
 that maketh desolate" — that its 
 power was to spread "from the 
 rivers to the ends of the earth," 
 and that all nations, more or less, 
 were to be brought under its gigan- 
 tic and contaminating power, and to 
 be made drunkards with its cup. I 
 might take, also, the predictions of 
 this overshado^ving apostasy from 
 the second of Thessalonians, from 
 ohe Apocalypse, or from the Epistle 
 of Paul to Timothy, where it is 
 spoken of as commanding men to 
 "abstain from meats, which God 
 has required to be received with 
 thanksgiving" — ^where it speaks of 
 discountenancing marriage, which is 
 honourable among all, priests and 
 people. I might take these evi- 
 dences, and bring them together, 
 and prove that their exact counter- 
 part is the Church of which my 
 opponent is so courageous an advo- 
 cate ; and that, therefore, the very 
 existence of the Bx)man GathoHo 
 superstition is a most decisive evi- 
 dence of the inspiration of the apo- 
 stles and evangelists of the New 
 Testament. I might stake their 
 inspiration upon this alone — it is so 
 broad and so legible. If transferred 
 to the " Hue and Cry," the Pope 
 would be imprisoned next week. 
 
 provided a reward were offered for 
 his apprehension. To confirm this 
 evidence, suppose a lock were made 
 by Bramah or Chubb, or some other 
 ingenious locksmith, the most intri- 
 cate in its wards you are able to 
 conceive ; you bring a key that ex- 
 actly fits every ward, enters perfectly 
 into every crevice, and draws the 
 bolt and gives you admission — ^you 
 instantly say, the workman who 
 contrived the lock must have also 
 forined or foreseen the key that so 
 perfectly opens it, or, vice versa, 
 the one is made for the other. Now 
 so I say here : there is the lock, or 
 intricate portrait of the lUimish 
 Church, described by the apostles 
 and evangelists ; in the sacred page 
 there is a description of the key, 
 which meets and answers to aU. the 
 lock's most intricate wards. The 
 apostles laid down the lock, at the 
 tune too intricate to be opened. 
 Man's wickedness presents Popery, 
 the key which perfectly opens it. 
 
 Having made these remarks on 
 the evidences of the inspiration of 
 Scripture, let me remind you of one 
 dilemma which Mr. French is dis- 
 posed to gloss over, not certainly to 
 solve. He asks and asks again, 
 How are you able to prove Scrip- 
 ture without the Church ? Now, I 
 retaliate by asking. How can you 
 prove the Church ? — where do you 
 find it ? He answers, By the Scrip- 
 ture? Then I ask next; How do 
 you prove the Scripture ? He an- 
 swers. By the Church. 
 
 Mr.EoENCH — [quick and loudly] 
 I do not. 
 
 Eev. J. Gumming. — No; but your 
 Church does, and must do so. [A 
 laugh.] But, if Mr. Erench objects 
 to <W answer, the audience will wait 
 for Ais answer. [The rev. gentle- 
 man, turning to Mr. Erencn, here 
 paused a moment.] 
 
 Mr. Ebench. — Do you mean 
 now? — an answer now? 
 
Rev. J. Cummtnff.'} fiuiE op jaith. 
 
 S3& 
 
 •Rev. J. Gumming. — No ; it does 
 not matter now — when you rise ,will 
 do. Let me repeat, I ask Mm, 
 Where and how does he prove his 
 Church? He or his Church an- 
 swers. By and from the Bible. I ask 
 him, "Where does he find and how 
 does he prove the Bible P He an- 
 swers, From and by the Church. 
 And thus, by a, petitio principi, the 
 most discreditable to a logician of 
 his claims and pretensions, by a 
 kind of most tortuous and cir- 
 cular argumentation, worthy of 
 my learned opponent, he lands at 
 the splendid assumption — that 
 you have no Bible without the 
 Church, and no Church without 
 the Bible ; and, in short, you must 
 plunge into all the depths of the 
 most disastrous scepticism, or extin- 
 guish common sense and common 
 judgment, in order to be a Roman 
 Catholic. The Romish ChuroTi 
 allows you to exercise your faculties 
 in every province but one. The 
 moment you reach her threshold, 
 you must put out your senses, quench 
 your reason, -and take in only what 
 she doles out. Strange mystery of 
 iniquity! It fears nothing but light, 
 hates nothing but hohness, and 
 flees from nothing but truth. Bad 
 logic does not abash her, worse 
 morality does not humble her, 
 God's judgment only wiU consume 
 her. Suppose, to cast light on 
 Roman assumptions, a person were 
 to come forward to the House of 
 Lords and Commons, and say — 
 " You are incessantly involved in 
 disputes — you want a tribunal able 
 to settle all your differences. I 
 must assume the reins of the em- 
 pire ; I must sit on the throne and 
 administer the laws ; and my autho- 
 rity for doing so is contained in 
 Magna Charta." And he says — 
 this usurper says — " I will show you 
 by Magna Charta that all your 
 monarchs previously have done 
 
 wrong for want of allegiance to 
 me. I am, therefore, come to 
 assume the reins of government 
 and put all right." Suppose, now, 
 after he had sat on the throne two 
 years, that he was to begin to inter- 
 dict trial by jury, to repress the 
 right of free discussion and the 
 utterance of free thought — suppose 
 that he was to interfere with Bri- 
 tish freedom and British liberties 
 to a most, unprecedented extent, 
 and in a way the most tyrannical 
 and cruel; and suppose that a 
 deputation from the Lords and 
 Commons waited on ]m- soi-disant 
 majesty, and said to him, " Sire, 
 you profess to sit on the throne 
 m virtue of the prescriptions of 
 Magna Charta, but you nave vio- 
 lated every one of its provisions ; 
 you have acted on a system alto- 
 gether ' foreign to the spirit and 
 most destructive to the principlci 
 of Magna Charta, and we therefore 
 insist that you shall abandon the 
 throne as an usurper, and not as » 
 legitimate king." ■ Suppose this 
 usurper were to say, " Soldiers ! put 
 irons on these men's hands, and on 
 these men's feet. How dare you 
 question my royal prerogative? 
 Are you not aware, my lords and 
 gentlemen," he would say, " thai 
 Magna Charta is not ' worth a snuff ' 
 — ;[Iaughter] — until I have given ii 
 my imprimatur, my royal authority? 
 It is not worth any thing until ] 
 have given it the authority of the 
 crown, and personally recognised it 
 as binding on you. My imprimatur 
 makes it Magna Charta. The ab- 
 sence of it leaves it a blank sheep 
 skin." " Sire," they reply, " we 
 understood you assumed the reins 
 of government ' in virtue ' of the 
 prescriptions of Magna Charta, and 
 on grounds presented by it alone. 
 You are and must be destitute of 
 all authority without it, for you 
 professed at first to derive your 
 
5 56 
 
 atiLE OP FAITH. [lOM Evemnff. 
 
 authority directly in virtue of the 
 provisions of Magna Charta." Now, 
 what would you say of such a 
 monarch? You would say, he 
 must have some questionahle ends 
 and some curious policy in such 
 conduct, and an addled understand- 
 ing in relying on such reasoning. 
 Charity herself must say of such a 
 monarch, that the fool and the fiend, 
 a weak head and a bad heart, must 
 compose his character. I say to 
 the Pope, solemnly and emphatically, 
 " Thou aut the mas." He claims 
 his place in virtue of the Bible, at 
 the moment he violates and insults 
 it ; and when you go and tell him 
 that Purgatory is not in the Bible, 
 that the Mass is not in the Bible, 
 that the Invocation of Saints is not 
 in the Bible, that Transubstantiation 
 is not in the Bible, he replies, — 
 " How dare you make such objec- 
 tions ? — [laughter] — the Bible is no 
 authority without M^seal and super- 
 scription — without my imprimatur 
 it is Buvox et praterea nihil." Then 
 you naturally, as a Protestant, 
 immediately reply to his Holiness, 
 — " If the Bible is nothing without 
 your authority, how comes it to pass 
 that originally you professedly 4flwe(? 
 your authority on the statements of 
 the Bible ? It seems to have autho- 
 rity when it suits your purpose, but 
 none when it is against jou." "In- 
 quisitors," replies the Pope, in 
 most conclusive logic, " collect the 
 faggots — ^prepare an auto da fe." 
 Koman Catholics, in fact, are desti- 
 tute of any practical Rule of Eaith 
 at all, and, unhappy men! theyknow 
 it; but, alas! they are dazzled by 
 magnificent, by empty and vapid 
 assumptions ; and under these ignes 
 fatui they are plundered of the only 
 guide to heaven and a happy immor- 
 tality. They axe told by my oppo- 
 nent, The Church is infaUible, and 
 they fancy it proved by the words 
 of St. Matthew, xviii. 17, " Hear 
 
 the Church." But when I fairly 
 examine these words and the con- 
 tiguous verses, I find that the 
 phrase relates to private quarrels 
 among Christians, naving no ' rela- 
 tion to doctrines of theology ; and, 
 if it be a precedent for anything, it 
 must be a precedent for this — that 
 if two Soman Catholics in this as- 
 sembly choose to fall out, the Pope 
 ought to summon instantly a council 
 of the whole Church to decide this 
 petty squabble, and announce his 
 fiat from the Vatican or the chair of 
 St. Peter, which is right and which 
 is wrong. The Pope's post would 
 be no sinecure. You stUl, never- 
 theless, hold there is an infallible 
 living tribunal, and that this tri- 
 bunal is a competent guide unto 
 all truth, and I must hear the 
 Church. I ask, Wheke shall I 
 FIND IT? I go to '^ owe priest, and 
 your priest says, — " I am not infal- 
 lible, I am liable to err." I go to 
 your bishop, and he says — "1 am 
 not infallible, I am liable to err." 
 And yet, I say, you told me to 
 " hear the Church." Well, I want 
 to hear it ; your priests will not let 
 me hear it, your bishops vrill not let 
 me hear it ; they say they are not 
 living infaliibles. Where am I to 
 
 fo? I go to the Pope, but Mr. 
 tench says he is not infallible. 
 Then, where am I to go ? I go 
 to the Creed of Pope Pius !¥., 
 but it is a fallible production of a 
 fallible man, namely, of a Pope. I 
 go to the notes in your version of 
 the Bible, but Dr. Doyle said, before 
 the House of Lords and Commons, 
 "they are no authority whatever;" 
 and yoii and he are unanimous for 
 once. Now, here I stand ; I want 
 to "hear the Church" and to get at 
 infaUible truth, but I cannot. Your 
 priests cannot let me hear it ; your 
 bishops cannot; your notes in your 
 authorized version of the Bible are 
 of no authority ; your Pope's mfal- 
 
Rev. J. Cumming.l rule op jaith. 
 
 537 
 
 libility is true here and false there. 
 I want still to " hear the Church." 
 Pray, what am I to do ? Where 
 and what is this living infallible 
 guide ? Shall I refer to the fathers? 
 They contradict themselves, as I 
 told you, in every page; and before 
 you can ascertain what their senti- 
 ments are, you wiU have, as I told 
 you before, to flU a cart with their 
 ponderous folios, and read Greek 
 and Latin in the British Museum 
 for some seven or eight years, and, 
 after all the toU and the trouble, 
 ascertain nothing like the opinion 
 of the Church, for they differ from 
 themselves and differ from the 
 Church, and my opponent differs 
 from both. I implore you, my 
 Roman CathoUo friends, " be not 
 deceived" by these pretences, for 
 you are very bitterly deceived. 
 You hear a man putting forth the 
 most arrogant and brilliant assump- 
 tions about the Church — her anti- 
 quity, her sanctity, her apostoUcity, 
 her iiifalLibilify ; but when a poor 
 creature goes and tells his pnest, 
 " I want to hear this Church," you 
 will find she is inaudible except 
 in 'deeds of proscription and of 
 ruin, invisible except to mischief, 
 mighty to mislead, and impotent to 
 good. 
 
 Again, Mr. Prench asked last 
 night. How we can come to possess 
 the Scriptures at aU without the 
 Church handing them down to us ? 
 And he alleged, that if we take the 
 Scriptures from the hands of the 
 Chnich, we are bound also to take 
 her expositiom of the Scripture 
 given by the Roman Catholic 
 Church. I wiU give my opponent 
 my full reply from his once loved, 
 but now rej ected Augustine, namely, 
 that a blind man may carry a mirror 
 in his hand that wiH disclose his 
 ovra vnrinkles, while he himself is 
 unable to use it. Also, let me 
 add, the dirtiest hand you can 
 
 imagine may hold the most brilliant 
 Hght. So it is vrith the Church 
 of Rome. She carries a mirror 
 in which she, from her own bhnd- 
 ness, cannot see her own features, 
 but to him whose eyes are open 
 it clearly portrays " the mystery 
 of iniquity." The Church of Rome 
 may be the instrument in God's 
 hand of holding out the Bible to 
 surrounding nations, whilst she her- 
 self may be "dead in trespasses 
 and sras." But there is a decisive 
 reply to this illogical reasoning: you 
 are, aware that the Jews, to whom 
 they were committed, handed down 
 the oracles of God to Christ and 
 his apostles, while the same Jews 
 that did so not only had made void 
 the law by tradition, but crucified 
 the Lord of glory, and said with 
 murderous and vrith unanimous 
 accents — " Not this man, but 
 Barabbas." If my opponent's logic 
 is good, then, because these Jews 
 handed down the Scriptures to 
 Christ and his followers, our Lord 
 and the apostles were bound to 
 take their expositions of them; 
 inter alia, of the 53rd of Isaiah, 
 or their carnal views of the Messiah, 
 and the nature of the moral law; 
 and thus the Tahnud, Mishna, and 
 Gemara, must be truer than the 
 New Testament. 
 
 My opponent next made a number 
 of quotations, as usual, concerning 
 the differences of Protestant writers. 
 My opponent quoted a variety of 
 gai-bled extracts from Luther and 
 Calvin, and from various other early 
 writers at the Reformation, from the 
 earliest period down to the present. 
 In the first place^ I exceedingly 
 suspect the accuracy and honesty 
 of all the quotations, not because 1 
 doubt his honesty, but because I 
 have had already so many strong 
 proofs of his peculiar infirmity in 
 givii^ extracts. — [Tittering.] You 
 reoolleot he quoted a passage from 
 
638 
 
 EULE OP FAITH. [lOM Eventiy. 
 
 St. Augustine, and suddenly stopped 
 short ; but the moment that I fol- 
 lowed up the quotation and gave 
 you the rest of the passage, we found 
 that St. Augustine spoke totaUv 
 opposite from the meamng attached 
 to him by my learned opponent. 
 You will remember also that he 
 quoted from Sir Edwin Sandys 
 what Sir Edwin never meant to 
 say, and what Sir Edwin abhorred. 
 He wished you to infer that Sir 
 Edwin Sandys was a zealous admirer 
 of the Roman Catholic Church ; 
 but when I went to Sir Edwin 
 Sandys according to my opponent's 
 reference, I found him to be a 
 zealous anti-Romanist, writing the 
 very reverse of my opponent's 
 extract. You recollect also he has 
 frequently quoted Malachi ii. 7 : — 
 " The priest's lips shall keep know- 
 ledge, for he is the messenger of 
 the Lord of Hosts ;" but he always 
 omits, by some unaccountable over- 
 sight — [a laugh] — the eighth verse, 
 namely, "buty« (j.«.the^n«sfo)have 
 deserted (or gone astray from) the 
 truth ;" so that, finHing from expe- 
 rience that Mr. French is constantly 
 in the habit of making these sad 
 mistakes about the words and mean- 
 ing of different writers, and in- 
 stinctively falling into misquotations 
 the most erroneous and extravagant, 
 I do say with reason that I stjspeci 
 
 EVERT QUOTATION HE MAKES. Let 
 
 him give the chapter, the verse, 
 or the reference, and enable me to 
 verify; not that I hold that any 
 extracts from falKble men, Pro- 
 testant or Papal, can tonch our 
 Rule of Eaith. Errors in the 
 Gospels and contradictions in the 
 Epistles must be found before our 
 Rule suffers. I could not follow, 
 nor do I care to follow his irrelevant 
 references. As a sample, however, 
 of my opponent's universal knack 
 ia making Protestant quotations 
 make Romish or Infidel faces, I 
 
 refer to his extract from Latimer, 
 in which my opponent represented 
 Latimer as having said that Christ 
 " descended into hell and bore its 
 torments." Now, I had great diffi- 
 culty in getting at this passage, 
 and at last I discovered it, not 
 through his (Mr. Erench's) refer- 
 ence, but h^ the kind searching of 
 a friend. Hear Latimer's remark : 
 
 " I see no inconvenience to say 
 that Christ suffered in soul in hell. 
 I singularly commend the exceed- 
 ing great charity of Christ, who, 
 for our sakes, would suffer in hell 
 in his soul." 
 
 These were the words quoted hy my 
 opponent, and at these he stopped 
 short ; but, with wonted treachery of 
 memory, I trust, and not deliberate 
 
 farbling, he forgot to add what 
 latimer adds : 
 
 " If what I have spoken of 
 Ckrisf s suffering in the garden and 
 in hell derogate any thing from 
 Christ's death and passion, away 
 
 WITH IT, BELIEVE ME NOT IN THIS. 
 
 If you like not that which I have 
 
 Foken of his sufferings, let it go. 
 «dll not strive in it ; I will be a 
 prejudice to nobody ; weigh it as 
 ye list ; / do hut offer it to you to 
 consider" — Sermon on the Passion 
 of Christ. This is a sample of Mr. 
 French's honesty, or memory. These 
 sentiments of Latimer are truly 
 Protestant. The bishop sinks his 
 opinion in that of sacred writ ; he 
 does not wish to put it forward as 
 a dogma. He wishes yon to go to 
 the Bible, and try and test it by the 
 records of truth. But my learned 
 friend found it marvellously conve- 
 nient to quote the first sentence, but 
 to leave out the explanation which 
 
 IS %n the very same passage. 
 Now, having had such mournful 
 experience of his repeated misquo' 
 tations, and of the infirmities of 
 human nature in making extracts 
 from faUible documents— [a laugh] 
 
Jtev. J, Gumming^ bttlb op paiih. 
 
 539 
 
 I say, I do exceedingly douht the cor- 
 rectness of most (^ the quotations he 
 has made, and I only now request 
 
 XHAT, WHEN THE DISCUSSION IS 
 PRINTED, HE WILL GITE THESE 
 KE:^EEBNCEa, ■WITH CHAPTEB AND 
 
 VBESE, and I will expisoate them. 
 
 He quoted Luther, saying, along 
 with Cardinal Cajetan, be it remem- 
 bered, that the Epistle of St. James 
 was not inspired ; Calvin says 
 something else was not inspired. 
 And if Luther, or Cajetan, or Calvin 
 Said so, I do not vindicate them ; 
 neither they nor their writings are 
 any part of my Rule of Taith — ^their 
 expositions are not Gospels or in- 
 spired Epistles. I only add, neither 
 Latimer nor Luther is my Pope ; 
 neither is, or claimed to be infallible. 
 My opponent's Rule of Faith, you 
 must not forget, is threefold. Eurst, 
 ScBiPTUBE, and second, Thadition, 
 and third, the Expositions op the 
 Chubch. When, as I have often 
 done, I show the contradictions, and 
 absurdities, and blasphemies of Tra- 
 dition, and of the Expositions of tlie 
 Chwch, I break up his Rule of Faith. 
 My 'Rule of Faith is the Bible 
 ALONE. When, therefore, he exposes 
 Calvin, and Luther, and Latimer, 
 he does not touch my Rule of Eaith; 
 it remains inviolate. He rather 
 conflrms it, by shovnng all human 
 writings to be faUible, and apostles 
 and evangelists alone infallible. 
 
 Better that Protestants should 
 occasionally err in interpreting the 
 Scriptures, than be Romanists, and 
 be forbidden to use them. The Bull 
 Unigenitns condemns the perusal 
 of Scripture — a buU which Dr. 
 Murray has declared on oath to be 
 part and parcel of the law for the 
 Irish Church. The Bull JJnigenitus 
 declares that "women are not to 
 read the Bible, and that the laity 
 are 'not (in the vulgar tongue) to 
 peruse the Scriptures." And you 
 are aware that Dr. Doyle, when he 
 
 heard that a Roman Catholic pries* 
 had burned a Protestant Bible, most 
 magnanimously said, "If I knew" — 
 
 Mr. EuBNGH. — ^Pshaw ! 
 
 Geoege Einch, Esq. — [said to 
 Mr. Cummiag.] — Not burned, but 
 buried! , 
 
 Mr. French — [as we under- 
 stood.] — To be sure — buried. 
 
 Rev. J. Gumming. — ^Very well, 
 I stand corrected by the chair ; the 
 difference does not affect my poiat. 
 He said of the Protestant who 
 buried the Bible in the earth, that 
 if "he knew that Protestant, he 
 would publicly reward him." The 
 difference between burying and burn- 
 ing the Bible is most immaterial. It 
 matters not whether a man buries 
 or bums it ; the fact I wish to show 
 is, that Dr. Doyle approved of the 
 most nefarious treatment of the 
 Holy Scriptures, on the part of Ro- 
 man Catholics in Ireland, and pro- 
 nounced it meritorious to hide the 
 word of God. Moreover, let me 
 add, that Luther, so far from oppos- 
 ing the Bible, translated the Bible, 
 and circulated it through various 
 parts of the continent, and became 
 by that means the instrument of 
 great and abounding good. 
 
 But vrith respect to the diversities 
 which he has professed to find out 
 among Protestant writers, my op- 
 ponent himseK knows well that he 
 has discovered a " mare's nest," 
 that is, by interpretation, nothing 
 at all. — Ojaughter.] I must repeat, 
 if I had asserted the definition of 
 my Rule of Faith to be the Bible 
 expounded by Luther and Calvin, or 
 any other of the Reformers — ]i my 
 Rule of Faith at aU consisted of the 
 sentiments they uttered, then, in- 
 deed, Mr. French's objections would 
 be fatal. But I said no such thing, 
 I gave no such definition. I stated 
 again and again, " the Bible, and 
 THE Bible alone, is the Rule 
 OP Faith to Protestants." And, 
 
540 
 
 RULE ov TAITH. [\Oih Uveninff. 
 
 therefore, though he were to show 
 aJl the Protestants in Christendom 
 knocking their heads against each 
 other, he would still not have shown 
 that the Scriptures were either in- 
 sufficient or imperfect as a Rule of 
 PaitL But pray, mark the impor- 
 tant distinction — when I show the 
 diversities among the doctors and 
 fathers and traditions of the Roman 
 Cathoho Church, I strike at the 
 very foundation and substance of 
 the Romish Rule of Paith. When 
 he (Mr. I^ench) shows Protestants 
 differing among themselves as re- 
 corded in their writings at early 
 periods, he does not touch the Pro- 
 testant Rule of Paith. He conflrms 
 the Protestant position — man is fal- 
 Uhle, God's word is perfect. When 
 I show the greatest diversity ob- 
 taining among the fathers and doc- 
 tors and traditions of the Roman 
 Catholic Church, I strike at the 
 very foundation, and destroy the 
 infallibility of the Roman Catholic 
 Rule of Paith. 
 
 Now I repeat this, because I want 
 you distinctly to see, that if Mr. 
 Prench, in the course of this night's 
 discussion, show you, as he proba- 
 bly will, or on any preceding night, 
 he has shown you, that Luther, or 
 Calvin, or Knox, or Melancthon, 
 hold sentiments in any jot or tittle 
 antagonistic and contradictory, he 
 is to remember that Luther was not 
 an evangelist, that Calvin never 
 claimed inspiration, that neither 
 £nox nor Melancthon were apostles, 
 and that, when he shall have shovm 
 their differences, not merely to be 
 what they are, but tenfold, he has 
 by no means shown that the Scrip- 
 tures are iitmfficient as a Rule of 
 Paith. I contend, therefore, that 
 Mr. Prench, in bringing forward the 
 differences of opinion which were 
 cherished among Protestant divines 
 at an early period, has done nothing 
 ' either to touch, or weaken, or de- 
 
 stroy, our Rule of Paith, he has 
 only strengthened it and wasted his 
 own time. And, therefore, when 
 I heard him quoting (even if cor- 
 rectly) peculiar sentiments from one 
 Reformer, and odd passages from 
 another, I felt the sensation pre- 
 cisely of a man who sits in a well- 
 built and . comfortable house, and 
 listens to the pattering of the rain 
 drops and of the hailstones on the 
 roof above him — [a laugh] — ^know- 
 ing that they cannot come through 
 to hurt him, or interfere in the least 
 with the safety of the house. But 
 on the other hand, when he feels 
 me smiting this illustrious cardinal, 
 and exposing the contradictions of 
 that erst-adored father, shovnng the 
 inconsistencies of this tradition, and 
 laying bare the idolatries, the su- 
 perstitions and fanaticism of that 
 council in the Roman Catholic 
 Church, he and his compeers wince 
 and wonder, for they know that 
 I am striking at the very roots of 
 the Romish religion, and that every 
 blow that is dealt causes the dis- 
 lodgment of some massive, but tot- 
 tering stone in the top-heavy edifice 
 of Papal wood, hay and stubble, 
 under the shelter of which he pro- 
 fesses to be safe. Now, keep this 
 extenuating fact before you. Apply 
 it, and smSe as you hear my oppo- 
 nent's quotations. AH the eontra- 
 dictions that may be shown to exist 
 among professing Protestant writers 
 do not touoh our Rule of Paith, for. 
 " the Bible and the Bible alone" is 
 our Rule of Paith. But on the 
 other hand, the contradictions, fa- 
 naticisms, superstitions, and idola- 
 tries, which I have shown and will 
 show to belong to Roman Catholic 
 writers, expositors and doctors, 
 strike at the very root of his Rule 
 of Paith ; and, having this idea 
 clearly before you, you will know 
 what value to attach to the extracts, 
 inferences, and comments he shall 
 
Rev. J. 
 
 '•J 
 
 »ULE OF PAITH, 
 
 541 
 
 make on the subject. But as to 
 Protestant differences and divisions, 
 we never undertook to guarantee 
 that there should be no differences 
 among Protestants. I showed that 
 heresies sprang up in the very noon- 
 day of inspiration. 1 proved that 
 schisms existed even in the times 
 and presence of the apostles, 
 admit, also, that .Protestants differ 
 circumstantially ; still, if they did so 
 during the age of inspiration, much 
 more wiU they now ; but that they 
 are nevertheless possessed of that 
 " sevenfold and sacred unity" which 
 I showed you on a previous occa- 
 sion, and which their confessions, 
 articles and writings also show. 
 But the Rule of Paith held by 
 Roman CathoHos is pressed upon 
 us, because they say it restores all 
 to unity and order. It undertakes 
 to guarantee that there shall be no 
 differences. In showing diversities 
 in the Romish Church, I show the 
 Romish Rule has failed. We do 
 not guarantee that there shall be 
 no differences ; but the Church of 
 Rome does guarantee there should 
 be no differences. And, therefore, 
 when Mr. Prenoh has shown the 
 <iifferences which exist among pro- 
 fessing Protestants, he has not done 
 any tBng to show that our Rule of 
 Paith has not answered its end. 
 But when I have shown differences, 
 even in fundamentals as well as in 
 circumstantials, in the Roman Ca- 
 tholic Church, I have shown that 
 his Rule of Paith has failed to 
 answer the end for which it was 
 proclaimed ; aad, in fact, I will 
 show this evening that the Church 
 of Rome, while she puts forward 
 the most splendid assumptions about 
 her unity and unanimity, is torn 
 and rent to the very centre by 
 discords and diversities the mo^t 
 tremendous. She presents to a just 
 inspection the aspect of the polar 
 ocean. If you look at the polar 
 
 sea, it consists of an immense mass 
 of ice, perpetual and undivided, — 
 the sun's rays playing upon its 
 surface throw over it a splendour 
 the most beautiful, insomuch, that 
 you would fancy from its appearance 
 that it was one inighty mirror of 
 waters, and that all was peace and 
 serenity beneath, unbroken by a 
 billow and unruffled by a breeze. 
 But you have only to look below 
 the surface of the vast mass of ice, 
 through some transparency, or listen, 
 and you wiU. find that its depths 
 are crowded with the most ferocious 
 monsters of the deep — sharks and 
 whales, and aU unclean creatures of 
 prey 5 that the ocean-ice conceals 
 and shrouds beneatli it the ever- 
 restless elements of shipwreck, and 
 that storm and tempest and con- 
 vulsive agitations mingle in wild 
 agony within it. Now, it is so 
 with the Church of Rome. Outside 
 is a crust of unity and unanimity, 
 over which play around the corus- 
 cations of sunshine, splendid, daz- 
 zling and extravagant assumptions ; 
 but the moment you look into the 
 " chambers of imagery viithin," you 
 ftnd discord and contrariety, con- 
 tradiction and ineonsisteney, super- 
 stition and fanaticism, monstrous 
 and extravagant. I have shown 
 you, in makmg my remarks on the 
 Protestant Rtde of Paith, that if 
 our diversities in non-essentials in 
 the nineteenth century can tell 
 against Protestants, then the diver 
 sities in the first century must teL 
 against the claims of Christianity 
 itself and the inspiration of the 
 apostles. I have shown you, that 
 our differences are in circumstan- 
 tials and in non-essentials, but 
 the differences of the Church of 
 Rome are on vital, essential, and 
 fundamental points. I have shown 
 you that, in our Rule of Paith, we 
 do not guarantee that there shaL 
 prevail unanimity of sentiment in 
 
543 
 
 EULB 01 TAITH. \V)th jEvenutff. 
 
 every matter of detail. A]l it gua- 
 rantees is imanimity of sentiment on 
 vital and essential truth, and this it 
 does secure. But I We shown 
 you that his rule (Mr. French's) 
 undertakes to guarantee that there 
 should be uniformity in all, and that, 
 instead of preserving that unifor- 
 mity, it has produced interminable 
 discords, unsettled at the present 
 hoTir, and never likely to be settled 
 while the world -lasts. Thus, when 
 the Church of Bx)me comes to you 
 and says — You Protestants are to 
 renounce the Bible alone as your 
 only Rule of Faith, and to embrace 
 the only source of unity — "the 
 written with the unwritten word, 
 and both expounded by the Church," 
 she wants you to exchange real 
 freedom for its shadow — ^true unity 
 for external and artificial quiet, the 
 offspring of spiritual death. Her 
 cup sparkles to the eye, but con- 
 veys poison to the soul. She pro- 
 mises what she well knows she 
 cannot now, and never will be able 
 to make good. Let me say, every 
 specimen of contradiction among 
 men which the Church of Rome can 
 produce is only a fresh confutation 
 of herself. AH the differences which 
 Mr. iPrench has adduced on all the 
 Occasions he has spoken lead to this 
 one most important lesson — a lesson 
 I would he would learn — "We 
 
 MUST HAVE DONE WITH MAN." The 
 
 mightiest names, and functions, and 
 pretensions must sink and subside 
 before the majesty of the oracles of 
 God. 
 
 My opponent's extracts have, in 
 fact, done my work. I thank my 
 opponent for nis able defence of my 
 Rule of Faith. He has well shown, 
 "cursed is the man that trusteth 
 in an arm of flesh." He bids you 
 Roman CathoHcs, iu truth if not ia 
 word, leave the ipse dixits of popes 
 and priests, and go "to the law and 
 the testimony." The Romish doc- 
 
 tors and teachers, with the greatest 
 pledges and promises of infallibility, 
 I have proved guilty of the most 
 extravagant and pemioious errors, 
 and he has shown you men, profes- 
 sing to be reformers, and Protest- 
 ants, and followers of Christ, of 
 every age, who have also committed 
 errors in some essential and in many 
 subordinate matters. And now, let 
 me ask of every discerning mind, 
 what does all this teach ? The sacred 
 lesson — "if an angel from heaven 
 were to preach any other Gospel" 
 than that which we have received 
 in the Bible, " he is to be accursed." 
 We are to appeal from reformers'to 
 apostles, from Protestants to evan- 
 
 Eelists, from the Church unto Christ, 
 •om the fallibility of man to the 
 infaUibHity of the Holy Spirit. 
 Precious lesson! — more precious 
 still if Mr. French and I have im- 
 pressed it on a single conscience. 
 I contend, therefore, that all he h^ 
 made out is, the necessity of having 
 done with man and having recourse 
 to the word of God. Instead of 
 pinning our faith to any man's 
 creed, whatever be his name, what- 
 ever be his genius, whatever his 
 assumptions, instead of assenting to 
 council, or to cardinal, or to pope, 
 we are to " search the Scriptures ;" 
 and if they, the greatest and most 
 rifted, " speak not according to 
 the law and the testimony," it is 
 because " there is no liht in 
 them." 
 
 With these facts, then, I close. 
 I had intended to have entered into 
 aji exposition of the gross incon- 
 sistencies that are embosomed in 
 the very midst of the Rule of Faith , 
 of the Roman CathoUo Church, 
 even upon fimdamental and essen- 
 tial pomts. [The reverend gentle- 
 man here inquired what residue of 
 time was left him.] I find I have 
 a few minutes left. 
 1 now hold in my hand a pam- 
 
Hffo. J. Cumminff.'] ritlb oh paith. 
 
 &43 
 
 phlet whicli 1 ■wrote and pubKshed 
 myself, and, as Mr. French has 
 freqiiently brought forward his own 
 book, he win albw me to bring for- 
 ward one sixpenny little pamphlet. 
 
 Mr. Pbench. — Oh, certainly ! 
 
 Mr. Gumming. — [in continua- 
 tion] — ^It is out of print, I am 
 sorry to say, and cannot be pur- 
 chased. In this pamphlet I have 
 extracted from the creeds of all the 
 reformed churches, their corporate 
 expositions' of the Gospel, and 
 condensed them. On every vital 
 truth, and in most circumstances, 
 theEMHsh, Scottish, Belgian, Augs- 
 burg Confessions are as one. These 
 only are the true expositions of 
 Protestant faith, and not the opinions 
 of individuals. Never forget this. 
 For Protestant tenets we must go 
 to Protestant confessions aud to 
 the Protestant Rule of Paith, the 
 Bible, just as for Eoman Catholic 
 tenets we mu^t go to Roman 
 Catholic confessions and to the 
 Roman Catholic Rule of Paith, 
 the Bible and tradition, and both 
 propounded and expounded by the 
 Church. These Protestant articles, 
 when compared together, consti- 
 tute the unity of Protestantism; 
 they harmonize and coincide to a 
 most striking extent. All is eccle- 
 siastical and Christian unity. But, 
 to show you from another source 
 the contradictions and the jarring 
 discords of the Church of Rome, I 
 wiU quote the following portions of 
 her rule. 
 
 " In this question (says BeUar- 
 mine), whether, in case of "heresy, the 
 Pope may be judged and deposed, 
 (here are five different opinions." — 
 Bellannine, de Rom. Pontif. b. ii. 
 
 30, p. 317. 
 
 Agam — " Concerning the Pop^s 
 certainty of judgment there arefmir 
 ' ' s." — Book iv. c. 2, 
 
 < ^1 urn 
 
 " Not only heretics, hut some 
 
 Catholic doctors, have held Pope 
 Honorius to have been a heretic." — 
 Book iv. c. 3, p. 519. 
 
 " That particular Councils con- 
 firmed by the Pope cannot err, in 
 faith and manners, there are some 
 Catholics that deny, and yet not con- 
 demned as heretics by the Church." 
 — ^De Cone. Aucto. b. ii. c.'5, p. ll4. 
 
 " Of the question, what manner 
 of worship images are worthy of, 
 there are three opinions — one, that 
 the thing represented is to be wor- 
 shipped before the image; the second, 
 that the sam^ honou/r 'is due to the 
 image and the thing expressed by it; 
 and the third, that images should be 
 honoured, but with a less honour 
 than the thing represented." — Bell, 
 de Imag. Sane. o. xx. p. 335. 
 
 "Some have held the seven last 
 chapters of the Book of Esther not 
 genuine, as Nicholas Lyra, D. Car- 
 thusianus, Sixtus Senensis." — Bell. 
 ch. vii. p. 30. 
 
 Now, observe, here is Cardinal 
 Bellannine asserting the inspiration 
 of the Book of Esther, and here 
 are three or four distinguished 
 doctors of his Church saying it is 
 not inspired^; and lastly, Jerome, a 
 father, it appears, comes forward 
 and states expressly that it is not 
 inspired ; and yet Mr. French talks 
 about the unity which exists in the 
 Church of Rome. 
 
 Again, trom Bellarmine — "The 
 prayer of Christ for Peter's faith," 
 IS expounded : — 
 
 "1. By the Parisian divines, that 
 the Lord prayed for his universal 
 Church or for Peter, as he bore the 
 figure of the whole Church, which 
 exposition is false 
 
 "3. Others, who live at this day, 
 that the Lord in this place prayed 
 for the perseverance of Peter alonfe 
 in the grace of God until the end, 
 confuted by four arguments. _ 
 
 " 3. The third exposition is true." 
 Bell, de B. P. b. iv. c. 3, p. 477. 
 
444 
 
 KtJlB or TAITH. {Xdtk Evening. 
 
 Sucli is the unity of the Roman 
 Church as admitted by Bellarmine. 
 
 "While I write tms there is a 
 great controversy among our writers 
 about the kingdom of Christ." — 
 Bell. Reeog. p. 23. 
 
 "The last question is, whether 
 God rewards good works of his 
 mere hberality above their worthi- 
 ness ? The common opinion con- 
 stantly affirms it, but Andrew Vega 
 and the doctors of Louvain held 
 the contrary." — Bell. b. v. c. xix.. 
 
 P, 471- 
 
 " Erasmus says, the Epistle of 
 James does not savour of an apo- 
 stolic Epistle. Cardinal Caietan 
 doubts of the authors of the Epis- 
 tles of James and Jude. Bellar- 
 mine differs from both." — Bell. 
 b. i. c. xviii. p. 86. 
 
 I solemnly declare there is no- 
 thing but doubts in the Church of 
 Rome. My opponent boasts she is 
 all unity and certainty in every- 
 thing. "I find her unity and cer- 
 tainty ia nothing, save in answering 
 to the Holy Spirit's portraic: of 
 the Antjchnstian Apostasy. So 
 that, Roman CathoKes, your own 
 doctors are not agreed whether the 
 Epistles of James and Jude are 
 canonical books of the New Testar 
 ment or not. Your Rule of Eaith 
 is suicidal. It canonizes and ana- 
 thematizes the same subject and the 
 same writer in the same breath. I 
 am ready to resign all the accusa- 
 tions of Protestants on the subject 
 of Roman CathoHo diversity and 
 dtecord. I am satisfied to place the 
 wfiole question in the hands of 
 Bellaimine. Let every Roman Ca- 
 tholic in this assembly read the ad- 
 missions of the celebrated Cardinal 
 — ^not the opinions only, but the 
 facts and proofs and instances he 
 adduces in every page, and he will 
 see that there are not scars merely 
 on the exterior coating, but rifts 
 and rents in the very pith and 
 
 marrow of the Papal faith. Tours, 
 my Roman Cathofio hearers, is an 
 awful and ruinous faith — it hood- 
 winks you, while it deceives and 
 destroys your souls — it teaches 
 you, by some of its doctors, and 
 these most illustrious ones, to give 
 to stocks and stones the honour 
 due to God, in defiance of his laws 
 — ^it destroys the perfect humanity 
 of Christ, by making the Holy 
 One of God a monster, accord- 
 ing to the tenets of Transub- 
 stantiation, or plunging you into 
 scepticism — it adds to the Scrip- 
 tures, and adds, therefore, to you 
 their solemn maledictions — ^it makes 
 wicked men saints, and saint gods 
 — ^it ransacks the dens of pandemo- 
 nium to find deities for paradise. 
 Your Church racks your consciences 
 with unscriptural fears — absolves 
 from sin and yet encourages it — she 
 conjures into being purgatory to 
 get your money— -feeos you with 
 husks of bread, and sends you to 
 Mary instead of Jesus. Your Church 
 mangles the solemE. Eucharist, robs 
 you of tlie cup, and casts you at the 
 feet of shavelings ; she cozens the 
 crowd with traditions, pilgrimages, 
 holy water, altars, crosses, tapers, 
 &c. To show you contradictions in 
 every element of the Roman Church, 
 take any one subject ; for instance, 
 compulsory celibacy of the clergy 
 was first publicly enjoined at the 
 first Council of Lateran, a.d. 1133, 
 but was expressly protested against 
 by the Council of Nice, a.d. 325, 
 the Council of Gangra, a. d. 340 ; 
 which, I ask, is infallible ? Again : 
 the use of images and reKcs in public 
 worship was &at publicly sanctioned 
 in the second Council of Nice, a.d. 
 787 ; but this was condemned by 
 the Council of EHberis, a. d. 305 ; 
 by Gregory the Great, a. d. 590, in 
 " Epist. ad' Serenum," ix. 9, 110. 
 {Labbe and Cossart, v. 1370, 434) ; 
 by the Council of Constantinople, 
 
Bev. J. 
 
 J 
 
 aULE OP FAITH. 
 
 5d5 
 
 A.D. 754, and by the Council of 
 I'rankfort, a.d. 794. Here are one 
 pope and three conncils against one 
 council, and yet all five are infalli- 
 ble ! Conncils and popes may con- 
 tradict each other ad libiium, yet 
 they are all infaUible ! A Rnle of 
 Faith, replete with contradiction 
 and Tooal with discords is — mar- 
 veUons fact! — a prevention of all 
 differences, a source of all tmity! 
 The Roman number of the sacra- 
 ments, viz. seven, was first taught 
 in the Council of Trent, but was 
 disowned and denied by Pope Gre- 
 gory the Great, in his " Decretals," 
 2nd part, chap. i. g. 1, sect. 84. 
 Trausubstantiation was first iasisted 
 on by the Eourth, so called, General 
 Council of Lateran, a.d. 1215 ; is 
 reiterated in the canons of Trent, 
 and in the Creed of Pope Pius IV. 
 
 This horrible dogma is disowned 
 ia the canon of the Mass, in the 
 Sacrameutaries of Gelasius and 
 Gregory, and as now in use in the 
 Roman Church. It is disowned by 
 Bernard, abbot of Clairvaux, a.d. 
 1115; by Alfric, archbishop of 
 Canterbury, a.d. 990 ; by Bertram, 
 of Corby, a.d. 800; by Bede, an 
 English monk, a.d. 720, in his 
 " Commentaries on Psalm ui. ; " 
 by the Council of Laodicea, a.d. 
 367; by Chrysostom, Augustine, 
 Bphrem of Antioch, Cyril of Jerusa- 
 lem, Origen, Clemens Alexandiinns, 
 Irenseus, Justin Martyr, &c. 
 
 Now the Church of Rome claims 
 all these. These expositions, tra- 
 ditions, and canons, are a portion of 
 her Rule of Paith. Without pro- 
 nouncing a verdict on one or other 
 side of the conflicting authorities, 
 we have here one part of the Roman 
 Rule of Paith agaiost the other 
 part, and yet both are infallibly 
 right. Let Roman Catholics educe 
 their senses from the priest'spocket, 
 and spurn the trash foisted on them 
 in the name of Christianity. 
 
 The papal supremacy is asserted 
 ia the Pourth Council of Laterau, 
 A.D. 1215 ; in the Council of Trent, 
 and in the Creed of Pope Pius IV. 
 The Pope's supremacy is a vital 
 dogma. It is disowned by the 
 Bntish bishops, who repudiated all 
 fealty to Augustine, a.d. 600 ; by 
 the Council of Ephesus, a.d. 43&. 
 canon vui. ; by the Synod of Melevj 
 A.D. 416 ; by the Pirst Council oi. 
 Constantinople, a.d. 381, canons ii. 
 iii. vii ; by the Third Council of 
 Constantinople, a-.d. 680, act xui..; 
 by Clement, Irenseus, Cyprian, and 
 Cyril of Jerusalem. Thus we find 
 two councils and one pope arrayed 
 against various councils and nume- 
 rous fathers ; and yet my opponent 
 pronounces both infaUibly right, and 
 the Rule of Paith, of which both 
 form a part, to be infaUibly perfect, 
 This is logic ! ! This is unity ! ! 
 No wonder, then, infidels abound in 
 papal countries. My time prevents 
 my giving further proofs of the con- 
 tradictions which, hke beasts of 
 prey, tear and devour each other, 
 under the exterior unanimity of the 
 great Romish menagerie. I can 
 only say, I should feel sorry to be 
 obhged to swallow so many mon- 
 strosities, and, like my opponent, 
 conceal my disgust with a quiet face 
 and loud claims of unity, [ife 
 reverend genUevum heing here re- 
 minded hy the Chairman that his 
 time was jmt on. the point of ex- 
 piring, concluded ly saying^ — Now 
 mark, again, the greatest differences 
 that can be proved to exist among 
 Protestant divines do not touch our 
 Rule of Paith, which is " the Bible, 
 AND THE Bible alone" — ^the only 
 religion of Protestants. But the dil- 
 ferences in the Roman Catholic 
 Church (and I could specify thou- 
 sands more, if I had tune) go di- 
 rectly to subvert and to destroy 
 their Rule of Paith, which consists 
 of the written word and the un- 
 
516 
 
 written word, and both propounded 
 and expounded by the Church — a 
 rule, two parts of which I defy 
 liim to produce, and, when he has 
 produced that, I defy him, with all 
 nis chemistry, to distil consistency 
 and common sense from it. 
 
 [The reverend gentleman's hour 
 here closed, and, after a pause of a 
 momentortwo,Mr.Freiiohstoodup.] 
 
 Mr. FraafCH. — I rise, as usual, 
 with the intention at least of ad- 
 hmng in my address as closely as 
 possible to the laws of logic, whilst 
 my friend, as usual, has risen with 
 the intention of giving full play to 
 his genius, and of indulging in his 
 UBuS vein of pleasantry, tropes, and 
 metaphors. In pursuance lof the 
 plan which I have laid down of 
 reasoning systematically, I shall first 
 of aU touch upon his notes, and 
 then come to more substantial mat- 
 ter of my own. But, in speaking 
 of these notes, I shall a little de- 
 range the order in which I find I! 
 have placed them on my paper. I 
 shall speak of one important note 
 first, though it fel from the lips of 
 my learned Mend as one of the last 
 of his observations. The learned 
 gentleman has done me the honour 
 to say that he cannot be at all 
 doubtful of my integrity, sincerity, 
 and honour, and at the same time he 
 has given very broad hints that he 
 " suspects " that integrity and vera- 
 city not a little. I am, however, 
 very happy that you will have an 
 opportumty, at least upon one sub- 
 ject, of eoiiasting the fairness with 
 which my learned opponent makes 
 Ais quotations, and those which I 
 bring before you. It is in reference 
 to Bishop Latimer. I visited, 
 yesterday morning, the British 
 Museum, in order to procure for 
 my learned friend that extract from 
 the sermons of Latimer which he 
 very significantly and most ingeni- 
 
 KULE or TAiTH. [lO^A Hvettiiig. 
 
 ously endeavoured to weaken by 
 doubting its comeotness — for you 
 were all struck with its blasphemy ■ 
 my learned opponent, I say, doubted 
 very gravely, with a significant shake 
 of Ins head, its correctness and 
 veracity. Now I am astonished at 
 such conduct. However, yesterday 
 I actually forgot my notes; but, 
 having now found them, they refer 
 me, I perceive, to the passage; and 
 I was again obliged to go this 
 morning to make the extract, which 
 took me some time. It, however, 
 gave me an insight into some other 
 parts of Cranmer's character, which 
 I shall endeavour to lay before you, 
 par maniere d' acquit. But with re- 
 
 fard to this particular passage of 
 latimer's, blasphemously and hor- 
 ribly assertkg that our Lord Jesus 
 Christ — the blessed and adorable 
 Redeemer, whom we Catholics, at 
 least, love with aU the powers of 
 our souls — that he went into the 
 regions of the damned, and si0ered 
 all the tortures of hell jwe. [Sensa- 
 tion.] Good God! after such a 
 statement, what is to become of 
 Christianity, if the bishops of the 
 Church — ^men supposed to be en- 
 dowed with all holiness — can in- 
 dulge in blasphemous expressions 
 with such impunity, and stand 
 excused on the pact of reverend 
 gentlemen of the nineteenth cen- 
 tury? It is to be found at page 
 85, Sermon 7th, the very sermon to 
 which I accurately directed the 
 attention of my friends. At p^e 
 85, here are Latimer's own wot(&, 
 and I hope they wiU rouse my 
 learned antagonbt from his seeming 
 lethargy, or at least turn this 
 way his studiously-averted head. 
 [Laughter.] 
 
 "Here is much ado. These new 
 upstarting spirits say, Christ never 
 descended into hell, neither body 
 nor soul. In scorn they ask. Was 
 he there — ^what did he there ? " 
 
Mr. French.^ rule of faith. 
 
 547 
 
 Now turn we to page 86 : — 
 " But now I will say a word ; and 
 here I protest, first of all, not arro- 
 
 ?an% to determine and define it. 
 will contend with no man for it, 
 but I offer it unto you to consider 
 and weigh it. There be some great 
 clerks that take my part. 4iid I 
 perceive not what eyit can come of 
 it, in saying that our Saviour, 
 Christ, not only descended into 
 heU, iui also thai he suffered in hell 
 
 mffer there. Surely I beheve verily, 
 for my part, that he suffered the 
 paios ot hell proportionably as it 
 corresponded, and answered to the 
 whole sin of the world. He would 
 not suffer only bodily in the garden 
 and upon the cross, but also in his 
 soul when it was from the body, 
 which was a pain due for our sin." 
 But father Latimer, my friends, 
 has not yet had his fidl glut of blas- 
 phemy. The celestial reformer thus 
 proceeds : — [Laughing^.] — " Some 
 write so, and I can beheve it, that 
 he suffered in the very place^ (and I 
 cannot tell what it is — call it what 
 you wiU — even, in the scalding-house, 
 in the ugsomeness of the place, in the 
 presfflice of the place,) suoh pain as 
 our capacity cannot attain unto ; it 
 is somewhat declared unto us, 
 when we utter it by these effects,^ 
 viz. hj fire, by gnashing of teeth, 
 by the worm, that gnatpeth on the 
 
 Now, my friends, what think ye 
 of the blessed Reformation, that 
 engendered this blessed unheard-of 
 monster of monsters of blasphemy, 
 ihe venerable Latimer,, as, my leajned 
 clerk, my antagonist, calls hnn, in. 
 ■onison with all good Protestants ? 
 
 Eev. J. Gumming. — What is the 
 page? 
 
 Mr. I^ENCH. — It is to be found, 
 at page 85, Sermon 7th, and pages^ 
 85 and 86. And here, by the bye,j 
 my friends, good fathei; Latimer 
 
 does not philosophiosdly doubt, with 
 "the learned clerk" (to use the 
 
 food father's homely phrase) — he 
 oes not doubt, I say, with the 
 learned clerk, my reverend antago- 
 nist, the possibihty of fire reaohmg 
 the immaterial spirit. You see 
 father Latimer specifies both fire 
 and a scalding-house. [Laughter.] 
 But here, my friends, let us pause 
 for a moment ! Oh, horror of all 
 horrors ! Gracious God ! our Sa- 
 viour suffering in "the jscalding- 
 house " — suffering from the worm 
 that dieth not, and that gnaws into 
 the conscience, as if he had been 
 a deep and inveterate sinner ! 
 [Renewed signs of displeasure.] And 
 then what says the note? And 
 here, my Catholic audience, I would 
 entreat you, if you feel any indigna- 
 tion or risibihty, to endeavour to 
 suppress it. It is very difficult ; it 
 is a very hard task. Hear, then, 
 the note of the Protestant commen- 
 tator in the margin: — " Bear with 
 father Latimer in this place." [Min - 
 gled laughter and tokens of dis- 
 pleasure.] Then he says, page 87, 
 to ghow what sort of company he 
 places our blessed Lord and Saviour 
 in-^^he says, at page 87 : — " If you 
 have another iaitn than this, a 
 whoremonger's faith, you are like to 
 go to the scalding-house, and there 
 ■you shall have two dishes — weeping 
 and gnashing of teeth ; much good 
 do it you ; you see your fare." And 
 then, my friends, to prove that 
 every good Protestant, bishop or 
 layman, has a right to interpret 
 Scripture for himself, he thus con- 
 cludes — (Mark his words, and think 
 as you hear them wliat sweet unity 
 among Protestants their Rule of 
 Paith, the Bible, produces !)— His 
 words are: "I have walked this 
 Lent in the broad field of Scripture, 
 and uspd my Kberty." Arid mark 
 agajin, my Mend — for my learned 
 fneud's drooping head seems to 
 
MS 
 
 RULE OP FAITH. - \lOliEi>enina. 
 
 want something to lift it up [laugh- 
 ter] ; mark the title of the precious 
 little gem of Protestant theology 
 from which I have made these 
 extracts: — " Pruitfnl Sermons, 
 preached by the Bight Reverend 
 Father and constant Martyr of 
 Jesus Christ, Mr. Hugh Latimer ! 
 London, 1584." |]Muoh laughter, 
 it having been read by Mr. Kenoh 
 ia a very peculiar manner.] 
 
 Now, as my friend bestowed 
 several elaborate sentiments of his 
 flowery speech on the last occasion 
 in praise of the wonderful unity 
 which exists among Protestant 
 sects — and of the wonderful bond 
 of sympathy, moreover, which exists 
 between all the Protestant sects in 
 this room — ^I shall beg leave to take 
 this opportunity of laying before 
 you father Latimer's opinion of one 
 of these Protestant sects, many of 
 whom, I believe, are in this room at 
 this moment. Latimer's Sermons, 
 London, pE^e 329. The title of the. 
 paragraph I am about to read from 
 the celestial lecturer is, "Devilish 
 Opinion of the Anabaptists." — 
 " Here are matters to confound the 
 Anabaptists, that they only hp,ve the 
 true word of God, and the right 
 understandiag of the same, because 
 it beareth 6uit." "As for our 
 opinion, they say it is naught, for it 
 beareth no fruit, or, if it do, it is 
 very little ; which opinion is most 
 false and erroneous." And, in the 
 same page, a little lower down, he 
 says — and let the Baptists at least 
 mark his words attentively: — 
 "Therefore it appeareth that this 
 opinion of the Anabaptists is most 
 wicked and erroneous, and clear 
 against the truth of Scriptures." 
 Then, page 322 : " The Anabaptists 
 are but a vile set of lewd people." 
 Then he goes on. Now he is at- 
 tacking oiir Catholic monks ; he is 
 putting them in association with 
 the .£mbaptists. He seems to 
 
 think there is a great similitude 
 between the Catholic monks and the 
 Anabaptists: — "They (the monks), 
 forgetting this commandment of 
 love and charity, ran away from 
 their neighbours like beasts and 
 vrild horses, that cannot .abide the 
 company of men. So the Anabaptists 
 in our time, following their example, 
 separated themselvea from the com- 
 pany of other men, and, therefore, 
 God gave them rejjroium eensum, 
 that is, a pervert judffment. There- 
 fore, when thou dwellest ia an evil 
 town or parish, foUow not the exam- 
 ple of the monks or Anabaptists ; 
 but remember that Lot, dwelling in 
 the midst of the Sodomites, was 
 nevertheless preserved frpm the 
 wrath of God^ and such will pre- 
 serve them in the midst of the 
 wicked. But^ for all that, thou 
 must not flatter them in their 
 evils doings and naughty livings, 
 but rebuke their sins and wicked- 
 ness, and in nowise consent imto 
 them. Then it -shall be well with 
 thee here in this world, and in the 
 world to come thou shalt have life 
 everjasting; which grant both to you 
 and me, God the Father, the Son, 
 and God the Holy Ghost ! Amen.'' 
 So that by this extract, if father 
 Latimer, the Protestant martyr, be 
 of any weight in the estimation of 
 my reverend antago^'ist, he must 
 not flatter the Anabaptists by call- 
 ing them his good friends (as he has 
 done this evening), and by saying, 
 so un-Latimer Eke, that they are 
 all united with him in one bond of 
 sympathy 1 [Laughter.] 
 
 Now, my mends, you see what an 
 illustrious matter Latimer thoughi 
 as to the wonderful unanimity that 
 subsists between Protestants^you 
 see what he thought of the Ana- 
 baptists. And be cautious, ortho- 
 dox Christians, such as my reverend 
 friend, not to "flatter them," not to 
 soothe them on every occasion like 
 
Mr. French.'] 
 
 RULB OF PAITH. 
 
 549 
 
 the present, in order to lead them 
 to join in the cavalcade of that 
 illiistrious band at Exeter Hall, in 
 declaiming against the Catholio, 
 to DMke them forget their own 
 private enmities -with one another. 
 But he tells yon they are " a vile 
 set — a lewd people." God forbid 
 that I should stigmatize the Ana- 
 baptists with suwi sentinients as 
 these. Par be it from me. I 
 believe that many of them are 
 conscientiously attached to their 
 opinions; and I shall not tread 
 in the steps of my learned friend, 
 and use epithets of declamatory 
 virulence against them in point- 
 ing out the erroneous nature of 
 their tenets — epithets such as 
 my learned friend has, in imitar 
 tion, I presume, of good father 
 Latimer [a laugh], so frequently, 
 lavishly, and wantonly cast upon us. 
 "Die first note to which I shall 
 call your attention, which I have 
 taken down, is with regard to the 
 version of the Bible, upon the last 
 occasion on which we assembled 
 together. My learned friend, iu 
 revenge for the enormities of mis- 
 translation — ^the dehberate enormi- 
 ties of mistranslation — which I 
 pointed out to you in the Pro 
 testant Bible, endeavoured to re- 
 taliate by pointing out similar 
 deviations from the original text 
 in our Bible. Now, it happens 
 most unfortunately for him, that 
 our Bible has the authentic stamp 
 as to correctness, and as to exemp- 
 tion from deadly errors, of the 
 whole Christian world. Editions 
 of it have been printed at Oxford, 
 and in every Protestant country. 
 Who has not heard of the Vulgate 
 for accuracy? You are not, indeed, 
 obliged to follow it ; but who can 
 point out, from beginning to end, 
 any systematic and deliberate per- 
 version of the sacred text? My 
 learned friend alluded— I had not my 
 
 notes when he observed it — to one 
 place where I called it the sacrament 
 of marriage — that I translated the 
 Greek word fuxTT-qpiov, sacrament. 
 I answer, that Jerome translated it 
 sacrament and mystery also. But my 
 learned friend says. Why not in other 
 places translate it sacrament ? He 
 (Jerome) does : in the Epistle to 
 the Galatians he says sacrament 
 in four or five places which I have 
 marked down. [A pause ensued, 
 the learned gentleman stopping 
 to look for the document first al- 
 luded to.] But I want to know 
 [continued Mr. Erench] how the 
 learned gentleman wUt be able to 
 exculpate his own translators from 
 deliberate wickedness in iinposing 
 upon the British public. I have 
 already pointed out three or four 
 gross perversions of this kind, from 
 which my learned friend is not 
 able to extenuate — with all the 
 powers, to boot, of the most mag- 
 nificently strutting rhetoric wiSi 
 which man was ever endowed. At 
 the Reformat'.on, my respected Pro- 
 testant friends, when your Protest- 
 ant original reformers forgot their 
 solemn vows, and "took unto them 
 wives" — some of them bursting 
 open the sacred gates of convents 
 to do it, but all of them marrying 
 — they wanted, as a justification for 
 this marriage in the eyes of men — 
 in the eyes of the great Grod they 
 could have none, for they had so- 
 lemnly lifted up their hands at the 
 altar of their God, and sworn to 
 dedicate themselves exclusively to 
 the service of that altar — they 
 wanted, I say, a paUiative in the 
 eyes of men ; and what did they 
 do? They sat down deliberately, 
 in dire diabolical conclave, to per- 
 vert the sacred passages of holy 
 Scripture. 
 
 St. Paul says : — 
 
 " And so walk ye in the spirit 
 {ii<u), and do • not accomplish the 
 
350 
 
 KHLE OP FAITH. 
 
 [lOM Ecening. 
 
 desire of the flesh, for the flesh 
 desires against the Spirit : — 
 
 " But these two are opposed to 
 one another : — 
 
 " So that ye do not the thing 
 that ye would." 
 
 Now, my friends, this is con- 
 stantly the case ia the wicked and 
 polluted world in which we live 
 among mankind. They foi^et the 
 Uving God, and contaminate them- 
 selves with sin. But are they justi- 
 fiable ? Yes! perfectly justifiable in 
 the sight of both God and man, if 
 the Protestant Bible speaks truth. 
 You would say, — " So thait ye can- 
 not do the things that ye would." 
 How, then, is a man liable if he 
 cannot? What business had they 
 to insert the word cannot? Why 
 have they put it in? It is not 
 necessary, my friends, to under- 
 stand the Greek language, in order 
 to see the depravity of such a trans- 
 lation. You have only to listen and 
 ask yourselves. Is such a word as 
 Mr. French is going to pronounce — 
 is it there ? If it is not, my trans- 
 lators stand convicted of the deli- 
 berate perversion of sacred Writ. 
 If it were "cannot" it would be 
 ov bvvavrai, the present, or opta- 
 tive, or subjunctive mood. Is the 
 word SvvavTai or SwijvTat there? 
 Wo, it is not. How, then, could 
 the men dare to put it in ? Tor the 
 reason I give, and for no other, — 
 Because they wished to say that 
 men, however determined to lead 
 a chaste and an unsullied life, and 
 to devote themselves to God, can- 
 not do it; and that they wanted to 
 justify by a text iu Scripture. Yes, 
 whenever any thing touches them 
 in a very tender point, they are 
 sure to pervert Scripture. There 
 is one instance of it, if my 
 friend win travel a little down 
 these passages, so very familiar to 
 him. I call his attention to 
 1 Cor. vii. 7. 
 
 " Por I wish that all men should 
 be as myself." 
 
 Paul says, 1 Cor. vii. 7, 8, 9 :— 
 
 " for I would that all men were 
 even as I myself. But every man 
 hath his proper gift of God, one 
 after this manner, and another after 
 that. 
 
 " I say, therefore,, to the unmar- 
 ried and widows, it is good for 
 them if they abide even as I. 
 
 " But if they cannot contain, let 
 them marry, for it is better to marry 
 than to burn." 
 
 But he says, 
 
 " But if they do not contain lei 
 them marry." 
 
 Here again the abominable trans- 
 lators, whom I loathe from the very 
 bottom of my soul, because they 
 have done it for a purpose, and not 
 inadvertently — here again they put 
 in the word cannot. Bnt, no, it is 
 not there. They have foisted it in, 
 in order to give countenance to 
 their favourite dogma, — that they 
 had a right to many, and that they 
 were justified and sanctioned by 
 Scripture in so doing — one by 
 bursting open the gates of our 
 sacred convents, and each of them 
 by marrying in some way or other. 
 
 But again, I allude to a passage 
 which ray friend wiU not contest 
 — it is in the Book of Maccabees, 
 that celebrated book which we have 
 been taught by the Church of ages 
 to consider a book of the Bible, 
 and in all ways canonical. I refer 
 my friend to the 2nd Book of Mac- 
 cabees, xii. 43 : — 
 
 This is the English translation of 
 it : " And when he had made a 
 gathering throughout the company 
 to the sum of two thousand drachms 
 of silver, he sent it to Jerusalem to 
 offer a sin-offering, doing therein 
 very well and honestly, in that he 
 was mindful of the resurrection." 
 
 44. " For, if he had not hoped 
 that they that were slain should 
 
Mr. French^ rule or faith. 
 
 65 L 
 
 have risen agaiaj it had been super- 
 fluous and vain to pray for the 
 dead." 
 
 45. " And also in that he per- 
 ceived that there was great favour 
 laid up for those that died godly, it 
 ■was a holy and good thought. 
 Whereupon he made a reconci- 
 liation for the dead, that they might 
 be delivered from sin." 
 
 Now, theEngKsh translators who 
 translated the Bible, they were not 
 content with denying the canon- 
 icity of what the Catholic Church 
 declared to be canonical, but, when 
 they sat down to translate it for us 
 — and they did it for our edification! 
 as thej' say ; and they tell us also, 
 that it was read in their Church 
 for edification — finding the word 
 " sacrifice for sin," {ffva-iav) in 
 the Greek, and not liking the word 
 sacrifice, because it is a very favou- 
 rite maxim of theirs that " without 
 shedding of blood there is no re- 
 mission of sins" — ^not exactly re- 
 lishing this word 6viTiav, they trans- 
 lated it " sin-ofifering." Mark, my 
 friends, they must have known 
 better: the word is Bvaia. I never, 
 in any poet, or any orator, or any 
 Grreekhistorian in the whole compass 
 of Greek literature, heard of it ; 
 never was there so vile a mistrans- 
 lation as to call that "ofPering" 
 which means nothing but ^.sacrifice. 
 I have taken the trouble to oouait 
 the number of times in which the 
 word 6v<na occurs in the Greek, in 
 the Old and New Testaments, and 
 I find it occurs 224 times. Two 
 hundred and twenty-three times 
 have the Protestant translators 
 translated it sacrifice; in this one 
 solitary place, to their eternal shame 
 and ignominy, they have translated 
 the word 6va-ia offering. 
 
 Mr. Gumming — [hastily.] — &n. 
 [We presume the reverend gentle- 
 man meant sin-offering^ 
 
 Mr. riiENCHr— [in reply.] — jrept 
 
 d/iapTias '6vat iv means " sacrifice 
 concerning sin." 
 
 Rev. J. CuMMENG. — 6vmav stands 
 alone by itself. 
 
 Mr. Ebbnch. — Do you mean sin, 
 or do you mean that your version 
 has it Sim roffering.f 
 
 Eev. J. Gumming. — ^Yes! — [We 
 believe the reverend gentleman re- 
 ferred to the latter of the two fore- 
 going questions.] 
 
 Mr. Feenck — [citing the pas- 
 sage.] — irepi afiaprias Bvalav — that 
 is, " sacrifice concerning sin." You 
 have been honest enough to give 
 the word sin, but then what is 
 offering? Where is the word sacri- 
 fice — where is it, my friend ? — [to 
 Mr. Gumming]. Oh, my Protestant 
 friends! if you could know what 
 sacrilege there is in all this, what 
 mockery there is of aU that is 
 sacred in Scripture! For what is 
 more awful than to sit down and 
 vitiate the pure fountain of truth ?, 
 ^-to sit down, when you have it in 
 your power to translate correctly, 
 and to do it incorrectly? And what 
 will be done by my learned friend 
 when he rises up? Some quibbling 
 sophistry, I doubt not — some special 
 pleading — about its probable mean- 
 ing is sin oifering, and then refer; 
 rin^ to other places in sacred 
 Scripture. But, my friends, they 
 stand convicted — the Protestant 
 translators of the English Bible 
 stand "onvicted to all eternity; and 
 if late laamed gentleman were to | 
 brmg aU- the scholars of Oxford 
 or Cambridge, and place them s 
 that they were aU ranged in one 
 thick phalanx around me, 1 should 
 utterly confound them all, and make 
 them hang down their heads in 
 shame. Thesre is no possibility of 
 extricating them from this. What 
 I now say may go forward to them. 
 They may write tome upon tome^ 
 and volume upon volume, and I will 
 laugh them all to scorn. The 
 
B5-2 
 
 rnrtB OP PAITH. {idth Eventn$. 
 
 learned gentl jnian. says we approx- 
 imate to his version. I know not 
 what the leaimed gentleman means! 
 Do we take any deadly, sonl-min- 
 ing errors from his, and engraft 
 them into our sacred Bible ? No, 
 we would rather die, to a man, than 
 do it. But mark, my friends, it 
 is only- within these thirty or forty 
 years past that our priests were 
 permitted to leain their native lan- 
 guage. Of course, when they came 
 over to you, or when they trans- 
 lated at Ilheims or Douay, unac- 
 ouainted with their native language, 
 they were ready to avail themselves 
 of more elegant English, just as I 
 would if at this moment I were to 
 take the Greek Bible ; and I am sure 
 I could give a better translation, 
 and, in many respects, ecMpse the 
 English translation ; but 1 should 
 find various elegant terms of phrase- 
 ology in the English Bible worthy 
 of preservation. I told my learned 
 friend that, as Dr. Doyle said, " it 
 was a noble version," and ia all 
 respects worthy of the title I 
 assigned it of " la belle infidelle — 
 the beautiful traitoress," a name 
 originaEy given by a celebrated 
 Erench writer to an imperfect ver- 
 sion of Thucydides. That is the 
 only claim it has to the panegyric 
 of Dr. Dovle. The English of it 
 is beautiful, I must say; — and. how 
 should the Douay people, who were 
 banished by' the Julians, the apo- 
 states of the day, and forbidden to 
 learn their native language — how 
 should they do otherwise, but, when 
 they found it disfigured by many 
 gamcisms — ^how, I say, should they 
 do otherwise than be desirous of 
 chastening it with genuine English? 
 And very properly so. But how 
 does my learned friend endeavour 
 to extricate himself from the di- 
 lemma into which he is plunged, 
 and in which he flounders about 
 ^ faUs into more unfathomable 
 
 depths than ever? I direct your 
 attention, my friends, iu reference 
 to the Sabbath, to Leviticus xiii. 
 
 Now, then, I want to know how 
 Protestants dared, without listening 
 to the voice uf tradition in the Ca- 
 tholic Church, how they dared to 
 alter the Sabbath? There is another 
 part iu the Bible, my friends, in 
 which curses are heaped on the 
 head of those who should dare to 
 violate the keeping of the Sabbath.' 
 What does my learned friend say by 
 way of excuse for thus charigiog the 
 Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday? 
 He says he " spurns tradition." At 
 one time he goes to it and at ano- 
 ther spurns it. Last evening he did 
 not dare to border on tradition; 
 this evening he is inclined to go to 
 tradition for this, and my learned 
 friend then tells me that primitive 
 Christianity observed it so. What, I 
 ask, has he to do with primitive 
 Christianity, or what has primitive 
 Christianity to do with him ? 
 
 Rev. J. CAMMING. — Erom the 
 Bible! 
 
 Mr. Ebench — [with emphasis.] 
 From the Bible! The Bible does 
 not say a single word about it — not 
 a word. I called on my learned 
 friend to prove to me the other day 
 from his Bible, which he takes as 
 his Rule of Ealth, to prove to me 
 the personality of the Holy Ghost. 
 This eveinng he imagines that the 
 little sophistry he has used will 
 enable him to persuade the Pro- 
 testant part of Ms audience that he 
 has' completely proved it. Now, 
 I must inform my learned friend 
 upon this subject, that it was denied 
 even by the fathers of the Church ; 
 that is, denied to be clearly proved 
 by the Bible. And although my 
 learned friend has quoted a note 
 from the Douay Bible, where it 
 says it can be proved, I deny it 
 in toto, and differ entirely from the 
 learned gentleman; and I certaiu 
 
Mr. French.] 
 
 eitm: op faith. 
 
 653 
 
 am not to be boimd by his ipse 
 dixits. But even there the learned 
 commentator does not mean to say 
 it is proved satisfactorily to every 
 Catholic without the accordant 
 voice of tradition. He knew better. 
 He knew that we look for tradition 
 for all these things. St. Austin 
 says — and I have chapter and verse 
 for what I say — ^the Benedictine 
 edition, tome ii. ed. 1670, p. 46. My 
 friend certainly is more dexterous 
 than St. Austin. He can prove sm 
 thing, no matter whatever the •diffi- 
 culty is ia Scripture, satisfactorily 
 to Ms own mind. A single touch 
 of his magic tongue dissolves the 
 hardest truths and abstrusest pro- 
 blems. [Laughter.] St. Austin 
 thought the authority of the Church 
 necessary,' in order to prove the 
 equality of the three persons. Father, 
 Son, and Holy Ghost. The text 
 by which my friend proves the 
 procession of the Holy Ghost from 
 the Father and the Son, is the 
 following one, John xiv. 16 : — 
 " And I will pray the Father, and 
 he shaJl give you another Com- 
 forter, that he may abide vnth you 
 for ever." 17. " Even the Spirit of 
 Truth." 
 
 Now, mark the word Comforter. 
 He calls it the Paraclete, although 
 
 he knows it is Comforter iu ms 
 
 own:— 
 
 Geoegb Finch, Esq. — Protest- 
 ant chairman, — He (Mr. Cumming) 
 read it out of your Bible — [to 
 Mr. French.] 
 
 Mr. Fkbnch. — ^Why not readout 
 oi vour ovm? 
 
 Eev. J. Cummins. — I will do it 
 [opening the Bible.] 
 
 Mr. French— [playfully.]— Ton 
 will, but I am doing it for you. — 
 [A laugh.] 
 
 Now, my friends, the word Com- 
 forter. How am I to understand 
 when the word — such an indefinite 
 word as "Comforter" — is used. 
 
 that it is the same as Paraclete? 
 The Unitarian, if asked his opinion, 
 win say, " I do not see the person- 
 ation of the Spirit of Truth, of the 
 Holy Ghost, there;" nor do you; 
 and I tell you candidly that, as a Ca- 
 tholic, if I had no better authority, 
 I would not believe it. I therefore 
 require something stronger than 
 that. That text wul not satisfy me 
 that the Holy Ghost proceeds from 
 the Father. The Unitarian says, 
 he must have been authorized by 
 the Father, and sent; but that does 
 not prove the procession of the 
 Holy Ghost from the Father and 
 the Son. But what the Douay 
 Bible means to inculcate is, that 
 tliis text is analogous to the voice 
 of tradition, and must satisfy the 
 Catholic. I say so too, and jul the 
 Catholics in this room ; but a mere 
 isolated text would never satisfy 
 the Catholic without the voice of 
 the Church. Then my friend says, 
 " My Father is greater than i;" 
 and immediately, m his own pleni- 
 potentiarism, crushes the Unitarian, 
 and the Unitarian says it crushes 
 the Trinitarian. Well, the Bible 
 is the Rule of Faith; and how 
 comes it to pass this difference 
 among persons equally solicitous 
 to come at the truth ? God forbid 
 that I should side with any man, 
 either in this room or elsewhere, 
 who should condemn the Unita- 
 rians as hypocrites, or as not 
 being Christians, at least in the 
 Protestant acceptation of the word 
 " Christian." The Bible being the 
 Rule of Faith, they are as much 
 Christians as the Calvinists are. 
 They chalk out a line of Chris- 
 tiamty for themselves; they have no 
 Church to teU them what is truth, 
 and they see many expressions 
 which, taken in the abstract, go 
 to teU them that Christ is inferior to 
 the Father. But my friend singles 
 out this one as the most over- 
 ■i2 
 
554 
 
 KL'LE or FiiTH.' [lOtt Eaeninff. 
 
 powering text to silence the voice 
 of the XJnitarian. I do not. I 
 have a little treatise against the 
 Unitarians, which has operated 
 a number of conversions, I am 
 happy to tell you ; and I think I 
 have colleotedT different texts in 
 the Bible in such a manner as to 
 strike out some light upon this sub- 
 ject ; at least I laid them down so 
 satisfactorily and so solidly, as to 
 (fcpose more than one Unitarian 
 to come over to the Catholic reli- 
 gion ; for, in fact, they aU told me, 
 that the moment they ceased to 
 be Unitarians, th^ would come to 
 the BOCK 01 AGES. But " my 
 Eather is greater than I" — ^my 
 friend says there is the proof of 
 the divinity of Jesus Christ. How 
 so? The Unitarian calls him the 
 adopted Son of God. Yeiy well; 
 tiiat, he says, is our analogy be- 
 tween celestial things amd terres- 
 trial; and I contend that tiiat text 
 is not at all satisfactory, taken by 
 itself, to disprove the tenets of the 
 Unitarian at all. My learned friend 
 will accuse me, I know, here, of 
 leaning towards infldelity. ^ I 
 can say is, my conscience acquits 
 me of that; but, if he meant to 
 reproach , me to exasperation, he 
 would accuse me of leaning towards 
 Calvinism. Among all t& various 
 desultory observations of my learned 
 friend is one, I find, concerning 
 marriage; and he observes, most 
 infallibly, that the Catholic Church 
 is the " Lady of Babylon" -~- a 
 reproach which he has been in the 
 habit for many years past of lavish- 
 ing upon US — and, as one proof of 
 it, he appeals to the forbidding of 
 marriage. Now, mark, gentlemen : 
 if there is anything in the pro- 
 phecies of Scripture, which I should 
 point out -by the finger, to bring 
 home against Protestants, it is this 
 very prohibition of marriage. The 
 Catliolic Church never did nor could 
 
 forbid it. If it did, that moment 
 I would tell the Catholio Church it 
 was a false one. The Catholio 
 Church will not admit any one to 
 its priesthood who is mamed ; but 
 it does say to a maa before be 
 enters the priesthood, " Thou shalt 
 not marry." But we have seen the 
 accomplishment of this in our day, 
 and we shall see the legislature, if 
 I mistake not, take farther steps 
 in it. We have seen a treatise 
 lately from the pen of parson 
 Malthus, aind other parsons have 
 taken up the pen, calling on the 
 legislature to limit the right of un- 
 bounded marriage ; and it remains 
 for Protestants to accomplish the 
 awful prediction. We advise every 
 one who lives in this wicked world 
 not to devote himself to. the altar 
 if he marry. It is much better; 
 and many are the males and females 
 who devote themselves to the single 
 and mdntermpted service of their 
 God, and to a life of purity and 
 holiness in onr sacred convents ; and 
 Protestaaats caa testify to the same. 
 You have had one here for centuries 
 [we understand there is a very ancient 
 cunvent in some secliide4 part of the 
 town,'] and- what tongue would dare 
 to slander their holiness awl purity? 
 We do not discouivtensnee mar- 
 riage, but we glory in our priest- 
 hood and our bishops ; such monu- 
 ments of sanctity strike every one 
 with awe as thCT' meet them along 
 the streets. They are the' true 
 priests indeed. They abstain. The 
 learned gentleman doubts whether 
 I am in orders or not. No; 1 
 am not worthy — I am a married 
 man ; but if I were a priest of the 
 living God, I should think myself 
 one of the most contaminated of 
 mortals on the face of the earth, 
 if I could be so forgetful of my 
 sacred vows as to act as your 
 "sainted!" reformers did — your 
 Luther and Calvin — who, after 
 
Mr. French.'] 
 
 EULE or TAITH. 
 
 555 
 
 having called God to witness they 
 woula abstain from marriage all 
 the days of their life, do it ia open 
 opposition to those vows, and then 
 pretend, vrith hypocritical sanctity, 
 to be reformers. Oh, gentlemen, 
 it makes one's blood boil in one's 
 veins ! — and then, not content with 
 marrying, contrary to that one 
 solemn engagement not to do it, 
 to sit down with infernal spirit, 
 and in the utmost deliberation, call 
 on that sacred book to speak in 
 conformity to_ their abominable 
 tenets. The learned gentleman 
 upbraided us for mistranslating the 
 Bible, where it says, " The priest's 
 lips shall keep knowledge ;" and 
 wnere I proved that they (the Pro- 
 testant translators) had no right to 
 translate it should, and that it was 
 a wicked perversion, there my 
 learned friend calls away your atten- 
 tion from the word. I asked my 
 friend, the other evening, if he 
 would translate " Thou shall not 
 commit adultery," Thou shouldst 
 not commit adultery? — and he 
 seemed to shudder at it ; and I 
 repeat, here is no room at all for 
 the application of the passage but 
 by its .referring to the admonition 
 and authority of the priests. 
 
 Luther, "in the heat of contro- 
 versy," as the learned gentleman 
 contends, called James the Apostle's 
 Epistle "a ehafy epistle;" and are 
 we, in an assembly of Christians, to 
 be told by the Reverend Mr. Cam- 
 ming that he can extenuate the 
 guiltiness of a reformer, a prime 
 reformer, raised up, as he says, 
 by God " to effect great purposes," 
 because, forsooth, when he blas- 
 phemes a sacred part of the Bible, 
 he blasphemes, poor man, in the 
 heat of controversy. Is it possible 
 that my friend can smile upon him, 
 an4 pardon him, and pass an act of 
 absolution on him immediately in 
 the plenitude of his power ? And 
 
 why? Because "he said it in ^^ 
 heat of controversy 1" Did you ever 
 hear such a word as that {i.e. cha%) 
 escape from my hps concerning the 
 inspired volume, though I thunder 
 loudly against the mistranslations 
 of their English Bible ? Do I raise 
 a sacrilegious voice against the well, 
 accurately, and faithfully translated 
 Bible ? No, gentlemen, it is all 
 alike inspired ; and if I were once 
 capable of saying that one part was 
 inferior in sanctity to another, that 
 moment I should cease to be a 
 member of the Cathplic Church. 
 
 My learned friend next called my 
 attention to several opinions of 
 Jerome and others concemingcertain 
 books. Why, I can tell my friend 
 that,, until about the seventh cen- 
 tury, there were several doubts in 
 the Church of God about the Epistle 
 to the Hebrews, though the Council 
 of Carthage, which was a general 
 council, enumerated it among the 
 inspired books, and it was also enu- 
 merated in the Council of Carthage. 
 But when once a council has settled 
 a book, as the Council of Trent had 
 done in a solemn manner, making 
 the books correspond accurateljs, 
 at that moment all dissentient voices 
 lie hushed, whether it be Cardinal 
 Bellarmine, or Jerome, or Cajetan : 
 — ^he who denies the Book: of Mac- 
 cabees, or Judithj or any other book, 
 to be consider 3d part of the Bible, 
 he belongs to you; he is no longer 
 a Cathohc. It is impossible to re- 
 main in the CathoHc Church, and 
 call in question any one part of the 
 sacred volume which has been once 
 decided by a Council — ^by an ecu- 
 menical coimcil. 
 
 My friend says there is no diver- 
 sity as to essentials among Eeform- 
 ers. Before I have done with you 
 this evening I will give you broad 
 stamps of this their diversity. He 
 says, Mr. Erenchhas dwelt coj)iously 
 upon this, with great emphasis and 
 
356 
 
 BULE Of TAITH. 
 
 \\Oth Evening. 
 
 importance ; but, after all, it is " a 
 mare's nest." [Laughter.] I really 
 do not know what he means by " a 
 mare's nest," but this I know — if 
 there be such a thing as a mare's 
 nest, and if in that nest I shotdd 
 chance to find one generous high- 
 bom colt, with several long-eared 
 asses peeping out of that said nest, 
 I think I could say, without self- 
 flattery, that I should be able to 
 discriminate at first glance the ge- 
 nuine from the bastard, the noble- 
 bom from the ignoble and the de- 
 generate offspring. [Loud laughter.] 
 Gentlemen, without the necessity 
 of any explication on my part, I 
 perceive you understand my allu- 
 sion. But the learned gentleman 
 says they do not differ in funda- 
 mentals. Gracious heaven ! how 
 often has that been repeated by my 
 learned friend, and with how little 
 appearance of truth and accuracy ! 
 "^o fundamental differences between 
 Protestants in this room ! Can a 
 man, standing in the presence of 
 his God, assert that with any so- 
 lemnity ? My learned friend has 
 another fuU hour to indulge his vein 
 of oratory. Let my learned friend, 
 therefore, for one evening, allow his 
 tongue to adhere, if possible, to the 
 sacred line of truth. Let bim re- 
 cant or retract his expressions, for 
 it is impossible that he can mean 
 what be endeavours to impress upon 
 you, namely^ that the various Pro- 
 testants in this room — the Anabap- 
 tists, the Calvinists, the Lutherans, 
 the Quakers, the Dissenters — do 
 not differ in fundamentals. If my 
 learned friend maintains seriously 
 that they do not, I must drop the 
 question at once, because I cannot 
 give bim a direct denial. But I 
 feave my GathoEc friends to draw 
 their inference from it, knowing as 
 they weE do, that it is in funda- 
 mentals that they (^different sects) 
 differ, and not in tnfing and insig- 
 
 nificant circumstances. If it were 
 so, they would be a formidable body, 
 and they then would not correspond 
 to that ancient saying in the Bible, 
 to which they so literally approxi- 
 mate — "a house divided among 
 themselves." [The learned gentle- 
 man here paused to ascertain how 
 much of the hour yet remained.] I 
 find I have only five minutes more. 
 I am loth to begin a, new suWect. 
 However, I shaJl avail mjseu of 
 most of the time that still remains 
 to me, in order to give my learned 
 opponent some little solid matter to 
 go upon this evening. I wish first 
 to ask my learned opponent to prove 
 a Ettle more satisfectorily than he 
 has hitherto done, the accuracy of 
 that Rule of Paith which he has 
 thrown down so pompously on the 
 table, I wish him to prove that 
 God the Father is not begotten — 
 from the Bible. Secondly, that 
 God the Son is not made nor 
 created, but begotten by the Pather 
 only. And thirdly, that the Holy 
 Ghost is neither made nor begotten, 
 but proceedeth from the Pather and 
 the Son. All this I wish to have 
 proved in a straightforward prac- 
 tical manner, in a manner accessible 
 to the understanding of every one 
 in this room ; 1 wish him to prove 
 his Eule of Paith, which he has 
 thrown down with such an air of 
 inefftible defiance on the table ; that 
 he who will be saved must beEeve 
 these articles just' specified — "for 
 these are the articles of the CathoHc 
 faith, which unless a man hold in 
 his integrity without doubt, he will 
 be lost to all eternity." I wish 
 him, moreover, to prove by direct 
 texts the baptism of infants; for, 
 mark, my friends, this concerns one- 
 third part of the human race, and, 
 therefore, I am anxious to see with 
 what face my friend wiU. rise in a 
 moment. [A laugh.] I know very 
 weE, and we believe that he can 
 
aev. J. Ctmminff.] utile op paith. 
 
 557 
 
 speak on any thing ; but with what 
 face will he be alole to show that 
 you differ in trifles and not in fun- 
 damentals, when there are sects in 
 this room who maintain that the 
 water in baptism is not necessary, 
 and others, that without water we 
 are lost to all eternity ? And when 
 he attempts to prove the necessary 
 baptism of infants, my friend must 
 
 five something more solid than he 
 as done' — something more solid 
 than such a text as "he was bap- 
 tized with all his household." Sup- 
 pose the text said, such and such 
 persons were confirmed with all their 
 household, would it follow that the 
 babies were confirmed who were 
 just bom ? Suppose it said, " They 
 were all confirmed reading their 
 Bibles." Were the little babies in 
 the cradle reading their Bibles? 
 [A kugh.] Was there any instance 
 before that verse appeared in the 
 Bible, of infants being baptized ? 
 If there were, my frienf would have 
 a just grbund for saying, that when 
 Paul and his household was bap- 
 tized, that the infants were baptized 
 also. I beg my friend to give a 
 direct answer to all this, and, most 
 important of all, to prove to me the 
 baptism of infants ; and then, my 
 friend will condescend to reconcile 
 the palpable discordancies, viz. that 
 you Protestants in this room differ 
 but in lesser circumstances, and to 
 make out to us CathoHcs how it is 
 a trifle that one-third of the human 
 race should go to their doom with- 
 out water poured on their heads. 
 Now, if my learned friend will con- 
 descend to bestow a few of his elo- 
 quent sentences on that subject, I 
 shall be extremely obKged to him 
 this evening. 
 
 Grentlemen, my time is up. I 
 have only time to say, Protestants 
 being all unanimous upon primary 
 fundamental proofs, let him prove 
 their unanimity. 
 
 Rev. J. CuMMiNG. — ^It mast have 
 been apparent to the mind of every 
 attentive and unbiassed auditor, that 
 my learned antagonist had one 
 simple object ia view, and that to 
 that object he has most pertina- 
 ciously adhered throughout. Con- 
 scious that he could not meet the 
 plain and simple positions which 
 I have made good, he has tried to 
 divert your attention from the real 
 question at issue, and to turn it to 
 a thousand and one particulars 
 about every and any subject that 
 has entered into his mind. I do 
 not intend this evening to pursue 
 and expose him as usual m his 
 flight. If I did so I should gratify 
 him, as he courts any and every 
 discussion save the discussion and 
 exposure of the Papacy. I will, en 
 passant, touch the snmma fastigia 
 rerum — one or two of the leading 
 points, and then proceed to show 
 the boasted unity of his own Church, 
 and thereby to demonstrate how 
 ridiculous are his vauntings of the 
 safety and harmonizing powers of 
 his Rule of Faith. 
 
 With respect to baptism. 1 
 already stated that I did not feel it 
 necessary to enter into a discussion 
 of the question, simply because he 
 and I, whatever any one in this 
 assembly thinks, are agreed that 
 infant baptism is demonstrable from 
 the Bible. I refer to his own 
 version of the Bible, and the ap- 
 pendix at its close, under the head- 
 : ing, " Baptism of Infants," and in 
 that appendix he wiU find it de- 
 clared that two texts alone prove 
 the scriptural nature and origin 
 of infant baptism; and, therefore, 
 unless he rejects Dr. Murray and the 
 Douay Bible, we are perfectly agreed 
 upon the point, that infant baptism 
 can be proved from Scripture, and 
 need not spend time itt discussing 
 points of agreement while there are 
 so many points of vital diversity. 
 
558 
 
 KULE OP FAIIE. [lOiA Evetitxg. 
 
 Mr. French. — Of course. 
 
 Rev. J. Cummins. — ^It is not ne- 
 cessary, therefore, to convince you 
 that it can be proved from Scrip-, 
 ture. We are agreed on that point. 
 
 Mr. FiiENCH. — ^Read the place. 
 
 Kev. J. CuMMiN& — [complying]. 
 "For the baptisffll of infants, see 
 St. Luke xviii. 16, compared with 
 St. John iii. 5." 
 
 Now, I am not caRei at present 
 to pronounce a verdict on the point. 
 All that I contend for is, that his 
 Church, as she or her representative 
 speaks in the notes to his Bible, 
 declares that infant baptism is 
 pointed out by these two texts 
 alone. Now, right or wrong, we 
 are agreed on that point. We can 
 ■prove it without traditaoo, — Dr. 
 Murray, Romish Aiehbishop of 
 Dublin, being judge. It would, 
 therefore, be a work of supererM;a- 
 tion to cotivinCe an antagonii^t that 
 infant baptism could bg proved from 
 the word of God, because he is 
 already satisfactorily convinced. But 
 do not entertain the idea for a mo- 
 ment, that I hold it a fundamental 
 difference, whether one is baptized 
 at eight months or eighteen years. 
 This is not a v4st difference, m my 
 mind. This is a mere question of 
 chronology; it is not a vital and 
 essential cttference in theology. I 
 lo not hold the Mm opemttm of 
 3,ome. If I held that, then f would 
 iay the Baptists would be seriously 
 «Frong. Millions are baptized with 
 water, ay, and in my antagonist's 
 way, with the priest's spitfle too, 
 and yet not baptized with the Holy 
 Ghost. I agjree with the Anglican 
 Article, that the sacraments are 
 "generally necessary to salvation." 
 I "here leave the question, knowing 
 that no baptized Christian in this 
 assembly wUl hold that the chrono- 
 logy of baptism is a vital and essen- 
 tial difference. 
 
 My opponent had the audacity 
 
 again to quote from Latimer re- 
 specting the descent of Christ iiito 
 heU. I showed you that Latimer, 
 two or three sentences below, in 
 the same sermon, Stated that this 
 was a notion he thought not itapro- 
 bable, but which he neither held 
 nor insisted on — in other Words, 
 Latimer wished to show that the 
 sufferings which Christ endured 
 when he drank the cup of vrrath 
 were as great as if he had descended 
 into hell; and when he uses lan- 
 guage that he did so, he puts it as 
 perfect hypoliesis, which you may 
 rgeot or receive as you please. But 
 after you have heard this string of 
 denunciations from my ants^onist, 
 used to cover his garbling of iati- 
 mer, what wiU be your surprisb to 
 find that tke doctors of Ms own 
 Chiirch hold the idea of Latimer, 
 without 'the qualification or liher^ 
 which Latimer appends to it? In 
 order to show tms, I quote from 
 Bellarmine, de Christo, lib. iv. c. 16. 
 pp. 396, 397, &c. :— 
 
 " St. Thomas, pp. 3, 9, 52, art. ii. 
 teaehes that Chnst, by his real 
 presence, descended but' to limhns 
 patrum, and in effect only to the • 
 other places of hell. ' Secondly, St. 
 Thomas seems to sm that it was 
 some punishment to Christ to be in 
 hell, aefcording to his soul. Cajetan 
 ?aith that the sorrows of Christ's 
 death continued on him til his re- 
 surrection, ia regard of three penal- 
 ties, whereof the second is, that the 
 
 SOUL BEMAINED IN HELL, a plaCC 
 
 not convenient for it. But Bona- 
 venture saith that Christ's soul, 
 WHILE IT WAS IN HELL, was in the 
 place of punishment indeed, but 
 without punishment ; which seems 
 to me more agreeable to the 
 fathers." 
 
 Such is an extract from Bellar- 
 mine. In the same place that cele- 
 brated cardinal attacks Durandnfe, 
 who, he says; agrees with Calvin in. 
 
iltev. J, Cummin^.] 
 
 RULE OP lAITU. 
 
 559 
 
 thill king that Christ's sovil did not 
 go into nell. 
 
 Mr. FuENCH. — Not hell, but 
 limbo. 
 
 Eev. J. CuMMiNG^— [in surprise]. 
 Limbo ! 
 
 Mr. Pbjbnoh.^-AU three. 
 
 Rev. J. CtTMMiNe.— ^I must refer 
 to it again. 
 
 [Here the reverend gentleman 
 read the first part of the extract 
 from BeUarmine a second time.] 
 
 Mr. !Fkenoh. — No, that is part. 
 
 Rev. J. CuMMiNa. — Very weE ; 
 I will go on. " Cajhtajt saith that 
 the sorrows of Christ's death con- 
 tinued on hira tiH his resurrection, 
 whereof the second is, that his soul 
 
 Mr. Pbench.— ^No, no, no. 
 
 Rev. J. Gumming. — ^Well, then, 
 I leave this, as I can easily afford 
 it, and go on. St. Bonaventure 
 says, " that Christ's soul, while it 
 
 WAS IN HBIL." 
 
 My opponent has merely to trans- 
 fer the anathemas he hurled at La- 
 rimer, which I have shown to be 
 undeserved, and henceforth hurl 
 them at Cardinal Cajetan, Thomas 
 AquiuaB, and Bonaventure, for which 
 last idolater there is a collect in 
 Mr. French's Missal for the proper 
 day. My opponent excels aU I ever 
 encountered m laying traps and gins 
 for himself. 
 
 The next quotation of my learned 
 friend was from Jewel, in which 
 the bishop did not compliment those 
 whom he names as the Anabaptists 
 of his day. Now, I ask my Pro- 
 testant audience, whether the Bap- 
 tists of the present day are the same 
 body as the Baptists of Jewel's day ? 
 They differ as much as Bominus 
 Bens does from my learned anta- 
 gonist, Mr. Preneh. [Laughter.] 
 The Anabaptists were a turbulent 
 body, some centuries a^o, without, 
 perhaps, one feature in common 
 with the Baptists of this day. Tlie 
 
 Baptists of the present day are a 
 body of Christians, among whom 
 were a Hall and a Carey, differing 
 about the time when the sacrament 
 of Baptism is to be admimstered ; 
 and, therefore, I really think that 
 this reference to the AJaabaptists is 
 another of the very fallible failures 
 into which my learned antagonist 
 has plunged mmself. But, as re- 
 gards Jewel — even taking his words 
 m the strongest sense iu which he 
 speaks — when he speaks disrespeot- 
 fully of another Christian, they are 
 milk and water to Romish recrimi- 
 nations. Suppose I show you how 
 the doctors of his (Mr. French's) 
 Church speak one of another ; for 
 instance, a pope of a council, or a 
 cbuncil of a pope. The Council 
 of Pisa, A.D. 1409, thus describes 
 the two rival popes of that cen- 
 tury :— 
 
 " The aforesaid Angelo Corrario 
 and Peter de Luna, the competitors 
 for the Popedom, have been and 
 are, notorious schismatics, obsti- 
 nate and notorious, heretics, en- 
 tangled in the enormous and infa- 
 mous crimes of perjury and violation 
 of promise." 
 
 A. Rhemish Council, a.d. 1131, 
 aooordiM to Baronius, "excommu- 
 nicated Pope Peter as an intruder, 
 and consigned him to the roaring 
 lion." These are rich compliments 
 to the Pope, therefore. 
 
 Again — " The holy Council of 
 Basil pronounces, decrees, and de- 
 clares Pope Eugenius IV. to be 
 notoriously contumacious, a simo- 
 niac, a pequred man, an obstinate 
 ■BSBxno."—Lahbeiis, vol.xiii.p. 619. 
 [Laughter.] 
 
 Observe, here is a council of the 
 Roman Catholic Church speaking in 
 this very courteous and beautiful 
 language of one, whom a portion of 
 that Church calls infallible. This 
 is the unity— the concorcKa discors 
 of Rome. Then, to show you that 
 
B60 
 
 EULE OF FAITH". [lOti EvetllTlff. 
 
 these gentlemen, the popes, were 
 not accustomed to retaliation — ^that 
 the lex talionis was known among 
 them [laughter] — vie read of the 
 way in which they retaliate as 
 follows : — 
 
 " EugeniuB, Bishop, servant of 
 the servants of God, &e. 
 
 "The evil spirits of the whole 
 world seem to have collected in that 
 den of robbers at Basil : we declare 
 and decree that each of the above 
 were and are schismaties and he- 
 retics." 
 
 Observe, the Council of Basil, one 
 part of my opponent's Rule of Faith, 
 does not hesitate to call the Pope, 
 who is another part, a notorious 
 heretic and breaker of the peace ; 
 and the Pope returns the compli- 
 ment, and does not scruple to de- 
 nounce the Council of Basil as " a 
 den of robbers." " Wten Greek 
 meets Greek, then comes the tug of 
 war." [Loud laughter.] Therefore, 
 when my learned antagonist brings 
 forward Jewel, speatmg of a sect 
 called the Anabaptists, ne is a long 
 way outside of our Rule of Faith ; 
 but we are breaking the very heart 
 and body of his when we show 
 popes and councils on such terms, 
 lou observe pope arrayed against 
 council, and council against pope, 
 and yet the Rule of Faith and the 
 wnitif of the Church of Rome are its 
 pleas for your instant conversion to 
 its principles and creed. 
 
 Again, driven off at every point, 
 he brought forward again what he 
 calls our Bible mistranslation. I 
 call upon this audience to remember 
 and witness that I replied to his 
 arguments upon our version of the 
 Biole at length. He is anxious for 
 me to waste the whole of the hour 
 assigned me in going over the same 
 ground which I have already satis- 
 factorily dispatched, and in which 
 I showed jrou that what he called 
 mistranslations were the plain ren- 
 
 dering of the original tongue, and 
 that m that passage, where your 
 translators have "ye do not the 
 things that ye would," I said, your 
 translators have given a rendering 
 which makes perfect nonsense of it. 
 When you say, " ye do not the 
 things that ye would," does it not 
 mean to imply that ye cannot do 
 them? The Romish version is in 
 this instance literal — "Ye do not 
 do the things which ye would;" 
 but our version gives the obvious 
 sense, " ye cannot," and expressly 
 asserts the meaning of the Holy 
 Spirit. 
 
 NoWj I revert to the word Mu- 
 anqpiov. I call your attention to 
 this. He says it has rightly been 
 rendered sacrament in the Roman 
 Catholic version, I hold in my 
 hand [displaying a paper] twenty- 
 six passages collected from the 
 Douay Bible. In only one place is 
 Mva-rriptov rendered sacrament, that 
 is, where marriage, one of the seven 
 Papal sacraments, is spoken of ; 
 and in the twenty-five others it is 
 rendered mystery. Why this in- 
 consistency ? 
 
 Again, he complained that the 
 Protestant clerical reformers were 
 married. They did' quite right. 
 Peter nad a wife, for the Scripture 
 speaks of " Peter's wife's mother." 
 And again, " A bishop must be the 
 husband of one wife ;" and there- 
 fore, to stand up and maiatain that 
 clergymen must not marry, may be 
 one of the hallucinations of tradi- 
 tion, but it is not one of the rescripts 
 of the word of God. On the text, 
 " Peter's wife's mother," perhaps 
 my friend has some unwritten lore. 
 Did Peter get the marriage bill 
 repealed? Did he get a divorce 
 against his wife, and turn her off 
 the moment he became Pope ? 
 [Laughter.] 
 
 Again, I referred you to one 
 of his own Popes, Gregory the 
 
Bev. J. Oummintf.] rule op faith. 
 
 561 
 
 Great, wko rejects the Book of 
 Maccabees 
 
 Mr. Fbench. — No, no ! 
 
 Rev. J. Gumming — [in reply]. — 
 1 quoted the proof on a former oc- 
 casion. Mr. French cannot deny it. 
 1 will give the passage again in the 
 original, as ■well as translated. It 
 is fatal to the Papacy : — 
 
 " De quS, re non inordinate fa- 
 cimus si ex libris, licet non canon- 
 icis, sed tamen ad sediflcationem 
 plebiseditis testimoniumproferamns. 
 Eleazar namquam in procelso ele- 
 phantem, feriens stravit, sed sub 
 ipso occubuit." — Oreg. Mar. Kb. xix. 
 c. 39, B. Job. Bened. Edit. Parisiis, 
 1705. 
 
 Thus Pope Gregory asserts that 
 the book from which he takes the 
 instance of Eleazar is not canonical. 
 Deny it if you dare. Be not de- 
 ceived, my Roman Catholic hearers ; 
 Pope Gregory the Great calls that 
 book human, which your present 
 Pope, Gregory XVI., calls inspired. 
 
 Then my learned friend seems 
 to have found another striking 
 illustration of our mistranslations, 
 and he says we have rendered the 
 Greek word " an offering for sin," 
 which they have rendered " a sa- 
 crificing for sin." Now, what is 
 the difference ? Sin-ofPering, and 
 sacrificing for sin, are the same 
 thing; and therefore, this is any 
 thing but a strong reason for up- 
 braiding our translators in the un- 
 measured terms in which my anta- 
 gonist was pleased to indulge. My 
 opponent is so utterly at a loss for 
 objections, that he tries to make 
 distinctions without differences. 
 
 Again, he denies that the Rhe- 
 mists, when they came to this 
 country, took our version and incor- 
 porated it partly with their own. 
 He says, they never took the errors, 
 they only took the beauties. Now, 
 I am glad to heai him acknowledge 
 at Inst, that beauties do exist in our 
 
 version, notwithstanding his denun- 
 ciations of it. I feel yet more glad 
 that you have been improving your 
 own version by approximating it to 
 ours more and more. 
 
 In the next place, he says, he 
 coTild give a better version of the 
 vulgate Latin than the English 
 version of Dr. Muiray, which lies on 
 the table, and is in the hands of 
 Roman Catholics. 
 
 Mr. Pkenoh. — ^No, no : of the 
 Greek New Testament. 
 
 Rev. J. Gumming. — Oh, very 
 well : of the Greek New Testament 
 — a better version than Archbishop 
 Murray's. Then the question I 
 next ask is. How is it that Dr. 
 Murray, Aiohbishop of Dublin, has 
 so long overlooked my opponent's 
 distinguished merits ? Why has he 
 sent out this, when he knows that 
 there is a distinguished barrister in 
 the Roman CathoKc Church, named 
 Daniel Erenoh, who is able for no 
 great reward to supply a better 
 translation ? Here we have the 
 bishops of the Irish Church pro- 
 nouncing this version to be the best. 
 
 Mr. &ENCH. — Yes. 
 
 Rev. J. CiraQnNG-— [in continu- 
 ation]. — And here is Mr. French 
 saying it is not ; and thus, when 
 doctors differ, it remains for others 
 abler than myself to reconcile them. 
 
 Again, he disputes the Lord's 
 day to be the primitive day. I went 
 to the word of God, and I adduced 
 successive passages which distinctly 
 declare, that the first day of the 
 week is the day now called the 
 Lord's day, upon which the primi- 
 tive Christians met together for the 
 celebration of Divine service ; and 
 I said, that such a precedent is 
 sufficient, especially after Cardinal 
 Bellarmine's admission, in which 
 I coincide, that there are conditions 
 in the Epistle to the Galatians, which 
 absolve us from the observance of 
 the Jewish Sabhath. 
 
S63 
 
 ETJLB OP FAITH. [lOtA Ikemng . 
 
 His next remark waa, Ms odd 
 dissatisfaction with me, foi daring 
 to prove that thd fifteenth of John, 
 twenty-sixth verse, demonstrates 
 the procession of the Holy Spirit 
 from the Son. He blames me for 
 seeing it in that text. He ought 
 to blame his own Church also for 
 seeing the same thing in that text. 
 He ought to excommunicate Dr. 
 Murray and the Ehemish transla- 
 tors, for they see as I see also. 
 Let me refresh my opponent's me- 
 mory. Note in the Tionay Bible on 
 St. John XV. 36 : — " This proves, 
 against the modem Greeks, that the 
 Holy Ghost proceedeth from the Son, 
 as well as from the Father, otherwise 
 he could not be sent by the Son." 
 
 This is the opinion of evenr body 
 save my opponent, who, in this 
 matter, stands pre-eminently alone. 
 There is not a word, you see, about 
 the aid of tradition'; and therefore, 
 if I was so blind as to say the text 
 proves what my opponent required, 
 or, rather, if my eyes were so per- 
 verted as to see proof in the text, 
 surely I may be excused when the 
 commentators of his own Bible have 
 seen the same thing long before 
 I was bom. [Laughter.] 
 
 My opponent seemed to deny that 
 Paraclete means the Holy Spirit. 
 Now, if I was wrong in saying 
 Paraclete means the Holy Spirit 
 when I used it, it foUows that his 
 commentators must be wrong also, 
 for they say the same. They well 
 knew, what nobody in his senses 
 defiies, that the Paraclete means the 
 Holy Spirit ; but Mr. Preneh, pain- 
 fully ignorant of his own Bible, 
 turns round upon me for saying 
 that Paraclete means the Holy 
 Spirit. Here again, Mr. Prench is 
 against Dr. Murray, and against the 
 aommentators on his own Bible ; 
 and yet there is unity in the Church 
 of Borne ! Do not fail to hote, that 
 every one of these remarks is loosen- 
 
 ing his Bule of Paith, until, I be- 
 lieve, we shall have him standing 
 with the. whole fabric in ruins 
 around him, and only the indestruct- 
 ible bookj the word of the living God, 
 preserved as the truth, the whole 
 truth, and nothing but the truth. 
 
 Again, he says, I only quoted one 
 text to prove the Deity of Christ 
 to disprove Arianism. I believe I 
 quoted many texts ; but, yon ob- 
 serve, in order to give a fuil series 
 of lectures upon this controversy, it 
 would take five or six weeks, and 
 I cannot be dragged into it merely 
 to satisfy my learned antagonist. 
 
 My opponent asks. How are we 
 sure that we have the Bible pure, 
 as the overwhelming majority oi the 
 bishops of the fourth century were 
 Arians ? I reply. We have nearly the 
 whole Bible quoted in books before 
 the Arian heresy : we received 
 copies of it they did not and could 
 not touch ; and only certain parts of 
 it which were subjects of dispute 
 could be tampered with. The Bible 
 is the book of Godj and, Bomanists 
 themselves being judges, it is pure 
 now as at the first. Thte shield of 
 Heaven has been stretched over it. 
 If the great majority of the western 
 bishops became Arians, then it turns 
 out tnat the Rule of Paith of the 
 Soman Church did not prevent the 
 bishops from fallin g into heresy. 
 Is my opponent aware that he is 
 IreaMng up his own Bule of Paith ? 
 so that every position which he 
 makes causes him to tremble on the 
 verge of Boman Catholic suicide. 
 I was going to use a familiar illus- 
 tration. Perhaps it is too famiHar; 
 but as Mr. Prench condescends, I 
 may be allowed. You have seen a 
 pig when it is forced to swim — 
 some Irishmen in this assembly 
 know its habits Qauditer] : when 
 this native of the Emerald Isle 
 attempts to swim, its two foremost 
 legs are sm-e to out his own throat 
 
B^v. /. Oumminy.] ei'le op paith. 
 
 563 
 
 before it can reachj the banks : and 
 my friend, in his plui^ng to com- 
 pare higher things with lower, in 
 lookina after snpport and struggling 
 towards victory, deliberately cuts 
 his own throat. [Laughter.] 
 
 The next remark of my antago- 
 nist was, that if one cease to be 
 a Sacinian, he mnst be a Roman 
 Catholic 5 that is, if I leave Ham- 
 mersmith, I mast necessarih go to 
 Hounslow. rLaughter.] His next 
 remark was of the unintelligible. I 
 can only accuse him of inarvellous 
 ignorance of Scripture, in so speak- 
 ing of the texts i quoted. 
 
 He next stated that marriage was 
 not prohibited to the priests of the 
 Church of Rome, and yet they are 
 not allowed to marry. Now, this 
 curious distinction is so splendid, 
 that I need not answer it. It 
 shines by its own Ught. [Laughter.] 
 He then quoted Malthus as having 
 proposed some restrictions on mar- 
 riage. Malthus, I assure you, is 
 not my Pope. If Malthus were an 
 apostle, I would pause; but this 
 poor man, being against marriage, 
 was as likely a monk as anything 
 else, ^i^iy, — ^Does the celibacy of 
 the Roman clergy really promote 
 the desiderata of Maltnus ? — ^He 
 thenceforth complained that I called 
 Rome " the lady of Babylon." NoMr, 
 his own Churm has frequently as- 
 serted before, that St. Peter calls 
 RomeBabylon. Blame your Churchi 
 and not me. For instance, we read 
 in St. Peter's epistle, "The Church 
 which is at Babylon saluteth you." 
 
 Mr. French. — [Hurriedly.] — 
 Wiere ? 
 
 Rev. J. CuMMiNG. — [In continua- 
 tion.] — 1 Pet. V. 13 5 and I find in 
 the Roman Catholic Bible this ap- 
 propriate note : " Pigtjbativelt 
 Rome." [Laughter.] I said the 
 Church of Rome was Babylon, and 
 the notes in his own Bible declare 
 the same thing. Now, I request 
 
 aU discerning Protestants to read 
 Apocalypse, chap, xviii., for a pic- 
 ture of Rome or Babylon ; and rich 
 and rare for my opponent's Church 
 are aU the res\uting consequences of 
 such an admission. 
 
 His next remark was as to 
 Malachi, that we have corrupted the 
 translation of should, and that their 
 translation is "shall;" and that they 
 are right here and never anywhere 
 wroilg. The following text, which, 
 as usual, my opponent leaves out, 
 illustrates the meaning of the one 
 he reads before it, where it says, 
 "But ye (the priests) have gone 
 out of the way, and caused the peo- 
 ple of Grod to err." — The next thing 
 was that of applauding the conduct 
 of Luther in rejecting the Epistle of 
 James. I never did so. If Luther 
 rejected it in the heat of contro- 
 versy, I can paUiate, but not ex- 
 cuse. His enemies were many, and 
 bitter, and bloodthirsty; but he is 
 not to be praised for it — by no 
 means^Luther is to be blamed for 
 it. But Luther is not a part of my 
 Rule of Faith. This settles the 
 force of the reference. Some of his 
 own Church, as I will show, also 
 agree with Luther. But though 
 Mr. French has promised to bring 
 forward some hundred writers who 
 have asserted a hundred whims, 
 they have nothing to do with our 
 Rule of Faith; they are neither 
 part nor parcel of it. Mr. French 
 may, with equal effect, play on the 
 violin, or dance a Scotch reel or a 
 hornpipe, as make such irrelevant 
 quotations. [Loud laughter.] I 
 repeat, his quoting the differences 
 of Protestants does no more touch 
 our Rule of Faith, than quoting the 
 differences of poets and painters. 
 It remains untouched and un- 
 scathed, though every individual 
 before me were to hold more ridi- 
 culous whims than my opponent. 
 But remember, that, when I touch 
 
564 
 
 HULE OP rAiTH. [lOtt Eoening. 
 
 the expositions of his ootmcils and 
 the fathers of his Church, I am 
 striking at the very foundation of 
 the rule : I am tearing his Rule of 
 Paith into shreds; I am breaking 
 his rule to pieces at every blow, by 
 showing the sentiments of the 
 fathers connected with it. Now 
 hear. I quote St. Thomas on the 
 subject of his kind and degree of 
 worship given to images. Thomas 
 Aquinas, as quoted by BeUarmine, 
 says, part iii. 9, 25, art. 3 ; " The 
 same honour is due to the image as 
 to the thing expressed by it ;" and, 
 therefore, Christ's image is to be 
 worshipped with the -worship of 
 Itttria — St. Mary's with hyper-douKa 
 — the saints with doulia. 
 
 Observe, the Roman Catholic 
 Church is ever asserting that she 
 gives only the subordinate worship 
 of SouXfta to images ; but here we 
 find the " seraphic " doctor Aquinas 
 referred to in terms the most eulo- 
 gistic bymy learned antagonist, de- 
 claring that the supreme worship of 
 latria is to be given to the cross of 
 Christ or to the images of Christ. 
 Now, then, if "Mr. French says 
 that doulia only is to be given to 
 the cross and images of Christ, 
 and Thomas says the very reverse, 
 you have a^ain a marvellous proof 
 of the unammity that reigis in the 
 bosom of the Church of Rome. I 
 here hold another document in my 
 hand, the truths of which Mr. 
 French, I know, will disclaim ; and, 
 if he does, he will just do what 
 I wish him to do, for he will again 
 show the never to-be-broken unani- 
 mity of the Roman Church. [Laugh- 
 ter.] I quote from Townsend's 
 " Accusations of History," in reply 
 to Butler : — 
 
 "The duty of deposing a king, 
 upon whom sentence of deposition 
 has been passed by the Pope, im- 
 pKed also the necessity of k illing 
 him, if the decree of the Pope 
 
 could not otherwise be accom- 
 plished." 
 
 Bishop Taylor proves that the 
 Jesuits taught that, when the Pope 
 has pfissed sentence, it is lawful for 
 a private man to kill a king. "That 
 I say true," adds Taylor, " I appeal 
 to Gregory de Valentia, tom. ui. dis. 
 5, 8, 9 ; Met, In suum, Ub. v. 6 ; 
 BeUarmine, Ajolog. ad R. Angl. c. 
 13 ; Suarez, Defens. Pidei, lib. vii. 
 4; Salmeron, in 13 cap. ad Rom. 
 disp. 5 ; Serarms, Molina, Emma- 
 nuel, St. Thomas Aquinas, and above 
 a dozen others of the most cele- 
 brated doctors of the Roman Church 
 — all of whom teach the lawfulness 
 of killing kings after public sen- 
 tence, and yet deny that they com- 
 mit regicide in so doing." 
 
 Now observe, my antagonist 
 stands by Dr. Murray, the Roman 
 Catholic bishop of Dublin, and de- 
 nies the statement that it is lawful 
 to Idfl a king deposed by the Pope ; 
 while I quote all these distinguished 
 doctors — Tolet, Aquinas, and many 
 others — ^to show the very opposite, 
 and that these were believed, 
 preached, and acted out by the 
 most distinguished doctors of many 
 a sangjiinary age of the Roman 
 Catholic Church. I say, this great 
 catalogue of learned doctors, the 
 champions and children of the 
 papacy, maintain that it is right 
 and lawful to kill a king who has 
 been deposed by the Pope, and that, 
 in so doing, you are not guilty of 
 regicide. Mr. French and the pre- 
 sent bishops of his Church publicly 
 deny and reprobate the dogma; 
 their predecessors hold it and glory 
 in it. So that you have here an- 
 other proof of the unanimity exist- 
 ing in the Church of Rome, and of 
 the efficacy of her recipe for avoid- 
 ing the mangled and mutilated frag- 
 ments fathered by my opponent 
 illegitimately on Calvin and Luther, 
 ana others. — He has next quoted 
 
Rev. J. Camminff.'] 
 
 iiuua OP PAiiH. 
 
 565 
 
 at second hand, and witli stereotype 
 fidelity in garbling, from Bossnet, 
 whom he recommends to me. I 
 return him the compliment, by re- 
 commending him to read "Edsah's 
 Variations oe Popeuy," and he 
 will find it an admirable postscript to 
 Bossuet. But is Mr. French witling 
 to subscribe to the sentiments of 
 Bossuet ? Let me show you what 
 are some of the opinions of the 
 Eagle of Means, from his " Funeral 
 Oration on the Death of the Chan- 
 cellor of France." I read as fol- 
 lows : — 
 
 "Funeral Oration .of l/Sichael Le 
 Tellier, Chancellor of France. 
 " Take up your sacred pens — the 
 ready instruments of a ready writer 
 — ye who compose the annals of the 
 Church, and hasten to place, with a 
 diligent hand, Louis among the 
 Constantines and Theodosinses. 
 Those who have preceded you in 
 this noble work relate, that before 
 there were emperors, whose laws 
 had deprived heretics of their meet- 
 ings, the sects remained united, and 
 long maintained themselves ; but 
 (continues Zozoman), as soon as 
 God raised up Christian pritfces, 
 and they prohibited these conventi- 
 cles, the law did not permit the 
 heretics to assemble iu public, and 
 the clergy, who watched over them, 
 prevented them from doing so in 
 private. By this means the greater 
 part rejoined the Church, and the 
 obstinate died without leaving suc- 
 cessors, because they could neither 
 hold communion with each other 
 nor freely teach their doctrines. 
 Thus fell heresy with its venom, 
 and discord returned to heU, whence 
 it had sprung. Behold, gentlemen, 
 what our fathers admired in the 
 first ages of the Church. But our 
 fathers did not, like us, behold an 
 inveterate heresy fall all at once; 
 the stray sheep return in multitudes, 
 and our churches too small to re- 
 
 ceive thera ; their false pastors 
 abandon them without waiting for 
 the order to do so, happy to allege 
 their banishment for an excuse ; 
 everything calm in so great a 
 change ; the universe astonished 
 at beholding so new an event, the 
 most certain proof as well as the 
 most exccEent use of authority; and 
 the merit of the prince more recog- 
 nised ! and revered than ever his 
 authority itself. Moved by such 
 wonders, let us expand our hearts 
 over the piety of Louis; let us 
 raise our acclamations even to the 
 heavens, and say to this new Con- 
 stautine, this new Theodosius, this 
 newMarcian, this new Charlemagne, 
 what the six hundred and thirty 
 fathers said formerly in the Council 
 of Ohalcedon : ' You have confirmed 
 the faith; you have exterminated 
 the heretics ; this is the work which 
 is worthy of your reign and its 
 proper character. Through you 
 heresy no longer exists ; God alone 
 has been able to effect this wonder. 
 King of Heaven, preserve the 
 kings of the earth ; it is the prayer 
 of the Churches, it is the prayer of 
 the bishops.' 
 
 " When the wise Chancellor re- 
 ceived the order to draw up this 
 pious edict, which inflicted the fatal 
 blow on heresy, he had already felt 
 the attack of the iUness of which he 
 died. But it. was not right that a 
 minister so zealous for justice 
 should die with the regret of not 
 having rendered it to all those 
 whose affairs were prepared for it. 
 Notwithstanding the fatal weakness 
 which he began to feel, he heard, he 
 judged, and he tasted the repose of 
 a man happily disengaged, of whom 
 neither the Church nor the w;orld, 
 nor his prince nor his country, nor 
 individuals nor the public, had any 
 longer anything to demand. Onfy 
 God reserved for him the accomplish- 
 ment of th^ great leork of religion; 
 
666 
 
 %VLE OF FAITH. [lOM Bvcinng. 
 
 aad he said, in sealing the revoca- 
 tion of the famous Edict of Nantes, 
 that, after this triumph of the faith 
 and so fine a monument of the king's 
 piety, he no longer regretted finish- 
 ing his days. These were the last 
 words which he pronounced in the 
 functions of his office — words worthy 
 to crown so glorious a ministry" — 
 Works ofBossuet, Bishop of Meanx, 
 torn. xui. Versailles, 1816. 
 
 Now this was pronounced after 
 the revocation of Nantz, and with 
 especial reference to that barbarous 
 deed. Bossuet, in fact, whom you 
 Bx)man Catholics have been accus- 
 tomed to look up to as the defender 
 of your Church, you have need to 
 be ashamed of. He cherished 
 bloodthirstiness. This man ap- 
 plauds the course of the king in the 
 revocation of the edict of Nantz, and 
 commends the king for imitating 
 the conduct of those six hundred and 
 thirty fathers who, "wrongfully," 
 exclaims my opponent, approved 
 the extermination of heretics. To 
 renounce persecution, Eomanists 
 must throw away Popery. A coun- 
 ralj composed of six hundred and 
 thnrty fathers, unanimously approve 
 and decree the extermination of 
 heretics. Bossuet, a writer of the 
 Roman Catholic Church recom- 
 mended to Protestants as a sainted 
 model, applauds the revocation of 
 the edict of Nantz, and' quotes with 
 ' high eulogium the antitype of that 
 deed, embosomed in the edict of 
 a subsequent monarch. Now, if 
 bishops and councils of old cherished 
 such principles, either the Bx)man 
 Catholic Church has changed, or, if 
 not, the Roman Catholic oishop of 
 London, the Roman Catholic bishop 
 of Dublin, aiid their courageous 
 champion, Mr. French, hold anti- 
 social and sanguinary tenets. If 
 these learned priests and laymen 
 approve of the bloody sentiments of 
 Bossuet and ChaLcedon, then they 
 
 are infinitely worse than I supposed 
 them ; but if they rejeet these sen- 
 timents, then you have not pnjy an- 
 other specimen of the nnaniinity ol 
 the Roman Catholic Church, but 
 also a living proof of .mutation and 
 faBibility. Be sure to keep this 
 fact before you. Every variation 
 amo)^ professing Protestants which 
 Mr. Irench shows, does not touch 
 our safety or our creed, because 
 our Rule of Eaith i? the Bible, and 
 the Bible alone; but every variation, 
 contradiction, and inconsistency 
 which I show among the fathers, 
 the doctors, and other representa- 
 tives and expounders of the Romish 
 faith, strikes at the very vitals of 
 the Rule of Paith of the Roman 
 Catholic Church. 
 
 I proceed now to quote from the 
 Pathers. This will be tedious, but 
 it is important. You will see that 
 
 THE FATHERS FJEUBQUENTIT CONIUA- 
 DICT EACH HIMSELF AND EACH HIS 
 NBIGHBOUB, ANB, STILL MOKE FKE- 
 QITENILY, THBT OPPOSE THE RoMAN 
 
 Catholic paith. You Romaa 
 Catholics claim the fathers: then 
 hear the fathers against prayers in 
 a tongue not understood by the 
 congregation. 
 
 AtTGITSTINE. 
 
 "They ought also to be aware 
 that no voice reaches the ears of 
 God which is unaocomMnied with a 
 feeling of the mind. These things 
 ought doubtless to be corrected, 
 that the people may say Amen to 
 what is clearly understood.": — 
 Cateeh. of Novices, vol. i. p. 27. 
 Bened. ed. Paris, 1685. 
 
 " We ought to understand that 
 we may sing with human reason, 
 not, as it were, with the voice of 
 birds. Both thrushes, and parrots, 
 and crows, and pies, are often 
 taught by men to pronounce what 
 they do not know ; but to sing with 
 understanding is granted by the 
 
Rev. J. Cummmff.] 
 
 ETILE OF PAIIH. 
 
 567 
 
 Divine will to manldiid." — Exp. of 
 IWi Psalm, vol. iv. p. 82. Thus 
 St. Augvistine speaks against the 
 present practice of the Church of 
 Borne. 
 
 Again, contiuues Augustine :^t- 
 " Who is ignorant that canonieal 
 Scripture of the Old and New 
 Testament is contained within its 
 own certaia limits, and that it is to 
 be preferred to all the subsequent 
 writings of bishops, so that no one 
 can doubt or dispute concerning it, 
 whether whatsoever is written m it 
 be true and right ? But it is allow- 
 able to reprehend the writiogs of 
 bishops which have been written 
 after the established canon. And 
 the councils themselves which are 
 held in particular disijricts or pro- 
 vinces must yield vrithout any 
 scruple to the authority of plenary 
 councils, which are collected from 
 the whole Christian world, aud 
 
 THESE PLENAHY COTTNCIIS THEM- 
 SELVES MAY BE AMBNDEI), THE 
 EAELIBE BY I.ATBB. COUNCILS, 
 
 when that is opened by experience 
 which was shut, and that is known 
 which was concealed."-r-0» Bapt. 
 ag. Donatists, b. ii. c. iii. 
 
 "Eor whereas the Lord had done 
 many things, all were not written, 
 for the same Evangelist John testi- 
 fies, both said and did many things 
 which are not written, Imt those 
 things were selected to be written 
 which were thought sufficient for the 
 salvation of believers." — On Gospel 
 of John, c. ii. to 49. 
 
 "It seemed a hard saying to 
 them when he said, 'Except any 
 man eat my flesh, he shall not have 
 eternal life.' They received it 
 foolishly, and they meditated upon 
 it carnally, and thought that the 
 Lord was about to cut off certain 
 little pieces from his body, and to 
 mve them to them ; and they said. 
 This is a hard saying. They^'were 
 hard, and not the saying. Tor if 
 
 they had not been hard, but meek, 
 they would have said within them- 
 selves, He does not say this for 
 nothing, there is some hidden sa- 
 crament in it. * * * 
 
 " When his twelve disciples re- 
 mained vidth him, the others having 
 departed, they addressed him as if 
 lamenting their death, because, 
 being offended at his word, they had 
 departed. But he taught them, 
 and said to them, ' It is the Spirit 
 that quickeneth ; the flesh proflteth 
 nothing. The words which I have 
 spoken unto you, they are spirit 
 and life.' Understand spiritually/ 
 what I have spoken. You are not 
 about to eat this body which you see, 
 and to drink that blood which they 
 shall shed who shall crucify me ; I 
 have recommended to you a certain 
 sacrament, which, if spiritually 
 understood, shall quicken you."r — 
 Upon the ^%th Psalm. 
 
 Is the Church of Rome at war 
 with Augustine on Transnbstan 
 tiation? The Council of Trent 
 and Pope Pius IV. are at the anti- 
 podes of these sentences from 
 Augustine. 
 
 Purgatory Doubtful. 
 
 " It is not incredible that some 
 such tiling may take place even 
 after this Efe, and we may require 
 whether it is so, and it may either 
 be found, or be hid from us; viz. 
 that certain of the faithful, passing 
 through a certain purgatorial fire, 
 are sooner or later saved in pro- 
 portion as they have more or less 
 loved perishing things." — In the 
 ^Enchiridion to Laurentius, c. Isix. 
 tom. vi. p. 223. 
 
 Thus Augustine regards purga- 
 tory as doubtful ; therefore it was 
 not an ari;icle of faith, in his judg- 
 ment. How does this tally with 
 the damnatory definition of it by 
 the Council of Trent ? 
 
 Hear again " the glorious Au- 
 gustine" protesting against the 
 
56S 
 
 KtTLE OP PAiiH. [iSith Moening, 
 
 Eomish error, that the "Virrin Mary, 
 as the Mother of the Lord, is 
 entitled to very high priyfleges and 
 honours. 
 
 " It is Tvritten in the Gospel, 
 that when the mother and brethren 
 of Christ, that is, his relations after 
 the flesh, were announced to him, 
 and waited withont, not heing able 
 to approach him by reason of ine 
 crowd, he answered, 'Who is my 
 mother, and who are my brethren ?' 
 and pointing to his disciples, he 
 said, 'These are my brethren; and 
 whosoever shall perform the wiU of 
 my Father, he is ray brother, and 
 mother, and sister.' What else did 
 he teach ns by this, but that we 
 should prefer our spiritual to our 
 carnal relationship ; nor that men 
 are therefore blessed because they 
 are carnally related to righteous 
 and holy men, but because they 
 adhere to them by their obedience 
 and their imitation of them in doc- 
 trines and morals ? Mary, there- 
 fore, was more blessed in adopting 
 the faith of Christ, than in conceiv- 
 ing his flesh. For when some one 
 said to him, ' Blessed is the womb 
 that bare thee,' he answered, ' Yea, 
 rather blessed are they that hear 
 the word of God and keep it.' 
 Lastly, What did that relationship 
 profit his brethren, that is, his 
 relations after the flesh, who did 
 not beHeve in him ? Thus also her 
 maternal relationship would have 
 profited Mary nothing, if she had 
 not borne Christ more blessedly in 
 her heart than in her flesh." — 
 Upon Soh Virginity, o. iii. tom. vi. 
 p. 342. Ed. as above. 
 
 " Wherefore, when the Lord ap- 
 peared wonderful in the midst of 
 the crowd, working signs and won- 
 ders, and showing what was hidden 
 in the flesh, certain persons admir- 
 ing, said, 'Blessed is the womb 
 that bare thee.' But he answered, 
 ' Yerily, blessed are they who hear 
 
 the word of God and keep it.' That 
 is to say. My mother, whom thou 
 hast called blessed, is thence blessed 
 because she keeps the word of God, 
 not because the Word was made 
 flesh within her." — Tenth Treatise on 
 the 2nd chapter of St. John's Gospel, 
 tom. iii. p. 370. 
 
 Listen again to Augustine, pro- 
 testing against the judicial power of 
 the priests to' forgive sins ; — 
 
 " That passage in the Gospel, 
 ' As my Father sent me, so also do 
 I send you ; when he had said tins, 
 he breathed upon them and said, 
 B^ceive the Holy Ghost ; if you 
 forgive any sins they shaU be for- 
 given, and if you retain them they 
 shall be retained ;' would be against 
 us, so that we should be compelled 
 to confess that this was done iy 
 men, and not by the instrumentalitg 
 of men, if after he had said, ' And 
 I also send you,' he had imme- 
 diately 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, Beceive the 
 Holy Ghost,' and then was conferred 
 upon them either the remission or 
 the retention of sins, it is suffi- 
 ciently evident that they themselves 
 did not do this, but the Holy 
 Spirit by their agency ; as he says in 
 another place, 'It is not you tnat 
 speak, but the Holy Spirit who is 
 within you.' " — Against the Letter 
 of Parmenianm, book ii. vol. ix. 
 p. 42. 
 
 JEBOICE. 
 
 Mark by the following extracts 
 how widely Jerome difi'ers from the 
 Boman Church that claims him. 
 The Scriptures the Sole Mule of 
 Faith. 
 " The Church of Christ, which 
 has churches in the whole world, 
 is united by the unity of the Spirit, 
 
tiev. J. Oumrdng.'\ 
 
 RULE OP PAITH. 
 
 509 
 
 Rnd hag the cities of the law, the 
 prophets, the Gospel, and the apo- 
 stles ; she has not gone forth from 
 lier boundaries, that is, from the 
 Holy Scriptures." — Commentary 
 ■upon Micah, hook i. torn. v. p. 334. 
 Edition as before. 
 
 TJie Church. 
 " The Church does not consist of 
 walls, but of true doctrine. Where- 
 ever the true faith is, there is the 
 Church. Fifteen or twenty years 
 ago, the heretics possessed all the 
 walls of the churches that are here. 
 Twenty years ago the heretics pos- 
 sessed aU these churches. But the 
 true Church was there where the 
 true faith was." — On the \ZZrd 
 Psalm, vol. vii. p. 388. 
 
 "With the exception of ordi- 
 nation, what does a bishop do which 
 an elder does not? The Chuifch of 
 the Roman city is not to be deemed 
 one thing, and the Church of the 
 whole world another. Gaul, and 
 Britain, and Africa, and Persia, and 
 India, and aU barbarous nations, 
 adore one Christ and observe one 
 rule of truth. If you look for 
 authority, the world is greater 
 than a city. Wheresoever a bishop 
 is, whether at Rome, or Constan- 
 tinople, or Alexandria, or Tanais, 
 he is of the same worth and the 
 same priesthood. The power of 
 riches and the humihty of poverty 
 do not make a bishop higher or 
 ' lower. But all are the succes- 
 sors of the apostles. Why do you 
 produce to me the custom of one 
 city?" — To Meagrius, torn. ii. p. 
 512. Printed at Paris,' 1602. 
 
 " Bishops should recollect that 
 they are greater than elders, rather 
 by custom than by the truth of 
 the Lord's -appointment ; and that 
 they ought to rule the Church in 
 common." — On the Epistle to Titus, 
 book i. c. i. vol. i. Edit, as above. 
 
 Christ the Rock. 
 
 " Christ is the rock, who granted 
 to his apostles that they also should 
 be called rocks." — Upon Amos, book 
 iii. c. vi. vol. v. p. 265. Printed at 
 Paris, 1602. 
 
 "And the foundations of the earth 
 were manifested, the prophets and 
 the apostles, upon whom the foun- 
 dations of all the churches are 
 placed." — Upon the 17th Psalm, 
 voL^vii. p. 57. Edit, as above. 
 
 " We are all built upon the foun- 
 dation of the apostles and prophets, 
 Jesus Christ dui Lord the Corner- 
 stone holding us together; and as 
 we are founded on the prophets, 
 so did the patriarchs also stand 
 upon the foundation of the apo- 
 stles." — Second hook of Commen- 
 taries to the Qalatians, c. iv. torn. vi. 
 p. 308. Edit, as above. 
 
 " But the Catholic Church, which 
 is founded with a firm root upon 
 the rook Christ, stands as a perfect 
 dove close to him upon his r^ht 
 hand, and has no evil m her. * * * 
 — To the Virgin Principia, vol. iii. 
 p. 173. Edit, as above. 
 
 Scripture the Sole Rule of Faith. 
 "But the word of God smite? 
 the other things, which they spon- 
 taneously discover, and feign as it 
 were by an apostolical authority, 
 without the authority and testimony 
 of the Scriptures." — ■ Commentary 
 on Haggai, o. i. tom. v. p. 506. 
 Edit, as above. 
 
 " The Lord will speak in the 
 Scriptures of the people, in the 
 holy Scriptiires, which Scripture is 
 read to all the people with the 
 intent that all may understand it. 
 What the Psalmist says, is this : 
 As the apostles wrote, so also the 
 Lord himself has spoken, that is, 
 by the Gospels, not in order that a 
 few, but in order that aU may 
 understand. Plato wrote scriptur- 
 aUy, but he did not write to the 
 
570 
 
 iiCLE or JAITH. [lOtt Ecemng. 
 
 people, tut to a few. Scarcely 
 three persons understood liim. But 
 these, that is, the princes of the 
 Church, and the princes of Christ, 
 did not write to a few, but to the 
 whole people. And see what he 
 says of the princes, that is, of the 
 apostles and evangelists who were 
 in her. He says, who were, not 
 who are; so that, with the excep- 
 tion of the apostles, whatsoerer 
 should afterwards be said should be 
 cut off, should thenceforth have 
 no authority'' — Jeromes Commen- 
 tary on. the 86tt Psalm, vol. vii. 
 p. 359. Printed at Paris 1603. 
 
 On the Spirituality of the Church of 
 
 " The human soul is the only 
 true temple of Christ. The Church 
 of Christ is nothing but the souls 
 of those who beKeve in Christ." — 
 Comm. on the 86tt Fsahi, torn. vii. 
 
 " But the Church herself, which 
 is the congregation of all the saints, 
 on account of her eternal stead- 
 fastness in the Lord, is called the 
 piUar and ground of truth." — Com. 
 on Job, c. xxvii. tom. viii. p. 73. 
 
 " Let the Church be anxious to 
 be united with Christ. But, mark, 
 the Church is the assembly of all 
 the saints" — First Mom. on the 
 Songs of Songs, tom. viii. p. 399. 
 
 Canon of Scripture. 
 " But you must know that there 
 are other books, which are not ca- 
 nonical, but were called by the 
 ancieuts ecclesiastical, that is to 
 say, the book of Wisdom, which is 
 said to be Solomon's, and the other 
 Wisdom, which is said to be the 
 son of Sirach's ; which book is called 
 by the Latins by the general name 
 of Ecclesiasticus, by which name 
 not the author of the book, but the 
 nature of the writing is declared. 
 Of the same class is the book of 
 Tobit, and Judith, and the books of 
 Maccabees. And in the New Tes- 
 
 tament, the book of the Shepherd, 
 or Hermes, which is called the Two 
 Uoads, or the Judgment of Peter , 
 all of which they have thought fit 
 to be read in the churches, but not 
 to be brought forward for the con- 
 firmation of the faith. — Symbol of 
 Buffinus, vol. is. p. 186. Edit, as 
 abov«. 
 
 " Whatsoever is without these is 
 to be placed among the Apocrypha. 
 Therefore Wisdom, which is com- 
 monly called the Wisdom of Solo- 
 mon, and the book of Jesus the 
 son of Sirach, and Judith, and 
 Tobit, and the Shepherd, are not in 
 the canon." — Preface to the booh of 
 Kims,Y(A.m.hooK'i!iii. Ed. as above. 
 
 Hear again Jerome, against the 
 judicial power of the priests in 
 forgiving sins : — 
 
 " The bishops and priests, not 
 understanding that passage, assume 
 to themselves somewhat of the 
 arrogance of the Pharisees, so far 
 as to imagine that they may con- 
 demn the innocent or absolve the 
 guilty : whereas, with God, it is not 
 the sentence of the priests, but the 
 life of the guilty, that is looked 
 into. We read m Leviticus con- 
 cerning the lepers, where they were 
 commanded to show themselves to 
 the priests, in order that if they 
 had a leprosy, they might be made 
 unclean by the priests : not that 
 the priests made them lepers ana 
 unclean, but because they knew 
 who were lepers and who were not, 
 and could discover who were dean 
 and who were unclean. In the same 
 maimer therefore as the priest there 
 made a man clean or unclean, so 
 here the bishop or priest either 
 binds or loosens not those who are 
 innocent or guilty, but officially; 
 when he has heard the nature of 
 their sins, he knows who is to be 
 bound and who is to be loosened." 
 — On the l&th chapter of Matthete, 
 vol. vi. 
 
Rev. J. Cummmff.] 
 
 KULE OS FAITH. 
 
 571 
 
 CHEYSOSIOM. 
 
 " He did not say, upon Peter, for 
 tie did not fomd bis Church upon 
 a man, but upon faith. What, 
 therefore, means 'upon this rock?' 
 Upon the confession contained in 
 his words." — Sermon upon Pentecost, 
 vol. vi. p. 333. Printed at Paris, 
 1621. Trin.CoU. Lib. Dublin. 
 
 " '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." — 
 Sermon 54- on tie words of St. Matt. 
 Printed at Eton. 
 
 Against the [Judicial Poieer of the 
 Priests to forgive Sins. 
 
 "For truly it is m the power of 
 God only to forgive sins." Printed 
 at Mentz. 
 
 Against the Necessity of Auricular 
 Confession. 
 
 " For this reason I entreat and 
 beseech and pray you to confess 
 continually to God. Por I do not 
 bring thee into the thpatre of thy 
 felow-servants, nor do I compel 
 thee to discover thy sias to men. 
 Uncover your conscience to God, 
 and show him thy wounds, and seek 
 a cure from him." — hth Sermon on 
 the Incomprehensible Nature of God. 
 Paris, 1621. 
 
 " But now it is not necessary to 
 confess your sins to witnesses who 
 are present ; let the inquiry of thy 
 offences be made in thy thought, 
 let this judgment be without a wit- 
 ness, let God only see thee confess- 
 ing." — Sermon on Mepentance and 
 Confession, torn. v. Latin Ed. quoted 
 by Ab. Usher, in his reply to a Jesuit. 
 
 No need of any Minor Intercessors 
 with God. 
 " When we want any thing from 
 men, we have need of cost and 
 money, and servile adulation, and 
 much going up and down, and great 
 ado. Por it faUeth out oftentimes 
 that we cannot go straight unto the 
 
 lords themselves and present our 
 gifts unto them and speak with 
 them, but it is necessary for us 
 first to procure the favour of their 
 ministers, and stewards, and officers, 
 both by payments and words, and 
 all other means ; and then by their 
 mediation to obtain our request. 
 But with God it is not thus, for 
 there is no need of intercessors for 
 the petitioners ; neither is he so 
 ready to give a gracious answer 
 when entreated by others, as by 
 ourselves praying unto them." — 
 Chrys. on Matt, cited by Theodorus 
 in his "Eclogues, and quoted by Archb. 
 Usher in his answer to a Jesuit. 
 
 " God is always nigh ; but if thou 
 wUt entreat man, thou askest what 
 he is doing, and he is asleep, he is 
 not at leisure, or the servant giveth 
 thee no answer. But with God 
 there are none of these things. 
 Whithersoever thou goest and 
 caEest, he heareth ; there is no 
 need of leisure, nor of a mediator, 
 nor of a servant to keep thee off. 
 Say, Have mercy upon me, and pre- 
 sently God is with thee. Por while 
 thon art yet speakiig, he saith, I 
 will say. Behold, here I am. * * * 
 And mark the philosophy of the 
 wonian of Canaan. She entreats 
 not James, she beseeches not John, 
 neither does she come to Peter, but 
 she breaks through the whole com- 
 pany of them, saying, I have no 
 need of a mediator ; but, taking re- 
 pentance with me for a spokes- 
 woman, I come to the fountain 
 itself. Por this cause did he de- 
 scend, for this cause did he take 
 flesh, that I might have boldness to 
 speak unto him. I have no need of 
 a mediator ; have thou mercy upon 
 me." — Upon the sending ateayofthe 
 woman of Canaan. Printed at Paris, 
 1621. Trin. OoU. Lib. Dublin. 
 
 My dear Roman CathoHc audi- 
 tors, foKow for once the advice of 
 Chrysostom in the following extract, 
 
572 
 
 EULE OP FAITH. [lOM Evening. 
 
 If your priest refuse you permis- 
 sion, tell him Ckrysostom gives 
 it you : — 
 
 On the words, " Let the word of 
 Christ dwell in, yov, richh)" 
 
 " * * * Hear, ye who are men 
 of the world, and govern a wife and 
 children, how he enjoins you in par- 
 ticular to know the Scriptures, and 
 not lightly, nor as it may be, but 
 with great dUigence. * * * 
 
 "Hear, I exhort you, all menTen- 
 gaged in the affairs of life, and 
 obtain for yourselves books, the 
 medicine of the soul. If you will 
 have nothing else, get the New 
 Testament, the Acts of the Apostles, 
 and the Gospels, as your constant 
 teachers. * * * 
 
 " Ignorance of the Scriptures is 
 the cause of all evils. We go un- 
 armed to the battle." — On Epist. to 
 Coloss. chap. iii. horn. is. Printed 
 at Mentz. 
 
 " And this I always exhort, and 
 wiU not cease to exhort, that you 
 not only attend to the things that 
 are spoken, but also that, when you 
 are at home, you apply diligently to 
 the knowledge of tbe Holy Scrip- 
 tures; and I have never omitted 
 constantly to inculcate this upon 
 those who come to me in private. 
 And let no one repeat those stale 
 and much-to-be-oens'ured words, 
 I am engaged in the forum, I have 
 public business, I have a trade, 
 ' I am a married man, I support a 
 family, I am engaged in domestic 
 affairs, I am a man engaged in the 
 things of this life, it is not for me 
 to read the Scriptures, but for those 
 who have taken a farewell of the 
 world, who dweE in the tops of 
 mountains, and constantly Hve after 
 that fashion.' What sayest thou, 
 O man ? Is it not thy business to 
 study the Scriptures, because thou 
 art distracted with a thousand cares ? 
 It is thine much more than it is 
 theirs." — Zrd Sermon on Lazarus. 
 
 "For he did not say. Read, but 
 ' Search the Scriptures,' since the 
 things that are said of him require 
 much research. For this reason he 
 commands them to dig vrith dili- 
 gence, that they may discover the 
 things that Me deep." — Som. xl. on 
 the 5 th chapter of the Gospel of St. 
 
 The Sufficiency of Scripture. 
 
 " As all gold, whatsoever it be, 
 that is without the temple, is not 
 holy ; so every sense, which is with- 
 out the divine Scripture, however 
 admirable it may appear to some, is 
 not holy, because it is foreign to 
 the Scripture." — ihth Mom. upon 
 Matt. Latin edit. Basil. 
 
 "And there a vigilant perception 
 and an earnest miad are required, 
 which can discern either the sim- 
 plicity of the sheep in the fold, or 
 the latent rapacity of the wolf. 
 Consider how imminent their danger 
 is, who neglect to study the Scrip- 
 tures, in which alone the discern- 
 ment of this matter can be ascer- 
 tained." — Booh X. c. xvi. upon Ro- 
 mans. Edit, as above. 
 
 " There is in the New Testament 
 a letter which kflleth him who does 
 not understand spiritually the things 
 which are said. For if you take 
 this according to the letter, ' Except 
 you eat my flesh and drink my 
 blood,' this letter killeth." — Hom.^ii, 
 on the lOth chapter of Leviticus. 
 Latin edit. Basil, 1571. 
 
 AiHAJSTASitrs. (Flourished about the 
 year 335 or 340.) 
 
 "Peter the apostle admonished 
 Cornelius, who desired to worship 
 him, saying, ' I also am a man.' The 
 angel in the Apocalypse admonished 
 John, who desired to worship him, 
 saying, 'See thou do it not; I am thy 
 fellow-servant, and of thy brethren 
 the prophets, and of them that keep 
 
Beo. J. 
 
 SUli! as PAITH. 
 
 573 
 
 the sayings of tliis book : worship 
 God.' TEerefore, it appertains to 
 God only to be worsmpped : and 
 the angels themselves are aware of 
 this; for, although they surpass 
 others in glory, they are aU crea- 
 tures, and are not beings to be wor- 
 shipped, but beings who worship 
 the Lord. The angel, therefore, 
 admonished Manoah the father of 
 Sampson, who wished to sacrifice to 
 tiim, saying. Offer not to me, but 
 to God." — Third Oraiioti against the 
 drians. Printed at Paris, 1627. 
 
 CTBIL OF AIEXAJfDEIA. 
 
 JMainst Purgatory. 
 "For T think that we ought to 
 decide it, as being highly probable 
 that the souls of the saints, when 
 they have departed from their 
 bodies, are commended unto God's 
 goodness, as unto the hands of a 
 most dear Father; and do not remain 
 in the earth, as some unbelievers 
 have imagined, until they have had 
 the honour of burial, neither are 
 carried, as the souls of the wicked 
 are, unto a place of immeasurable 
 punishment, that is unto hell ; but 
 rather fly to the hands of the 
 Pather of all, our Saviour Christ, 
 having first prepared his way for 
 us. Por he delivered up his soul 
 to the Father, that from it and by 
 it, a beginning being made, we 
 might have certain hope of this 
 thmg, firmly, believing that after 
 death we shall be in the hands of 
 God, and shall Hve a far better life 
 than when we were in the flesh. 
 Wherefore, the wise Paul instructs 
 us, that it is better to be dissolved, 
 and to be with Christ." — On the 
 Oospel of John, book 12, torn. iv. 
 p. 1069. Printed at Paris, 1638. 
 
 CTRIL OP JEBTTSAIEM. 
 
 On the Canon of Scripture. 
 " Of these books read two and 
 twenty, but have nothing in com- 
 
 mon with the Apocrypha." — Cat. iv. 
 
 Printed at Oxford, 1703. 
 
 The Scriptures theStandard of Faith. 
 
 " Not even the least of the divine 
 and holy mysteries of the faith 
 ought to be handed down vrithout 
 the divine Scriptures. * * * 
 
 "Do not simply give faith io me 
 who produce these things, except 
 you have the proof of what I say 
 from the divine Scriptures. Por 
 the security and preservation of our 
 faith are not supported by inge- 
 nuity of speech, but by the proof 
 of the divine Scriptures." — Gat. iv. 
 p. 56. Edit, as above. 
 
 Gyrfl was one of those fathers 
 who were most bitterly accused by 
 other fathers. Ruffinus and Je- 
 rome attack him more unmercifully, 
 thereby proving the unMjimity of the 
 fathers ! 
 
 JUSTIN MARTYB, A.T). 15Q. 
 
 Against the Mass and Transubstan- 
 tiation. 
 "I also afcm that the prayers 
 and praises of the saints are the only 
 perfect sacrifices acceptable to God. 
 Por these only have the Christians 
 undertaken to perform ; and by the 
 commemoration of the wet and dry 
 food, in which we call to mind the 
 sufferings which the God of gods 
 suffered through Him, whose name 
 the high priests and scribes have 
 caused to be profaned and blas- 
 phemed throughout the earth." — 
 Dialogue with the Jew Trypho. Paris, 
 1515, p. 345. 
 
 BTJSEBIUS OP CESABEA. 
 
 Anti-Transubstantiation. 
 
 "Por he gave again to his dis- 
 ciples the symbols of the Divine 
 economy, and he commanded them 
 to make the image of his own body." 
 Bvangelical I)emonstrations, book 
 viii. 0. i. Paris, 1544. 
 
 " He appointed them to use 
 bread as a symbol of his own body." 
 From the same. Edit, as above. 
 
574 
 
 aULE OE TAITU. 
 
 [lOik Evening, 
 
 THBODOEET, BISHOP 01 C)fJB,T7S, IN 
 STRIA. 
 
 Against Angel Worship. 
 " Because they commanded men 
 to worship angels, he enjoins the 
 contraiy, namely, that they should 
 adorn their words and J^heur deeds 
 with the commemoration of onr 
 Lord Jesus Christ. Send up thanks- 
 giving, he says, to God the Father, 
 through him, and not through 
 angels. The Council of Laodioea, 
 also following this rule, and desir- 
 ing to heal that old disease, made a 
 law that people should not praj 
 unto anget, nor forsake our Lord 
 Jesus Christ. — On the third cheater 
 of the Colossians. The Greek is 
 
 fitoted dp Usher in his Answer to a 
 esuit. The passsage has been aeri- 
 fied in the Latin edition. Printed 
 at Paris, 1608. 
 
 " This Tice continued in Phrygia 
 and Pisidia 'for a long time, for 
 which cause the councu assembled 
 at Laodicea forbade them by a l/Lw 
 to pray to angels." — From the same, 
 quoted by Usher, and verified as 
 above. 
 
 Salvation by Grace. 
 "The salyation of man depends 
 mon the Divine philanthropy alone, 
 for we do not gather it as the 
 wages of our righteousness, but it 
 is the gift of the Divine goodness." 
 — On the 3rd chapter ofZephaniah. 
 
 GUEGOBT NAZIAlfZEN. 
 
 The True Succession. 
 "He is elevated to the chair of 
 Mark, not less the successor of his 
 piety thau of his seat. Li point of 
 time very distant from him, but 
 in piety, which indeed is properly 
 ealTed succession, directly after nim; 
 for he that holdeth the same doc- 
 trine is of the same chair, but he 
 who is an enemy to the doctrine is 
 an enemy to the chair." — 21*^ Ora- 
 tion in Praise of Athanasius. Paris, 
 1778. 
 
 TEKIULHAN. 
 
 Anti-Transubstantiation. 
 
 "The bread which he had taken 
 and distributed to his disoipies he 
 made his body, by saying, This is 
 my body, that is, the figwre of my 
 body."— Printed at Paris, 1675. 
 
 " Wherefore, beoause they thought 
 his saying hard and intolerable, as 
 if he had reaUy decreed that his 
 flejsh was to be eaten by them, in 
 order that he might place salvation 
 in the spirit, he first said, 'It is the 
 Spirit which quickeneth,' and then 
 added, 'The flesh proflteth nothing,' 
 that is to say, to quickening. And 
 what he meant by the spirit, follows. 
 
 AMBROSE. 
 
 Against the Judicial Power of the 
 Priests in Forgiping Sins. 
 
 "Behold! sins are pardoned by 
 the Holy Spirit. But men bring a 
 ministry for the remission of sins ; 
 they do not exercise the right of 
 any power." — On the Mo^ Spirit, 
 book iii. c. xviii. Edit, as above. 
 Anti-Supremacy of Power. 
 
 "But what do you tell me? 
 Lnmediately, not unmindful of his 
 place, he enacted the primacy; a 
 primacy of confession, not of ho- 
 nour, a primacy of faith, and not of 
 order." — On the Mystery of our 
 Lord's Incanuition. 
 
 " Therefore, let no one boast of 
 his works, because no one can be 
 justified by his works : but he who 
 just receives it as a gift, because he 
 IS justified by the washing of re- 
 generation. It is faith, therefore, 
 which delivers us by the blood of 
 Christ, because 'Blessed is he whose 
 sins are forgiven, and to whom 
 pardon is granted.'" — Letter 73. 
 Edit, as above. 
 
 BASH. 
 The Scriptures the Rule of Faith. 
 " It is a falling from the faith, 
 and a crime of the greatest pride. 
 
Rep. /. Cumming.l ktjle op paith. 
 
 675 
 
 to desire to take avay from the 
 Scriptures, or to introduce anything 
 that is not ■written. ]?or Christ 
 says that his sheep hear his voice, 
 and not the voice of another." — In. 
 his Biscimrse upon Faith. Bened. 
 Edit. Printed at Paris, 1722. 
 Jmtificatim by Faiih. 
 "As it is written, 'Let him that 
 boasteth, boast in the Lord.' For 
 this is the perfect and complete 
 boastiag in Gtod, that no one is ex- 
 tolled on account of his own right- 
 eousness, but knows that he, being 
 destitute of real righteousness, is 
 justified by faith only in Chnst. 
 And Paul boasts in despising his 
 own righteousness, and in seeking 
 that wMch is of Christ, the right- 
 eousness which is of God by faith." 
 —Horn, on Humility. Edit, as 
 above. 
 
 CTPKIAU. 
 
 Anti-Supremacy. 
 "The other apostles were, the 
 same as Peter, endowed vnth an 
 eqtud fellowship of honour and 
 power ; but the begumiag proceeded 
 from unity, that the Church of 
 Christ might be shown to be one." 
 On the Unity of the Church, p. 107. 
 Printed at Oxford. 
 
 Anti-Purgatory. 
 " It is for him to fear death, who: 
 is not willing to go to Christ. It 
 is for him to be unwilling to go to 
 Christ, who does not believe that he 
 begins to reign with Christ. Por it 
 is written, that 'the just Kves by 
 faith.' If thou art just and Uvest by 
 faith, if thou dost truly believe ia 
 God, whyi being about to be with 
 Christ, and bemg secure of the 
 Lord's promise, dost thou not em- 
 brace the message whereby thou 
 art called to Christ, and rejoice that 
 thou art rid of the devil ? Simeon 
 said, 'Lord, now lettest thou thy 
 servant depart ia peace according 
 to thy word, for mine eyes hath seen 
 
 thy salvation.' Proving thereby, 
 and witnessing, that the servants of 
 God then have peace, then enjoy 
 free and quiet rest, when, being 
 drawn from these storms of the 
 world, we seek the haven of an 
 eternal peace and safety; when, 
 having paid the penalty of death, 
 we arrive at immortality." — Cyprian 
 on Death, sec. ii. p. 157. Oxford, 
 1682. 
 
 Anti-Images. 
 "Why do you bow down and 
 humble, yourselves to false gods ? 
 Why do you slavishly bend before 
 siUy images, and the works of men's 
 hands f God hath made you up- 
 right : to other animals indeed he 
 has given a different shape and 
 figure, and made them look down- 
 wards on i;he earth; but you were 
 formed erect, and your countenance 
 was designed to look up to God. 
 To him look up as you were made tc 
 do, and seek him m his holy habita- 
 tion, which is in the highest heaven. 
 Eorsake, therefore, these idols which 
 human error has invented. Turn to 
 God, who will help you if you sup- 
 plicate him." — ToDemetrius, p. 191. 
 Oxford, 1682. 
 
 Against the Judicial Power of the 
 Priests in Forgiving Sins. 
 "Let no man deceive, let no man 
 begmle himself. The Lord only 
 can have mercy. He alone can 
 grant pardon for the sins which are 
 committed against Him who bore 
 our sins, who sorrowed for us, whom 
 God delivered for our sins." — 
 Cyprian on those who had fallen 
 from the Faith, sect. vii. Emt. as 
 above. ; 
 
 HILABT. 
 
 Against Purgatory. 
 " There is hope of future good, 
 when, departing from this body into 
 the entrance of the heavenly king- 
 dom, all the faithful shall be pre- 
 served ia the custody of, the Lord, 
 
576 
 
 RULE OF FAITH. [lOtt Evening. 
 
 being placed meanwhile in the 
 bosom of Abraham, the approach to 
 which is forbidden to the ■wicked 
 by an intervening gulf." — Hilmy on 
 the ViQth Psalm, p. 978. Paris, 
 1652. 
 
 None can be aided by the merits 
 I of others. 
 
 " No one can be aided by the 
 good works or merits of others, be- 
 cause each must buy oil for his own 
 lamp."— Caa. 27, p. 591. Edit, as 
 above. 
 
 Scriptures the Rule of Faith. 
 
 " Do you seek the faith, O Em- 
 peror ? Hear it, then, not from new 
 writings, but from the books of God." 
 — To Constantias Augustus, p. 244. 
 Salvation by Faith only. 
 
 "Salvation is to be expected 
 from faith." — Comm. on Matt. 
 Paris, 1652. 
 
 " Wages cannot be considered as 
 a gift, because they are due to work, 
 but God has given free grace to all 
 men by the justification of faith." — 
 Comm. on Matt. c. xx. p. 588. 
 Bdit. as above. 
 
 CLEMENS EOMAUUS. 
 
 Justification, by Faith. 
 " All therefore have been glorified 
 and magnified, not by their own 
 works, or the just actions which 
 they have performed, but by his 
 will. And we, therefore, being 
 called according to his will in Christ 
 Jesus, are not justified by ourselves, 
 nor by our wisdom, or knowledge, 
 or piety, nor by the works which we 
 have wrought in holiness of heart, 
 but by faith, by which the omnipo- 
 tent God has justified all from 
 eternity : and to him be glory for 
 ever and ever. Amen." — 1st Fpist. 
 to the Corinthians, o. xxxii. Cam- 
 bridge, 1718. 
 
 POPE GBBGOBT THE FIEST, 
 
 Consecrated Bishop of Rome, A.D. 590. 
 " But I confidently say, that who- 
 soever calls himself universal bishop. 
 
 or desires to be called so, in his 
 pride, is the forerunner of antichrist, 
 because in his pride he prefers him- 
 self to the rest. Anl he is con- 
 ducted to error with a similar pride ; 
 for as that wicked one wishes to 
 appear a god above aU. men, so who- 
 soever he is who alone desires to be 
 called a bishop, extols himself above 
 all other bishops." — Book vii. indic- 
 tion 15, epist. 33. To Maurieiits 
 Edit, as above. 
 
 I have thus produced the most 
 startling extracts from the Fathers 
 — startling, I know, to my Eoman 
 Catholic auditors. I say the fathers 
 are vastly more Protestant than 
 Papist in their theology. No Bo- 
 man Catholic dare prove this un- 
 true. If half-and-hslf, their testi- 
 mony is thereby neutralized. As it 
 is, however, there is a preponderance 
 of patristic theology in favour of 
 Scnptural Christianity, and against 
 the innovations and corruptions of 
 the Church of Borne. But though 
 the fathers are far more friendly to 
 Protestantism than to Popery, such 
 is the force of sacred writ — such is 
 its support of our common Protest- 
 ant faath — such is its eloquence, 
 and awful protestations against the 
 monstrous dogmas of the papacy, 
 that I can cheerfully afford to make 
 my opponent a present of all the 
 fathers. I am amply satisfied with 
 that blessed and glorious book which 
 teaches all Christians what they are 
 to beheve, how to live, and, blessed 
 be God, which also teaches them 
 what they are to enjoy — ^how to 
 die. — [Sensation.] 
 
 [The reverend gentleman's baxa 
 here closed.] 
 
 Mr. Pbench. — ^Ladies and gen- 
 tlemen — My learned antagonist is, 
 you may perceive, as usual, totally 
 unrivalled in the happy art of giving 
 great weight to very trifling oh- 
 
Mr. French.'] 
 
 RVIE OF PAIl'n. 
 
 577 
 
 serrations by the earnestness of his 
 manner, and of embellishing those 
 mer/s rmgte — ^those iUnstrious trifles 
 — with all the pomp of soimd, and 
 all the varied harmony of language. 
 What a fortimate circumstance, my 
 friends, would it not be for the 
 numerous gazing admirers that are 
 to be found in that phalanx now 
 thickening around him, if he were 
 but half as solicitous for the strength 
 and collocation of solid arguments 
 as he is for the construction of his 
 unmeaning sentences and the flashes 
 of his wit ! 'Indeed, my friends, 
 I know not what may be the senti- 
 ments of his admirers upon the 
 present occasion, but it does strike 
 me most forcibly, that when our 
 mutual efforts come to be contrasted 
 to each other on paper, my reverend 
 opponent wiU make but a very sorry 
 figure. [Laughter.] I am happy, 
 however, extremely happy, to con- 
 gratulate myself that he has touched 
 upon several points which I wish to 
 illustrate this evening. I knew not 
 ■well, indeed, how to bring them in, 
 in a manner that should not appear 
 abrupt to my audience, and I thank 
 my reverend friend for having 
 smoothed the way for that purpose. 
 It struck me that a word or two 
 more ought to have been said with 
 reference to that inexpressibly-mo- 
 mentous subject, which constitutes, 
 after all, the vitality of religion — 
 the blessed and adorable Eucharist. 
 It struck me hkewise that, after all 
 the calumnies that are disseminated 
 throughout England by that pere- 
 grinatmg society, to which the. 
 teamed gentleman belongs (the. 
 Reformation Societj), agamst the 
 doctrine of Confession, that a few 
 words ought to be said by way of 
 contradiction and refutation of them. 
 I shall, therefore — deferring an an; 
 swer to the trivial objections of my 
 learned friend concerning different 
 points in our religioa— immediately 
 
 take up the objections made to the 
 doctrine of the Eucharist by my 
 learned friend from garbled extracts 
 from the fathers of the Church, and 
 then I shall proceed to vindicate 
 the doctriue of Confession by the 
 authority of those very fathers which 
 my friend has quoted. 
 
 It is very extraordinary, ladies 
 and gentlemen, and I know not 
 how to account for it, considering 
 his better knowledge^ that from the 
 commencement i of this discussion 
 my learned friend has strained every 
 nerve to prove to you that, upon the 
 fundamental tenets of our rehgion, 
 the fathers are all at war with one an- 
 other. I maintain, on the contrary, 
 and have been struggling with equal 
 vehemence and pertmaoity to main 
 tain and prove to you, that the fathers, 
 upon all the momentous articles of 
 our religion, are perfectly concordant 
 and nnanimous. My friend, how- 
 ever, has been endeavouring to im- 
 press upon you that it is not the 
 case. Now, I, am very willing to 
 make this concession to my learned 
 friend, viz., if I take certaia pas- 
 sages from Augustiue, or Cyprian, 
 or Chrysostom, and others, in the 
 abstract, they may perchancd make 
 against the doctrine both of Confes- 
 sion and the Eucharist, in the same 
 manner as I concede, when I am 
 disputing with an Unitarian — and I 
 have disputed with them in every 
 part of England — in the same man- 
 ner as I concede to them, on certain 
 passages of the Bible, that, taken in 
 the abstract merely, we find oerta 
 passages declaring that Christ is 
 only man; and in that respect I mn t 
 so concede it. If you take that 
 passage in the Bible which say 
 that the day of judgment was not 
 known even to Christ, why, it im^ 
 mediately occurs that he is not the 
 all-knowing, the omniscient God, 
 knowing all things ; and that, there- 
 fore, he is a being of limited power 
 U 
 
578 
 
 KUOi OP FAITH. \lfithEBemng. 
 
 of capacity. But how ia that objec- 
 tion to be confronted ? Just in the 
 same manner as that with which I am 
 going to crush and to confound my 
 opponent on the present occasion. 
 He has brought forward to you with 
 great ingenuity certain passages 
 from St. Austin, which were meant 
 by that fatha: to be merely illustra- 
 tive of the manner iu which the 
 sacrament ^ould be taken, iu oppo- 
 sition to the false notion of the 
 Jews and others, that they were 
 eating real flesh, like that sold ia 
 the market. But how wiU my 
 learned friend, with all his ingenuity, 
 and with all the ingenuity of any 
 Protestant polemic, ever overturn 
 or do away with the force of this 
 irresistible passage? Hear, my 
 friends, ye who are able to lift up 
 your hearts to God, and to implore 
 that he would deign to bestow upon 
 you the rays of truth, and to >cause 
 the expulsion of prejudiee, — listen 
 to what he says! — ^for, if a man 
 comes into this room determined to 
 turn a deaf ear to all argument, 
 I despair at once of convertmg that 
 man; but as to those who are 
 totally unprejudiced on this momen- 
 tous subject, I think it is impossible 
 that they can leave this room with- 
 out coinciding with the views of 
 Catholics. 
 
 The first passage which I take 
 is the following from the great St. 
 Augustine, and it has been made to 
 say, by the dexterity of my friend, 
 that there is nothing but an empty 
 figure in the sacrament of the Eu- 
 charist, though he (Augustine) uses 
 these remarkable words — " Sus- 
 
 cepit- " But I vdll read you the 
 
 English, unless [tuming to Mr. 
 Gumming,] my mend wishes to 
 near the Latin P 
 
 Eev. J. OinmaNG. — ^No, no. 
 
 Mr. Ertsnch — [in continuation.] 
 " Eor Christ took earth from 
 earth (flesh being made of earth). 
 
 and this flesh he took from the 
 flesh of Mary; and because he con- 
 versed with us in the flesh he gave 
 us this same flesh to eat for our 
 salvation. But no one eats that 
 flesh without adoring it first. Not ' 
 only is it no sin to adore it, but we 
 sru if we adore it not." — St. Aug. 
 Mmrr. in Psalm. Edit. Bened. 
 vol. iv. pars 2. 
 
 Now these are the words to which 
 I specially call the attention of my 
 friend, and of every Protestant 
 friend in this room. Now, I ask 
 you, my Protestant friends. When 
 yon approach to your Sacrament, 
 do you adore the bread ? No ; you 
 do not, because you do not believe 
 Christ to be there — because ye do 
 not listen to the teaching of that 
 churdi, of which the same St. 
 Augustine says: — "Whosoever 
 is separated from this Catholic 
 Church, how laudably soever he 
 may imagine himself to live, yet 
 for this one only crime, that he is 
 sundered from the uniiy of Christ, 
 shall be excluded from eternal life, 
 and the anger of God remains upon 
 him." — Si. Aug. vd. ii. page 45, 
 epist..l41. Edit. Bened. [Whis- 
 pering about the Efiv. J. Cunnmng's 
 quarter of the platform, Mr. Erenoh 
 pausing.] I request silence in the 
 room; this is a most important 
 thing, and to be obstructed by 
 murmurs and noise, it is ex- 
 tremely unfair. [Silence restored, 
 the learned gentleman continued as 
 follows : — "] 
 
 We have here, then, Augustine's 
 stamp of authenticity as to the real 
 doctnne_of the Catholio Eucharist, 
 and we see also, that, according 
 to my friend, he is a rank idolater. 
 He tells us that we must "adore 
 it" — ^my reverend friend tells us 
 that we mmi not. And how is my 
 friend to extricate St. Augustine 
 from the charge of idolatry, who, 
 not only takes the Sacrament after 
 
Mr. French.'] 
 
 RULE OP FAITH. 
 
 579 
 
 having adored it, but tells us that 
 " we sia.if we adore it not?" 
 
 But let us hear this most faithful 
 interpreter of all antiquity, as 
 Calvin styles him, a little more 
 copiously : — " As you know, the 
 sacrifice' of the Jews, according to 
 the rite of Aaron, consisted in the 
 offerings of beasts, and this ia mys- 
 tery; as yet the sacrifice of the 
 body and the blood of the Lord 
 was not, tekick the faithful under- 
 stand, and they who have read the 
 Gospel; which sacrifice is now dif- 
 fused through the whole world." — 
 Unarr. in Psalm xxxui. t. iv. p. 310. 
 
 Again, — "Wherefore the sacrifice 
 of Aaron was taken away, and that 
 according to the order of Mel- 
 chizedek eommeneed. Our Lord 
 was willing that our salvation should 
 be in his body and blood, and 
 this was an effect of his huimlity;: 
 for, had he not been humble, he 
 would not have been to its meat aid 
 dnnkr—im. p. 311. 
 
 Again, and here the words are so 
 remarkably emphatic, and so totally 
 miada,pted to the Protestant con- 
 ception of the sacrament, that I 
 must first give the Latin and then 
 the English: — "Ferebatur Ghristus 
 in mambus suis, qmando commen- 
 dans ipswm, corpus swum, ait. Hoc 
 est corpus meum. Eerebat enim 
 illud corpus in manibus suis:" 
 " Christ was held in his own hands 
 when, committing to us his body 
 itself, he said, This is my body. Eor : 
 he bore that tody in his hands."^ 
 St. Aug. vol. iv. p. 314. 
 
 Again — " Nisi enim essethumilis, 
 nee manducaretur, nee biberetui:" 
 " Eor had he not been humble, 
 he would not have thus been to us 
 meat and drink." — Ibid. vol. iv. 
 p. 311. 
 
 Again — " Eor he spoke to us of 
 his body and Ms blood : his body, 
 he said, was food; his blood, drink." 
 
 And again — " Since they eat his 
 
 very flesh and drink hu very blood." 
 Vol V. p. 391. 
 
 , And lastly — " Wherefore of his 
 bodyand blood he gave us 'salubrem 
 refectionem:' ' a salutary banquet or 
 refreshment.' " — Vol. v. p. 640. 
 
 " Sicut mediatorem Dei et homi- 
 num Christum Jesum, carnem suam 
 nobis manducandam, bibendumque 
 sanguinem dicentem, fideli carde 
 atgue ore suscipimus, quamvis horri- 
 biuus ; 'videatur humanam carnem 
 mandueare quam perimere, et hu- 
 manum sanguinem potare, quam fun- 
 dere."^ — St. Aug. advers. Legis et 
 Proph. lib. ii. cap. ix. vol. viii. 
 p. 599. 
 
 " As we receive with a faithful 
 heart and mouth the Mediator be- 
 tween God and man, Christ Jesus, 
 who tells us that his body is to be 
 eaten and his blood is io it, drunk ; 
 although it may appeat more hoi 
 rible to eat the flesh of a man than 
 to destroy, it, and to drink human 
 blood than to shed it." 
 
 Lastly — and the words wiU be an 
 eternal puzzle for my learned anta- 
 gonist so long as he lives, to sub- 
 tilize their adaptation to Protestant 
 theoloCT^ : — {I>e verb. Evang. Johan. 
 serm. 131, v. 5, p. 640) " Durus 
 est, sed duris, incredibilis est, sed 
 increduHs :" " They themselves 
 (some of his disciples) exclaimed, 
 ' This is a hard saymg; who can 
 hear it ? It is har^, ay, to those 
 who are themselves hard ; it is in- 
 credible, ay, to those who are 
 themselves incredulous." 
 
 Now, all these words of St. 
 Austin are totally incompiiehensible 
 and unintelligible, unless we suppose 
 that he is talking of the Catholic 
 Sacrament. But St. Austin, in the 
 passage quoted by my antagonist, 
 is merely alluding to the mode in 
 which some persons imagine this 
 Sacrament was to be taken. They 
 imagined that it was real blood 
 they were taking, though not per- 
 
580 
 
 JIUI-E or FAITH. 
 
 riO^A Eoenit^. 
 
 oeivable to the taste, and rejJ pieces 
 of flesh they were eating. For 
 instance, if you were to take a 
 piece of flesh from the Saviour's 
 body, that would not be a sacra- 
 ment. That is not the mode; it 
 mu t be animated by his immortal 
 soul and his Eternal Spirit. It is 
 Jesus whole and entire, in the same 
 way that he appealed in the midst 
 of nis disciples after death without 
 disturbing the walls of the room in 
 which they were assembled. It is 
 that food, that transcendantly glori- 
 ous body, which we take in the 
 Sacrament ; and if you can believe 
 that he actually did come among 
 the disciples without disturbing the 
 walls or the doors, I can believe it, 
 and you, my friends, can just as easily 
 believe, that the God of heaven, Jesus 
 Christ, is taken in the sacramental 
 manner in which we glory in re- 
 ceiving him, and from which we 
 receive such iaexpressible delight. 
 St. Austin makes Christ himself to 
 say, interpreting his words. Ye are 
 not to eat this Dody as ye now see 
 it, but this same body, being in a 
 spiritualized and invisible manner 
 in the sacrament, ye are to eat, or 
 1/e have no life in. you. 
 
 " What, therefore," continues our 
 glorious interpreter, " what means 
 the phrase, The flesh prqfiteth no- 
 thing? It profiteth nothmg in the 
 manner in which they understood it, 
 for they understood it to mean 
 " flesh as it is mangled ia a dead 
 body, or as it is sold ia the market, 
 not as it is quickened by the ani- 
 mating spirit of life." 
 
 Sucn, my friends, are the all- 
 explanatory words of the great St. 
 Augustine ; and, to quicken, if possi- 
 ble, the drowsy ear of my learned 
 antagonist, let me resound in it the 
 last words of the memorable sen- 
 tence, in the grand sonorous accents 
 of the origiual : — " ftuomodo in 
 cadavere laniatur, aut in macello 
 
 venditur, non quomodo spiritu vege- 
 tatur."— Tract 27, v. 3, p. 503. 
 
 •Hiat is what St. Austm is point- 
 ing out. The learned gentlemar^ 
 by separating the body of one sen- 
 tence from the other, spoils the 
 point and meaning of the whole; 
 he makes it appear to be all an 
 empty %iire. But then comes the 
 interpreter of the Catholic Church, 
 with a solid phalanx of quotation, 
 and makes my friend blush in 
 secret, though you do not perceive 
 it on his cheek. [Laughter.] No, 
 my friends, take any one father of 
 the Church, Greek or Latin, and 
 they one and all declare that it is 
 the real body and blood, and that 
 unless you tie it so, you have no 
 life within you. But then there is 
 a figure in the eating, that is, that 
 we are not sensible of tasting the 
 blood in the body : that is Igur- 
 ative, we grant, and St. Augustine 
 grants it, But there is one strong 
 irresistible fact you have before 
 you from Augustine, and which wiU 
 for ever stand, though my friend 
 may pour forth speech after speech, 
 full of aU the flowers of a gaudy 
 rhetoric, but he vriU never do away 
 vrith this solemn fact — that it is 
 the flesh of Christ; that we must . 
 adore that flesh when we approach 
 the sacramental table; and that we 
 sin if we adore it not. My ingenious 
 friend, however, imagines, that by a 
 single isolated passage from St. 
 Augustine, where that father says 
 to a catechumen — "Oh, why do 
 you prepare your teeth to eat? 
 Believe, and you have received," 
 that he has at once annihilated the 
 whole force of the above-cited clear, 
 invincible extracts which I have 
 laid before you. Why, if so— if 
 mere believing in Christ constitute 
 the sacrament, what need, I ask — 
 I win not say of the Catholic recep- 
 tion, but — of the bread and wine 
 according to the usage of Pro- 
 
Mr. French.'] 
 
 BULE OP TAITH. 
 
 581 
 
 testants ? My Mend, you see, in 
 this his endeavour to bring in the 
 authority of St. Augustine as sub- 
 versive of our tenet, by the appK- 
 cation of the self-same words wiU 
 subvert his own. 
 
 And now a few words as to the 
 subject of Confession, which is much 
 the subject of ridicule in every 
 part of England to which the Asso- 
 ciation of Exeter Hall sends its 
 emissaries — ^I mean the doctrine of 
 Confession. We are supposed, my 
 friends, to have a great racUitation 
 towards the committing of crimes 
 in our Church; but it is not so. If 
 the Catholic commits a sin of a 
 deadly nature, one that gives him 
 remorse, what are the first steps he 
 takes ? Does he beg of the priest 
 absolution? No I but, preoisefy the 
 same as the Protestant who is 
 touched with compunction, and 
 who has recourse to resuscitating ; 
 he goes to his chamber, or to some 
 retired place ; he falls upon his 
 knees to his God, without reference 
 or thought of. his priest; he cries 
 out to the Lord Jesus to forgive 
 him ; " I have sinned, Lord my 
 God; I have sinned," he says, 
 " against thee, and I am no longer 
 worthy to be called thy Son ; Oh 
 blot out my sins, I beseech thee, 
 ineffably sweet and benignant Lord 
 Jesus, and I will struggle, with all 
 the powers of my soul, for the 
 future, never to commit them again. 
 And yet, O God, such is the frailty 
 of my nature, that, if I confide in 
 myself, I must inevitably fall. It 
 is in thee, and in thee alone, I 
 repose, my God: Oh give me grace 
 to wash away this deaidly sin I have 
 committed, and give me, Father, 
 thy grace that I may never fall 
 into it again. On thee and thee 
 alone do I rely." What does he 
 do after that ? Is he content with 
 a flood of tears, or is he content 
 with imploring his God in the 
 
 manner in which I have painted 
 him? No ; for again and again, 
 day after day, he examines himself 
 to see that there is no temptation 
 to sin still remaining in him ; that 
 temptation that has destroyed the 
 
 Eeace of his soul. And when he 
 as done this — when he is satisfied 
 that there is a true conversion, as 
 far as his own soul can inform him 
 — ^when he has done this, and not 
 before, he approaches and discloses 
 his sin to the priest of God; not 
 that the priest can of himself for- 
 give him, but as an instrument in 
 the name of the Father, and of the 
 Soil, and of the Holy Ghost ; and 
 when he has heard the confession 
 of his sins, he says to him, " I ab- 
 solve thee in the name of the 
 Father, and of the Son, and of the 
 Holy Ghost ; go, son, and sin no 
 more." But mark, my friends, if a 
 Catholic were to rush, ^without 
 having uttered a word of impor- 
 tunity to his God for pardon, after 
 committing a mortal sin, to the 
 tribunal of confession, even if he 
 sincerely teU his sin for the sake 
 of absolution, he heaps up damna- 
 tion upon himself; he is damned 
 to all eternity, even according to 
 every Catholic catechism that ever 
 was written. And why ? Because 
 he has not implored pardon of his 
 God, and excited sentiments of com- 
 punction in his soul; and if he 
 were to excite compunctioii for one 
 sin, or for twenty, and knowingly 
 omit one, all his confession is sacri- 
 legious. 
 
 And now, gentlemen, as we have 
 had a great deal of prosaic reading 
 on the part of ray reverend friend, 
 (I confess I should like to have had 
 a little of his brilliant oratory 
 [laughter]; but he has fallen into 
 ttuU reading to night,) I shall give 
 you a little poetry in return ; T)ut 
 first I shall give you something 
 from your orthodox book [Iwlding 
 
583 
 
 R(7tB Olf ?AITlf. 
 
 up one] — this is the Protestant 
 Eubric. I read as follows : — 
 Pbotestant absoltition op sins ! ! ! 
 
 " Here shall the sick person be 
 moved to make a special confession 
 of his sins, if he feel his conscience 
 troubled with any weighty matter. 
 After which confession the priest 
 shall absohe him (if he humbly and 
 heartily desire it) after this sort : — 
 
 " Our Lord Jesus Christ, who 
 hath left power to his Church to 
 absolve all sinners who truly repent 
 and believe in him, of his great 
 mercy forgive thee thine offences, 
 and bi/ his authority committed to me, 
 
 I ABSOLVE THEE PROM ALL THY 
 SINS, IN THE NAME OP THE FaTHEK, 
 
 AND OP THE Son, and op the Holt 
 Ghost. Amen." — The Visitation of 
 the Sick, from the Book of Common 
 Prayer, ^c. according to the Use of 
 the United Church of England and 
 
 Now, gentlemen, you retain many 
 of the shadows of Christianity in 
 your Church, and here is an in- 
 stance of it. But what I can prove 
 to you most satisfactorily is, that, 
 from the days of the apostles, before 
 the enlightened (!) period of the Re- 
 formation, the doctrme of Confession 
 was inculcated as a doctrine of 
 Christianity; and though, my friends, 
 this is poetry — feeble poetry, and 
 my own, which I am going to read' 
 you, yet it embodies great and 
 solemn truths, in a very pithy man- 
 ner, such as my learned friend 
 ought to relish, though I am afraid 
 he 'will not. [Tittering]. Tor its 
 motto I have taken the text — 
 "And when he had said this, he 
 breathed on them, and saith unto 
 , them, Whosesoever sins ye remit, 
 they are remitted unto them; aad 
 whosesoever sins ye retain, they are 
 retained." — St. John xx. 22, 23. 
 To which text, as an early comment, 
 I have appended a comment of 
 Or%en, who flourished a.d. 203 : — 
 
 " They who are not holy die in their 
 sins : the holy do penance ; they 
 feel their wounds; they look for 
 the priest ; they implore health ; 
 and through him seek to be puri 
 fled." — Orig. Horn. 10. torn. ii. 
 p. 302. 
 
 And again — "If we discover our 
 sins, not only to God, but to those 
 who may apph/ a remedy to our wounds 
 and iniguities, our sins will be 
 effaced by Him who said — ' I have 
 blotted thy iniquities as a cloud, 
 and thy sins as a mist.'" — Isaiah 
 xliv. 22. — Horn. 17 in Lucam : — 
 
 Say, Protestant, whose mind no clouds 
 
 o'erea^t, 
 All-knowing in the annals of the past, 
 In what dark period, at what slumbering 
 
 hour, 
 Obtain'd the priest Confession's mighty 
 
 power ? 
 What sly, heretical, unhallow'd sect 
 First dar'd that grand tribunal to erect ? 
 Near the first century Tertullian wrote : 
 Say, was the doctrine in that age afloat P 
 ' " I own," he cries, " that to confess is liard. 
 But, oh ! to be eternally debarred 
 The gates of heav'n, if aw'd by worldly shame 
 My soul its filth should shudder to proclaim I 
 If hard to suifer, suffering is for sins, 
 The suffering ends, and spiritual health 
 
 begins 
 When penance is perform'd ; why fly the 
 
 hand 
 Appointed to absolve by Heav'n's com- 
 mand?"* 
 
 Tertullian thus, in unreforming times, 
 And with his language every father chimes'; 
 All preach alike, '* Confession's healthy 
 
 spring 
 In the Church rose from its Celestial King.'-' 
 In times all-primitive great Cyprian hear I 
 The witness, martyr, and the saint revere. 
 " Oh, my dear bretluren, I entreat you all, 
 Confess your sins, while ye have power to 
 
 fall 
 At the priest's feet; wliile ye enjoy life's 
 
 breath, 
 While pardon may prevent the gates ot 
 
 death." t 
 
 Tell me then, Protestant, of pondering mind. 
 Where, turning o'er historic deeds, ye find 
 The priest of old this galling yoke invent, 
 beneath whose weight, kings, priests, and 
 nations bent. 
 
 * Tertullian wrote in the year of our Lord 
 194.— De Foenitentia, c. ix. p. 168. Edit. 
 Rcithomagi, 1662. 
 
 + St. Cyprian wrote in the year of our 
 Lord 248.— De Lapsis, p. 190. Kdit. Bened. 
 Paris, 1726. 
 
Mr. French.] 
 
 RULE OP PAITH. 
 
 583 
 
 When was the Church thus suddenly defil'd ? 
 When by the shepherd was the flock be- 
 
 guil'd? 
 In some dark age did~ it at first take wing, 
 Or ^om tradition, uncoarrupted spring i 
 Did God's true priests in guilty league com- 
 bine 
 To substitute the human for divine, 
 And whilst of sinners God required alone 
 Acontrite heart all wanderings to atone, 
 Did God's true priest deface the well known 
 
 road» 
 And add Confession to the sinner's load? 
 Oh, miracle too wondrous I to suppose 
 Coiifessionthus through Christendom arose ! 
 That priests should usher in, in heaven's 
 
 despite, 
 A spurious, false, uuapostolic rite! 
 And that, where Christ had promised to 
 
 abide 
 For ever with his Church, and be its Guide ! 
 Say, from such sources could Confession 
 
 flow! 
 Could God's own Church become his deadliest 
 
 foe? 
 " They are forgiv'n whose sins ye shall for- 
 
 ffive," 
 Says the sweet voice that bids the sinner 
 
 Kve; 
 " They are retained, whose aiits ye shall 
 
 retain," * 
 Says the same voice ; now, aU these words 
 
 are vain, 
 Unless the penitent his sins explores, 
 And shows unto the priest his inward sores; 
 Unless the sinner shall his sins confess, 
 The priest must pardon or retain by guess. 
 Reflect then, Protestants, can mortal sin 
 Be blotted out by sighs and groans within ; 
 Or must the humble penitent repair 
 To the true priest, that clings to Peter's 
 
 chair — 
 There lowly bent, with firm resolve no more 
 To tread the guilty paths he trod before. 
 To sue forgiveness of his Saviour's grace, 
 Whilst words absolving all his sins efface ! 
 Or has the Church of ages vainly taught 
 A lawless rite with man's invention fraught, 
 That turns an easy to a galling yoke, 
 And bids the soul man's mercy to invoke, 
 And not Ins God's — ah, no ! that mercy 
 
 crave 
 Of God alone, who hath the power to save ; 
 But if God's love within thy bosom burn, 
 Becomes it thee God's holiest Church to 
 
 spurn? 
 That Church, which whoso shall disdain to 
 
 hear, 
 In vain may shed the penitential tear, 
 Upon its holiest Foimder call in vain ; 
 Deep in his soul the cank'ring sins rem^. 
 The root original of sin was pride ; 
 This prompts the sinner still his sins to 
 
 hide 
 From sight of mortal eye ; — this bids him 
 
 blush, 
 While Satan, pride applautoig, whispers 
 
 Sushi 
 But, oh ! the last, the dire tremendous day, 
 Which shall dark guilt in all its folds display ! 
 
 ♦ John XX. 23. 
 
 With what remorsej what anguish and dis< 
 
 tress, 
 Shall blushing clieeks foul thoughts and 
 
 deeds confess ! 
 In vain shall pride put forth, her daring plea, 
 " O Lord I my sins I have confe88*d to thee." 
 " What says the Church whom I endu'd with 
 
 power?" 
 Shail thunder forth in that tremendous 
 
 hour. 
 ." Whose sins ye shall retain, they are re- 
 tained, 
 Whose sins 'ye shall forgive they are nn 
 
 stained ; 
 He that hears ypu, hears me ; the proud and 
 
 ■wise 
 Despising you, me also will despise." * 
 
 Now, to come to anotlier subject. 
 Wken I said, . my friends, my re- 
 spected Protestant and Catholic 
 friends — ^when I said that I could 
 ^ve a better translation of the 
 New Testament than that which we 
 hare in Eiglish — ^better than the 
 Protestant Bible, I did not mean to 
 speak vainly or arrogantly ; I merely 
 meant to saj I could alter many in- 
 accuracies m the Catholic transla- 
 tion as to GaUicisms of language, 
 and ameliorate the Protestant trans- 
 lation, not as to language, but in 
 giving a force to certain words, 
 such as I am going to illustrate at 
 the present moment, where it ia 
 false ' in the English version, and 
 where I could improve the version 
 by making, it nearer the original. 
 Por instance, when Christ said to 
 Peter, John xx. 16 : notfialve ra 
 irpofiara /xov, why does not the 
 Protestant translation give the 
 strength, the significance of the 
 original, which is, "Shepherd thou," 
 or, " Shepherdizse thou my sheep ?" 
 Your translation runs, " Peed my 
 sheep," as if there were no differ- 
 ence between poa-Kciv, to feed, and 
 noifiaivetv, to shepherdize. A man 
 may feed a flock without being its 
 shepherd ; and, Christ having used 
 two words of such different rniport, 
 not to have noticed such difference 
 in the English version, constitutes 
 one small particle of that vast mass 
 
 • John XX. 23, 
 
&8i 
 
 EC IE OF FAITH. [WtA Evening. 
 
 of criminality which I attribute to 
 the translators of iSae parUamentaiy, 
 oracular Bible. 
 
 But now to another point. My 
 friend has read to you a passsige 
 from the great St. Augustine, with 
 a view of proving that that illus- 
 trious father of the ChuTOh differed 
 from us Catholics as to the investi- 
 ture of supreme headship in the 
 apostle Peter. My learned antago- 
 nist only iudulged you with a few 
 sweet and balmy Mnes from St. 
 Augustine, such as suited his pur- 
 pose ; that is, to conceal from you 
 St. Augustine's real opinion as to 
 the supremacy of St. Peter. It 
 now, therefore, becomes my busi- 
 ness to set this matter at rest by 
 the mouth (A St. Augustine himself. 
 Listen! 
 
 "But if we are to consider the 
 series of episcopal successions, with 
 how much greater certainty we 
 number from Peter, to whom, as 
 representing the whole Church, 
 Christ said — On this rocic I will build 
 my Church. To Peter succeeded 
 Linus," &c. t. ii. p. 130. 
 
 Again — " Por who can be igno- 
 rant that the most blessed Peter is 
 the first of the apostles ?" — iTract 
 56, in, Bvang. Joan, pars 3. t. iii. 
 p. 656. 
 
 Again — "The apostle Peter, on 
 account of the primacy of his apostle- 
 ship, represented the Church. As 
 to himself, by nature he was but 
 one man, by grace a Christian, but 
 by a more abundant grace the first 
 apostle." — lb. Tract cxsiv. p. 832. 
 
 But listen, my friends, most at- 
 tentively to the following passage 
 from St. Augustine, which you cotdd 
 scarcely expect my learned antago- 
 nist, however enthusiastic his love 
 for that holy father, to lay before 
 you :— 
 
 " In the Catholic Church, many 
 are the considerations which keep 
 me in her bosom. Tht assent of 
 
 nations ; her authority first esta- 
 blished by miracles ; the succession 
 of pastors fiem the chair of Peter, 
 to whom the Loi^ committed the care 
 of feeding his flock, down to the 
 present bishop ; lastiy, the name 
 itself of Catholic."— t^t. Bened. 
 Contra ep. Fuadam, o. iv. t. vni. 
 p. 153. 
 
 And mark, my friends, this is 
 precisely the doctrine of all the 
 lathers, who, as my witty friend so 
 ingenioifety remarks, are ever knock- 
 ing their heads against one another. 
 I have not time to cite them in suc- 
 cession. Take, however, one as a 
 specimen of this their mutual con- 
 cussion of heads one against the 
 other. [Laughter.] 
 
 St. John Chrysostom says — ^'Por 
 what reason did Christ shed his 
 blood ? Certainly, to gain those sheep, 
 the care of which he committed to 
 Peter and his successors." — Be 
 Sacerd. lib. ii. c. i. t. i. p. 372. 
 Edit. Montfaupou. Paris, 1718-34. 
 
 Now, you must observe that these 
 two head-knockers flourished about 
 the same period of time, viz. St. Au- 
 gustine, 391 ; St. Chrysostom, 397. 
 
 You have, then, I say, all the 
 fathers of the Church agreeing to- 
 gether, that St. Peter was the 
 chosen, the grand shepherd — the 
 ruler of the Church; and we have 
 the names of every liiler in succes- 
 sion, from that day to this. And if 
 my learned friend, is fighting the 
 battles of the Church of Enfiand, 
 I would give him a piece of salutary 
 adviee : If he attempts to shake one 
 of our succession, he shakes the 
 validity of holy orders in the Church 
 of England, for they pique them- 
 selves on having been originally or- 
 dained from us. " Feed my sheep," 
 said Christ, when leaving his dis- 
 ciples. The sheep were to be fed 
 by a lawful successor of Peter to 
 the end of time. So says Aiwns- 
 tine, and Basil, and all the fathers 
 
Mr. French.] 
 
 BTJLE or PAITH. 
 
 585 
 
 of the Church, from whom my friend 
 gave you such sweet garbled ex- 
 tracts. [Laughter.] They all agreed 
 together, that where that Church 
 is, there alone are the pure, the 
 limpid waters of salvation. Every 
 other Church, depend upon it, how- 
 ever soft the stream, however smooth 
 the form under which it passes, is 
 of a troubled nature — is but the ia- 
 fluK of corruption, whereof he who 
 drinks wUl inevitably perish. I am 
 as ardent for your salvation^ my 
 friends, as my antagomst professes 
 to be for mine. I pant as ardently 
 to bring you withia the portals of 
 the Catholic Church, whose priests 
 are waiting for you, having abready 
 received many since the beginning 
 of this Discussion. They have had 
 more thau one application, and I 
 should like to know from my reve- 
 rend friend what effect he has made 
 on the heart of any Catholic in this 
 room. I say, tnen, my friends, 
 that wherever that Church is to 'be 
 found, there, under its hallowed 
 umbrage, you will be enabled to 
 repose in mil security and peace ; 
 there you will be enabled to lift up 
 your hearts ia gratitude to heaven, 
 and to exclaim m unison with the 
 one fold and the one Shepherd, that, 
 with one mind, with one neait, " ye 
 
 florify God, even the Father of our 
 lord Jesus Christ." There, in one 
 word, my friends, wiH you find aU 
 that is calculated to give rest, and 
 stability, and comfort to your souls, 
 now tossed about by every wind of 
 doctrine; and to settle the grand 
 interests of an eternity upon a solid, 
 fixed, and immovable basis. [Sen- 
 sation.] '"One fold, one Shepherd," 
 says sacred writ. Millions, ay, 
 hundreds of miUions of Catholics 
 spread over the surface of this globe 
 on which we live — all witb one 
 voice and with one mouth, and 
 under one head, adoring £ind glori- 
 fying. God — give me a most Svely 
 
 idea, when I exert the eye of my 
 iatellect with which Providence has 
 endowed me, of that one fold and 
 otie Shepherd, pointed out to me in 
 the pages of holy writ. On the 
 other hand, a few miUions of Pro- 
 testants, comparatively speaking, 
 and these miUions spKt into divers 
 opinions coneemiug the most im- 
 portant, the most vital dogmas of 
 religion, but all of them agreeiag 
 to protest (some even denying the 
 divinity of Christ) against us — all 
 agreeing in protesting against the 
 Catholic Church, in which alone is 
 to be found the most perfect con- 
 cord and uaanimity — give me an 
 equally Kvely idea of those schis- 
 matic churches pointed out so pro- 
 pheticsdly by the apostle Paul, wnen 
 he says, Romans xvi. 17,18 : "Now, 
 I beseech you, brethren, mark them 
 whiehr cause, divisions and offences 
 contrary to the doctrine which ye 
 have leame4 and avoid them. Por 
 they are such as serve not our' 
 Lord Jesus Christ, but then: own 
 beUy ; and by good works anA/air 
 speeches deceive the hearts of the 
 simple;" 
 
 Trulythen,my Protestant brethren, 
 (without meaning any offence to 
 you,) to enter into your Church, 
 what is it but, in the language of 
 St. Paul, to enter into fielcts of 
 "doubtful disputation?" May it 
 not be said of teachers like these 
 who preside in your Church, ia 
 which there are so many jarring 
 elements of discord, that they are 
 strangers to the way of peace ; in 
 one word, that they are strangers to 
 the form of doctrine once delivered 
 to the saints ? And it so, is it not 
 time, let me ask you, in aU. serious- 
 ness, to devote a few moments of 
 salutary reflection and meditation 
 to the grand aU-absorbing subject, 
 namely, whether, knowing as ye do 
 the appaUing text of St. Peter, that 
 even Scripture may, by private 
 u3 
 
586 
 
 KTJLE OF PAITH. [lOiA Eeening. 
 
 interpretation, be wrested by the 
 tmsiatle and the unlearned to their 
 own damnation, ye can be rationally 
 confident in chalking out a way of 
 security for yourselves P Is it not, 
 I say, time to meditate profoundly, 
 in your calm bours of recess from 
 your families and from the busiuess 
 which occupies you, on this grand 
 question, Whether, in chaUdng out 
 a way for yourselves which may con- 
 duct you to heaven, ye may not haVe 
 selected a path by which you have 
 miserably wandered into flie broad 
 road which condnoteth to the r^ons 
 of everlasting misery. If, my friends, 
 yon would but open the pages of 
 the fathers of the Church, and see 
 their unanimity,. in flat contradiction 
 to my learned friend, who declares 
 they are all discord and confusion — 
 if you would only open* them and 
 see the unanimity that prevails upon 
 important subjects ; the supremacy 
 and primacy of Peter ; the necessity 
 of clingiug to the chair of Peter; 
 the impossibility of serving God in 
 a church disconnected with the 
 chair of Peter — ^if you could but be 
 made acquainted, in the short com- 
 pass of time that remains to me, 
 with that which all the fathers of 
 the Church have written concerning 
 this said chair — all vying with one 
 another in bestowing epithets of 
 commendation on it — ^you would 
 cease to listen to a preamer in the 
 nineteenth century who seoms all 
 that was sacred and revered in the 
 days of old, and glories in blas- 
 pheming it. Now listen to St. 
 .Jerome : — 
 
 " Dedi eonsoriptam fidem," says 
 the venerable father, "qui sic non 
 credit alienus a Christo est : " "I 
 have committed the faith to writing ; 
 who is not of this faith is an enemy 
 to Christ." 
 
 Well! and I have said before, 
 almost totidem verbis, I repeat again, 
 Hovr am I to ascertain the faith 
 
 of which this father of the Church 
 was both a member and so bright an 
 ornament ? Can I flatter myself, 
 from any expressions ia his work 
 that are not vague and undefined, 
 that the faith which I foEow in the 
 nineteenth century bears any resem- 
 blance to that which was illustrated 
 by the life and writings of a St. 
 Jerome in the fourth ? In answer 
 to this questiDD, my Protestant 
 friends, i can (Bily say, that one 
 thing at least must remain uncon- 
 tested by you, and that is, that in 
 endeavouring to find out this faith, 
 whieh he who follows not is an enemy 
 to Christ, •aUen'us a Christo est, I 
 turn my eyes, in the nineteenth 
 century, precisely whither St.Jerome 
 directed his in the fourth, namely, 
 to the chair of Peter. Listen to 
 the proof ; hear his voice ! " Ego 
 interim, clamito. Si quis cathedrae 
 Petri jungitur mens est." "I, in 
 the mean time, do not cease to cry 
 out, Re who is joined to the chair 
 of Peter is of ti 
 
 Yes, I also ory out in the nine- 
 teenth century, wMlst I look to the 
 chair of Peter, Every one who is 
 united to this chair is a Catholic ; he 
 who is not, however he may pretend 
 to be an adherent to primitive Chris- 
 tianity, is the asserter of a faith 
 disowned by St. Jerome, and, to 
 use his own expression, "Alienus a 
 Christo est:" "He is estranged 
 from Christ." 
 
 But hear, again, the same saint ; 
 he is writing to Pope Damasus, 
 who then sat upon the chair of Peter, 
 which is now filled by his Holiness 
 Pope Gregory the Sixteenth. "Non 
 novi Vitalem, Meletium respuo, 
 ignore Paulinum. Uuicunque tecum 
 non ooUigit, spargit; hoc est, qui 
 Christi non est, Antiohristi est : " 
 " / know not Vitalis, I i^rn away 
 Meletim,! am ignorant of Paulinns. 
 Whosoever doth not gather together 
 
2Ir. French,^ 
 
 RUIE OP TAITH. 
 
 587 
 
 in. conjunction with ihee, scattereth 
 abroad ; that is, whosoever is not of 
 Christ, belongeth to Antichrist." 
 
 Precisely so, my friends, mutatis 
 mutandis — changingmerehthenames, 
 say those wlio eling to the chair of 
 Peter at the present day. "I know 
 not Luther, I spnm away Calvin, I 
 am ignorant of Melanethon. Who- 
 soever doth not, in conjunction with 
 thee, holy father, that now fillest 
 the chair of Peter, gather together, 
 scattereth abroad. Whosoever is not 
 of Christ belongeth to antichrist." 
 No clouds of heresy, however dis- 
 tant the laud I live in, shall ever 
 obscure this chair of Peter from my 
 sight. No edicts of kings or queens, 
 no acts of parliament, shall ever in- 
 timidate or prevent me from crying 
 out aloud that I recognise him who 
 fills it as the head of the one, only, 
 true, unerring Church. " Alise sunt 
 leges Ceesarum, alies Jesu Christi," 
 says St. Jerome; that is, "The 
 edicts of a monarch are one thing, 
 and the laws of Jesus Christ are 
 
 Open then, I beseech you, my 
 Protestant friend^ open at length 
 your eyes, I beseech you — behold 
 and recognise with Jerome and all 
 the fathers of the Church the chair 
 of Peter — ^that centre of unity that 
 has ever stood unshaken amidst all 
 the storms of heresy and all the 
 vicissitudes of time 1 
 
 Now, my friends, as to persecu- 
 tion, we know that there have been 
 great atrocities committed by both 
 Catholics and Protestants at the 
 heads of governments. But what 
 does that signify ? Every sensible 
 Catholic deprecates these crimes; 
 every sensible man in every age has 
 raised his voice agaiast the political 
 persecution of heretics; and perse- 
 cution never was an article of our 
 Church. When our priests had their 
 bowels torn out in the reign of 
 Queen Elizabeth, it never was an 
 
 article of the Protestant faith thus 
 to torture. As to the massacre of 
 St. Bartholomew, so often alluded 
 to by our adversary, nothing ever 
 excited my horror more than the 
 description of that infernal tragedy, 
 either in prose or verse, when I 
 first read it. Indeed I remember 
 (and it is now thirty years ago) 
 I translated into English the oe- 
 scription given of it by Voltaire in 
 his Henriade. He there makes 
 Henry IV. come into England, 
 and describes the massacre to 
 Queen Elizabeth in the foEowing 
 lines : — 
 
 The source, fair queen, where all our ills 
 
 are found, 
 With baleful fury flows from Bacred ground. 
 It is religion, whose inhuman zeal 
 Has roused all France to wave the mur- 
 derous steel. 
 'Tis not for me the empire to assume 
 Between the sons of Calvin and of Rome ; 
 These eyes have witnessed one continued 
 
 tide 
 Of crimes and horrors flow on either side; 
 And if from error perOdy proceeds — 
 If, in the struggle with which Europe bleeds. 
 Murder and treason be th' unfailing test 
 To mark the cause where error stands con- 
 
 fess'd — 
 In crime, as error, neither side will yield. 
 But still maintain a well-contended field, x 
 For me, I fight, but for my country's laws : 
 Is God incensed! — to God belongs the cause. 
 It fits not me to execute his ire. 
 Or burn his incense with unhallowed fire ; 
 And curs'd be he, from whom the art began 
 To grasp dominion o'er the mind of man ; 
 In nature's spite to shackle and control 
 The thoughts that triumph in the free-bom 
 
 soul; 
 Who issue, sword in hand, to pave the way 
 For their religion's arbitrary sway. 
 And .deem a God the fountain of all good — 
 A God of peace— delights in human blood ; 
 That his pure eye looks down upon the feast, 
 And views with joy the homicidal priest! 
 
 Thus you see that, according to 
 Voltaire (and mark, my friends, his 
 poetry agrees in the fact with aU 
 the sober-writing prose historians 
 of the day), neither of them, accord- 
 ing to well authenticated history, 
 could obtain the palm in atrocious 
 deeds. 
 
 " Couriers were despatched," says 
 the note on the second book of the 
 
sss 
 
 UTILE OF fAITH. 
 
 [lOM Eoening. 
 
 Henriade, " to the different towns 
 and provinces to order the mas- 
 sacre. It was disobeyed in many 
 places by priests, and bishops, and 
 lawmen. One bishop made this 
 memorable answer, when the order 
 was brought to lum, ' Thai he did 
 not believe it came from the king; 
 but, if it did, he reelected his ma- 
 jesty too much to put it into exe- 
 cution.' " Now hear the illustrious 
 Bossuet : — 
 
 " Beza's history will show that 
 our reformed were always ready at 
 the least signal to fly to arms, to 
 break open prisons, to seize on 
 churches; nor was anything ever 
 seen more factious. Who is igno- 
 rant of the cruelties exercisea by 
 the queen of Navarre against priests 
 and religieux? The towers from 
 which the Catholics were cast head- 
 long, and the deep pits they were 
 flung into, are shown to tms day. 
 The well of the bishop's palace at 
 Nismes, and the cruel instruments 
 employed to force them to the Pro- 
 testant sermons, are not less known 
 to the whole world. We have still 
 the informations and decrees, by 
 which it appears that these bloody 
 executions were the deliberate re- 
 solves of Protestants in council as- 
 sembled. We have the original 
 orders of generals, and those of 
 cities, at the request of consistories, 
 to compel the papists to embrace 
 the Reformation by taxes, by quar- 
 tering soldiers upon them, by demo- 
 lishing their houses and uncovering 
 the roofs. Those who withdrew to 
 escape these violences were stripped 
 of their goods. The records of the 
 town-houses of Nismes, Montauban, 
 Alais, Montpellier, and other cities 
 of the party, are full of such decrees ; 
 nor should. I mention them, but for 
 the complaints vfith which our 
 fugitives alarm all Europe." — Bos- 
 suet, History of the Variations, vol. 
 ii. p. 42. 
 
 Again, in page 44 of the same 
 volume, Bossuet thus writes : — 
 
 The assassination of Francis, 
 duke of Guise, ought not to pass 
 unmentioned in this history, foras 
 much as the author of this murder 
 (a Protestant) mingled religion with 
 his crime. It is Beza himself who 
 represents to us the murderer in 
 question, Poltrot, as excited by some 
 secret impulse, at the time he resolved 
 upon the infamous exploit ; and, in 
 order to make us understand that 
 this secret impulse was from God, 
 he also describes the same Poltrot, 
 as he Was just upon the point of en- 
 tering upon the execution of this 
 black design, praying to God most 
 ardently that he womd vouchsafe to 
 change his vriU if what he intended 
 was displeasing to him ; otherwise, 
 that lie would give him constancy 
 and strength sufficient to slay this 
 tyrant, and by that means rescue 
 Orleans from destruction, and the 
 whole kingdom from so miserable a 
 tyranny. Thereupon, on the evening 
 of the same day," proceeds Beza, 
 "he struck the stroke; that is, 
 during his enthusiasm, and just 
 rising fi^from ardent prayer." But 
 mark, my friends, the concluding 
 sentence of this extract: it runs 
 thus : — " So soon as our reformed 
 knew that the thing was done, they 
 solemnly returned thanks to Ood with 
 great rejoicings." 
 
 Again^Voltaire writes thus, in 
 his book called " A Sketch of the 
 History of France towards the end 
 of the Sixteenth Century, under 
 Francis II. to the death of Henry 
 IV." page 275. 
 
 "The court gave orders for the 
 same massacre in all those provinces, 
 as St. Herem, in Auvergne: La 
 Guiche, at Mapon, the viscount of 
 Orme at Bayonne, and several others 
 refused to obey, and wrote to 
 Charles IX., nearly in these terms — 
 ' That they would die fok his see- 
 
Mr. French.'^ 
 
 aULE OP PAITH. 
 
 589 
 
 VICE, but wmld not consent to murder 
 any one for him.' " 
 
 Thus you see, my friends, that 
 there were in those days genuine 
 Catholics to he found, who abhorred 
 the massacre of St. Bartholomew 
 as much as we do at the present 
 day, and who, in opposition to a 
 torrent of iniquity, had the daring to 
 remain inflexibly, unalterably true 
 to Christian principle and the voice 
 of humanity f 
 
 But I resume a subject of more 
 importance. My friend will have it 
 that the baptism of infants is to be 
 found in Scripture ; he has settled 
 it ; he fancies that he has produced 
 a text which is to confound you all. 
 Now he could not answer that untU 
 he had purloined his instructions 
 from Catholic divines. Yesterday 
 he was quite at a nonplus, and I 
 never blushed for a man more in my 
 life. [Tittering.] Now I come to 
 the Catholic divmes. Every school- 
 boy in this room, learping Jris cate- 
 -chism, knows that these notes mean 
 to say that we do not in our tradi- 
 tions go contraiT to Scripture. 
 There is nothing m Scripture that 
 is at open war with our doctrines. 
 But every Catholic knows that 
 Scripture self-explaining is not suffi- 
 cient. The CathoUo requires the 
 voice of the great instructress of 
 ages to tell him what the meaning 
 of it is ; and when my learned friend 
 says that everything necessary to 
 faith and morals is to be found in 
 Scripture, I say so also: lam satis- 
 fled with that. And why ? Because 
 1 find in Scripture that the priests 
 are to be its interpreters— "the 
 priests' Ups are to keep knowledge." 
 No Scripture is of private disentan- 
 glement. And now what says Jeremy 
 Taylor on infant baptism r 
 
 Page 55. "And however the 
 matter be for godfathers, yet the 
 tradition of baptizing infants passed 
 through the hands of Irenseus." 
 
 (Lib. ii. 39.) " Christ did sanctify 
 every age by his own susception of 
 it and similitude to it; for he came 
 to save all men by himself; I say 
 all, who by him are bom again to 
 God ; infants and children and boys 
 and young men and old men. He was 
 made an infant to infants, a little 
 one to the little ones," &c. "Chris- 
 tus infautibus infans factus, sancti- 
 flcans infantes." And Origen is 
 express : " Ecclesia traditionem ab 
 apogtolis susoepit etiam parvuEs 
 dare baptismum:" "The Church 
 hath received a tradition from the 
 apostles to give baptism to chil- 
 dren." 
 
 Bage 35. " Upon the supposition 
 of these grounds, the baptism] of 
 infants, according to the perpetual 
 practice of the Church of God, 
 win stand firm and unshaken upon 
 its own base.". — Discourse of Bap- 
 tism, &c. : together with a Consi- 
 deration of the Practice of the 
 Church in Baptizing Infants, and 
 the Practice justified. By Jeremy 
 Taylor, d.d. 4to. London, 1652. 
 
 " That the Church of God, ever 
 since her numbers are full, has for 
 very many ages consisted almost 
 wholly of assemblies of men who 
 have been baptized in their infancy; 
 and although, in the first callings of 
 the Gentiles, the chiefest and the 
 most frequent baptisms were of con- 
 verted and repenting persons and 
 believers, yet, from the beginning 
 also the Church hath baptized the 
 infants of Christian parents, accord- 
 ing to the prophecy of Isaiah xlix. 
 22:— 'Behold, I will lift up my 
 hands to the Gentiles and set up a 
 standard to the people, and they 
 shaE bring their sons in their arms, 
 and thy daughters will be carried 
 upon their shoulders.' " 
 
 Now, what I ask of my learned 
 antagonist is. Do the Anabaptists 
 believe this doctrine of Jeremy 
 Taylor, Vho delivers the doctrine ot 
 
590 
 
 ■RULE or FAITH. flOM Evening 
 
 the Church of England, to be sound 
 Christianity? If not, can my friend 
 look me m the face and dare to 
 repeat his assertion once more, that 
 Protestant sects differ from one 
 another hut in non-esse&tiak ? The 
 Lutherans, says Bossuet, upon see- 
 ing these errors sprout up among 
 the Anabaptist sects, condemned 
 them by three articles of the Confes- 
 sion of Augsburg, the first of which 
 runs thus : — 
 
 " That baptism is necessary to 
 sahation; and that they condemn 
 the Anabaptists, vpho assert, that 
 children may be saved mthont bap- 
 tism, and out of the Churdi of 
 Jesus Christ." — Bossuet, History 
 of the Fariations, vol. i. p. 13!i 
 
 What becomes, I ask, then, my 
 Anabaptist friends, according to the 
 Church of E)wland—is\. the suppo- 
 sition that Jeremy Taylor, one of 
 its orthodox bishops, ddiveis it 
 truly — ^what becomes of your in- 
 numerable little childten that die 
 without baptism ? [Sensation.] 
 
 Ilev. J. CtmiMiNG. — The refer- 
 ence? 
 
 Mr. Feench — [smiling.] — Yes ! 
 but my time is flying. I will give 
 it you after I have finished. 
 
 Rev. J. Cxmxma. — Very well ; 
 after — that will do. 
 
 John Kendal, Esq. here gave 
 the reference alluded to. 
 
 Mr. EkeSoh continued. — Thus 
 you see, my Anabaptist friends who 
 are here present, that these Church- 
 of-England-men, in order to con- 
 fate us Catholics, take up the Bible 
 aud proscribe tradition; but in order 
 to confute you, they throw away the 
 Bible and take up tradition as the 
 standard of their faith, the con- 
 founder of Hieir enemies. Ton can- 
 not, then, but see most clearly, my 
 Protestant friends, ye harmonious 
 creatures of the Rerormation, how 
 perpetually and how vitally ye are 
 at war with each other ! 
 
 But what an acute lynx-eye must 
 my friend have to see baptism so 
 legibly in the Bible! [A. laugh.] Now 
 what says my Bible-pinioned oppo- 
 nent — my friend who has a text for 
 every tmng? I call for a text, 
 and he gives me a text which 
 will not satisfy any rational creature 
 in this room. I certainly, for my 
 own part, should call my reverend 
 friend hodiemi temporis fidelissimus 
 testis. [Laughter.] And now, gen- 
 tlemen, I throw down my E.ule of 
 Eaith on the table, which is tbabi- 
 TioN — the Bible and the traditions 
 of the Church. [The learned gen- 
 tleman here deposited on the 
 platform table his MS. notes and 
 memoranda, which created a little 
 amusement, and continued.] I 
 throw down this; my friend can 
 look at it. Here it is on paper, and 
 now it is down as much as his print 
 [laughter]; that paper of mine is 
 just as able to speak as is that Bible 
 of my learned friend on the table of 
 itself; and that table is just as able 
 to tell me who glued it together, as 
 that Bible is to tell me whether 
 those wlio wrote it were inspired. 
 My Rule of Paith is tradition — 
 traditions handed down with the 
 Bible; which traditions were handed 
 down to me at the same time by the 
 keepers of the Bible, the lawful 
 guardians of the Bible— the priests 
 of the Church ; they are its w,wful 
 iaterpreters. Divine revelation is 
 the Rule of Paith, comprehended 
 not only in Scripture, but also in 
 tradition, by which' — and mark ye,' 
 my friendS) what I say — ^by which 
 tradition even the Scripture is made 
 known to us. They satisfied me of 
 this, aqd that is the way I come to 
 know the Bible. I saw a Church 
 professing holiness, apostolicity, 
 unity,- Catholicity, and! examined 
 every featiire of it, and I saw_ that 
 in every age it had laid an indis- 
 putable claim to holiness, and truth. 
 
Mr. Frenchi] 
 
 KTJLE OF TAITH. 
 
 591 
 
 and intesrity; I saw apostoHcity 
 stamped indelibly on its brow; I 
 saw univetsality, that it was the 
 converter of all nations ; I saw 
 unity — Catholics of all lands and all 
 countries ; aU concurring, aU. agree- 
 ing ia fundamental truth, notwith- 
 standing the assertion of my learned 
 friend that they do not — agreeing, 
 every part of the world to which 
 you may be wafted at the present 
 moment, in performing the ^crifice 
 of the Mass, in offering prayers, 
 and all other fundamental dogmas ; 
 aU adoring one God, under one 
 •head, witn one mind and one 
 mouth. You have no such unity 
 among you ; ye, O Protestants, are 
 a house of discord and indescribable 
 confusion. Yes, gentlemen, there is 
 nothing but war in your camp; 
 and, as my leamedfriend has treated 
 me with the recital of half a dozen 
 verses from the " Ars Poetica" of 
 Horace, I wiU repay Mm by the 
 recit^ of a few from Lucan's Phar- 
 salia, in order to paint these your 
 waning camps in their genuine 
 colours. We wiU change, of course, 
 the word (Ehnathios into (Mlios, &c. 
 as being more apposite to the plains 
 of Exeter Hall :— 
 
 Bella per (EoHot plus qukm civilia campos, , 
 Jusque datum scelericanimua, populumque 
 
 nocentem 
 In sua devicta conversum viscera dextraj 
 CognatOBque acies et lupto foedere regni, 
 Certatum totis concussi virltus orbis. 
 In commune nefas, infestisgue obvia signis . 
 Signa, pares aquilas etpila minantia pilis. 
 
 And let my learned friend remark 
 especially the unseasonable moment 
 of these fivternal discords, for they 
 are earned on precisely at a time, 
 when (for you know, my iriesnds,, 
 my Calvinistic opponent ever po- 
 litely designates our Church by the 
 Lady of Babylon) 
 
 Cumque superba Soret Sabt/ion spolianda 
 irophaia, Jc— Locan. 
 
 That is, the various sects of Pro- 
 testantism, instead of joining toge- 
 
 ther in one soM phalanx, to strip, 
 if possible, our towering Church of 
 its trophies, are ever at deadly war 
 with themselves and anathematizing 
 one another, so that, whensoever any 
 one of them takes the field against 
 us CathoUos, it uniformly hap- 
 pens, in the language of the same 
 poet — 
 
 Bella geri placuit nuiloahabitura triumphoa, 
 ^They -wage vain vrar, and reap eternal 
 shame. 
 
 Yes, my friends, antig^uity is 
 the badge of the Cathohc faith, 
 and vain and impotent is every 
 attempt of Protestantism to tear it 
 from us. 
 
 ■ It is> observed by St. Augustine 
 (Lib. de Vera Beligione) as well as 
 by other holy fathers, that the apo- 
 stles, in order to enable mankind in 
 all ages to discern the Catholic 
 Church, invented the name Catholic, 
 and set it down in their common 
 creed, in that clause or article 
 which ruas, "I believe the holy 
 Catholic Church," by which word 
 Catholic, which signifies universal, 
 they gave all posterity to under- 
 stand, that what doctrines or opi- 
 nions soever should afterwards arise 
 among Christians, dissenting from 
 the general consent and traditiom ol 
 the whole Church, was to be reputed 
 as erroneous and heretical, and to be 
 utterly rejected; and that the only 
 anchor, stay, or security for a Chris- 
 tian mind in matters of faith was 
 to be a Catholic; that is, as the 
 ancient fathers interpret it, one who, 
 laying aside all particular opinions 
 and imaginations, both of himself 
 and others, doth subject his opinion 
 and judgment to the determination 
 of Christ's universal, visible, and 
 known Church upon earth, embrac- 
 ing whatsoever she believes, and 
 abandoning whatsoever she rejects. 
 And this is that plain, direct, sure, 
 and infallible way mentioned by 
 Isaiah xxiv. 8: — "And a highway 
 
KUIE OP FAITH. [lllhEvenitiff. 
 
 shall be there, and a way, and it 
 shall be called the way of holiness; 
 the unclean shall not pass over it ; 
 but it shall be for those, the way- 
 faring men, though fools, shall not 
 
 It is thus I verify the words of 
 St. Paul, which I have quoted to 
 you before, and which pomt out so 
 prophetically the jarring churches 
 of Protestantism. 
 
 [The learned gentleman's hour 
 here closed.] 
 
 JoHW Kendai., Esq. rose to dis- 
 solve the meeting, which separated 
 in the most peaceable and orderly 
 
 We certify that this Report is faith- 
 fully and correctly given. 
 
 3. CuMMDfG, M.A. 
 
 D. Feench, 
 
 Barrisfer-at-Law 
 
 Chas. Maybubt Aechee, 
 
 Reporter, 
 
 Eleventh Evening, Thesiiat, May 19, 1839. 
 
 SUBJECT : 
 
 EULE OE FAITH, 
 
 (Continued.) 
 
 Rev. J. Gumming. — I feel ex- 
 3eedingly sorry that Mr. French has 
 found, or professed to find, so many 
 causes of complaint in the course of 
 this discussion. It seems the audi- 
 ence is not the only party with 
 whom he finds fault, but he has also 
 found fault with another indivi- 
 dual in this assembly, whom I shall 
 not name, on account of the laws 
 prescribed at the commencement of 
 this discussion. All that I can say 
 is, that I knew not that any portion 
 of the Protestant audience de- 
 signed or meant tp retire at the 
 close of my second speech, or before 
 they had the satisfaction and enjoy- 
 ment of hearing Mr. French's last. 
 I deeply regret theic patience failed 
 them, as my antagonist's speech 
 gives generally fresh force and illus- 
 tration to the claims and majesty of 
 Scripture truth. I know nothing 
 about such a resolution, and if they 
 didit, they did it on their own respon- 
 sibility, without any preconcerted 
 arrangement, and without our being 
 ■orivy to such an intention in any 
 
 shape. But now, if I had been 
 searehing for grounds of complaint, 
 I might have complained that too 
 many Iloman Catholics did not 
 think fit to appear when I began 
 the meeting, until Mr. French's 
 speech began. If I were search- 
 ing for cause of complaint, I should 
 have abundant ground for it. Not 
 a few of the Roman Catholic part 
 of the audience do not make tneir 
 appearance when I have the first 
 speech until Mr. French begins his 
 speech — ^that is to say, at least an 
 hour after the time appointed for 
 the meeting. So that there might 
 be complaints on both sides ; but it 
 really argues something like a con- 
 sciousness of deficiency of cause 
 to have recourse to such paltiy 
 charges against any portion of this 
 audience. I, for my part, wish 
 to make no complaints. I would 
 say — "Do as you like — strike 
 me, but hear me," as it was 
 replied by a general of old; "Do 
 with me as you like, only give me 
 a hearing." 
 
Rev. J. Gumming J\ uuiiU op taith. 
 
 593 
 
 Were I to Mo-w the rambling 
 remaxks of my antagonist in Ms last 
 speech, which some of you Pro- 
 testants, it appears, have had the 
 bitter misfortvme not to have heard 
 — [tittering] — ^I should then have 
 to re-enter on the discussion of all 
 the dogmas, pecub'arities, and points 
 of the Roman Catholic Paith. I 
 should have to discuss again Tran- 
 substantiation, which I had thought 
 was exterminated for ever. I should 
 have to discuss the Mass and the 
 Confessional, and many and any 
 other points besides, and beyond 
 the Roman CathoMc Rule of Paith, 
 into all of which my antagonist was 
 anxious to drag me, in the hope that 
 he might spare the Roman. Catho- 
 lics iu this audience the pain of 
 hearing a plain exposition of the 
 inconsistencies, contradictions, and 
 fallacies of his and their Rule of 
 Faith. I shall not imitate Mr. 
 IVench's example. It may be suf- 
 ficient to observe, that when I 
 quoted a passage from Augustine, 
 in order to show the contrarie- 
 ties of the fathers upon a leading 
 tenet of your Rule of Faith, that 
 passage was decidedly against the 
 dootrme of Transubstantiatipn ; and 
 when Mr. French professed to find 
 a passage from a father in favour of 
 it — which I do not grant, as I shall 
 show you then and thereby he d[id 
 just as I desired — ^he contributed 
 the more effectually to promote my 
 end, which is to show that the 
 brightest of human authorities as a 
 Rme of Faith are contradictory and 
 inconsistent. But in order to show 
 you that St. Augustine does not at 
 aU admit of my opponent's new 
 light, when the construction of 
 the passage is fairly and honestly 
 weighed, I read from him a passage 
 in the third book on "Christian 
 Doctrine," vol. iii. page 52. Bene- 
 dictine Edition, Paris, a.d. 1685. 
 Now Mr. French, says, all that St. 
 
 Augustine meant to convey was the 
 eatmg of the flesh and blood under 
 the " species" of bread and wine— 
 a sort of metaphysical mystery, that 
 this was all that by " a figure" he 
 meant to convey ; but St. Au- 
 gustine himself says, unless my 
 senses, like Mr. French's, are de- 
 ceived : — 
 
 " Nisi manduoaveritis, inquit, 
 camem filH hominis et sanguinem 
 ejus biberitis, non habebitis vitam 
 in vobis. Facinus videtur aut flagi- 
 tium jubere. Figttra ergo est 
 prsBcipiens passioni Domini esse 
 communicandum et sauviter atque 
 utiliter recondendum in memoria 
 quod pro nobis caro ejus orucifixa et 
 vulnerata." — Be Doe. Christ, lib. iii. 
 tom. iii. p. 52. 
 
 This is the language of Augus- 
 tine : the figure is not in the mandu- 
 cation of the sacrament, but, says 
 Augustine, in the sacrament itself. 
 In other words, he says it is the 
 symbol, and not the thii^ signified. 
 u. I were to use the ipsissima verba 
 of Augustine as my own, we should 
 hear my opponent's usual homily 
 upon orientalisms. Augustine never 
 heard of Transubstantiation, and the 
 very idea of this monstrosity he 
 detested. I should like to call the 
 attention of this audience to some 
 references which I made to the 
 Liturgies of St. James, St. Basil, 
 and St. Peter. When my learned 
 antagonist brought forward these 
 forgeries, as they are and have 
 been proved to be^ to a very great 
 extent, he said he would not take 
 the authority of the distinguished 
 Roman Catholic historian Dupin, 
 and Dupin was thus cast overboard 
 in the same gallant way in which he 
 had served the other great doctors 
 of his Church. Let me, however, 
 inform my opponent, that Tillinont, 
 another Roman CathoKc historian, 
 records the same verdict as Dupin, 
 on the forged liturgies, lou wUl 
 
591 
 
 ETOE OP PAITH. 
 
 find valuable light on this subject 
 in his vol. i. p. 423. 
 
 On the true character of Dupin, 
 I quote the foEowing testimony. 
 It will be seen by the following ex- 
 planation, that Dupin was too honest 
 and too upright to serve the Papacy 
 at the expense of truth. Some 
 private doctors condemned Dupin, 
 for reasons most honourable to the 
 historian, but the Pope and Council, 
 i.e. the Church, never condemned 
 him. 
 BiograpMcalDictionan/, revised and 
 
 enlarged, hy Alexander Chalmers, 
 
 F.S.A. 
 
 "Dttpin. — Having made choice 
 of the Church as a profession, he 
 went through the usual course of 
 studies at the Sorbonne, and em- 
 ployed much of his time iu perusing, 
 the fathers and ecclesiastical, histo- 
 rians, but had no other view in this 
 than to gratify bis curiosily, while 
 preparing himself for his licentiate- 
 ship in divinity, which he was then 
 too young to obtaiu. In 1680, he 
 took the degree of bachelor of di- 
 vinity; and m July, 1684, that of 
 doctor. He soon after undertook 
 to publish the work iwhioh has 
 made biTn most known, his 'Uni- 
 versal Library -of Ecclesiastical 
 Writers,' containing their Hves, 
 and a catalogue, critical account, 
 and analysis of their works : a de- 
 sign of vast extent, which might 
 have done credit to the labours of 
 a society, yet was sneeessfidh/ ac- 
 complished by an individual, who 
 was not only mterrupted by profes- 
 sional duties, but wrote and pub- 
 lished a great many other works. 
 The first volume of his ' BibKothe- 
 que' was printed at Paris, 1686, 
 8vo ; and the others in succession, 
 as far as five volumes, which con- 
 tained an account of the first eight 
 centuries. The freedom, however, 
 which he had used in criticising the 
 style, character, and doctrines of 
 
 some of the celebrated ecclesiastical 
 writers, roused the prejudices of the 
 celebrated Bossuet, wno exhibited 
 a complaint against Dupm to Harlay, 
 Archbishop of Paris. The Arch- 
 bishop accordingly, in 1693, pub- 
 lished a decree against the work, 
 yet with more deliberation than 
 ■might have been expected. His 
 Grace first ordered the work to be 
 read by four doctors of divinity of 
 the faculty of Paris, who perused 
 it separately, and then combining 
 their remarks, drew up a report, 
 which they presented to the Arch- 
 bishop, who, in his decree, says, 
 that ne also examined the work, 
 and found that it would be very 
 prejudicial to the Church if it were 
 suffered to be dispersed. Dupin 
 was then summoned before the 
 Archbishop and the doctors, and, 
 after several meetings, gave in a 
 paper in which he delivered his 
 opinion on the objections made to 
 his book, in such a manner as to 
 satisfy them that, however liberal 
 his expressions, he was himself 
 sound; but the work itself they 
 nevertheless thought must be con- 
 demned, ' as containing several pro- 
 positions that are fa£e, rash, and 
 scandalous, capable of offending 
 pious ears, tending to weaken t& 
 arguments which are brought from 
 tradition to prove the a/uthoriiy of 
 the canonical hooks of Holy Sorip- 
 turei and of several other articles of 
 faith; injurioua to general councils, 
 
 TO THE HOLT A50ST0LICAI; SEE, and 
 
 to the fathers of the Church ; erro- 
 neous and leading to heresy.* This 
 sentence upon the work, however, 
 wiU prove its highest recommenda- 
 tion to the Protestant reader, who 
 win probably, as he may very justly, 
 infer, that it means no more than 
 that Dupin was too impartial and 
 candid for his judges." 
 
 Now, as to the subject of mar- 
 riage, which has been alluded to. 
 
Rev. J. Cummtnff.'] eule op paith. 
 
 695 
 
 I beg leave to state, that St. Jerome 
 does not appear to have entertained 
 anj^ of the notions respectittg it 
 which are held by the modemTlo- 
 man CathoUo Church. 
 
 The extract from St. Jerome is 
 as follows : — 
 
 " If the name of bishops may be 
 
 fiven to such as wiU ordain no 
 eacons except they are married." 
 This extract occurs in St. Je- 
 rome's fifty-third letter, directed to 
 Biparius, a presbyter in Spain, who 
 wished to know Jerome's opinion 
 of a work of Vigilantius. 
 
 So that, it seems, there were some 
 bishops in his Church who held 
 that a minister ought to be married, 
 whilst Mr. French says, that bishops 
 now hold they ought not to be mar- 
 ried. Thus we have another proof 
 of the unchanging unanimity which 
 exists in the doctrines of the Bx)man 
 Catholic Church ! My opponent 
 next tried to vindicate his beloved 
 Bossuet, on whom I had fastened 
 the powerful charge of entertaining 
 persecution and intolerant senti- 
 ments. He fried to do so by mys- 
 tifying, and by mis-stating the facts 
 of the case. I did not say that 
 Bossuet prompted the revocation of 
 the edict of Nantz ; I did not say 
 that he had any personal share or 
 communication in the revocation of 
 that edict, but that mbseqiiently, in 
 the face of all France, he pronounced 
 a glowing eulogium on the Chan- 
 ceSor of the Eng of Erance, and 
 commended, amid the plaudits of 
 the French clergy, the conduct of 
 Louis XIV. for having extermin- 
 ated the heretics of that day. _ 
 
 This oration was deKvered in the 
 face of all Eranee, and before the 
 clergy of Prance. It was never 
 protested against by the clergy of 
 Prance. It is. contained in the au- 
 thenticated edition of the works of 
 Bossuet, and, as far as any docu- 
 ment can be authentic and binding, j 
 
 that document is so. Therefoie it 
 must appear to every honest and 
 dispassionate auditor that Bossuet, 
 whom Romanists look up to, ap- 
 proves of the extermination of here- 
 tics. But I can imagine that some 
 Roman Catholics vrffl. ask, Is this 
 sanguinary taste for blood consonant 
 with the soft and dulcet strains in 
 which he tries to win Protestants 
 over to the Roman Catholic Church 
 in his celebrated work, generally 
 recommended to us heretics? As 
 to the consistency of it, it is not my- 
 business to explain it : all that I 
 assert is, that when he was address- 
 ing the Roman Catholic Church, 
 umettered, unimpeded, and un- 
 shackled, he approved of the exter- 
 mination of heretics ; but when he 
 addresses a Protestant, he softens 
 down all the asperities of his Churohj 
 makes her to put her best foot for- 
 ward, until you are brought within 
 the range of her dominion and her 
 influence. Then if Mr. Ereneh 
 does not mind much about Bossuet, 
 or about his entertaining persecut- 
 ing principles, what does he say to 
 the 600 fathers of the Council of 
 Chalcedon having approved and 
 lauded the extermination of here- 
 tics ? What does he say to a general 
 council approving of the extermina- 
 tion of heretics ? And, therefore, I 
 must again inform this audience, 
 that Mr. French is bound either to 
 hold that it is right in the Roman 
 Catholic Church to exterminate us 
 heretics by fire or faggot, or he 
 must clearly cast the 600 fathers 
 of the Council of Chalcedon over- 
 board, with Bossuet after them. 
 [Laughter.] 
 
 Mr. French next gratified this 
 audience with an excursus upon po 
 nance, confession, and contrition, 
 and as to the mode in which he 
 makes his confession when he goes 
 to the priest to obtain absolution. 
 Now I have an interesting fact to 
 
596 
 
 RTJLB OP PAITH. [YM Evettldg. 
 
 latter doctors, emljoldened by the 
 numbers that agreed with them, 
 not only have asserted it without 
 any doubt or hesitation, but have 
 not hesitated to brand the other 
 opinion as altogether improbable, 
 dangerous, and virtually proscribed 
 by the Council of Trent." 
 
 Now you observe the Pope says, 
 witt countless theologians, what 
 implies that a man may pave his 
 way to glory upon the ruins of the 
 first great commandment, " Thou 
 shalt love the Lord thy God, with 
 all thy heart, vidth all thy soul, 
 and with aU thy -strength ;" so that, 
 according to the theology of B^me, 
 it is perfectly^ possible to reach the 
 gates of beatitude and glory with- 
 out haviag in the heart one particle 
 of love for God. 
 
 Benedict 3lIV. records this hor- 
 rible notion, and finds countless 
 theologians tOiSupportit; and, there- 
 fore. Mi. .French must either sub- 
 scribe to these sentiments — ^whioh 
 I dare say, he does not 
 
 Mr. Pbbnch — [iuterrupting]. — 
 I do! 
 
 Kev. J. Gumming. — ^You do ? 
 
 Mr. Fbench — Yes, decidedly. 
 
 Eev. J. Gumming — [turning to 
 the audience]. — ^There is unanimity 
 for once, but the matter of that 
 unanimity will give you a dreadful 
 picture of Romanism. 
 
 Mr. Pkench. — The beginning of 
 wisdom — the fear of God. 
 
 Kev. J. Gumming. — ^But what I 
 quote is the feajr oi hell. 
 
 Mr. Ekbnch. — I beg your pardon, 
 it is the fear of God. 
 
 B.ev. J. Gumming. — 1 repeat the 
 words of the Pope, " servile attri- 
 tion, or a feeling that has in it the 
 fear of hell only." 
 
 Mr. PnENCH. — ^The fear of hell 
 means the fear of God. 
 
 !Rev. J. Gumming. — ^After this ex- 
 
 state to you on this subject. ' He 
 showed you how much of a deep 
 and penitential feeling must be en- 
 tertamed ty the penitent before he 
 goes to the priest to (Atsia. judicial 
 absolution. What will you say, 
 when I tell you that the Pope and 
 many doctors in his own Cnurch, 
 who abo say, moreover, that the 
 sentiment is not proscribed by the 
 Council of Trent, do hold, and have 
 held, that attrition, or the fear of 
 fire in heU, is all that is wanted to 
 carry you to heaven. 
 
 Mr. Pbbnoh. — Oh, oh ! 
 
 Rev. J. Gumming — [in continua- 
 tion]. — 1i you doubt it, 1 will read 
 the document. Pope Benedict XIV. 
 JHoec. book vii. o. 13, records the 
 following words : — 
 
 "Pirst of all, Francis Victoria 
 and Dominic Soto, both, of the order 
 of Dominicans, have taught, that to 
 obtain remission of sins by the 
 power of the keys, servile attrition, 
 or a feeling that has in it the fear of 
 hell only, is enough, provided the 
 penitent think it true contrition." 
 
 [Mr. PnENCH again ejaculated.] 
 
 Rev. I.tJuMMiNG. — Oh, but stop 
 and hear the remainder. The Pope 
 goes on to say, "Melchior Canus fol- 
 fowing Victoria and Soto, holds that 
 
 SERVILE ATTBITION, KNOWTT TO BE 
 SUCH BT THE PBNITENT,IS ENOUGH." 
 
 Mr. Pbench — ^With confession. 
 
 Rev. J. Gumming. — With con- 
 fession ! You see Mr. French ad- 
 mits that confession is all that 
 needs to be added to make the fear of 
 hell a right qualification for heaven. 
 
 Mr. Fbbnch — ^To be sure ! 
 
 Rev. J. Gumming — [in continu- 
 ation]. — " This opinion of Melchior 
 Canus was so approved," continues 
 the Pope, " that it found many dis- 
 tinguished patrons, such as Francis 
 Saitrez, Gabriel Vasquez, and count- 
 less other theologians. The more 
 learned and wary subscribed to this planation my comments are needless, 
 opinion with great caution, but | [Laughter and confusion,] 
 
Rev. J. Oummztiff.] 
 
 RULE or FAITH. 
 
 597 
 
 George Finch, Esq. P.O. rose 
 to order. 
 
 Rev. J. CtMMiNG [in, oontm-ua- 
 tion,] — ^I hope the reporter has taken 
 that down [addressing him.] Mr. 
 French states that the fear of hell 
 is the same, or is equivalent to, the 
 fear of God. ' 
 
 The next reference of my anta- 
 gonist was a remark condemnatory 
 of a State Church or an established 
 Church. I shall, however, ' not 
 now enter upon that controversy. I 
 only add, that I hold in my hand a 
 letter addressed by his Hohness, the 
 present Pope Gregory XYI., to all 
 the patriarchs, prelatfes, primates, 
 archbishops and bishops, and ap- 
 proved by theRoman Catholic Bishop 
 of London, taken from the " Laity's 
 Directory," for 1833; I have my 
 own opinions upon the subject, and 
 I do not fear tb express them on 
 just occasions. Now you have 
 heard what Mr. French has stated 
 and denounced ; ycfu shall now hear 
 what his own Pope says and recom- 
 mends. The words are as follow : 
 
 " Nor can we argue more consol- 
 ing consequences to religion and to 
 governments from the zeal of some 
 to separate the Church from the 
 state, and to burst the bond which 
 unites the priesthood to the empire ; 
 for it is clear this union is dreaded 
 by the profane lovers of liberty 
 only because it has never failed to 
 confer prosperity on both.'' 
 
 Either Mr. French differs from 
 his Pope, and must be one of " the 
 
 frofane lovers of liberty," or he 
 olds in heart what he has with the 
 Up condemued. 
 
 This encyclical letter is from the 
 " Laity's Directory" for 1833, and 
 is addressed by the Pope to the laity, 
 primates, archbishops, and bishops ; 
 and in it Pope Gregory XVI. holds 
 the propriety, beauty, and im- 
 portance of an union between 
 Church and State ; and here is Mr. 
 
 French, supported by five or six 
 priests, denouncing it. So much 
 for the unanimity of the Church 
 of Rome ! Now I presume Mr. 
 French must either stand before 
 this audience and say, " I hold the 
 union of Church and State to be 
 right," or he must denounce both it 
 and the Pope, as weE as the bishops, 
 archbishops,- and primates, all in a 
 lump. Mr. French, you will re- 
 collefct, cast' St. Augustine over- 
 board; next Aquinas, next Dela- 
 hogue, next Beflarmine, next the 
 Bolandists, with their eighty-four 
 folio volumes; next he cast Dupiu 
 overboard, next Bossuet, then he 
 cast the Rhemish translators of 
 the Bible overboard, and says he 
 could make a' better. ■ Next he cast 
 overboard the notes of his own 
 Bible, deelariiig them to be no part 
 of his Rule of Faith; and at length 
 he cast his own present living Pope 
 overboard, with a whole batch of 
 prelates, and primates, and bishops ; 
 resembling the huge Leviathan in 
 the ocean, every stroke that he 
 gives each pope and prelate that 
 o^oses him, with his logic fin sends 
 them straightway to the bottom of 
 the sea. One and aU disappear in 
 a twinkling before this giant of the 
 nineteenth' century. [Laughter.] 
 The plain fact is, that Mr. French 
 has gone on in so cavalier and con- 
 temptuous a style towards fathers 
 and popes and councils, that at length 
 he has exterminated his own Rule 
 of Faith merely by my furnishing 
 him now and then with a hammer ; 
 and vrithout in the least touching 
 mine, which is the Bible, and the 
 Bible alone. It remains in all its 
 integrity the religion of Protest- 
 ants. But as to his own Rule of 
 Faith, if I had wished any man to 
 come' forward and give it the most 
 thorough exposure with which it 
 was ever visited, 1 shordd have 
 called in Mr. French to do so. He 
 
598 
 
 BOLE OP FAITH. [\\thMoening. 
 
 has given up point after point, 
 part after part, one after amother, 
 until at last he has arrived at the 
 very climax of •unity by stajiding 
 alone. [Laughter.] In fact, my 
 learned antagonist has fallen upon 
 popes, archbishops, primates, sera- 
 phic doctors, cardinals, historians, 
 divines, and fathers, with the most 
 wonderful force, like Samson 
 among the Philistines, and has 
 smitten them hip and thigh by 
 thousands, tiU they Me a heap of 
 tremendous carnage at his magna- 
 nimous feet. Sure am I that the 
 firebrands between the foxes' tails, 
 which Samson sent among the 
 com fields of the Philistines, were 
 nothing when compared with the 
 havoc which he has so mercilessly 
 dealt amongst seraphic doctors, and 
 popes, and cardinals, and bishops. 
 I would, therefore, submit to tins 
 audience the propriety henceforth of 
 constituting my learned antagonist 
 generalissimo of the Protestant 
 forces. [Laughter.] He now lite- 
 rally stands with his Uule of Paith 
 exterminated and in ruins around 
 him, and is left all alone in his 
 glory. 
 
 Mr. French has endeavoured to 
 show you, for the hundredth time, 
 that differences exist among Pro- 
 testants. He hath shown you some 
 extracts of a rather questionable 
 kind from some odd Protestant 
 writers holding this and that opi- 
 nion. Whatever differences or 
 diversities he professes to show 
 among Protestants, does not, you 
 will bear in mind, in reality touch 
 our Bule of Faith ; but every diver- 
 sity of sentiment which I show 
 amongst Roman CathoHc doctors, 
 and fathers, and divines, strikes 
 to the very vitals of his Rule of 
 Faith. Li the next place the 
 differences among Protestants con- 
 sist chiefly in circumstantials or 
 non-essentials, but the differences 
 
 among Roman Catholics reach to the 
 very core, demonstrating the whole 
 system as corrupt and rotten at the 
 heart. Our Church differences are 
 but insignificant and paltry, whereas 
 those in the Roman Catholic Church 
 are of the most vital and awfhl 
 description. Wow I hold in my 
 hand a pamphlet of my own, which I 
 alluded to — namely, the " Unity of 
 Protestants,"" which will show by 
 their standards that all Protestants 
 are thoroughly sound at heart, and 
 that whatever their minor differences 
 may be, they play entirely on the 
 surface ; but the documents which 
 I bring and brought forward wiH, 
 at the same time, show that the 
 Roman GathoKo Faith is rotten at 
 the core. It not only tells us of 
 differences in their Rule of Faith, 
 but also demonstrates that ours are 
 only superficial, whilst theirs reach 
 the very core. Remember, also, 
 when I wish to know what Protest- 
 antism is, I do not take an indivi- 
 dual's exposition, but I refer to 
 documents. Churches, not indivi- 
 duals, are to be appealed to. I hold 
 in my hands the confessions of the 
 Reformed Churches ; the Augsburg, 
 Belgic, Scotch, English, and West- 
 minster confessions. All these con- 
 fessions show that Protestantism 
 is perfectly sound at the heart ; but 
 the extracts which I have made 
 from the accredited documents of 
 the Roman CathoUe Church show 
 that it is corrupt at the very core, 
 n I look at Protestantism, I find 
 that there is health in the vitals, and 
 the diversities of immortal youth in 
 externals. If I look at . Roman 
 Catholicism, I find that her assump- 
 tions of unity; &c. &c. are merely 
 playing upon the surface, whilst 
 within perfect corruption prevails, 
 infecting, and fevering, and morti- 
 fying the very heart of the system. 
 Now to show you that these alle- 
 gations against Rome are neither 
 
Rev. J. Oumming.'] ecile op faitu. 
 
 599 
 
 invidious nor iinfoimded, namely, 
 that Roman Catholicism is diseased 
 at the core, 1 shall for instances 
 refer to the superstitions entertained 
 upon the subject of relics. To pass 
 by the records of Bishop Burnet, in 
 his History of the Beformation, 
 those of Btenry and others, I will 
 show you what was the state of the 
 Church of Rome in 1750. In a 
 directory, priated at Vienna, for 
 the use of pilgrims visiting Borne 
 during the jubilee, I find the fol- 
 lowing inventory : " The hair of St. 
 Mary Magdalene, some of the fat 
 which dropped from St. Lawrence 
 when he was roasted alive, the 
 stones thrown at St. Stephen, some 
 hay from the manger at Bethlehem, 
 the head of the woman of Samaria, 
 the tooth of St. Stephen, the bed of 
 the Virgin, St. Joseph's chain." 
 
 Geddes, a Roman Catholic priest, 
 states from Mannius, that in O viedo, 
 in Spain, there are the following 
 relics : — " Some of the blessed 
 Virgin's millc and hair, St. Peter's 
 right foot shoe, a piece of the rock 
 of Sinai, manna rained from hea- 
 ven," &c. 
 
 In St. Peter's Church at Rome, 
 under the eye of Gregory XVI., or 
 at least of his predecessors, in 1753, 
 there is " the cross on which the 
 good thief was executed, Judas' 
 lantern, the tail of Balaam's ass, 
 the axe, saw, and hammer of St. 
 Joseph, and a few nails which he 
 had not driven." 
 
 In the same catalogue, bearing 
 date 1753, there are in other Bo- 
 man Churches " a few blossoms of 
 Aaron's rod, one of the Virgin's 
 combs, a piece of the Virgin's veil, 
 as good as new, a piece of the rope 
 with which Judas hanged himself, 
 some butter and a small cheese 
 made«of the Virgin's milk." 
 
 In the Roman Bkeviaby, read 
 every day by those reverend gentle- 
 men who accompany my learned 
 
 opponent, there are many similar 
 accounts of precious and odorous 
 relics, about which Mr. French may 
 consult them. 
 
 John, fellow and monk of Glas- 
 tonbury, in his chronicle or history 
 of Glastonbury, gives the foEowing, 
 printed at Oxford, p. 22 : — 
 
 " Part of the place where our 
 Lord was bom ; part of the Lord's 
 cloth in whieh he was wrapped in 
 the manger ; two pieces of the said 
 manger; some of the gold which 
 the wise men brought to the Lord ; 
 some of the stones of the River 
 Jordan, where oar Lord was bap- 
 tized; part of one of the pitchers 
 in which Jesus converted the water 
 into wine ; some of the stones re- 
 specting which it was said to Jesus 
 by the devil, Order those stones to 
 become bread, and they were blessed 
 by the Lord; some of the frag- 
 ments of the five barley loaves with 
 which our Lord satisfied five thou- 
 sand persons ; part of the spot on 
 which our Lord was transfigured ; 
 part of the stone on which our 
 Lord stood in the temple ; some of 
 our Lord's hair ; some of the hem 
 of our Lord's garment, &c. 
 
 " Some of the pebbles and of the 
 earth where Holy Mary wept, when 
 she saw our Lord piercedT with a 
 laace, and her tears flowed upon 
 the earth. Also some of aE her 
 garments ; some of her tomb in the 
 vaUey Jehoshaphat ; the oil from a 
 certain miraculous image of the 
 blessed Mary; some of the milk of 
 the blessed Mary; also the crystal 
 cross,, whieh the blessed Virgin 
 brought to the renowned Kmg 
 Arthur ; one thread from (a certain 
 garment) of the Holy Virgin, and 
 some of her hair, &c. 
 
 "A large bone of St. Peter; 
 two of his teeth; some of his beard; 
 some of his robe; a piece of his 
 staff; some of his cross ; a tooth of 
 St. Paul ; some of his beard; some 
 
600 
 
 EULE OF lAlTH. [11 1& Mveninff, 
 
 of his 1)01168; some of his blood; 
 five small bones of St. Andrew; 
 two teeth, and some of his cross ; 
 some of the hair of St. John the 
 Evangelist; a bone of St. James 
 the Elder ; a jaw-bone of St. Philip, 
 with three teeth, also the half of 
 one of his arms ; one bone of St. 
 Bartholomew ; two thigh bones of 
 St. Thomas." 
 
 Such is a specimen of the fruit 
 of the Roman Catholic Rule of 
 Faith. These gross superstitions 
 the Church of Rome's most dis- 
 tinguished Popes have solemnly 
 bekeved. I declare the Romish 
 apostasy must necessarily generate 
 infidelity. 
 
 In the Roman Breviary, (An- 
 twerp) St. Eidelis, p. 524. 
 
 "Amidst austere fasts, watch- 
 ings, flagellations, pursuing him- 
 seu with salutary hatred." 
 
 St. Mary Magdalene de Fazzi, 
 Virgin, p. 591. 
 
 " She tortured her body with hair 
 cloth, whippings, cold, hunger, &c." 
 
 " Another way," says Bishop 
 Burnett, " was- thought on, which, 
 indeed, proved more effectual, both 
 for recovering the people out of the 
 superstitious fondness they had for 
 their images and relics, and for dis- 
 covering the secret impostures that 
 had long been practised in these 
 houses. And this way was to order 
 the visitors to examine well all the 
 relics and feigned images to which 
 pilgrimages were wont to be made. 
 In this Dr. London did great ser- 
 vice. Erom Reading he writes that 
 the chief relics of idolatry in the 
 nation were there. There was an 
 angel vrith one wing that brought 
 over the spear's head that pierced 
 our Saviour's side; to which he 
 adds a long iaventory of their other 
 relics, and says there were as many 
 more as would fill four sheets of 
 paper. He also writes from other 
 places that he had every where 
 
 taken down their images and trin- 
 kets. At St. Edmondsbury, as John 
 apBice informed us, theyfoundsome 
 of the coals that roasted St. Law- 
 rence, the parings of St. Edmund's 
 toes, St. Thomas 'Bex^e.Vs penknife 
 and hoots, with as many pieces oi 
 the cross of our Saviour as would 
 make a large whole cross. They had 
 also relics against rain, and for 
 hindering weeds to spring. Bat to 
 pursue this further were useless, 
 the relics were so innumerable, and 
 the value which the people had of 
 themmay be gathered from this — 
 that a piece of St. Andrew's finger, 
 set in- am ounce of silver, was kid 
 to pledge by the house of Westacre 
 for 40^. but the visitors, when they 
 suppressed that house, did not 
 think fit to redeem it at so high 
 a rate.^' 
 
 I now refer to a document in- 
 scribed with THE AUTHORIIT OE 
 
 THE Chitkch — Santa Rosa canon- 
 ized ; and therefore a saint is the 
 performer, and the Church the 
 admirer. 
 
 The cmsterities of Santa Rosa, who 
 was canonized.by Pope Clement X. 
 A. D. 1673. — Extracted from the 
 collection of the Constitutions pub- 
 lished by the Popes at the so- 
 lemn canonization of Saints from 
 John XF. to Benedict XIV. ; that 
 is,from the year of oar Lord ^^i to 
 the year 1729. Superintended by 
 Justus Fontaninus, Archbishop of 
 Ancyra. Printed at Home, 1729, 
 at the press of the Rev. Apostolic 
 Chamber. — Fromthe Bull of Canon- 
 
 " She changed the stones and 
 crosses, with which wheni going to 
 prayer in her childhood, and as yet 
 Ignorant of the use of whips, she 
 was loaded by her maid Marianne, 
 who was almost the only person 
 conscious of her mortmcations, 
 into iron chains, which she prepared 
 as scourges, vrith which, after. th^ 
 
Rev. J. Gumminff.] Kuu) of paiie. 
 
 601 
 
 example of St. Domiiiick, every 
 night she offered herself a bloody 
 victim to God to avert his just 
 anger, even to the copious effusion of 
 streams of blood, either for the 
 sorrows of the holy Church, or for 
 the necessities of the endangered 
 kingdom or the city of Lima, or 
 compensating the wrongs of sinners, 
 or for making an expiation for the 
 souls of the dead, or for obtaining 
 Divine aid for those who were in 
 their last agonies ; the servants beir^ 
 sometimes horror-struck at such 
 dreadful blows of the chains. And 
 when the use of these was forbidden 
 to her, she privately encircled her 
 waist with one of them -bound 
 thrice round her, so that it never 
 was apparant that she wore it, ex- 
 cept when she was under the tor- 
 tures of the sciatica; which chain 
 was afterwards loosened only by a 
 miracle, and its links after the 
 virgin's death were found to emit a 
 wondrous and indescribably sweet 
 odour. Lest any part of her inno- 
 cent body should be free from suf- 
 fering, she tortured her arms and 
 limbs with penal chains, and stuffed 
 her breast and sides with handfuls 
 of nettles and small briars. She 
 afterwards increased the sharpness 
 of the haircloth, which reached 
 from her neck beneath her knees, 
 by needles mixed up with it, which 
 she used for many years, until she 
 was ordered to put it off on account 
 of the frequent vomiting of blood. 
 When she laid aside this punish- 
 ment, she substituted another gar- 
 ment less injurious to her health, 
 but not less troublesome. JFor 
 beneath it eve^ movement was 
 paurfol to her. Her feet only were 
 free from these sufferings, which, 
 either by hitting them with stones 
 or by the burning of an oven, she 
 did not suffer to be free from 
 torture. . . . 
 " She fixed upon her head a tin 
 
 crown, with sharp little nails in it, 
 and for many yeeirs never put it on 
 without receiving wounds; when 
 she grew older, this was replaced by 
 one which was .armed with ninety- 
 nine points. . . . 
 
 "She desired the hardness of her 
 bed to be such that it should rather 
 drive away than invite sleep, so that, 
 when about to sleep, tne same 
 should be both a bed to her and an 
 instrument of torture. Her pillow 
 was either an unpolished trunk, or 
 stones concealed for this purpose ; 
 which bed, she .afterwards so flUed 
 with sharp pieces of tiles and trian- 
 gular pieces of broken jugs, that the 
 sharp points of each should ibe 
 turned to her body; nor did she try 
 to sleep untU she had embittered her 
 mouth with a draught of gall. 
 
 " Near the time of her death, 
 Rosa throughout Lent alternately 
 sang the canticles and praises of 
 God every day for a whole hour 
 with a very melodious bird, in so 
 orderly a manner, that when the 
 bird sang the virgin was silent, and 
 when the virgin sang, the bird, who 
 was most attentive, ceased to sing. 
 She invited, moreover, the inani- 
 mate plants, after an unheard-of 
 fashion, to praise and to pray to 
 God, pronoTmciM; the verse, 'Bless 
 the Lord, all ye things which bud on 
 the earth ;' and she so visibly per- 
 suaded them, that the tops of th« 
 trees touched the earth, as u adoring 
 their Creator with a solemn vene- 
 ration." 
 
 The following testimony of Pather 
 Dominic Corsano to the virtues of 
 Liguori, before the Sacred Congre- 
 gation of Rites, describes the claims 
 of Liguori. Four Popes lauded 
 Lignon, and the fanatic was canon- 
 ized in 1839. 
 
 "I know for a certainty that this 
 servant of Gt)d constantly scourged 
 himself, unbloodily and bloodily, and, 
 besides the unbloody scourgings en 
 
502 
 
 joined by liis rule, he was ■wont to 
 punish MinseM every day in the 
 moming before the usual hour of 
 rising, and in the eveiung after the 
 signal for rejiose. On Saturdays 
 he scourged himself' till the blood 
 flowed; and these scourgings were 
 so violentj and caused so much 
 blood to gush from his limbs,. that 
 not only was his linen always ooTcred 
 with it, but you might even see the 
 walls of his small room stained, and 
 even books which he kept in it were 
 sprinkled with it. 
 
 "Also, from what I have seen 
 with my own eyes, and have heard 
 declared by certain fathers, who are 
 worthy of credit, I know that this 
 servant of God macerated his body, 
 also, with haircloth with sharp 
 points in it, and with chains, as 
 well on the arms as on the legs, 
 which he carried with him till 
 dinner-time ; and these for the most 
 part were so armed with sharp 
 points, that they filled with horror 
 all who ever saw them. I have 
 heard say, also, that he had a dress 
 flUed with a coat of Inail with iron 
 points; that he had bandages of 
 camel's hair; and other instruments 
 of penance were casually seen by 
 me, and by others of my compa- 
 nions, notwithstanding his zealous 
 and circumspect secrecy." 
 
 St. Patriclc. From the Ex>maii Bre- 
 viari/, on, the Yith of March. 
 " They say that he was wont to 
 repeat daily the whole Psalter, to- 
 
 f ether with the Canticles, and two 
 undred hjmns and prayers ; three 
 hundred times on each day to wor- 
 ship Grod upon his knees, and in 
 each canonical hour of the day to 
 sign himself one hundred times with 
 the sign of the cross. Dividing the 
 night mto three portions, he spent 
 the first in runnmg through one 
 hundred psalms, and in two genu- 
 flosions; the second in nmning 
 
 BULB or JAITH. [11th Evelltllff. 
 
 through the other fifty psalms, 
 immersed in cold water, with his 
 heart, eyes, and hands raised to 
 heaven;, he yielded the third part 
 to a short sleep upon a hard stone." 
 Suoh are the fruits of my oppo- 
 nent's Rule of Faith, such the pro- 
 geny of the soi-disant Apostolic 
 Church. It is an outrage on de- 
 cency to call such a Church Chris- 
 tian. Her theology is really awful. 
 These proofs alone show to demon- 
 stration that the root of the system 
 is radically diseased. At the very 
 core are the germs of contamination, 
 on the surface the eflorescence of 
 corruption the most awful. I there- 
 fore implore you, my Roman Catho- 
 lic friends, to lay these things 
 seriously to heart. I am not reading, 
 recollect,- from Protestant docu- 
 ments, but from documents accre- 
 dited by your Church — documents 
 bearing the seal and sanction of the 
 Pope and Cardinals besides. These 
 awful abominations contain the 
 stamp and imprimatur of your 
 Church. Again I (juote from one of 
 the most distinguished monuments 
 of Roman Catholic erudition : — 
 
 From the Acts of the Saints, Mag. 
 torn. vi. Prmted at Antwerp, 
 1668. On. the 'i6th of Mag. From 
 the Life of St. Philip Nerita, 
 Founder of the Congregation of 
 Priests. 
 
 "About the year 1555, when 
 Philip,, who had many followers, 
 journeyed to the place where are the 
 baths of Diocletian, he saw standing 
 upon a wall, which had fallen down 
 from age, the devil in the form of a 
 man; and, when he had observed 
 more closely, he beheld him at one 
 time appear as a youth, and pre- 
 sently merwards as an old man. 
 Hence discovering the tricks of the 
 devU, he ordered Em in the name of 
 Christ to discover himself. Over- 
 come by this, the devil betook him- 
 
Rev. J. Oumming.\ kule op faith. 
 
 603 
 
 self to flight, and as he departed he 
 filled the place with so offensiye a 
 stench that even the beasts could 
 not tolerate it ; and thus made it 
 evident to Philip and the other 
 spectators who he was. 
 
 "The devU one night appeared to 
 Prancis of Terrara, one of nis disci- 
 ples, in the form of the most holy 
 Virgin, with the design of deceiviug 
 him more easily under that form. 
 When he reported this the next 
 morning to Philip, Philip said to 
 him, The most holy mother of God 
 did not present herself to you in 
 that form, as you think, .but the 
 devil : as soon, therefore, as this 
 vision appears to you again, I com- 
 mand you to spit in the face of the 
 person who appears. On the fol- 
 lowing night, when the man of 
 Terrara was engaged in very ardent 
 prayer, the devil stood by him 
 resplendent in the same form and 
 lustre. He, however, mindful of 
 the blessed father's injunctions, 
 quickly spat in the devil's face. 
 Confounded and disgracefully de- 
 feated by this act, the devd va- 
 nished." 
 
 Ufe of the Abbot St. Waltlen. The 
 %rd of August. 
 " When upon a certain occasion 
 the saint stood praying before the 
 great altar, with his eyes and hands 
 raised to heaven, the evil spirit trans- 
 figured himself into many shapes : 
 he first ran about the pavement m 
 the form of a mouse, playing many 
 anties ; afterwards in the shape of 
 a grunting pig, afterwards in the 
 shape of ablack dog barking ; after- 
 wards of a howling woK ; and, lastly, 
 of a roaring long-horned bull. 
 
 "But the saint caused all these 
 illusory forms to vanish, by making 
 the sign of the cross. At last that 
 spirit, who has a thousand artifices, 
 and who in a thousand ways endea- 
 vours to disturb quiet hearts, ex- 
 hibited himself in the form of a 
 
 great soldier in armour, sitting upon 
 the back of a horrible horse with a 
 whale's hide, which emitted fire and 
 smoke from its nostrils and mouth, 
 and shook his lance against the man 
 who was praying. The saint jump- 
 ing up as fast as he could by the 
 impulse of the Spirit, and going to 
 the altar, reverently took up the 
 ivory pix, which contained the holy 
 body of the Lord, and signing him- 
 self with it, aud running Eke a 
 second David against the infernal 
 Goliath, and inventing a new name 
 for him, under the dictation of the 
 Spirit, said, 'Behold, oh execrable 
 mouse, oh terrible soldier, thou 
 satellite of Satan, thy Judge is about 
 to send thee into hell, wait for him 
 if thou darest ! ' Overcome and 
 confused by this speech, the infernal 
 horseman disappeared." 
 
 Prom a standard Roman Catholic 
 work, " The Devotion of the Sacred 
 Heart," I extract the following 
 horrible blasphemy : — 
 
 "Come, then, hardened and io- 
 veterate sinner, how great soever 
 your crimes may be ! come and be- 
 nold ! Mary stretches out her hand, 
 opens her breasts to receive you. 
 Tnough insensible to the great con- 
 cerns of your salvation, though un- 
 fortunatehf proof against the most 
 engaging invitations and inspirations 
 of the Holy Qhost, fling yourself at 
 the feet of this powerful advocate ! ! 
 Her throne, though so exalted, has 
 nothing forbidding, nothing dread- 
 ful ; her heart is all love, all tender- 
 ness. If you have the least remains 
 of confidence and reliance on her 
 protection, doubt not she will carry 
 you through her own most blessed 
 heart, in the most speedy and most 
 favourable manner, to the truly 
 merciful and most sacred heart of 
 her son Jesus." — Twelfth Edition. 
 "With an Appendix on the De- 
 votion to the Sacred Heart of 
 Jesus ; Prayers for the Exercise of 
 
604 
 
 RULE Of TAiTH. \l\thlhenuy 
 
 that Devotion; and the Indult of 
 his Holiness Pope Pius in favour of 
 it. For the Use of the Midland 
 District. London : Printed and 
 sold by Keating and Brown, 38, 
 Duke Street, 1831." 
 
 From iTie same. 
 
 "* * * I reverence you, 
 sacred Virgin Mary, the holy ark of 
 the covenant ; and together with 
 all the good thoughts of aU good 
 men upon earth, and the blessed 
 spirits m heaven, do bless and praise 
 you infinitely, for that you are ilie 
 great mediatrix between God and 
 man, obtaining for sinners all that 
 they can ask and demand of the 
 blessed Trinity. Hail Mary ! " 
 
 The more we search into the 
 depths of the Roman Catholic sys- 
 tem, the more awful are the proofs 
 of idolatry, fanaticism, and apostasy. 
 The nearer we approach the heart, 
 the more offensive is the rottenness 
 we detect. She starts with a false 
 Rule of Paith, and ends in a perfect 
 puddle of fanaticism, creature- 
 worship, and superStitisn. 
 
 Then, again, I might show you, 
 still further, that the Roman Catho- 
 lic Church is diseased at the heart, 
 by quoting the^ames, given to the 
 Pope; such as "The Vicar of 
 Christ, Pope, Father of Fathers, the 
 Pontiff of Christians, High-piiest, 
 the Prince of Priests, the Head of 
 the Body — ^that is, of the Church, 
 the Poundation of the Building of 
 the Church, the Pather and Doctor 
 of all the Paithful, the Ruler of the 
 House of God, the Keeper of God's 
 Vineyard, the Bridegroom of the 
 Church, the Ruler of the Apostolic 
 See, the Universal Bishop." 
 
 Instances of the titles of Ood mid 
 Christ being ajiplied to the Pope 
 in Council, taken from Labbe 
 and Cossart, " Holy Councils," 
 torn. xiv. page 109. Printed at 
 Paris, 1072. 
 
 An Extract from a Speech made bg 
 
 Christopher Marcellus, in the iith 
 
 Session of the Council of Later n, 
 
 an. Bom. 1512, wherein he thus 
 
 addresses Pope Julim II. : — 
 
 " For thou art the shepherd, thou 
 
 art the physician, thou art the ruler, 
 
 thou art the cultivator; finally, thou 
 
 art another Ood upoii earth." 
 
 Extract from a Speech made by 
 Simon Segnius, Bishop of Mo- 
 d/ruseh, in ihe %th Session of the 
 Council of Lateran, an. Bom. 
 
 1513, wherein he thm speaks of 
 Pope Leo X. .— 
 
 "But* weep not, daughter of 
 Sion, for behold, ' the Lion of the 
 tribe of Judah, the Boot of David,' 
 comes ; behold, God has raised up 
 to thee a Saviour, who shall save 
 you from the hands of the spoilers. 
 * * * We have expected thee, 
 most blessed Leo, as the Saviour 
 that was to come;" 
 
 Extract from a Speech made by 
 Baltassar del Bio, a Scholastic of 
 Mentese, Prothonotary of the 
 Apostolic See, &-c. 
 "Like the Hon, the Ving of 
 quadrupeds,, you, another Hon, not 
 another king of men only, but ap- 
 pointed the king of kings, and the 
 monaioh of ,the whole earth, would 
 bring back,.allurei,aud reoal to your 
 fold other sheep, which are not of 
 this fold ; ' Gird thyself, therefore, 
 with thy sword upon thy thigh, O 
 most mighty.' " 
 
 Extract from, a Speech made by the 
 Bev. Father, the Lord Anthony 
 Pucci, in the 9th Session of the 
 5 th Council of Lateran, an. Bom. 
 
 1514, before Leo X. .- — 
 "Although the sight of your 
 
 divine majesty does not a little 
 terrify me, who am beginning to 
 speak." Again — " Not ignorant 
 that all power both in heaven and in 
 earth is given to you only by the 
 Lord." And again — "As if that 
 
Rev. J. Gumming.'] mjLB of taith. 
 
 605 
 
 I 
 
 iroplietical saying ought again to 
 e lulfllled in you, the only true and 
 lawful vicar of Christ and God, 'All 
 the kings of the earth shall worship 
 him, and all nations shall serve him."' 
 
 Extract from a Speech made hy 
 Stephen, Archbishop of Patras. 
 Sess. 10, an. 1515, Leo X. 
 " At thy command, O most holy 
 father, who hast in thee the fulness 
 of power, a true reformation shall 
 be preached. * * * Snatch up, 
 therefore, the two-edged sword of 
 the divine power, which is given to 
 thee, and order, command, and de- 
 cree, that an universal peace and 
 aUiauce take place among Christians 
 for the space of ten years at least, 
 and bind the kings to it in the 
 fetters of the greatness of the great 
 King, and bind the nobles to it in 
 the iron manacles of thy censures, 
 since all power is given to thee in 
 heaven and earth." 
 
 Adoration ofFope Pim II. 
 
 " The Pope was conducted to the 
 church of St. Petei^ and after being 
 elevated on the great, altar, at the 
 foot of which are the tombs of the 
 holy apostles, he sat upon the throne 
 that was prepared for him, and was 
 there adored by the cardinals, after- 
 wards by the bishops, and lastly by 
 the whole people, who crowded to 
 kiss his feet." — Fleury's Bed. Hist. 
 t. XV. b. 3. Printed at Nismes, 1779. 
 
 These awful and blasphemous 
 titles were liberally assigned to the 
 Popes just before the Reformation. 
 The Romish Rule is destitute of 
 some of the greatest and most pecu- 
 liar blessings which our Rule of 
 Faith presents. You wiE often hear 
 a Roman Catholic tjJk of liberty of 
 conscience just as if he possessed it. 
 Now, in the same encyoKcal letter 
 which I quoted, as addressed by the 
 
 E resent Pope to the different arch- 
 ishops and bishops, that document 
 contams the followiiig language : — 
 
 "!From this polluted fountain of 
 indifference flows that absurd and 
 erroneous doctrine, or rather raving, 
 in favour and in defence of liberty 
 of conscience, for which most pesti- 
 lential error the course is opened, 
 &c." 
 
 Again his Holmess adds : — 
 
 "Jaither tends that worst and 
 never-sufficiently to be execrated 
 and detested hheriy of the press 
 for the diffusion of all manner of 
 writing." 
 
 Now, from this fearful proscrrp- 
 tion of liberty of conscience and oi a 
 free press, our Rule of Faith most 
 gloriously delivers us. Mr. French, 
 therefore, when he stands up, must 
 either say, I hold and maintain 
 liberty of conscience, and cast my 
 present Pope overboard, with all the 
 rest concerned in the same error ; or 
 denounce it, and thus be united for 
 once. Agaio^ we are delivered bv 
 our Rule of Faith from all the im- 
 quities of that sink of uncleanness, 
 tne Confessional, to which point I 
 alluded on a preceding evening. 
 As I may not give a sufficientfy 
 strict debneation, I shall go at once 
 to your own Church, and read from 
 a pamphlet by the Rev. Mr. Nolan, 
 formerly a priest of the Church of 
 Rome. This Rev. Mr. Nolan was 
 once disciplined in, and habituated 
 to, all the practices of the con- 
 fessional while a priest. 
 
 "There is not a Romish priest 
 extant, who has acted in the capacity 
 of a confessor, but must admit the 
 tnith of this observation, that each 
 day's confessions had been the 
 continued causes of unchaste excite- 
 ments in his mind. Oh, my friends, 
 there is no Romish clergyman, no 
 matter how sanctified he may appear 
 in your estimation, but must allow 
 that the first subject of his own con- 
 fession to another priest is an acknow- 
 ledgment of his having indulged i/i 
 unchaste thoughts, on account ofiJtc 
 
606 
 
 RULE or PAITH. [IIM Evening. 
 
 indecent recitals made before him in 
 the Confessional, I could relate 
 many practical proofs from others 
 corroborative of my statement, were 
 it not that a principle of hononr 
 prescribes the necessity of silence in 
 
 " Whilst I thus uplift the veil of 
 mystic darkness from over the Con- 
 fessional, must not you yourselves 
 admit, that this pretended tribunal 
 of forgiveness has been often, to 
 your own knowledge, converted by 
 the priest into an apology for crime ? 
 Sas not this practice of inquisitorial 
 debasement often exposed the weakness 
 of the penitent, and has it not conse- 
 gventl^ furnished the lecherous dis- 
 positions of many priests with an 
 easier and more appropriate mode of 
 seduction. ? Has not the innocence of 
 virginity been often despoiled through 
 the confessional, and has not the 
 morality of otherwise virtuous women 
 beenfreguently corrupted through it ? 
 Is there a single diocese ia Jjeland 
 but famishes proofs of Eomish 
 clergymen who have been suspended 
 for the notorious crime of having 
 converted the tribunal of confession 
 into an apology for wickedness? 
 The very diocese in which I ofB.- 
 ciated as a Romish clergyman, 
 aifords sufficient proofs of the cor- 
 rectness of my statement. Yes, 
 and were the privacy of the con- 
 fessional to be fuUy developed, it 
 would then be easily seen that such 
 abuses at confession as have been 
 known would stand as rare specks 
 on the general sheet of confessional 
 corruption. 
 
 " It frequently occurs that when 
 an unmarried female goes to con- 
 fession, the first acknowledgment of 
 her gmlt is that of having indulged 
 unchaste thoughts. Now, as one 
 unchaste thought in the Romish 
 Church is considered more heinous 
 than another, the priest is in duty 
 bound to ask the penitent to whom 
 
 did her thoughts refer. Zi her 
 thoughts were in reference to a 
 married person, then her crime is 
 considered more enormous than if 
 they regarded an unmarried indivi- 
 dual. If these unchaste desires 
 were in reference to a priest, they 
 are considered still more enormous ; 
 and hence it is, that while duty 
 obliges the priest to put such in- 
 terrogatories to arrive at the Romish 
 distinction of the heinousness of 
 crimes, he also becomes famished 
 with the means of knowing the 
 penitent's attachment to himself; 
 and, consequently, should criminal 
 motives mingle with the indelicate 
 inquiry, the penitent may be easEy 
 made the victim of sacerdotal de- 
 pravity." 
 
 Such is the testimony of one 
 priest; I now suWoin the testi- 
 mony of another, "the Rev. David 
 O'Crolly:— 
 
 "The crime 'soHoitatio mulieris 
 in tribunali,' to solicit a female in 
 the tribunal, is not of such rare 
 occurrence, and would be very com- 
 mon but for the dread of detection." 
 
 And again, on clerical celibacy : — 
 
 "Innumerable scandals flow from 
 the enforcement of this austere dis- 
 cipline. The most severe laws are 
 found on the statute book against 
 sacerdotal incontinence ; from the 
 nature and provisions of which, to 
 say nothing of facts that are con- 
 stantly before the world, it may be 
 inferred, that it is a crime of frequent 
 commission, and at times under cir- 
 cumstances peculiarly scandalous." 
 
 Erom these abominations, our 
 Rule of Paith delivers us. That 
 blessed authority of the Bible would 
 not smile on such an institute for 
 a moment — the glorious fruit of the 
 Gospel is incompatible with aU. such 
 manner of fllthiness of the flesh and 
 spirit — thus we are delivered by 
 our Rule of Paith. In the Decre- 
 tals of Gratian, dist. 39, Qui non 
 
Rev. J. 
 
 J 
 
 KULE or FAITH. 
 
 607 
 
 habet uxorem loco fllius concubinam 
 habere debet. From this abomi- 
 nation our Rule delivers us. 
 
 Again, to show you that the Eo- 
 man CathoKc Church is conscious 
 of being comipted at the core, I 
 state to you the fact that the pe- 
 rusal by the laity, of the Bible, is 
 positively interdicted by the BuU 
 Unigenitm ; and when Dr. Doyle, 
 and Dr. Murray Archbishop of 
 Dublin, were asked if that Bull was 
 binding on the priesthood of Ire- 
 land, he said it was. It is declared 
 in the Bull Unwenitus, " that the 
 reading of the Bible by the people 
 in the vulgar tongue is heretical 
 and pemiciom !" and this was ap- 
 proved by those bidiops of the 
 Church of Ex)me. Even if Mr. 
 French should cast the Rk;ht Pi.ev. 
 Dr. Murray and the buU Tlnigenitm 
 overboard, stiU. he would come to 
 this — that the Rule, according to 
 which he is to interpret the Bible, 
 is an impracticable one, for he must 
 not interpret a single text tiU. he 
 has got (what never Jias been found, 
 and what never can or will be 
 found), the imanimous consent of 
 the fathers. I implore you, my 
 dear Roman Cathdic friends, to 
 weigh these things. Your Church 
 positively interdicts your reading of 
 the sacred volume. The Church of 
 Rome has laid a mighty and a mas- 
 sive stone, which she suffers not to 
 be rolled away, on the font of liviog 
 waters ; although she has no more 
 right to do so than she has to scarf 
 up the sun with her mantle, or pro- 
 hibit your access to those springs of 
 waters which flow from the earth 
 you walk on. If these then are the 
 results, the just and legitimate re- 
 sults of the Roman Catholic Rule 
 of Faith, I implore every Roman 
 Catholic to remember that they are 
 most bitterly plundered and be- 
 guiled. The Church of Rome has 
 promised you truth, and has given 
 
 you fanaticism and superstition : 
 she has promised you purity, and 
 given you the confessional ; she has 
 promised to make you wise, and she 
 makes you fools ; she has promised 
 to maie earth a paradise, and, 
 wherever her power has promul- 
 gated her principles she has turned 
 it into a pandemonium. The Churcl 
 of Rome has not only done all this, 
 but she has given yon a false 
 Gospel : she has given you purga- 
 tory, and penance, and saints, and 
 works of supererogation, and crea- 
 ture-merits, and aJi the full-blown 
 fruits of the Galatian Gospel, in- 
 stead of that Gospel which unfolds 
 a Saviour, into whose bosom you 
 have instant access without any 
 other mediator ; in whose blood you 
 have free, fuU, and everlasting ibr- 
 giveuess. She has made a parade and 
 a boast of Romish unity before you, 
 and tried to dazde your eyes with 
 arrogant assumptions of Roman 
 sanctity. WiU you sacrifice your 
 senses,yoar consciences, your reason, 
 your understanding, your Bible, 
 your privileges, ia order to attain a 
 pretended unity, which, when you 
 come to look at it, is like the mirage 
 of the desert, which, seeing from 
 afar, the thirsty pilgrim expects will 
 by-and-by satisfy and refresh him ; 
 but soon finds it is only a burning 
 and arid sand, that blasts his hopes 
 with bitterness, having mocked him 
 with the semblance of reality. 
 
 Again, (I am obliged to be hur- 
 ried m my way of speaking, because 
 I have so much, ground to get over) 
 let me call on you to remember 
 although I am no prophet, the 
 course which Mr. French this even- 
 ing wiU be likely to pursue. He will 
 give you a long catiogue of extra- 
 vagant opinions and vagaries which 
 nobody out himself says is enter- 
 tained by this and that doctor and 
 reformer. But whatever examples 
 he may adduce must be utterly use- 
 
603 
 
 KUM or PAiiH. [lltt Evmmg. 
 
 less, because all such quotations do 
 not touch our Rule of Paith. And 
 why? Our Rule of Faith, the 
 Bible, was written 1500 years be- 
 fore Luther existed; our Rule of 
 Faith was complete 1500 before 
 the Reformation; and, therefore, 
 if he quotes from Reformers any 
 notions contradiotoiy or otherwise, 
 it does not touch our Rule of Faith, 
 and, therefore, I said, when he shall 
 bring forward his packet, which 
 closes his whole catalogue, I shall 
 just sit still and listen as sweetly 
 and safely as if 1 were sitting in 
 this well-built house, with thewmds 
 whistling at the windows and the 
 rain pattering on the tiles above 
 my head. It does not touch the 
 question at issue. — In the next 
 place, he win in all probability bring 
 forward, in his last and dying speech 
 jlaughter], an account of all the 
 horrors of the Reformation,, about 
 Henry the Highth, who, by the bye, 
 lived ajid died a Roman Cathohc ; 
 he will tell you also about Luther, 
 Calvin, and a great many other 
 "monsters" who existed at that 
 period, of whom he has many 
 original dreams; and he wiU no 
 doubt ask, with an air of great 
 pomposity — Is it possible that God 
 could have used such instruments 
 to reform the Church of RomeP 
 Let me observe, if our Reformers 
 were not likely to be used as re- 
 formers of the Church, that the 
 following Roman Catholic heroes 
 were less likely to be chosen de- 
 fenders. I state the following facts, 
 therefore, for our defence on this 
 subject. Mr. French will say. Is it 
 possible God could have chosen 
 such men to reform the Church of 
 Rome ? I reply. Would God have 
 employed men a hundred times 
 worse to defend it? I shall give 
 you the following statement of the 
 priests made by themselves respect- 
 ing themselves . — 
 
 Rahn, vol. i. fol. lib. 14. p. 697. 
 The Council of Basil was called 
 in 1431 h/ Martin V. who wot 
 succeeded bylkgenius W. 
 "In 1435 it set about the reform- 
 ation of the head and members in 
 good earnest, by abolishing first- 
 fruits, ahd settling the rights of the 
 apostolic chamber. The head would 
 not submit. He published a bull 
 to translate it to Ferrara. The 
 Cardinals went to Ferrara, and 
 afterwards to Florence. The council 
 of Basil continued their proceedings 
 against Eugenius, deposed him, and 
 elected FeEx V. The two popes 
 and councils excommunicated each 
 other, calling each other the syna- 
 gogues of Satan. Felis resigned 
 m 1449." 
 
 The Advice and Exhortation, of the 
 Legates of the Apostolic See to 
 the Fathers in the Council of 
 Trent, which was read at the 
 first Session. Labbe and Cossart, 
 vol. xiv. p. 734, A.D. 1545. 
 * * * "In order, therefore, to 
 begin with that of which we ought first 
 to DC admonished, each of us ought 
 in the first place to set before nis 
 eyes the things which are expected 
 from this council, whence every one 
 win easily understand what a re- 
 sponsibility rests upon him. To 
 comprehend all things in a few 
 words, they are the same which are 
 contained in the buU for the appoint, 
 ment of the council, — namely, the 
 extirpation of heresies, and the 
 reformation of ecclesiastical disci- 
 pline and morals, and finally the 
 eternal peace of the whole Church. 
 * * * That we should at length 
 do this, justice itself requires of us, 
 namely, that we should confess our- 
 selves as guilty, before the tribunal of 
 God's mercy, of all these evils by 
 which ihefloch of Christ is oppressed; 
 and transferring to ourselves, not so 
 much from a feeling of piety as 
 
Rev. J. Oumminff.] 
 
 ETJUB OP Faith. 
 
 609 
 
 Jrom a sense of justice, the sins of 
 all, because in truth we are in a 
 great measure the cause erf these 
 evils, we should implore the Divine 
 mercy through Jesus Christ. But 
 if any one thinks that what we 
 have said, namely, that we who are 
 pastors have given rise to the evils 
 by which the Church is oppressed, 
 is too severe,; and an exaggeration 
 rather than truth, experience, which 
 cannot deceive, will prove it. Let 
 us observe, therefore, a little the 
 evils by which the Church is op- 
 pressed, and at the same time also 
 our own sins. But can any one 
 number these, which, with the other 
 
 ■ ills, surpass in number the sea-sand, 
 and cry out even to heaven?" 
 
 Fifth Council ofZateran. Session 6, 
 
 Jn.Dom. 1515. P.LeoX. Phil. 
 
 Labbe, and Cossart, vol. xiv. 
 
 p. 149. Printed at Paris. 1673. 
 
 Simon Beffni, Bishop of-Modrusch. 
 
 " I have always deemed it to be 
 necessary first of all that the head 
 of our faith, I mean the Roman 
 Church, be quieted, restored, and 
 reformed. * * * 
 
 " It is a matter of regret and sor- 
 row that faith, piety, and religion 
 have grown so cold, I might almost 
 say have become so corrupted, that 
 scarcely any vestiges of them re- 
 main ; and that the faith and fervour 
 which dwelt in. the minds of our 
 forefathers have so cooled in us, 
 when the Church, free from the 
 persecution of heretics, enjoys the 
 greatest peace and liberty, that 
 we may truly say with Jeremiah, 
 ' Prom the daughter of Sion all 
 ner beauty is departed,' the beauty, 
 namely, of innocence and chastity. 
 ' Her princes have, become hke 
 rams; enemies have entered her 
 sanctuary.' They have polluted the 
 churches; her virgins and young 
 men have gone into captivity. The 
 priests and the ancients have despised 
 
 God. There is no law or command- 
 ment ; judgment is, perverted." 
 
 Extract from a Speech delivered by 
 Peter Pragus, d.b., to the lathers 
 of the Council of Trent, in 1651. 
 
 * * * " And I testify, most 
 august fathers, that this place, which 
 unworthy as I am, I have ascended, 
 has never so much dreaded the dan- 
 gers of the Christian republic, or 
 dissensions, or schemes, as our most 
 corrupt morals and our offences; 
 more especially when I consider that 
 we have fallen so low that we can 
 neither bear oiw ills, nor their re- 
 medies. 
 
 Labb:6, torn. xiv. p. 1047. a. d. 
 1547. 
 
 An Bxtraot from a Speech delivered 
 to the Fathers of the Council of 
 Trent, on the first Sunday in Lent 
 in the yea/r 1547, by Friar George, 
 of St. James, of the Order of 
 Preacheri of the Convent of St. 
 Dominic at Lisbon. 
 
 * * * " And as if it were not 
 a very great evil that Christians 
 should have degenerated from their 
 fathers, and as if it were not hard and 
 grievous that they should have de- 
 parted much or little- from their God, 
 it was besides brought about by the 
 cunning and temptations of the 
 serpent, that they should- 'all into 
 the hands of robbers, of men who 
 were covetous, cruel, hungry^ insar 
 tiable, deaf to reason^ inexorable, 
 oppressive magistrates, impious 
 pnnees, and infidel prelates'' 
 
 Me»erai's Chronological Abridgement 
 of the Sixteenth Century. 
 " The disorders and -vices of the 
 clergy reached the highest point, 
 and became so pubKc as to render 
 them the objects of the hatred an(J 
 contempt of the people. * * * 
 The churches were -without pastors, 
 the monasteries vrithout monks, the 
 
610 
 
 regular clergy without discipline, 
 the chvirches and holy houses ia 
 ruins, and changed into dens of 
 robbers. The bishops fled from 
 theic dioceses as if they were fright- 
 ful solitades. The amusements of 
 Paris and the occupations of the 
 court were their usual occupation." 
 
 Labbe, tom. xiv. p. 939. 
 
 Bxtraetfrom a Speech upon the last 
 Judgment, delivered by Cornelizis, 
 Bishop of Bitonto, on the third 
 Sunday of Adoent, in the Council 
 of Trent, An. Bom. 154i5. 
 
 * * * " Has not that fervent 
 love towards each other and the 
 state perished, upon account of 
 which formerly aE Christians were 
 called brothers, a sweet and pre- 
 cious name! so that the prediction 
 of St. Paul is fulfilled, 'Men shall 
 be lovers of themselves ?' Unless 
 truly this had perished, there would 
 not have been a general degeneracy 
 from those holy morals, and from 
 those honourable ordinances, which, 
 when they were observed, always 
 enlarged our commonwealth. For 
 Mth what monsters of baseness, 
 with what a heap of filth, with what 
 a pestilence are not both the priests 
 and the people corrupted in the 
 holy Church of God ? I place my 
 case in your hands, fathers. 
 Begin with the sanctuary of God, 
 and see if any modesty, any shame, 
 any hope any reasonable expectation 
 remains of good living ; if there be 
 not unrestrained and unconquerable 
 lust, a singular audacity, and 'incre- 
 dible mckedness. Alas! ' Hovf is 
 the gold dbscured, and how is its flue 
 colour changed !' There are those 
 two bloodsuckers, which always 
 exclaim, Brmg, bring — ^the one the 
 mother, the other the nurse of all 
 evils — ^I mean covetousness and ambi- 
 tion, each a subtle evil, each a secret 
 poison, a pestilpuoe, and the monster 
 
 KULE OF FAITH. [\lth Mve/img. 
 
 of the world. Also, whilst virtue 
 and learning are neglected by those 
 whom we ought to foUow as living 
 and breathing laws, .vice and igno- 
 rance are raised in their stead totho 
 highest honours ; and it has at length 
 been brought to pass, that ediiica- 
 tion has made place for destruction, 
 example for scandtd, morals for 
 corruption, the observance of the 
 law for its contempt, strictness for 
 laxity, mercy for impunity, piety 
 for hypocrisy and smoke, preaching 
 for contention and pride, and, for 
 the vilest gain, and to sum all in 
 one sentence, which it is grievous 
 to utter, the odour of life for the 
 odour of death." 
 
 Such fire pubHc testimonies to 
 her dreadful corruption and her 
 canonized abominations, by the most 
 emitient members of the Roman 
 Church. 
 
 A reformation in any shape — a 
 whiiflwind, a storm, was infliiitely 
 preferable to such a sink. If then 
 God would not have "used such men 
 as Luther to reform the Church, it 
 is yet more obvious that he would 
 not have chosen such priests and 
 prelates as those of Home to 
 defend it. / 
 
 The very worst of those who 
 followed in the train of the Reform- 
 ation were innocents compared to 
 those monsters in the Council ot 
 Trent. 
 
 The next sketch that I would add 
 is, that of the kings who defended 
 the Church of Rome. I pass by 
 Eranois I., the exploits of Charles 
 V. of Germany, the atrocities 'of the 
 Dijke of Alva, the cruelties of 
 Philip n. of Spain, and that pet 
 place, the Inquibition. I shall 
 take the reference which my learned 
 antagonist made last night — the 
 Eve of St. Bartholomew. I will 
 first show Jhat the ,Pope was the 
 instigator of that oniel and atro- 
 cious massacre. 
 
Rev. J. 
 
 BTJLE OP FAITH. 
 
 611 
 
 Tetters of Pope Pius F., book iii. let. 
 
 45, printed at Antwerp, 1640. 
 " To our Most dear Sou in Christ, 
 
 Charles, the Most Christian King 
 
 of the French. 
 
 " The publio joy of this city has 
 very much augmented our pleasure ; 
 which at the first, certain intelli- 
 gence of so great a victory rejoiced 
 and does rejoice, as if some domes- 
 tic slaughter and iatestine war 
 were removed. It now only re- 
 mains, that your majesty, in such 
 prosperous circumstances, should 
 remit nothing of your usual dili- 
 genoe, application and perseverance, 
 nor afFord our common enemies an 
 opportunity of confirming their 
 courage, and collecting again their 
 forces, but that you shaJl make agood 
 use of the victory, and at length 
 put an end to thas most grievous 
 war : to which we exhort your ma- 
 jesty with all possible and conceiv- 
 able earnestness. For we know 
 that there will not be wanted those 
 who, either in the name of friend- 
 fihip, relationship, or piety, wiU in- 
 tercede with your majesty for many 
 of your enemies, and of the ene- 
 mies of the Almighty ; moved, 
 therefore, by our paternal care for 
 your welfare, and by our office, we 
 admonish you not to be moved by 
 their prayers, so as not to inflict 
 just punishment in those things 
 which are ordained by law ; lest, if 
 thus inftuenced by private reasons, 
 you should yield more to flesh and 
 blood than to a just vengeance, the 
 anger of God should binn, against 
 you, as it did against Saul, in pro- 
 portion as he has imparted to you 
 of his goodness. For what would 
 thisbe, Dut to make the blessings 
 of God, that is to say, the victory 
 obtained, of no efFect ? the fruit of 
 which victory consists in this — that, ' 
 by a just animadversion, ike wicked 
 
 removed out of the way, its former 
 
 peace and tranquiUity may be re- 
 stored to that kingdom. * * Eor 
 the sake, however, of obtaining so 
 wholesome a result, your majesty 
 ought to punish those who nave 
 taken up wicked arms against the 
 Almighty God and your majesty, 
 and to appoint inquisitors of heresy 
 in every town, and to do all other 
 things by which the so much 
 troubled affairs of that kingdom, by 
 the aid of God, may at length be 
 unproved and restored to their 
 former state. — Bated St. Peters, 
 Rome, under the Msherman's Seal, 
 the iOth day of October, 1559." 
 
 Having seen the instigator of 
 these wholesale murders to have 
 been Pope Pius V., let us now hear 
 the account of the scene from a 
 Roman CathoKo historian : — 
 
 Massacre of St. Bartholomew. 
 Mezerai's History of Prance, fol. 
 
 vol. ii. p. 1098. Paris, 1646. 
 
 " The daylight, which discovered 
 so many crimes which the darkness 
 of an eternal night ought for ever 
 to have concealed, did not soften 
 their ardour by these objects of 
 pity, but exasperated them still 
 more. The populace and the most 
 dastardly bemg warmed by the 
 smell of blood, sixty thousand men, 
 transported with this fury and 
 armed in different ways, ran about 
 wherever example, vengeance, rage, 
 and the desire of plunder trans- 
 ported them. The air resounded 
 with a horrible tempest of the hisses, 
 blasphemies, and oaths of the mur- 
 derers, of the breaking open of 
 doors and windows, of the firing of 
 pistols and guns, of the pitiable 
 cries of the (fying, of the lamenta- 
 tions of the women, whom they 
 dragged by the hair, of the noise of 
 carts, some loaded with the booty 
 of the houses they pillaged, other? 
 with the dead bodies, which they 
 csst into the Seine, so that in this 
 
612 
 
 aiiLE OF FAITH. [Ylth Eoetitng. 
 
 confusion they could not hear each 
 other speak m the streets, or, if 
 .they distinguished certain words, 
 they were these furious expressions 
 — 'Kill, stab, throw them out of 
 the window.' A dreadful and in- 
 evitable death presented itself in 
 every shape. Som& were shot on 
 the ,roofs of houses, others were 
 cast out of the windows, (Some were 
 cast into the water and knocked on 
 the head with blows of iron bars or 
 clubs, some were killed in their 
 beds, some in the garrets, others in 
 cellars ; wives in the arms of their 
 husbands, husbands on the bosom 
 of their wives, sons at the feet of 
 their fathers. They neither spared 
 the aged, nor women great with 
 child, nor even infants. It is re- 
 lated, that a man was seen to stab 
 one of them who played with the 
 beard of its murderer, and that a 
 troop of little boys dragged another 
 in its cradle into the river. 
 
 " The streets were paved with the 
 bodies of the dead, or the dying — 
 the gateways were blocked up with 
 them. There were heaps of them 
 in the squares, the small streams 
 were flUed with blood, which flowed 
 in great torrents into the river. 
 KnaUy, to sum up in a few words 
 what took place in these three days, 
 six hundrea houses were repeatedly 
 pillaged, and four thousand persons 
 massacred, with all the confusion 
 and barbarity that can be imagined." 
 
 Similar massacres took place 
 throughout Prance : at Meaux, at 
 Trbyes, at Orleans, Neyers and La 
 Oharitl, at Toulouse, Bordeaux, and 
 Lyons. I only insert Mezerai's 
 account of the barbarities committed 
 at Lyons. 
 
 " They "began with the prison of 
 the Cordoliers, thence they ran to 
 the archbishop's prison, after that 
 to the royal prison, which is called 
 Rouan, and to other places in which 
 the governor had shut up from 
 
 seven to eight hundred persons, all 
 of whom they knocked on the head, 
 cut in pieces, strangled, or drowned ; 
 afterwards they spread through the 
 town to dispatch the rest in the 
 houses and to coEect the spoil after 
 the victory. AH these unhappy people, 
 with the exception of some of the 
 fattest, from whom the apothecaries 
 took some grease, were draped into 
 the Rhone. It was a truly pitiable 
 sight to behold this river entirely 
 tinged with blood, and infected with 
 corruption, carrying upon its waters 
 six or seven hundred bodies, many 
 of them tied together to long poles, 
 some vrith their heads, some with 
 their arms and legs cut off, every 
 where gashed with great and deep 
 wounds, and so disfigured as not to 
 retain the human form. Hence 
 these horrible proofs of Lionnese 
 cruelty passing oefore the towns of 
 Dauphine and Provence, raised 
 rather their compassion than their 
 fury, and made them detest the 
 barbarity of the massacres. 
 
 " During two months this horri- 
 ble and cruel tempest overspread 
 France, in some places more, and 
 in some less, and destroyed not less 
 than 25,000 persons." 
 
 After reading these dreadful bru- 
 talities, inflicted at the instigation 
 of a Pope, and in the name — the 
 injured name of religion, it cannot 
 be a useless inquiry if we ascer- 
 tain if the outrage was deplored 
 and grieved. It is, therefore, a fair 
 question — ^With what feelings did 
 the Church of Rome look upon this 
 massacre, this spectacle of blood, 
 this trage(^ of many horrors ? If 
 the Lord Jesus Chnst had heard 
 the awful tidings — he that wept in 
 Gethsemane and died on Calvary — 
 he would have mourned over the 
 horrid cruelties, and rebuked in 
 heaven's uncompromising tones the 
 murderers, mitred, or crowned, who 
 urged it on. But how did the pro 
 
Rev. J. C.ummm^.j eule op paiih. 
 
 613 
 
 fessing Ficar of Christ look on it ? 
 This is a decisive question. How 
 did the Head of the Church look 
 on it ? How did he, who said Ije sate 
 in Christ's room and had Christ's 
 functions, look upon this aceldama, 
 this scene of blood P We read that, 
 so far froBf deploring and deprecat- 
 ing the spectacle, the bleeding head 
 of Coligne, one of the most oistin- 
 guished Protestants of the time, 
 was sent to Rome to feast the eyes 
 of the cardinals and Pope [sensa- 
 tion], and Pope Gregory XIII., dis- 
 tinguished by the same penchant 
 for neretic blood as his predecessor, 
 sent Cardinal Ursini to thank the 
 French king ; and the Pope, meek 
 man ! gloried in the murders, cele- 
 brated a jubUee, and struck a medal 
 to commemorate it. 
 
 Go to your bloody rites again ! 
 The liall of horrors and the aggressor's pen, 
 Recording answers shrieked upon the rack, 
 Smile o'er the gaspings of spine-hroken 
 
 men I 
 Preach, perpetrate damnation in y^ur den ; 
 Then let your altars, ye blasphemers, peal 
 With thanks to heaven that let you loose 
 
 again, 
 To practise deeds with torturing fire and 
 
 steel. 
 No eye may search — no tongue may chal- 
 lenge or reveal. 
 
 Can the Rule of Paith be Divine 
 which generates, lesqwe ad nauseam, 
 fanaticism and murder, bloodshed 
 and cruelty ? 
 
 Mezerai adds — '"' The Hoit Pa- 
 THEB and aU his court displayed a 
 great rejoicing, and went in proces- 
 sion to the church of St. Louis, to 
 render thanks to God for so happy 
 a success. 
 
 " In Spain there was no less joy 
 than at Rome, and they preached 
 up this action before Plmip in the 
 name of the triumph of the church 
 militant." 
 
 Thuanus states in Ms History, 
 bookliii. (London, 1733) :— " An 
 account of the Parisian tumult 
 liaving arrived, it was received with 
 
 astonishing joy at Rome. Por, the 
 letters of the Pope's legate having 
 been read in the senate of the car- 
 dinals, in which he certified to the 
 Pope that it was done with the 
 king's consent, and by his com- 
 mand, it was instantly resolved that 
 the Pope, vrith the cardinals, should 
 straightway go to the church of 
 St. Mark, and should solemnly 
 return thanks to the Lord for so 
 
 feat a blessir^ conferred upon the 
 Oman see ana the Christian world ; 
 also that, on the Monday following, 
 a solemn service should be per- 
 formed in the temple of Minerva, 
 and that the Pope and cardinals 
 should assist at it; that thence a jubi- 
 lee should be published in the whole 
 Christian world. Its causes were 
 declared to be, that they should re- 
 turn thanks to God for the destruc- 
 tion of the enemies of the truth, 
 and of the Church in Prance, &c. 
 In the evening, fireworks were dis- 
 charged at Adrian's mole, in token 
 of the public rejoicing, fires were 
 kindled everywhere in the streets, 
 and nothing was_ omitted which 
 usually took place at all the greatest 
 victones of the Church of Rome. 
 
 "These things being done at 
 Rome, Cardinal Pabius tJrsinus was 
 appointed as legate to Prance, a 
 cross having been solemnly delivered 
 to him, wmch is the ensign of so 
 honourable an embassy, and he im- 
 mediately commenced Ids journey." 
 
 Now, if it is not likely, from the 
 account which Mr. French's poetic 
 fancy gives of Knox and Calvin, 
 that God would have used these 
 Reformers to purify the Church, it 
 is, a fortiori, clearer to our mind 
 that God would not have employed 
 these kings and popes, personations 
 of cruelty, to defend and perpetuate 
 the Church. But not only do I 
 thus extirpate aU the puerilities ol 
 Mr. Prench about our Reformers, 
 but I thus show up the fountains 
 
614 
 
 BUJa; OP TAITH. [ll^A Ihening 
 
 of infallibility, and proofs over- 
 whelming, that wherever Christ's 
 promise, "Lo, I am with you to 
 the end of the world," has been ful- 
 filled, it has never been applied or 
 realised iu the case of the Church 
 of Kome. Bemember that, should 
 Mr. French be pleased, in his errar 
 tic fancy, to give you a long rig- 
 marole about Henry Vm. and 
 Luther and Calvin, he is arguing, as 
 usual, most powerifully against him- 
 self, and ~ demonstrating a lesson 
 wliich this discussion wiU demon- 
 strate to you all — ^the necessity of 
 trusting to no arm of flesh, much 
 less to that of the Pope, and of 
 appealing from all to the oracles of 
 God. 
 
 In vindication of Luther, while 
 he is neither our Pope nor rule, I 
 have much to say. You must re- 
 member that Luther was accus- 
 tomed to the company of these very 
 priests, whose characters I have 
 read as given by themselves ; and 
 therefore, it is no wonder that he 
 did retain some of their corruptions. 
 If a man comes out of the company 
 of chimney-sweeps, is it not pro- 
 bable that he will have some patches 
 of soot upon his coat ? Luther was 
 a monk, and long accustomed to 
 the monkish abominations and un- 
 cleanness. Why, it certainly would 
 have been a wonder if he had come 
 to be a Protestant without carrying 
 a remnant of pollution with mm ; 
 and therefore, when Mr. French de- 
 scribes dl the corruptions of our 
 Efiformers, he is just telling you 
 what his Church made them, aind, 
 by implication, preaching our Rule 
 of Faith, the word of the living 
 God, as the only indestructible 
 tiling. When he is pleased, how- 
 ever, to single out the sins and 
 cover up the virtues of the Reform- 
 ers, he acts unfairly by them. He 
 might, ia the same way, tell you of 
 David's sins without telling you of 
 
 David's virtues. He might tell us 
 of Paul's persecutions wlfcin he was 
 persecutor and blasphemer, and 
 withhold from us Paul's conversion. 
 He might ask — Would G«d employ 
 David to rule his saints and vrrite 
 his word, and Paul to spread and 
 propagate the truth ? My antagonist 
 (though I am no prophet, yet I 
 know the course he will pursue) 
 will perhaps teU you what Luther's 
 confessions were. Remember St. 
 Paul's confessions, ia the seventh 
 of Romans. 
 Whatever op depect, or sin, 
 
 OB IMPBKPECIION, IS IN OUB, Rb- 
 
 poEMED Churches, in oitr pok- 
 
 MTTLARIES OP DEVOTION, IN OUR 
 BePORMEES, AND SUCH THERE ARE, 
 
 is human and prom popert. 
 Whatever is holt, divine, is 
 PROM Scripture. We desire to 
 
 GET RID MORE AND MORE OP THE 
 
 BITS OP Popish miaten, and to 
 
 BE A NEW AND UNMJAVENED LUMP 
 
 OP sincerity and truth. 
 
 Our Rule of Faith is neither the 
 Scotch nor BngKsh Articles or 
 Prayer-books, but the Bible. Touch 
 it at any point, and I meet you foot 
 to foot. It is our palladium. But 
 on Reformers you may feast ai 
 libitvim. Gfld uses as his own in- 
 struments, and to promote his own 
 ends, various means : the hurricane, 
 which, while it destroys fair dwel- 
 lings, yet purifies the air. He uses 
 the earthquake when needful, to 
 give rest and peace to an over- 
 agitated earth. He uses thunder, 
 and storm, and lightning, which, 
 whilst they do plentiful evil, are yet 
 the harbingers of varied and univer- 
 sal good. So in this case. The 
 fact is, that the Church of Rome 
 had raised a high wall between the 
 sinner and his Saviour. It is a 
 most immaterial question, whether 
 God employed the battering-ram, 
 or the artillery, or the Ughtnmg, or 
 the Reformers, or any Dody else. 
 
Mr. Fretich.'] 
 
 RULE 0? FAITH. 
 
 615 
 
 The matter of weight and rejoicing 
 is, that this impervious wall has 
 been thrown down, and that, stand- 
 ing on its wreck, the sinner can 
 now freely and without price see 
 the glory of the countenance of his 
 manfiested God. 
 
 In closing this, my last speech 
 but one, I repeat, Mr. French has 
 commented on Luther, Calrin, 
 Knox, &o. — on the works of names I 
 never heard of, Thomdyke, Mon- 
 tague, &e. He has visited with his 
 fuhninations Prayer-books and Ho- 
 milies, BUT HAS NEVBE, lOTTCHED 
 
 oxJE BTJLE oi' PAiTH. He has muti- 
 lated his own by kicking its consti- 
 tuents ra all directions. I have 
 shattered the Papal Rule of Paith 
 to atoms. Mr. French will hobble 
 on — ^the ruling passion strong in 
 death — shouting victory because no 
 one else will shout for nim. Of our 
 Reformers we at once feel that all 
 their errors were taken from Rome, 
 but that all their virtues were bor- 
 rowed from the Bible. The nearer 
 that you live to the Bible, our Pro- 
 testant Rule of Faith, the more will 
 you resemble a saint, an aiigel ; but 
 the nearer you conform to the 
 Roman Catholic Rule of Faith, as 
 my illustrations from Romish history 
 demonstrate, the more speedily will 
 you sink to a level with a demon. 
 [Sensation.] 
 
 [The reverend gentleman's hour 
 
 here ended.] 
 
 ■ 
 
 Mr. French. — There is some- 
 thiog this evening so peculiarly 
 sweet, gentle, meek, and aUuring 
 in the accents of my learned friend, 
 that I begin to be apprehensive for 
 the CathoMty of my brethren in 
 this room. [Laughter.] I am sure, 
 gentlemen, that 2 ever a specimen 
 was exhibited of the milk of Chris- 
 tianity to smooth over the poor 
 henighted Catholics, it is upon the 
 present ojcc^ion. I came into this 
 
 room, gentlemen, with the intention 
 of adhering closely to the Rule of 
 Faith, and of proving, most satis- 
 foctorily, to the Protestant part of 
 my aumenoe, that the Rule ot Faith 
 laid down by my learned friend was 
 fallacious in the extreme. I came 
 to-night to follow up the subject ; 
 and this evening, my friend, knowing 
 well the solid matter I had to 
 urge against him, endeavours to 
 divert you from the object by a 
 long string of unfounded calum- 
 nies against the holy religion which 
 I profess. I say unfounded in. the 
 extreme, because the cruelties ol 
 state policy have nothing to do with 
 the fundamental articles of the 
 Christian religion. It is not argu 
 ment, my friends. It does not con- 
 tribute to show how far remote 
 from prejudice he is against Catho- 
 Kcs, or how extremdy soKoitous he 
 fa in the conversion of Catholics by 
 such a specimen of his benignity.. 
 He may continue, but it will not 
 serve to persuade any unprejudiced 
 Protestant in this company that it 
 has anything at aU. to do with the 
 fundamental articles of our holy 
 religion. But, being conversant in 
 history, I find that it is impossible 
 to decide who were the more cruel 
 during those disastrous civil wars, 
 the CathoUos or Protestants. Who- 
 ever looks at Bossuet's history with 
 attention, a book replete with testi- 
 mony on the subject, wiU find that 
 the Hugonots, of the two, were the 
 more infuriate set than those who 
 were called the Catholics of the 
 day. Those Catholics, as they were 
 called, who perpetrated aU those 
 atrocities of St. Bartholomew, were 
 actually the same atheistical charac- 
 ters who filled aU. France, within our 
 own. Inemory, with the blood of the 
 priests. I repeat it therefore, again; 
 and again. In these scenes of blood 
 and horror the Hugonots set the 
 example. Every true Catholic de- 
 
616 
 
 BULE OF TAITH. 
 
 precates, and ever will, suci a sys- 
 tem as tiiis; and therefore, my 
 friends, the assertion of my friend 
 is a most deliberate calimmy, that 
 has no foundation whatever. But 
 after all, my friends, what have these 
 shuddering horrors of state policy to 
 do with the subject P iPor my part, 
 gentlemen, I am more horror-struck 
 at a Reformer liie Calvia burning 
 Servetas at the stake — a man pre- 
 tended to be raised up fey -God to 
 reform and humanize mankind, who 
 bums, atrociously bums Servetus at 
 the stake, for differing with him on 
 
 Eoints of reHgion-^I am more 
 orror-struck, I sajy, at the atrocious 
 premeditated vilJany of Calvin's 
 dark-brooding mindC than at the 
 wild rush to massacre of an ignorant, 
 deluded, and craftily-inoited po- 
 pulace. 
 
 Is it not recorded in the life of 
 Knox, lately published by Macree, 
 that in a conversation with Mait- 
 land, the following argvunent took 
 place ? — 
 
 " Maitland challenged his oppo- 
 nent, John Enox, to prove that the 
 apostles or prophets ever taught 
 that subjects ought to Suppress the 
 idolatry of their rulers. Knox ap- 
 pealed to the conduct of one prophet, 
 Elisha, in anointing Jehu, and giving 
 him a charge to punish the idolatry 
 and bloodshed of the royal family of 
 Ahab. ' Jehu was a king before he 
 put anything in execution,' said the 
 secretary. 
 
 " 'Mv lord, he was a mere sub- 
 ject, and no king, when one prophet's 
 servant came to him ; '' &o. 
 
 " ' Besides this,' said Maitland, 
 ' the fact is extraordinary, and ought 
 not to be imitated.' 
 
 " 'It had the ground of God's 
 ordinary judgment, which commands 
 the idolater to die the death,' an- 
 swered Knox." — Knox, vol. ii. pp. 
 127, 8, 9. 
 
 But, gentlemen, let me make one 
 
 observation more on my learned 
 friend's procedure in thus intro- 
 ducing in polemical discussion the 
 massabre of St. Bartholomew, My 
 friend, who has exhausted all his 
 eloquence in describing that abomi- 
 nable transaction, seems to imagine, 
 and to impress upon you, that not a 
 single feature of iniquity was want- 
 ing to complete that diabolical 
 picture. But I maintain that there 
 was ; I maintain that the mound of 
 horrors would on that day have been 
 heaped up to a far more enormous 
 height, had my learned friend been 
 able, with the pen of truth in his 
 hand, to describe the hlood-staiQed 
 band of ruffians that flew about the 
 streets of Paris, to describe them, I 
 say, with the poniard in one hand, 
 and the Bible in the other, to justify 
 their sanguinary deeds. 
 
 No, gentlemen, a scene of such 
 complicated, such hypocritical, such 
 sacrilegious villany, remained for 
 the Scotch Galvinist to exemplify ; 
 and, m my hunlble opinion, there 
 are not wanting those who would 
 gladly seize an opportunity of acting 
 up to it, in its fuU tide of horrors, 
 at the present-day. [Sensation.] 
 
 Gentlemen, 1 reailly shall be as 
 great a rambler in my discussion 
 as my learned friend, who so fre- 
 quently accuses me of wandering, 
 and not following him. But I must 
 inform him, at once, that I do not 
 intend to do it; indeed I cannot 
 find time to answer all ttese notes, 
 having matter before me much more 
 serious and important. There is 
 one subject, however, dwelt upon 
 by my learned antagonist with such 
 vehemence, that I must advert to it. 
 It is with reference to the fear of 
 heU. 
 
 I do maintain, notwithstanding 
 those gentlemen who laughed se 
 heartily on a previous occasion — ^I 
 certainly do maintain that he vtho 
 fears heU feara Crod. for what is 
 
Mr. French.l EuiE of paith. 
 
 617 
 
 hell, I ask, but an abode of tor- 
 ments, lighted up by tbe fires of an 
 avenging God ? Is it too much to 
 say that the fear of hell is the fear 
 of God ? The GathoKo Church has 
 ■ said many persons are afraid to go 
 to confession because they think 
 they have not a sincere conversion ; 
 and it is laid down as an article 
 of faith in the OouncE of Trent, that 
 after having endeavoured to excite 
 contrition by prayer, you must not 
 return from the tribimal of confes- 
 sion under a false idea that you hare 
 not a true contrition; you must 
 pray to God, and do your utmost to 
 excite a genuine contrition, and 
 when you have done your utmost to 
 bring about a true contrition, and 
 confessed your sins,, then you are 
 entitled to full absolution. That is 
 the doctrine of the Church, and, 
 whether right or wrong, that is 
 a matter of opinion for my friend 
 and me. I abide by the decision of 
 the Church, and still maintain, not- 
 withstanding the calumnies of my 
 learned friend and liis myrmidons, 
 I do most strenuously maintain that 
 he that fears hell fears God, or he 
 would not fear hell at aU ; aJid that 
 the fear of Gt)d is, as we find in the 
 inspired book of Proverbs, the be- 
 ginning of vrisdom. 
 
 Again, I read in the Protestant 
 version of the 13th Psalm, ver. 4 : 
 " But there is forgiveness with thee, 
 that thou mayest be feared." 
 
 Now, if that version be correct, 
 and from the Hebrew it undoubt- 
 edly is, though not from- the more 
 correct Septuagint, I conclude that 
 forgiveness is granted in order that 
 fear may ensue, and, consequently, 
 in thsA fear I must of necessity in- 
 clude love, fear being the primtim 
 mobile. 
 
 Whoever fears God, must neces- 
 sarily believe him to exist, and to be 
 the foundation of all good ; and he 
 who is impressed with such an idea 
 
 must necessarily love. If he did 
 ■not, fear would be taken away from 
 him by its donor, and consequently 
 love there would be none. 
 
 As to relics — the next note taken 
 from the ramblings of my argu- 
 mentative speecmfler — the snper- 
 i^8<io2» veneration of relics, — I know 
 nothing of it, I never countenanced 
 it; it is no article of my faith to be 
 superstitious. 1 revere relics, 1 
 cherish them ; but mark me, friends, 
 not mperatitiotisly — ^not imagining 
 that the touch of a reHc can do 
 away with the pollution of a sia. 
 
 If it is a fault, it springs from de- 
 votion, and "not from^ impiety. I 
 will say, moreover, that it ill be- 
 comes Protestants in this country to 
 charge us with superstition, where 
 such an excessive veneration has 
 been exhibited for certain illustrious 
 ranters, after their departure from 
 this earth, insomuch that one of the 
 garments of Huntingdon, which 1 
 need not name or specify to this 
 assembly, was actually sold for 700/. 
 at a public sale ; and one might go 
 still further. I will call my friend's 
 attention to Johanna Southcote, 
 who uniformly through life pro- 
 fessed herself a staunch member of 
 the Church of England. Does my 
 learned friend forget the excessive 
 veneration paid to every little reHc 
 of that Bible-reading lady — to the 
 cradle for rocking, down to the ladle 
 for the feeding of the babe ? [Laugh- 
 ter.] Does he forget, I say, the 
 excessive veneration paid to every 
 little relic by the followers of 
 Johanna Soathcote, true member of 
 the Church of England ? Dr. Ashe, 
 of Winchester, one of the most 
 learned men amongst the theolo^ 
 gians of Winchester, a man grown 
 hoary in Biblical literature, a pro- 
 found Hebraist in the bargain, 
 actually endeavoured to persuade 
 me to purchase a ticket of Johanna 
 Southcote for half-a-guinea, without 
 
RULE or PAITH. [lltk &eninff. 
 
 wiioh, lie assured me, shaking. his 
 head most Rarely, that it was his 
 firm conviction I should never enter 
 the realms of bHss ! pjanghter.] 
 Bat what, after all, you may say, 
 has this to do with the suWect m 
 discussion ? A great deal, I reply, 
 when my learned friend is per- 
 petually identifyir^ with the discus- 
 sion things the most unalliable to it. 
 
 But, my friends, I wish to come 
 %o the subject — the great subject. 
 My learned; &iend having laid down 
 'with great pomp, and solemnity, and 
 ostentation, his Bible on the table, 
 as his Rule of Taith, I wish to put 
 one more question to him this even- 
 ing. I wish to give Mm still further 
 scope for his unbounded ingenuity 
 and his exhaustless store of words. 
 I wish to ask .him whether that 
 Bible can inform bim whether there 
 is some part of it wanting f I wish 
 to ask the learned gentleman if he 
 ever observed auy defioieney in his 
 English Protestant Bible ; if in the 
 Psalms he ever noticed the omission 
 of four verses ; if he ever noticed 
 that they are struck awayP If he 
 cannot, his Bible is not a very loud 
 speaking Bible. It ought to have 
 told him long ago, being his B,ule of 
 Paith. Now it is the 14th Psalm I 
 allude to, and I wish to ask my 
 learned friend to tuAi to the 14tn 
 Psalm, and verse 5th, "Their throat 
 is an open sepulchre," and in the 
 6th, "Their mouth is full of curs- 
 ing," and m the 7th, " Destruction 
 and unhappiness." 
 
 Now [turning to Mr. Camming, 
 for whom some one, it appears, was 
 looking for the reference] I should 
 like the learned gentleman to find 
 out this liimself, and have no 
 prompter or assistance on this sub- 
 ject. The learned gentleman says 
 his Bible speaks; Tfet us hear it. 
 [Lai:^hter.] 
 
 B.ev. J. CuMMlNe. — ^[Turning to 
 Mr Trench.] — What is it you 
 
 want? — Give the reference, if you 
 please P 
 
 Mr. Pkench. — [In reply.] — I 
 want you to give me what your 
 Bible says. 
 
 Rev. J. Cummins. — I can't tell 
 you anything about it, till you give 
 the reference. 
 
 Mr. Pkench. — It is the I4th 
 Psalm. 
 
 Now, gentlemen, I ean tell him 
 that it is not in his Bible, and it 
 ought to be there. We have it in 
 our Catholic Bible, we have it in 
 the Septu^int, from which we all 
 know St. Paul quoted. We have, 
 therefore, a complete Bible; you 
 have not. Now how comes this? 
 Win my friend deny it ? I ask my 
 friend whether he wiU deny that it 
 ought to be in the Bible ? [L pause.] 
 
 Rev. J. CuMMiNG. — ^They are in 
 the Bible. [Turning to Mr. Krench.] 
 
 Mr. Tbench. — ^les ! they are in 
 the Bible — in our Bible. 
 
 Rev. J. CuMMiNG. — Will you have 
 the goodness to read, or I will read 
 for you. [The rev. gentleman was 
 about to begin, when — ] 
 
 Mr. PaENCH said : — ^No ! no ! in 
 the ancient Bible ; I don't want yon 
 to read it from the Epistle to the 
 Romans. I want to know where it 
 is m the original Fsahns ? 
 
 Rev. J. Gumming. — It is in the 
 Bible. 
 
 Mr. Peench. — Yes, it is in the 
 Bible. We have it in our Catholic 
 Bible in its proper place, and St. 
 Paul, in his Epistle to the Romans, 
 quotes from the Bible, and we have 
 it in and from the Bible, but you 
 have not. Of course yon bave it 
 in Paul's Epistle, but why is it not 
 in the place from whence he quotes 
 it ? " As it is written," says St. 
 Paul, (iii. 10) — " as it is written 
 There is none righteous, no not'<me; 
 there is none that understandeth ; 
 there is none that seeketh after 
 God," and so on he goes. There^ 
 
Mr. French.'] 
 
 BULE OF FAITH. 
 
 619 
 
 fore most eyidently you have a 
 spurious Bible. [A pause.] 
 
 Eev. J. Gumming [turning to 
 Mr. Erench.]— It is here in the 
 Psalms; it is here in the 5th 
 [pointing thereto.] 
 
 Mr. Bejbnch [quicMy.] — No, 
 no, no. 
 
 Eev. J. Gumming. — I will read 
 it—-" For there is no faithfulaess in 
 their mouth ; their inward part is 
 very wickedness ; their throat is an 
 open sepulchre; they flatter with 
 their tongues." ' 
 
 Mr. Ebbnch. — No ; I asked for 
 Psalm 14th. 
 
 Rev. J. Gumming. — It's in the 5th. 
 
 Mr. Pebnch. — Why isn't it in 
 lis place, where it is in ours ? 
 
 Kfiv. J. Gumming. — It's in the 
 BookofPsaJms; andintheSthPsalm. 
 
 Mr. Fkench.— Well, it's not in 
 its right place. 
 
 Eev. J. Gumming.— It is : — here 
 [pointing to the Bible] in thePsalms. 
 [Much laughterwas occasioned here, 
 by these quick retorts on either side. 
 Order restored, the learned gentle- 
 man thus continued :] — I wish thus 
 to show you, my friends, [turning 
 to the audience] what parts of your 
 Bible are wanting; but, as I am 
 reminded that my time is precious, 
 I must defer that task. I shall 
 only observe at present that the 
 tasK which I impose upon my 
 friend is of a gigantic nature : it is 
 to exculpate the perverters of the 
 Gospel from the charge of sacrilege 
 — from the imprecations heaped 
 upon the head of him who sits 
 down voluntarily to vitiate the 
 sacred fountains of revealed truth : 
 that is the task 1 impose upon him, 
 and I defy him, with all the powers 
 of his oratory, to do it. No, my 
 friends, the translators of his Bible 
 stand convicted. My words will 
 appear on paper, and they wiH out- 
 weigh all his flimsy, superficial argu- 
 ments, endeavouring to extenuate 
 
 their crimes. The crime is deep ; 
 there is none of a more guilty nature 
 than that of deliberately altering 
 the law of God in order to impose 
 upon the population of this country. 
 You have been deceived, my friends, 
 by wicked men, who have altered 
 the Bible in order to poison you. 
 
 And now, gentlemen, let me make 
 an apoloCT to the Protestant part 
 of my audienoe, and to my learned 
 friend. I have ridiculed a great 
 deal the idea of that sweet and 
 glorious unity which has been pane- 
 gyrized in so glowing a manner by 
 my learned friend, and have endea- 
 voured certainly to make it a subject 
 of obloquy and ridicule. It is 
 never too late, my friends, to make 
 an apology, and I most sincerely 
 make it this evening, because I find 
 one point wherein there is the most 
 
 ^"Bct equanimity aud concord. I 
 on looking at the period of the 
 Eeformationin this country, aperfect 
 agreement at the blessed period of 
 the Eeformation, when there was 
 such an effusion, as some men have 
 said, such an effusion of God's Spirit 
 upon happy, glorious England. The 
 first author I shall amide to is 
 Father Latimer. You have heard 
 one of the seutiments of Father 
 Latimer with regard to the suffer- 
 ings of our Saviour. The book from 
 which I am about to quote is en- 
 titled "Pruitful Sermons preached by 
 the Bight Reverend Hugh Latimer. 
 London, 1584." He witnessed the 
 blessed effects of the Reformation. 
 He says, page 84, Sermon 7th: — 
 " I never saw surely so little 
 disciphne as is now-a-days. Men 
 will be masters; they be masters 
 and no less disciples. Alas, where 
 is this discipline now in England ? 
 The people regard no discipline, 
 they will be without all order. 
 Men, the more thej know, the 
 worse they be. It is truly said, 
 saieiitia inflat, knowledge maketli 
 
620 
 
 EULE 0* TAITH. [IIM Evening. 
 
 proud, and causes us to forget 
 all, and set away discipline. — 
 
 SUKELT IN POPEEY THEY HAD A 
 EEVEEENOE, BUT NOW WE HAVE 
 NONE AT ALL; I NEVDE SAW THE 
 
 LIKE. We continually blaspheme 
 Christ's passion, in hawking, hunt- 
 ing, dicing and carding." — p. 84. 
 
 SofarEatherLatimer. [Laughter.] 
 Now to Father Luther ! 
 Martin Luther, Serm. in Portel. 
 Eoana. i. Adm. — 
 
 " The world grows every day 
 worse and worse. It is plain that 
 men are much more covetous, mali- 
 cious, resentful, much more unruly, 
 shameless, and full of vice, than 
 they were in the time of Popery. 
 
 " formerly when we were seduced 
 by the Pope, men wiHingly followed 
 good works, but now all their study 
 IS to get every thing for themselves, 
 oy exactions, pillage, theft, lying, 
 usury." 
 
 Luth. Serm. Dom. 26 ]iost Trin. 
 
 " It is a wonderful thing, and 
 full of scandal, that from the time 
 when the pure doctrine arose, the 
 world should daily grow worse and 
 worse." — Luther in Sermon Conver. 
 
 Now come we to that Protestant 
 luminary, the great Bucer, the second 
 patriarch of the Reformation : — 
 
 " The greater part of the people 
 (says he) seein only to have em- 
 braced the Gospel in order to shake 
 off the yoke of discipliae, and the 
 obligation of fasting, penance, &c. 
 which lay upon them in the time 
 of Popery, and to live at their plea- 
 sure, enjoying their lust and lawless 
 appetites without control. They, 
 therefore, lend a willing ear to the 
 doctrine that we are justified by 
 faith alone, and not by good works, 
 having no relish for them." — Le 
 Segn. Christi, 1. i. c. 4. 
 
 And now to Calvin himself ! ! I 
 Calvin, 1. 6, de Scand. : — 
 
 " Of so many thousands seem- 
 
 ingly eager on embracing the Gospel, 
 how few have since amended their 
 lives ! Nay, what else does the 
 greater part pretend, thim, by shak- 
 mg off the yoke of superstition, to 
 launch out more freely into every 
 kind of lasciviousness — ut excusso 
 servitutis jugo in onmem lasciviam 
 diffluerentp'i 
 
 Listen also to Erasmus, theic 
 contemporary, for on this point 
 Catholics and Protestants agree : — 
 
 " Take notice of these evan- 
 gelical people, and show me an indi- 
 vidual amongst them all, who frpm 
 a drunkard has become sober, from 
 being a libertine has become chaste. 
 I, on the other hand, can show you 
 many who have become worse by 
 the change." — Erasm.Spond. advers. 
 Hutten, A.D. 1529. 
 
 " Those whom I knew to be 
 chaste, sincere, and without fraud, I 
 found, after they had embraced this 
 sect, to be licentious in their con- 
 versation, gamblers, neglectful of 
 prayer, passionate, vain, as spiteful 
 as serpents, and lost to the feelings 
 of hiunan nature." — Erasm. adfiabi. 
 inferior. Germance. 
 
 " What an evangelical generation 
 is thisP Nothing was ever seen 
 more licentious; nothing is less 
 evangelical than these pretended 
 gospellers." — Erasm. E^is. 1, vi. 4. 
 
 Hear also Protestant Stulb's Mo- 
 tives to Good JTorks, with an 
 Epistle Dedicatory to the Lord 
 Mayor of London : — 
 " For good works, who sees not 
 that they, {the Papists,) of former 
 times were far beyond us, and we 
 far behind them P" 
 
 I wonder my learned antagonist 
 has ceased askuig for the page and 
 title of the books, &o. from whence 
 I make these pleasant extracts ! — 
 [laughter] — ^but / have not yet had 
 a sufficiency of them, however sa- 
 tiated mv learned friend maj be. 
 
Mr. French.l rule op faith. 
 
 621 
 
 Let us go back again to our sweet 
 little Calviii. [Laughter.] 
 Calvin, to Melanethon. — Bpistola ad 
 Melancth. p. 145. 
 
 " It is of great importance that 
 there should not be transmitted to 
 future ages any suspicion of the 
 divisions that exist amongst us, for 
 it is beyond imagination ridiculous 
 that, after having qiiarrelled with 
 all the world, we should agree so 
 little amongst ourselves." 
 
 Well, we vrill go on to Luther ! 
 
 Luther contra Zuinglium et (Eco- 
 
 lampadium, 1. i. 
 
 " If the world is to last much 
 longer, I do declare, considering all 
 these different interpretations of 
 the Scriptures, that there is no 
 other means remaining for us to 
 preserve the unity of the faith, than 
 that of receiving the decrees of 
 the Council, and taking refuge 
 under her authority." 
 
 And, my friends, if you doubt 
 Luther and Calvin, hear Beza. 
 Protestant Beza, in his Theological 
 Epistle, p. 13. 
 
 " What is their opinion in Bel- 
 gium to-day you may perhaps ascer- 
 tain, but what it vrill be to-morrow 
 it is impossible to conjecture. In 
 what, I pray, do all those agree who 
 make war upon the Roman Pontiff? 
 Run over ail their articles from the 
 first to the last, and you ynHS. see 
 nothing advanced by one of her 
 teachers but it is immediately ex- 
 claimed against by another as an 
 impiety. . . . They make themselves 
 a new creed every month — ^men- 
 struam Mem habent." 
 
 Now, let us listen to another great 
 Protestant vrriter, George Major. 
 Another Protestant authority says, 
 on the confusion of dogmas : — 
 
 " The Papists object to us our 
 dissensions. I confess we cannot 
 sufficiently deplore them : I confess, 
 also, that the simple are troubled 
 
 at them, so far as no longer to 
 know where is the truth, and whe- 
 ther there stiU remains for God a 
 Church on earth." 
 
 Listen also to a very pithy obser- 
 vation of the celebrated Melanethon, 
 corroborative of that sweet unity 
 subsisting among Protestants ! — 
 Melanethon, Theolog. p. 249. " 
 
 " Nothing brings so much dis- 
 credit on the Gospel as our mutual 
 dissensions." 
 
 Nay, my friends, Luther himself 
 thus writes : — 
 
 " Whilst a CathoHo I passed my 
 life in austerities, in watchings and 
 praying, in poverty, chastity and 
 obedience." — Imih. tom. v. chap i. 
 ad Qalat. v. liv. 
 
 But let us hear Calvin once more 
 upon this blessed Reformation, 
 wnen the effusion of the Holy Spirit, 
 was so unboundedly copious : — 
 
 " Of the greater part of those 
 who betake themselves to the Gos- 
 pel, what other intention had they 
 than nisi ut excusso superstitionis 
 jugo, solutius in omnem lasciviam 
 diffluerent?" that is, "that, having 
 shaken off the yoke of superstition, 
 they might more dissolutely plunge 
 themselves into all riot and lasoivi- 
 ousness ?" — Calvin, Bib. de Scan- 
 , p. 118 and 127. 
 
 Smidden, the Protestant, says, 
 " That the world may know they 
 are no Papists, and they do not 
 trust in good works, not one will 
 they put in practice. Instead of 
 being more bountiful to the poor, 
 theyunfleece and flay them. Prayers 
 they turn to oaths, &c." — Smide- 
 linus, cone. 4, Super c. ii. Luc. cone. 
 1 Super c. xxi. 
 
 Protestant Spangeberg says, 
 " Post revelatum evangeuum, et 
 rejectum pontificatum evasisse 
 homines adeo feras, ut Deum non 
 agnosoant, nee ullam ejus rei ra- 
 tionem habeant; velintque rectum 
 et justmn sit quidquid unicuique 
 
Tisum fuerit." The translation of 
 which is, "After they had cast off 
 the papacy, men became so wUd 
 that they acknowledged not God, 
 nor stood in the least awe of him, 
 but considered every thing to be 
 right and lawful which suited their 
 respectiTC interests." 
 
 Protestant Castalion, who resided 
 at Geneva, and was the most inti- 
 mate friend of Beza, of its inha- 
 bitants says, " They are so proud 
 and puffed with vamglory and re- 
 venge, that with less danger you 
 might offend princes than exasperate 
 any of these proud Calvmists. 
 Their life is infamous and vilanous. 
 They are masters of arts in re- 
 proaches, lies, cruelty, treason, and 
 insupportable arrogance. They 
 name their Geneva their Holy City, 
 and their assembly Jerusalem. But 
 in very truth, we should call it, 
 •Oh, Babylon, Babylon ! Oh, Egypt, 
 and true frontiers of Egyptian and 
 Babylonian enchanters 1 Oh, most 
 infamous Sodom and children of 
 Gomorrah." — Costal, ajpud Hescium, 
 p. 54. 
 
 Protestant Schlusselburg teUs us 
 that Beza, " not in the time of his 
 Papistry, but ever after, throughout 
 his whole life, employed himself 
 wholly gratifying his lusts, writing 
 his loves, and revenging himself on 
 his rivals." — Schlusselburg, Ub. i. 
 fol. 92 and 93 ; lib. ii. art. 1 ; lib. iii. 
 art. 8. 
 
 The Calvinist Meno says, " I 
 have ascertained, beyond the possi- 
 bility of 'a doubt, that they are 
 without the spirit, mission, and word 
 of Christ; that, by their teaching 
 and works, they hunt only after 
 the favour of men, honours, pride, 
 revenues, goodly buildings, and 
 looseness of hfe." — Meno in. fun- 
 dament, de doctrin,. pradicat. 
 
 Secondly, hear Calvin himself 
 giving an account of the .influence 
 of the Holy Spirit upon the minds 
 
 RUM! OP FAITH. \Ylth Evmiitg. 
 
 of men in the centre of orthodoxy. 
 Geneva, at the dawn of the blessed 
 Reformation, that most propitious 
 
 of all SEASONS POK BXHTBITING IK 
 ITS lAIBJEST LIGHT THE GATHER- 
 ING TJP OP THE GLOEIOTTS INSPIRA- 
 TION OP Pbotestajtiism — namely, 
 when the apostolic Reformers were 
 living among them, and breathing, 
 i;io doubt, at every step they took 
 through life, the true spirit of celes- 
 tial piety. The words of Calvin 
 are these, and who could believe it 
 possible, unless he heard them ? 
 — " The ministers of Geneva, as 
 empty bellies give up to all idleness, 
 provided they are left unmolested 
 in the enjoyment of their delights, 
 are totalfyunsolicitous as to heaven 
 or earth, whether they are con- 
 founded together or not." — Cak.- 
 in Tract, p. 140, et Tifist. 54, et lib. 
 de Seagal, p. 131. 
 
 Of (Ecolamfadius, Carolostadim, 
 and Biicer, their brethren them- 
 selves confess that they were in the 
 end smothered by devils. — Vide 
 Luther de Missa Privata, and Schhis- 
 selburg, in, Catal. Haret. lib. i. p. 4. 
 
 Cahiin in Preef. Nov. Testam. 
 Qallica, a.d. 1567 : — 
 
 " Satan hath gained more by 
 these new interpreters than he did 
 before by keeping the word from 
 the people." 
 
 Sturmius de raiione contradict. 
 inewnd(B, page 24 : — " Lutherani 
 Ubres publioa editis, eeolesias An- 
 gHeanas, Gallicas, Belgicas, Scoti- 
 oas, Helveticas, tanquam hsereticas-, 
 condemnant coram martyres, mar- 
 tyres diaboli voeant :" 
 
 " The Lutherans in their public 
 books condemn the Churches of 
 Englaud,Erance,Flauders, Scotland, 
 Switzerland; they call their martyrs, 
 martyrs of the devU." 
 
 Again : — " Quod scribunt Zuin- 
 gUani se \. nobis pro fratribus ag- 
 nitos, illud tarn impudenter, tanta- 
 
Mr. French.'] 
 
 RULE OF TAITH. 
 
 623 
 
 que vamtate ab illis confectam est, 
 at eonun impudeutiain mirati satis 
 nequeamus. Nosi vero ut ia ec- 
 clesia locum iLis nullum conce- 
 dimus ita etiam pro fratribus 
 minus agnoseimus, quos spiritu 
 mendacji agitaii depreheudimus,. et 
 in fllium kominis oontumeUosos esse : 
 "Wliat the Zuinglians write, that 
 they by us are accounted brethren, 
 that is so impudently and vainly 
 forged by them, that we cannot 
 sufficiently admire their impudence. 
 Sor we, as we account them not in 
 the Church, so also do we as little 
 repute them our brethren, whom we 
 find under the influence of the 
 spirit of falsehood, and to be oontu- 
 meKous against the Son of God." 
 — EpUome Colleq. Maaliricne, a.d. 
 1564 p, 82. 
 
 " The Lutheraos, on their part, 
 were not slow iu requiting the Cal- 
 vinists. They answer by Schlussel- 
 hvi.Tg."—TAeol. Oak. 13 and 6. 
 
 " Quod Calviuistse nos Luthera- 
 nos Yolunt habere pro fratribus, 
 quos tamen ut haereticos damnant." 
 
 " So between them (says John 
 Jesler) Litigandi, scribendi, decla- 
 mandi, disputandi, condemnandi, 
 excommunicaudi, inter Lutheranas 
 et Calvinistas, nullus est finis." 
 That is, " There is no end of chid- 
 ing, writing, accusing, _ disputing, 
 condemning, excommunicating, be- 
 tween Lutherans and Oalvinists." 
 — JoAfi Jesler, Zumglio Cahinista, 
 L. de diuturne Belli Eucharistid, 
 pp. 25, 80. 
 
 NicMas Oalhs. — " Non sunt 
 utique parva certamina inter nos, 
 neque de minutis rebus, sed de sub- 
 limibus, articuhs Christianse doc- 
 trinse, de lege et evangelio, de jus- 
 tificatione, et bonis operibus, de 
 sacramentis, et cseremomarum usu; 
 quBB nullo pacto componi, vel reti- 
 oeri aut dissimulari possunt. Sunt 
 
 ENIM MBB.ai OONTBADICTIONES, qUCB 
 
 concordiam non feruut." 
 
 " Certainly they Eire not small 
 contentions that are amongst us, 
 nor trifles, but concerning the most 
 momentous articles of the Christian 
 religion ; of the law and gospel, of 
 JHstiflcation and good works, of sa- 
 craments and use of ceremonies, 
 which by no means can be appeased, 
 hidden or dissembled. For they 
 are plain contradictions which cannot 
 be reconciled." — Nioholas Oallus, 
 Superintendens Matisbotus in thesibui 
 
 Is not this,'let me ask, my friends, 
 without the trpuble of racking and 
 torturing thieves and impostors, to 
 have tnem falling out among them- 
 selves, and good men to come by 
 their goods-— that is, the true Church 
 to be verified ? Is not this to have 
 falsehood unhobded and truth re- 
 vealed ? to have disagreement con- 
 victed, and the kingdom thereby 
 known to be satanical? 
 
 Luther Figurini in prof. Apohgetiea 
 Orthodoxi consenms ; — 
 
 " Qusenam quseso, per Deum im- 
 mortalem, potest iniri concordia cum* 
 Calvinistis, qui ipsmq Fihum Dei 
 mendacii argument ?" 
 
 "Wh-ai concord, I pray you in 
 God's name, can be established with 
 the Calvinists, who give the lie to 
 the Son of God?" 
 
 Oh, my Catholic and Protestant 
 friends ! is it not time, think ye, to 
 exclaim in the language of St. Au- 
 gustine, Tract 33 in, Jahann. : — 
 
 " Credamus, fratres, quantum- 
 quisque amat eoclesiom, tantum 
 habet et Spiritum Sanctum." 
 
 "Let us heheve, my friends, that 
 so much as a man loveth the Church, 
 so much he hath of the Holy 
 Ghost." 
 
 But now, gentlemen, having pre- 
 sented this blooming little nosega,y 
 to my learned friend, to recreatej u 
 possible, his exhausted spirits, pro- 
 ceed we to other matter ; only let, 
 
624 
 
 RULE or TAIIH. 
 
 me observe, en, passant, that it will 
 be a long time, in my humble opi- 
 nion, before he will have the con- 
 science, or at least the efeontery, 
 in any of his future addresses to 
 you, to cant about the Bless'ed Re- 
 formation ! ! ! 
 
 My learned antagonist, having 
 occupied his hour in declaiming 
 against almost every article of our 
 religion, and reviving subjects 
 already most amply discussed by 
 him and me, I think it but fair that 
 I should have some advantage 
 allowed me in referring to a subject 
 not immediately under discussion. 
 My friend has once more adverted 
 to the doctrine of Transubstantia- 
 tion this eveniug, though I thought 
 that subject had been satisfactorily 
 settled ; at least I am perfectly 
 convinced that what has already 
 appeared upon paper {i.e. printed 
 report) will for ever persuade all 
 impartial persons that, from the 
 very outset of Christiaaity, the 
 doctrine of Transubstantiation was 
 ^believed and diffused throughout all 
 Christendom. Does my learned 
 friend forget, that in the beginning, 
 the very first father of the Churdi 
 tells us that there were certain 
 heretics who absented themselves 
 from the Eucharist, because they 
 would not make up their miuds to 
 bcKeve iu it ? 
 
 But hear his own words : — 
 
 " They abstain from the Eucha- 
 rist and prayer, because they do 
 not confess the Eucharist to be 
 .the flesh of our Saviour Jesus 
 Christ, which suffered for our sins, 
 which the Father in his goodness 
 resuscitated. These, therefore, con- 
 tradicting this gift of God, die in 
 their investigations." — St. Ignat. ad 
 SmyrruBos, Bp. p. 4, ed. Pearsoni et 
 SmitUi, Oxon. 1079. 
 
 You recollect, my friends, how 
 confounded my antagonist appeared 
 when he heard the words ; you re- 
 
 \Vi.thEeemng, 
 
 collect his puerile attempt at anni- 
 hilating their forde, by referring me 
 to a passage iu the same father, in 
 his l^istle to the Eomans, where, 
 speaking of the Eucharist, he says, 
 "I desire the drink of God, his 
 blood, which is love incorruptible 
 and eternal life." — St. Ign. tip. ad 
 Bom. p. 39, Patr.Apostol, Ajnstelod. 
 1724. 
 
 .Aid, above all, my friends, you 
 recollect the crashing, overwhelm- 
 ing answer I gave to his vain sub- 
 terfuge, namely, "If the flesh oj 
 Christ is to cease to be flesh, became 
 St. Ignatius calls the Eucharist love 
 incorruptible and eternal life, God 
 himself, by a parity of reasoning, is 
 to resolve into mere love, since St. 
 John the Evangelist says, ' Ood is 
 love.' " — St. John I^ist. c. 4. v. 16. 
 
 Again, I ask my friend, whether 
 " which flesh the lather in his good- 
 ness resuscitated" meant bread. ^ 
 [Sensation.] Surely my friend can 
 answer that satisfactorily? Then 
 again, St. Austin tells me it is the 
 real flesh of our Saviour. But my 
 friend is taking advantage of the 
 abstract passage without reading 
 the rest of it. Again, when my 
 learned antagonist brought St. Au- 
 gustine on the arena, to assist him, 
 why did not he himself act Uke a 
 fair combatant, and give us all that 
 St. Augustine said illustrative of the 
 subject, in the same pages whence 
 he made the extract which he ima- 
 gined would appal me ? I admit 
 the passage of my antagonist to 
 have been fairly quoted ; the un- 
 fairness consisted in suppressing 
 the sequel. 
 
 The passage runs thus : — 
 
 "Ut quid paras dentes et ven- 
 trem ? Crede et manducasti. — Why 
 do you prepare your teeth and sto- 
 mach? Believe and you have eaten." 
 
 But what immediately follows, 
 my friends ? Listen ! Why these 
 illuminating sentences :— 
 
Mr, French.] 
 
 KULE or lAITH. 
 
 625 
 
 "Pajth. indeed is discriminated 
 from works, aeoordmg to vhat the 
 apostle said, that man is justified by 
 faith without the works of the law." 
 
 " Ideo noluit disoernere ab opere 
 fidem, sed ipsxim Mem dixit esse 
 opus." 
 
 " His (the apostle's) meaniag, 
 therefore, was not to separate faith 
 from works, but faith itself he said 
 was a work." 
 
 "Hie (Moyses) plenum ventrem 
 promittebat m terra, sed cibo qui 
 perit ; iste promittebat cibum, non 
 qui perit, sed qui permanet in 
 setemum. Non ergo Moyses dedit 
 panem de coelo. Deus dat panem. 
 Sed quem panem ? forte mannse ? 
 Non, sed panem quem significavit 
 manna, ipmm scilicet Dominmn 
 Jesum." 
 
 " He (Moses) promised a fuH 
 beEy on earth, but consisting of pe- 
 rishable food; the former (Christ) 
 promised food, not of a perishable, 
 but of an eternal nature. It was 
 not Moses that gave the bread from 
 heaven. God gives that bread. 
 But what bread ? Perhaps you will 
 say the manna ? If o ; but the bread 
 which was signified by the manna, 
 to wit, THE LoBD Jesus himself." 
 — Si. Aug. V. iii. p. 490. Pars 
 Secunda. 
 
 No wonder, then, my friends, St. 
 Augustine having thus plainly told 
 us what the sacrament consists of, 
 that he should exclaim with holy 
 rapture in alluding to it, " O sacra- 
 mentum pietatis, O signum unitatis, 
 O vinculum caritatis ! qui vult 
 vivere, habet unde vivat, accedat, 
 credat, inoorporetur, ut vivifioetur." 
 1 — ^P. 460, V. iii. p. sec. 
 
 " Oh sacrament of piety ! Oh smi 
 of unity ! Oh bond of charity ! He' 
 who wishes to live has wherewithal 
 to live, has whereupon to live. Let 
 him approach, let him believe, let 
 >iiTn be incorporated, in order that 
 he may be quickened with life!", 
 
 "Accedat credat," says St .Augustine, 
 that is " let him approach, let him 
 believe," so that you see plainly, 
 contrary to. the inculcation of my 
 reverend antagonist, " believing 
 without approaching" will not do. 
 The " OS fldele" must be joined to 
 the " cor fidele," to use the saint's 
 own words; that is, "withfadthfid 
 mouth and heart." 
 
 Again, I ask. Incorporated with 
 what ? Where is the subject of in- 
 corporation ? My friend, if he be 
 consistent, must say, iu contradic- 
 tion to St. Augustine, "Non cum 
 ipso Domino Jesu." N()t certainly 
 with the Lord Jems himself! 
 
 But St. Augustine is not yet sa- 
 tisfied with his endeavours to clear 
 the subject from all possibility of 
 doubt. He goes on in the same 
 page to stagger my learned antago- 
 nist still more visibly. [Laughter.] 
 
 " Quod autem ad invicem hti- 
 gantes queerunt, quomodo possit 
 Dominus carnem suam dare ad 
 mandncandum, non statim audiunt;^ 
 sed adhuc eis dicitur, Amen, amen' 
 dico vobis. Nisi manducaveritis car- 
 nem filii hominis, et biberitis ejus 
 sanguinem, non habebitis vitam ia 
 vobis. Quomodo quidem edeatur, 
 et quisnam mod^ sit manducandi 
 istum panem, ignoratus ; verumta- 
 men nisi manducaveritis carnem fliii 
 hominis et biberitis ejus sanguinem, 
 non habebitis vitam in vobis. — St. 
 Aug. in /o«». Tract 27. cap. vi. 
 
 " But as to their htigating toge- 
 ther in their mutual inquiries, 'How 
 can the Lord give us his flesh to 
 eat ?' they do not immediately hear 
 it (the solution) ; but as yet it is 
 said to them, ' Verily, verily, I say 
 unto you. Unless ye shall eat the flesh 
 of the Son of Man, and drink his 
 blood, ye shall not have life in you.' 
 How indeed is he eaten, and what 
 is the mode of eating that bread, ye 
 are ignorant. However, unless ye 
 shall eat the flesh of the Son of 
 
626 
 
 KULE OP PAiTH. [IKA Mveniiig. 
 
 Man, and shall drmk his blood, ye 
 shall mot have life ia you." 
 
 In one word, my friends. If ye 
 wish to eat the bread ia the same 
 mode as St. Augustine ate, ye must 
 believe it to be the very flesh of Jems 
 Christ, and ye sinjf ye adore it not 
 before ye eat it. Inese aie the very 
 words of St. Augustine. Now, my 
 reverend antagonist, spurniug as he 
 does this doctrine, and disdaining to 
 adore it before reception, is not, 
 most indubitably, of the same faith 
 with St. Augustine ; whereas I, re- 
 ceiving it in the self-same manner, 
 am most indubitably a member of 
 the self-same faith with that illus- 
 trious father. Let my opponent put 
 his extract with the rest which I 
 have cited, and then teU us there- 
 from what St. Austin is inculcat- 
 ing. St. Austin is inculcating, and 
 my friend knows it well, that we 
 are not to take the sacrament as 
 the Cafemaites took it. My friend 
 knows, if he has ever read aud pon- 
 dered on ecdesiastioal history, that 
 they maintained that it was real 
 pieces of flesh, and real drops of 
 blood they took in the sacrament ; 
 and St. Austin wishes to disprove 
 and extinguish such a heresy, and 
 he is pointing out the mode in 
 which it is to be received. ' 
 
 When I find, then, Augustine 
 " prostrate (as my friend would say) 
 at his idolatry" in adoring the sacra- 
 ment, can I doubt what his meaning 
 is? He (Mr. Gumming) tells me 
 that the Spirit effects it ; that it is 
 a figure. Certainly, we are not 
 sensible of eating the body of our 
 Lord when we t^ie it. Thai there 
 is sometMng figurative in it Augus- 
 tine inculcates ; and all that we can 
 do is, not to think as the Cafemaites 
 did, that it was flesh and blood, but 
 to meditate sweetly on his passion, 
 on his sufferings, whilst the priest 
 is giving us his flesh to eat and his 
 blood to drink. 
 
 That is what Augustine incul- 
 cates, together with a vvhole host of 
 fathers, but Augustine in particular 
 — all the fathers telling us that it is 
 Christ's real body and blood, ani- 
 mated by his soul and his divinity, 
 and that unless we take it in that 
 manner we have no life within us ; 
 and stiU most prepcsterously will he 
 (Mr. Gumming) maintain that it is 
 not Christ's body, but a real figure. 
 Why, just as weU might that sect 
 called the Gnostics, in the begin- 
 ning of Christianity, maintain that 
 Clirist was but a figure on earth — 
 no real body — an aerial being ; that 
 he moved about and spoke, and 
 conversed and laid down his pre- 
 cepts, and was fixed to the cross, 
 but that, nevertheless, by some su- 
 pernatural wonder, he had no flesh 
 and no blood ; denying indeed, as 
 they did, that Christ had flesh when 
 living, they naturally enough re- 
 fused to believe that flesh could be 
 in the sacrament. " The flesh," 
 thev exclaimed, "says Christ him- 
 self 'profiteth nothmg,' " and my 
 reverend antagonist quotes the 
 same saying in support of his error, 
 that which the Gnostics quoted to 
 give plausibility to theirs. 
 
 Again, my friends, I proved the 
 verity of our sacrament by words of 
 Scripture, from the ISthActs, ver. 2. 
 — XeiTovpyovvro)!' 8e avrSiV t« 
 Kvpiffi, Kox vriiTTevovrau, which I 
 translate with Erasmus, "Whilst 
 they were sacrificing to the Lord 
 and fasting," meant sacrament. I 
 proved it by the authority of Eras- 
 mus ; I proved it by the authority 
 of two Greek lexicographers, whose 
 lexicons were written by Greeks 
 during the time that that language 
 was spoken on earth, namely, Suidas 
 and Hesychius, the former actually 
 interpreting the word Xcirovpyta 
 by sofirifiee. I proved it by the 
 ilnanimous voice of the whole Gi-e^k 
 Church, who use, to this very day, 
 
Mr. 'Prench.'\ 
 
 EULB OF PAITH. 
 
 the word Xevrovpyla for mass; and, 
 wherever the mass is said in Greek, 
 the word for to celebrate mass- is 
 XciTovoyeir', or eTTiTfXeii' t^w Xet- 
 Tovpyiav. What can be more posi- 
 tive, therefore, than that this was 
 meant to be inculcated by the apo- 
 stle, and transmitted to us by tra- 
 dition — ^the consecration of the body 
 and blood of our Lord constituting 
 the sacrifice called the mass, which 
 is found so undeniably and plainly 
 stamped in the pages of the Gospel ? 
 Can anything be clearer or more 
 conclusive ? Besides, the clear word 
 used in the Gospel for ministering 
 is uniformly hiaKovfiv, as in Matt, 
 iv. — " (eat Iboii ayyeXot npotrfjKBov 
 Ko! hiTjKovovv avra." "And be- 
 hold, angels came and ministered 
 unto him." 
 
 Again, in Luke viii. v. 3 :^ 
 
 " Koi erepai TtoXKal avrivis Sitjko- 
 vovv avTa, dirb rav vTrap^oPTotv 
 avTois." '"And many others which 
 ministered unto him of their sub- 
 stance." 
 
 The use, therefore of the word 
 \ciTovpyovvTav in the Acts, sets 
 the question between us and Pro- 
 testants at rest for ever. 
 
 Again, I prove it from Theo- 
 doretus. Listen, my friends, for it 
 most completely terminates the dis- 
 pute between us : — 
 
 "If the priest who is according 
 to the law have ended, and the 
 priest who is according to the order 
 of Melchizedek has offered sacrifice, 
 and all see that, other sacrifices be 
 not necessary, why do the priests of 
 the New Testament perform the 
 mystic liturgy f " that is, sacrifice. 
 — Theoior. in. c. x. Ep. ad Hebra. 
 
 The Greek words are, foY " Why 
 do the priests of the New Testament 
 perform the mystic liturgy or testa- 
 ment ? " — Ti hrjiroTe Trjs K.aivj]S 
 SiadTjKTis 01 iepels rriv pva-TiKfjV 
 XeiTovpylav einTcXKoviTtv ; where 
 vou observe not only is the word 
 
 'keiTovpyiav used for sacrifice, but 
 the word iepels for saerifieing priest ! 
 
 My learned antagonist, you may 
 remember, told us that Upevs meant 
 sacrificing priest, and that it never 
 occurred as applied to minister in the 
 New Testament. But let my friend 
 remember that \evroipyos does 
 occur, and that is precisely the 
 same thing. In proof, open Hesy- 
 chius — you have the same interpre- 
 tation of XeiTOvpyUas by UpdriKas. 
 
 Nay, Suidas teEs us that the 
 primary meaning of the word 
 XciTovpyia is "the functions of a 
 sacrificing priest." 
 
 His words are, and I transcribed 
 them this morning from his lexicon, 
 XeiTovpyia, Kvpias fiev lepanK-q, 
 KaTaxpV'TiKas be ^ BovKiKri," And, 
 my friends, if you will not believe us 
 CathoKos when we assure you that 
 this sacrifice has been offered up- in 
 every age at the altar of true Chris- 
 tians, listen to one of your learned 
 and renowned bishops, namely, 
 Bishop Forbes ; — " The holy fathers 
 constantly say, that in the Eucharist 
 is offered and sacrificed the very body ' 
 of Christ." 
 
 Listen, again, to that profoundly 
 learned Protestant divine,' whoso 
 bust stares you in the face the 
 moij3nt you enter Westminster 
 Abbey : — Dr. Grabbe ! 
 
 " It is certain that Irenseus, with 
 aU the fathers, either ootemporary 
 with the apostles or their successors, 
 did consider the Eucharist as the 
 sacrifice of the new law ; and that 
 this was not the private opinion of 
 any one church, but the public doc- 
 trine of the universal Church, received 
 from Christ." 
 
 But, gentlemen, the words of 
 your Bishop Parker are most re- 
 markable ; they are as follow : — 
 
 "No Protestant should refuse 
 assent to the doctrine of trausub- 
 stantiation for the incredibility of 
 the thing';, when he himself professes 
 
628 
 
 ETOB or PAiiH. [llii Eoening. 
 
 to belieTe that of the incarnation. 
 If transubstantiation be a piece of 
 folly, it is a most ancient one in the 
 Church. St. Paul, St. Ignatius the 
 Martyr, St. Irenseus, &o. speak of 
 it exactly as the Catholics do at this 
 day." — Bishop Parker's Critical 
 History of the Bible, p. 276. 
 
 Bishop Parker's "Reasons for 
 Abrogating the Test," p. 13 : — 
 
 "It is evident to all men, that 
 the ancient fathers, from age to 
 age, asserted the real and substantial 
 presence ia very high and expres- 
 sive terms." 
 
 elementation, and at length transub- 
 stantiation. By all which they ex- 
 pressed nothing more nor less than 
 the real and substantial presence in 
 the Eucharist." — Idem, p. 46. 
 
 As for the Church of England, 
 she agrees with the tradition of the 
 Roman and Reformed Churches, in 
 ■asserting the certainty of the real 
 Tireseace, and the uncertainty of the 
 manner. 
 
 Protestant Pocklington's " Altare 
 Christianum," p. 130 : — 
 
 "If there be no Christian sacri- 
 fice, there is no Christian priest. 
 If there be no Christian priest, then 
 away with our Book of Ordination." 
 
 My reverend opponent- says there 
 is no Christian priest, and crushes 
 with his foot, as far as he can do it, 
 his loving^ sister's Church of Eng- 
 land. What spectacle is this, my 
 friends, in this assembly ? Quick, 
 my friends, let the Calvinists go to 
 one side of the room, and the 
 Church of England men to another. 
 They are at deadly war, at daggers 
 drawn. And now, my friends, let 
 me solace my downcast friend and 
 antagonist by a few more quotations 
 from emiaent Protestant divines, 
 confirmatory of our various tenets 
 • — Purgatory, Tradition, Primacy of 
 St. Peter, &o. &o. &c., having first 
 
 f remised to my learned friend, who 
 eniesthe doctrine of tradition, that 
 Bossuet, in his celebrated conference 
 with Claude, which produced the 
 conversion of Mademoiselle Duras, 
 obliged him to confess that, by the 
 "Protestant Rule," every artisan 
 and husbandman may and ought to 
 believe that they can understand 
 the Scripture better than aE the 
 fathers of the Church, ancient ana 
 modem, put together. 
 
 Bishop Forbes on Fw.gatory. 
 "Let not the ancient practice of 
 praying and making oblations for 
 the dead be any longer rejected by 
 Protestants, as -it is a practice re- 
 ceived throughout the universal 
 Church, which did ever believe it 
 both pious and charitable. Many 
 of the fathers believed that light 
 sins were forgiven after death, and 
 it is no absurdity to think so; in 
 truth, the custom of praying for the 
 departed comes, asChrysostom says, 
 from the apostles." 
 
 Protestant Tradition. — Dr. Brett's 
 "Tradition Necessary" p. 73. 
 
 "It is evident from the Senp- 
 tures themselves that the whole of 
 Christianity was first delivered to 
 the bishops succeeding the apostles 
 by oral tradition, and they were also 
 commanded to keep it, and deliver 
 it to their successors in like manner. 
 Nor is it anywhere found in Scrip- 
 ture, by St. Paul or any other apo- 
 stle, that they would either jointly 
 or separately write down" 
 
 Speaking of the 2d Thessalonians 
 T. 6, pp. 32, 33, 
 
 "Here," says he, "we see plain 
 mention of St. Paul's traditions, 
 delivered by word of mouth, as well 
 as by viriting, and a condemnation 
 of those who do not equally observe 
 both." 
 
 Montague's "Gagger Gagged," 
 pp. 30, 41 — " Traditions instituted 
 by Christ ia points ef faith have 
 
Mr. French.] bum op paiih. 
 
 629 
 
 divine authority as tlie ■written word 
 hath. Traditions from the apostle« 
 have equal authority with their 
 writings ; and no Protestant in his 
 senses will deny that the apostles 
 spoke much more than is written." 
 And mark, my friends. Bishop Mon- 
 tague was a true Churoh-of-England 
 man, for which reason the Puritans 
 hated him. 
 
 Ghillingworth's " Safe Way," p. 
 153: — "The controversy as to 
 which Scripture is canonical may be 
 decided by tradition, which is a rule 
 to jud^e aU controversies by." 
 
 This work of Chillingworth was 
 composed for the express purpose of 
 proving the Scripture alone to be 
 the sole and only judge whereby all 
 was to be judged. It was upon the 
 spot so irrefragably answered by 
 the Rev. Mr. Knott, in his learned 
 work, "InfldeKty Unmasked," that 
 no one, as Protestant Mr. Wood, 
 the author of " Athense Oxoniensis," 
 says, ever attempted to defend 
 ChiOingworih against him. 
 
 " If the Church of Rome be either 
 the Catholic Church or a Cathohc 
 Church, then we Protestants can- 
 not justify our separation." — HicKs 
 Letters to a Popish Priest, p. 246. 
 
 " I confess that it is the temple 
 of God ; in which the Pope rules." 
 — Calvin, on 2 Thess. xi. 4. _ 
 
 " In the Church of Rome is every- 
 thing good in Christianity — true 
 baptism, true sacrament of the altar, 
 true k^s for the remission of sins, 
 true office of preaching, true cate- 
 chism, the ten commandments, and 
 all the sacraments. I say, more- 
 over, that Popery is true Chris- 
 tianity, nay, the very kernel of 
 Christianity." — Luth. Contra Ana- 
 baptistas, tom. xi. Jerm. p. 2-29. 
 
 Now, when Papists have the 
 kernel they will not quarrel about 
 the shell, as that excellent contro- 
 vertist, Mr. William Talbot, has 
 observed before me. 
 
 Br. Whites "Defence' of his " Way;' 
 oh. xxxvii. 
 
 "I never denied the Church of 
 Rome to be the visible Church of 
 God, in which our ancestors held 
 the true Church and were saved." 
 
 "We deny not," says Whitaker, 
 "that Peter was the foundation 
 and governor of the Church, and, if 
 required, we will grant that it was 
 promised to him in the text, ' Thou 
 art Peter,' &c." — Whitaher contra 
 Bellarminitm, Quest, cap. ii. pp. 554, 
 557, lib. iv. c. 4. 
 
 "I grant," says he, "that the 
 keys were promised to him, for the 
 text proves it, and I will never 
 deny it." 
 
 "Wlio can deny Peter to have 
 been the rock and foundation of the 
 Church ?" — Contra Duraum, sect. 4. 
 
 " Quis Petmm non fatetur esse 
 Petram et ecclesise fundamentum ?" 
 
 " In reaHty, the keys were never 
 given by Christ to any one man, 
 but to the Church." — Quest. 5. cap. 
 iii. p. 602. 
 
 Dr.Dumoulin. — Vocation of Pastors, 
 pp. 309, 320. 
 
 This Dumouhn was prebend oi 
 Canterbury, and one of the most 
 learned Protestant divines of the 
 17th century. He died 1658. _ 
 
 "Whosoever reads the writings 
 of the fathers, will find those of the 
 fourth and fifth ages giving the 
 supremacy to the Bishop of Rome, 
 and asserting that to him belongs 
 the care of all the ohm-ches." — Ibid. 
 
 " Thanks to Dr. Dumouh'n, but 
 he might have gone a httle higher, 
 as I shall prove." — P. 64, Kirk, and 
 Berr. — St. Irenam, a.d. 177. 
 
 The learned Salmasim, Eucharisticon, 
 p. 644. 
 "The Bishop of Rome is the 
 great Pontiff, the Tather of Pathers, 
 the Ruler and Governor of the 
 universal , Church.' He is, in fine, 
 the successor of St, Peter, the Vicat 
 
630 
 
 RtJHB ot PAITH. lllt&E»eninff. 
 
 of Chibt upon earth, — to express 
 aU in one -word, the Pope." 
 Tfie Protestant Professor Le Port, 
 of Geneva. 
 " Most of us have drawn horrible 
 caricatures of the Pope, in the cha- 
 racter of Antichrist. These gentle- 
 men are anything but serious in 
 doing so. Nay, 1 am convinced 
 that there does not exist a single 
 Protestant minister here who would 
 not only leave his Church, but his 
 wife and family, could he but be- 
 come this dreadful 'SjorasRAntiehrist 
 
 ChUUngaorth, ch. ii. No. 8. 
 "When Protestants affirm that 
 the Scripture is a perfect Rule of 
 Faith, their meaning is not that by 
 Scripture all things can be proved; 
 for it can never be proved by Scrip- 
 ture that there is a God, or that the 
 book is the word of God." ; 
 
 " Chillingworth," says Dr. Hare, 
 Bishop of Hereford, " was an excel- 
 lent writer ; but what is to be ex- 
 pected of a man who was pushed so 
 home by his adversaries in defence 
 of Protestantism, that he had no- 
 thing left but to cry out, 'The 
 Bible, the Bible, I say, is the re- 
 ligion of Protestants ! ' And so say 
 afl the heretics that ever existed." 
 Preface to Scripture Vindicated, 
 p. 34 
 "Were the mere studying the 
 Bible sufficient, not only to convert 
 idolatrous nations, but to make 
 them members of Christ, why were 
 the apostles commanded to go into 
 all the world and to preach the 
 Gospel, when they coula have writ- 
 ten it in all the languages of the 
 'earth, and thus converted the na- 
 tions by writing ? " 
 The Rev. Mr. O'Callaglmn's Obser- 
 vations on Religious Peeling in 
 Ireland, pp. 1, 2, 11, 92. 
 " Private judgment in expound- 
 ing Scripture should be interdicted 
 
 as a dangerous guide, leading only 
 to public discontent, and spiritual 
 anarchy. It is disallowed by the 
 Church of England. The person 
 differing from her is called upon to 
 renounce his own opinion, and sub- 
 mit to authority." 
 
 " As to private opinion, it is not 
 improbable that we Irish should 
 be worshippers of Baal, had St. 
 Patrick and his priests relied on the 
 Bible and private judgment for our 
 conversion." 
 
 Now, my friends, compare this 
 vriththe words of another Protest- 
 ant divine! What a concordia 
 discors ! 
 Dr. Clark^s Sermon, Dee. 13, 1811. 
 
 " I, as a minister of the Church 
 of England, do declare, as soon as 
 it shall be proved, that the distri- 
 bution of the Bible alone is hostile 
 to the Protestant Church, then be 
 that Church subverted." 
 
 And here, now I think of it — for 
 I perceive I have marked dovra a 
 note'to recal it to memory — ^I have 
 the pleasure of informing my learned 
 friend that Duns Scotus, who is one 
 of the jewels embellishing the fron- 
 tispiece of his (Mr.Cumnmag's) little 
 work, that several of his books 
 were Condemned as heretical by the 
 Church of Home, and therefore it 
 is not Catholic authority. However, 
 I should like rery much to have 
 the name of the book, and the 
 page of it whence my learned 
 antagonist made that extract froiU 
 Duns Scotus, as I entertain real 
 doubts as to its existence. [Mr. 
 Gumming here promised to give it 
 on another occasion.] But my 
 learned friend tells me it can be 
 proved by Scripture that Scripture 
 IS the word of God. I denff it, and 
 shall ever deny it ; and the learned 
 gentleman has not sufficient argu- 
 ment to oonvince me, or any Catholio 
 in the room, that it is so. That 
 Scripture cannot assure us that 
 
Mr. French^ eule of faith. 
 
 631 
 
 itseK is canonical Scripture, is 
 acknowledged by several learned 
 Protestants in express words. 
 
 Mr. Hooker, the glory of Pro- 
 testantism, says, " Of aU things 
 necessary, the very chiefest is to 
 know what books we are to esteem 
 holy, which point is confessed im- 
 possible for the Scripture itself to 
 teach." — Tloolcer, Eacles. PoUt. book 
 i. sec. 14, p. 68. 
 
 And this he proves by the same 
 argument which, without borrowing 
 it from him, I have more than once 
 enforced. His words are, " It is 
 not the word of God which doth orj: 
 possibly can assure us, that we do 
 well to think it is his word. For, 
 if any book of Scripture did give 
 testimony of all, yet still that Scrip- 
 ture which giveth testimony to the 
 rest would require another Scripture 
 to give testimony unto it. Neither 
 conid we come to any pause whereon 
 to rest, unless, besides Scripture, 
 there were somethii^ which might 
 assure us, &c." — Ibid. Mb. ii. sec. 4, 
 p. 103. 
 
 And this he acknowledges to be 
 the Church. 
 
 The SixthArticle— " Whatsoever 
 is not read therein, nor may be 
 proved thereby, is not to be required 
 of any man, that it should be be- 
 lieved as an article of faith, or be 
 thought requisite or necessary to 
 salvation." How then do they 
 prove the procession of the Holy 
 Ghost and Infant Baptism ? 
 
 Whitaker confesses, that the 
 question concerning canonical Scrip- 
 ture is defined to us, not by testi- 
 mony of the private spirit, which, 
 sayeth he, being private and secret, 
 is unfit to teach others, but by the 
 Ecclesiastical Tradition. " An agree- 
 ment," says he, " whereby may he 
 argued and convinced, what books 
 be canonical, and what be not."^- 
 Whitak. ad/v. Stapp. lib. ii. c. vi. 
 p. 270 to p. 357. 
 
 Luther says, "This indeed the 
 Church hath, that she caiL discern 
 the word of God from the word of 
 men. The Protestant Fulk teaches, 
 that the Chnrch hath judgment to 
 discern true writings from counter- 
 feit, and the word of God from the 
 writing of men; and that this judg- 
 ment she hath not of herself, but of 
 the Eoly ffteif." — Pulk, in his 
 Answer to a Counterfeit Catholic, 
 p. 5. 
 
 But let my learned friend, who 
 still inflexibly adheres to the Bible 
 as his Uule of Eaith, listen to the 
 first patriarch of Protestants, the 
 immortal Luther, as they caU him. 
 Speaking of those who brought in 
 the doetrine of Anahaptism, in order 
 that they might despite the Pope, 
 " Verily" says he, " these men build 
 upon a weak foundation ; for, by this 
 means, they ought to deny the whole 
 Scripture and the office of preaching, 
 for all these we have from the Pope; 
 otherwise we must go and- make a 
 new Scripture." — Luth. Lib. de Cap. 
 Bab. c. ii. Witt. fol. 88. 
 
 Without the authority, therefore, 
 of the Church, no certainty can be 
 had what Scripture is canonical ; 
 which is evident from the circum- 
 stance that Protestants 'iannot agree 
 in assigning the canon of the Holy 
 Scripture. Of the Epistle of James 
 Luther has these words: — "The 
 Epistle of James is contentious, swell- 
 ing, dry, strawy, and unworthy of an 
 apostolical spirit'' — Luth. Prsefat. 
 in Epist. Jac. in ed. Jen. 
 
 And this censure of Luther is 
 acknowledged and maintained by 
 Illiricus. 
 
 Chemnitius teaches, that " the 
 Second Epistle of Peter, the Second 
 and Third of John, the Epistle to the 
 Hebrews, the Epistle of James, the 
 Epistle of Jude, and the Book' of 
 ^Revelations a/re apocryphal, as not 
 having sufficient testimony to their 
 authority, and therefore that nothing 
 
633 
 
 auLE or FAITH. [lltt Eoinitiff 
 
 m controversy/ can be proved out of 
 thesebooks."—GhBwa..\£KmAat.^.&h. 
 
 The same is taught by many 
 other Lutherans; and u some among 
 them, since the days of Luther, be 
 of a contrary opinion, I wonder what 
 new infallible grovmd they can allege, 
 that should induce them to differ 
 from their master and so many of 
 the prime and choice of his scholars. 
 T kiiow no better ground than this, 
 namely, that they made use of the 
 same freedom in abandoning him, 
 which he had used in altering that 
 canon of Scripture which he found 
 received in God's Church. 
 
 What books of Scripture the Pro- 
 testants of England hold for canon- 
 ical, it is not easy to affirm. In their 
 Sixth Article they say, "In the name 
 of the Holy Scriptwe, toe do under- 
 stand those canonical books of the 
 Old and New Testament, of whose 
 authority teas never any doubt in the 
 
 What mean they by these words? 
 This were to make the Church 
 judge, and not Scriptures alone. 
 Do they only understand the judg- 
 ment of the Church to be a prob- 
 able inducement? Probability is 
 not sufficient ground for an infallible 
 assent of faith. By this rule, 
 namely, " Of whose authority was 
 never any doubt in the Church," 
 the whole book of Esther must quit 
 the canon, because some in the 
 Church have excluded it from the 
 canon, as MeUto Asianus, St. Atha- 
 nasius, and St. Grego^ Nazianzen, 
 (Apud Euseb. lib. iv. Hist. 36. In 
 Synop. In Carm. de Genuin. Scrip.) 
 St. Paul's Epistle to the Hebrews 
 must also be exiled from the regions 
 of the Bible, as we have the express 
 testimony of St. Augustuie, who, 
 admitting the book to dc canonical, 
 says, "When Abraham (Gen. xiv.) 
 was blessed by Melohizedek, the 
 priest of the Most High God, of 
 whom many and great things are 
 
 said in the Epistle to the Hebrews, 
 (7) mhich epistle most ascribe to tite 
 Apostle Paul, and some deny it." — ■ 
 St. Aug. De Civit. Dei, lib. 16, Edit. 
 Bened. Parisiis, 1718-34. 
 
 And Luther says (and surely no 
 Protestant will maintain that he is 
 not in the Church) even in the times 
 of St. Gregory, " the Jews place 
 the book of Estner m the canon ; 
 which yet, if I might judge, doth 
 rather deserve to be put out of the 
 canon." — Lath, de Sen. Urb. con. 
 Srasm. tom. ii. Wit. fol. 471. And 
 of Ecclesiastes he says, " This book 
 is not full ; there are in it many 
 abrupt things. He wants boot and 
 spurs, that is, he hath no perfect 
 sentence; he rides upon a large 
 reed, like me when 1 was in the 
 monastery." — Luth. in Lat. serm. 
 Conviv. Fran, in 8vo. imp. ann. 1571. 
 And much more is to be read in 
 him ; for he says further, that the 
 said book was not written by Solo- 
 mon, but by Syraoh, in the time of 
 the Maccabees ; and that it is like 
 to the Talmud, (the Jews' Bible) 
 out of many books heaped into one 
 work, perhaps out of the library of 
 king Ptolomeus." — Lidh. in Ger. 
 coll. Imtheri, ab acrifabro, ed. Pran. 
 tit. de lib. Vet. etNos. Test. fol. 379. 
 And further, he says that he does 
 not believe all to have been done 
 that is there set down. — Lib. Til. 
 Pdit. Patriar. et Prophet, et Pro, 
 fol. 283. 
 
 He teaches also the Book of Job 
 " to be, as it were, an argument 
 for a fable (or comedy), to set 
 before us an example of patience." 
 —Luth. Tit. de Lib. Vet. et Nov. Test. 
 
 And he passesj moreover, this 
 general censure on the books of the 
 prophets : — " Thp, sermons of no 
 prophet were written whole and per- 
 fect, but their disciples and auditors 
 snatched up now one sentence, and 
 then another, and so put them all 
 into one book ; and by this means 
 
Mr. French.'] bule or faith. 
 
 633 
 
 the Bible was preserved." — Luther, 
 fol. 380. 
 
 If this he so, -the hooks of the 
 Prophets, not being written hythem- 
 selves, but promiscuonslj' and ca- 
 sually by their disciples, wiU soon 
 be called in question. Are not, let 
 me ask, these errors of Luther 
 fundamental? And yet, if Pro- 
 testants deny the infallibility of the 
 Church, upon what certain ground 
 can they disprove these Lutheran, 
 or rather, to express it more pro- 
 perly, these Luciferian blasphemies? 
 Oh godly reformer of theEoman 
 Church ! 
 
 But to return to our English 
 canon of Scripture. In the New 
 Testament, by the above-mentioned 
 rule (namely, " of whose authority 
 was never any doubt in the Church") 
 several books of the New Testament 
 laust be disauthorized, or rather dis- 
 oanonized, that is, all those which 
 some ancients have doubted, and 
 those which several Lutherans have 
 of late denied. It is worthy of ob- 
 servation, that the above-mentioned 
 Sixth Article specifies by name all 
 the books of the Old Testament 
 which they hold for canonical; but of 
 those of the NewTestament its words 
 are these, — " As they axe commonly 
 received, we do receive and account 
 them canonical." The mystery is 
 easy to be unfolded. Had they 
 descended to particulars, they must 
 have contradicted some of their 
 chief brethren. But now, as to the 
 words, " As they are commonly re- 
 eeined," &c. I ask. By whom? By the 
 Church of Mome? l4en, by the same 
 reason, we must receive several books 
 of the Old Testament which they 
 reject. Or do they mean " as com- 
 monlyreceived by Lutherans?" Then 
 with Lutherans they must discard 
 some books of the New Testament. 
 If it be the greater or less number of 
 voices that must ray up or cry down 
 the canott rf Scripture, our Homan 
 
 canon will preponderate; and, among 
 Protestants, the certainty of their 
 faith must be reduced to an uncer- 
 tain controversy of fact — ^namely, 
 whether the number of those who 
 reject or of those who receive such 
 and such Scriptures be greater. 
 Their faith must alter according to 
 years and days. When Luther first 
 appeared, he and his disciples were 
 the greater number of that new 
 church ; and so this claim {of being 
 commonly received) stood in their 
 favour, tin Zuinglius or Calvin grew 
 to some equal or greater number 
 than that of the Lutherans, and 
 then this rule {of commonly received) 
 will canonize their canon against the 
 
 Above all, I desire to know, upon 
 what infallible ground in some books 
 they agree with us against Luther 
 and several principal Lutherans, 
 and in others agree with Luther 
 against us ? Seemg, therefore, that 
 they disagree among themselves, it 
 is evident that they have no certain 
 rule to know the canon of Scripture, 
 in the assigning of which -some of 
 them must of necessity err, because 
 of contradictory propositions, both 
 cannot be true. 
 
 Again, — ^there is no such word as 
 Upevs, my friend says, in the Bible. 
 I showed it him in the Apocalypse, 
 and my friend took particular care 
 to give no answer. I pointed out 
 the word Jepevr there; but, whe- 
 ther it is or not, my friend has it 
 proved to him satisfactorily to night 
 by two Greek lexicographers, that 
 Upevs and XEiroupyos are synony- 
 mous. 
 
 Now, my friend has asserted — 
 and it stands prominently in the 
 little part of our Discussion that is 
 published — he has asserted that 
 Pasoasius Hhadbert, a monk, as he 
 declares, of the ninth •century, in- 
 vented transubstantiation. Let me 
 now call on my friend to put his 
 
6Zi 
 
 KULE OP FAITH. llltAMceaitiff. 
 
 ingenuity on the rack to-night. If 
 Pascasius Rhadbert invented tran- 
 substantiation, let him account for 
 this single fact which I am going to 
 lay before hia eyes. These, my 
 friends, are the words of Gregory, 
 who lived in the siaiA century, 
 before Pascasius Rhadbert was 
 heard of in the ninth. Here is St. 
 Gregory in the sixth century : — 
 
 " Christ is both the verity and 
 figure : the verity, by his body being 
 made of bread ; and the figure, by 
 what outwardly appeareth." — St. 
 Qreg. Pasch. Rom. cvii. vol. ii. 
 
 Yes, my friends, and in this doc- 
 trine all the fathers agree; for, as 
 St. Leo the Great observes (and he 
 fionrished a.d. 440) : — 
 
 " Hoc enim ore sumimus, quod 
 fide oreditur. — For we receive that by. 
 the mouth which is believed by faith." 
 
 And mark, my Mends, Catholics 
 do not deny that the presence of 
 Jesus Christ in the- Eucharist is 
 spiritual, provided it be granted 
 them that it is corporeal as to the 
 substance; that is, in more plain 
 terms, that the body of Jesus Christ 
 is present, but in a divine, super- 
 natwal, incomprehensible manner, 
 which the senses cannot reach or 
 attain to ; spiritual, inasmuch as 
 the mind, alone subject to faith, 
 can know it; and that its end is 
 entirely celestiaL St. Paul has 
 justly called the humanbody, raised 
 from the dead, a spia^itiml body, on 
 account of the qualities it was 
 vested with — divine, supernatural, 
 and above the reach of the senses. 
 With much more reason may the 
 body of our Saviour, placed in the 
 Hucharist after so incomprehensible 
 a manner, be so called, as the illus- 
 trious Bossuet has so beautifully 
 and gloriously proved. 
 
 Buthear the glorious St.Grregory, 
 converter of- this ungrateful island, 
 once more: — 
 - "This victim, or sacrifice, doth 
 
 marvellously deliver a soul fcom 
 eternal destruction, and doth also 
 renew unto us, in a mystery, the 
 death of the Only-Begotten, who, 
 although rising again from the dead, 
 he doth not now die, and death 
 shaU no more triumph over' him ; 
 yet, living in himself immortally and 
 mcorruptibly, is sacrificed again for 
 us in this mysteiy of the holy Sa- 
 crifice ; for his body is received 
 there, his flesh is given for the sal- 
 vation of the people, his blood is 
 now poured out, not iato the hands 
 of the unfaithful, but into the 
 mouths of the faithful. Hence, let 
 us consider what a manner of sacri- 
 fice that is for us, which, at the 
 voice of the priest, doth open the 
 heavens for our absolution. In 
 those mysteries of Christ the com- 
 panies of angels are present, the 
 lowest things are joined in fellow- 
 ship with the highest, earthly things 
 witn heavenly, and of visible and 
 invisible one thing is made." — St. 
 Greg, lib- !• 4th dial. o. 58. 
 
 That, my friends, is precisely the 
 doctrine of transubstantiation in 
 our catechisms at this day ; and 
 yet, forsooth, the Protestant popu- 
 lation of this country is to be im- 
 posed upon by pompons declaimers, 
 and by my learned friend is to be 
 told that Pascasius Rhadbert, an 
 obscure monk of Saxony, was the 
 first inventor of the doctrine of 
 transubstantiation. But, my friends, 
 it would be hard for us to be ob%ed 
 to rest on the sixth century. We 
 spring further ; we take up all the 
 fathers of the Church of successive 
 ages, all vying with one another in 
 using the strongest words to de- 
 clare that it is the real body and 
 blood of our Lord, and that those 
 who take it as mere bread and 
 ■wine have no life within them — no 
 chance of eternal salvation. 
 
 My learned friend states that 
 Gregory disbelieved the Book of 
 
Rev. J. Cuntming.\ eule or paith. 
 
 635 
 
 Maccabees. I deny the vmfounded 
 assertion, 1 acknowledge, that if 
 he read the book as my friend reads 
 it, he might possibly come to such 
 a conclusion. But I must remind 
 my friend, upon this subject, of 
 what St. Jerome, on the twenty- 
 second chapter of Isaiah, and St. 
 Augustine, Eb.xviii.(fe Civit.Bei,cs^. 
 3G, says upon the subject. The 
 ■words are : — 
 
 "Machobseorum Ubros, non Judsei, 
 sed Ecolesia pro canonicis habet." — 
 " The Books of the Maccabees are 
 not held to be canonical by the 
 Jews, but by the Church." 
 
 Now, then, mark ! St. Gregory 
 means precisely the same when he 
 mentions them as not being canon- 
 ical ; that is, they were not canon- 
 ical with the Jews ; but he did not 
 here mean that they were not ca- 
 nonical at all. The Council of 
 Carthage fixed the genuineness of a 
 book in the year 398 ; and, though 
 I am not prepared to say that St. 
 Gregory was bound to beheve them 
 canonical, yet the General Council 
 of Trent has definitively declared 
 these books to be canonical. Your 
 Bible, therefore, is but a detrunca- 
 tion of the sacred volume.' We 
 know that, even in the seventh 
 century, there were some doubts 
 about the Epistle to the Hebrews, 
 which is enumeratad by the Council 
 of Carthage. There were some 
 doubts about it, but it was not a 
 mortal sin to deny the authenticity 
 of it. There were some who did 
 not believe in it, but they were not 
 heretics. But when the Council of 
 Trent, or when any other Council, 
 has once pronounced the apostolicity 
 of a tenet or authenticity of a book, 
 it remains settled. The Council of 
 Nice decided on the divinity of 
 Christ when it was called in ques- 
 tion by Aiianismi — ^they settled it 
 for ever, and yon Protestants bow 
 together with us to its authoritative 
 
 decision. But they did not prove 
 it from the Bible. How did they 
 account for it ? They said — " So we 
 have received it from oar fatners, 
 and from father to father down to 
 us. It is so, undoubtedly, and it 
 is to be collected also," said they, 
 " from the New Testament." 
 
 [The learned gentleman's hour 
 here expired.] 
 
 Eey. J. Gumming. — ^My learned 
 antagonist, justly feeling that, not 
 only in the course of the statements 
 I have orally made, but also ia the 
 printed report of those statements, 
 Transubstantiation runs a risk of 
 being laid in its grave, even in the 
 estimation of its now most strenuous 
 advocates, and that this doctrine is 
 in the greatest jeopardy in the minds 
 especially of hia Roman Catholic 
 fnends, has laboured hard again to 
 set it on its legs, and to deck it out 
 in all the gaudy drapery of Roman 
 Catholic assumption. But I , defy 
 him, after the refutation by which 
 it has been crushed — I defy the 
 Roman Catholic Institute, I defy 
 the whole body of Roman Catholics 
 — ^priests,, bishops, and popes, if even 
 they had the magic powers of the 
 Witch of Endor, to resuscitate that 
 doctrine from its merited grave, and 
 set it before even Roman Catholics 
 whole and intact. He knows the 
 doctrine is done for in every ra- 
 tional and dispassionate mind in 
 this assembly, and therefore he is 
 trying the best he can to reanimate 
 the carcass, and expunge the hie 
 jacet I have indelibly wnt upon its 
 tombstone. But his melbfluent in- 
 cantations are to my hearing nothing 
 more than the requiems my weep- 
 ing opponent chants over its re- 
 mains. He is but a mourner at its 
 miserable funeral. — After his re- 
 marks upon Traiisubstantiation, he 
 went agam to the mass, and also to 
 the meaning of Xeirovpyia. Now,, 
 
636 
 
 RULE or FAITH. Wth Evetiiiiff. 
 
 in two different speeches I have 
 shown that the word Xtirovpyia 
 does not mean "to offer the fjro^j- 
 Uatory sacrifice of the mass." He 
 persists that it does. I showed 
 you that angels in the Bible were 
 called irvevfiaTa \eiTovpyiKa, " mi- 
 nistering spirits," which, according 
 to my opponent's patent interpreta- 
 tion of XeiTovpyiKa, mnst mean 
 that angels offer the propitiatory 
 sacrifice of the mass. I told him 
 also in one of my former speeches, 
 that to kings the same word is ap- 
 plied, and therefore it must be true 
 that they offer propitiatory sacrifice. 
 StiU he persists iu what he knows 
 to be pure nonsense, and demands 
 more arguments. I can only reply, 
 I have given him arguments, but I 
 cannot give him understanding. He 
 went back also to the use of the 
 word Upevi, and he asked me to 
 show that it was not in the New 
 Testament. That it is in the New 
 Testament I deny not ; for all be- 
 lievers as such are called Jfofit. 
 " Tn," says the apostles, (1 Peter 
 ii. 9,) addressing the laity, "ye are 
 a royal priesthood." " He," say 
 the redeemed, the laity, in the Re- 
 velations, "hath made us kings and 
 PEiESTS unto God." Thus, tcpeus 
 is used, but applied to the laity. It 
 is not in any one instance the official 
 designation of a gospel minister. 
 Now let any Roman CathoHo go to 
 his priest and say, "Sir, I am an 
 icpevs, if the Bible be true," and 
 he win find that his "^priest will in- 
 stantly pronounce him an insolent 
 heretic, and tell him be assumes a 
 character to which he has no right. 
 Nevertheless, the Romish priest is 
 the usurper, and the word of God 
 is right when it says of aU. believers, 
 " Ye are a royal priesthood." 
 
 My opponent quoted in the next 
 place, a variety of passages on the 
 meaning of the word sacrifice. We 
 do not disclaim sacrifices. We have 
 
 offerers of sacrifice in our Church. 
 (Rom. xii. 1 .) — "Present yonr bodies 
 living sacrifices unto God." Praise 
 and prayer are called sacrifices — "the 
 sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving." 
 We admit that the word " sacrifice" 
 is fairly and legitimately applied to 
 these, but we deny that there is re- 
 peated a propitiatory sacrifice, or 
 that the priests of the Church' of 
 Rome can offer the body and blood, 
 soul and divinity of Christ, a propi- 
 tiatory sacrifice as it is offered in 
 the mass at the Roman Cathoho 
 pseudo-altars. — ^My antagonist then 
 endeavoured to show you that I 
 merely quoted proofs of persecution, 
 but not on the part of the Church 
 of Rome, or any other, but ordy of in- 
 dividuals whose names I gave, — thus 
 never excusing his Church without 
 destroying her pretences to unity. 
 Now I quoted the massacre of St. 
 Bartholomew, not for the sake of 
 the dreadful enormities by which it 
 was characterized, but to show you 
 how kings and cardinals of the Ro- 
 man Catholic Church, and the Pope 
 himself, the professed vicar of 
 Christ, looked upon that bloody 
 massacre. The statement which! 
 made was, that the Pope was re- 
 joiced at the spectacle, and that he 
 sent a cardinal to congratulate the 
 king, and thus gave the dreadful 
 butchery his imprimatur. I quoted 
 this massacre, not by any means for 
 the sake of recapitulating its hor- 
 rors, but of showmg you the precise 
 feeling entertained by the Church 
 of Rome on the extermination of 
 heretics ; and more especially, that 
 if God would not have chosen such 
 men as Luther to reform the Church, 
 still less would he have chosen such 
 men as Pius V. to defend the 
 Church. 
 
 My opponent denies that a medal 
 was struck. 
 
 Mr. Peench. — I do. 
 
 Rev. J. CiraniaNG. — ^I have seen 
 
Rev. J. Cumming.\ utile op faith. 
 
 the fao-simile of it, and I only can 
 say, in order to make your denial 
 good, that you must cast Pleury, 
 the most celebrated ecclesiastical 
 historian, oyerboard, with the rest 
 of the doctors, and my senses too. 
 
 gjau^.] He oasts from him every 
 storian who obstructs the march 
 of his rhetoric. He has flung Dupin 
 and Bossuet and Baronius to the 
 wind, and now stands magnificent 
 and alone, amid the ruins of history, 
 and theology, and doctors, the un- 
 daunted advocate of his Church. If 
 Mr. French will not take the 
 authority of his own Church, I 
 cannot help it. I, however, shall 
 be satisfied with such authority, 
 and this audience will be satisfied 
 also : — 
 
 " Gregory Xm. only regarding 
 the good which he thought hkely to 
 result from this to the Catholic re- 
 ligion in Erance, ordered a proces- 
 sion, in which he himself joined, 
 from the church of St. Peter's to 
 the church of St. Lewis, to return 
 /thanks to God for so happy a result ; 
 and, to perpetuate the memory of 
 this event, he caused several medals 
 to be struck, wherein he himself is 
 represented on the one side, and on 
 the other side an angel carrying a 
 cross in one hand and a swora in 
 the other, exterminating the here- 
 tics, and more particularly the ad- 
 miral. In Spain, the same deed 
 was panegyrized in the presence of 
 KingPhflip II., and they dared to 
 call it the triumph of the Church 
 Militant." — Meiiry's IBcclesiastical 
 History, vol, xxiii. book 170, p. 567. 
 Printed at Nismes, 1780. 
 
 Where now is my opponent's 
 denial ? Is the Papal Apostasy so 
 destitute of defence that she must 
 quench the lights of literature — ^the 
 annalists of the Church, and the 
 historians of the world, before she 
 can inaintain her proud and impe- 
 rious pretensions ? 
 
 637 
 
 Mr. Peench [interrupting].-^ 
 Will you let me see that ? 
 
 Rev. J. CtTMMiNG. — Certainly. 
 " Fleury's Ecclesiastical 'History, 
 vol. xxiii. page 557." Por a per- 
 fect picture of the whole transac- 
 tion, as weE as other traits of 
 Pius V. I refer also to his " Life 
 and Pontificate," ably drawn by the 
 Eev. J. Mendham — a work of pro- 
 found research. 
 
 My opponent's next remark had 
 some reference to Calvm. He re- 
 ferred to the fact, that Calvin sanc- 
 tioned the burning of Servetus at 
 the stake. I do not deny historical 
 facts. It is true, but how is this 
 to be explained ? I repeat to Mr. 
 French, what he seems '^low to 
 learn, that Calvin came out of the 
 bosom of a Church where such 
 things were as common as they 
 were canonical ;^pnd, not being soon 
 enough disinfected of the contagion 
 of murderous principles, he became 
 accessary to the awful deed to which 
 allusion has been made. 
 
 Calvin, however, is neither pope, 
 nor law, nor precedent, to me. The 
 Bible alone is my B,ule of Faith, 
 and on it such murderous deeds 
 cannot be fastened by any art, or in 
 any shape ; but the sanguinary deed 
 to which I referred, can be fastened 
 as a millstone about the neck of the 
 Church of Home, being done by 
 a Church that is semper eadem, in- 
 fallible from first to last, and 'by 
 the express sanction of its Rule of 
 Faith, and never abjured or re- 
 pented of. 
 
 Again, he quoted Knox recom- 
 mending idolaters to be put to 
 death. Now Knox was a priest of 
 the Church of Rome ; he had been 
 thoroughly imbued with the doc- 
 trines of persecution, and it was 
 not to be expected that he would 
 come forth perfectly untainted from 
 the atrocious councils of Gregory 
 xm., or get rid at once of the old 
 
63S 
 
 HUM) OF FAITH. 
 
 {llii Esemnq. 
 
 leaven unless by special miracle. 
 Even if these hackneyed charges te 
 true, and some of them are not, yet 
 our Rule of Paith condemns the 
 conduct of Calvin and Knox in. these 
 
 Eoiuts, and in its condemnation we 
 eartily concur. 
 
 With respect to Pope Pius V., 
 who originated the massacre of St. 
 Bartholomew, the interesting ques- 
 tion is. As we Protestants condemn 
 consistently the errors of Calvin 
 and CJranmer, how does the Church 
 of Rome look at the murders of her 
 past Listoiy in the present day? 
 This is the moat vital question, you 
 observe. Every Protestant in this 
 room stands up and deprecates and 
 condemns the misguided views of 
 Calvin ; but how does the Church 
 of Rome look at the conduct of 
 Pope Pius v., who originated the 
 massacre of St. Bartholomew f You 
 shall have the judgment of modern 
 Roman Catholics, from their own 
 Missal: — 
 
 " O God, who wast pleased to 
 choose blessed Pius, chief bishop, 
 to crush the enemies of thy Church, 
 and repair the Divine ■worsnip, grant 
 us to be defended by his protection, 
 and so to adhere to thy command- 
 ments, that, overcomii^ all the 
 snares of enemies, we may rejoice 
 in perpetual peace."— J&sa/e, p. 
 584, May 11. 
 
 Thus, Roman Catholics, you are 
 taHght lessons of blo9d in the very 
 heart of youi devotions. You are 
 led to look up to, hear, and imitate 
 1 man, who, to extinguish truth and 
 elevate the despotism of a supersti- 
 tious hierarchy, was ready to wade 
 through seas of blood. 
 
 Pope Pius V. is here recorded as 
 a distmguished saint ! 1 and a prayer 
 is offered up that blessings may de- 
 scend on you through the interces- 
 sion of liirn who had heart to crush 
 the bodies when' he could not crush 
 the arguments and faith of the 
 
 saints. This saint (! !) is the man 
 who originated the massacre of St. 
 Bartholomew ; whose memory is 
 cherished in the Missal, your public 
 liturgy, over which, if scriptural, 
 only mercy and truth ought to meet 
 together, and righteousness and 
 peace to kiss each other. 
 
 The Church of Rome is inde- 
 fensible. That hoary mother of cyil 
 is the worst client the learned gen- 
 tleman ever had to deal with. In 
 the course of his most earnest de- 
 fences, she lets out secrets that 
 show her counsel does not believe 
 what he pleads. 
 
 He stated that these remarks, 
 which referred to raoofs of the cor- 
 ruption of the Roman Catholic 
 system, were not authorized by au- 
 thentic documents. This is gratui- 
 tous assertion. I quoted them, as 
 he knows, from the authentic and 
 accredited documents of his Church. 
 In respect to relics, he himsetf 
 knows that the Creed of Pope 
 Pius I¥. holds that the relics of 
 saints are to be venerated, a doc* 
 trine also which is universally incul- 
 cated by his Church in her different 
 catechisms. 
 
 He then quoted the circumstance 
 of some person's bidding 100^. for 
 a remnant of Johanna Southcote 
 and others. Nothing is more com- 
 mon than for antiquaries to offer 
 large sums of money for such rare 
 thijngs. An auctioneer eulogizing a 
 fragment of Johanna to vertuosos, 
 and a PorE canonizing and com- 
 mending to the veneration of the 
 faithful the rich catalogues of relics 
 I read to you, are, in a Roman Catho- 
 lic's judgment, not exactly parallel. 
 
 The usual false statement was 
 next made, that certain books of the 
 Bible had been lost. My reply is. 
 What became of liie infallibilily of 
 the Church in all ages which suf- 
 fered these books to be lost ? What 
 says the infallible Church in defence 
 
Rev. J. Oumming.l utile of faith. 
 
 639 
 
 of her fallible conduct? Drowsy 
 
 fuardian! Did she drop them, or 
 um them P What were her popes 
 doing P Were they sleeping, or 
 busy in reading the legends of the 
 monks, while they suffered the books 
 of the Bible to be lost P But once 
 more let me repeat, I deny the truth 
 of this charge, and I call upon him 
 to prove that any part of the saored 
 canon has oeen lost. I call upon 
 him to prove that the lost books were 
 inspired. He knows that he cannot. 
 He can neither prove they were 
 inspired, nor prove that they were 
 part of the sacred canon. He sup- 
 posed that because the book of 
 Jasher is mentioned in the Bible, 
 that it is part of the sacred canon. 
 This proves too much. The Greek 
 poet Epimenides is mentioned by 
 the Apostle Paul : the poet Aretus 
 is also quoted to illustrate an argu- 
 ment ; but it does not follow that 
 either is part of the saored canon. 
 
 He next refers to certain passages 
 in the Psalms, which he says are 
 wanting in our Bible. Now I think 
 he win repent that he directed me 
 to it, after you have heard the follow- 
 ing statement. In the first place, 
 the way in which the Church of 
 Borne arrived at this extraordinary 
 conclusion, that our version has left 
 out certain verses in one of the 
 Psalms, is this : — The Apostle Paul, 
 in his Epistle to the Romans, quotes 
 several verses from two distinct 
 Psalms. The Papal Church in her 
 infaUible wisdom judges that because 
 the Apostle quotes all these verses 
 in one chapter, therefore they must 
 be in one Psalm. The Apostle, 
 however, quoted different Psalms, 
 . and embodied them in three or four 
 successive verses, or in one conti- 
 nuous passage or argument. 
 
 And in fact, when I refer to the 
 Psalm to which he has -aUuded, 
 namely, the 13th in his (the Douay) 
 Bible, what do you think is the case? 
 
 The Church of Rome, conscious 
 of her fallibility, gives us the third 
 verse of the Psalm just as it occurs 
 in our authorized version. She then 
 interlards three verses without num- 
 bers, as if standing mementos of 
 her'tampering ; and after these three 
 unnumbered verses she gives the 
 fourth verse, with the numeral 4, 
 as m ourlranslation. 
 
 In the Hebrew these supplement- 
 ary verses are of course wanting. 
 
 If there is a Hebrew scholar in 
 the room, let him look at this He- 
 brew Bible, and see if I am not 
 right. 
 
 Mr. Fkench.— In the Septuagint 
 they are. 
 
 Rev. J. CuMMiire. — They are not 
 in the Hebrew. I presume you do 
 not deny that Hebrew is the ori-' 
 ginal tongue in which the Old Tes- 
 tament was written. Now this is 
 another specimen of the mistakes 
 of my feamed antagonist. He 
 charges the Protestant Church ieith 
 subtracting from the Bible, and it 
 turns out it is onh/ the Romish Chwrch 
 adding to the Bible. Ex uno disce 
 omnes. [Laughter.] The next re- 
 mark which he made was about 
 CkiBingworth retaining tradition. ' 
 My reply for the hundredth time is, 
 that whatever Chillingworth or any 
 other person may do, it does not at 
 all affect our Rule of Paith. 
 
 He next referred to the fathers, 
 and said that they all agreed in fun- 
 damentals. Now Mr. French icnows 
 that St. Cyprian maintains that all 
 the aposues were equaL Now 
 observe what is involved in this. It 
 implies that thePope is not supreme. 
 He states that the Pope is the head 
 of his church, and yet one of his 
 own fathers broadly denies this 
 statement. My opponent has only 
 to refer to my extracts, to see that 
 the fathers are tolerably unanimous 
 against Popery at least. 
 
 At least one illustrious father 
 
640 
 
 RULE OP FAITH. 
 
 flltt Eoemnff. 
 
 declares by fair implication, if not 
 actually, that the Pope has no more 
 business to usurp the supremacy over 
 other bishops, than he has to usurp 
 it over sailors, soldiers, and kings. 
 My opponent blazes away about 
 victory, knomng well he is wrong 
 all- the while. Gregory the Great, 
 to whom I have referred, has ex- 
 pressly asserted that he who should 
 assume the name of universal bishop 
 would himself be the forerunner of 
 Antichrist ; and not only that, but 
 this same Gregory states that the 
 books of Maccabees are not canon- 
 ical, while also, in the present Pope's 
 opinion and in Mr. Trench's, tney 
 are canonical. Now how he can 
 reconcile these two I do not know. 
 Rather than admit the fathers' 
 contradictions, he wiU call black 
 white. In reference to the supre- 
 macy of Peter, I will just give you 
 one extract from the fathers : — 
 
 Cypriar^a Prefatory Address to the 
 Bishops at the Council of Car- 
 thage. 
 
 " No one of us has set himself 
 up as the bishop of bishops, or has 
 driven by tyrannical fear his col- 
 leagues to the necessity of obeying 
 him ; since every bishop has his own 
 will for the exercise of his liberty 
 and power, and can no more be 
 judged by another than he can 
 judge another." — Sentence of eighty- 
 seven Bishops in the Council of Car- 
 thage. Labbe and Cossarte' s Councils 
 vol. i. p. 786. 
 
 " The other apostles were, the 
 same as Peter, endowed with an 
 equal fellowship of honour and 
 power; but the beginning pro- 
 ceeded from unity, that the Church 
 of Christ might be shown to be 
 one." — Unity of the Church, p. 10. 
 
 The Church of Kome holds now 
 that the priest judicially pardons 
 sins, i.e. as God pardons it. Augus- 
 tine and Jerome, as my extracts 
 
 last evening prove, agree with the 
 Protestant Church, and the Church 
 of England specially, and hold that 
 the minister absolves beclaba- 
 TivBLT, which is a momentous dis- 
 tinction. The priest assumes, in 
 giving a judicial absolution, the 
 office of God : the Protestant mi- 
 nister, iu giving a declarative, the 
 office of a servant. This seems to 
 be the main substance of my antar 
 gonist's remarks. There is, by the 
 bye, some excuse for Pope Gregory 
 the Great for denying the bowc of 
 Maccabees to be canonical, as really 
 the canon which declares the Apo- 
 crypha inspired was not settled by a 
 general council till many centuries 
 afterwards. The canon of the 
 Romish Church was settled just 
 1500 years after the birth.of Christ, 
 that is, only 900 years after Gregoiy 
 the Great. Now what was the 
 Romish Church about aU this time? 
 Was she dead or asleep P Am? 
 how came this pope in the sixth 
 century thus to break up the 
 assumed unity by differiM on a 
 doctrine of faith, and ^aud contra- 
 dicted, audibly and openly, by a 
 general council in the 16th century ? 
 Stupid fellow that he was, why did 
 he not hold his tongue? Here, 
 however, is a pope saymg'one thing, 
 and a council the very opposite; 
 and, what is yet more wonderful 
 still, here is a member of the 
 Romish Institute in the 19 th cen- 
 tury persisting they are unanimous : 
 one half of her fallibiKty fighting 
 against the other half. The popes 
 and cardinals of the Romish Church 
 are like the cats of Kilkenny, that 
 fought till nothing but their tails 
 were left. 
 
 Now, then, look at the two Rules 
 of Paith. The Protestant Church 
 holds the Bible, and the Bible alone, 
 to be the Rule of Paitli — a rule 
 Mr. French has not touched. The 
 Roman CathoUo Church. holds the 
 
Tiev. J. Cuniming.'] 
 
 EtTLE OP FAITH. 
 
 641 
 
 Bible and unwiitten tradition, and 
 these two expounded by the Church, 
 portions of which are of yesterday, 
 to be the B-ule of Faith ;■ and the 
 last two I have annihilated. AH 
 my opponent attempts is to- repeat 
 his stale and a hundred times 
 refuted objections. Our Hule of 
 Eaith is of apostoho origin; the 
 Exjmish Rule of Paith is an upstart 
 — a modem adoption, which you 
 have seen to be seK-contradictory 
 when reduced to its heterogeneous 
 elements by the application of Scrip- 
 ture and common sense — two tests 
 a Romanist hates. Our Rule of 
 Faith recogniseS' as infinite and all- 
 suilioient one sacrifice for sins once 
 for aU ; the Roman CathoUc Rule 
 of Faith has many sacrifices, which 
 cannot take away sin. Again, our 
 rule, the word of God, sealed eigh- 
 teen centuries ago, says, "' One 
 priest with an intransmissible priest- 
 hood." The Roman Cathohc has 
 successive priests or many priests, 
 who impiously arrogate the exclus- 
 ive attribute of Christ. The Apo- 
 stoHcal Church by oui Rule of Faith 
 has one breaking of bread. The 
 Roman OathoHos, according to their 
 Rule of Faith, break no Mead at 
 all : it ceases to be bread, and 
 becomes flesh. The Apostolical 
 Church, by our Rule of Faith, says, 
 " Ye shall not bow down to any 
 graven thing." The Roman Catho- 
 Ecs, according to their Rule of Faith, 
 say, " Ye shcdl bow down to a graven 
 thmg." We have but one Mediator, 
 all-perfect and aU-glorious for inter- 
 cession as forredemption — they have 
 many mediators. The Bible tells us 
 that "bodily exercise," or penance, 
 "profiteth little ;" the Church of 
 Rome says it profits much. The 
 Bible says, " Scripture is profitable 
 for all ;" the Church of Rome says, 
 " Byno means ; for, if generally read, 
 it is productive of more evil than 
 good." The Bible says, " Prove all 
 
 things;" the Church of -Rome says. 
 " Prove nothing, but take every- 
 thing the ChurSi says for infaUime 
 truth." The Bible says, " Try the 
 spirits whether they be of God;" 
 the Chureh of Rome says, " Do 
 not try any of them, but believe 
 ah." The word of God says, "A 
 bishop, must be the husband of 
 one wife : " . the Church of Rome 
 says, "he must be the husband of 
 none." The- Bible says, "The 
 wages of sin is death, and he 
 that breaks the law in one poiut 
 is guilty of aU;" the Church of 
 Rome says, " that venial sins do 
 not break charity between God and 
 man, much less between man and 
 God." The Bible says, " that the 
 steaHng an apple, or eating the 
 forbidden fruit. Drought death iuto 
 the world and all our woe;" the 
 Church of Rome says, that " the 
 stealing of an apple or a pin does 
 not break charity between man and 
 God, much less between God and 
 man." The Bible says, " The blood 
 of Christ oleanseth from all sin;" the 
 Church of Rome says, " Purgatory 
 must bum out those sins which the 
 blood of Christ cannot cleanse." 
 The Bible says, "The love of God 
 is the fulfiHmg of the law;" the 
 Roman Cathohc Church says, and 
 Mr. French agrees with it, " that 
 the fear of hell, with confession, is 
 perfectly suficient for salvation, 
 wiihont one atom of the love of 
 God." Again the Bible says, " Mar- 
 riage is honourable among all men ;" 
 but the Church of Rome says " it 
 is not honourable among priests." 
 Our Rule of Faith — and I might 
 quote many more iostances — secures 
 to us the possession of all these 
 beautiful tmths. The Roman Ca- 
 tholic Rule of Faith leads to the 
 confession of sentiments, and the 
 adoption of principles, diametrically 
 at war with the oracles of God. 
 Our rule makes men saints ; theirs 
 
6(t2 
 
 BULB OV PAITH. {lltA ^emuff. 
 
 must make men demons. Our rule 
 gives glory to God; tieirs would 
 spoil tie Eternal of his attributes 
 and honour. Our rule makes the 
 wildemess as Eden ; their rule has 
 made it a wide-spread Aceldama. 
 The Bible guides souls to glory and 
 honour; Tradition yields them a 
 lurid light that leads its many Tio- 
 tims by a broad way to ruin. 
 
 AH Scripture proves it is your 
 duty and nght to read the Bible. I 
 quote John v. 39 : — " Search the 
 Scriptures, for in them ye think ye 
 have eternal Hfe." I quote again 
 JDeui eronomy vi. 6, 7, 8, 9 : — 
 " These words which I commajid 
 thee this day shall be in thine heart, 
 and thou shalt teach them diligently 
 to 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 shafl. be as 
 frontlets between thine eyes, and 
 thou shalt write them upon the posts 
 of thine house, and on thy gates." 
 " 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." 
 
 Again, 2 Peter i. 19 — " We have 
 also a more sure word of pro- 
 phecy, whereunto ye do well to take 
 need." But the pretended suc- 
 cessor of Peter says, " Te do iU to 
 read the Soriptures." 
 
 Again, Joshua i. 8 — " The book 
 of the law shall not depart out 
 of thy mouth, but thou shalt me- 
 ditate therein day and night, that 
 thou mayest observe to do accord- 
 ing to all that is written therein." 
 
 This was addressed to the gene- 
 ral of an army, you observe. Again, 
 we read of the prime minister of 
 Candace, Queen of Ethiopia, that 
 in his chariot, and toTelling, before 
 he became a Christian, he read the 
 
 Scriptures. He searohed for truth 
 in the Scriptures. 
 
 Again, Acts xvii. 11 — " These 
 were more noble than, those of Thes- 
 salonica ; in that they received the 
 word with aU readiness of mind, 
 and searched the Scriptures daily 
 whether these things were so." 
 
 Second Epistle of Timothy; iii. 
 15. — "Erom a child thou hast 
 known the Soriptures." 
 
 Again, St. James addresses his 
 Epistle, not to bishops and priests 
 only, but to the twelve tribes scat- 
 tered abroad. 
 
 St. Peter addresses his Eirst 
 Epistle to those scattered through- 
 out Pontus, Asia, Pamphylia, &c. 
 
 Again, St. John says, " I write 
 to fathers, to young men, and chil- 
 dren." Thus, my Roman Catholic 
 auditors, the Bible is addressed to 
 you, and your priests have no right 
 to iaterdict it ; amd the same apo- 
 stle, in his Second Epistle, writes 
 to am " elect lady." 
 
 ^hese are plain homely truths, 
 but I presume my opponent wiH 
 meet these and other arguments in 
 the way in which Roman Catholics 
 meet what they cannot refute, — by 
 
 ii the next place, let me show 
 you the sufficiency of Scripture. It 
 proclaims its own sufficiency [hold- 
 ing up the Bible]. "To the law 
 and to the testimony ! if they 
 speak not according to that, it is 
 because there is no light in them." 
 It is, therefore, the sole arbiter of 
 truth, and if sufficient, there is no 
 need of tradition. 
 
 Again, 2 Chron. xxxiv. 29, (or 
 in the Eoman Catholic version 
 Paralipomenon) : — 
 
 "And he," that is, Josiah thes 
 king, " called together all the an- 
 cients of Judah and Jerusalem, and 
 went up to the house of the Lord, 
 and all the men of Judah, and the 
 inhabitants of Jerusalem, the priests 
 
Rev. J. 
 
 KULE OE FAITH. 
 
 64? 
 
 and the Levites, and all the people 
 from the least to the greatest. And 
 the king read in their hearing in the 
 house of the Lord all the words of 
 tue book. And standing up in his 
 tribunal, he made a covenant before 
 the Lord to .walk after him, and 
 keep his commandments, and testi- 
 monies, and justifications, with all 
 his heart, and with aU his soul, and 
 to do the things that were written in 
 that look which he had read. And 
 he adjured all that were found in 
 Jerusalem and Benjamin to do the 
 same; and the inhabitants of Jeru- 
 salem did according to the covenant 
 of the Lord the God of their fathers. 
 And Josias took amay all the abo- 
 minations out of all the countries of 
 the children of Israel; and made 
 all that were left in Israel to serve 
 the Jjord their God. As long as he 
 Avedthey departed not from the Lord 
 the God of their fathers." 
 
 Aa;ain, Luke xvi. 29. — " They 
 have Moses and the prophets, let 
 them hear them." The rich man 
 in hell begged that a special mes- 
 senger might be sent to earth to 
 lead his brethren, but the reply is, 
 that " if they hear not Moses and 
 the prophets, neither would they 
 believe if one rose from the dead." 
 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 these 
 things were so ; therefore many of 
 them believed." 
 
 Thus, the Bereans tried the 
 preaching of an apostle by our 
 Rule of TPaith. Our blessed Lord 
 refuted every error, conflrmed every 
 statement, impressed every doctrine, 
 with our Eule of Faith alone. " It 
 is vreitten," " How readest thou ?" 
 were his constant appeals. 
 
 The Scribes and Pharisees were 
 the forefathers of the priests of the 
 Church of B.ome. Tradition was a 
 
 part of their Rule of Faith. Oin- 
 Lord constantly opposed the Scrip- 
 tures to their- tradition. In other 
 words, our blessed and adorable 
 Saviour sealed and sanctioned the 
 Protestant Rule, and reprobated 
 and condemned the Romish Rule. 
 Tradition is denounced in Scripture 
 as the proMo mother of heresy, 
 superstition, and idolatry. The Bible 
 is exalted in Scripture as the only, 
 the all-sufficient rule bf faith and 
 practice. 
 
 My opponent quoted that text of 
 Malaohi — "The priest's lips shall 
 keep knowledge ; for he is the mes- 
 senger of the Lord of Hosts ;" but, 
 according to his convenient 'custom, 
 forgot to quote the verse which 
 immediately fojlows : — " But ye 
 (priests) are departed out of the 
 way, ye have caused many to stum- 
 ble." This shows that the preced- 
 ing text is not a prophecy or pro- 
 mise, because it is not fulfilled ; but 
 a declaration of duty. It is a most 
 immaterial thing, whether we trans- 
 late it should or shall. " Thuu 
 shouldst not steal" is every whit as 
 prohibitory of theft as our Protes- 
 tant rendering, " Thou shalt not 
 steal." There is no diiference in 
 fact. 
 
 My opponent's attempts to ex- 
 plain away his blunders had better 
 have been suppressed. Bad apo- 
 logies and Emping explanations 
 make matters worse. The papacy 
 is done for, in the minds of many 
 of my opponent's followers. The 
 priests who came with Mm hav 
 already deserted him as bad counsel, 
 and who knows but they may 
 have retired to cleave to our Rule 
 of Paith, and to cast to the 
 moles and bats the rubbish of the 
 Romish Apostasy ! Priests, how- 
 ever, have shown themselves falli- 
 ble in every age. Aaron, the high 
 priest, fell into idolatiy : were the 
 Jews, therefore, excusable in fol- 
 
C44 
 
 StTLE OF FAITH. IIM Evemttff. 
 
 lowing him ? Urijah, a priest, en- 
 joyed unbroken snccession from 
 Aaron ; but was he right in iiitro- 
 uciug idolatty iato the temple ? 
 Th Scribes and Pharisees sat in 
 Moses' chair, and yet rejected the 
 Son God. The Pope sits as the 
 man o sin in the temple of God ; 
 are w therefore to foUow him? 
 God forbid. Hear the Apostle in 
 Galatians i. 8 — "Though we, or an 
 angel from heaven, preach any other 
 gospel unto you, let him be ac- 
 cursed." 
 
 " Prove aU things, hold fast that 
 which is good." — I'kess. i. 31. 
 
 " Believe not every spirit, but 
 try the spirits whether they are of 
 God, because many false prophets 
 are going out iato the world." — 
 1 Joha iv. 1. It is emphatically 
 true of the Papacy. 
 
 " Thus saith the'Lord of Hosts, 
 Hearken not unto the words of the 
 prophets that prophesy unto you — 
 they speak a version of their own 
 heart. — Jeremiah xxiii. 16. 
 
 How awfully priests err, we see 
 in the followmg fact : — The high 
 priest at the commencement of the 
 Christian history — a priest of unin- 
 terrupted succession — pronounced 
 that the Son of God had spoken 
 blasphemy; and are the priests of 
 the Chuich of Kome so secure in 
 their vapid boast of infallibility that 
 such a result might not follow now, 
 as then in their case ? I believe that 
 if the Son of God were to appear 
 on earth, the Church of Rome would 
 shout, " Crucify him, crucify him." 
 I certainly do hold, that the Pope 
 is indeed the successor of Peter in 
 one respect — ^namely, that he denies 
 his Lord and Master; but not Peter's 
 uccessor in another respect, inas- 
 much as he neither retracts nor 
 repents. Be not deceived, dear 
 friends, with the quibbles of school- 
 men. Go afresh to the fountain of 
 tnjth. I repeat, " Though an angel 
 
 from heaven should descend and 
 preach any other gospel than that 
 ye have received, let him be ac- 
 cursed." Ponder prayerfully the 
 numerous texts I have quoted, to 
 which my opponent as usual wiH 
 not attempt a reply. Every solid 
 argument ne either skips over or 
 calls a calumny. These texts, I say, 
 demonstrate that you have a right 
 indisputable from heaven to peruse 
 the Scriptures, and to search whe- 
 ther what ye hear be so or not. 
 Secondly/, these texts prove that the 
 Scriptmes, by their own declaration, 
 are a fuH and sufficient Rule of 
 Faith without the aid of tradition. 
 And, thirdly, the Scriptures prove 
 that you are not so to pin your faith 
 to those who profess to sit in the 
 chair of Mflses or of Peter, and who 
 proclaim themselves to be invested 
 with the attributes of infallibility, 
 as to believe implicitly what they 
 say; but, contrariwise, you are to 
 bring aU the declarations of your 
 Church, all the jprofessions of your 
 priests, and all the teaching of 
 your doctors, to the above standard 
 whereto Protestants bring theirs — 
 " to the law and to the testimony." 
 All it condemns — and it condemns 
 every doctrine peculiar to the Church 
 of Rome — ^is heresy ; all it applauds 
 is sweet and precious as the living 
 bread. 
 
 In drawing my remarks to a close 
 upon this subject, let me state that 
 Mr. Prench has magniloquently de- 
 spised one portion of sacred evi- 
 dence, the most beautiful, and the 
 most universally important, viz. the 
 internal. He has said he defies me 
 to show that the Bible proves itself 
 to be the word of God. Now, the 
 apostle tells us, that "the things 
 vvhich are seen" do manifest the 
 power of the Godhead which created 
 them, and that the creation itself 
 shows in its every line blazoned on 
 its bright brow, that the hand which 
 
Bev. J. Cummint/.] 
 
 RULE OP TAITH. 
 
 61.5 
 
 made it is Divine. And I do, iifor- 
 tiori, maintain that the second and 
 better creation, the revelation or 
 word of God, bears yet more lumin- 
 ously within it the stamp and im- 
 press of its own inspiration and 
 divinity. But rememoer, this is 
 but one portion of the evidence. 
 We have external evidence, evi- 
 dence from prophecy, from miracles, 
 from history. Internal evidence is 
 but one portion of that volujnirious 
 evidence by which we may prove 
 this blessed book to have God for 
 its author, truth for its matter, and 
 happiness for its issue. But I hold 
 there is a branch of Christiau evi- 
 dence stiU left, which ought to be, 
 alluded to ; on which I would not 
 expatiate at length, in dealing with 
 Roman Catholics, since the husks 
 they feed on from the lips of their 
 priests, render it impossible that 
 they should be able to estimate or 
 even understand it. I mean the 
 experimental. Suppose you go into 
 some of the glens and valleys of 
 my native land, and ask the pious 
 patriarch and gray-haired peasant 
 by what process he came to believe 
 that this Dook was the book of God : 
 — ^he never read the evidence of a 
 Butler, he never perused the dis- 
 quisitions of a Chalmers, he never 
 saw the discourses of a Paley — ^the 
 only books he has on his shelf are 
 those of experimental and practical 
 divinity, such as " Baxter's Saints' 
 Kest," "Howe's Living Temple," 
 or "Mavel," and such Uke. How 
 comes it then that he hol9s the 
 Bible to be the word of God ? If 
 you were to ask, " Is it by tradi- 
 tion?" he would say, " My Bible 
 tells me that these traditions and 
 commandments of men I am to 
 spurn away from me as unscriptural 
 and unholy." Then you say, " How 
 came you to know this book to be 
 the book of God ?" " Know it !" he 
 would reply, " I know it as truly to 
 
 be so as I know that the sun shines 
 in the sky. I have felt it in my 
 heart to be the power of God. 
 Through its instrumentality my 
 heart of stone ha^ been broken, 
 my bleeding conscience has been 
 staunched, my fainting heart has 
 been sustained. My fears of death 
 have been removed by its teaching, 
 my sure hopes of glory have been 
 generated by its promises. I from 
 it have a peace that passeth under- 
 standing in aU my tribulation, both 
 for the nresent and the future. 
 ' When r walk through the vaUey 
 of the shadow of death, I shall fear 
 no evU, because thou art with me, 
 thy rod and thy staff comfort me.' " 
 I vnU illustrate my meaning. 
 Suppose you were reduced to the 
 extremest weakness by some dis- 
 ease or fever. The physician comes 
 to you (and this vnll show you the 
 threefold evidence of the Bible in 
 its best hgtt) and prescribes you 
 to take two glasses of port wine 
 every day at twelve o'clock. Sup- 
 pose after six weeks, on 'your get- 
 ting perfectly convalescent, a friend 
 comes to you and says — "You have 
 not been drinking port wine ; you 
 have been drinking ditch-water all 
 the while.'' You are perfectly as- 
 tonished. You resolve, however, 
 to convince him that it is port vrine. 
 You naturally, first of aU, go to the 
 wine-merchant. He tells you — 
 " My agent saw the vineyard, and 
 the grapes when they were on the 
 vine; he saw them in the wine- 
 press; saw the wine made; saw 
 it bottled; he accompanied it to 
 London and placed it upon your 
 table, and he can certify that it is 
 port wine, and not, as you suppose, 
 ditch-water." That is external evi- 
 dence. Another test is, however, 
 capable of being employed. You 
 go next to the chemist, and he 
 appUes to it all the usual and satis- 
 factory chemical tests, and he comes 
 
H6 
 
 KULE OF FAITH. [lltt &emng. 
 
 to the oonolusion, after trying it, 
 and proving and testing it, that it 
 is what it is professed to be — fine 
 port wine. This is the internal evi- 
 dence. Yon add, in the next place, 
 your own testimony. When I was 
 weak it made me strong ; when I 
 had no health it restored it to me. 
 T know that it is port wine ; I feel 
 its tonic and invigorating power, 
 and all the philosophy and logic in 
 the universe cannot convince me it 
 is ditch-water and not port wine. 
 Now, this last is a specimen of the 
 way in which the Christian reaches 
 the fact, that the Bible is, as it 
 claims to be, the book of God. He 
 has felt within him its transforming 
 power ; it has exerted its influence 
 upon Ms conscience and his heart ; 
 and, secure amid impregnable evi- 
 dence, he smiles at the onset of 
 the Socialist and the sophistries of 
 his fellow-labourer, the Romanist. 
 Never does the glory of the Bible 
 so shine forth as when it flashes its 
 bright beams on the abominations, 
 and corruptions, and superstitions 
 of the Romish Apostasy. 
 
 It has been alleged oy my oppo- 
 nent, that the Scriptures cannot be 
 understood by the poor and illite- 
 rate man. May we not suppose 
 the Son of God at least as able to 
 speak clearly as the Pope ? May we 
 not believe the Epistle of St. Paul 
 to the Romans, to be as clear as 
 the encychcal letter of that Mary- 
 worshipperi Pope Gregory XVI. ? 
 If we misunderstand apostles, /I 
 should say, judging from the spe- 
 cimens I have seen, we are more 
 likely to misunderstand Romish 
 priests. We Protestants, too, have 
 an infallible authority; Christ has 
 promised that he will give his Hoty 
 Spirit to them that ask him. " If 
 ve, being evil, know how to give 
 good gifts unto your children, how 
 much more shall your heavenly 
 ¥ather give the Spirit unto them 
 
 that ask him!" The promise res- 
 pecting Ltim is, that he will guide us 
 into all truth ; and we maintain that 
 the result of the last three centuries 
 is, that Christians have been guided 
 into all substantia, and fundamental 
 truth. I know that if you sit down 
 and peruse the Bible with the mere 
 dry hght of philosophy and of rea- 
 son, you cannot ftdly imderstand 
 it ; but then I do equally maintain 
 that, when the promised and prayed- 
 for hght of the Holy Spirit of God 
 illuminates the sacred page, or 
 rather, fills the faculties of the 
 reader, you understand and see all 
 necessary truths more clearly. 
 
 The reason that we do not under^ 
 stand Scripture more entirely is, 
 that we all retain too much Popery 
 in our practices ; we go too mucn 
 to human exposition, instead' of 
 seeking the aid of the only inerrant 
 teacher, the Spirit of God. A Ro- 
 man Cathohc is one who leans on 
 traditions, on priests, and on that 
 mass of corruption and apostasy 
 called the Church. A Protestant is 
 one who avails himself of the aids 
 of history, investigation, learning, 
 and experience, but leans on the 
 Holy Spirit only for sure guidance. 
 The priests of the Church of Rome 
 dread the idea that there is an in- 
 fallible teacher besides that impious 
 mimic of infallibility called the Pope. 
 The Socinian openly denies the Holy 
 Spirit — the Church of Rome prac- 
 tically despises him. It is possible 
 to understand the letter of Scripture 
 by unaided power, but you cannot 
 savingly feel its power unless by 
 Divine aid; and nothing can be 
 more scriptural and natural than 
 this statement. Suppose you go 
 into the neighbourhood of Windsor 
 during a moonlight evening, you 
 look at the broad and lovely land- 
 scape that lies around that magnifi- 
 cent castle. You observe by the 
 dusky light of the moon the blend- 
 
Rev. J. Oumming.'\ ruee op ifAiTH. 
 
 647 
 
 ing and shadowy outlines of fke 
 landscape, but tae landscape itself 
 you see very indistinctly. The mean- 
 dering streams make audible music, 
 but their courses you cannot trace ; 
 the tints and colours of the flowers 
 are there, but so softened and sub- 
 dued by the moonbeam light that 
 you cannot distrngmsh them ; oaks, 
 , a,nd elms, and firs are there, but the 
 light is not intense enough to allow 
 you to discriminate and distinguish. 
 But if you return to that landscape 
 at mid-day, after the sun has as- 
 cended the meridian, you wUl then 
 see every lineament ia all its far- 
 stretching wiadingSj-'-every stream, 
 as before, eloquent with music, 
 but visible throughout all its mean- 
 derings ; you will see every flower 
 with its distinctive lines; every 
 blossom in its native tiats; and 
 the whole panorama wfll expand its 
 beauties to the mind, distinct, and 
 clear, and rich in just magnificence 
 and beauty. So it is with the 
 word of God. If I refer to this 
 book by the moonlight ray of reason 
 — ^by the dim light of human com- 
 mentators, or by the help of whole 
 conclaves of infaUible doctors, it 
 win all appear a mystery and a rid- 
 dle ; but if I refer to it under the 
 light of that glorious "Sun of 
 ifighteousness " that shines in the 
 firmament of heaven, then aU its 
 precious truths wiU. stand forth in 
 distinct relief, significant of glory 
 yet to be revealed, and depositing 
 its germs and hopes in the heart 
 that opens to receive them ; and so 
 truly will your souls be satisfied, 
 that you will turn away with un- 
 utterable disgust from the insolent 
 pretensions and soul-murdering he- 
 resies of the Romish church. [Sen- 
 sation.] 
 
 Now mark what our Rule of 
 Paith has achieved for us ; and, 
 though my opponent has the last 
 speech, and I no power of showing 
 
 up its whims as I have done with 
 others, yet I defy him to shake our 
 victories gained in this room. In 
 the first place, it has enabled us l\ 
 drive away that ferocious Cerberus, 
 the Pope, who would watch and 
 keep us from the pure fountains and 
 living streams of revelation, and has 
 opened to us an uninterrupted and 
 unbroken pathway to its treasures, 
 enabling the thirsty and hard-worked 
 wayfaring man to read the glorious 
 inscriptidn, and reading to obey it 
 — " Ho ! every one that thirsteth, 
 come ye to the waters, and he that 
 hath no money, come, buy wine and 
 milk without money and without 
 price." This is a privilege worthy 
 of the blood of any Frotestant mar- 
 tyr. Rome had too long placed an 
 extinguisher upon the oracles of 
 God. She had too long placed a 
 bushel over the lamps of the holy 
 place. Our forefathers, by God's 
 grace, broke it to atoms ; and upon 
 its ruins, which I have exposed and 
 scattered again and again, I invite 
 you to come without any opposition, 
 without any impediment, to the 
 word of God. I would bring your 
 minds at once within the soxmd of 
 your Saviour's voice, your attention 
 to the perusal of your Saviour's 
 letters, and your hearts to a fami- 
 liarity with the S'pirit of your 
 Saviour's doctrine. The Church of 
 Rome has theoretically received 
 tradition as an equal to revelation. 
 But the practical effect of this is, 
 that tradition is all and Scripture is 
 nothing. If I place tradition on 
 the left and the Bible on the right, 
 by-and-by we shaR learn to sympa- 
 thize with the one of these two that 
 is congenial to our fallen hearts : 
 that one is tradition, and the result 
 wiU be that you wiU ultimately 
 cleave io tradition and forsake the 
 woid of God. " No man can serve 
 two masters." If a man holds tra- 
 diticm and the Bible both as hia 
 
64.8 
 
 govemmg rule (knowing what the 
 numan heart is), he wifl cleave ^to 
 tradition and despise the Bible. 
 
 In the next place, our Rule of 
 i'aith batters the assumptions of 
 the Mass to atoms; and, raised upon 
 its ruins, as I trust you have seen 
 its ruius spread upon this platform, 
 our blessed Bible proclaims in loud 
 and extermiaating accents, " By one 
 oPEBRiifG he hath perfected for ever 
 them that are sanctified." Our 
 Rule of Eaith easts Transubstantia- 
 tion to the moles and to the bats, 
 showing that this horrible tenet was 
 concocted ia some dark age, bearing 
 for its date the niuth centuiyr— a 
 fact which cannot be gainsayed by 
 aU the logic of my learned and 
 deeply-to-be-pitied antagonist. Our 
 Rule of Paith at once annihilates 
 the Invocation of Saints, and shows 
 that it is a specious theory, and an 
 idolatrous practice. It tells you, in 
 acceints piercing and impressive, 
 that you may not, must not, blend 
 the tears of Mary with the blood of 
 Jesus, or the rags of saints with 
 the righteousness of God. It teUs 
 you to turn your backs upon saints, 
 and angels, and archangels, and to 
 rest your eye upon one single ob- 
 ject — ^but that object, how glorious ! 
 how sufficient ! " Behold the Lamb 
 of God that taketh away the sins of 
 the world." My dear Roman Ca- 
 thoKc friends, as you value your 
 never-dying souls, as you desire an 
 eternal heaven, in all time of your 
 wealth, in all time of your tribula- 
 tion, in the hour of death, and in 
 the day of judgment, look to Christ, 
 and to Christ only, as your .only 
 altar, priest, and sacrifice, all at once. 
 
 Our Rule of Saith in the next 
 place breats up Purgatory, and dis- 
 sipates its deep delusion for ever. 
 It shows it to be but a crafty device 
 to torture men's consciences with 
 fear, and to fill the pockets of the 
 priests with money, and to rob man 
 
 KULB or PAITH. [lltk Eveuiiiy. 
 
 of his peace, society of its property, 
 and God of his glory ! Our Rule of 
 Taith tells you of the true Purga- 
 tory, the only Purgatory, the all- 
 sufficient Purgatory, that Pountain 
 for aU sin and for all sinners ; and 
 in its own blessed words announces 
 to maa — everyman — thatPurgatory 
 fuU of peace — of joy — of hobnesss, 
 "The blood as Jestjs cleauses 
 
 TKOM AIL sin" — ^ALL SIN. Our 
 
 Rule of Paith destroys and repro- 
 bates the mediation and intercession 
 of those who would stand between 
 you and Christ. It tells you to go 
 to Christ alone, and not to Peter, or 
 Mary, or John; and proclaims in 
 its own ever-impressive accents, 
 " There is but one Mebiatob. be- 
 tween God and man (Mediator of 
 intercession as well as of redemp- 
 tion, as the context shows), the man 
 Christ Jesus." " If any man sin, 
 we have an advocate vrith the 
 Pather, Jesus Christ the righteous." 
 These, then, are the legitimate 
 effects of our Rule of Paith. I trust 
 you have, as Protestants, seen often 
 m this room the glory, and fulness, 
 and sufficiency of the Bible, clearly 
 if not- eloquently displayed. I know 
 for certain you have been most 
 deeply convinced, seeing what a 
 poor and miserable defence one of 
 the most acute and strenuous Ro- 
 manists has made. 
 
 Before I sit down I may.observe, 
 my opponent will pursue his wonted 
 erratic course. He vriU give quota- 
 tions from Calvin, Luther, &c. 
 which never had an existence, and 
 which are concocted by Roman 
 CathoKcs only ; he will boast like a 
 Hector, and inform you of victory, 
 as you could not othervrise know it ; 
 he win repeat what I have a hun- 
 dred times refuted. Believe no- 
 thing he says unless he proves it. 
 Do not take his mystification for 
 argument — his noise about logic for 
 reasoning— his long, and, as I will 
 
Rev. J. Oumming.'] uule of paith. 
 
 649 
 
 sliow, ■utitruesii.i&iR&cAs aboatLutlier 
 and Calvin, which, even if true, only 
 condemn' the apostasy in ■which they 
 learned their persecuting notions. 
 
 I rejoice that many most respect- 
 able and influential Romm Catholics 
 have renounced, the Church of Home 
 since this discussion began. I ex- 
 pect more. You cannot stand the 
 full blaze of the glorious Gospel 
 falling on the idolatry and soul- 
 ruining superstitions of vonrGhnrch. 
 Protestant churches and chapels are 
 already better filled in Hammer- 
 smith. I do not wonder at it. The 
 Papacy and its defenders vidU boast 
 on till the day that the Son of God 
 consumes Babylon by the bright- 
 ness of his advent. Pride, self- 
 sufficiency, and self-righteousness 
 are the peculiar inheritance of the' 
 Pope, and descend to all beneath 
 him. 
 
 How great, Protestants and Eo- 
 man Catholics, is the contrast pre- 
 sented between the two Churches ! 
 Behold the Apostate Church point- 
 ing your attention to rehcs, to a 
 flour-and-water God, to angels and 
 to saints, and beseeching you to 
 look to and to hope through Mary, 
 and declaring Christ approachable 
 throngh Mary's intercession only. 
 Behold the other Church, telling 
 you to treat saints with the names 
 of saints, with the honour that be- 
 longs to them ; but in your course to 
 eternity to trouble them not, but to 
 rivet your eye exclusively uponHim 
 " who is able to save you even to 
 the uttermost." Behold the Apo- 
 state Church offering up many times 
 the same soi-iisant propitiatory 
 sacrifice, which can never take 
 away sin, deceiving and deceived. 
 Behold the Protestant Church point- 
 ing to the o^ca-for-all Sacrifice, 
 offered up once for all for the sins 
 of the world. Behold the Apostate 
 Church placing priests, and popes, 
 and a superstitious hierarchy be- 
 
 tween the sinner and his God;, and 
 the other declaring that if an angel 
 from heaven or a spirit from hell 
 were to stand between you and the* 
 Lord Jesus Christj that angel or 
 spirit is accursed. Behold the 
 Apostate Church sanctioning and 
 waging' persecution, drunk vrith the 
 blood of saints, whose chosen Wea- 
 pons are the faggot and the flame, 
 and, to keep rn'order ever near and 
 dear, recording in her Missal special 
 prayers' in honour of the murderous 
 Pope Pius v., and the idolater and 
 persecutor, Aquinas ; and behold 
 the other Church deploring the 
 least rag of the popish garments 
 retainedoy a Calvin, and mourning 
 over the remaining leaven of the 
 papacytoo long held Dy Knox; and by 
 the memory of the past, and by the 
 testimony of God, calling upon men. 
 to abandon all broken cisterns, and 
 have recourse only to' those living 
 streams' where mercy and truth meet 
 together, and righteousness and 
 peaoehave kissed each other. Look, 
 then, on' one picture, and look upon 
 the other, and I am sure, as I have 
 already done, I shall again look 
 upon more of my ingenuous Roman 
 Cathohc auditors addressing to our 
 Church, what was addressed to an 
 ancient representative of truth in 
 the word of God — "Where thou 
 
 foest I wiUgo ; where thou walkest 
 win walk ; thy people shaJl be my 
 people, and thy God my God." 
 
 I stand this day before you as the 
 herald of theEtemal, andladjureyou, 
 my Roman Catholic friends, to rise 
 with Abraham of old from the land and 
 habits of idolatry, and to come forth 
 like the patriarch, at God's bidding, 
 to a far better land, which the word 
 of God most clearly shows you. Do 
 not halt. 5e men. God prosper 
 the holy of purpose ! Eemam not in 
 the tombs of Rome's chamel house. 
 Like Lazarus of old, come forth 
 from the grave, and, at the bidding 
 y 3 
 
650 
 
 aULE OP PAITH. 
 
 [IIW 'Emning^, 
 
 of the Saviour, throw off the bands 
 and napkins of corruption in which 
 for centuries you. have slept. Hear 
 ye not the trumpet cry, "Come 
 forth?" Leave the mephitic va- 
 pours of tradition, for the sweets of 
 pure air and untainted truth. Be 
 slaves no more. They only are 
 freemen whom the truth of God 
 makes free^ and all are slaves be- 
 sides. The Angel of the Everlasting 
 Covenant, that ordered Peter to 
 come forth from the prison in which 
 the wicked Herod iad placed him, 
 calls in awful and in piercing accents 
 to you, captives and prisoners of 
 Antichrist, bondsmen of Satan — 
 " Come out, that ye partake not of 
 her sins, and receive not of her 
 plagues." I call on you to come 
 forth — you who, like Samson on the 
 lap of Delilah, have so long, and so 
 disastrously slumbered, till ye. have 
 been shorn of your moral strength, 
 deprived of your privUegesy and de- 
 nuded of your most precious birth- 
 right ; and rest assured that He who 
 says, "Come out of her, my peo- 
 ple, and partake not of her sios, and 
 receive not of her plagues," vrill 
 give you strength to be faithful 
 even unto death. The Bible, our 
 Rule of Faith, like the "star which 
 guided the magi to the manger of 
 the Son of God, will guide you as 
 that star guided them, ujtil it brings 
 you to the feet of Jestis. The great 
 Angel of the Covenant has descended 
 into this better than Bethesda's 
 stream ; and now it comes to pass, 
 that whoever drinks of the waters 
 of this life shall thirst agaiti, but 
 whosoever shall drink of the water 
 that Christ shall give him shall 
 never thirst. I implore you, then, 
 by all that is awful ia death and 
 glorious iu life, as you value your 
 souls, to bear in mind that you will 
 have to answer at the judgment- 
 seat for what you have heard in this 
 room. The very bricks of these 
 
 walls will rise at the voice of Grod 
 and testify against you, if you shut 
 your eyes to God's most solemn 
 truths; the very planks, of this 
 building, quickened by Divinepower, 
 will rise up and reclaim against you 
 as witnesses. But I expect better 
 things. I know there is a power in 
 this Grospel over your hearts and 
 your consciences, that ye wiU not, 
 that ye dare not withstand. The 
 Spirit of God will not suffer his 
 word to return to him void. I am 
 sure that yet many more of you 
 win be brought out of that vessel 
 which was bmlt in the storm-blast, 
 amid the eoKpse of reason, revelation, 
 and conscience, — which, shattered 
 and open in every part, leaks fear- 
 fully, Mid sinks inch by inch into 
 the fathomless abyss of everlasting 
 and ever-burning wrath, — and look 
 around you for the true ark, and 
 leave the Papacy as a lightning- 
 struck and dismantled vessel. It 
 creaks and labours even now ; awful 
 tempests of wrath are already re- 
 vealed fromheaven against it. Come, 
 my friends and feUow-sinners, not to 
 this or that party, not> to Calvin or 
 Cranmer, but to that great and 
 glorious Ark, — God manifest in the 
 flesh, — which wiU bear you through 
 the difficulties, turmoils, trialsj and_ 
 sorrows of this present evil world," 
 many and severe even to the rich 
 and the wealthy, and yet more dis- 
 tressing to the poor and needy, — 
 and will land you, not like the aric of 
 Noah on the barren crags of Ararat, 
 to look forth upon a world depopu- 
 lated and dismantled, but amid 
 the stiil waters of perpetual peace, 
 and beside the everlasting hils of 
 the heavenly Jerusalem, even in 
 the bosom of your Father and my 
 Father, of your God and my God. 
 [Strong sensation, and cries of 
 " Order."] 
 
 [The reverend gentleman's hour 
 here terminated.] 
 
Mr. French.'] 
 
 ETJLE OF SAIIH. 
 
 651 
 
 Mr. l^NCH. — My reverend op- 
 ponent has been leading you for a 
 long time past through "flowery 
 meads" of meandering oratory; 
 but I, my friends, shall take the 
 liberty of conducting you, in my 
 turn, into the realms of plain, simple, 
 unadorned logic. The track, indeed, 
 which I intend to pursue, will not 
 admit of that glittering confusion of 
 ideas, that veraose mania, by which 
 reason in this assembly has been so 
 long tortured in the last dying 
 speech of my beautifully metapho- 
 rical, but sadly unargumentative 
 opponent. It cannot escape your 
 sagacity, my respected auditors, 
 that we have been regaled by my 
 reverend antagonist this evening 
 with a sermon which I have now 
 heard repeated twice eleven times ; 
 and I firmly beKeve there are ladies 
 and gentlemen in this room' — ^fre- 
 quenters of his chapel I mean, who 
 have heard that identical sermon 
 issuing forth from that same tem- 
 
 Eestuous, torrent-pouring mouth at 
 sast two hundred times. [Laughter,.] 
 What effect this, ladies and gen- 
 tlemen, may have produced upon 
 your minds, I know not ; but as to 
 me, I 'must candidly confess that it 
 has, for lacik of anything like argu- 
 ment, which might keep me awaie, 
 wearied and dissipated attention, 
 even unto drowsiness. However, 
 my friends, being now in good 
 earnest and thoroughly awake, nay, 
 exhilarated, ifj'Imayuse the ex- 
 pression, after my little refreshing 
 nap — [laughter] — I shall go im- 
 mediately to serious matter ; and I 
 promise, my friends, I shall pro- 
 pound that matter, in a manner 
 very different from that which has 
 been resorted to by my learned 
 antagonist. I shall make use of 
 plain, unstudied, unaffected lan- 
 guage ; not speaiking to your pas- 
 sions, but speaking to your under- 
 standings and your judgment. But 
 
 I before I come to that solid matter, 
 that tangible, consecutive reasoning 
 which I have in store, and which I 
 intend to offer as a kind of compen- 
 sation _ for the time that has been 
 so tediously wasted this evening, I 
 shall beg lea^e to employ a few 
 moments in refuting an assertion 
 made by my reverend opponent in 
 his concluding address; namely, thai 
 we heme lost nothing of an indis- 
 putably impirei nature. This was 
 kid down by my reverend friend in 
 his usual confident and peremptory 
 manner ; but listen, my Protestant 
 friends, to the argument by which 
 I refute his position most triumph- 
 antly, _ and then, I exclaim, &; una 
 disce omnes ; that is, from this one 
 involuntaiy blunder, or voluntary 
 error, of my learned antagonist; call 
 it which you will, learn the faUaoy 
 of all his positions in general. I 
 ■call, then, my learned friend's atten- 
 tion to the fourth chapter of St. 
 Paul to the Colossians : — 
 
 " And when tliis epistle is read 
 among you, cause that it be read also 
 in the Church of the Laodiceans ; 
 and that ye likewise read the epistle 
 from Laodicea," chap. iv. ver. 16. 
 
 Now I want to know if thai 
 _ isHe has outlived the ruins of 
 tune? If not, something' inspired 
 has undoubtedly been lost; and 
 thou, eonfidentissime jmvenis, my 
 reverend antagonist, must remain 
 confuted and confounded. — And 
 now, gentlemen, to discuss the sub- 
 ject without the flowers of oratory, 
 and to rivet, if I can, the attention 
 of my audience to a regularly con- 
 nected chain of logical deduction, 
 I must beg leave to reoal to your 
 minds an observation made by the 
 learned gentleman, and which! left 
 untouched, the time having elapsed, 
 some evenings ago. The learned 
 gentleman told you that your Church 
 (the Protestant Church) was ,our 
 'Church with- its face washed. fA 
 
652 
 
 EULE OF FAITH. 
 
 \l\th Aeninff. 
 
 laagh.J This has been often re- 
 peated, and I read to you a piece of 
 ;poetry, if you recollect, containing 
 my answer to the grave-faced bishop 
 who had endearoured to seduce one 
 oi our flock by that very cogent 
 argument; namely, that it was a 
 much better washed Church than 
 ours ; in fact, that it was precisely 
 the same — [laughter] — save and 
 except that its walls were much 
 more clean. I suppose he meant 
 more new. [A laugh.] Now the 
 position which I am going to take 
 this evening I shall defend most 
 valiantly. It is one which is not 
 my own, though I shaU. illustrate 
 it in my own manner, and, I hope, 
 as extemporaneously as my ever- 
 fluently extemporizing friend: Pro- 
 testants must either _ grant that the 
 Catholic Church was the visible 
 Church; or name some other disagree- 
 ing from it, and, agreeing mih Pro- 
 testants in their peculiaf doctrines, 
 in every age previom to the Pefor- 
 mation; orachnmledge that there was 
 no visible Church. Now it will be 
 impossible for you, my friends, how- 
 ever eager you may be to hear and 
 understand, it wiU be impossible for 
 you to follow me in the fast maimer 
 m which I wish to lead you along, 
 unless you attend very particularly 
 to that proposition; and I shall 
 therefore repeat it once more : — 
 Protestants must either grant that 
 the Church of Rome was the visible 
 Church; or name some other dis- 
 agreeing from it, and agreeiug with 
 Protestants in their particular doc- 
 tnnes, no matter whether Anabap- 
 tists, Quakers, or Calvinists ; or you 
 and they mi;st acknowledge there 
 was no visible Church. Here, my 
 friends, is the great dilemma, the 
 great, the momentously great sub- 
 ject ; and I hope siacerely, and con- 
 fidently trust, with the assistance 
 of God upon my labours, which I 
 always implore before I enter on 
 
 disputation, to put, this evening, 
 an extinguisher on aR the pomp 
 and glory of my friend's "mean- 
 dering" oration. [Tittering.] 
 
 This, my friends, was the impreg- 
 nable position of a Catholic theolo- 
 gian more than a century ago. It 
 gave rise to some little perplexily 
 when it was first enforced upon the 
 attention of Protestants ; and CMl- 
 lingworth, " the most acute logician 
 of all England," as he has been fre- 
 quently called by his fond admirers, 
 animated by their encouragements, 
 stepped into the field of polemics 
 with aU the strength and confidence 
 of a Goliath, to destroy it. Now, 
 my friends, let us examine calmly 
 and impartially in what manner the 
 m%hty Ohillingworth executed this 
 most arduous task that could possi- 
 bly be undertaken (mark my words) 
 by a sincere believer in Christianity, 
 — ^in the profession, I mean, of the 
 Gospel. . I must read to you his 
 words alluding to this great question. 
 "We acknowledge," says ChiUing- 
 wori\ " a Church there was, cor- 
 rupted indeed universally, yet such 
 a one as, by God's gracious accept- 
 ance, was still a Church." 
 
 Such, forsooth, was the ingenious 
 mode of reasoning' adopted by "the 
 acute" ChiUing^orth m answer to 
 this puzzling question ! — This was 
 the mode, I say, gentlemen, which 
 Ohillingworth, m order to overturn 
 the proposition of the above-stated 
 Catholic theologiaft, adopted ! — 
 This,, ray friends, was the envenomed 
 arrow aimed by the arm of that re- 
 renowned Goliath, Ohillingworth, 
 against the champion of immortal 
 Catholicity! and which, like all 
 other weapons levelled against us 
 by the adversary, would rebound 
 most violently, could it. but reach 
 its intended mark, on the vera- 
 city of the Gospel itself. Yes, 
 my friends, the New Testament 
 itself is no more, whatever mav 
 
Mr. French.'] rule op iaith. 
 
 65S 
 
 be the triiimpli of tne Deist when 
 the concession is made to him — 
 the New Testament is no more, if 
 the Catholic Chnrch, the grand 
 voucher of its authenticity, ever, if 
 at any one period of its existence, 
 became universally corrupted. Nay, 
 I as a Catholic candidly confess to 
 you, I have reason to suspect the 
 correctness of Scripture, if it be 
 once admitted as a dogma of Chris- 
 tianity, that " the temple of the 
 living God," as the apostle aptly 
 calls the Church, ever became in 
 any one age of its existence univers- 
 ally corrupted. I find St. Augus- 
 tine, who wrote in the fourth cen- 
 tury, exclaiming, "Evan^elio non 
 crederem, nisi me ecclesise Catho- 
 licse commoveret auotoritas!" That 
 is, " I would not believe in the 
 Gospel itself, unless I were per- 
 suaded so to do by the authority of 
 the Catholic Church." Now, Chris- 
 tians, I contend, (if the universal 
 corruption of the Church be once 
 admitted) would be well entitled 
 to exclaim, if I may latinize my 
 thoughts after the model of St. 
 Augustine's phraseology, " Evan- 
 geho ipsi non credam, quia me 
 commovere non .potest corrwpta 
 eeclesiee auctoritas." That is, my 
 friends, " I wiU not admit the ge- 
 nuineness of the Gospel, because 
 the authority of a Church univer- 
 sally corrv§teA is insufficient to 
 Eersuade me." That Church, my 
 •lends, mark you, ever kept from 
 the earliest ages the said Testament 
 in its fostenng bosom; it is by 
 her tradition that I know what 
 books are genuine, and what apo- 
 cryphal. Prove to me I say, once 
 prove to me — ^I do not mean by the 
 wild roar of fanaticism, but by the 
 voice of calm, sensible reasonmg — 
 that that sacred depositary of the 
 inspired volume ever -became uni- 
 versally corrupted, and I will readily 
 concede, that instead of being the 
 
 child of heaven, as I firmly beheve 
 it to be, it is but the offsprmg of an 
 eaith-bom inspiration, and conse- 
 quently doomed in its due season, 
 hke all other earthly products, to 
 moulder and decay. Thus, there 
 fore, it is, my friends, that the 
 renowned Chillingworth fights the 
 battles of Protestantism, by furnish- 
 ing arms to the Deist wherewith to 
 batter down the whole fabric of 
 Christianity. To prove my words, 
 let us open this book, which this 
 " universally corrupted" mother has 
 transmitted to her children. I 
 call my friends' attention to Mat- 
 thew xvi. 18 : — 
 
 " And I say unto thee, that thou 
 art Peter; and upon this rock I 
 will build Ts,-^ cWoh; and the 
 gates of hell shall not prevail 
 against it." 
 
 Now, when Chillingworth con- 
 tends that the OathoKc Church, 
 thus founded by Christ on a rock, 
 was " universally corrupted," what 
 more cogent argument could he 
 possibly have advanced, as regaids 
 the inspiration of the Bible, against 
 its dami to veracity, and that too 
 in opposition to the prediction of 
 its Divine Inspirer, " that the gates 
 of heU shall not prevail agaiast it ?" 
 How could he enable the Deist 
 more powerfully to prevail against 
 it, and ' draw down upon it his 
 bitterest ridicule ? " Alas ! alas I" 
 might the antagonist of Christianity 
 have exclaimed, " Alas for the 
 strength of this boasted, this im- 
 pregnable rock; this rock, which 
 the Christian himself acknowledges 
 to be a rock of ' universal corrup- 
 tion.' Its chief prop, namely, the 
 Holy Ghost, according to Scripture, 
 is to be with it always, even to the 
 end of the world ; and yet its inte- 
 grity is no more ; it is ' universally 
 corrupted P" 
 
 the mass of ccaruption is not 
 destitute of its wonted inspirer, 
 
654 
 
 according to ChiUiagwoTth (for he 
 professes to believe in the promise 
 of our Saviour never to desert it) ; 
 and yet it is not preserved, even 
 with this omnipotent aid, from the 
 forbidden triumph of the gates of 
 hell ! Or does ChiJlinffworth mean 
 to contend — for, as he is one of the 
 "most acute" logicians of all Eng- 
 land, I must pay some deference 
 to him — does ChiUingworth mean 
 to contend that the CathoUo Church 
 was stfll the true Church of God, 
 even when the Spirit that had 
 hovered over it for ages had winged 
 away its flight for ever ? Oh ! what 
 an uncommon charm must not the 
 name of ChiUingworth possess — 
 how deeply must his fond admirers 
 be impressed with a sense of his 
 superior wisdom — to mention such 
 an illogical deduction! To a com- 
 mon apprehension, unversed in the 
 subtleties of artificial argument, 
 the whole affair reduces itself to 
 this : Either the Spirit that was "to 
 be with it always, even unto the 
 end of the world" was with it when 
 the Reformation arose, changing 
 many of its essential fundamental 
 doctrines ; or the same Spirit having 
 deserted it, it began gradually to 
 moulder and decay. Now, on such 
 a supposition — namely, that the 
 Spirit no longer abode with it — 
 it is worth while for the Protestant 
 to inquire what became of the 
 prediction of the Grospel, where 
 we find in large, legible characters, 
 that the Holy Ghost was to be 
 with it " always, even, nnto the 
 end of the world." No man, my 
 friends, who listens attentively to 
 such a train of reasoning, wiU be dis- 
 incbned to concede to ChiUingworth 
 and his followers — no Catholic, I 
 say, wiU be unwilling to concede 
 to them, that if " universal corrup-> 
 tion" at any one period of time 
 actually overspread the temple of 
 the living God, his Spirit must 
 
 KULE OF PAITH. \l\th&emng. 
 
 necessarily have departed from it ; 
 and that all truth could no longer 
 continue to flow from that fountain 
 which, in itself, was all corruption. 
 Yes ! on such a supposition, then, I 
 . win concede to him^ most unhesitat- 
 iogly, that the house of God, 
 which, in the language of Paul, is 
 " the Church of the living God — 
 the pillar and ground of the truth" 
 — ^that the Church, I say, thus de- 
 scribed by St. Paul is but an illu- 
 sive phantom, decked, indeed, by 
 the apostle with all the glory of 
 metaphor, but destitute of one 
 shadow of reality. "We must, there- 
 fore, necessarily take it for granted, 
 that the founders of the Protestant 
 Church reasoned in this manner, 
 when they applied themselves to 
 establish a new Church, in order 
 to supersede the necessity any longer 
 for the corrupted existence of the 
 old one. That Church, therefore, 
 having most demonstrably failed, 
 according to Protestants, how, my 
 friends, can the Bible stand ? But 
 no; "the Catholic Church," says 
 ChiUingworth, their mighty cham- 
 pion, " the Catholic Church, though 
 universally corrupted, was yet such 
 a one as, by God's gracious accept- 
 ance, was still a Chureh." 
 
 Now, gentlemen, if it was a 
 Church, and if ChiUingworth can 
 name no other Church then in ex- 
 istence agreeing in tenets witft his 
 own Church, it must necessarUy 
 have been the Church ; and being the 
 Church, could it, my friends, I ask, 
 teach falsehood ? Being the Church, 
 of which God has said, " If ye neg- 
 lect to hear the Church, ye shall be 
 as an heathen man or publican," 
 how, let me ask, could a man neg- 
 lect to hear it when it taught the 
 doctrine of .Transubtantiation, with- 
 out being considered by it as a 
 heathen man and publican ? In vain 
 you say that it taught falsehood and 
 error. If the Holy Ghost was " with 
 
Mr. French.\ 
 
 RULE OF FAITH. 
 
 655 
 
 it" it could not teaeh error ; if the 
 Holy Ghost was absent from it, 
 there was assuredly no Church at 
 aU, and the Gospel is subverted by 
 these predictions, having manifestly 
 failed in their due accomplishment. 
 Let the Deist, when contending 
 with the Protestant, deeply read in 
 the New Testament — let him but 
 commit to memory that verse above 
 stated, and the Protestant is instant- 
 aneously put to silence; he may 
 troan under the weight of so pon- 
 erous an argument, but remove it 
 he cannot ; no, it is utterly irre- 
 movable, even with the help of the 
 giant Chillingworth, and that other 
 giant, our Calvinistic orator, Mr. 
 Gumming to boot. Oh ! weigh, 
 then, I beseech you, my friends, the 
 strength of these invincible argu- 
 ments, unadorned with the glarmg 
 flowers of oratory — weigh them, 
 I beseech you, in the scales of 
 equity; ask yourselves this plain 
 question, and be not scandalized 
 while I put it : Is there any alter- 
 native for you, but to become a 
 heathen man or a publican, and, in 
 the language of St. Paul, to cease 
 " looking for the blessed hope of 
 the glorious appearance of the great 
 God, and our Savio'ar Christ ;" — or 
 to take refuge from so blasphemous 
 an assertion, as that of the Church 
 having been " universally corrupt- 
 ed," in her sacred bosom-^to fly, 
 I say, for refuge to the Church of 
 Peter, that unchanged and un- 
 changing " rock," upon which the 
 ^-Church of Christ was buUt — ^bmlt, 
 I say, in eternal defiance of the 
 gates of hell, and consequently in 
 all its works and ways unsusceptible 
 of universal corruption ? 
 
 IrenKus, who hved in a remote 
 Ege of the Church, ia the year 
 177, says, talking of this Church : — 
 " Ubi enim ]?oclesia, ibi et Spi- 
 ritus Dei."— ;W. Iren. MU. Qrabe, 
 lib. ui. p. 266. "Where the Church 
 
 is, there is also the Spirit of God." 
 And in the same chapter the same 
 saint says, in direct opposition 
 to ChUlmgworthT— " Ibi est Spiri- 
 tus Sanctus, arrhabon mcorrupteliiB." 
 "Where the Church is, there is 
 the Holy Ghost-^^^e sure pledge of 
 tineorraptness." 
 
 Agatn, St. John says : " Om fold, 
 me shepherd." 
 
 Now, my friends, where, in the 
 first fifteen -eenturies, was the Pro- 
 testant one fold and one shepherd P 
 Where " the one fold, the one 
 shepherd," were during all that 
 space to be found, we Cathohcs 
 well know. Ay, we know the name 
 of every successive shephetd, since 
 the one sheepfold was first collected 
 by its heavenly Master. But call on 
 Protestants for a similar attestation 
 of their creed — alas! the records 
 are worn out, or undisooverable ; not 
 a vestige of its antiquity remains. 
 The Catholic alone [some whisper- 
 iag amd interruption occurring, the 
 learned gentleman said, " There is 
 such a noise ; it distracts me, so 
 much whispering." Silence re- 
 stored, the learned gentleman oon- 
 tiaued]. The Catholic Chitkch, 
 which alone can prove to you its 
 apostolie descent, cries out with the 
 thundering voice' of overpowering 
 truth, to every sect of Reformers 
 alike, in the language of Tertul- 
 Han : — " Edite origines ecclesiajnim 
 vestrarum." " Show us the origin 
 of your Churches." 
 
 Ifes, and to you, my Pirotestant 
 Mends, of the various sects around 
 me, to each of you I also cry out, 
 " Show us the origin of your 
 Chui'ch." 'Unless you do, we shall 
 never cease to shout out triumph- 
 antly, that vve alone have an iadis- 
 putable title to that sacred inherit- 
 ance, of which ye would fain possess 
 yourselves without any one docu- 
 ment of antiquity to prove your 
 right to it. You cannot f^ow us 
 
656 
 
 KTJIE 01 JAIIH. 
 
 [lltt Evening. 
 
 your " gemts etproavos" "your race, 
 your progenitors" except upon the 
 newly-invented scrolls of modem 
 paper ; whereas the records we boast 
 of have outlived the ruins of time ; 
 ^nd from age to age some glorious 
 doctor of our Church, that can ,be 
 named and pointed out to you in 
 calm, unbroken, r^ular succession, 
 lias, in the face of our opponents, 
 waved them triumphantly in his 
 hands. Ye dare not dispute their 
 authenticity. The sight of them 
 alone is amply sufficient, with- 
 out the help of any other oral 
 argument, in the language of 
 St. Jerome — "Christi adversum 
 hostes CathoKcsB fidei bella bellare." 
 " To fight the battle's of Christ 
 against the enemies of the Catholic 
 Church." 
 
 Yes, you yourself confess it ; I 
 do not mean that my stem unre- 
 lenting Calvinistio ^ opponent will 
 ever confess it — but one more can- 
 did, a man more splendidly elo- 
 quent than all of than (the Calvin- 
 ists) put together, confesses it. 
 " The Church of Home," says 
 Hooker, the eloquent Protestant 
 Hooker, "is no doubt to be con- 
 sidered as a part of the house of 
 God, and we gladly acknowledge 
 them (the Catholics) to be part of 
 the family of Christ." — Bcclesiast. 
 
 Now, I ask — ^for I always prefer 
 logic to oratory — when Hooker ac- 
 knowledges it to be a part of the 
 house of God, a part of the family 
 of Christ, the sole question I would 
 wish to ask is. Is it an ancient part 
 or a modem part ? If it be answered 
 An ancient part,, the consequences 
 that necessarily follow from it is, 
 that it is the true, the trae, whole, 
 indivisibly trae, and ever-existing 
 Church. Christ's seamless garment 
 cannot be torn asunder ; it cannot 
 be rent, or divided into parts. It 
 is bv no means reconcilable to the 
 
 laws of reason, that being the true 
 Church according to-the confession 
 of our adversaries, and consequently 
 beuig invested with the power of 
 pronounciog him who neglects to 
 hear it as a heathen man or a pub- 
 lican, that those can be of the same 
 family — ^those who hear, and those 
 whom she declares to be idolaters. 
 It may be called charity in you, 
 Protestants, to concede to Catholics 
 this kind of kindred with them- 
 selves, but in rational estimation it 
 is too incoherent to bear the test of 
 substantial argument. The Church 
 which they assert to be universally 
 corrupted, although it be the true 
 Church, cannot surely be presided 
 over by the Spirit of Truth, in their 
 eyfl^, especially whilst it holds as 
 one. of its immutable dogmas, that 
 out of the true Church (cases of in- 
 vincible ignorance excepted) there 
 is no salvation. 
 
 " One of these notes," says Chil- 
 lingworth, "iadeed the only note of 
 the trne Mncomtpted Church, is con- 
 formity with antiquity. — I mean the 
 most ancient Church of all, the 
 primitive and apostolic." — ^P. 69. 
 
 Again says ChiUingworth : — " No 
 man thinks this controversy is to 
 be tried by most voices, but by the 
 judgment and testimony of ancient 
 fathers and churches." 
 
 So say we, my friends ; and it is 
 upon this conformity with antiquity 
 that we found our exclusive clMins. 
 We hold unrelinquishably to the 
 words of Christ to Peter — "Feed 
 my lambs, shepherdize my sheep, feed 
 t sheep" — John xxL 15, 16, 17. 
 And the same words were re- 
 peated by the Spirit of God ia the 
 Church to his successor, and to the 
 following successors in the chair of 
 St. Peter. Their names are also to 
 be found in our ancient records — a 
 perpetual succession of duly conse- 
 crated bishops (whose consecration, 
 mark, my fiiends, is not a tale of 
 
-'-r. French.] eum op patth. 
 
 historical imposition, like that of 
 the parsons of the Church of Eng- 
 land) has uniformly poiated out 
 the true flock of Christ, and pre- 
 sided over it. It is, my friends, 
 to this perpetual visibihty of the 
 Church in all ages, that I make my 
 appeal ; for more than eighteen 
 centuries we knew where to find it 
 —but to you, who protest against 
 its overpowering weight, .contrary 
 to aH that is venerable and. true, to 
 you, I say, my sole answer .is, iu 
 .the language of Terttjlian, so many 
 centuries ago — an answer which he 
 gave to those who rose up against 
 Catholicity in those early days — 
 " Edite origines ecclesiarmn ves- 
 trarum." " Show us the origin, of 
 
 657 
 
 It being therefore evident, my 
 friends, that the Church which is 
 pointed out in the Bible to, us, and 
 which Church that book, when we 
 open it, tells us was to be proof 
 against conuption to the end of 
 time, — and therefore could never 
 nave become, in the language of 
 that most inconsequential and flimsy 
 (some of the present company ex- 
 cepted) — [laughter] — of all reason- 
 ers, Chilling worth — could never have 
 become, I say, as he asserts, " uni- 
 versally corrupted," without vio- 
 lating the predictions of the Bible 
 — what remams, my friends, but 
 that, following the suggestions of 
 the Holy Spirit, you hasten to 
 enrol your names among the list of 
 its glorious members P Beheve me, 
 my friends, when you shall have 
 thus acted, you will no longer be 
 ashamed to contract an acquaint- 
 ance with the pages of its raiowned 
 fathers ; you will find, on the con- 
 trary, inexpressible deKght in poring 
 over those truly, those indisputably 
 Catholic pages, that crash in their 
 sublime march the very fundamen- 
 tals of every other sect. And, my 
 friends, when in consequence of this 
 
 advice which I give you, if you 
 should be inclined to follow it, you 
 take up these holy fathers, and be- 
 come familiar with their sentiments, 
 you wi[l_ never cease to wonder at 
 their odious calumniators, who have 
 represented them to you as being 
 the advocates of doctrines which 
 they reprobated with all the power 
 and vigour of their souls, and de- 
 nounced with all the thunder of 
 their eloquence ! 
 
 Again, my Protestant brethren, 
 beheve me, that the books which 
 constitute the Bible, is a subject 
 worthy, on your parts, of the pro- 
 foundest study, and one demanding 
 all seriousness. You heard in the 
 last expiring speech of my learned 
 antagonist, the light, airy, fantastic 
 manner in which he wished to do 
 away with that most important 
 question which I put to him so 
 pointedly, so emphatically; namely. 
 How was it that Almighty God, 
 instead of converting, as he most 
 unquestionably did, aU. nations by 
 the instrumentality of the CathoKc 
 missionaries, accomplishing their 
 grand mission by oral instruction, 
 which acted, in the language of St. 
 Paul, as " the living spirit of Qod on 
 the fleshly/ tables of the heart" — ^how 
 was it, I say, that God Almighty 
 did not send forth the Bible to be 
 of itself the converter of nations ? 
 How happened it that those who 
 actually did convert all nations 
 never propagated the doctrine of 
 Protestantism, that every individual 
 was to interpret that sacred, that 
 recondite treasure of truly celestial 
 learning, according to the gross fa/- 
 culties of his own untutored under- 
 standing, without applying for in- 
 struction to the lips of the- priest, 
 the angel of the Lord- of Hosts? — 
 (Malachi.) 
 
 Again, did you observe the man- 
 ner in which he answered my ques- 
 tion ; namely, If Qod had intended 
 
658 
 
 BULE OP FAITH. [lltt Evening, 
 
 the Bible to be the Rule of Eaith, 
 how is it that he permitted any one 
 particle of it to be irretrievably lost ? 
 How is it that your celebrated bishop 
 of Llandaffwas obliged to confess in 
 his letter, written with the .view of 
 silencing that Protestant-nurtured 
 pest to society, Tom, Payne, that 
 the Epistle to St. Paul from Lao- 
 dicea, which, in the fourth chapter 
 to the Oolossians and sixteenth 
 verse, that apostle commands to be 
 read by the Oolossians, is irrecover- 
 ably lost and buried in oblivion ? 
 Believe me, my friends, the more 
 sedulously and solicitously ye search, 
 the more ye will be convinced that 
 true consistency of doctrine is to be 
 found alone within the precincts of 
 the Catholic Church. Unpropped by 
 the grand testimony of the Catholic 
 Church, ye wUl find, my friends, 
 upon investigation, that the Bible 
 itself has no rational ground whereon 
 to stand — ^nothing of an argumen- 
 tative nature to support it, save and 
 except that which is supplied to it 
 by that deadly antagonist to sound 
 logic, wild and ranting enthusiasm ; 
 in other words, and my learned op- 
 ponent shall supply them, that 
 which is supplied to it hy the ga- 
 thering up of the glorious inspiration ^ 
 of Protestantism. On the other hand, 
 ye win find that, led and disciplined 
 by the living instructress of all ages 
 and aU nations, the Catholic Church, 
 every page, every Hue of that sacred 
 volume teems with evidence of its 
 inspu-ing God, conducted to , it by 
 the ever-sounding voice of tradition, 
 echoed and re-echoed from age to 
 age by its apostolically- ordained 
 ministers ; all within it we shall find 
 to be beautiful consistency and har- 
 monious order, all bright and ra- 
 diant as the sun — without it all is 
 disorder, confusion, and iinpenetra- 
 ble darkness ! Yes, my friends, my 
 respected Protestant friends, wafted 
 fay the breath of tradition, the only 
 
 favouring gale that coiild move it 
 onward, that ever-blessed, ever- 
 heavenly book, the Bible, comes 
 floating majestically down the fuU 
 and uninterrupted tide of time; 
 aimed at, indeed, on the right hand 
 and on the left by the darts of innu- 
 merable heretics at one time, and 
 Deists at another ; but still, thank 
 ■God, as fresh, as vigorous in its 
 course, as pure, as nnmutilated, as 
 entire, as it was the very day when 
 it first issued forth with the stamp 
 of canonicity on its head, from the 
 third Council of Carthage, in the 
 year of our Lord 398 — from the 
 third Council of Carthage, I say, 
 from the hands, tlie venerable hands 
 of the assembled bishops and guar- 
 dians of Christianity, in the year, 
 not 1839, but 398. [Sensation.] _ As 
 to any verification of the inspired 
 volume from the tongues of Pro- 
 testantism, it is in vam to look for 
 it ; they can give no rule to discri- 
 minate inspired writings from those 
 which are apocryphal, but that 
 which is given by the Roman poet, 
 wherein he teaches the method of 
 discriminating good verses from the 
 bad ones, to wit : — 
 
 " Legitimumque sonum digitis callemus et 
 • aure." 
 
 That is, if I may adapt it paraphras- 
 tioaUy to the suDJeot in hand : — 
 
 " A -well-tuned ear is the sole test to know, 
 What sounds are earthly — what of hea- 
 venly flow." 
 
 And now, my friends, you may 
 remember that some evenings ago, 
 my learned antagonist, who has 
 taken great pains ui ransacking 
 every Catholic writer that has said 
 a wortl against ns, came with co- 
 pious extracts from Cardinal Baro- 
 nius, an excellent Catholic, whom 
 my friend ingeniously tries to in- 
 sinuate I threw "overboard," though 
 he (the cardinal) has most decidedly 
 thrown all Calvinists overboard.. 
 My friend endeavoured to persuade 
 
Mr, French.] 
 
 "RTJLE or PAITH. 
 
 650 
 
 you that Cardinal Baronius had 
 actually, acknowledged that the 
 Churcn of God had gone to sleep, 
 and that there was a cessation of 
 aU pure teaching in the Church of 
 God during the tenth century. I 
 took the pains of consulting his 
 work (the work of Baronius), to see 
 if there was any period of time when 
 the Catholic Church did not aboundj 
 and superabound, with bright orna- 
 ments, in point of sanctity and 
 purity of life, of true piety, and 
 exemplary virtue ; and I find his 
 books replete with the names of 
 saints even in the very age when 
 the Pope was bad, and when many 
 of the "caxdiaals were corrupted. I 
 find saints there, such as I will op. 
 pose before the whole world, and 
 liuch as shall put to the blush all 
 the saints of the Covenant, that 
 ramble over your Scotch boasted 
 mountains. [Laughter.] Saints, 
 my friends, in CathoKo annals, such 
 as John Wesley, the father of one 
 of your sects of Methodism, has 
 described, where he says, in his 
 book called " Popery Calmly Con- 
 sidered :" — 
 
 "Several of them, (the Papists) 
 have attained to as high a pitch of 
 sanctity as human nature is capable 
 of arriving at" 
 
 But now, let us listen to Baro- 
 nius, who bursts out at the end of 
 his narrative of the tenth century, 
 into the following eloquent apo- 
 strophe to the reader ! 
 
 " Ita plane contemplari licet Dei 
 eoolesiam hujus miLlenari curriculo 
 circumductam uaius instar diei, in 
 quo ne ad momentum quidem re- 
 liquerit earn sol justitise, Christus, 
 qui sicut ille sol ad hoc creatus est 
 ut prsesit diei, ad hoc factum est 
 VerDumCarOjUtprsesit ecclesiae; sed 
 fortius istud, siquidem dioit, Ccelum 
 et terra transibunt, verba ^utem 
 mea non transibunt. Sive igitur 
 ecclesiam vidisti luce clarescere, isive 
 
 tenebris obscuran, nunquam tamen 
 eandem (si sapis) fuisse dixeris sine 
 Christo ecclesiam, aut sine ecclesia 
 Christum, sed quod sit in Christo 
 semper ecclesia, et in ecclesia Jesus 
 Christus, hen et hodie ipse et in 
 mille SKCula. — Heb. xni." Bavonius, 
 Annates Ueclesiastici, vol. xvi. Luca, 
 p._ 2>'i^.— King's lAbrary, British 
 
 "Thus are we enabled, in one 
 clear view, to contemplate the 
 Church of God circling its orbit of 
 a thousand years, like the transit of 
 a single day, during which whole 
 period it was never even for the 
 space of a single moment forsaken of 
 the Sun of Justice, Christ, who, in 
 the same manner as the sun above 
 was created in order to rule the 
 day, so was the Word made flesh, 
 in order to rule over the Church; 
 ay, and still more evidently, inas- 
 much as he says, ' The heavens and 
 earth shall pass away, but my words 
 shall not pass away.' "RThether, 
 therefore, you have seen the Church 
 beaming with splendour or obscured 
 by darkness, yet never, if thou art 
 wise, wilt thou say, that the Church 
 was ever without Christ, or that 
 Christ was ever without the Church; 
 but, on the contrary, you will ex- 
 claim, 'That in Christ the Church 
 always was, and in the Church Jesus 
 Christ, the same yesterday, and to- 
 day, and for ever.'- — Heb. xiii. 8." 
 
 But the grand question, after all, 
 for you to ponder upo^, my Protes- 
 tant friends, is, "Are you members 
 of the Cathohc Churcn mentioned 
 so emphatically in the Apostles' 
 Creed ? " You that have permitted 
 your minds to be whirled along 
 so delightfully by the oratorical 
 flourishes of my very ingenious 
 opponent, the grand question, I say, 
 for you to consider is. Whether 
 we, when we go home this even- 
 ing, when prostrate on our knees 
 before God, can say, " I believe in 
 
660 
 
 UULE OP FAITH. llliA Eveninff. 
 
 the Holy Catholic Church, ? " I shall 
 say it this evening with a safe and 
 quiet conscience. May yours give 
 you no remorse, my mends, wnen 
 you sa,y, "I believe in the Holy 
 CathoKo Chuich." It is a plain 
 argument, which I have put over 
 and over again, and I must repeat it 
 once more, in order that it may sink 
 the more deeply into your hearts 
 before we part this eve.tung. My 
 friend tells me that all sects .say 
 theirs is the Catholic Church. Well, 
 <o I say of my Church. But why 
 Joes not then the claim of any one 
 of them correspond to the test 
 which in the fourth century Augus- 
 tine gave of the Catholic Church ? 
 He tells you that the Donatists 
 overspread aU Africa, and were al- 
 most equally niimerous vrith the 
 , Catholics ; they had churches and 
 chapels in every part of the world, 
 and when you ask them their title, 
 they all call themselves the Cathoho 
 Church. ■ "Now," says he, "I will 
 show you a test, whereby you may 
 prove the genuineness of the Catho- 
 lic religion — prove that that glorious 
 title appertains to you alone, to 
 whatever quarter of the world for- 
 tune may direct your steps. It is 
 this: Upon entering any city where 
 the Donatists have churches or 
 chapels, and where CathoKos have 
 them also, inquire, as a stranger to 
 the place, of any Donatist you may 
 meet, the way to the Catholic 
 Church; andj strange to say," ob- 
 serves the saint, "though they all 
 maintaiu, in theological disputation, 
 theirs to be the Catholic Church, 
 yet, without hesitation, they imme- 
 diately point out the true Catholic 
 
 Now, this test of St. Augustine 
 holds good at the present day, and 
 will liolil good to the consummation 
 of this world. Let a Catholic fo- 
 reigner, upon his arrival in London, 
 stop a Protestant, meeting him in 
 
 Oxford-street, and say, " Sir, I am 
 a strainer in London ; have the 
 kindness to direct me to the Catho- 
 lic chapel ? " " Oh, certainly 1 
 will ; " and he accordingly directs 
 him to the nearest chapel. " Thus," 
 says Augustine, " the CathoKo 
 Church will ever be distinguished 
 from aU heretics — and why ? Be- 
 cause we are called Catholics by 
 ourselves and by our enemies." Oh, 
 myjiriends, I have knovm the holiest 
 men and women, that abominated 
 our Church, converted merely by 
 deep reflection on that one single 
 article. And there is another cir- 
 cumstance which I have observed, 
 my friends : What is the reason of 
 tms extraordinaiT virulence against 
 the Catholic Church ? Why are 
 societies formed to suppress its pro- 
 gress, 3nd to denounce its " idolatry 
 and its blasphemy ? " If my friend 
 has truth on his side, and were 
 really " parting for the salvation of 
 his bemghted fellow Catholics," 
 would he taunt and reproach them 
 in such a satiric flood of Scotch 
 virulence ? [Confusion.] 
 
 John Kendax, Esq., Catholic 
 chairman, rose to order. 
 
 It is nothing else, gentlemen; 
 I am accustomed to plain language ; 
 I declare that if it were possible 
 that he had used strong argument 
 likely to shake the faith of any 
 Catholic, I should have been afraid 
 of my own feeble defence ; whereas 
 I have told him before, and I repeat 
 it again, I have burned up aU his 
 arguments like chaff; I nave left 
 them neither root nor branch ; yea, 
 I have dashed all his arguments, in 
 succession, one after another, on 
 the rock of ages, the CathoUo 
 Church. I have scattered them, and 
 broken them to pieces. [Renewed 
 confusion.] But I say, my friends, 
 if he had had power of argument 
 sufficient to make an impression on 
 the heart of any unenlightened 
 
Mr. French. 1 
 
 B,"ULE OP PAITH, 
 
 G61 
 
 Catholic, still every tone of his 
 voice, every gestvire, every look, 
 vrould have alienated that Catholic 
 from that sect which he professes to 
 belong to. " Keep me from the house 
 of gall," would have been the ex- 
 clamation of the Catholic ; keep me 
 from that deadly, nnmitigably viru- 
 lent sect ; keep me from those mon- 
 sters of hypocrisy, who,»wlulst they 
 pretend to be solicitous for my con- 
 version and salvation, are mocking 
 and gaUing me by every oppro- 
 brious epithet which- then: maKg- 
 nant imaginations can surest to 
 them. 
 
 And now, to answer another ob- 
 servation of my reverend opponent, 
 let me say a few words concerning 
 the supremacy of St. Peter, and his 
 lawful successors' — a column of 
 Christian faith in every age, whioh 
 the arm of my antagonist has so 
 feebly endeavoured to shake. 
 
 TertuEian, I find, in the year of 
 GUI Lord 199, exclaims, "If thou 
 thinkest heaven is closed, recollect 
 th^t tlie Lord left the keys thereof 
 to Peter, and through him- to the 
 Church." — Scorpuioi, c. x. p. 830. 
 Rotodami, 1663. 
 
 Again, I hear, a little before tlie 
 blessed Beformation. — ^namely, in the 
 year of our Lord 303— Ongen ex- 
 claiming, in reference to the words, 
 " I will give thee the keys- of the 
 kingdom of heaven," and' " What- 
 soever thou shalt bind on earth," 
 &c., exclaiming in the following 
 words — " And truly, if the words of 
 the Gospel be attentively considered, 
 we shall there find that the' last 
 words were common to- Peter and 
 the others; hut that the former, spoken 
 to Peter, imported a great distinc- 
 tion and superiority."— On>. torn, 
 xiii.. Com. in Mat., p. 613. Edit. 
 Bened. Paris, 1643. 
 
 My friend has told you that St. 
 Cyprian denied the supremacy of 
 St. Peter. I did not expect to meet 
 
 with such a statement concerning 
 the illustrious Cyprian; but as I 
 have brought a little pocket volume 
 of mine, which constitutes one of 
 my delights in this earthly pilgrim- 
 age, the letters of that glorious 
 saint and martyr, St. Cyprian, I 
 shall therefrom read, for the benefit 
 of my learned opponent, a few short 
 extracts, to see whether St. Cyprian, 
 who flourished a.d. 348, aoknow- ■ 
 ledged'the supremacy of the Church 
 or not. But, my fnends, is it pos- 
 sible; let me ask you, that in the 
 year 348, when Cyprian hved, and 
 when- so many other saints and mar- 
 tyrs Kved, and left such glorious 
 testimony of their adherence to 
 the Pope, that he should have 
 arisen in rebellion against him, and 
 have denied his supremacy ? Even 
 from this passage I think we 
 shall be able to collect enough 
 to overturn the position of my 
 friend. 
 
 "Dens unus est, Chrisfus unus, 
 una ecclesia, et cathedra una, supra 
 petram Domini voce fundata. Ahud 
 altare constitui aut sacerdotium 
 novum fieri prseter unum altare et 
 trnum sacerdotium non potest." 
 
 "There is one God, one Christ, 
 one Church, orie chair, founded by 
 the voice of the Lord upon a rock. 
 No other altar can be erected, no 
 other' priesthood can be instituted, 
 but the one altar and the one 
 priesthood." 
 
 Again — "Adulterum, impium, sa- 
 crilegium est quodcunque humano 
 furore instituitur, dispositio humana 
 violetur." 
 
 "Every institution that<is engen- 
 dered by the madness of man in 
 violation of this divine economy, is 
 adulterated, is impious, is sacrile- 
 gious."— -yS^. Cyp. 3pist. ad plebem 
 de guinque, Presbyteris Schismaticis. 
 
 But here, methinks, I hear my 
 reverend antagonist exclaim, "Ay, 
 but mark, St. Cyprian says, 'one 
 
chair founded by the voice of the 
 Lord upon a rock ; ' he does not 
 say founded on Peter" In reply 
 to this frivolous surmise, let Cyprian 
 speak himself : — 
 
 "Christ addresses Peter (Matt, 
 xvi. 18) — 'I say to thee. Thou 
 art Peter, and upon this rock I wiH 
 bmld my Church, and the gates of 
 heU shall not prevail against it.' He 
 that doth not hold this unity of the 
 Church, can he think that he holds 
 the faith? He that opposes and 
 withstands the Church, can he think 
 that he is in the Church?" — St. 
 Cyp. de Unit. Mac. pp. 194, 195. Ed. 
 Bened. Paris, 1736. 
 
 But really, now that I am upon 
 this topic, it is worth while to con- 
 sult the learned Mr. Kirk, in order 
 to see whether these fathers, whom 
 my friend describes as perpetually 
 knocking their heads against one 
 another, but who, as I contend, are 
 ia one Catholic indivisible body, for 
 ever knocking their heads against 
 him (Mr. Gumming) and all the ad- 
 vocates of many -headed Protestant- 
 ism ; it is worth whEe, I say, to ask. 
 What say they on the primacy of 
 Peter ? 
 
 St. Irensens, a.d. 177, says, "Por 
 to this Church (of Rome) on account 
 of its superior headship, propter po- 
 tiorem principalitatem, every other 
 must have recourse ; that is, the 
 faithful of all countries." 
 
 Busebius, the ecclesiastical his- 
 torian, and who ought consequently 
 to have known something about the 
 polity of the Church, tern us in the 
 year 313 :— 
 
 "The .kind providence of God 
 conducts Peter to Rome, that power- 
 ful and great apostle, and, by his 
 deserts, the chief of all the rest." — 
 Hist. Heel., lib. ii. c. xiv. p. 63, 
 Cantahrigiee, 172 ; and yet, if we 
 listen to the ecclesiastical Mr. Gum- 
 ming, anno Domini 18M, St. Peter 
 never was at Home ! ! ! [Laughter.] 
 
 KULE OS TAITH. \l\thHvening. 
 
 St. Basil, a'.d. 369, writes thus to 
 Pope Damasus, on the distressed 
 state of his Church : — 
 
 "We ask nothing new; where- 
 fore, if you are not at this time 
 induced to add us soon, all being 
 subjected to the heretics, none will 
 be found to whom you may stretch 
 out your hand" — "Bip. Damasum.iam. 
 iii. p. 164. Ed. Bened. Paris, 1721, 
 22, 30. 
 
 Again — and most remarkable is 
 the passage — I wish my Galvinistic 
 opponent could show something of 
 his Church half so old as the year 
 369—1 should look at him with an 
 eye of reverence. [A laugh.] 
 
 "EustaoMns of Sebaste, being 
 deposed at MeUta, devised himseH 
 the means whereby to procure his 
 restoration. What was proposed to 
 him by the Eoman bishop, and to 
 what he agreed, we know not. We 
 know only that he brought a letter, 
 which when he had shown to the 
 synod of Thyana, he was reinstated 
 in his see !"—3p. 293, at 74, torn, 
 iii. p. 406. 
 
 But if St. Basil be not sufficiently 
 clear upon the primacy of Peter, 
 listen to the great St. Chrjsos- 
 tom, in the year 397. He writes to 
 Innocent, the Roman bishop, after 
 many proceedings against himself: — 
 
 " I beseech you to direct, that 
 what has wickedly been done against 
 me while I was absent, and did not 
 decline a trial, should have no effect, 
 and that they who have thus pro- 
 ceeded may be subjected to ecclesia3- 
 tical punisknient, and allow me, who 
 have been convicted of no offence, 
 to enjoy the consolation of your 
 letters, and the society of my 
 former friends." — Ep. 1 ad. Innoc. 
 torn. ui. p. 520, Ed. Monfaupon, 
 Paris, 1718-34. 
 
 BeaUy, my reverend friend, Mr. 
 Kirk, is a splendid Ijenefaotor to the 
 Catholics of this country, in furnish- 
 ing such valuable documents to crush 
 
Air. French.'] eule op paith. 
 
 663 
 
 and confound oxir adversaries! But 
 I must lay the book down, merely 
 r nrmin g my eye over it, and stating, 
 that I End as I go on most copious 
 extracts from St. Hilary, St. Cyril 
 of Jerusalem, St. Gregory of Na- 
 zianzum, St. James of Nisibis, St. 
 Ephrem of Edessa, St. Gregory of 
 Nyssa,_ St. Optatus of Milevis, 
 St. Epiphanius, St. Ambrose, St. 
 Jerome, St. Acterius, St. Augustine 
 of Alexandria, St. Leo the Great, 
 St. Proclus, St. Isidore of Pelusium, 
 and from the council of Ephesus, in 
 the year 431, and the council of 
 Ghalcedon in the year 451 ; all ac- 
 knowledging in the clearest, most 
 expKcit, and incontrovertible lan- 
 
 fuage, the uncontested primacy of 
 'eter and his successors ! 
 
 I shall conclude this discussion, 
 my friends — as my opponent made 
 ©ne more attempt, and a feeble 
 one it was, to overturn that eternal 
 dogma of Transubstantiation — ^not 
 by selecting, but by taking at 
 random, the first extract from the 
 fathers on the subject that shall 
 present itself to my view on open- 
 ing this immortal production of the 
 Rev. Mr. Kirk, « The Faith of 
 GathoUcs !" 
 
 Here it is — the great St. Hilary, 
 in the year of our Lord 353!! 
 Listen most attentively : — 
 
 " Ipse enim ait, Caro mea vere 
 est esca, et sanguis mens vere est 
 potus. Qui edit camem meam et 
 bibit sanguinem meum, in me manet, 
 et ego in eo. De veritate caiuis et 
 sanguinis, non reUctus est ambi- 
 gendi locus ; nunc enim et ipsius 
 Domini professione et flde nostra 
 vere caro est, et vere sanguis est. Et 
 hsec accepta atque hausta id eflciunt, 
 ut et nos in Ghristo, et Christus 
 in nobis sit. Anne hoc Veritas non 
 est? contingat plane his verum non 
 esse, qui Ghristum Jesum verum 
 esse Deum negent." — St. Hilary, 
 Edit. Era^nti, vol. i. p. 136. 
 
 Now, mark the words ! 
 " It is he (Christ) himseli? 
 WHO SAYS, ' My plesh is meat 
 
 INDEED, AKD MY BLOOD IS DWNK 
 INDEED. ILe that EATS MY PLBSH, 
 AlfD DRINKS MY BLOOD, REMAINS IN 
 ME, AND I IN JIIM.' ThERB IS NO 
 ROOM LEFT POR DOUBTING OP THE 
 PLBSH AND THE BLOOD ; PORAS- 
 MUCH AS BY THE DECLARATION 
 
 OP OUR Lord himselp, and by 
 WHAT our paith peopesses, IT 
 IS muir FLESH AND TRULT 
 BLOOD. Is NOT this the truth? 
 Let it be called in question 
 by those alone who deny that 
 Christ Jestjs is true God ! " 
 
 There, my friends ! there is glori- 
 ous testimony to lower the tower- 
 ing crest of w learned opponent. 
 What ! shall I be told exnltingly 
 by my antagonist in the recapi- 
 tulation of the exploits he has 
 achieved since the commencement 
 of this discussion, that, amongst 
 others, he has, to use his own 
 rather inelegant words, smashed 
 for ever the doctrine of Transubstan- 
 tiation? 
 
 But what says St. Hilary? 
 
 Why — " Let the doctrine be 
 doubted by those alone who deny 
 that Christ Jesus is true God." 
 
 Talk after this of smashing — 
 there's a smasher for you, my learned, 
 my reverend antagonist. [Sensa- 
 tion,] St. Hilary, you see, by this 
 denunciation, sends men Kke yon to 
 join the ranks of the Unitarians. 
 I adjure you then, my Protestant 
 friends, tvho seek for truth, not 
 conquest, most solemnly to weigh 
 the meaning of those words which 
 I have just 'read to you from the 
 magnum tsvi sui lumen, the great 
 light of Ms age, as Erasmus desig- 
 nates him, 'from whose edition I 
 have quoted it. Answer me within 
 yourselves. Is it not too bad — is 
 it not intolerable — is it not disgust- 
 ingly repulsive, after such an lUus- 
 
664. 
 
 RTJLE OP PAITH. [llth EueTung. 
 
 trious testimony of such an early 
 century as that which I have just 
 laid before you, ' to hear a frothy 
 (ieclaimer in the nineteenth cen- 
 tury bellowing- out, over and over 
 again, that Paschasius Eadbert, for- 
 sooth, a poor obscure monk iu the 
 ninth century, invented the glorious 
 dogma ? I really think that, if the 
 learned gentleman has- not blushed 
 for these ten years past, it is high 
 time for a Kttle distinguishable tinge 
 to suffase his cheek this evening ; 
 it is high time for his admirers to 
 nang dovm their heads and blush 
 around him. For tell me, my Pro- 
 testant friends, when ye read this 
 doctrine of Transubstantiation thus 
 heralded forth by St. Hilary in 
 the year of our Lord 353, can you 
 upon any future occasion Hstenwith 
 patience, I should rather say -with 
 endurance, to the loud blast of the 
 Oalvioistic trumpet in the mouth of 
 my reverend- opponent, solemnly, 
 gravely, pompously proclaiming that 
 the doctrine taught by St. Hilary 
 in the year 353, was invented by 
 Paschasius Eadbert, who was not 
 bom before the ninth century ! ! 1 
 The happy collocation, my friends, 
 of this glorious extract, for which 
 I am iudebted to the blundering of 
 my friend, will' shine, I confidently 
 trust, ia the last part of this discus- 
 sion, as a- glittering jewel to the 
 enlightenment of innumerable eyes; 
 or, to speak less figuratively, to the 
 conversion of innumerable souls to 
 the Cathoho religion. And as to yOu, 
 my Catholic friends, by way of con- 
 solation for aU the copious abuse 
 which you have experienced so often 
 during the course of t}iis discussion, 
 
 for all the' mEtny galling, taunting 
 epithets bestowed on you, of affected 
 esteem for your benighted, wander- 
 ing souls — [laughter] — join with me, 
 but in silence — you silent, whilst . 
 I repeat thanks tb the Almighty 
 Inspirer, by whom I have been so 
 powerfullyassisted in'this discussion, 
 and whilst I exclaim boldly on the 
 part of the GathoKcs, "Partama- 
 toria est," " The victory isieon! the 
 enemy of Catholicityis vanquished!" 
 Rev. J. Gumming and many others 
 exclaimed, "No! Ho!" which /was 
 followed' by applause and hisses. 
 Order being with difficulty restored, 
 votes of thanlcs were unanimously 
 passed to the respective chairmen, 
 who briefly returned thanks. 
 
 A gentleman then rose and said, 
 " I have a resolution to submit, 
 which I am perfectly sure you -will 
 all approve of. It is. That the 
 thanks of this assembly be presented 
 to the Committee of the British 
 and Poreign School Society for the 
 use of the present room." [" Hear, 
 hear," and applause.] 
 
 G-BOKGE Pinch., Esq., then rose 
 ta state that the meeting was now 
 conoiuded. 
 
 The audience, which entirely filled 
 the spacious room, then retired in 
 the greatest possible order, appar- 
 ently highly gratified. 
 
 We certify that this Report is faith- 
 fnlly and correctly given : 
 
 J. Gumming, M.A. 
 D. Pkench, 
 
 Barrister-at-Law , 
 ChAS. Ma-TBUKT AuCHEJi. 
 Jieporter, 
 
INDEX 
 
 SPEECHES DELIVERED BY THE REV. JOHN GUMMING, A.M. 
 
 Abel, the first Protestant^ 152. 
 
 Absolution, judicial, as practised by Romish 
 priests, objected against by sundry of the 
 fathers, 9, 570, 571 ; declared by Augus- 
 tine to be a blasphemous assumption, 5G7. 
 
 A'Becket, Thomas, bis shrine at Cauterbiuy, 
 234. 
 
 Access to God, Protestant doctrine of, '21 7. 
 
 Altar, the true, I'Sl. 
 
 Angel of the Lord, is the Lord J^horah, 231. 
 
 Antiquity, the true primitive, 258. 
 
 Apocrypha not inspired, 319; not sanc- 
 tioned by fathers, 372. 
 
 Aquinas, Thomas, the seraphic doctor, de- 
 crees the extermination of heretics, 50 ; 
 Romanists pray for grace to follow his 
 doctrine, 75 ; measures the degree of ido- 
 latry due to various images, 564. 
 
 Altar, Protestant and Romish, 139. 
 
 Augustine asserts that Christ is figuratively 
 eaten in the Sacrament, 593. 
 
 'A7rapct/3/3aTov, translation of the, word, 209. 
 
 B. 
 
 Babylon, exhortation to flee out of, and take 
 shelter in Christ, 649, 650. 
 
 Baronius, his testimony against the corrup- 
 tions of Popery, 407. 
 
 Bellarmine, Cardinal, admits that Scripture 
 does not prove Transubstantiation, 53 ; 
 acknowledges that the Protestant interpre- 
 tation of John vi. is received by several 
 vrriters of his Church, 49. 
 
 Bible, the, an appeal to it alone is not 
 Deism, 60; English version of, admitted 
 to be fallible, 80 ; the most accurate ever 
 made, 318; glorious fulness of, 401—403; 
 its inspiration proved by Rev. Hartwell 
 Home, 497—502 ; contrasted with Popery, 
 641 ; duty of studjmg, €42 ; sufficiency of, 
 as a Rule of Faith and practice, 648. 
 
 Bible, Douay, and Authorized Version, re- 
 spective translators of, 475 ; bears out 
 Mr. Cummin^s interpretations, 561 ; ad- 
 mits that Babylon means Rome, '563 ; 
 Romish versions of, approximating more 
 and more to Protestant, 529. 
 
 Blasphemy* superlative against ChTist, 605. 
 
 Bolandists, their disgusting absurdities, 256. 
 
 Bossuet, his commendations of extermina- 
 tors of heretics, 565. 
 
 Bolger, Mr., his beq-uest for masses, 183. 
 
 C. 
 
 Cain, the first Romish sacrificer, 152 ; his 
 sacrifice an unbloody one, 174. 
 
 Christ, his human flesh did not come down 
 from heaven, 37 ; if in the wafer, his body 
 is broken up, 78 ; sufficiency of his one 
 offering proved, 146' — 149 ; must suffer as 
 often u^ offered, 148; treason against, to be 
 met and repelled, 317; his advocacy all- 
 sufficient, 325, 326 ; his body spiritually 
 discerned in the Sacrament, 120. 
 
 Church cleansed by the Reformation ; pri- 
 mitive, heresies and divisions existed in 
 it, 508 ; scriptural and apostate, strong con- 
 trast between, 649. 
 
 Church of Rome, denies salvation ouc of her 
 pale, 24 ; splendours of, her ceremonies do 
 not feed the soul, 175; disgracefully visi- 
 ble, 114; treats the fathers like syco- 
 phants, 122 ; dependent on wine-merchant 
 and baker for a true Sacrament, 125 ; 
 teaches hard thoughts bf God, 150 ; por- 
 trait of, by Sir E. Sandys, 400; teaches 
 thingscontrary to Christ's commandments, 
 436; her fanaticism, 509; inconsistencies of, 
 510 ; her unity that of the Tipperary volun- 
 teers, 511 ; her infallibility hard to find, 
 536;; gives a false gospel, dazzles, deludes 
 and destroys', 607 ; her corruptions testified 
 against by Baronius, Genebrard, and the 
 Council of Pisa, 433. 
 
 Chrysostom shows the utility of reading 
 Scripture, 474. 
 
 Cyprian against Papal supremacy, 640. 
 
 Confessional, iniquities of the, stated by 
 Nolan and O'Crolly, 605, 606. 
 
 D. 
 
 Decretals of Gratian, their provision for the 
 
 unmarried, 606. 
 Delahogue admits communion in both kind* 
 
 till twelfth century; 80. 
 Discussion, the, its origin, 5. 
 Dominic, preposterous stories of, 256. 
 Dupin on ecclesiastical history, and on the 
 
 ancient Liturgies, 171 ; his character, 594 
 
 his honescy, 863. 
 
 E. 
 
 Eagle, the, a type of the believer^ 261. 
 Earth, the, canonized, 313. 
 
666 
 
 INBEX TO THE SPEECHES Or 
 
 Eucharist, the, how received by the Churches 
 of England and Scotland, as set forth in 
 the Thirty-nine Articles, and the Scottish 
 and 'Westminster Confessions, 6, 7 ; Protest- 
 ant doctrine concerning, held by various 
 fathers, 9. 
 
 Evidence, internal, of the Holy Scriptures, 
 646. 
 
 F. 
 
 Fathers, the, faUible, contradictory, unau- 
 thorised, and their writings mutilated, 8; 
 early, not in our possession, 254 ; several 
 of, as Ambrose, Athanasius, Augustine, 
 Chrysostom, Cyprian, Irenaeus, and Jerome, 
 virtually under the Papal anathema, 255; 
 afford strong testimonies against many 
 of the Romish doctrines, as Augustine 
 protests against praying in an unknown 
 tongue, against Purgatory, agaiiist Mary's 
 maternal assumptions, and aga'r St Priestly 
 Absolutions, 566, 567. JeRome asserts 
 that Scripture is the sole Rule of Faith; 
 that, wherever, true faith is found, there 
 is the Church ; that all Bishops are equal ; 
 that Christ is the Rock ; that the Church 
 is the assembly of all the saints ; that 
 the Apocrypha is uninspired ; and that 
 the judicial absolving power of the priests 
 is usurped, 568 — 370. Chrysostom 
 denies that Peter's person is the founda^ 
 tion ; that any but God can forgive sins ; 
 that aiuricular confession is necessary; or 
 that any minor intercessors are required. 
 He also enfoi'ces the reading of Scripture, 
 571, 572. Ortg-en enforces the necessity 
 of reading Scripture, and the spiritual 
 meaning of eating Christ's flesh and 
 drinking his blood, 572. Athanasius 
 protests against creature worship, 572. 
 Ctril of Alexandria against Purgatory, 
 573. Cyril of Jerusalem rejects the 
 Apocrypha, and makes Scripture the 
 Standard of Faith, 573. Justin Martyr 
 writes against the Mass and Transubstan- 
 tiation, 573, Busebiub calls the conse- 
 crated elements symbols, ibid. Theo- 
 doret denies ttiat Angels are to be wor- 
 shipped, and maintains Salvation by 
 Grace, 574. Gregory Nazianzen avers 
 the true succession to be that of doctrine, 
 ibid. Tertullian makes the Sacrament 
 the figure of Christ's body, ibid. Am- 
 brose denies the judicial power of the 
 priesthood in forgiving sins, and contra- 
 dicts Peter's supremacy, ibid. Basii. sets 
 forth the Scriptures as a Rule of Faitli, 
 and salvation by grace, ibid. Cyprian 
 is against Supremacy, Purgatory, Images, 
 and Priestly Absolution, 575. Hilary 
 denies Purgatory, and aid by the merit of 
 others ; and makes the Scripture the 
 Rule of Faith, and salvation the free gift 
 of God through faith, ibid. Cleaiens 
 RoMANUS does the same, 576 ; and Gre- 
 gory THE Great denounces as Anti- 
 christ whosoever shall take the title of 
 Universal Bishop, ibid. 
 
 Fathers, not unanimous, 124, 365, 369; mo- 
 dem divines have advantages over the, 176. 
 
 Fear of Hell pronounced by Pope Bene- 
 dict XIV. a sufficient qualification for 
 heaven, 596; considered by Mr. French as 
 synonymous with fear of God, ibid. 
 
 Idolatrous hymn, 270. 
 
 Idolatry, dreadful specimen of, quoted by 
 
 Mr. French, 250. 
 Jael has the same title to be worshipped as 
 
 Mary, 323. 
 Jerome, inconsistencies and absurdities of, 
 
 255. 
 Intermediate State, disproved by Isaiah Ivii. 
 
 7 ; Eccles. xi. 3 ; John v. 24 ; 2 Cor. v. 
 
 1, 2 J Luke ii. 29, 30; Luke xvi. 25; 
 
 Acts vii. 56 ; Phil. i. 2, 3 ; Luke sxiii. 43 
 
 —394, 395. 
 Justin Martyr, his description of scriptural 
 
 public worship, 129; calls the Sacrament 
 
 a commemoration, 140. 
 Interpretation, figurative, adopted by the 
 
 Church of Rome, 31 ; the same in thirty- 
 seven instances, 59 ; Augustine, Buse- 
 
 bins, and Origen quoted for figurative, 8S. 
 Ignatius holds that faith is the Lord's flesh, 
 
 and love his blood, 26. 
 Intention, doctrine of, 34. 
 'lepeusi a sacrificing priest, neVer applied to 
 
 Ministers of the Gospel, ISl. 
 
 ' L. 
 
 Latria and Doulia, 227. 
 
 Liturgies, ancient, Supin oq, 172.' 
 
 Liturgy of St. Peter, disproved by Dupin, 
 
 ibid.', disproved by Cardinal Bona, 172; 
 
 of SS. Mark and James, forgeries, ibid. 
 A€novpf4(a, translation of the word, 636. 
 AeiT0vp7ia, does not mean a Propitiatory 
 
 Sacrifice, 178. 
 Luther, not quite rid of Popish corruptions, 
 
 614 ; no p^rt of our Rule of Faith, 563. 
 Liguori, his singular merits in the way of 
 
 self-flagellation, 601. 
 
 M. 
 
 Malachi i. 11, applied by Papists to the 
 Mass — Douay translation, 220. 
 
 Mass, the Latin canon of, 171 ; of the 
 Ethiopians or St. Matthew, a forgezy, 172 ; 
 asserted by the Canon of Trent to be an 
 unbloody sactifice, and to remit sins ; but 
 without shedding of blood there is no 
 remission, 180; a cheat, or God's word 
 deceives, 181; a propitiatory sacrifice, re- 
 tained by the Eastern Churches, 212 ; the 
 dogma of, reasons for its spread, 212; if 
 not wine but blood* strange ih, should 
 intoxicate, 120 ; not apostolic, 125; if true, 
 Christ has been offered up 400,000,000 
 times in forty years, 146 ; called a finite 
 sacrifice by Bellannine, 182 ; asserted to be 
 a propitiatory sacrifice, by tlie Creed of 
 Pius IV., by canons of Trent, and by 
 Doyle's Abridgment of Christian Doctrine, 
 113. 
 
THE EEV. J. CTTMM1NG-, A.M. 
 
 667 
 
 Masses, prices of, 182 ; Mr. Bolger's bequest 
 for, 183. 
 
 Mother of God, when first applied to Mary, 
 171 ; remarks on the term, 211. 
 
 Milner, Dean, his History mutilated in Mr. 
 French's quotations, 465 ; his testimony 
 against Popery, 467, 468. 
 
 Missions of Romisli Church, not scriptural, 
 480, 481. 
 
 Missal Romanum, awful hlasphemy of, 
 33, 34. 
 
 Murder, wholesale, instigated by Pope Pius 
 v., 611. 
 
 Massacreof 20,000 Protestants, Papal exulta- 
 tion at, 613; of St. Bartholomew, 611; 
 medal struck in commemoration of, 613. 
 
 MycTT^piov, twenty-six times translated Mys- 
 tery, only once Sacrament, iu the Khemish 
 Testament, 560. 
 
 Papists, invitation to them to receive the 
 Gospel, 649, 650. 
 
 Passover, the, a symbol, 32. 
 
 Peter, a staunch Protestant, 228; supremacy 
 of, overthrown by Augustine, 507. 
 
 Paris, Archbishop of, with hundreds of his 
 followers, worshipped the Goddess of 
 Reason, 510. 
 
 Patrick, St. his endless repetitions, 596. 
 
 Philip, St. and the Devil, ib. 
 
 Prayer to God, universal privilege and effi- 
 cacy of, 232 ; to the Virgin, specimens of, 
 284, 285; blasphemous, 292—294; for the 
 dead, not to bfe confounded with Purgatory, 
 358. 
 
 Protestant unity, one hope, one faith, one 
 baiitism, one God, 511, 512. 
 
 Protestants, Papalized, abandoj^ed to the 
 enemy, 283 ; too much Popery remaining 
 among them, 646. 
 
 Protestantism, its text, 153. 
 
 Pope's denunciation of religious liberty, 605. 
 
 Popes and Counftils, reciprocal railings 
 between, 559. 
 
 Purgatory, not sanctioned by the fathers, 
 369 ; the true, 393 ; of St. Patrick, de- 
 scription of, 391; disproved by Heb. ix. 
 25; IJohnii. 2; Rev. i. 5, 6—394. 
 
 Priestliood, sacrificing, not ordained in the 
 Christian Church, 143; argument against 
 a succession of, from Heb. vii. 145. 
 
 Prodigal Son, an encouragement to all, 261. 
 
 Parable of the lost sheep, 287. 
 
 Q. 
 
 auotation, mistakes in, made by Mr. French, 
 538. 
 
 R. 
 
 Regicide, lawfulness and propriety of, 
 proved by Gregory de Valentia, Jolet, 
 Bellarmine, Sauvez, Salmeron, Lerarius, 
 Molina, Emmanuel, the Seraphic Thomas; 
 and a dozen others. Denied by Dr. 
 Murray and Mr. French, 564. 
 
 ReUcs, inventory' of sundry cunous and 
 precious ones, 599. 
 
 Rosa Sta., her marvellous doings, 600, 
 
 Romania m obliged to take the garb of 
 Infidelity to wound Protestantism, 495. 
 
 Rome shrouds the Sun of Righteousness 
 from men's eyes, 152. 
 
 Romish Doctors maintain that Christ's soul 
 went to hell in the way of punishment, 
 658. 
 
 Rule of Faith, Romish, not producible, 405 ; 
 difficult to prove, 408; bulk and weight of, 
 470; contradictions of, 540; Protestant, 
 produced, 405 ; not affected by differences 
 of opinion among Protestants, as the 
 Romish is by differences among them- 
 selves, 540 ; triumphant all-sufficiency of, 
 648. 
 
 S. 
 
 Salvation, full, free, and priceless, 222; as 
 taught in the Romish Church, rests on a 
 contingency. Truth, holiness, and justice, 
 concur in the Gospel plan of salvation, 151. 
 
 Saints in heaven, unable to hear prayer, 286 ; 
 on earth, allowable to ask their prayers, 225. 
 
 Scripture, its excellency as a Rule of Faith 
 proved, by 2 Timothy iii. 16, 17; Psalm 
 xix. 7 ; Johnv. 39 ; Johnxx. 31—440, 441 ; 
 blessed nature of, proved by its effects, 
 646 ; glory of, compared to the sun, 647. 
 
 Sandys, Sir Edwin, his opinion misrepre- 
 sented, 399—401. 
 
 Success in making proselytes no test of 
 truth, 437. 
 
 Scape-goat, 218. 
 
 Septuagint preferred to the original Hebrew, 
 by Mr. French, 639. 
 
 Spirits, seven, before the throne, Augustine 
 and Gregory Nazianzen on them, 230, 231, 
 
 Tractarians, 283. 
 
 Traditions, corrupted, 433; contemned by 
 Matt. XV. 1, 2, 3; Mark vii. 5, 6, 8; 1 Pet. 
 i. 18, 19 ; 2 Thess. ii.— 439. 
 
 Transubstantiation, doctrine of, as esta^ 
 blished by the Canons and Catechism of 
 the Council of Trent and Creed of Pope 
 Pius IV., 5, 6 ; first started by Rhadbert 
 Pascasius in the ninth century. Duns 
 Scotus admits it was only rendered neces- 
 sary to believe it by the decree of the 
 Fourth Council of Lateran, a.d. 1215. 
 Duremetus, Bishop of Meaux, said he 
 would not believe it, as the Church 
 did not compel him, 14; disproved by 
 Acts iii. 21 ; Matt. xxvi. 11 : and 2 Cor. 
 V, 16 ; also by Matt. xxiv. 26—10,11 ; if true, 
 Christ's body is not a real body, 12 ; evi- 
 dence of senses against, 28, 29; absurdities 
 and impossibilities involved in the prin- 
 
 ' , ciple of, 29 ; so anomalous, that only tha 
 
 !H most positive and inevitable declaration of 
 God's word could establish it, 54; Cardi- 
 nals Camarensis, Roffensis, Cajetan, and 
 Scotus, against it, 85 ; awfully degrading 
 to Christ, 87 ; Isidore and Augustine 
 quoted, against Transubstantiation, 215 ; 
 disproved by a passage quoted by Mr. 
 French from the Book of Common Prayer 
 in support of it, 116. 
 
668 
 
 INDEX TO SPJ££CH.ES OP REV. J. GUMMING, A.M. 
 
 Translation, Protestant, unjustly cavilled at, 
 475 ; Douay, dishonesty of 477. 
 
 Trent, Catechism of, asserts that bones and 
 nerves are contained id the wafer, 77 ; 
 Council of, admits various interpretations 
 of the fathers, 8S ; commands Invocation 
 of Saints^ 224. 
 
 Union of Church and State approved by Pope 
 
 Gregory XVI., 597. 
 Unity of Protestant Confessians, 598. 
 
 Virgin Mary, specimens of blasphemous 
 -worship addressed to her, 284, 285, 292— 
 294, set forth as Mediator, 315; her 
 blessedness, rightly shown by Augustine, 
 324 ; horrible blasphemy in praise o^ 603. 
 
 W. 
 
 Walthen and tbe Pevil« COS, 
 
REPORT 
 
 01 i 
 
 MEETING OE PEOTESTANT LAYMEN 
 
 AT HAMMEESMITH, 
 dfor prjjienttng a CeiStimonial 
 
 TO THE 
 
 REV. JOHN GUMMING, M.A. 
 
 EOa HIS DEFENCE OE PEOTESTANT CHRISTIANITY AT THE 
 LATE DISCUSSION 
 
 {Extracted from the London N'ewspapers. 
 
PROTESTANT EXPRESSION OP GRATITUDE. 
 
 On Monday evening, July 1st, we 
 were present at the truly interest- 
 ing and gratifying meeting held at 
 Hammersmith, by the Protestants 
 of that place, for the purpose of 
 presenting to the Eev. John Otjm- 
 MiNO, Minister of the Scottish 
 Chui-ch, Crown-court, Coyent Gar- 
 den, a .Polyglot Bible, as an expres- 
 sion of the gratitude and satisfaction 
 felt by the Protestant inhabitants 
 of Hammersmith, at his most deci- 
 sive overthrow of the errors of the 
 Church of Rome, and triumphant 
 defence of the great and glorious 
 truths of the Reformation, in his 
 controversy during eleven nights 
 with one of the most subtle 
 and learned champions of Popery, 
 Dajubl Peenoh, Esq. Barrister- 
 at-lflw, and member of " the Ca- 
 tholic Institute." 
 
 At seven o'clock George Pinch, 
 Esq., M.P. took the Chair. 
 
 After prayer, the. representatives 
 of the Church, the Wesleyans, and 
 the Independents, Messrs. Walker, 
 Lovely, and Salter, who were pre- 
 sent at the Discussion, laid on the 
 table a magnificent Polyglot Bible, 
 in ten languages, superbly gilt and 
 bound in morocco, and with the 
 following inscription embossed in 
 gold letters on the binding : — 
 
 TO THE REV. JOHN GUMMING, M.A., 
 FROM THE PROTESTANTS OF HAMMER- 
 SMITH, FOR HIS ABLE AND SUCCESS- 
 FUL DEFENCE OP THEIR CAUSE IN 
 HIS LATE CONTROVERSY ON CERTAIN 
 POINTS., OF THE SOMAN CATHOLIC 
 FAITH '."WITH DANIEL FIENCH, ESQ. 
 BARRISTER-AT-LATVe 
 
 Mr. Pinch commenced his address 
 by stating that the object for which 
 they were assembled was one of 
 the most truly Christian and de- 
 lightful that could be imagined. 
 They were about to express their 
 esteem and affection towards a 
 Christian brother, and thus to dis- 
 play that spirit of peace and love 
 which was characteristic of the 
 children of God. They were not 
 only about to manifest their regard 
 for a Christian brother, but for a 
 Christian mimster, one of the am- 
 bassadors of God, whose high and 
 holyofS.ce was entitled to the vene- 
 ration of every true disciple of 
 their Lord and Saviour. That 
 minister, too, had the privilege of 
 belongiag to the Church of Scot- 
 land, a Church which from the era 
 of the Reformation till the present 
 day had been distinguished for her 
 zeal for the propagation of gospel 
 truth, and her uncompromising 
 protest against Romish error. It 
 was most gratifying, too, to think 
 that Christians of various deno- 
 minations had united together to 
 present' a token of their affection 
 to Mr. Gumming, thus evidencing 
 that Reformed Catholics who had 
 one common faith, one Lord,- one 
 Spirit, and one God and Pather of 
 aU, could coalesce in one common 
 bond of union, when their religion 
 was endangered or assailed. The 
 originating cause of the meeting 
 afforded to him fresh satisfaction; 
 it was neither more nor less than 
 their admiration of the temper, 
 
672 
 
 PKOTESIAKT BXPKBSSION 01 GKATITUDE.- 
 
 spirit, and abUity with wMch lis 
 excellent and truly Christian friend 
 had defended their common faith 
 against the subtleties and misre- 
 presentations of Rome. The pre- 
 sent -which they, had selected to 
 confer upon Mr. Gumming harmo- 
 nized with the whole proceeding. 
 In presenting to him a Bible, they 
 proclaimed that " the Bible, and 
 the Bible only, was the religion 
 of Protestants." They recognised 
 it as their armoury lor weapons 
 of offence and defence, as their 
 chief earthly possession, and as the 
 treasury of the Christiaa Minister. 
 They thus honoured the Holy Spirit, 
 who had composed the Holy Vo- 
 lume — Jesus, who was its sum and 
 substance, and of whom it testified, 
 — and the God and Pather of the 
 Bible and of the Church, who in 
 its holy pages had made known to 
 them his wonderful love in giving 
 his dear Son to die for them and 
 for their salvation. He (Mr. Pinch) 
 would not detain the meeting with 
 further observations at present, but 
 he called upon Mr. Walker to pre- 
 sent the Bible to Mr. Cumming. 
 
 Mr. Walkeb rose as the repre- 
 sentative of the Church of England 
 and congratulated Mr. Cumming on 
 the present occurrence. He said 
 that at first he was afraid of the 
 discussion, and was among those 
 who preferred to try to prevent it ; 
 but his experience of its results — 
 his strong impression of the meek- 
 ness and faithfulness, and complete 
 victory of the Protestant advocate, 
 had, with other reasons, convinced 
 him that it had been of essential 
 service to the people of Hammer- 
 smith. He concluded a judicious 
 and most appropriate speech by 
 tendering the Bible to Mr. Cum- 
 ming, accompanied with his prayers 
 that every blessing might attend his 
 exertions in the Protestant cause. 
 Mr. LovBLT, as a representative 
 
 of the Wesleyans, followed up the 
 observations of his friend by a very 
 animated address. He expressed 
 the profit and pleasure he had reaped 
 throughout the late important dis- 
 cussion, and the great satisfaction 
 he had in presenting the best of all 
 books. 
 
 The Rev. J. Cumming rose, and 
 stated that he found it not so easy 
 to give utterance to the deep sense 
 of gratitude he felt, not merely 
 for uieir costly and elegant present, 
 but for the feeling, unanimity, and 
 to him hitherto imknown kindness 
 which dictated the gift. He owed 
 much of the success that had fol- 
 lowed his humble though laborious 
 exertions to the profound attention 
 and uninterrupted order maintained 
 by the audience that was night 
 after night crowded within those 
 walls ; to the indefatigable exertions 
 of those gentlemen who had Just 
 spoken; and to the efforts especially 
 of his honourable friend who occu- 
 pied the chair, whose munificent 
 contributions to the Protestant 
 cause were among the least of his 
 good deeds. Mr. Pinch, he oli- 
 served, had sat up to an early hour 
 many a morning, copying out those 
 valuable Greek and Latin extracts 
 which were to him of essential 
 value, and in other respects, to which 
 his presence did not allow him to 
 refer, he assisted him. To Mr. 
 Pinch's Benedictine Edition of the 
 Pathers he expressed himself deeply 
 indebted; but, above all, he felt 
 that the chief spring and soui-ce of 
 the triumph of truth was, " Not by 
 might, nor by power, but by my 
 Spirit, saiththe Lord of Hosts." 
 
 The Revereiid Gentleman next 
 went over the various assumptions of 
 the Roman Catholic faith, disproving 
 the extravagant claims of Popery, 
 and contrasting powerfully with 
 them the distinctive characteristics 
 of the Gospel. He showed next 
 
PROTESTANT EXPRESSION OP GEATIIUDE. 
 
 673 
 
 that the prevalence of Popery taught 
 them maay important lessons. It 
 proved the divine guardianship of 
 the sacred volume. The Romish 
 Church, he continued, had had re- 
 course to every expedient to injure 
 or to conceal the sacred volume. 
 She had corrupted it by pestilential 
 notes — she had concealed it by an 
 unknown tongue — she had tried to 
 neutralize its virtues by the acces- 
 sion of the Apocrypha and its 
 immoral rescripts — and notwith- 
 standmg, this Book retained its 
 beauty, its harmony, its vitality, its 
 primeval integrity. [Hear, hear, 
 hear.]. 
 
 The prevalence of Popery taught 
 them the divine nature of the Gospel. 
 Nothing but the Gospel could have 
 survived the pressure and the per- 
 secutions to which it had been sub- 
 jected. It was struck at by the 
 heresy of Arius in the fourth cen- 
 tury, aud it was long crushed and 
 smothered by the over-eclipsing 
 superstition of the Roman heresy. 
 But it heard, even in its capti- 
 vity, the voice of him who sum- 
 moned Lazarus from the grave, 
 as that voice poured through the 
 organs of the Reformation, and 
 came fresh from its retreats, casting 
 off the incrustations of corruption 
 and the cerecloths and trappings 
 of its tomb, and looked once more 
 abroad upon the wide world, un- 
 shorn of its splendour, " in the 
 beauties of holiness" with the dew 
 of its own bright and holy morn. 
 [Hear, hear, hear.] The prevalence 
 of the Roman superstition taught 
 them also the fearful depravity of 
 the human heart. His learned 
 opponent had objected to their 
 translation of a passage in Jere- 
 miah, urging that they wilfuUv 
 overcharged it in order to establish 
 the dogma of Calvinism, that man's 
 heart is corrupt. He had showed 
 that, accordii^ to tiie usages of 
 
 the Church of Rome in other pas- 
 sages, their translation " despe- 
 rately wicked" was not strong 
 enough, " malignant so as to be 
 incurable, even unsearchably so," 
 was its better rendering. But if 
 they wished a more powerful proof 
 of the wickedness of man's nature, 
 they had only to look at that 
 mystery of iniquity, which lorded 
 it over Europe for centuiies, whose 
 priests, like the locusts of Egypt, 
 had made the garden of the Lord a 
 barren wfldemess, and every king- 
 dom an Aceldama. In Popery, he 
 saw Scripture prophecy lulmled. 
 Scripture and the Gospel proved to 
 be divine, man corrupt, and Satan 
 ever active. [Hear, hear.] He re- 
 joiced that his arduous labours had 
 ^ven satisfaction — he prayed that 
 God might own and bless them 
 yet more — he hoped soon to meet 
 them again; and, after an hour's 
 address, sat down amid mucn ap- 
 , plause. 
 
 Mr. Salter, the representative 
 of the Independents, rose, and in a 
 very neat speech moved a vote of 
 thaiaks to the honourable Chairman, 
 whose kindness, impartiality, and 
 attention during the late discussion 
 had attracted universal notice. 
 
 Mr. Pinch observed in reply, 
 that'he fully agreed with the senti- 
 ments of Mr. Walker, and that he 
 deemed it to be an unspeakable 
 honour and privilege to be employed 
 in any Christian work; and he 
 would add further, that he preferred 
 being engaged in such labours ol 
 love in a subordinate office, and as 
 it were as a hewer of wood and a 
 drawer of water, for he felt himself 
 to be most unworthy of the dis- 
 tinguished position in which he had 
 been placed as Chairman of the 
 present meeting. They had now 
 arrived at the conclusion of the 
 proceedings connected with the 
 discussion which had taken place 
 
674 
 
 PEOTESIiNT EXPKESSION OP GBATITTTDB. 
 
 between Mr. Gumming and Mr. 
 French ; but although it could not 
 be said to be a conclusion in which 
 nothing was concluded, he trusted 
 that it was only a preface to their 
 strenuous and persevering resist' 
 ance to the incursion of Roman 
 Catholic principles. Let the: 
 not be deceived, and imagine that 
 because the Romish emissaries had 
 been foiled in their first efforts, 
 tliey would desist from their under- 
 taking. If some of their advo- 
 cates, like Mr. French, preferred 
 the battle-field, others were more 
 expert in sapping and mining, in 
 wiles and stratagems: the ambition 
 of Rome was insatiable and bound- 
 less; she regarded the whole of 
 Great Britain as her patrimony; 
 and nothing short of re-possessing 
 the whole kingdom would satiate 
 the cravings of h{(r appetite for 
 dominion. She had recourse to 
 every expedient to forward her 
 designs. Sometimes she enlarged 
 upon her apostolicity, antiquity, 
 unity, and cathoUoity; sometimes 
 she ventured upon a defence of her 
 creed ; sometimes she threw a veil 
 over the more unsightly portions 
 of her religious system, and endea- 
 voured to prove that the' differences 
 between the Roman Catholic and 
 the Reformed Catholio creeds were 
 of no real moment; she dropped 
 the more serious charge of heresy, 
 and tenderly inquired whether it 
 were worth while, for the sake of 
 such trivial discrepancies, to rend 
 the seamless coat of Christ; at 
 other times she enlarged upon the 
 failings of the Reformers, and 
 pointed to Henry the Eighth as 
 the father of the Reformation, and 
 libelled the doctrine of Protestants 
 as an unholy doctrine which dis- 
 carded good works ; sometimes she 
 contrasted the differences and dis- 
 putations of Protestants with her 
 own much-vaunted unity ; in point 
 
 of fact, she left no means untried 
 — tie views of the Reformers were 
 maligned, the corruptions and super- 
 stitions of Romanism were con- 
 cealed, history was falsified, she 
 claimed aU the fathers and the 
 universal voice of antiquity, and by 
 her subtleties, and assumptions, and 
 faUaoies, not unfrequently succeeded 
 in seducing the unwary, and ob- 
 taining proselytes to her deadly 
 creed. When these methods of 
 persuasion failed, she had recourse 
 to other expedients — she appealed 
 to literary or architectural enthu- 
 siasm, and to our ancestral affec- 
 tions. She reminded us that when 
 our Saxon ancestors were imnjersed 
 in the most barbarous idolatry, 
 Augustine was commissioned by 
 Pope Gregory to visit Britain, and 
 that he planted therein the standard 
 of the cross, and rescued our ances- 
 tors from paganism. She admo- 
 nished us also of the services ren- 
 dered to literature by Pope Nicholas 
 and his successors, and she pointed . 
 to the venerable and colossal cathe- 
 drals of England as visible monu- 
 ments of Roman Catholic piety. 
 Although the hour was late, perhaps 
 the meeting would pardon him if 
 he hazarded a few remarks upon 
 each of these topics. [Hear, hear.] 
 That a very considerable portion of 
 our Saxon ancestors were converted 
 by Pope Gregory's missionaries, it 
 would be preposterous to deny; 
 but the question which immediately 
 presented itself to them was, whether, 
 m the event of their embracing the 
 Romish religion of that day, they 
 should escape the anathemas of the 
 Council of Trent ? Most assur- 
 edly they would still be •exposed 
 to them. Pope Gregory repudiated 
 the notion of an Episcopal Supre- 
 macy over the whole Christian 
 Church, and hence in this funda- 
 mental article we should still be 
 open to the charge of heresy. 
 
PKOTESTANT EXPRESSION OP GKATITUDJ5. 
 
 675 
 
 Other important differences existed 
 between the Roman Catholicism 
 of the sixth century and that which 
 was confirmed by the Council of 
 Trent. At the former period auri- 
 cuiai confession, although much 
 practised, was not generalfy exacted 
 by a decree of the Church. The 
 Bible, although too little read, was 
 not regarded as a dangerous book, 
 if indiscriminately perused iu the 
 vulgar tongue. Transubstantiation 
 was not then an article of faith, 
 for a Saxon homiLy of the ninth 
 century stUl existed, which was 
 directly at variance with it. The 
 doctrines of grace had not been 
 proscribed by the Trentine false 
 gospel. There were in the sixth 
 century no Papal indulgences, or 
 jubilees, or canonization of saints ; 
 and the monstrous temporal assump- 
 tions of the Popes, which are still 
 retained by them and their coun- 
 cillors, and which occasioned so 
 much strife, confusion, and irreligion 
 in Christendom, were then unheard 
 of. But even if the religion of 
 Pope Gregory and lijs missionary 
 Augustine had been identically the 
 same as the Roman Catholicism of 
 the present da,y, were modem Pro- 
 testants under so strong an obliga- 
 tion of gratitude to them that they 
 were bound to prefer a corrupt 
 to a pure Christianity? , If they 
 owed so much to Pope Gregory, 
 who presented to them Christianity 
 in a corrupt form, although far less 
 corrupt than modem Romanism, 
 how much more were they indebted 
 to the Reformers, who presented it 
 to them in its apostolic purity ! and 
 if they were under a debt of grati- 
 tude to 'St. Augustine, how much 
 more were they indebted to the 
 King of Saints, who had revealed 
 himself to them in the full efiulgence 
 of his glory ! But even if, for argu- 
 ment's sake, Protestants assented 
 to the autichristiaa position, that 
 
 converts were in all cases, and under 
 all circumstances, bound undeviat- 
 ingly to adhere to the vices as well 
 as to the excellences of the creeds 
 presented to them by their first 
 missionary teachers, tms concession 
 would be fatal to the advocates of 
 the Roman Catholic Church. Por 
 if the Saxon ancestors of the English 
 people were plunged in the most 
 lamentable idolatry, the spiritual 
 condition of the ancient Romans was 
 no less disiistrous ; and if the former 
 were bound to receive, unaltered, 
 Augustine's creed, the latter were 
 bound, by an equal obKgation, to 
 receive, in its unmutUated integrity, 
 the rehgion of feter and Paul. Now 
 here Protestants were prepared to 
 enter into covenant with Rome ; and 
 here they were ready conditionally 
 to pledge themselves to an assimila- 
 tion of their creed to that of Rome. 
 If the Roman Church would only 
 resume the religion of the apostles 
 Peter and Paul, in all its purity and 
 simplicity, and cut off all that was 
 extrinsic to it, then the Protestants 
 would pledge themselves to adopt, 
 instanter, the Romish creed. [Hear, 
 hear.] Having said this much re- 
 specting the conversion of England 
 by Augustine, he (Mr. Knch) would 
 say a few words upon the papal 
 patronage of literature. The sub- 
 ject might be dismissed without 
 much comment ; for could any man 
 in his senses seriously contend that 
 the patronage of literature was an 
 evidence of orthodoxy ? If the pa- 
 tronage of literature was to be the 
 standard, the religion of the heathen 
 Emperor Augustus had paramount 
 claims to that of the apostles. In 
 the fourth century the apostate 
 Julian might, upon the score of his 
 patronage of literature, have justi- 
 fied his apostasy. In the ninth 
 and tenth centuries the Caliphs of 
 Bagdat, and other. Mahommedan 
 kings, were the great patrons of 
 
676 
 
 PKOTESTAUT EXPRESSION OE GKiTIIVDE. 
 
 literature, wliilst Christendom was 
 buried in comparative ignorance ; 
 and hence, in those days, Mahomme- 
 danism, acoordin? to this standard, 
 was, unc^uestionably, preferable to 
 Christianity. LudoTieo the Moor, 
 and Pope Sextus the Poiirth, were 
 among the most distinguished par 
 trons of literature; and did that 
 legalize the cold-blooded assassina- 
 tions of which they were guilty ? 
 The monster Henry VIII. was a 
 celebrated patron of literature, and 
 so was Louis XTV., who commenced 
 his reign with the desolation of the 
 Palatinate, and who subsequently 
 perpetrated the most cruel atrocities 
 m the persecution of the Prench 
 Protestants. The infidel Prederic 
 the Great of Prussia was a patron 
 of literature. But when iofidels, 
 heathsns, apostates, tyrants, mur- 
 derers, could all make the same 
 boast of having patronized Kterature, 
 what possible connexion could there 
 be between the profession of a pure 
 creed and the patronage of litera- 
 ture ? Among the literati them- 
 selves were found Heathens, Greeks, 
 Roman Catholics, Protestants, who 
 were deemed heretics by Ilome, and 
 infidels, Voltaire, Gibbon, D'Alem- 
 bert, &c. ; so that nothing could be 
 more preposterous than the endea- 
 vour to build the orthodoxy of 
 Roman Catholicism upon the papal 
 patronage of literature. In reply 
 to a monk, whose arguments and 
 conduct were highly irreligious, 
 Luther is reported to have described 
 him as beiug not only satanized, but 
 sub-satanized and super-satanized ; 
 and it might with equal truth be 
 stated that the advocate who claimed 
 for Rome the character of sanctity, 
 by reason of the papal patronage of 
 literature, was not only sf altified, 
 but sub-stultified, and super-stulti- 
 fied. — [Much laughter.] — He would 
 now, with the permission of the 
 meeting, and if they were not quite 
 
 wearied— [No, no,]— proceed to 
 animadvert upon the third point. 
 Roman Catholics were wont to point 
 to our splendid cathedrals, and to 
 adduce from their magnificence a 
 strong presumptive evidence in fa- 
 vour of the piety of the churchmen 
 who erected such stately fabrics for 
 the worship of God. 
 
 A few weeks ago, when he entered 
 the library of the Athenaeum Club, 
 the librarian directed his attention 
 to a book which had recently been 
 placed upon one of the tables. The 
 frontispiece consisted of a beautiful 
 architectural design, and he opened 
 the volume expecting to find it to be 
 a treatise upon Gothic architecture. 
 Great was his surprise when he dis- 
 covered that it contained a most 
 fulsome panegyric upon the reKgion 
 of Rome, and a most virulent attack 
 upon that of the Reformers. The 
 author of the work, Mr. Pugin, had 
 been so far deluded by his architec- 
 tural enthusiasm as to become a 
 Roman Catholic; and he (Mr.Knch) 
 had been informed that his wife, 
 Mrs. Pugin, , had, within the last 
 month, also been so infatuated as to 
 desert the Reformed Catholic faith, 
 and to enter the pale of Romanism. 
 The following was an extract from 
 Mr. Pugin's treatise, which Wcis en- 
 titled, "Contrasts, or a Parallel 
 between the Architecture of the 
 15th and 19th Centuries, by A. W. 
 Pugin." — "But who can regard 
 those stupendous edifices of the 
 middle ages (the more special ob- 
 jects of tnis work) without feeling 
 this observation in full force ? Here 
 every portion of the sacred fabric 
 bespeaks its origin ; the very plan of 
 the edifice is the emblem of human 
 redemption," &c. 
 
 "Yes, it was, indeed the faith, 
 the zeal, and, above all, the unity, of 
 our ancestors that enabled them to 
 conceive and raise those wonderful 
 fabrics that still remain to excite 
 
PEOTESTAUT EXPRESSION OE GEATITUDB. 
 
 677 
 
 our •wonderful admiration. They 
 ■were erected for the most solemn 
 rites of Christian worship, when the 
 term Christian had but one signifi- 
 cation throughout the world, when 
 the glory of the house of God formed 
 an important consideration with 
 mankind, when men were zealous 
 for religion, liberal in their gifts, 
 
 , and devoted to her cause ; they 
 were erected ere heresy had de- 
 stroyed faith, schism had put an end 
 
 . to unity, and avarice had mstigated 
 the plunder of that wealth that had 
 been consecrated to the service of, 
 the Church. When these feelings 
 entered in, the spell was broken, 
 the architecture itself fell with the 
 religion to which it owed its birth, 
 and was succeeded by a mixed and 
 base style devoid of science or 
 elegance, which was rapidly fol- 
 lowed by others, tiH at length, 
 regulated by no system, devoid of 
 unity, but made to suit the ideas 
 and means of each sect as they 
 spring up, buildings for religious 
 worship present as great incon- 
 gruities, varieties, and extravagances, 
 as the sects and ideas which have ema- 
 nated from the new religion which 
 first wrought this great change." 
 
 Such was the substance of Mr. 
 Pugin's argument; and if it was 
 more characterized by plausibility 
 than logic, it was not whoUy un- 
 worthy of comment. The readiest 
 and the most conclusive mode of 
 considering these questions was by 
 examining them in the light of the 
 apostolic age. When Christianity 
 was first promulgated by the apostles 
 and the evangehsts, mantind might 
 be said to be divided into three por- 
 tions, heathehs,Jews, and Christians. 
 The heathens at Rome were ad- 
 dressed by the Apostle Paul towards 
 the close of his mission. Now, if 
 religious architecture had in these 
 days been the test of religious truth, 
 which party coidd have preferred 
 
 tjie strongest claims ? The heathen 
 world, in all parts of the habitable 
 globe, were celebrated for the mag- 
 nificence of their temples. Upon 
 the present occasion it would, per- 
 haps, be adnaable to restrict their 
 observations to ancient Rome. That 
 celebrated Roman Catholic writer, 
 the late Mr. Eustace, had given a 
 very graphic description of the 
 architectural wonders of ancient 
 Rome. Prom his statement it ap- 
 peared that ancient Rome contained 
 no fewer than 420 temples ; and of 
 these he would present the meeting 
 with the descnption of the most 
 splendid, though not the most distin- 
 guished by the vastness of its dimen- 
 sions: — "The temple of Jupiter 
 CapitoKnus, though not the largest 
 in Rome, was from its destination 
 the most sacred, from its site the 
 most conspicuous, and from its fur- 
 niture and decorations the most 
 opulent. It was filled with the 
 treasures of vanquished monarchs, 
 adorned with the plunder of palaces 
 and temples, and enriched with the 
 spoils of the conquered world. It 
 was, in fact, the treasury of Rome, 
 the deposit of the accumulated tri- 
 umphs of ages of victory and con- 
 quest. Crowns, shields, and statues 
 of gold, the offerings of kings, em- 
 perors, and heroes, blazed on all 
 sides, and adorned with equal profu- 
 sion the interior and exterior of this 
 palace of dominion — this throne of 
 empire and religion. Its threshold 
 was bronze, but bronze doubly and 
 triply gUt; the pediment, sides, and 
 summit of thereof presented horses, 
 chariots, heroes, and gods, theRoman 
 eagle, and its attendant Victory, aU 
 of Dronze, silver, or gold, glittering 
 to the sun, and dazzhng to the eyes 
 of the spectator." Even our cathe- 
 drals must hide their diminished 
 heads, when contrasted with the 
 magnificence of this heathen temple; 
 but what could the apostle Paul 
 
678 
 
 PKOIESTAHT EXPKESSION OF eUATlTUBE. 
 
 exMbit in comparison witli it ? 
 He could only point to his own 
 "hired house," wnerein he received 
 such Jews and Uomans as attended 
 his ministry, and participated in his 
 devotions; and what Chnstian would 
 deny the ineffably superior spiritual 
 glory of his temple over the proud 
 , fabnowhich was desecrated by Pagan 
 idolatry ? — [Hear, hear.] — But here 
 it would perhaps be remarked by 
 Eoman Catholic advocates, that an 
 immeasurable difference prevailed 
 between the erection of temples to 
 false gods, and the building of tem- 
 ples or cathedrals which were- con- 
 secrated to Jehovah. He would 
 meet them upon that ground, and 
 pass on to the second temple at 
 Jerusalem. Everybody was ac- 
 quainted with the surp^sing splen- 
 dour of that enormous edifice. It 
 was amply described by Josephns ; 
 it greatly surpassed in its magnifi- 
 cence the temple of Solomon, and 
 was, perhaps, the finest temple that 
 ever was elevated for the service of 
 true or false religion. Even the 
 Lord's disciples were dazzled by its 
 briBianoy. In the 34th chapter of 
 St, Matthew it is written, "And 
 Jesus went out and departed from 
 the temple : and his disciples came 
 to him for to show him the Duildings 
 of the temple." Now let the meet- 
 ing mark our blessed Saviour's reply. 
 " And Jesus said unto them. See ye 
 not all these things ? YerUy I say 
 unto you, there shall not be left 
 here one stone upon another that 
 shall not be thrown down." That 
 part of the subject might be dis- 
 missed ia a few words. Who built 
 the second temple of the Jews? 
 Herod the Gteai,. Jov what was 
 that unhappy monarch notorious? 
 Por the murder of the Innocents. Por 
 ^hose gratification did he build the 
 temple ? To make himself popular 
 with the Jews. How did they 
 evince their religious sentiments? 
 
 By the rejection and crucifixion of 
 the Saviour. Those facts unequi- 
 vocally testified that there was no 
 inseparable connexion between the 
 building of beautiful temples for 
 the service even of the true God, 
 and spiritual piety. Mr. Pugin, 
 however, would perhaps object to 
 arguments deduced from. Pagan or 
 Jewish delinquency, and he would 
 urge that* the English cathedrals 
 were neither erected by the wor- 
 shippers of false gods, nor by those 
 who denied their Saviour. By whom 
 then were the English cathedrals 
 constructed ? By the Norman and 
 Italian clergy. • Who introduced the 
 Norman and Italian clergy into 
 England ? WiUiam the Conqueror, 
 who, his enterprise having received 
 the papal sanction, invaded our land, 
 overthrew our liberties, covered it 
 with desolation and misery, dispelled 
 the greater part of the native clergy, 
 because they confederated with the 
 laity for the preservation of the 
 nation's independence and freedom, 
 and installed the Norman clergy in 
 their room, who so raised the papal 
 power in England, that in the 13th 
 century Europe beheld King John 
 on his knees as the Pope's vassal, 
 and the baxons excommunicated by 
 the Pope for refusing to cancel 
 Magna Charta. These reminiscences, 
 which met them in the very threshold 
 of their inquiry, were not seductive, 
 nor were they pre-eminently calcu- 
 lated to advance the cause of British 
 B-omanism. But, after all, what was 
 the state of the Eoman Catholic 
 Church when the principal English 
 cathedrals were founded and bimt ? 
 The cathedral of Canterbury was 
 founded by Bishop Lanfrano in 
 1073. The cathedral of York was 
 begun in 1173. The cathedral of 
 Wmchester was commenced in 1079. 
 The cathedral of Peterborough in 
 1118. The cathedral of Lincoln in 
 1118. What, then, was the moral 
 
PEOTESTANT EXPRESSION OF GBA-TITUDE. 
 
 679 
 
 ema religious condition of the Rom- 
 ish Church in the 11th, 12th, and 
 13th centuries ? At the first retro- 
 spective glance they call to mind 
 the haughty HUdehrand, who flou- 
 rished in the latter part of the 11th 
 century, and by his immeasurable 
 ambition plunged Italy and Ger- 
 many into wars, by which they were 
 distracted or desolated for nearly 
 three centuries. Gregory VII. ele- 
 vated the papal power above that of 
 emperors and kings ; he laid claim 
 to half the kingdoms of Europe ; he 
 excommunicated the Emperor of 
 Germany, and kept him waiting 
 without the gates of his palace dur- 
 ing three days and three nights 
 barefooted, and in the garb of a 
 penitent. His successors trod in 
 nis footsteps. Kings and emperors 
 discharged the humole oflce of the 
 Pope's equerries, and held his bridle 
 and his stirrups when he mounted 
 his horse. In those days whole 
 kingdoms were laid under interdict 
 by the popes, all the offices of reh- 
 gion were suspended ; even the dead 
 were left disinterred, and the voice 
 of religion was utteriy silenced. It 
 was then, too, that Europe was dis- 
 graced by the fanaticism of the cru- 
 sades. Without dwelling upon the 
 proceedings and outrages of the first 
 hordes of fanatics who followe(JPeter 
 the Hermit, and Walter the Penni- 
 less, and others, let them for a mo- 
 ment contemplate the proceedings 
 of the first regular army of the 
 crusades. If they followed them to 
 Antioch, they perceived them wreak- 
 ing their vengeance upon the Ma- 
 hommedans, after the conflict had 
 ceased, until their houses were filled 
 with gore, and the streets streamed 
 with blood ; and when the work of 
 slaughter was completed, they then 
 abandoned themselves to the most 
 lamentable excess and profligacy. 
 They subsequently carried by as- 
 sault Jerusalem, the sacred city. 
 
 What a strange mixture did they 
 they there exhibit of ferocity and 
 'devotion ! No mercy was shown to 
 the inhabitants ; rivers of blood again 
 defiled the streets ; old and young, 
 women with their infants at the 
 breast, infidels and Jews, were im- 
 molated ; and the work of o&nage 
 having been completed for a time, 
 they presented themselves at the 
 holy sepulchre, and offered up their 
 thanksgivings to God — thus testify- 
 ing, by their sanguinary deeds, how 
 little they were under the dominion 
 of the gospel of grace. This, it 
 must be recollected, was styled the 
 holy war. It' would have been well 
 for the Church of Rome in those 
 ages, if the massacre of the infidels 
 had been her only crime ; but it was 
 then that the mystical Babylon was 
 displayed as literally drunken with 
 the blood of the saints. Pope 
 Innocent III. and his successors 
 invoked the aid of the secular arm, 
 and stimulated kings and princes to 
 the crusades against the Waldenses 
 and Albigenses.* Their cities were 
 stormed, their country was ravaged ; 
 hundreds of them were consigned 
 to the flames, and tens of thousands 
 of them were slaughtered. After 
 persecutions and proscriptions which 
 continued for about forty years, the 
 remnant of this devoted people, 
 whose chief crime consisted in their 
 opposition to Rome, were compelled 
 to conceal themselves in the more 
 retired parts of Languedoc, Switz- 
 erland, the north of Italy, Hungary, 
 and Germany, until the era of the 
 glorious Reformation, when they 
 were enabled to emerge from their 
 obscurity, and could again openly 
 worship their God and Saviour in 
 spirit and truth. [Applause.] Why 
 need he (Mr. Eineh) say more? 
 Those ages were iron, by reason of 
 their ferocity and profligacy; and 
 
 * Consult the celebrated Roman Catholic 
 annalist, Raynaldus. 
 
680 
 
 PBOTESTANT EXPBE3SI0N OP GKATIT'nBl;. 
 
 leaden, by reason of their spiritual 
 blindness, and tbeir ignorance of 
 profane and sacred literature. But 
 tere the Roman Catholic apologist 
 would, perhaps, interpose, and pro- 
 test against a nanrative which pro- 
 ceeded from the mouth of an oppo- 
 nent. Be it so. He would introduce 
 them to a Roman CathoKc witness, 
 and be content to abide by his testi- 
 mony. The witness whom he was 
 about to present to them was no 
 other than the great St. Bernard, 
 one of the chiefest of the Bx)man 
 CathoHo saints, aad the last of the 
 fathers of the church. To such a 
 witness the most sensitiye Roman 
 Catholic could not object. First, 
 he would read St. Bernard's de- 
 scription of the monks of the 12th 
 century. {Si. Bernardi Abbatis Apo- 
 logia ad Qulielm.Abbatem. chap, ix.) 
 " Wlio in the beginning, when the 
 monastic order commenced, would 
 have believed that the monks would 
 have arrived at such a state of indo- 
 lence? How greatly do we differ 
 from the monks who lived in the 
 time of Anthony ! They, of a truth, 
 when at certain seasons they visited 
 each other in the spirit of charity, 
 received from each other the bread 
 of the soul with such eagerness, 
 that, almost forgetful of the nou- 
 rishment of the Dody, they passed 
 for the most part the whole day 
 with their bodies fasting, but not 
 
 with fasting minds But when 
 
 we come together, to use the words 
 of the apostle, 'This is not to eat the 
 Lord's supper ; ' for there is no one 
 who seeks or who administers the 
 heavenly bread. Nothing is done 
 respecting the Scriptures or the 
 salvation of souls ; but trifles and 
 laughter prevail, and words are cast 
 to the wmd. At dinner the ears 
 are as much fed with common talk, 
 as the jaws with f eastings ; by which 
 ejvery one is so taken up, that there 
 is no moderation in eating. Mean- 
 
 time dishes follow dishes, and for 
 one dish of butcher's meat from 
 which you abstain, two large fishes 
 are introduced ; and though you had 
 enough of the first, when you begin 
 with the second it seems as if you 
 had not tasted the first. Eor all 
 things are prepared by the cooks 
 with so much diligence and art, that 
 when four or five dishes have been 
 devoured, the first don't stand in 
 the way of the last, nor does satiety 
 diminish the appetite. Eor the pa- 
 late, seduced by new sauces, by 
 degrees losing its power of distin- 
 guishing, is greedily renewed in its ' 
 desires for other juices as if it was 
 
 yet fasting Who can describe 
 
 m how many ways (to say nothing 
 of other things) eggs only are turned 
 over and tormented ; with what in- 
 genuity they are turned inside out, 
 turned over,, liquified, hardened, con- 
 tracted ; and now they are served up 
 fried, now roasted, now stuffed, now 
 mixed together, now separately — 
 and why are all these thmgs done, 
 except only to prevent naiisea ? The 
 quahty of the things, besides, is 
 made to have such an outward ap- 
 pearance, as to be not less pleasing 
 to the eye than to the palate. The 
 eyes are allured by colours, and the 
 palate by tastes ; and the unhappy 
 stomach, upon which the colours do 
 not shine, and which the relishes do 
 not soothe, being thus compelled to 
 receive all things, is oppressed and 
 overwhelmed, rather than refreshed. 
 "And what can I say respecting 
 drinking of water ? K)r all of us, 
 the very instant we become monks, 
 have weak stomachs, and neglect 
 the necessary counsel of the apostle 
 respecting the use of wine, the word 
 ' little' which he introduced being, 
 I know not why, left out. And 1 
 wish they were content with pure 
 wine only. I am ashamed to men- 
 tion it, but it is still more shamefol 
 to practise it ; and if we are ashamed 
 
PJROTESTAOT EXPRESSION OP GEATMUBE. 
 
 681 
 
 to hear it, let us not Db ashamed to 
 correct it. You may see in. one 
 dinner three or four times the half- 
 filled goblet brought in, untH these 
 different wmes being rather smelt 
 than drank, not so much swallowed 
 as touched, one at length, after a 
 sagacious and quick perception, is 
 selected out of the many as being 
 the strongest. But what is the cus- 
 tom which some monasteries are 
 said to observe, m. to drink at 
 their assemblies, on the great fes- 
 tivals, wines mixed up with honey, 
 sprinkled over with grains of per- 
 fume ? Can we say that this is 
 done on account of the weakness of 
 their stomachs ? I can see no other 
 purpose in it than that they may 
 drink more, and with greater enjoy- 
 ment," &c. &o. 
 
 He (Mr. Tinch) begged the meet- 
 ing to observe St. Bernard's com- 
 ments upon the outward splendour 
 of the altars, and the furniture of 
 the monkish chapels — (ch. xxii.) 
 "The eyes are glutted with rcKcs 
 covered with gold. When the little 
 partitions are opened, a most beau- 
 tiful form of a male or female saint 
 is exhibited, and the more briUiant 
 the colouring, the hoKer is the saint 
 esteemed to be. Men run to kiss 
 it, and they are invited to give ; and 
 beautiful thinss are more admired 
 than sacred things are venerated. 
 Hence, not crowns, but circular 
 ornaments covered with jewels and 
 surrounded with lamps, are placed 
 in the churches ; and for candle- 
 sticks, a sort of trees are set up, 
 with great weight of metal, and 
 fabricated with extraordinary art, 
 and not less resplendent from the 
 candles that are placed in them than 
 from their gems. What do you 
 think is sought for in all these 
 things, the remorse of penitents, or 
 the admiration of beholders ? Oh, 
 vanity of vanities, but not more 
 vain than man ! " (What w'ould Mr. 
 
 Pugin think of what followed?) 
 "The Church shines in her build- 
 ings, she is wanting to the poor ; 
 she covers her stones with gold, she 
 leaves her sons naked. The eyes of 
 the rich are served with the money 
 of the poor. The curious are de- 
 lighted, but the wretched have no 
 means of support." So much for 
 the monks. _ 
 
 The picture presented by St. Ber- 
 nard of the immorality of the secular 
 clergy was quite appaUing. (St. 
 Bernardi Abbatis de conversione ad 
 clericos, chap, ix.) " We do not ac- 
 cuse, neither can we excuse all men. 
 The Lord has reserved for himself 
 many thousands; otherwise, unless 
 their righteousness had been our 
 excuse, and the Lord of Sabaoth 
 had left us that holy seed, we should 
 have been already overthrown Hke 
 Sodom, and should have perished 
 Hke Gomorrah. The Church appears 
 to be extended; the most sacred 
 order of the clergy, the number of 
 brethren, has incalculably multiplied 
 itself. But although, Lord, thou 
 hast multiplied the na,tion, thou 
 hast not increased its joy, since its 
 merit has departed to the full as 
 much as numbers have entered it. 
 Everybody runs after holy orders, 
 and men assume, without reverence 
 or reflection, that ministry which is 
 revered even by the angelic spirits. 
 Those fear not to take the sign of 
 the heavenly kingdom, nor to wear 
 the crovm of the heavenly empire, 
 in whom avarice reigns, ambition 
 rules, pride is enthroned, iniquity 
 resides,. luxury has the government ; 
 with whom, also, so unhappy is their 
 condition, the abomination would 
 appear between the walls, if, accord- 
 ing to the prophecy of Ezekiel, we 
 were to dig down the wall, and 
 behold what inspires horror in the 
 house of God. Por in addition to 
 fornications, adulteries, incests, from 
 some of them even the ignominious 
 
682 
 
 PROTESTANT EXPEESSIOB OP GBATITUDE. 
 
 passions and the basest actions are 
 not absent," &c. 
 
 Having tlins sbown St. Bernard's 
 aooount of the Romish clergy, regu- 
 lar and secular, in the twelfth cen- 
 tury, he would read a brief extract 
 from another of his works descrip- 
 tive of the Romish laity; and he 
 selected those people who had pos- 
 sessed the greatest religious advan- 
 tages, who had enjoyed the presence 
 of the popes and cardinals, and 
 had learned at the fountain-head of 
 apostolicity and infallibility — he 
 meant the people of Rome. St. 
 Bernard thus described the popu- 
 lation of Rome in an address to 
 the Pope himself. {St. Bernardi 
 Abbatis, de eonsideratione, lib. iv. 
 c. iii.) " What shall I say of the 
 people ? , They are the Roman 
 people: I cannot explain more 
 briefly, or more expressly, what I 
 think of your parishioners. What 
 is so notorious to the world as the 
 insolence and pride of the Romans, 
 a race of men unaccustomed to 
 peace, and habituated to tumult; 
 rude and ungovernable even to the 
 present day, who only learn obedi- 
 ence, when it is unpossible to 
 resist? .... The;/ are wise above 
 all to commit evil, they know not 
 how to do good. Hateful to earth 
 and heaven, they have laid their 
 hands upon what appertains to each 
 of them ; they are impious towards 
 God, rash violators of holy things, 
 seditious ampng themselves, rivals 
 to their nei^bours, uncivilized 
 towards foreigners ; as they love 
 no one, noboay loves them; and 
 since they desire to be feared by 
 all, as a necessary consequence, 
 they are afraid of all others." 
 
 He feared that he had almost 
 wearied the meetingwith the extracts 
 which he read to them : but it was 
 important to establish the truth, and 
 ,to allay the fervour of architectural 
 fanaticism. He desired not to be 
 
 misunderstood. He did not mean 
 to undervalue the pious labours of 
 those who founded and built com- 
 modious churches ; nor was he 
 averse to decent ornament : all that 
 he meant to say was, that archi- 
 tectural splendour was no conclusive 
 evidence of the spirituality of a 
 visible Church. He would select 
 the finest Roman Catholic cathe- 
 dral in all the glory which was 
 exhibited in it on a late occasion — 
 the canonization of certain saints. 
 On that day it was illuminated by 
 the blaze of 4000 wax candles, all 
 the religious orders , were present 
 in full costume, the cardinals were 
 robed in their most splendid vest- 
 ments, there were discharges of 
 artillery without, and there was 
 most beautiful music vrithin; the 
 Pope was seated on a magnificent 
 throne, elevated upon four pillars, 
 covered with crimson and gold. A 
 finer spectacle could hardly be 
 imagined, and yet he would point 
 out to Mr. Pugin a far excelling 
 temple. He would show him a 
 poor man, clothed in rags, and 
 squalid with honourable, oecause 
 honest poverty, kneeling in a miser- 
 able hut, or perchance kneeling 
 on his dunghill, and offering up 
 from a contrite heart the prayer 
 of faith; and that temple was far 
 more glorious in the eye of the 
 Deity than St. Peter's at the festi- 
 val to which he had referred. Thu 
 former was the temple of the Holy 
 Ghost ; the latter temple was inha. 
 bited by the evil gemus of supei 
 stition and idolatry. His (Mr. 
 Pinch's) opinions upon the subieo! 
 were most accurately expressed iu 
 one of our excellent Church Homi- 
 lies — (Homily on the Eight Use 
 of the Church.) " Indeed, the chief 
 and special temples of God, wherein 
 he hath greatest pleasure, and most 
 deHghteth to dwell and continue in, 
 are the bodies and minds of true 
 
PROTTSSTAJST EXPBESSION OP GRATITUDE. 
 
 683 
 
 Christians, and the chosen people 
 
 of God, &c Yet all this, 
 
 notwithstanding the material Church 
 or temple, is a place appointed, as 
 well hy the usage and contumal 
 examples expressed itt the Old Tes- 
 tament, as in the New, for the 
 people of God to resort together 
 unto ; there to hear God's holy 
 word, to call upon his holy name, 
 to give him thanks for his innu- 
 merable and unspeakable bene- 
 fits bestowed upon us, and duly 
 and truly to celebrate his holy 
 sacraments." But whilst he had 
 thus evidenced the inferiority of 
 the Apostles to the Heathens and 
 Jews, in regard to material archi- 
 tecture, he felt that aa spiritual 
 architects they were infinitely supe- 
 rior to aE who had preceded or 
 succeeded them. They laid the 
 foundations of a temple of most 
 costly materials, composed of Hving 
 stones, and of gold, silver, and 
 precious stones, and so vast in its 
 immensity, that even if Babel could 
 be erected according to the gigantic 
 conceptions of its rebellious pro- 
 jectors, and rearing its head above 
 the clouds, the apostolic temple 
 would be elevated far above it; 
 for whilst that temple was founded 
 upon a rock, its topstone reached 
 even unto the throne of the ever- 
 lasting God. And all good Chris- 
 tian ministers, like the wise master- 
 builder Paul, were engaged in the 
 construction of this spiritual fabric ; 
 and in the courts of heaven then- 
 relative ministerial excellences 
 would be determined, not by their 
 title by succession from the repre- 
 sentatives of " the man of sin," but 
 by the number of living stones 
 which they had placed in Christ's 
 spiritual temple. And ifMr. Pugin 
 desired an architectural design that 
 was more pictorial, he would refer 
 him to the book of God, to which 
 Protestants referred for architec- 
 
 ture as well as faith and piety ; and 
 in the Apocalypse he would find a 
 description of a city, to which he 
 (Mr. Pugin) could present nothing 
 equal, even if he were to collect 
 all that was most architecturally 
 noble and grand in the ancient and 
 modem world, in ancient Home, 
 and Greece, and Asia Minor, and 
 Babylon, and the hundred-gated 
 Thebes. Of the Apocalyptic city, 
 it was related, " And the building 
 of the wall of it was of jasper, 
 and the city was pure gold, like 
 unto clear glass, and the founda- 
 tions of the wall of the city were 
 garnished with all manner of pre- 
 cious stones .... and the twelve 
 gates were twelve pearls, every 
 several gate was of one pearl, and 
 the street of the city was pure gold, 
 as it were transparent glass." And 
 if Mr. Pugin objected that the 
 subject of his essay regarded tem- 
 ples, and not cities, here he (Mr. 
 Pinch) felt emboldened to assume 
 a higher tone, and he would say, 
 that if Mr. Pugin were temporarily 
 invested with ubiquity and omm- 
 potence, and were to spoil a thou- 
 sand suns and ten millions of planets 
 of whatsoever they contained that 
 was most splendid and magnificent, 
 and were out of these spoils to 
 construct a temple for the service 
 of the Deity, that temple -would be 
 as inferior to the Apocalyptic temple 
 as universal nature was inferior to 
 the God of nature. -Por it was 
 written — "And I saw no temple 
 therein, for the Lord God Almighty 
 and the Lamb are the temple of it. 
 This was the architecture of which 
 Protestants boasted — this was the 
 temple which they venerated; and 
 no other temple was fit for the 
 Christian sacrifice, the sacrifice of 
 his love offered up upon the altar 
 of his heart. Into that temple 
 every true believer had ingress; ^es, 
 every penitent sinner -who, rising 
 
684 
 
 PKOTESTANI EXPKESSION Or GBATITITDB. 
 
 upon the wings of faith, entered 
 the hoKest through the veil, which 
 is Christ's flesh, and took refuge 
 in the bosom of his God. 
 
 In conclusion, he entreated the 
 meeting to invite Roman Catholics 
 into thsit temple, and to contend 
 earnestly for the faith once deli- 
 vered to the saints ; to gird them- 
 selves as men of war for the battle, 
 to put on the breastplate of right- 
 eousness and the helmet of salva- 
 
 tion, and to take up the shield of 
 faith, and the sword of the Spirit, 
 which is the word of God ; and 
 to unfurl their banners, streaming 
 with effulgent light from the glo- 
 rious beams of the Sun of righteous- 
 ness, who riseth with healing in his 
 wings ; and to inscribe upon those 
 banners, in characters so plain and 
 legible that he who runs may read 
 them, " No peace with Rome ; peace 
 and love to Roman Catholics." 
 
 X. CLAY, miUTEIl, SaEAS STEEBT HlLl. 
 
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