they explained the Catholic doctrine with the greatest perspicuity, and defined the articles of faith with the utmost precision. Many wholesome regulations were also framed for the reformation of manners, and the restoration of discipline *"

Thus the Church of Rome, soon after the Reformation, reformed a little in some points of decorum, but not of doctrine; for this last Council, which was far from being general, was so managed by the popes, and so fully confirmed their corruptions, that it was unanimously rejected by all those who maintained the necessity of a reformation. And to strengthen their party, propagate their errors, and gain converts, the Pope, by a Bull dated 1540, erected the new order of Jesuits, who, with these ends in view, disposed themselves into every nation, and acted with amazing industry and zeal; insomuch that no difficulty occurred which they could not surmount, no danger so imminent which they have not undergone, nor any crimes so shocking which they have not perpetrated, to serve the cause. And that they might be able to defend their errors by the authority of antiquity, and to prevent, if possible, the effect of the books which had been published by Wickliffe, Luther, and other Protestants, the Council of Trent appointed catalogues to be made of such writings as should be published contrary to its own canons and decrees, declaring that the offenders should be severely punished by the Inquisition. The first Index Expurgatorius, or Catalogue, was published by Pius IV., with certain rules,' to which others were added by Sixtus Quintus, and Clement VIII. + Their design was to smother the truth, by censuring all sorts of men, and all kinds of books; by adding to, or taking from them, or otherwise changing or altering them at pleasure. Thus the Decretal Epistles were counterfeited to prop the Pope's spiritual power, and Constantine's donation to support his temporal. But, unluckily for them and their

66

* On the subject of the General Councils, the members of this church refer us to L'Abbè, Baronius, Nat. Alexander, Berti, Fleury, &c. Father Sarpi's “ History of the Council of Trent" they condemn, and refer for a confutation of it to Cardinal Pallavicini's History of the same Council, composed from the original acts, kept in the Vatican library, and communicated to him by order of Pope Alexander the Sixth." On the other hand, that the Council of Trent was far from general, see Bishop Jewel's "Defence of his Apology" Jurieu's "Council of Trent;" Bishop Stillingfleet's "Council of Trent Examined and Disproved by Catholic Tradition;" Geddes (of Sarum)'s" Council of Trent no free Assembly;" and the "Christian Observer" for 1810, p. 284.

+ See Jenkins's "Histor. Examination of the Authenticity of Councils," and Peck's "Catalogue of Writers in King James's Time," No. 207, p. 5.

cause, which must no doubt be bad to require such means of support, as these Indexes grow and multiply, they vary; so that what the Inquisitor of one place tolerates, the Inquisitor of another place condemns. Hence all the editions they print of the Fathers, the Councils, &c. are altered and mutilated just as they please; and the later editions are found to be more corrupted than the former *. And further, in order to suppress those who separated from the Roman communion and renounced the papal authority, the popes engaged the house of Austria and other princes in wars, invasions, assassinations, and massacres, for above a century, in Germany; stirred up the civil wars in France; the long wars between Spain and the United Provinces, &c. But all to no purpose; for, instead of recovering their lost sheep, or of extending the pale of their church since the era of the Reformation, they are obliged to admit that they have not lost in point of numbers, and they maintain, that, in lieu of the fair portion cut off from their church by the Reformers and Reformed, " millions have received her faith in the East and West Indies, on the coast of Africa, and in America South and North."

Bishop Burnet's "Travels" will afford much information on the state of this church in his time; Dr. John Moor's "View of Society and Manners in Italy," will furnish the reader with a tolerable knowledge of its state at the close of the last century; and, for its general history, see Dupin's and Mosheim's Eccles. Histories, Dr. Jortin's "Remarks on Eccles. History," together with Milner's " History of the Church of Christ."

DISTINGUISHING TENETS.

The Church of Rome has all along received the Apostles', the Nicene, and the Athanasian Creeds: yet her faith has frequently changed, notwithstanding the strong assertions of her members to the contrary; nor was it ever fixed by any public authoritative symbol, until the Council of Trent, when the following, which contains the substance of the decrees and canons of that famous council, and is styled the "Creed of Pope Pius IV.," became the accredited and legitimate standard of her faith.

It is introduced with the Nicene Creed, and is expressed in these terms:

"I, N. N., with a firm faith believe and profess all and every article contained in the symbol of faith which the holy Roman Church maketh use of viz. I believe in one God, the

* See James's "Corruptions of the Fathers."

Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible: and in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, and born (ex Patre natum) of the Father before all ages; God of God, Light of Light, true God of the true God; begotten, not made; consubstantial to the Father; by whom all things were made: who for us men, and for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary, and was made man was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate; suffered, and was buried and the third day he rose again, according to the Scriptures, and ascended into heaven; sits at the right hand of the Father; and is to come again with glory, to judge the living and the dead; of whose kingdom there shall be no end: And in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Giver of life; who proceeds from the Father and the Son; who, together with the Father and the Son, is adored and glorified; who spoke by the Prophets. And I believe one holy Catholic and Apostolic Church; I confess one baptism for the remission of sins; and I look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen."

"13. I most stedfastly admit and embrace apostolical and ecclesiastical Traditions, and all other observances and constitutions of the same church.

"14. I also admit the holy Scriptures, according to that sense which our holy mother the Church has held, and does hold, to which it belongs to judge of the true sense and interpretation of the Scriptures: neither will I ever take and interpret them otherwise than according to the unanimous consent of the fathers.

"15. I also profess that there are truly and properly seven Sacraments of the new law instituted by Jesus Christ our Lord, and necessary for the salvation of mankind, though not all for every one,-viz. Baptism, Confirmation, Eucharist, Penance, Extreme Unction, Order, and Matrimony; and that they confer grace; and that of these, Baptism, Confirmation, and Order cannot be reiterated without sacrilege. I also receive and admit the received and approved ceremonies of the Catholic Church, used in the solemn administration of the aforesaid sacraments.

"16. I embrace and receive all and every one of the things which have been defined and declared in the holy Council of Trent, concerning Original Sin and Justification. "17. I profess likewise, that in the Mass there is offered to God a true, proper, and propitiatory sacrifice for the living and the dead: and in the most holy sacrament of the Eucharist,

there is truly, really, and substantially the body and blood, together with the soul and divinity, of our Lord Jesus Christ; and that there is 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 conversion the Catholic Church calls transubstantiation.

"18. I also confess, that under either kind alone, Christ whole and entire, and a true sacrament, is received.

"19. I constantly hold that there is a purgatory, and that the souls therein detained are helped by the suffrages of the faithful."

66

20. Likwise, that the Saints, reigning together with Christ, are to be honoured and invoked; and that they offer prayers to God for us, and that their relics are to be had in veneration.

"21. I most firmly assert, that the images of Christ, of the Mother of God ever virgin, and also of the other saints, ought to be had and retained, and that due honour and veneration is to be given them.

"22. I also affirm, that the power of indulgences was left by Christ in the church, and that the use of them is most wholesome to Christian people.

"23. I acknowledge the holy Catholic Apostolic Roman Church, for the mother and mistress of all churches*; and I promises true obedience to the bishop of Rome, successor to St. Peter, prince of the Apostles, and vicar of Jesus Christ.

24. I likewise undoubtedly receive and profess all other things delivered, defined, and declared by the sacred Canons and General Councils, and particularly by the holy Council of Trent and I condemn, reject, and anathematize all things contrary thereto, and all heresies which the church has condemned, rejected, and anathematized.

"I, the same N., promise, vow, and swear, through God's help, to hold and confess most constantly, to my last breath, this true Catholic faith, entire and inviolable, which at present I willingly profess and truly hold, and out of which none can be saved; and that I will take care, in as far as I can, that the same shall be held, taught, and professed by those who are under me, or of whom I shall have charge by my office. So help me God, and these Gospels of God. Ament."

See above, p. 268, note *.

+ The University of Oxford, or the delegates of the University press, speaking of this Creed in the preface to the Sylloge Confessionum," printed at Oxford in 1804, use these words, "Professio Tridentina, aperta certè et simplex, sine ulla tergiversatione ea exhibet dogmata, in quibus post

To this creed, "rightly understood," all Roman Catholics must assent, under pain of anathema, and by it make a profession of their faith. But whether, and how far, their own illustrations of it, which I now subjoin, and with all the fidelity in my power, shall tend to the right understanding of it, I leave the reader to judge for himself, after remarking, that, in order to his forming a right judgment, it will be requisite that he compare them, not only with the creed itself, but also with the decrees and canons of the Trent Council, on which it is founded, and which it requires all members of this church not only undoubtedly to "receive and profess," but also "to hold and confess most constantly," to their " last breath."

The first of the above articles which distinguishes this church from every other, and which is a very important one, is the 13th. By this article her members acknowledge tradition as a ground and rule of faith, and as containing the word of God equally with the Scriptures, which, as well as tradition, they receive on the authority of their church.

The traditions of the church have been preserved, they tell us, in the writings of the Fathers-of the Doctors of the church-of the Divines and Canonists of latter ages-in approved catechisms, rituals, books of worship, &c. And the consent of the Fathers and Doctors *, in any point of faith or morals, is considered by them "as an irrefragable proof of Divine tradition +."

14. According to the Roman Catholics, the word of God is two-fold, written and unwritten; in other words, is contained in Scripture and tradition. To them it is equally the word of God, whether recorded in the books of the Old Testament, sanctioned anew by Jesus Christ; committed to writing at different times in the books of the New Testament; or delivered by oral instruction, to each successive generation, by the Apostles at first, and afterwards by those to whom their powers were transmitted.

exhaustas fere cum Reformatoribus controversias subsedit Ecclesia Ro

mana.

Some of the Fathers were also styled Doctors of the Church; and besides these, there are some scholastic divines to whom that honourable appellation has been given; viz. "St. Anselm, St. Thomas of Aquinas, and St. Bonaventure."

+ Bellarmine defines Scripture and Tradition, by calling the former Verbum Dei scriptum, and the latter Verbum Dei non scriptum.

"No author," says Bishop Marsh," whether Romanist or Protestant, should write about Scripture and tradition, till he has studied the works of Bellarmine."-Comparative View, &c, (p. 154); a work which may be consulted on this subject with much profit, together with Archbishop Tillotson's" Rule of Faith," 8vo. 1688.