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.

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

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

"Likewise that the saints reigning together with Christ, are to be honoured and invocated; that they offer prayers to God for us, and that their relics are to be venerated.

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

"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.

"I acknowledge the holy catholic and apostolic Roman Church, the mother and mistress of all churches; and I promise and swear true obedience to the Roman bishop, the successor of

St. Peter, prince of the apostles, and vicar of Jesus Christ.

"I also profess and undoubtedly receive all other things delivered, defined, and declared by the sacred canons and general councils, and particularly by the holy council of Trent; and likewise I also condemn, reject, and anathematize all things contrary thereto, and all heresies whatsoever condemned and anathematized by the church.

"This true catholic faith, out of which none can be saved, which I now freely profess, and truly hold, I, N. promise, vow, and swear most constantly to hold and profess the same whole and entire, with God's assistance, to the end of my life. Amen."

II. 3.

The Catechism of the Council of Trent.

THE Council of Trent had recommended to the pope to publish a catechism. By the pope's recommendation, a catechism was composed, under the direction of cardinal Borromeo, by several eminent theologians, principally by father Francis Foreiro a dominican friar, who had attended the council, in quality of theologian to the king of Portugal. The style was afterwards polished by Julius Poggiani. It is indifferently called the Catechism of the Council of Trent, the Roman

It was first published at Rome, in one volume octavo, by Paulus Manutius, under the title "Catechismus Romanus, ex decreto Concilii Tredentini, ad parochos, Pii v. Pontificis Maximi, editus." It is recommended by the erudition, exactness, and conciseness, with which it is written; and by the neatness and elegance of its style. It is, perhaps, the best work which a person, who seeks to obtain a clear and comprehensive knowledge of the roman-catholic creed, can peruse.

II. 4.

Bossuet's Exposition of the Faith of the Catholic Church, in matters of Controversy.

THE unqualified approbation, which this work has received from the universal body of the romancatholic church, gives it a place among, or at least, very near to her symbolic books.

In his controversies with protestants, Bossuet thought he observed that the chief obstacle to their conversion to the roman-catholic religion, arose from their mistaken notions of her doctrines: it therefore appeared to him, that he might greatly facilitate their conversion, by composing a full, but concise exposition of the roman-catholic faith.

It was a work of long and profound meditation. When finished, he caused twelve copies of it to be printed, and circulated them among the prelates

and theologians, by whose opinion and advice he considered it most likely he should be benefited. They returned the copies to him with their written remarks. These, he weighed with great attention, and finally, in December, 1671, gave to the public the Immortal Work. It was accompanied by the formal approbation of the archbishop of Rheims, and ten other bishops. Cardinal Bona, the oracle of the Roman See, to whom Bossuet sent it, wrote him a letter, commending it in the warmest terms of approbation. It was translated into every

European language.

Nothing," to use the words of the bishop of Alais, in his recent Life of Bossuet, (1. iii. s. 14.), "can be compared to the sensation which it excited in every part of christian Europe. Never, since the Council of Trent, had there been seen a consent, so unanimous, of all the catholic churches, to adopt a common expression, in the profession of their opinions. Bossuet's exposition so simple, so clear, and so luminous, of the religious tenets of the Roman church, was an answer to all the imaginary charges, which had been brought against her doctrine, her discipline, and her institutions." Several protestants declared, that nothing was wanting to it, but to be avowed; and that, if it should be universally approved by the theologians of the church of Rome, they should lose their repugnance to their re-union with the roman-catholic church.

Other protestants represented the work differently. Their representation cannot be expressed better, than in the language of the historian of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.—“ In the exposition of the catholic doctrine," says that celebrated writer, in the Memoirs of his own Life and Writings, "Bossuet assumes with consummate art, the tone of candour and simplicity: and the ten-horned monster is transformed, by his magic touch, into a milk-white hind, who must be loved as soon as seen."

Three answers to it were published: one, by M. de la Bastide; another, by M. Noguier; and a third, by M. de Brueys; all of them calvinists of distinction. They agreed in accusing Bossuet of "a disingenuous softening of the real doctrine of the roman-catholic church." They hinted, "how much they desired, that all the members of the church of Rome, should hold the opinions and use the language of Bossuet: this," they observed, "would be a happy commencement of reformation:" but they remarked, that "this was far from being the case;" that "no opinion upon the work had been pronounced by the Pope;" that " it had not even been approved of by the Sarbonne."

But, in due time, this opinion was pronounced, and this approbation obtained. In 1679, pope Innocent expressed his approbation of it, in two briefs, which he addressed to Bossuet; and, in 1682, it was unanimously approved by the general assembly