waited on the family, reproached them with desertion from the cause of Protestantism, retailed all that he could recollect of the charges usually urged by the vulgar on such a subject, exhorted them to read the tracts which he produced, and to retrace their steps. To all the objections urged by this gentleman, during his visit, against the Catholic doctrine and worship, a complete and satisfactory reply was given by the farmer's wife; his statements were proved to be erroneous, his notions on different questions to be vague and unfounded, and his information altogether incorrect, and a wide deviation from the truth. In fact, an uneducated woman, instructed in the principles of the Catholic faith, silenced her clerical adversary in religious disputation. For after answering many vulgar objections usually called arguments, she took the higher ground, and proposed difficulties, of which the honest vicar was unable to find a solution. After a long conference he departed, leaving the tracts for the inspection of the family.

These slender performances were brought to me, and on inspecting them, I thought the whole collection unquestionably entitled-to the most profound contempt. One tract, however, consisting of questions and answers on the summary of the Catholic doctrine, contained in the profession of faith published by Pope Pius IV. appeared less exceptionable than the rest; and on

this I have deemed it a duty to write observations at full length, with a distinct reply to each difficulty proposed. The work has increased to a considerable size; and, together with what I intend to address to your Lordship on the subject of the church, the whole, I flatter myself, will form a compact manual of religious controversy.

In bringing this great question before your view, my Lord, it will be necessary to point out the existence of the church of Christ, as a fact, which no one gifted with reason, and in the possession of his senses, can venture to call in question; then to establish its authority on the same ground; and lastly, to display the properties and distinctive marks, which it bears in those sacred records, which were consigned to the care of this distinguished society. After this process, it will be extremely easy to discover, where this church is to be found.

Agreeably to the remark of Cicero, every discussion should begin with a definition of the subject under consideration, that the matter in debate may be clearly ascertained, and perfectly understood1. The nineteenth of your articles designates the visible church as a society of faithful, in which the pure word of God is preached, and the sacraments administered agreeably to the in

1 Cic. de Offic. lib. i. no. 2. Omnis enim quæ a ratione suscipitur de aliquâ re institutio, debet a definitione proficisci, ut intelligatur quid sit id de quo disputatur.

stitution of Christ. That the pure word of God is preached in the church of Christ, and that the sacraments are administered agreeably to the direction of our Redeemer, can admit no doubt; but this can be known by experience to those only, who are already members of the church. This definition must consequently be deemed deficient, as affording no clue to the unlearned and the ignorant, by which they are to discover where the true church is to be found. A more just and comprehensive view of the true church of Christ may be given, when it is called a society of men, united together by the profession of the same faith, the use of the same sacraments instituted by Christ, and by an orderly submission to the same authority divinely established. This description of the church of Christ, it will be readily admitted, is sufficiently ample to distinguish it from every other society, and to afford to the ignorant and simple an easy means of discovering its existence. The inconveniences and the palpable deficiencies found in the definitions of the reforming doctors, are here avoided; and nothing is wanting to display to public view that visible and spiritual kingdom, which mankind had been taught to expect.

But it is here asked, is it indubitably clear, that independently of the sacred writings, such a society as is here described, can be proved to exist, with authority to teach, to instruct, and to lead mankind to eternal salvation? Yes, my Lord, it

is unquestionably true, that if the sacred Scriptures had never existed, if the commission to teach all nations, given by our Redeemer, had been confined to oral instruction, and to traditional knowledge only, we should still be constrained to admit, in the church, that authority which the Catholic Christian is bound to recognise.

In fact, my Lord, when we view the mean, the abject, the humble appearance of our ever dear and glorious Redeemer in the world; an appearance, according to our corrupted notions, altogether disproportionate to the object of his divine mission; when we contemplate this lowly disguise of the man of sorrows, who clothed himself with our infirmity, who bore every species of want, privation, and distress, and terminated the scene by an ignominious death; when we contrast all these unprecedented circumstances, with certain prophecies, which the Jews carefully preserved, and permitted to be circulated among nations in the popular language of the Greeks; when we take into our view a long series of extraordinary signs and wonders, by which the lost use of the senses was restored, the most inveterate disorders healed instantaneously, and even life recovered; when we regard that wonder of all wonders, the raising up of Christ's sacred body from death to life, after three days; when we consider his glorious ascension, by which ascending on high, he led captivity captive, we are lost

in admiration, and are induced to exclaim with the centurion in the gospel, Truly this was the son of God. Your Lordship will carefully observe, that I collect these particulars from the Scriptures, not considered as a canonical volume, but a common historical record, admitted even by the professed opponents of Christianity; by Celsus, by Julian, by Porphyrius, and even by the incredulous Jew1.

But let us advance farther, and consider the economy of that great work, which was to connect heaven and earth together. Our Redeemer designed to destroy idolatry, and to teach mankind to adore God in spirit and truth; and what was the result? The world, though plunged in the greatest excesses, soon became enamoured of the Christian religion, and embraced it with eagerness. We see recorded the wonderful revolution, by which the whole universe is induced to discard its false gods, its worship, its laws, its maxims, its opinions, its propensities, its manners, its prejudices, its customs, its usages. Our admiration increases upon us, when we take a combined view of the extent of the enterprise, of the period when it commenced, of the instruments that were employed, of the means which were resorted to,

1 Vid. verba Cels. apud Origen, contra Cels. lib. 2. verb. Julian. apud Cyrill. lib. 6. verba Porphyr. apud Euseb. Præpar. lib. 5. c. i. et Benjam. Tudel. in Itinerar.