the 16th and 23d questions, it will be found that the characteristic marks of the true church of Christ, as contained in the sacred volume, are in these pages fully and amply delineated. It therefore only remains to make a due application of the doctrine laid down, and to ascertain with precision, to what class of religionists the claim of being the one and true church of Christ may be said exclusively to belong. This is unquestionably the most important inquiry, that can be brought under discussion, as the consequences involved in it, are not temporal, but eternal. Cras ingens iterabimus æquor. HOR. I. If, from all that has been written in the present address, as well as from the preceding observations on the performance of the catechist, it is incontestibly clear to your Lordship, that Christ always had a church on earth, and that he always will have one church to the end of time, I appeal to your own good sense and candour to decide the merit of the case between the Catholic church and the reforming doctors. Protestantism, my Lord, under any of its diversified forms, was never heard of in the world, till fifteen hundred years after the coming of Christ: it is consequently a complete novelty, as a system of religion; it came too late to establish a shadow of a claim to be the religion introduced by our Redeemer. We know its origin; we can trace that Christ has decidedly promised, that it should be built on a rock, and favoured with his special aid and presence to the end of time; that the Divine Spirit should teach it all truth for ever; that those who should refuse to hear the church should be treated as heathens and unbelievers; if we advert to the declarations of St. Paul on the subject, who assures us that there is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and that the church is the pillar and foundation of truth; if we take a full and comprehensive view of these proofs and illustrations of this matter; we shall remain fully convinced, that Dr. Pearson has not strained the meaning of the words, I believe the holy Catholic church; but that he has furnished a clear, full, and solid elucidation. We shall thus be led to form a just and natural conclusion, that therefore there always has existed on earth, and that there will exist to the end of time, a society, called the church, professing one faith, holy in its doctrine and worship; extended over all nations, and deriving its pedigree from the apostles; an unerring guide in all matters of faith; and in the spiritual concerns of salvation justly claiming the respect, and authoritatively exacting obedience from all those who wish to belong to Christ. If what is here written be compared with the preceding remarks on the performance of the catechist, particularly with the observations on the 16th and 23d questions, it will be found that the characteristic marks of the true church of Christ, as contained in the sacred volume, are in these pages fully and amply delineated. It therefore only remains to make a due application of the doctrine laid down, and to ascertain with precision, to what class of religionists the claim of being the one and true church of Christ may be said exclusively to belong. This is unquestionably the most important inquiry, that can be brought under discussion, as the consequences involved in it, are not temporal, but eternal. Cras ingens iterabimus æquor. HOR. I. If, from all that has been written in the present address, as well as from the preceding observations on the performance of the catechist, it is incontestibly clear to your Lordship, that Christ always had a church on earth, and that he always will have one church to the end of time, I appeal to your own good sense and candour to decide the merit of the case between the Catholic church and the reforming doctors. Protestantism, my Lord, under any of its diversified forms, was never heard of in the world, till fifteen hundred years after the coming of Christ: it is consequently a complete novelty, as a system of religion; it came too late to establish a shadow of a claim to be the religion introduced by our Redeemer. We know its origin; we can trace its progress; we can mark its countless variations; we see the weak and flimsy foundation on which it stands. Human pride, human passion, human propensities, presided at its birth, fostered its infancy, matured its growth, and confirmed its strength. The two great patriarchs of reform, Luther and Calvin, both candidly acknowledge, that they separated from the WHOLE WORLD'. Will your Lordship inform me, by what logic, either natural or artificial, a system of religion, called the reformed faith, adopted under such circumstances, and introduced at so late a period, can claim to be the religion of Christ? Will your Lordship venture to affirm, after acknowledging the existence of a church, founded by Christ, and destined to last from his first to his second coming, that a conventicle, whether provincial or national, or a collection of such conventicles, independent of each other, can, by any construction of language, be pronounced to be the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church; a church founded full fifteen hundred years before they saw the light? You will immediately be reduced to exclaim: Credat Judæus Apella, Non ego. No man, in his sober senses, and with any re 1 Loc. cit. gard to character, consistency, and truth, can venture to make so bold an assertion. The prescription of fifteen hundred years forms a title of no inconsiderable duration; a title, which has often been assailed, and has as often remained unhurt after the severest conflicts. If Tertullian, about two hundred years after Christ, could set up the claim of prescription against Marcion, Apelles, and various heretics of his time, this same claim will assuredly not lose any portion of its weight and strength after a lapse of fifteen hundred years. If the Catholic church in the days of that father had not forfeited its credit and respectability, when it could boast an existence of a comparatively short date, the lengthened period of fifteen hundred years should surely have been deemed a bar to all foreign and adventitious claims whatever. I will cite at length the passage, to which I allude, from Tertullian; with whose strong sense and African roughness of style, I was the first to make your Lordship acquainted, by putting into your hands an edition of the Apologetic, and of the Prescriptions by the Abbé de Gourcy, accompanied with his excellent translation of those celebrated pieces. This illustrious father represents the Catholic church holding this language to the heretics of his time: "Who are you? and when and whence did you come? What have you to do in my domains, who are none of mine? On |