hearts glowed with the tenderest love of the unhappy objects who had fallen under God's displeasure. Turks, Jews, Atheists, and the numberless infidel tribes, may as justly upbraid with a want of charity every denomination of Christians who assent to the Athanasian Creed, or who admit the necessity of baptism and divine faith, as our separated brethren upbraid us Roman Catholics, for be lieving that there is only one true religion revealed by the God of Truth, and that the Roman Catholic Religion is that true one. If separated Christian communities have, in their own opinion, an indisputable claim to cha rity, while they unhesitatingly pronounce the Roman Catholic Religion damnable and idolatrous, though professed by the greater part of Christendom, it is doubtless because they conceive that such sentiments and language are dictated by truth, and because their conscience bears them testimony that they are sincerely well affected to Roman Catholics and infidels, while they thus, however reluctantly, condemn them. Now Roman Catholics feel warranted to assert their claim to the tenderest charity upon the very same grounds. To them it appears as undeniable as the very existence of the Godhead, that the Religion revealed by him, must be essentially One, con sistent throughout, and perfectly accordant in all it prescribes and professes. To assert that God can declare to one body of Christians that certain points are to be believed, and to another that they are not to be believed, is to attribute to him what is incompatible with his very nature: it would authorize the infidelity of the Atheist, who may then triumphantly boast, that he can never be justly condemned for refusing to believe in a God who contradicts himself. It is not less incredible, that among the multitude of religions, more than one can be right. But while Roman Catholics, weighing maturely the distinctive qualities of the Church established by Jesus Christ, perceive that these qualities exclusively belong to that ancient and widely extended body of Christians in com munion with the See of Rome; they at the same time declare, in the face of heaven and earth, that they are strictly bound to love their neighbour, and that every human being, let his religion, his practice, or his prejudice be what they may, is that very neighbour whom they are

bound to love. They further with equal solemnity declare, that as to live in hatred of any denomination whatsoever of their fellow creatures, is to live in enmity with God, so to die in such hatred is to forfeit heaven, to die reprobated. Roman Catholics also, while they believe their own religion to be the only true one, are con vinced that great numbers are comprised within its pale, who do not adhere to it by any visible bond of communion. All baptized infants; all innocent children of every religious persuasion; and all grown-up Christians who have preserved their baptismal innocence, though they make no outward profession of the Catholic faith, are yet claimed as her children by the Roman Catholic Church. Neither have we any difficulty in believing, with many individuals of our communion, that there are several in the British empire, as well as in other countries, professing the religion by law established there, whose uniform integrity of life, whose ardent love of God, and sincere disposition to embrace the truth, if they but knew it, not only open for them the road to salvation, but afford them more solid grounds to expect that blessing, than these Roman Catholics have, who live in constant disobedience to the dictates of their religion, and who deny, by their practice, the faith which they profess.

Are Roman Catholics taught to believe or to assert, that all those of other religions will be damned?

No, most assuredly, they are not. If ignorance, embittered by resentment, has ever given utterance to similar expressions, these are not the language of Roman Catholics as such; which fully appears by the foregoing answer, and is further manifest, from their being taught to believe, that God alone knows who shall be his by faith and good works that many are not now the people of God, who shall one day be numbered in his inheritance; that many shall come from the East and from the West, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven, while the children of that kingdom shall be excluded. Moreover, final perseverance is a most profound secret, absolutely impervious to mortals; it is pent up in the bosom of the Deity. No man, without a special revelation, can ascertain what passes, at

the moment of death, between the dying Christian and his God. It is ours earnestly to desire eternal happiness for every fellow-creature; to work out our salvation with fear and trembling; not to be high-minded, nor to judge others, that we ourselves be not judged; but to hope humbly for all, in the infinite mercies of God, through Jesus Christ.

But, at least, is it not very uncharitable in Roman Catholics, to abjure all manner of communication in religious exercises, with those of every other religion?

This abjuration, or refusal, so far from being uncharitable, is in their mind enforced by the truest charity. Convinced as Roman Catholics are, and firmly persuaded that there is, and that there can be, no other true religion than their own, they cannot consistently, nor candidly, nor lawfully approve, or even appear to approve, any other religion, which they certainly should appear to do, were they thus to join in these religious exercises, or frequent places of worship belonging to separated communions. Such temporizing conduct has the aspect of prevarication it is, in short, betraying the truth of God. In their principles they must abhor it, as calculated to delude their separated brethren into an unfounded, and therefore into a most dangerous security. Charity here compels them to stand off. Besides, esteeming the gift of divine faith to be invaluable, in as much as, without faith, it is impossible to please God, they cannot innocently expose themselves to the danger of losing it.

But still, when those of other religions scruple not occasionally to attend at Roman Catholic Sermons, and at religious exercises, in Roman Catholic places of worship, would there not be something more brotherly in returning this compliment, than in standing off with such rigour?

The preceding answer has anticipated a negative to this question; it is now in addition to be observed, that the principles of other religions allow of such communication; the principles of the Roman Catholic Religion peremptorily forbid it. Were a set of men, however individually respectable, to assemble as a deliberative body, with a view of reforming what they deem abuses in the constitution of Great Britain; were these men to propose to the imperial parliament a coalition with the legislative

body, whereby they should be entitled to assist at the deliberations of parliament, and the members of the legislature be admissible to sit with them in turn, every one is aware of the fate of such a proposal; and every one who is convinced of the essential unity of the Church, as well as of its necessary and indefectible identity, in every age, from its first establishment by Christ to the end of the world, must consistently reject, with at least equal aversion, every similar proposal of religious reci. procity.

Can it then be sinful, to listen to the word of God? Is not his word good in all places, and wherever it is preached?

The pure, unadulterated word of God, is certainly good in itself every where; but all is not the word of God which passes under that name; the original Hebrew, Chaldaic, and Greek manuscripts, are no longer in existence: there are a great number of copies indeed, and very many translations; but copies can so far only be the word of God, as they are faithful transcripts of the originals; and translations are that word, no farther than they truly express the sense of it. Now it is undeniable, that numberless spurious copies are in circulation, corrupted by Jews, and ancient Eastern Heretics; so that, abstracting from the testimony of the Church, this authorized guardian of the Scriptures, and voucher of their authenticity, there can be no certain assurance that any individual copy or translation is indeed the word of God; a circumstance of such weight in the judgment of the great St. Augustin, as made him declare, that he would not receive the four Gospels, if not induced thereto by the authority of the Catholic Church. And if the Scriptures so far back as the time of St. Peter, when the living voice of the Apostles discriminated for the faithful the pure from the corrupt, could still be wrested by the unlearned and unstable to their own perdition, how much more liable are these Scriptures now to misconceptions and misrepresentations among the sects, where the authority of that Church is rejected, and where the Scriptures are presumptuously expounded according to the dictates of private judgment!

When it is also notorious, that various translations have, in many places, forced the word of God into such

hearts glowed with the tenderest love of the unhappy objects who had fallen under God's displeasure. Turks, Jews, Atheists, and the numberless infidel tribes, may as justly upbraid with a want of charity every denomination of Christians who assent to the Athanasian Creed, or who admit the necessity of baptism and divine faith, as our separated brethren upbraid us Roman Catholics, for believing that there is only one true religion revealed by the God of Truth, and that the Roman Catholic Religion is that true one. If separated Christian communities have, in their own opinion, an indisputable claim to cha rity, while they unhesitatingly pronounce the Roman Catholic Religion damnable and idolatrous, though professed by the greater part of Christendom, it is doubtless because they conceive that such sentiments and language are dictated by truth, and because their conscience bears them testimony that they are sincerely well affected to Roman Catholics and infidels, while they thus, however reluctantly, condemn them. Now Roman Catholics feel warranted to assert their claim to the tenderest charity upon the very same grounds. To them it appears as undeniable as the very existence of the Godhead, that the Religion revealed by him, must be essentially One, consistent throughout, and perfectly accordant in all it prescribes and professes. To assert that God can declare to one body of Christians that certain points are to be believed, and to another that they are not to be believed, is to attribute to him what is incompatible with his very nature: it would authorize the infidelity of the Atheist, who may then triumphantly boast, that he can never be justly condemned for refusing to believe in a God who contradicts himself. It is not less incredible, that among the multitude of religions, more than one can be right. But while Roman Catholics, weighing maturely the distinctive qualities of the Church established by Jesus Christ, perceive that these qualities exclusively belong to that ancient and widely extended body of Christians in communion with the See of Rome; they at the same time declare, in the face of heaven and earth, that they are strictly bound to love their neighbour, and that every human being, let his religion, his practice, or his prejudice be what they may, is that very neighbour whom they are