has not degenerated. Of him it may be said, that never did any man pass through the ordeal of prosperity more un harmed. Raised, successively and rapidly, from the humble and mortified retirement of the cloister, to be first a prince, and then the ruler, of the Church, he has changed nought of the simple habits, the cheerful piety, and the unaffected cordiality, which characterised him there. To the triple coronet which surrounds his brow, has been indeed added a thorny crown, in the political turbulence of his own dominions, and the spoliating and disobedient acts of some of his spiritual provinces. But from these painful topics, he can turn with consolation, to view the daily advances of our holy religion, in this and other distant countries, and the constant increase of his children, where not many years ago, his title could scarce have been whispered without danger. And the name which he bears is one of bright omen for us. Twice has it been the source of grateful recollection to Catholic England. It was the first Gregory who sent Augustine and his companions to convert our ancestors to the faith; and when a giddy spirit of error threatened to overthrow and destroy the work, the 13th of the name stood in the breach, supplied the means of education to our clergy, and cherished in his bosom the little spark, which is now once more breaking into a beautiful flame. It is from the very house of the great Gregory, and of his disciples, Augustine and Justus,* that the present Pontiff came forth to rule the Church, animated with the same zeal, and attached to the same cause. Oh! may the same results attend his desires; may he live to see all the sheep, which are not of his flock, joined unto it, that there may be only one flock and one shepherd; that when Jesus Christ, "the prince of pastors," whose vicar he is, shall appear, we may all "receive a neverfading crown of glory."†

*The Church and Monastery of St Gregory, on the Cœlian Hill, possessed by the Camaldolese Monks, were the house of that Pontiff; and on the portico of the Church is an inscription, recording, that thence went forth the first Apostles of the Anglo-Saxons. In this house, the present Pope lived many years, till created a cardinal.

† 1 Pet. v. 4.

RECAPITULATION OF THE LECTURES ON THE CHURCH.

JOHN iv. 20.

"Our fathers adored on this mountain, but you say that Jerusalem is the place where men should adore."

SUCH, my brethren, was the question which divided men, and men who believed in only one God, at the time of our Saviour's mission; and precisely similar is the question which may be said to divide us now. There are some of us who say, that only we tread the true path of salvation-that only where we adore, is true sacrifice offered to the living God; and on the other hand, there are who reply, "this is the place where our fathers have worshipped-this is the religion which we have been taught by our ancestors: why, therefore, should we be expected to abandon it, on account of the claims of another, and a more exclusive system?" Happy would it be for us, if, like the Samaritan woman in this day's gospel, we had near us One to whom we could refer all our disputes, to whose judgment we should all submissively bow! Happy should we be, could we, in the presence of our blessed Redeemer, visible amongst us, examine our respective claims to be considered the true Church of Christ; and that we could be sure, through His personal decision, that the conclusions we come to, are such as God hath sanctioned!

But, unfortunately I may say for us, although no doubt in the decrees of eternal Providence, most righteously, it is not given us to have such an absolute and final award pronounced in our differences; and hence it is our duty, with all regard to charity, to bring forward our respective claimsand more especially is this our duty, who feel sure that we rest them, on the most solemn, on the most dignified, and the most highly sanctioned ground: if so haply, we may bring to some conclusion, the endless disputes touching religion, which have too long divided us, and those who have gone before us

in the land. I have, so far as my small abilities allowed me, endeavoured to present you with a simple, unvarnished exposition of the Catholic doctrine regarding the rule of faith. I have stated to you the grounds on which we base it -the authority, that is, of God's unerring word; so that we find ourselves bound to submit to the decisions, and to obey the authority, of a power which we are convinced, has been established by Him. But, having extended my subject through so many lectures, and having consequently some reason to fear, that by being thus diluted, the arguments may have lost somewhat of their force, I propose, before entering on Sunday next upon a new and more important topic,* this evening to recapitulate the arguments which I have spread over so many successive discourses, that so their strength may be more condensedly and compactly pressed upon your consideration.

I need not state to you again the great and important difference between us and more modern creeds; that difference of which an eminent English divine, the one who perhaps has written most strongly, in favour of the protestant rule, observes, that "the whole of modern religion may be said to differ essentially on this one point -what is the groundwork whereon faith is to be built?"† I rehearsed to you in my preliminary discourses, the respective opinions of the two religions; and I fully developed the principle of the Catholic rule of faith, consisting in the belief that there was constituted by God, a compact body, or society of teachers, whom He promised always to assist, so as to instruct, through them, till the end of time. The conclusion was, that the Church, or organized society which He had made the depositary of His truth, should not be liable to the smallest

error.

This Catholic doctrine I propounded to you, and placed in + Leslie.

*The Blessed Eucharist.

opposition to that principle of faith which constitutes each individual the judge for himself of what he must believe; which, putting the sacred volume of God's inspired word into his hand, tells him, that it is his duty to discover, and when discovered, to believe, that which may seem there to have been taught. Now, it may be observed, that the truest and best proof of any hypothesis, simply considered as such, is to ascertain that it answers every part of the difficulty which it is intended to meet. For it is with it, as with the solution of a problem, where, if the result answer to all the data or suppositions it contains, and answer so, that on trying one portion by another, all are found to agree together, we are satisfied that the solution is correct. It is only on this principle, that the best grounded and most universally adopted theories of philosophy are based; it is on such reasoning as this, that the whole system of the heavens, according to the Newtonian philosophy, can be said to depend. We can have no means of arriving at an intuitive or direct knowledge of the constitution or construction of things; but where we find that laws hypothetically laid, uniformly correspond with all phenomena, and leave nothing vague, but on the contrary, satisfactorily account for all their parts, such a result is the strongest proof that the system devised accords exactly with the truth of things.

It is on this form of argumentation that I have endeavoured to proceed. First of all, I considered the outward form and inward constitution of the Church of Christ to which he confided his religion, as a state foreshown, constituted, and actually existing. As a state foreshown; inasmuch as I explained to you, how God had ever worked in a certain course or order of providence for the preservation of truth among mankind; how a certain provision was made of old, whereby doctrines and hopes revealed to mankind, but lost to most of the world, in the corruption which ensued, were preserved; in the constitution of a certain establishment dedicated to that purpose. I showed you that this system was merely figurative

of that which was to come; that all the figures, all the imagery and reasoning, and the very phrases which applied to it, were also applied to that which has succeeded it, as though this were to be nothing more than the perfecting, and fulfilling thereof. I endeavoured, at the same time, to explain how it was the natural order of God's providence that the course once commenced should go on in a persevering ordinance, until the end; and how, although we might expect a more perfect development, and brighter manifestations, it would be expecting a violation of His plan of action among men, if we anticipated any sudden change, or complete interruption, in that course which He had once commenced.

I then showed you how, of old, there was a clear indication of some future means for the preservation of truth, and that a really efficacious provision; its necessary tendency being to perfect that of the former state, and therefore not merely to remove, but to exclude and prevent error. This forms one portion of the data given for constructing our system; and necessarily, whatever is built up as the Church of God, must be such as to fit exactly this basement presented in the old law.

We come, then, to the New Testament: all that can be required to frame this superstructure is there, again and again described. We find, precisely, forms of expressions used through these descriptions which lead us to construct in our minds a perfectly corresponding system, so as to prove, that what is there established is really the fulfilment of former expectations. The same imagery is preserved, the very promises are made which seem necessary to fulfil what had been foreshown in the figurative dispensation. The harmony which reigned between the two counterparts upon the Catholic system was manifest, for the Catholic interpretation of the passages in the New Testament alone brought them into accordance with those which had before alluded to the provisions therein to be made; and thus formed the only interpretative link between the prophecy and its fulfilment. And this har