appointed by Christ to lead mankind to the truth of his religion, is proved by the author, where he shews, that it has led numberless persons into the very depth of folly, impiety, and wickedness. That the second method, that of each man's particular interpretation of Scripture, was not ordained by Christ to be this rule, is demonstrated by as numerous and as egregious instances of folly, impiety, and wickedness, which it has produced, and continues to produce among the discordant sects of Christians, who profess to follow Scripture as their only rule. In further proof that Christ did not appoint Holy Scripture to be the adequate rule of Christian faith, the author has observed, that Christ wrote no part of it; that he gave no orders to his Apostles to write any part of it, nor to his followers at large so much as to learn to read it. He added, in conclusion, what must strike every reflecting mind, that no state or society of men whatsoever could or can be governed, or so much as subsist, by means of mere written laws, without judges and magistrates to decide on their meaning, and to enforce their observance.

Proceeding to the third, or the Catholic rule of faith, namely, the entire word of God, whether written or unwritten, as preserved and interpreted by the Church of Christ (which implies that besides a rule of faith, Christ has also left a guardian and an interpreter of that rule), the au

thor demonstrated that to follow this is the only right way of coming to the truth of religion. He shewed, in the first place, that all written laws are grounded on unwritten laws; which he proved, with respect to the laws of England, by the testimony of Judge Blackstone, in his celebrated commentaries; and, with respect to the rule of faith, by that of the Right Rev. Dr. Marsh, who acknowledges that "the unwritten word or tradition was the first rule of Christianity,"* (but, without pretending to shew when or how it lost its authority, in consequence of some part of the Christian truths being consigned to writing); hence he inferred that Divine Tradition must be of equal authority with Divine Scripture. He shewed from the Gospel, that Christ sent his Apostles to preach the Gospel to every creature;† not to distribute Bibles throughout the universe; that the Apostles and their successors followed this method of oral instruction, and converted, among the rest, whole tribes of people, who were not acquainted with the use of letters, many years, and even some centuries, must have intervened and did intervene before the different churches could compare together the different Gospels and Epistles in their possession, in order

that

* Comparative View, p. 61.

+ Mark, xvi. 15.

S. Iren. Advers. Hær. Tertul. Præscrip.

to determine which of them were genuine, and which spurious; which of them were of divine, and which only of human authority: while, in the mean time, the truths of Christianity continued to be preserved and propagated, chiefly by the tradition of the Church, which she had received from the Apostles: that this twofold rule of Scripture and Tradition, joined with the authority of the Church, was that to which the Holy Fathers and Doctors have at all times resorted for determining questions of faith and preserving Unity in the Church. Finally, the "Author has shewn that it is still more presumptuous and foolish for an individual to insist upon explaining the Scripture for himself, contrary to the interpretation of the Catholic Church (which alone can vouch to him that the Scripture is genuine and inspired), than it would be for the same individual, having a cause at issue in any court, to rush into it, and snatching the statute-book out of the hands of the judges, to proclaim that he can explain it better than all of them put together.

The sincere Christian, having once found the right rule of Faith, may be said to have arrived at THE END OF RELIGIOUS CONTROVERSY. He need not interrogate the hundreds and thousands of different sects of Christians which have branched off from the main stock, during the eighteen hundred years of her existence, what grounds they had for their several

C

creeds and practices; he need not hunt through the Bible, from the beginning of Genesis to the end of the Revelations, to form a system of religion for himself, which, otherwise, that is to say if Scripture were his only rule, he would be bound to do. He has only to inquire, "what does the Catholic Church of all ages and all nations teach? she that is the heiress of the promise of Christ? What doctrine has she received from the Apostles? How does she understand the controverted passages of the Scripture? For common sense, as well as duty, tells me to listen to her, in preference to all those varying sects, and to my own erring opinion.

But whereas some of the sectaries in question presume, at times, to dispute the claim of the Catholic Church to be the True Church of Christ, and either arrogate that title to themselves, or still more absurdly attribute it to all the contending, contradictory, and even impious and immoral sects, that call themselves Christians, in common; and whereas the question, which is the true Church of Christ? admits of a more easy and convincing solution than the former question, which is the right Rule of Faith? The author has fully discussed this matter, in the second part of his END OF CONTROVERSY, shewing that there are four exterior characteristics, or visible marks of Christ's True Church, which are acknowledged to belong to it by all Christians who receive the Apostles' and the Ni

cene Creeds, UNITY, HOLINESS, CATHOLICITY, and APOSTOLICTY; they being contained in this article, I believe in One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church. He then goes on to prove, that these marks are clearly visible in the Catholic Church, and are wanting in every other Christian society; that she alone, though spread throughout the nations of the world, is exclusively ONE all her children, every where, believing the same doctrines; practising the same religious rites of sacrifice and the sacraments; and acknowledging the same ecclesiastical authority whereas the different societies of Protestants (to speak of them alone) are not only divided in all these respects from each other, but also disunited and differing each of them among themselves. He shews that the same Church is supereminently and visibly HOLY, in her doctrine, in her distinctive practices of holiness; in the fruits of holiness, which she at all times has produced, and in the attestation of her sanctity which God continues to afford her. It was an easy task for the author to prove that, as the true Church is Catholic in name, so she is Catholic or Universal, both as to time and place ;-nor was it more difficult to demonstrate to the eye, by an engraved genealogical Table, as well as to the reason by a sketch of Ecclesiastical history, that she alone is Apostolical, deriving her Doctrine, her Orders, and her Mission in regular succession, from the Apostles of Christ.