never to abandon it. It is infallible like himself, and we have the words of our blessed Redeemer for it: "I will build my Church upon a rock (he says), and the gates of hell shall never prevail against it."

Now it is a fact that cannot be denied, that from the earliest ages the Bishops of Rome, as successors of St. Peter, have ever been acknowledged as the supreme rulers of the whole Church of Christ on earth, and that they have spiritual jurisdiction in every part of the Church wherever the state of affairs called for the exercise of their authority, in order to preserve unity in faith and in ecclesiastical government, and to enforce in all nations the observance of the law of Christ. I shall here remark, that our adversaries are continually taunting us, by asking the following question: "In what court does this infallible judge decide your controversies in faith?" They wish to make the world believe that they have a great advantage over us when they put this question; for by so doing they conceive they put us at variance with one another, because some will say, first, the Pope can infallibly, by himself, without a council, decide all controversies; others will say, secondly, that a council can do this without a Pope; but I must tell them, thirdly, that all and every one of us (without the least disagreement) do and will unanimously acknowledge, that all those definitions declare an infallible truth, which are set forth by the Pope defining with a General Council: any one way of defining infallibly is enough, and is sufficient to end all controversies; let our adversaries yield this one point, and we will press them no farther. If they will not yield to the Pope defining jointly with a Council, I am quite sure they will not yield to a Pope alone, nor to a Council standing by itself.

If God has provided us with one sure and infallible way to know every necessary point of faith, and to preserve us all in unity concerning all matters declared by this infallible authority (such as we hold this authority to be), it is impossible that we should want sufficient means to maintain that unity which is necessary for the Church, or that guidance which is requisite for our salvation.

If their opinion be true, who say, that the judgment pronounced by the Pope alone, is sufficiently infallible to do this without a General Council-these persons therefore, furnish us with two means of necessary direction, for they do not destroy, but maintain the former; because no man is so foolish as to hold the definitions of the Pope to be infalli

ble without a Council, and to be fallible with one. So also no man with any pretensions to common sense will say, that the definitions of Councils are infallible without a Pope; and that they are not infallible when Councils define together with the Pope. But these persons who assert, that Councils defining even without a Pope are infallible, do also add a third means of infallible direction. The one way I speak of is allowed by every one, and this one way is sufficient for all. You see then, this disagreement gives Protestants not the least advantage to deny the infallibility of the Roman Church, as long as by this name we always understand either this Church, speaking according to universal tradition, or the Church represented in a General Council, by which we mean the Bishop of Rome, our supreme Pastor, decreeing with a lawful General Council.

The infallibility of the Church, thus understood, is a point of Catholic faith; the others are opinions of Catholic Divines, but all agree in exacting the belief of the infallibility of the Church, taken in this sense, as we still take it. If I am asked, not my opinion, but my belief (I pray mark the distinction), I assert, that all Catholics throughout the world unanimously agree that the supreme Bishop of the Church, or Pope, defining with a General Council, is the infallible judge of all controversies; and, surely, it cannot appear extraordinary to any Christian, that the same God who gave an infallible assistance to Solomon (who proved an idolater) that the Church might enjoy the benefits of his book, should give either the supreme Pastor of the Church, or the Church represented in a General Council, for that particular time, his infallible assistance, that the whole Church might enjoy so great a benefit, as is the secure direction in all points of faith, and the perpetual preservation in unity of faith, not possible to be obtained by us by any other means.

Let me ask, who can think it strange that Christ, for the secure direction of all the first Christians, converted only in the days of the Apostles, should give this infallibility to all and to every one of the Apostles, and that he should regard so little the secure direction of that infinite number of Christians who were to be converted after the Apostles' time to the very end of the world, that, for their sakes, and for the secure direction of their souls and their preservation in the unity of faith, he would not give this infallibility even to one man? No; nor to the Church represented in a General

Council, even for the short time in which they take to pass their decrees concerning the most important affairs in Christendom; especially seeing that on the one side this gift of infallibility is not given to them as private individuals, but bestowed on them for the universal good and necessary direction, concord, and perpetual unity of the whole Church; and on the other side, that, even now, after we have the Scripture, the necessity of this infallibility is so great, that our adversaries, with that eminent Protestant Divine, Dr. Fern, are obliged to own, "That such a judge or umpire of Christendom (as a Council endued with infallibility), would (if to be had) be a ready means to compose all differences and restore truth and peace." Is it then extraordinary that God should give so necessary a gift, or a gift so beneficial to his Church? Women and children belong to the Church, yet every one will allow that Church government belongs not to them; the laity also have no decisive voice, for they are sheep, and not pastors. The government of the Church belongs to such as are prelates, overseers, and governors over the rest. "Bishops placed by the Holy Ghost over all the flock to feed (or govern) the Church of God."—(Acts xx. 28.) For, not lay, but ecclesiastical magistrates, are said (Ephes. iv.) "to be given us by Christ, that henceforth we may not be carried about with every wind of doctrine, &c." It was not to a lay-magistrate, but to a bishop, that Christ said, "Feed my sheep."-John xxi. 15.

For the information of my Readers, I will here relate (out of Rufinus, 1. 10, and Caranza's Sum. just before the Council of Nice,) how the first General Council was assembled in the days of the first Christian emperor, Constantine the Great. Rufinus having related how the heresy of Arius growing up to the ruin of Christendom, Constantine the Great (ex Sententia Sacerdotum, by the advice or judgment of the Priests,) called together an Episcopale Concilium, a council of Bishops to judge the propositions and questions of Arius. Behold here their power of judging acknowledged by their calling, coming, and sitting, for they were called, they came, and they sat for no other purpose but to put an end to controversies by their decisions. And then he tells us how those Bishops commenced by making in writing complaints against each other to the Emperor; he putting all those papers in his pocket without ever opening or looking into them, said to the Bishops, "God has appointed you priests, and given you power even to judge us also, and,

therefore, we are rightly judged by you; but you (speaking of them as a whole council) cannot be judged by men; wherefore, expect only the judgment of God upon you; and that your complaints, whatever they be, may be reserved to be examined by Almighty God; for you are given to us by God as judges, (that is, judges in his place.) It is not convenient that men should judge the Gods; but he alone of whom it is written, (Psal. lxxxii.) 'God standeth in the congregation of the Gods; he judgeth among the Gods."" Constantine having said this, he commanded all those papers to be burnt. And when the sentence of the Council defining that the Son of God was consubstantial to his Father, was brought to him, "ille tanquam a deo prolatam veneratur, &c. that is, he reverenced this sentence as pronounced by God himself; and if any one should presume to go against it, he protested that he would banish him, as a man going against the divine statutes."

I shall now very briefly shew how the decrees of General Councils ought to be reverenced as divine. Hence St. Athanasius, in Epis. ad Episcop. Africanos, after this selfsame definition said, "The word of God by the Nicene Council does remain for ever and ever." Hence St. Hormisda, C. sic, ille dist. 58, saith, "We believe that in them (the Fathers of this Council) the Holy Ghost spoke." Hence St. Cyril (in the Council of Ephesus, tom. i. Ep. 1,) speaks thus of the Fathers of the Council of Nice, "They, lest they should swerve from the truth, being inspired by the Holy Ghost, (because it was not they who spoke, but the Spirit of God who spoke in them, as Christ our Saviour protesteth,) have set forth the rule of pure and unblameable faith." So far this great saint; the parenthesis also is his. In another place he says, "How can it be doubted but that Christ did preside invisibly in that Holy and Great Council."—Epis. ad Anastas. Alexandrinum. St. Leo, says, "That what this Council defines, is sealed by the Holy Ghost." St. Isidore, in his Preface to his Collection of Canons, not only recommends what the first four Councils have defined, but saith also of the decrees of other Councils: "That they stand firmly settled in all vigour, which the Holy Fathers, full of the Holy Ghost, have established." Mark how common it is to ascribe the decrees of the Councils to the assistance of the Holy Ghost, to whom, to ascribe anything that might be an error, is a great sacrilege. Also St. Leo (Ep. lxxxiv. ad Anast.) calls the canons of the Holy Fathers, "made by the

Spirit of God, consecrated by the reverence given to them by the whole world." And Epis. lxxiii. he says, "The Council of Chalcedon was assembled by the Holy Ghost, that their definitions were a rule proceeding from divine inspiration."

Hence St. Ambrose, speaking of heretics condemned by a Council, (Lib. de Fide ad Gratianum, c. 9,)" They were not condemned by human industry, but by the authority (more than human) of those Fathers." For as St. Gregory Nazian saith in his Oration to St. Athanasius, "The Fathers of this Council were gathered by the Holy Ghost." He had the same opinion on this important point as St. Gregory the Great had, who said, "I do profess myself to reverence the first four Councils, as I reverence the four books of the Gospel; and in the same manner I reverence the fifth Council. Whosoever is of another mind, let him be an anathema."(Li. Epis. 24, prope finem.) And the very self-same he said again, (Lib. ii. indict. ii. Ep. 10, ad Sabinum.) And Justin, the emperor before him, made this saying famous by inserting it into the law, Authenticarum Collat. 9, de Eccl. tit. c. 1." We receive the doctrine of the said (four first) Councils, as we receive the Holy Scriptures." Unless, perhaps, John the second, (Bishop of Rome,) who lived and died in the days of this Emperor, (Anno 532,) Epist. ad liberium severinum, &c., gave occasion to this saying, by these following words spoken of the first four Councils: "This is the most firm rock of our belief; this is the ground of our faith." Remark, I pray you, how he relies on Councils, as St. Paul seems to teach, when he calls the Church the pillar and ground of truth. From this the Councils are called by venerable antiquity, rules of faith, as you have heard already out of St. Cyril and St. Leo. So Vincentius Lirinensis adversus hæreses, speaking of the Council of Ephesus, says, "Where question was made de Sanciendis fidei regulis, of establishing the rules of faith." So Cassiador Institut. divin. 1. 1, c. 11. "And that no mistake in the rule of faith may injure you, read over the Councils of Ephesus and Chalcedon." Yet Pope Gelasius spoke more fully, (Anno 490,) in his 11th Epistle, ad Episcopas Dardaniæ, where, giving a reason why, after the definition of a General Council in any point of faith, that point ought never again to be questioned, no, not so much as in another Council; for, he says, "otherwise no judgment pronounced by the Church would be stable, if men cease not to rise up