the meaning which that Council attached to it, is likewise that which has just been affirmed to be that of St Augustine, and consequently, that "all-embracing" (the saints in heaven included, as well as those who now are, or shall be hereafter on the earth), is the meaning of the term "catholic," in the Church of Rome, to this day. Thus, in illustrating the ninth article of the Creed, that Council, after stating that "the prophets lead us to expect that impious men should not be wanting, who, after the manner of the ape which simulates the man, should maintain that they alone were catholics, and no less wickedly than proudly affirm that the Catholic Church was with them only" (To whom do these words apply most justly in our day?), proceeds to define the term catholic, in an excellent paragraph, of which the following is a literal translation. "The third property of the church (says the Catechism) is, that it is called catholic, that is, universal, which name is with truth applied to it, since, as says St Augustine, from the rising to the setting sun, the light of the true faith is spread abroad. Neither is it, as in human commonwealths or heretical conventicles, circumscribed by the boundaries of one kingdom, or of one race of men, but all men, whether barbarians or Scythians, bond or free, male or female, are embraced in its bosom of charity. Wherefore it is written, "Thou hast redeemed us to God by thy blood, out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation, and has made us a kingdom for our God."* David says concerning the church, "Ask of me and I will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the ends of the earth for thy possession."+ Likewise, "I will make mention

* Rev. v. 10. This is after the Vulgate, the word "priests" being omitted in the Catechism of the Council of Trent, the Greek being as in our public version,

† Psalm ii. 8,

of Rahab and Babylon among those who know me," and "the man was born in her."* Besides, all the faithful who have been from Adam to this day, and all who shall be as long as the world lasts, professing the true faith, belong to the same church, who are all based and built on that same only stone Christ, who has made both one, and has proclaimed peace to those who are near and to those who are afar off. For this reason also it is called universal, because all who desire to obtain eternal salvation, ought to hold and embrace it, not otherwise than those who entered the ark, that they might not perish in the deluge. This, therefore, is to be delivered as a most certain rule, whereby the true and the false church may be judged."

Such is a translation of the entire paragraph in the catechism of the Council of Trent, on the subject of the catholicism of the church. And from this it plainly appears, that, according to the standard of the Church of Rome, the catholic church means the universal church, the invisible church, the whole body of the redeemed, one part militant, one part triumphant, one part future.

Romanists themselves being judges, therefore, the Church of Rome, in the present day, can be no more than a part of the catholic church. And is it not difficult to find good grounds on which to grant even that to her, with any more, or even so much propriety as almost any other church? For, in the first place, she possesses no longer now that entire possession of the field of the world, on account of which the catechism, by a quotation from St Augustine, says, that the term catholic is justly applied. The light of the one faith is, indeed, far more widely spread now than it was in St Augustine's day; but that is not "the manifold faith," either as laid down in the standard of the Church of Rome, or as kept up by her priesthood. On the contrary, the family Bible now, in * Psalm lxxxvii. 4, 5. † Eph. ii. 14, 17.

many a region of the world, intimates to the Romish priest, that his reign is over, and that he must either retire before the supremacy of the word of God, or else consent to it as the charter between him and a Christian people, and consequently, cease to be a Romish priest. The Church of Rome is now only one communion of many. She is

no longer universal, and in this view, therefore, she has no longer any claims to the exclusive use of the term catholic.

But farther, she is, of all churches, the most exclusive. Some of the more enlightened in her communion, have indeed attempted of late to deny this, and to represent her as very charitable, such, in short, as the catechism just quoted from, describes the catholic church to be. But when examined into, any authoritative statements which have been made on this subject, leave matters just where they were long ago, in this respect; except, indeed, that the attempt to make a shew of liberality demonstrates, that individual Romanists, and particular branches of the Church of Rome, now wish to be thought more charitable, and no doubt feel more liberally, than they dare declare with respect to their church as a whole. Thus, in a document lately published by the Bishops of the Church of Rome in Great Britain, of which the original is stated by them to be deposited in the British Museum, and which has been printed in the form of a tract, entitled An Exposition of Faith, &c.* the authors, when answering the charge of their exclusiveness as to Salvation, affirm that their church is exclusive only on the same principle on which Christianity itself is exclusive, quoting as proofs and illustrations of their meaning, Mark xvi. 16; John iii. 5; and Galat. v. 21. Now, to

* An Exposition of Faith, or Declaration of the Catholic Bishops, the Vicars Apostolic and their coadjutors in Great Britain; a Tract of eight pages 8vo.

all this every Christian must assent; and so far all is well. But immediately after, the Bishops go on to say, with a semblance of charity only, as will immediately appear, that the catholic is not permitted to pronounce sentence of condemnation on individuals, who may live and die out by the external communion of the catholic church. We say with a semblance of charity only, for in these words there is an omission, which, if not designed, is at least directly calculated to deceive the reader, and to pass him off with an equivoque on the subject of charity, instead of a sincere profession of it. The Bishops say only that the catholic is not permitted to pronounce sentence of condemnation, &c. Very true. But what does this amount to? It leaves the practice of the church just where it was. The catholic is not much encouraged to pronounce sentence on any subject. The church does it all. And since the authors of this "Exposition" say nothing as to the church on the subject of their exclusion of protestants from all hope of salvation, we are left altogether uninformed by this tract, whether the Church of Rome be not as exclusive and intolerant still, as she used to be. But though we find nothing satisfactory on this subject in the tract, it is otherwise, in some works published lately abroad, and nearer the fountain-head of the Romish church. In the first volume of a course of theology, published a few years ago, at the press of the Propaganda at Rome, and by one of the professors in that establishment, it is maintained, that though possibly the virtuous heathen, who have never heard of the Gospel, may be saved, yet there is no hope for protestants; and that those are to be charged with a dereliction of principle, who maintain or admit the possibility of their salvation. We are obliged to conclude, therefore, that, down to this day, the Church of Rome is altogether exclusive of other churches, and that, not only as churches,

but as societies containing in them any members at all who are in a state of salvation, or who can be saved otherwise than by joining the Church of Rome, if they have an opportunity of doing so. Since exclusiveness, then, is something so opposite to universality or catholicity, what word can so ill characterize the Church of Rome as the term catholic? But waiving this consideration, and even building only upon the definition which the Church of Rome herself gives of the term catholic, it is evident that she has no exclusive right to the use of the term. For, according to her own standards, as has been shewn, the Catholic Church is the name for the whole body of the redeemed, triumphant as well as militant. Every Christian, therefore, belongs to the Catholic Church.

This definition of her own, then, sets us right with the Church of Rome as to the use of the term Catholic in the title of this work, since the following pages have chiefly for their object to shew the duty of a cordial acquiescence in this very principle, that every Christian is a member of the catholic church; and that all Christians ought to feel and act towards each other as Christian brethren; and all churches to entertain towards each other those feelings of mutual recognition and esteem which are becoming in the constituent parts of a great spiritual whole -a whole which, were this plan adopted, would in due time become visibly one church, and which even now, though visibly many, yet possesses a true and a spiritual unity under Christ its only head; as do the branches of the same vine in which the same sap is circulating; and "which (as Gregory I. beautifully says when describing the Catholic Church) has pushed forth as many buds as there have been saints since the righteous Abel, till the last of the elect who shall be born to the end of the world."