ments of our own invention." p. 160. 4thly. "That it is a maxim in our canon law, that, though the pope should draw infinite numbers of people with him into hell, yet we must not find fault with him, nor reprove him." p. 108. 5thly. "That no absurdity so great, no text of Scripture so full and express, can be too hard for the infallibility of the Church of Rome." p. 91. 6thly. “That in our Church fornication is tolerated, if not allowed." And, two lines after, he adds, with a very serious air, "For this reason deadly sin is added to fornication in the Protestant litany." p. 177. I beg the favor of the gentleman to employ his interest that the deadly sin of slander may be added to it for the future, which is all the answer he deserves.

14

CHAPTER II.

HIS OBJECTIONS FROM SCRIPTURE ANSWERED

SURELY the gentleman was put to a very hard shift, when he was forced to join with the Donatists, and pick up at second hand the following texts to oppose the Church's infallibility: "The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint; from the sole of the foot even unto the head, there is no soundness in him; but wounds, and bruises, and putrefying sores." Isa. i. 5, 6. "My heritage is to me as a lion in the forest. It crieth out against me; therefore I have hated it: my heritage is unto me as a speckled bird." Jer. v. 8, 66 9. 'Ye have departed out of the way, ye have caused many to stumble at the law. Ye have corrupted the covenant of Levi, says the Lord." Mal. ii. 7. "They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable, there is none that doeth good, no, not one." Rom. iii. 12. And again, “that all the world might become guilty before God." Rom. iii. 19. "Case stated," p. 27.

One would be apt to suspect that a man of learning writes against his conscience, when he quotes such texts as these to defeat the clearest promises of Christ; for, in reality, they are as proper to disprove the circulation of the blood as the infallibility of the Church of Christ. However, I shall honor them with St. Austin's answer; and I have put them together, because the same answer despatches them all at once. "The Word of God," says he, "most commonly reprehends the wicked people of the Church in such a manner as if all were so, and as if there remained not so much as one man of piety

Now these men, [the Donatists,] either of ignorance or malice, [I wish the gentleman may not be here concerned with his old friends,] gather such texts from Scripture as are found to be spoken against the wicked," who will continue mixed with the good to the world's end, or else of the desolation of the former people, the Jews; "and these they endeavor, by a forced construction, to urge against God's Church, that she may seem in a manner to have failed and perished throughout the world. But, if they will answer these writings, I desire them to lay aside such texts." Lib. de Unit. Eccl. c. 13.

I hope the gentleman will have so much deference to St. Austin's judgment as to lay them aside for the future. For what service can they do him, since it is apparent that they only contain a vehement reprehension of the general wickedness and corruption which had spread itself over the Jewish nation? as he may now justly complain of the looseness reigning among the generality of Christians; which, however, as St. Austin remarks, never was, nor ever will be, so universal, but that the good and wicked will be mixed together to the world's end. For, if wickedness should ever become the universal practice of mankind, how would it be true “that wheat and tares should grow together till the harvest"? since, in that supposition, there would be nothing but tares, and no wheat at all.

However, if the gentleman will understand some of those texts to be also predictions of the future failing of the Jewish Church, I shall easily agree to it. But what advantage will this be to his cause? For I have St. Austin, again, in the same book and chapter, pronouncing against the Donatists, that, from the failure of the old church, which had not the evangelical promises made to her, no consequence can be drawn to prove the failure of the present Church. "For now there is

a Mediator of a better covenant, which is established upon better promises." Heb. viii. 6.

I come now to his text out of St. Luke: "When the

Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?" Luke xviii. 8. This doubtful interrogation is by the gentleman changed into a positive affirmation; and he makes Christ declare peremptorily that, at his second coming," he will not find faith upon earth.” pp. 45, 91. Whence he concludes that the whole Christian Church will then fail, as the Jewish church failed at his first coming.

But let us see whether St. Austin understood this text as the gentleman does; for I own I am always proud of being instructed by this eminent doctor, and think myself safe when I follow so good a guide. His words are these: "They [the Donatists] pretend that these words of our Lord, 'When the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?' were spoken of the whole world's apostasy; but we understand them of that perfection of faith which is so hard to be attained by man, that, în the very saints, whilst they continue in this state of mor-, tality, as in Moses himself, there is something that makes them tremble, or gives them cause to do so. Or else we understand them of that abundance of wicked and scarcity of good men, concerning which enough has been said already. And therefore our Lord expresses himself under a doubt. For he says not, ' When the Son of man cometh, he will not find faith upon earth,' but, 'Do you think he will find faith upon earth?' Now, surely his knowledge and foreknowledge of all things is inconsistent with any kind of doubt. But it was our doubt he designed to express by his own; because the many scandals which will arise towards the end of the world will occasion human weakness to speak in that manner." Lib. de Unit. Eccl. c. 15.

I will not pretend to add any thing of my own to so full and solid an answer to the fore-mentioned text, upon which the gentleman is pleased to lay a great stress, as his ancient confederates, the Donatists, did; pretending it to be a clear prediction of as general a failure of the Christian Church, at the second coming of Christ, as

that of the Jewish church was at his first. I shall only propose a few questions relating to this matter. 1st, then, I ask the gentleman whether the wheat and tares will not grow together till the harvest, and whether the persons marked out by the wheat will fall from their faith. 2dly. Whether, before the second coming of Christ, the true Church will not be persecuted by antichrist, and whether the true Church can be persecuted without having a visible being. 3dly. Whether the elect will not be preserved from being seduced by antichrist; and, if they be not seduced, whether they will not then continue to be members of the true Church.

These questions are somewhat troublesome, because the gentleman is too reasonable to refuse to own, 1st. That the wheat and tares are to grow together till the harvest, and that the persons marked out by the wheat will not fall from the true faith. 2dly. That the true Church will be persecuted by antichrist, and that a persecuted Church must have a visible being. 3dly. That the elect will be preserved from being seduced, and, by consequence, persevere, to the end, to be members of the true Church. All this, I say, the gentleman must own. And therefore I shall, by way of conclusion, ask one question more, viz., How all this is consistent with a total defection of the true Church, or with his saying, "that, at the second coming of Christ, there will be no faith upon earth."

I leave him to answer this as well as he can, and come to his last text, (Rom. xi. 22, 23,) where the apostle writes thus to the converted Gentiles at Rome: "Thou shalt also be cut off, if thou continuest not in the goodness of God." And, in reference to the Jews, he adds, "If they abide not still in unbelief, they shall be graft in. For God is able to graft them in again." Upon which the gentleman makes this weighty remark (p. 30): "And, of all the Gentile churches, this is said more particularly to the Church of Rome; for this is in the epistle written to her; and to her it was said, 'Thou