Church's authority; but it was dangerous to say too much, for fear of running insensibly into the Popish error of infallibility, which would have ruined the whole pretence of the reformation. They were, therefore, under an unhappy necessity of building with one hand and pulling down with the other; and so they first granted that "the church has authority in controversies of faith;" for to set up a church without giving her any authority at all would not have looked decent. This, therefore, had a handsome appearance. But, lest this concession should render the first reformers wholly inexcusable in not having submitted to that authority in their mother Church, they took care that the very next lines tacked to it should give it a mortal stab, by insinuating that the Church is not incapable of the grossest errors, both in doctrine and practice-in practice, by ordaining things contrary to the Word of God; and in doctrine, by expounding one place in Scripture so that it be re-. pugnant to the other; which, though it was chiefly designed for an innuendo that the Church of Rome had been guilty of both, yet every one may, without much logic, conclude from it that the Church of England, which is directly spoken of in the article, is no less. fallible than her mother Church was supposed to be; and, by consequence, if her own children should judge her guilty of errors, they have the same title to reform her as she had to reform the Church of Rome. what was warrantable in her cannot be unwarrantable in them; according to the old proverb, "What is sauce for a goose is sauce for a gander." Nay, the thing has already happened; for the Presbyterians, Quakers, and Independents, who pretend to have several articles of impeachment against her, have effectually separated themselves from her communion on that score; and let any man then judge whether this does not render all church authority precarious.

For

But God forbid the Church of Christ should be suspected capable of such an absurdity as to make the

Word of God contradict itself. Nay, whatever church is capable of it is manifestly convicted not to be of divine extraction, but of a spurious breed. She has too much of an earthly complexion to be the beautiful spouse of Christ; neither has she the Spirit of truth, but the father of lies, for her guide. The Church of Christ is the "pillar and ground of truth," according to St. Paul. She is "without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing," according to the same apostle. Christ "has espoused her to himself forever." Hosea ii. And the spouse of Christ cannot be an adulteress, but is incorrupt and pure, according to St. Cyprian.

This made St. Augustine depend so entirely upon her authority that he declared, "he would not believe the Gospels themselves, unless the authority of the Church induced him to it." Contra Epist. Fund. c. 4. And since he received the Scriptures themselves barely upon her authority, it cannot be doubted but he believed she might likewise be safely trusted with the interpretation of their true sense and meaning. So that this learned and ancient father was not for precautioning his readers with suppositions that she could "ordain any thing contrary to the Word of God, or make scriptures contradict themselves." Nay, in the heat of his zeal for the Church of God, he would have called it “ an abominable and accursed calumny, full of presumption and deceit, void of all truth, wisdom, and reason, idle, rash, and pernicious." Enar. 2, in Psalm 101. And therefore, to confound all such injurious suppositions, and show the entire confidence he had in his guide, he made the forementioned declaration; which though it raises the Church's authority to its highest pitch, it only places it upon its true and proper basis.

CHAPTER III.

THE CHURCH IN COMMUNION WITH THE SEE OF ROME HAS ALONE A JUST TITLE TO INFALLI BILITY.

I HAVE now proved the infallibility of the Church which Christ has established on earth, from the concurring testimonies of scriptures and fathers; which is all that can be required for proof of any article of religion. For how can we learn revealed truths but from the revealed Word of God, interpreted by that authority which Christ himself has established and appointed for that end? And therefore those who, in their defence of the Church's infallibility, lay a stress upon certain rational congruities, as, that it is inconsistent with the infinite goodness of God to leave men without an infallible guide, — appear to me to take the question by the wrong handle. For the dispute between Catholics and Protestants is not whether God in his infinite goodness be bound to give us such a guide, but whether in effect he has been so merciful as to do it? Now, the revealed Word of God tells us positively he has. The promises of Christ are as clear as words can make them; and the faith of the ancient Church, grounded on those promises, is conveyed to us in the writings of the holy fathers. Upon this foundation the Church's infallibility is built a foundation so strong and firm that, if God's Word may be relied on, it wants no arguments from congruities of human reason to support it.

Now, then, let us see where this infallible Church is to be found. The point I have undertaken to prove is,

that the Church in communion with the see of Rome has alone an unquestionable title to it. And I shall either give her this name, or call her the Roman Catholic Church, or the Church of Rome; she being so called because the bishop of Rome is her visible head, or supreme pastor. But whatever name I give her, I desire the reader to take notice that I mean not the particular diocese of Rome; for this is no more the Catholic Church than the head is the whole body, or the diocese of Canterbury the whole Church of England. This caution would appear frivolous, were it not necessary to avoid a childish equivocation much affected by Protestant writers, as will appear hereafter; for it serves to cast a mist before people's eyes, and keep the true state of the question out of sight; which does more service to a weak cause than a thousand arguments.

And

My first proof, that the Church in communion with the see of Rome is alone that infallible Church which Christ has established, is this, because all the reformed churches frankly disown the title of "infallible." they are very just to themselves in so doing. And as to the Greek Church, (though it be a part of her faith that "the visible Church of Christ is infallible,") she cannot pretend to it with any color of reason. It follows, then, that the Church in communion with the see of Rome is the only one that has a just claim to it.

the

That the Greek Church can have no pretence to it is a very plain case; because a church that has changed her faith backward and forward cannot call herself infallible. Now, the most authentic histories prove Greek Church guilty of this change in her faith relating to the procession of the Holy Ghost, and the supremacy of the bishop of Rome; for in all other points she agrees with us, and has condemned the reformation in several councils. When Photius first began his schism,— being provoked to it because the pope (to whom he appealed, and thereby acknowledged him his superior) refused to confirm his ordination, as being irregular and unca

nonical, the Greek Church was in perfect communion with the see of Rome, and there appeared no disagreement in any article of faith between the two churches. Photius made the breach, chiefly by maintaining that "the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father alone," and the article of supremacy followed of course; because a subject cannot rebel against his sovereign without impeaching his authority. Photius, being the first patriarch of the east, drew, by degrees, the greatest part of the Greek Church into his error. After a long contest, and great endeavors used to bring her back to the ancient faith, she at length renounced her errors, and subscribed the condemnation of them in the general Council of Florence. The pope's supremacy, together with other articles, was subscribed to by all the bishops of both churches, (Mark of Ephesus alone excepted,) and so she was again united to the Church of Rome. returning not long after to her vomit, she has ever since continued guilty both of heresy and schism; and Muscovy, which has received its Christianity from the Greeks, is in the same condition.

But

This is a short and faithful account of that whole business; and if Protestants can produce any authentic history to prove the like change relating to any article of faith in the Church of Rome, then I shall freely own her to be as fallible as the Greek Church, and acknowledge that there is no such thing as an infallible church on earth.

I prove it, secondly: In the beginning of the 16th century the Church of Rome was the only Christian church upon earth that could show a perpetual visibility from the time of the apostles down to that age. For the reformed churches began not to creep out of the shell till the year 1517; and the Greek Church (considered precisely as a schismatical church) began about the middle of the ninth century.

Now, then, the true Church of Christ was either always visible or she was invisible for several hundred