IV.

Suppose, Sir, that a man had, at some period, attempted your life, and solemnly declared that he would never rest till he destroyed you; that the same man, having grown weak, and rather helpless, without procuring a complete reconciliation, asked you to admit him within the doors of your house; and that, while, from an excess of good nature and liberality, you were doubting whether to admit him or not, you perceived that he had carefully concealed in his bosom the dagger, which in former days he wore openly, as destined to pierce your heart; would you an elaborate declaration on his part, intended to show that the dagger could never hurt you? Sir, the very act of concealing the weapon from you, would instinctively prove to you, that it was aimed at your breast. No commentary, or exposition, can convey the sense and tendency of your doctrine of Exclusive Salvation so clearly as the anxiety of your bishops to keep from the knowledge of the British public the authorized enforcement of its practical consequences. What

listen to

weight can the hair-splitting distinctions of the author of "Charity and Truth," and the shamefaced declaration of the Irish titular bishops, lately published upon this point, have against that recognition of the unrelenting spirit of intolerance consecrated by their Church, which we have received from the concealment of part of their creed, contrived by your English Prelates?

But let us examine both your favourite exposition, and that more recent one of the Irish Romanist Prelacy. Before we proceed, let us, however, pause to consider the words with which you usher in your quotation. "Permit me (you say to the friend you address in your introduction) to state distinctly, from an authority that cannot be questioned, the doctrine of the Roman Catholics, respecting Exclusive Salvation in their Church, in opposition to the representation which Mr. Blanco White gives of it (p. 61), and in other parts of his work." Unquestionable authority! Have you forgotten the long string of restrictions which you laid upon Protestant writers, whenever they should attempt to attribute any

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doctrine to your Church? I would resquest you to cast your eye over the ninth and the two subsequent pages of your first edition of the Book of the Roman Catholic Church. I should like to know upon what equitable principle we are to be prevented charging your Church with opinions and practices which she notoriously encourages in the writings and conduct of her members; and be also obliged, whenever it suits you, to take the statements of a private writer, or even the declarations of your Irish Bishops, as unquestionable authority." Never forget, Sir, I entreat you, that neither you, nor your writers, nor your bishops, have any judgment of their own on these matters. You are all subjects; all minors.

But we will hear your unquestionable authority, as well as the declaration of the Irish Romanist hierarchy. The former states, that any person, by whomsoever baptized, "receives, on his baptism, justifying grace and justifying faith."-"That he loses the former by the commission of any mortal sin."-"That he loses the latter by the commission of a mortal sin against

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faith, but does not lose it by the commission of a mortal sin of any other kind."-"That without such wilful ignorance or wilful error, as amounts to a crime in the eye of God, a mortal sin against faith is never committed."-" And that, except in an extreme case, no individual is justified in imputing, even in his own mind, this criminal ignorance or criminal error to any other individual*." This is all very kind and charitable. But, before I proceed, I cannot help adverting to a few omissions in this luminous declaration. allude, Sir, to the author's silence in respect to the rule by which we are to be found guilty or not guilty, of that kind and degree of ignorance and error, which should be considered wilful, and amounting to a crime in the eye of God? I should like also to know if your unquestionable authority engages, that your Church shall henceforward reserve the decision of that point to God alone. If such be the fact, I trust, that for our comfort and peace, we shall soon receive from Rome a corrected edition of the council of Trent,

* Vindication, p. xxxv.

leaving out the decrees which I have above quoted, and which, till they are expunged by the Head of your Church, I shall take every opportunity of keeping before the eyes of my fellowProtestants. "If any one should say, that those who have been baptized are free from all the precepts of the Holy Church, either written or delivered by tradition, so that they are not obliged to observe them, unless they will submit to them of their own accord, let him be accursed.""If any one should say, that these baptized children, when they grow up, are to be asked whether they will confirm what their godfathers promised in their name; and that, if they say they will not, they are to be left to their own discretion, and not to be forced, in the mean time, into the observance of a Christian life by any other punishment than that of keeping them from the reception of the eucharist and other sacraments, till they repent; let him be accursed"-" Besides, in order to check petulant minds, the same most Holy Synod declares, that no person, by trusting

* Section VII, Can. VIII, et XIV, de Baptismo.