of Candlesticks or Churches upon two Communions, which are described as prophesying in sackcloth against the paganising corruptions of the dominant Church throughout all the middle ages: we know, that the two Communions of the Vallenses and the Albigenses discharged this precise function during this precise period: and we further know, that it is vain to seek out any other

heretical abominations of the awfully predicted Church of the Apostasy.

This is the alternative: and which part of it is to be chosen by these seven thousand men, who resolve not to bow the knee to Baal?

Truly, unless I altogether mistake, the Spirit of God himself has answered the question: and has thus, still on the supposition now before us, decided in favour of the course taken by the two Communities of the Vallenses and the Albigenses.

Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven: and God hath remembered her iniquities.

To such of the Lord's people as are within the mystical Babylon, the unconditional command, we see, is to COME OUT. This command must, at all hazards, be obeyed: and, when weighed against the duty of implicit obedience, every ulterior ecclesiastical consequence, and every difficult and curious question which may be raised upon it, are but as dust in the balance.

Thus, even on an extreme supposition, which yet can never be verified, I should say, that the Vallenses and the Albigenses stand fully vindicated: and thence, even according to the course of God's providential dispensation, I should say, that they stand recognised by himself as two most amply commissioned Churches, whose office was to prophesy in sackcloth against the degenerate votaries of a new form of Paganism.

two visible Communions, which, during that precise period, discharged that precise function.

Such being the case, I cannot but think, that we have the very highest moral evidence as to the identity of those two Communions with the two Witnessing Churches of the Apocalypse. And, if this be admitted, who shall dare to refuse the name and character of Churches to two Communions, which God himself has declared to be Churches, however they originated, and however they were politied?

CHAPTER IV.

RESPECTING THE OCCASIONAL DISCREPANCE OF THE CHURCHES OF THE VALLENSES AND THE ALBIGENSES FROM THE CHURCHES OF THE REFORMATION.

No person I suppose, will imagine that, in compliance with the captious and unreasonable demand of Bossuet, I should attempt to exhibit the Vallenses and the Albigenses, either as agreeing in all points great and small with the various Churches of the Reformation, or as holding opinions with which universally I can be expected to symbolise.

That some of these opinions are untenable, I readily admit: but, that they affect those primary essentials either of faith or of practice, which are indispensably necessary to the due accomplishment of our Lord's promises, I strenuously deny. The opinions, in question, involve no departure from the Gospel in any of its grand requisites: and they so naturally sprang up under the peculiar circumstances wherein the two persecuted

Churches were placed, that they very readily may be excused and pardoned.

My meaning will be better understood by an adduction of instances.

I. The enormous corruption and determined profligacy of the Romish Priesthood, fully acknowledged and duly censured (as we have seen) by Atto of Vercelli, caused the Dissidents to feel: that it was a moral impossibility for them to receive any spiritual benefit from such instructors, with whom they too clearly saw that Christ was not spiritually present.

But they erred in carrying this feeling to the extent of maintaining, if indeed they ever really did maintain, the opinion: that The efficacy of the Sacraments depends upon the personal holiness of the administrator.

On the present point, it will be observed, I speak with considerable hesitation: for I can, in no wise, adopt the positive language of Bossuet respecting it *. That the Romanists make the efficacy of the Sacraments to depend upon the intention of the ministering Priest, I assuredly know because the doctors of the Tridentine Council anathematise all who assert; that in the administration of the Sacraments, the intention of the Priest, to do what the Church does, is not requisite t. But I do not feel equally certain, on

* Hist. des Variat. livr. xi. § 93, 96.

+ Si quis dixerit, in ministris, dum sacramenta conficiunt et

the legitimate principle of adequate historical testimony, that the Vallenses, and their fraternal conreligionists the Albigenses, made the personal holiness of the administrator essential to the efficacy of the Sacraments administered.

Some speculation of this sort is, indeed, apparently laid to their charge by Reinerius and Pilichdorf; but their language is so loose, and misapprehension in regard to those who spared not the vices of the Romish Clergy was so easy, that I do not feel myself justified in adopting the confident assertion of Bossuet *.

In my doubts, moreover, I am greatly strengthened, when I recollect the positive disavowal of any such opinion on the part of the Dissidents, who, in the year 1176, were publicly examined at Lombers. This open disavowal is faithfully recorded by Roger Hoveden: and, though the Bishop of Meaux very prudently pretermits it, we may justly say that it is far too unambiguous to be rapidly set aside.

conferunt, non requiri intentionem saltem faciendi quod facit, Ecclesia: anathema sit. Concil. Trident. sess. vii. can. 11. p.

85.

* I subjoin the statements of Reinerius and Pilichdorf, that the reader may judge of their value in regard to evidence.

Quidam autem hoc dicunt tantum per bonos fieri: alii, per omnes qui verba consecrationis sciunt.-Dicunt, quod peccator sacerdos aliquem solvere aut ligare non possit, cum ipse sit ligatus peccator; et quod quilibet bonus et sciens laicus alium