(3.) Another set of passages is taken from Tertullian, who flourished at the end of the second century.

It is unlawful for us to indulge in any thing according to our own humour: nor may we choose what, from his own mere whim, any person may have introduced. We have for our authors the Apostles of the Lord, who not even themselves selected what they might introduce according to their own humour, but faithfully delivered to the nations the discipline which they had received from Christ'.

Let us grant that all the Churches have erredShall we say, then, that the Holy Spirit has looked upon no one of them to lead it into truth, though sent for this very purpose from Christ, though be

tet veritatem, apud quos est ea quæ est ab Apostolis Ecclesiæ successio, et id quod est sanum et irreprobabile sermonis constat. Hi enim et eam, quæ est in unum Deum qui omnia fecit, fidem nostram custodiunt; et eam, quæ est in Filium Dei, dilectionem adaugent, qui tantas dispositiones propter nos fecit; et Scripturas sine periculo nobis exponunt. Iren. adv. hær. lib. iv. c. 45. p. 279.

The Bishop of Strasbourg, by way, I suppose, of making Ireneus bear a somewhat more precise testimony in favour of infallibility, has thought it expedient to render the latin sine periculo by the french sans danger D'ERREURS. Discuss. Amic. vol. i. p. 127. Where did Dr. Trevern find his d'erreurs?

1 Nobis vero nihil ex nostro arbitrio indulgere licet, sed nec eligere quod aliquis de arbitrio suo induxerit. Apostolos Domini habemus autores, qui nec ipsi quicquam ex suo arbitrio, quod inducerent, elegerunt: sed acceptam a Christo disciplinam fideliter nationibus adsignaverunt. Tertull. de præscript. adv. hær. 2. Oper. p. 97.

sought for this very purpose of the Father, that he might be the teacher of truth? Shall we say, that the agent of God, the vicar of Christ, has neglected his office, suffering the Churches to understand and believe differently, than he himself preached through the Apostles'?

(4.) Clement of Alexandria, who also flourished about the end of the second century, is considered likewise as bearing testimony to the same effect.

Those, who will, may discover the truth-For they may learn demonstratively through the Scriptures themselves, how heresies have fallen away, and how in truth alone and in the primeval Church there is the most accurate knowledge and the truly best selection 2.

(5.) There is yet another set of passages adduced from Cyprian, who lived toward the middle of the third century.

We ought firmly to hold and vindicate unity, more especially we Bishops who preside in the Church,

1

Age nunc omnes erraverint-Nullam respexerit Spiritus Sanctus uti eam in veritatem deduceret, ad hoc missus a Christo, ad hoc postulatus a Patre, ut esset doctor veritatis? Neglexerit officium Dei villicus, Christi vicarius, sinens ecclesias aliter interim intelligere, aliter credere, quam ipse per Apostolos prædicabat. Tertull. de præscript. adv. hær. § 9. Oper. p. 105.

• Τοῖς μὲν γὰρ βουλομένοις ἔξεσται καὶ τὸ εὑρεῖν τὴν ἀλήθειαν καὶ δι' αὐτῶν τῶν γραφῶν ἐκμανθάνειν ἀποδεικτικῶς, ὅπως μὲν ἀπεσφάλησαν αἱ αἱρέσεις, ὅπως δὲ ἐν μόνῃ τῇ ἀληθείᾳ καὶ τῇ ἀρχαίᾳ Ἐκκλησίᾳ ἤτε ἀκριβεστάτη γνῶσις καὶ ἡ τῷ ὄντι ἀρίστη alperiç. Clem. Alex. Strom. lib. vii. Oper. p. 755. Colon.

1688.

that we may prove also the Episcopate itself to be one and undivided-God is one, and Christ is one, and his Church is one, and the faith is one, and the common people coupled into the solid unity of the body by the glue of concord'.

There is one Episcopate, diffused through the concordant numerosity of many Bishops.

II. These several texts from Scripture, and these several passages from the writers of the three first centuries, are adduced by Dr. Trevern and Mr. Berington, under the aspect of historical

Unitatem firmiter tenere et vindicare debemus, maxime Episcopi, qui in Ecclesia præsidemus, ut Episcopatum quoque ipsum unum atque indivisum probemus-Deus unus est, et Christus unus, et una Ecclesia ejus, et fides una et plebs in solidam corporis unitatem concordiæ glutino copulata. Cyprian. de unit. eccles. Oper. vol. i. p. 108, 119. Oxon. 1682.

Dr. Trevern, in a very slovenly manner, first runs these two widely separated passages into one with a direct inversion of their collocation, and then completes the matter by a gross mistranslation.

L'Eglise Catholique est unie entre toutes ses parties, et consolidée par le ciment (glutino) des évêques adhérens les uns aux autres. Nous qui sommes évêques, et qui présidons dans l'Eglise, nous devons particulièrement et plus fermement embrasser cette unité et la défendre. Discuss. Amic. vol. i. p. 126, 127.

I had some difficulty in discovering the two passages, which the Bishop has masqueraded into one: for, according to his usual loose mode of reference, he merely tells us, that we may find his citation au livre de l'Unité.

'Episcopatus unus, Episcoporum multorum concordi numerositate diffusus. Cyprian. epist. ad Antonian. Iv. Oper. vol. ii. p. 112.

testimony'. We have, therefore, simply to consider, whether, on any intelligible principles of evidence, they substantiate the authoritative decision of Pope Gregory: that The Roman Church never erred, and that it never will err to all perpetuity.

1. With regard to the texts from Scripture, some of them indeed promise personally to the inspired Apostles what is equivalent to Infallibility: but, as for those which are of general application, they vouch for nothing more, than that, through his good providence, Christ will preserve his Church, in this branch or in that branch, from deadly and fundamental and apostatic error.

Such a promise is, of necessity, implied, even in the constitution of the Church: for, if those essentials, which compose the very being of Christianity and without which Christianity would cease to be Christianity, should universally become extinct or should universally be rejected; it is clear, that the gates of hell would, in that case, prevail. But, that the gates of hell shall not prevail against his Church, however widely in some quarters and during some seasons error and heresy may be dominant, Christ has expressly declared. Hence we may rest assured, that, in one branch or another branch, the Church will never cease to be the ground and pillar of the truth.

'Trevern's Discuss. Amic. lett. iii. vol. i. p. Berington's Faith of Cathol. p. 112-114, 62, 63.

102-170.

But, while this consolatory position is clearly implied in the terms of Christ's promise, we shall vainly seek in Scripture for a declaration, that any one provincial or national Church is specially invested with the high privilege of perpetual infallible inerrancy. As Tostatus of Avila, himself a Romanist even of the fifteenth century, well remarks: The Catholic Church never errs, because it never errs in ALL its branches'. But, in respect to any single branch, there is no such security. Yet is not the general promise to the Church Catholic thereby invalidated. For, as the same Tostatus again very justly observes, The Church of the Latins is not the Catholic Church, but only a certain part of it: wherefore, even though the whole of that particular Church should have erred, this were no proof of the error of the Catholic Church; because the Catholic Church still remains in those branches which err not, whether, in point of number, these be more or fewer than the erring branches 2.

The interpretation of Tostatus is, I believe, the identical interpretation of the whole body of those who collectively are styled Protestants; certainly

1 Ecclesia Universalis nunquam errat, quia nunquam tota errat. Tostat. Abulens. Præfat. in Matt. quæst. xiii.

2 Ecclesia Latinorum non est Ecclesia Universalis, sed quædam pars ejus: ideo, etiamsi tota ipsa errâsset, non errabat Ecclesia Universalis; quia manet Ecclesia Universalis in partibus illis quæ non errant, sive illæ sint numero plures quam errantes, sive non. Tostat. Abulens. quæst. iv. in Matt. ad proleg. 2.