true believers, and be led to suppose that they cease to be pastors when they cease to be good men, although nothing scandalous appear in their conduct. This was the pernicious doctrine of Wycliffe, which would put the whole Church in confusion. Exclusive of this erroneous sense, which cannot be in M. Claude's mind, I grant him all he says: for, doubtless, it is not the primary intent of Jesus Christ that there should be ministers who should be deceivers: it happens only through the malice of the enemy. The destination of the ministry is for true believers. Jesus Christ did not establish it to call into the Church deceivers and hypocrites. Who can think so? But, nevertheless, these deceivers and these hypocrites may be sufficiently of the Church, to be lawful pastors in it; and the true believers being to live to the end of the world under the authority of this mixed ministry, there must, therefore, without examining whether the ministers be good or evil, be shown us a succession of them always manifest, under which the people of God have been perpetuated.

The more I continue my reading, the more I find this truth evidently declared. For, upon entering on the fourth question, I find, indeed, that M. Claude there engages to show that the passages wherein Jesus Christ promises the Church to perpetuate her on earth regard only the society of true believers; but he, nevertheless, equally admits that this Church never ceases to be visible, and that Jesus Christ has promised it should be so. I undertook to show the visible Church in these words :"Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it;"* the reasons, I made use of, to prove it, may be seen.† M. Claude receives this doctrine with its proofs and he acknowledges "that the Church which is spoken of in this passage is, in fact, a confessing Church; a Church which publishes the faith; a Church to which Jesus Christ has given an external ministry; a Church which uses the ministry of the keys, and which binds and looses; and which, consequently, has the properties of being external and visible." It is such a Church, that Jesus Christ has, in the text cited, promised to perpetuate on earth. M. Claude will not allow any one to tell him that she ceases to be; and thus she always is with all that ministry which is essential to her: whence M. Claude concludes with me," that the ecclesiastical ministry will last without discontinuance until the general resurrection," and grants, without difficulty, that this promise of Jesus Christ, "I am with you always," regards the perpetuity

* Matt. xvi. 18.

Supra, page 20.

Matt. xxviii. 19, 20.

31979

of the ecclesiastical ministry. "Jesus Christ promises," says he, "to be with the Church, to baptize with her, and to teach with her, without interruption, even to the end of the world." There will, therefore, ever be teachers with whom Jesus Christ will teach, and true preaching will never cease in his Church.

But will this ministry continue for ever so pure, that none but good men shall be admitted to it? We have seen that M. Claude does not insist that it will be so. In fact, there is no promise of this perpetual purity: the promise is that, whatsoever the morals of these ministers may be, Jesus Christ will always act, always baptize, and always teach with them; and the effect of this ministry, though a promiscuous one, will be such, that under its authority "the Church will be always visible; not indeed," says M. Claude, "with a distinct view, which goes so far as to say with certainty, such and such are personally true believers; but with an indistinct view, which is notwithstanding, certain, and which goes so far as to say, The true believers are there, to wit, in that exterior profession."

Let us (if they will) not designate all that exterior profession by the name of "Church;" let us refrain from this term, since M. Claude is averse to it; and like true reasonable and peaceable Christians, let us endeavor to agree on the thing. This "exterior profession," which may be always marked, and, as I may say, always pointed to with the finger, is mixed of good and evil men: the ministry which governs it is also mixed. M. Claude allows all this. It may nevertheless, be said, Under this ministry, and in this exterior profession, are the true believers; this is what we just now heard from the same minister's mouth. If then, according to his doctrine, the society of true believers subsists for ever, and continues always visible on earth; if it may always be shown in an exterior profession, and is there alone visible, as M. Claude says; it not only follows, that there always will be true believers upon earth, but that this mingled profession, of good and bad men, where these true believers are found, where they are shown, where they are pointed to, shall be there also; and on this we agree with M. Claude. But since all these passages are scattered up and down his answer, here is one, in which he has taken care to collect all together.

It is after his fourth question, and in the seventh inference, that this minister, endeavoring to explain the 31st article of the confession of faith, where it is said, "that in our days," and before the Reformation, "the state of the Church was interrupted." He distinguishes the state of the Church interrupted for a time from the Church which is never interrupted, ac

cording to his principles; and he defines the Church as follows: "The Church," says he, " are the true believers, who make profession of the Christian truth, of piety, and of true holiness, under a ministry which furnishes her with the aliments necessary for spiritual life, without defrauding her of any of them." We shall discover in due time what is the hidden meaning of these "spiritual aliments." Meanwhile, let us agree with M. Claude, that the Church always subsists, and always subsists visible, since by his definition, she is nothing else but the true believers," who make profession of Christian truth, under the ecclesiastical ministry." Here is an immovable foundation. Let us see what we can build on it; but, before we build, we are going to see objections fall.

M. Claude objects to me, first, that it is in vain for me to attempt establishing my society composed of good and bad, and the eternal duration of the same, on these inviolable promises of Jesus Christ," Thou art Peter," and "I am always with you." "It is not," says he, "of the wicked that it can be said, that hell shall not prevail against them; it is not with wicked men and hypocrites that Jesus Christ has promised always to be, and these promises respect only true believers." If we add, according to M. Claude's principles, that supposing these promises respect only true believers, they respect them at least in this ministry, and in this exterior profession, the objection will at the same time be resolved. For, indeed, if the true believers ought to be always shown and always visible, according to M. Claude, in this exterior profession, in which the good and the bad are mixed, it follows, that this composition, by what name soever it be called, shall always appear on earth. Now, no one can be assured of a society subsisting always, and always in a visible state, unless God has promised it. His promises regard even then this mixture; and not only the true believers, but, with them, all the society in which they are ever, according to his decrees, to appear. By consequence, we must understand these promises of Jesus Christ otherwise than M. Claude teaches. The promises of Jesus Christ respect not the wicked alone, nor were they made for their sake. If M. Claude said only this, his observation would be just. But these promises, which Jesus Christ made to his faithful, comprehend also the wicked who are mixed with them. When God by his prophets promised the ancient people to give them plentiful harvests, with the corn he promised also the chaff: and to preserve the harvest is to preserve the chaff with the corn. In like manner, to promise the Church and her eternal duration, is to promise, with the elect, the wicked, in the midst of whom God encloses them. And the

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wicked in the Church are for the just, as the chaff in the harvest is for the corn; and as God promises not the chaff either alone or for itself, so he promises not the wicked either alone or for themselves. But, nevertheless, all this blending will subsist, in virtue of the divine promise, until the final separation, when the wicked, as the chaff, will be cast into the fire that shall never be quenched. Meanwhile Jesus Christ will be always with the whole society thus composed: keeping there the sound doctrine in all the exterior, which He knows how to carry into the interior, even into the hearts, of those who live; in the same manner as nourishment, presented to our whole body in the same way, quickens only the members which are disposed to receive it.

A second objection of M. Claude's will fall by the same principle.

He objects to me, that, in defining the Catholic Church mentioned in the creed, I speak only of the Church which is actually on earth, instead of comprehending in it all the elect which have been, are, and shall be, and, in fine, with the holy angels, all the heavenly Jerusalem. I have already answered, that it was neither my intention, nor was I called upon, to define the Church but in relation to our subject and her visibility. I add, however, that in saying this, I have, according to M. Claude's own principles, said all: for, according to him, in the outward profession that is, in what renders the Church visible—may be marked the true believers, with whom all the saints of every time and place, not excepting the holy angels, are united. "The Church which is on earth," M. Claude says, " is one with that which is already gathered in heaven, and with that which God will cause to spring up throughout all generations, all which three together make but one, which is called the Universal Church." God be praised! When I have found the outward profession which renders the Church visible, M. Claude has already told us that I shall have found the true believers—that is, according to him, the true Church actually present on earth; and he now tells us, that with this Church, I shall by the same means have both that which is already in heaven and that which God will cause to arise in all succeeding ages. We need, then, inquire only after the Church which is on earth, and the outward profession which shows her to us, being assured to have found there, without further inquiry, the perfect communion of saints and the society of all the elect.

When under the name of Catholic Church I understood the Church which is upon earth, I spoke with all the Fathers. They ordinarily join to the title of "Catholic" Church, that of

"spread all over the earth," toto orbe diffusa. To this title of Catholic they join also the title of Apostolic; and thus is it put in the Nicene creed, which exhibits the most authentic as well as the most perfect interpretation of the Apostles' creed. This title of Apostolic makes part of the Church's Catholicity, and shows us, amongst other things, that she is descended from the apostles by the perpetual succession of her pastors, and by the episcopal sees established over all the earth. All the saints whose blessed souls are with God were conceived in this Church; all those that are to come shall likewise be regenerated in it so that there never shall be any one who has not made an essential part of this body, of which Jesus Christ is the head. As to the angels, if we regard only the direct signification of words, they never made part of this Church founded by the apostles and spread over all the earth, where she is to make her pilgrimage and although Jesus Christ is their head, he is in a more particular manner that of the faithful, washed in his blood and renovated by his word. But the angels, though united to Jesus Christ in another manner, are our brethren, and are not alien from the Catholic Church, of which on the contrary, they are established, after their manner, co-operators and ministers. It is an evident truth, but with which I had nothing to do in this place; it was sufficient to remark in the creed, what our fathers found there expressly and immediately signified by the term Catholic Church, by adding to it the title Apostolic, so natural to her Catholicity, and the eulogium of being spread all over the earth. To know the doctrine of this Church, is to know the doctrine of all the creed. There is seen in heaven and in the brightness of the saints,* only what is believed in this Church, and the holy angels, who, as the apostle St. Paul says,† have learned by the Church such high secrets of the divine wisdom, respect her belief. Thus, all being reduced, as I have already said, to the visibility, M. Claude's only object is to make me lose time and digress, in calling on me to treat here of any thing else in order to make known this Catholic Church, which is confessed in the creed.

All that remains for me to do is, to exhort the professors of the "Reformed" religion, and M. Claude himself, if he will permit me, to draw manifest conclusions, from the principles he has laid down then they will no longer be able to resist the truth, and will remain convinced that there is no salvation for them, but in returning to the bosom of the Roman Church. We have seen that, to verify the promises of the gospel, M. Supra, page 97.

Ps. cix. 3.

† Eph. iii. 10.