which is rendered "Church" in both Protestant and Catholic versions of the Scriptures, is assembly, and was indifferently employed, even by the inspired writers, to assemblies in general. I need only refer in illustration, to verses 32 and 39 of the nineteenth Chapter of the Acts of the Apostles:

"Now some cried one thing, some another. For the assembly (ǹ Ékkλŋoìa) was confused, and the greater part knew not for what cause they were come together."

"And if you enquire after any other matter, it may be decided in a lawful assembly (ékkλnolą.)

The word is derived from the verb εKKαλέw to call out. The English word, Church, is most probably derived from a contraction of two Greek words, kuρíov and duos, signifying the house of the Lord.

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Having given the Protestant definition of the word Church," I shall now transcribe from the writings of Cardinal Bellarmine that definition which is most generally adopted by our Roman Catholic brethren. "The church is an assembly of men, united in the profession of one and the same Christian faith; and in the communion of the same sacraments, under the government of their lawful Pastors, but especially of the Roman Pontiff." This is the Cardinal's exposition of what the Church is. The Douay Catechism, (page 20,) declares in somewhat similar terms, that "the Church is the congregation of all the faithful under Jesus Christ, their invisible head, and His vicar upon earth, the Pope"; the same catechism goes on to say that the church consists of "a Pope or supreme head,

Bishops, Pastors, and Laity;" and, on the next page, we have the following sentence, to which I invite your special attention: "He who is not in due connexion and subordination to the Pope and general Councils, must needs be dead, and cannot be accounted a member of the Church, since from the Pope and general Councils under Christ, we have our spiritual life and motion as Christians." In the Canon law of the Roman Catholic Church, we find the following: "The Roman Church, by the appointment of our Lord, is the mother and mistress of all the faithful."

And now you will be prepared for this general statement or declaration.

That the Reformed Churches of Christendom protest against the assumption, by any particular church, and therefore by the Church of Rome, of the right to apply to itself alone, the title of Catholic or Universal.

FIRST, They deny this right on the authority of the Holy Scriptures. Let any Roman Catholic produce, even from his own admired versions of the New Testament, a single passage which in the smallest degree favours the doctrine that the Church of Rome was ordained by Christ and His Apostles, to be the one only true Church on earth, the mother and mistress of all Churches, and I will at once lay aside this Protestant robe, and present myself to the Roman Catholic Bishop of Montreal as a candidate for admission into his communion. But is it so ? I open the Douay Bible on the eighth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, and I read in the first verse, that at the time of Stephen's martyrdom, "there was raised a great persecution

against the Church which was at Jerusalem." Now Peter founded this Church on the day of Pentecost; it was therefore the first Christian Church ever established; in the midst of it was held the first Christian Council that ever assembled; and at this Council, though Peter was present, and addressed its members, you do not find either in the Acts of the Apostles, or in any authenticated copy of the Fathers, even the shadow of an intimation that he assumed authority over the other Apostles. So far from this, we learn from the nineteenth verse of the fifteenth chapter, that James pronounced the decretory sentence-"For which cause I judge that they who from among the Gentiles are converted to God, are not to be disquieted;"-which, as says Chrysostom, whose authority my Roman Catholic friends at least will not question, means, 66. I with authority say this," for as he immediately explains "he, (i. e. James) had the authority of the Church at Jerusalem committed to him." I pass on to the fortyfirst verse of this same chapter, and I read of Paul's going through Syria and Cilicia "confirming the Churches." In the fifth verse of the following chapter, I find the same expression, "And the Churches were confirmed in the faith." Such language would not be tolerated by the Church of Rome in the present day; she rejects the notion of several churches; but you have seen from her own version of the New Testament that the Apostles spoke of various churches. I go on to consult the epistle to the Romans. There was but one Apostolic letter written to the Church at Rome, and this not by Peter but by Paul; our Roman Catholic

friends seem to hold it in high veneration on account, as they say, "of the sublimity of the matter contained in it." Now I think you will all agree with me, that we have a right, a priori, to expect in this epistle some reference to the position of eminence which the Church of Rome now declares itself to have held from the days of Peter and Paul. If Rome was, as is maintained, the mistress of Churches, if Peter, as is also maintained, was the founder of the Church there, and was withal the Prince of the Apostles, might we not fairly look out for some expression of deference to the apostolic chief, and might we not anticipate that Paul would say a word or two of Rome's exalted destiny? I search the Vulgate and the Douay version in vain for any such expression; there is not a syllable which, by even the most refined torture, could be brought to support this strange opinion. I rather meet with expressions that overthrow the doctrine of the Universal dominion of the Church of Rome, for in the sixteenth chapter, the Apostle speaks "of the church that is in Cenchre." He speaks also of "the Churches of the Gentiles," and of "the Church which is in the house of Prisca and Aquila," and as he draws towards the closing sentences of his epistle, he says, "All the Churches of Christ salute you." There were, then, other Churches besides that at Rome, and they sent their ordinary salutations to the Church at Rome; ordinary I say, for a precisely similar salutation was addressed by the same Apostle to the Corinthian Church,-" The Churches of Asia salute you." The Apostle does not call the Roman Church our Holy Mother," but addresses it in the same terms

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in which he addressed every other Church to which he wrote.

The Roman Catholic Church, in common with ourselves, believes that Paul was martyred at Rome, and that immediately before his martyrdom he wrote his second letter to Timothy, Bishop of Ephesus. I will turn then, to this epistle, for surely I ought to find something about the supreme exaltation of the Church at Rome, something about Peter its asserted founder, and something about the necessity of Timothy and all other Bishops submitting themselves to the authority of the Holy See. Now, I wish every Roman Catholic present, to read out of his own Bible this epistle, for he will, I am sure, be completely baffled when I tell him that in this, Paul's dying testimony for the truth of Jesus, addressed to the Ephesian Bishop, there exists not a single reference either to the pre-eminence of Rome, or to the chiefship of Peter; he issues no command requiring subordination to the decrees of the Church there; he speaks of several persons by name, but he says not one word of Peter or of his work.

SECONDLY, The. right of the Church of Rome to assume for herself only, the title of Catholic or Universal, is denied by Protestants on the authority of the Ancient Fathers.

I feel sure that if you will only give me your attention on this important point in the Protestant controversy, I shall convince you that, appealing only to the best authenticated Catholic standards, this assumption was not by any means coeval with the establishment of the Church at Rome.