stancy of each of us, and fidelity, and steady love of Catholic truth may be ascertained. And, in fact, on the bursting forth of each novelty in its turn, then forthwith is discerned the weight of the corn, and the emptiness of the chaff; and so, without much trouble, the threshing-floor is cleared of whatever rubbish was contained in it. Some fly off at the instant; others are driven a certain way, but are afraid of perdition while they are ashamed to recant; and so they continue wounded, half dead, half alive, with just so much of the poison within them as is neither fatal nor yet is thrown off; neither kills nor suffers to live. Ah, miserable state of feverish and agitating anxiety! At one time they are hurried aside as the wind drives them; at another they fall back again like ebbing waves: now with rash presumption they assent to doctrines which are but doubtful, now again they have a superstitious dread of what is unques tionable; uncertain whither to go, whither to return; what to seek, to avoid, to maintain, to give up. Surely, this trouble of an unsettled heart is a medicine, if they are wise, sent to them by divine mercy. They are tossed, and beaten, and almost overwhelmed by the discordant currents of their own reasonings, while they remain out of the safe haven of the Catholic faith, in order that they may learn to gather in the sails of their pride, which are filled with the evil gales of novelty, and to betake themselves again to the secure station of their serene and loving mother, and to rid themselves of the bitter errors which they have swallowed, and so to drink, in future, the streams of living water. Let them unlearn worthily what they unworthily learned, mastering the Church's doctrine as far as it is level to the reason, submitting where it is above it.

[How accurate a description is the above of many amiable persons of the present day, who, instead of a single and noble maintenance of Catholic truth, try to unite in their creed things incompatible, and are ever spoiling their own excellences by timidity, weakness, or presumption! Nay, how true a description is it of our Church itself, not as it was intended to be, but as it actually has become in these dark and secular days! Do not we hover about our ancient home, the home of Cyprian and Athanasius, without the heart to take up our ahode in it, yet afraid to quit the sight of it; boasting of our Episcopacy, yet

unwilling to condemn separatism; claiming a descent from the Apostles, yet doubting of the gifts attending it; and trying to extend the limits of the Church for the admission of Wesleyans and Presbyterians, while we profess to be exclusively primitive? Alas! is not this to witness against ourselves, like coward sinners who hope to serve the world, without giving up God's service?]

5. (c. 27. 33. 34.)

"O Timothy," the Apostle says, "guard the deposit, shunning profane novelties of words!"... Who is Timothy in this day, but the Church universal, or, in particular, the whole body of its rulers, who ought both themselves to have and to teach others the sound inviolate knowledge of religious duty? What means "guard the deposit?" Guard it, he says, because of thieves, of enemies, lest, while men sleep, they sow tares upon that, good seed of wheat, which the Son of man has sown in His field. "Guard the deposit." What is the deposit? That which is committed to thee, not discovered by thee; what thou hast received, not struck out; a subject not of talent, but of instruction: not of private judgment, but of public tradition; that has come to thee, not from thee; in which thou shouldest display not originality, but safe custody; not as a master, but as a scholar; not as a leader, but a follower. "Guard the deposit." Preserve the talent of Catholic faith inviolate, entire. As thou hast received it, so let it remain with thee, so let it pass from thee. Gold thou hast received, be it gold that thou payest back. I will have no base coin palmed upon me, no shameless lead, no fraudulent brass, no outward seeming without the reality. O Timothy, priest, expositor, doctor, if a divine gift has made thee sufficient for these things, in ability, in practice, in learning, be thou the Bezaleel of the spiritual tabernacle, polish the precious stones of the divine word, set them with fidelity, embellish them with skill, add brilliancy, elegance, beauty; what was before believed obscurely, be it illustrated by thy exposition; what antiquity but darkly venerated, let posterity learn from thee to apprehend, ever remembering so to teach what thou hast learned, that the teacher be new, not the teaching. "Shunning profane

novelties of words." 66 Shun," he says, 66 as if a viper, or scorpion, or basilisk, whose very sight and breath-not touch only-may blast thee." Shun, in what way?"With such a one, no, not to eat." "If any one come to you, and bringeth not this doctrine;"-What doctrine, but the Catholic and universal, that one and the same doctrine remaining age after age by an incorrupt tradition of the truth, and ever so to remain on into everlasting ages? To proceed: "receive him not into your home, nor give him greeting; for he who gives him greeting, shares in his evil works." "Profane novelties of words;" that is, such as have nothing sacred or religious in them; such as are altogether outside the Church's shrine, which is the temple of GOD. "Novelties of words;" that is, of doctrines, subjects, statements, contrary to antiquity. If these be admitted, the creed of the Sainted Fathers must necessarily be violated, in whole or part; all believers of all ages, all the saints, all the religious brethren, and virgin sisters, all the clergy, Levites and priests, so many thousand of Confessors, so many armies of martyrs, so many populous cities and countries, so many islands, provinces, kings, nations, kingdoms, families, nay almost the whole compass of the world, incorporated, as it is through the Catholic faith, into CHRIST the head, in so long a series of years, must necessarily be judged to have been ignorant, to have erred, to have blasphemed.

"Profane novelties;" such, namely, as were never "followed or admitted by Catholics, but by heretics ever. For in good sooth, when was there ever an heresy, which did not spring up under a certain designation, at a certain place, at a certain time? Who ever established a heresy, except he first separated himself from the accordant voice of Catholic universality and antiquity? The fact is clearer than day, as instances show. Who, before the profane Pelagius, ever claimed such power for the will, as to deny that the grace of GoD was necessary to aid it in the particular acts of obedience? Who, before his marvellous disciple Celestius, ever denied that the whole human race was brought under the guilt of Adam's sin? Who, before the blasphemer Arius, dared to divide in his creed the Unity

of the Trinity? Who, before the wretched Sabellius, to confuse the Trinity of the Unity? Who, before that cruel Novation, ever taught that cruelty belonged to Him, who willeth not the death of him that dieth, but his turning and living?... Numberless other instances might be added, did space allow it; all of which plainly and clearly prove this one thing, as the peculiar and genuine mark of heresy, that it is novel, dislikes antiquity, and is wrecked by the captiousness of a pretended knowledge. On the other hand, it is almost the distinctive mark of a Catholic, that he keeps the trust and commission of the Holy Fathers, and condemns profane novelties, in accordance with the Apostle's repeated declarations, "If any one preach to you, what you have not already received, let him be anathema."

[There is this difficulty in applying the doctrine of this extract to these times, that the Church has forfeited in great measure its Catholicity; that is," in matter of fact, it was unanimous in its whole creed in Vincent's day, and it is not now. It now, alas! has one doctrine in Greece, another in Rome, a third in England, a fourth in Sweden. Moreover, since all of these cannot be true, error must have been admitted in some or other of its branches, an occurrence which Vincent never anticipated. He considers the Church to possess within it that principle of health and vigour, which expels heresies out of its system, without its suffering more than a temporary disarrangement from them. The state of things is altered now in matter of fact; though the Church of Rome attempts to deny it, by cutting off from the Catholic Church such branches as do not agree with itself. But this is arguing in a circle; for its members, after having cut off from them all who do not agree with them, maintain they are Catholic, because they all speak the same thing.

However, there is a true and sufficient sense in which Vincent's doctrine has been and ever will be fulfilled. In truth, he does not speak of all doctrine, but of the "foundations," (as he terms them, c. 41.) of Christian doctrine. That the Church ever will teach these faithfully, is promised in Scripture (Isa. lix. 21.) and in matter of fact, it has taught them up to this day, has taught them over the whole world, whatever may be the quarrels and schisms of its branches. These fundamentals are contained in the Creed, and have been expanded at various times by the Catholic Church acting together; such are the doctrines of the Trinity, the Incarnation, the Atonement, and the like; they have been held from the beginning, and to this day are taught in the east and west, north and south. Such too are many ordinances and usages of the Church.

Accordingly, in spite of our unhappy differences with Greece and Rome, we may say to the Socinian, after Vincent's manner, "We know when your doctrine first appeared, and it was protested against on its first appearance;" to the Baptist, "We can point to the very date when Infant Baptism was first denied ;" to the Presbyterian, "We can prove the rejection of Episcopacy to be a novelty;" to the Zuinglian or Hoadleian, "We can trace the history of the denial of Sacramental grace; we know its rise, its course, its outbreaks, and its defeats ;" and so with the rest.

Further, we may apply the argument against the Romanists themselves, unwilling as we are to speak harshly of them. We consider we can give the history of the corruptions in the Church, as well as of the heresies which went out of it. We can give the very year when image worship was first established, -and show the opposition and protests made against it at the time. We can assign a date to the doctrine of Transubstantiation. Nay, we are willing to receive all doctrines which were in possession of the Church in the sixteenth century, except so far as we can show a time when they were not in possession.]

6. (c. 35. 37.)

Here perhaps some one may ask, whether the heretics also do not make use of testimonies from Holy Scripture? Yes, indeed, they do use them, and lay great stress on them, for you may see them ready quoters of each book of God's Sacred Law,—the Books of Moses, of Kings, the Psalms, the Apostles, the Evangelists, the Prophets. Whether indeed they are among their own people, or among strangers, in private or in public, discoursing or writing, at convivial meetings or in the open ways, they never at all advance any of their peculiar positions, without attempting to express it in Scripture language. Look at the treatises of Paul of Samosata, of Priscillian, of Eunomius, of Jovinian, and those other scourges of the Church; you will find an infinite heap of instances, so that scarcely a page occurs, which is not coloured by some perverted passages of Scripture, the Old or the New. But so much more are they to be avoided and dreaded, the more they skulk behind the cover of the Divine Law. For they know that the ill savour of heresy would scarce commend itself to any