precautions on the part of Christians, lest by mixing them up with Christianity, they acted like heretics, whose peculiar tenets have always been originally the innovations of one or two subtle and venturous minds upon or counter to what has been received.

As to cases of actual error, such as that of the false prophet introduced by Vincentius, there has been since his time a most deplorable and astounding instance of this in the corruptions of the Latin Church, whether they be called heresy or not. Considering the high gifts and the strong claims of the Church of Rome and its dependencies on our admiration, reverence, love, and gratitude, how could we withstand it as we do? how could we refrain from being melted into tenderness and rushing into communion with it, but for the words of Truth itself, which bid us prefer it to the whole world? "He that loveth father or mother more than ME, is not worthy of ME;" How could we learn to be severe, and execute judgment, but for the warning of Moses against even a divinely gifted teacher, who should preach new gods; and the anathema of St. Paul even against Angels and Apostles, who should bring in a new doctrine?

And lastly, what a noble comment is here given us upon the prohibition of Christ to call any one on earth our Master! and how elevating a thought is it to reflect that the precept so explained has ever been acted upon by the Church Catholic! We have no human head in matters of doctrine, we acknowledge every single Christian, however exalted, to be but an individual, to have no intrinsic authority, no power, no influence except so far as he is the organ of the whole body of Christian teachers. In this we differ from heretics and Dissenters. They follow particular teachers, and call themselves after their names. We follow Christ only; even in following the old fathers, we follow them, not as if they were commissioned expounders, but simply as being witnesses of the truth once delivered, and to be followed in matters of necessary faith simply because and so far as they agree together. Their mutual agreement is the test of their being faithful witnesses, which is all we seek after; we attribute nothing to them as oracles of the truth, much less to individuals now-a-days. Let a man be gifted with eloquence, ready talent, deep penetration, vigorous grasp of mind; let him be amiable, sympathising, winning; let him bear upon him the evidence of earnestness and disinterested piety; let him be zealous, active, patient, self-denying; let him have a noble heart, and a resolute hand, and many followers, yet if he keeps to the ancient truth it is well. But if he departs from it, that instant MENE and TEKEL are written upon his school. The ground crumbles from under him, his rod of influence is broken, his glory is departed; he is no more. He has what he had not while he was a transmitter of Catholic Verities, a name; and it is borne after him by his party as a witness against him and them.]

(Ad Scholas.)

No. XXV.

Vincentius of Lerins on the Tests of Heresy and Error.

(Concluded.)

4. (c. 25).

Ir follows, that he is the real and genuine Catholic, who loves God's truth, and the Church, and the body of Christ, who makes all things second to divine religion and the Catholic faith, whether the authority of private men, or their amiable qualities, or their talent, or eloquence, or philosophy: but not regarding any of these, and remaining fixed and stedfast in the faith, deliberately maintains that, and that only, which the Church Catholic is known to have held every where from the beginning; and considers as a temptation, not as a religious truth, whatever novelty has been secretly introduced by some private hand, beside, or even contrary to, the Body of Saints. And, above all, as being taught by St. Paul, he receives that heresies must be, in order that the approved may become manifest among us, as if this were the reason why heresiarchs are not at once taken away by Divine Providence; that the constancy 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 unquestionable; uncertain whither to go, whither to return; what to seck, 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 excellencies 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 abode 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 as a follower. "Guard the deposit." Preserve the talent of the 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 but 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 vene

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rated, 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." "Shun," he says, "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 Novatian 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 :each these faithfully, is promised in the Scripture [Isa. lix. 2.] 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.

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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 them the very year when image worship was first established, and show the opposition and protests make against it at the time. We can assign a date to the doctrine of Transubstantiation. Nay, we are willling 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