and cardinal doctrines of our faith. She is wanting in no single point.

We invite you hen-if you have not already done soto take refuge within her walls, before God shall arise to shake terribly the earth. Come, and unite yourself with the bright array of those who have gone before, on whom is resting the Spirit of glory and of grace. They are bending down from their thrones on high-" a great cloud of witnesses"-to see whether you will still sustain that Holy Church, to advance which they considered life itself as not too precious to be sacrificed. They have beqeathed to you this cause, to bear it onward as once they did. You are standing in their places, and are the inheritors of their responsibilities. You are "baptized for the dead." And now, the host of the elect is pressing onward. Some have already passed into Canaan, over the river of death, and some are still toiling on in the wilderness. Oh, may you, when the dispersed of God's spiritual Israel are gathered into one, be found again united as members of "the general assembly and Church of the first born which are written in Heaven.'

THE TRUE, CATHOLIC CHURCHMAN.

All may save self;-but minds that heavenward tower
Aim at a wider power,

Gifts on the world to shower.

And this is not at once ;-by fastings gained,
And trials well sustained,

By pureness, righteous deeds, and toils of love,
Abidance in the Truth, and zeal for God above.

Lyra Apostolica.

HAVING endeavored to bring before you the distinctive principles of the Church-those by which we are separated from the different denominations around us-the question naturally occurs, What is the practical bearing of those truths? We answer-they are to be acted out in the life, and embodied in the daily walk and conversation of those who profess to be members of our Holy Apostolic Church. I know not, therefore, that I can select a more appropriate subject with which to close these Lectures, than a delinea tion of THE TRUE, CATHOLIC CHURCHMAN.

The very name indeed which he bears-if he walk worthy of it-proclaims the principles by which he will be directed. He has received his title from no human teacher. He assumes the badge of no mere sect. He shares in that jealous vigilance which induced St. Paul so sternly to chide the Corinthiar.s, because one party said "we are of Paul," and another, we are of Apollos," and another " we are of Cephas." And this feeling the Primitive believers bequeathed to those who came after them in the early Church, "We take not," says St. Chrysostom, "our denomination from men. We have no leaders, as the followers of Marcion, or Manichæus or Arius."* "The Church" says Epiphanius

* Hom. 33, in Acts.

I was never called so much as by the name of any Apostle. We never heard of Petrians, or Paulinus, or Bartholomæans, or Thaddæans: but only of Christians, from Christ."*"] honor Peter"—says another Father-"but I am not called a Petrian; I honor Paul, but I am not called a Paulin ; I cannot bear to be named from any man, who am the creature of God."t And Bingham tells us that when Sempronian, the Novatian heretic, demanded of Pacian the reason why Christians called themselves Catholics, he answered, that it was to distinguish them from Heretics. "Christian" he says"is my name, and Catholic my sur-name; the one is my title, the other my character or mark of distinction." Such was the feeling of these early saints. Leaving to the sects which started up on every side, to name themselves after their leaders, they still kept to that general appellation, which was more expressive of unity and relationship to their Lord. The Churchman of this day therefore has inherited these views, and by the name CATHOLIC CHURCHMAN, he expresses both his allegiance to his Divine Master, and to that Apostolic Church He founded.§

One characteristic of the true Churchman is-that he receives with humility all the doctrines of the Church, and avows his belief in them. This must at once be evident. It would be an absurdity for a disciple to call himself by the name of a teacher to whose instructions he did not fully subscribe. As the Jew prided himself on being the follower of Moses, and showed his reverence for the ancient dispensation by observing all its requirements, even the most minute, so does the Churchman proclaim to the world the fact, that he is a disciple of Christ, and a member of His Holy Apostolic

Bing. Orig. Eccles. lib. i. ch. 1, sect. 6.
Orig. Eccles. lib. i. ch. 1, sect. 7.

† Greg. Naz. Orat. 31

§ I wear the name of Christ, my God,
So name me not from man!
And my broad country Catholic,
Hath neither tribe nor clan:
Its ruler are an endless line,

Through all the world they went,
Commissioned from the Holy Hill
Of Christ's sublime ascent."

Rev A. C. Coze

Church. He is ready to acknowledge his belief in all that his Master taught, either when, Himself on earth, He acted as the earliest herald of the Gospel; or when, after Hie ascension, He inspired holy men to enlarge the circle of revelation, and then committed to the Church which He had organized the lofty duty of being a Keeper and Witness of the Truth.

But we are told that there is no necessity for an appeal to the Church, to learn the fundamental doctrines of our faith-that "the Bible alone is the religion of Protestants"

and we need no other intervention to aid us in forming our Creed, or in settling our belief. Look then over the world, and see how this assertion is supported by actual experience. The first sound which strikes the ear is the din of controversy, as the most solemn truths which God has revealed, are openly questioned and denied, or banded about among warring herectics from mouth to mouth, until the reverence even of the believer is insensibly impaired. The first sight which meets the eye, is that of the body of Christ rent asunder, and contending parties using as hostile watchwords those solemn verities, to which man should have listened only with awe and reverence. The present situation of the different Protestant sects around answers but too truly the description which Dante has given

:

"Christ's host, which cost so dear to arm afresh,
Beneath its ensign moves with tardy step,

Thin are its rank, each soldier coldly looks
Upon his fellow, doubtful of his faith."*

Amidst then this changing, shifting sea of opinions, where is the truth? In what can I believe, as the certain teaching of my Lord? The Bible is of course before me, and I may study it for myself, but the same privilege is afforded others also, and yet I bet old a hundred varying sects-all holding different Creeds-and all professing to derive them from that Volume. Which then is right? Where can I find a guide to direct me in the right path? I can truly say, like the Ethiopian Eunuch-"How can I understand, except some man should guide me?

Now, these difficulties are natural, and must be felt by * Paradiso, xi..

every reflecting mind. The Church, therefore, has provided a remedy. She does not say to her children "Each one of you may explain the Scripture according to your own fancy" but she furnishes them with an interpretation. Going back to Primitive times-to the days of Apostles and Martyrs she unrolls their writings, and inquires, how these men, who stood nearest to the fountain of light—who lived when the tradition of all our Lord's words and deeds had not yet faded from the earth-how they understood His precepts? She takes the ground—and surely it is a reasonable one-that doctrines which have been the admitted faith of the Church from the first age down through eighteen hundred years, are probably correct, and therefore she teaches them to her children in her creeds and formularies.

Here then is her rule of faith-SCRIPTURE AS IT ALWAYS HAS BEEN INTERPRETED BY THE CHURCH. The Church of Rome contends that there are two rules of faith, of equal authority; that there is an unwritten tradition, alike definite and alike to be respected with the written word of God. Thus it was asserted in a decree of the Council of Trent"All saving truth is not contained in the Holy Scripture, but partly in the Scripture and partly in unwritten tradition, which whosoever doth not receive with like piety and reverence as he doth the Scriptures, let him be accursed. "+ The clearly stated doctrine of our own Church, on the contrary, is, that tradition is to be used only to interpret Scripture. "The Church hath power to decree rites or ceremonies, and authority in controversies of faith; and yet it is not lawful for the Church to ordain any thing that is contrary to God's word written neither may it so expound one place of Scripture that it be repugnant to another. Wherefore, although the Church be a witness and a keeper of Holy Writ, yet as it

"We learn to prize that which is not of this th; we long for revelation which nowhere burns more majestically or more beautifully than in the New Testament. I feel impelled to open the original text-to translate for once, with upright feeling, the sacred original into my darling German. It is written: In the beginning was the Word.' Here I am already at a stand; who will help me on?” Grethe's Faust, p. 44.

+ Seas. iv. Decret. de Can. Script.