you." Is it possible that the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of Truth, who agreeably to this promise of Christ, has undertaken to be the perpetual guide and director of his Church and its Pastors, could, as you imagine, permit them to depart from the primitive doctrines of Christianity? Or do you imagine that the philosophical doctrines and opinions of men are more powerful, and can have more influence over the minds of the true people of God, than the Spirit of Truth? The human mind revolts at such a thought!

These promises of our Saviour, and the completion of them, are exactly conformable to what had been long ago foretold by the prophet Isaiah (lix. 20), who says: "The Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob, saith Jehovah. As for me this is my covenant with them, saith Jehovah; my spirit that is upon thee, and the words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed's seed, saith Jehovah, from henceforth and for ever." If these words, this promise of Jehovah, be true, how was it possible that there should have been such a rapid departure from the primitive doctrines of Christianity as you pretend? And how could the Church of Christ on Earth ever have required a Reformation in matters appertaining unto Faith, when the Son of God promised ever to be with her, leading and guiding her into all truth?

And I am, Rev. Sir,

Your obedient Servant,

VERAX,

A CATHOLIC LAYMAN.

POSTSCRIPT.

St. Justin presented two apologies to the Roman Emperors in favour of the Christians, and suffered martyrdom at Rome in the year 167. In that which is called his first apology, he says (p. 11): "We profess indeed that we do not acknowledge the heathen gods; but we worship and adore the Father, the Son who hath come and taught us these things, and the Prophetic Spirit." P. 122: “They who assert the Father and the Son to be the same person, know not the Father; nor do they know that the Father of all things has a Son; who, being the first begotten Word of God, is also God."

In that which is called his second apology, he says (p. 13): "The words Father, God, Creator, Lord, and Master, are titles derived from his works, and the benefits he bestows on his creatures: but his Son, who alone is properly called his Son, the Word, which co-existing with, and was begotten of him before any thing was created, (because by him he created and beautified all things in the beginning,) is called Christ; for this reason, because by him God anointed and beautified all things."

In his dialogue with Tryphon, the Jewish philosopher, he says (Biblioth. Patr. Tom, 2, p. 9, Col. 2): "It was foretold, as I have shewn from the Scriptures, that Christ is King, Priest, God, Lord, an Angel, a Man. The child that should be born, who was first passible, then ascended into heaven, and is to come again with glory, and to have an eternal kingdom." P. 10, Col. 1: "Now permit me, Tryphon, to shew you that Christ is God, and the Lord of Hosts." This he demonstrates from the 23rd, alias 24th Psalm, and also from the 46th, alias 47th Psalm; but the passage is too long to be transcribed here, and therefore I refer you to the original. P. 12, Col. 2: "Christ, the

Son of God, who condescended to be born of a Virgin of the race of David, existed before the Morning Star and the moon." P. 15, Col. 2: "I will endeavour to convince you from the Scriptures, that he who appeared to Abraham, Jacob, and Moses, and is called God, is distinct from the God" (that is, from the person called God) "who created all things; distinct, I say, in number, not in council and sentiment." These last words shew that he means distinct in person only not in nature, since they have the same will, counsel, and sentiment. Then he proves his assertion,― first from Gen. xix.: "The Lord (Jehovah) rained brimstone and fire from the Lord (Jehovah) out of heaven."Second, from Psalm cx. 1: "The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool."-Thirdly, from Psalm xlv. 6: "Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever; the sceptre of thy kingdom is a right sceptre. Thou lovest righteousness and hatest wickedness therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows." There is no need of transcribing anything more from St. Justin's writings, since you, Rev. Sir, and all who have read his works, know that every part of this Dialogue, where Justin speaks, was intended to convince Tryphon that there is a plurality of Persons in God; that each of these Persons is truly and properly God; that one of these persons came into the world, and was born of a Virgin for the redemption of mankind; that this Person, when incarnate, was called Jesus Christ; and that Jesus Christ was consequently both God and Man.

The illustrious St. Augustine remarks, that "if we consider these three things in the soul of man, viz. memory (it should be sentiment, instead of memory), intelligence, and will, we shall find that, from these three, all things which we do, emanate.... for we do nothing, but what is done

conjointly by these three."-(Contra. Serm. Arianonum. c. 16.) "If, moreover," adds an ancient council, "we look upon the Person of the Father as the understanding (should be sentiment, not understanding), it is evident that the Word (or intelligence), which is born of this understanding, is the Son; and the will, which proceeds from the understanding and the Word, designates the Holy Ghost. However, we cannot appropriate the understanding, by which the Father is designated, to the Son or to the Holy Ghost; nor the Word, which is taken for the Son, to the Father or Holy Ghost; nor the will, by which we understand the Person of the Holy Ghost, to the Father or Son."-(Gon. Tolet. 15.)

LETTER XVIII.

TO THE REV. CHARLES LE BLANC.

THE DECISION, OR DECREE OF THE COUNCIL OF NICE, IS A CONVINCING PROOF THAT THE DOCTRINE OF THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST WAS THE DOCTRINE OF THE APOSTLES AND THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH.

REV. SIR,

What I have undertaken in this letter to shew is, that the Divinity of Christ was the doctrine of the Apostles and of the Christian Church, and I prove it demonstratively as follows:

1. The Fathers who assembled in the Council of Nice, had each of them his diocese and his flock, over which he had been constituted Bishop by the Holy Ghost (Acts xx.); and it was the duty of each one of them to teach his flock the faith and duties of Christianity. This duty they generally performed in their own person, by the Sermons, Instructions, and Exhortations, which they delivered to the people on every Sabbath-day, when they met to celebrate the Divine Mysteries. And as there can be no doubt but that they had always taught the very same faith which they themselves believed, and which they professed in the Council of Nice, it will follow hence, and from what we read in the works of the undoubtedly orthodox Ante-Nicene Writers, that they had always taught the people that Jesus Christ was not only man, but also God, equal to his Father; and and that there were three distinct persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, subsisting in the Divine nature, which we call the mystery of the Trinity.

2. As these Bishops taught their flocks the doctrines of the Divinity of Christ, and the Trinity of Persons in God; so it cannot be doubted but that the people believed and professed the doctrine taught them by their pastors, whom they believed to have been appointed by the Holy Ghost to feed and govern them. From which it will follow, that the doctrine they professed and defined in the Council of Nice, was the public faith of all the Churches which they governed, and not merely the private opinions which the Fathers entertained in their own breasts.

3. As the Legates of the Bishop of Rome presided in that Council, and the Patriarchs of Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem, were personally present in it, and all voluntarily assented to and signed the Creed, it certainly was the public faith of all the Patriarchal Churches.

4. The faith defined by the Fathers in the Council of