ment till the coming of Jesus Christ, he had directed it in person, then he suddenly changes his mind, and, as if to repose, hands over the reins to a Lieutenant, on whom he bestows without doubt a part of his supreme power, or at least his omniscience, and other similar qualities; as if such a division of the Divine attributes was, or could be considered as, among possible events.

It is worthy of remark, that when once man is impressed with a mean idea of his vocation, it very seldom happens that he can, whether by thought or by inclination, raise himself above this level. He who persuades himself that it is not in his power to perform certain moral obligations, will never during life fulfil them; and he who dies convinced that certain operations of the mind are above his strength, will never resolve the problems which exact operations of this sort. It is thus that Socinus, in order to explain the image of God in man, the property (if I may use the expression) which makes him man, says, that it consists in the sovereignty of man over animals. Noble vocation indeed! the system is more worthy of a Shepherd than of a Theologian. In fine, Rev. Sir, the grand principle of Socinianism is-That no mystery in religion can be admitted which is above human reason or repugnant to it. This Doctrine flatters the Human Heart; but it is, in fact, the most extravagant inconsistency in man, who at almost every step is compelled to own the weakness and short-sightedness of Reason, and to whom the whole universe is in every part an inexplicable enigma; but much more in a Christian, to whom the Scripture presents a Religion founded on Mystery and Revelation. This inconsistency becomes more glaring, when we take a nearer view of the doctrines of the most celebrated Socinians; differing widely from each other, and all fraught with Mysteries more incomprehensible than those at which they take offence-if their arrant nonsense may

be allowed the name of Mystery. The Evidence of Divine Revelation, which by its Meridian Brightness dispels the mist of Deism, exposes also the artful subterfuges and studied evasions of Socinianism. The Calvinists, who rejected mysteries in the Eucharist, and several other doctrinal articles, upon the Socinian principle, and who established religion upon the pretended ground of Reason, contesting its having been founded by Christ on authority, were often at a loss for an answer in defending the far more incomprehensible mysteries of the Trinity and the Incarnation against the Anti-Trinitarians. Unwilling, however, to set aside Christianity itself, by stripping it of every advantage of which it is possessed, they, by a palpable dereliction of their own principles, repressed those errors with the sword. But great numbers of them now have so far shaken off the yoke of Christianity, as to have, in many points, adopted the Socinian system. "In this," says d'Alembert, "if they are not orthodox, they are at least consistent."(Miscellaneous Pieces, printed at Paris and

at London.)

And I am,

Rev. Sir,

Your obedient Servant,

VERAX,

A CATHOLIC LAYMAN.

POSTSCRIPT.

I have just received your very long letter with your objections to the Divinity of the Holy Ghost; but I beg you will recollect, that I am only in this work defending the Divinity of our Saviour; but fearful that you should for one moment suppose that I am disinclined to meet you on that verity, I beg to inform you at once, that the Divi

nity of the Holy Ghost is clearly proved from Scripture. When Ananias attempted to impose on the Apostle Peter, by keeping for his own private use, a part of the money which he had obtained for his field, (the whole of which he had solemnly engaged himself to place in the common stock for the general use of the faithful,) the Apostle said to him: Why hath Satan tempted thy heart, (that is, why hast thou given way to the temptation of Satan,) that thou shouldst lie to the Holy Ghost, and by fraud keep back a part of the price of the land? Would not the land have remained with thee, if thou hadst wished to keep it? And after thou hast sold it, was not the price in thine own power? Why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart? Thou hast not lied to men, but to God.-(Acts v.) Nothing can more clearly prove the Divinity of the Holy Ghost than this declaration of the Apostle-a declaration which was confirmed by an evident miracle, by the punishment of Ananias, for he had no sooner heard the words of Peter than he dropped down and expired. The Holy Ghost is put on an equality with the first and second Persons of the Godhead in the administration of Baptism; for the Apostles were commanded to baptize men in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost (Matt. xxviii.): he is also joined with them in the invocations for grace.-(See St. Paul, 1 Cor. vi.) Many other passages from the Sacred Writings I might produce; but these are amply sufficient to prove that the Holy Ghost is equal to the Father and the Son, and that he is the same Lord and God as they are.

Truth, Rev. Sir, is unchangeable: like its Divine Author, it is the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever. But some may ask,-What are we to do, when men of great learning and apparent piety create obstacles which occasion Religious Differences? That there would be such men was foreseen by its Divine Founder; who cautions us

against their seduction, and tells us they are wolves in the clothing of sheep. But whenever there occur differences on Religious Subjects-to the question, What are we to do? Jesus Christ has, in one short sentence, given the answer,"Hear the Church."-(Matt. xviii.)

LETTER XXIV.

TO THE REV. CHARLES LE BLANC.

THE WHOLE CATHOLIC CHURCH AGREES WITH THE NICENE

COUNCIL.

REV SIR,

The whole Catholic Church in all ends of the earth, and in every age, has been of one mind with the Nicene Fathers, and not only acknowledged him as the Christ, but worshipped him as the only begotten and eternal Son, and honoured him even as they honour the Father. Since the time of the Arian controversy this cannot be disputed, but is equally certain that faith in the eternal Son of God was the Catholic faith before the controversy began. Barnabas, (Cotel. Apost. pp. 60, 61,) the Contemporary of the Apostles, says, that "to Christ, the Father said, come - let us make man; and that if the Son of God had not come in human form, we could as little have borne his glory as we can gaze upon the Sun." From Irenæus it would be most easy by numerous and unanswerable passages, to

shew that the Church believed in the eternal and co-equal Son of God. The third book, Contra Hæreses, is itself decisive of the question. That the faith of Irenæus was that of the universal Church, may be seen at large in Bull's "Defence of the Nicene Faith," and also in his " Primitive and Apostolic Tradition."

An eminent English Protestant divine says: "Yea, the last and most celebrated (Strauss) of their writers (German Rationalists), who has just endeavoured to prove that the Gospels are a mere collection of legends, asserts in the most explicit manner, that Faith in the Divinity of Christ was taught in the Gospel and professed by the primitive Church.” Strauss, in his Summary of the New Testament Doctrine, says: "It was thought that the Messiah, now exalted to the right hand of God, could from the beginning not have been an ordinary man; not only was he anointed with the Spirit of God in richer measure than Prophet ever had been, but, as men variously conceived, he was either supernaturally begotten through the Holy Ghost (Matt. and Luke 1), or as the Wisdom and Word of God had descended into an earthly body (John 1), in as much as before his appearance as man he had been in the bosom of the Father in divine majesty (John xvii. 5), so his descent into this world, and especially his devotion of himself to an ignominious death, was a humiliation which he voluntarily undertook for the good of man."-(Strauss, Leben Jesu, vol. 2, 694, 695.) Such is the confession of the German Infidel respecting the doctrine of the Gospel. His declaration respecting the faith of the Anti-Nicene Church is equally ambiguous and still more remarkable. After noticing the second article of the Apostles' Creed, he says: "The fundamental theme of the Christian faith, which is, 'The word was made flesh,' or, ' God manifest in the flesh,' was endangered on all sides; as at one time the Deity, at another