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

the Humanity, and then the true union of both were controverted. They, however, who, like the Ebionites, entirely denied the Deity, or, like the Gnostics, the Humanity of Christ, excluded themselves too decidedly from the Christian community."—(Ibid. 698, 699.) Just mark this confession of the last enemy of Gospel truth. In his eyes, "The Doctrine of God manifest in the Flesh, is the Fundamental theme of the Christian Faith, and they who deny Christ's Deity are without the pale of the Christian Church."

But then after mentioning the tenets of Arius and Apollinaris, he says: "To such views it was more easy to give an appearance of Christianity. Nevertheless, the internal conviction of the Christian Church rejected the Arian representation of an inferior Deity who had in Jesus become man, for this reason besides others, because on this view the express Image of the Deity would not in Christ have been manifested."-(Ibid.) We need no further evidence to prove "That Jesus, the Son of Mary, has been universally acknowledged as the only begotten and eternal Son of God. And that therefore the prediction uttered by the Angel, and recorded by St. Luke, notwithstanding its apparent improbability at the time, has been minutely and wonderfully accomplished. We must therefore conclude, either that God has set the seal of Truth upon a wicked Blasphemy, as this Prediction ascribing Deity and Divine Honour to a man assuredly is, if it be false, or we must acknowledge that St. Luke was an Inspired Writer, and consequently that his account of the Miraculous Conception and Birth of our Lord is true." This talented Protestant divine again says: "Shall we have recourse to these evasions whereby Socinians explain away the existence of the Devil, demoniacal possession, the Doctrine of Atonement, and the Deity of Christ, and say that a Throne of David, and House of

Jacob are Oriental figures, which when turned into occidental prose, mean the Throne of God in Heaven, and the Gentile Churches? Consistency, Reason, and the Catholic Faith, alike forbid such a solution. If we adopt a figurative throne of David, and a figurative house of Jacob, we must in all consistency admit also a Figurative Conception, and a Figurative Son of God, and thus give up the Fundamental Truths of Christianity, and basely betray the Christian Faith into the hands of its enemies. If we admit Oriental figures in one part of the New Testament, we cannot deny them in other parts."

But now permit me here, Rev. Sir, in sober sense to ask again my Protestant friends this simple question: Why do they give a figurative meaning to these plain words of our Blessed Saviour, "This is my Body?" Let them recollect, that the Real Presence of Christ in the Sacrament has ever been the doctrine of the Catholic Church (See Note to Letter VII.); it has also ever been the doctrine of all those Heretics who have separated in the early ages from the Catholic Church; it is this day the belief of the Greek and Lutheran Churches. And Martin Luther himself, the Father of the (Pretended) Reformation, calls all those who deny the Real Presence of Christ in the Sacrament, "Devils, and Super-Devils."-He also calls them, "Bread Eaters," &c.

Hear Archbishop Laud (Speech in the Star Chamber, p. 47): "The Altar is the greatest place of God's residence on earth. Yea, greater than the pulpit; for there it is, 'Hoc est corpus meum' (This is my Body); in the pulpit it is at most Hoc est verbeum meum' (This is my word); and a greater reverence is due to the body than to the word of the Lord; and to the throne where his body is present, than to the seat where his word is preached." Words so clear against the Calvinistic Doctrine of a few years after,