ation, but are made with a view of discriminating between Romanism and our own creed. In the former Lectures it was observed that the abstract and professed principles of both systems were often the same, but that in practice, the question of the Church's Infallibility created a wide and serious difference between them. We now see, in a measure, in what this difference consists, viz., in Romanism adopting a minute, technical, and imperative theology, which is no part of Revelation, and which produces a number of serious moral evils, which is shallow in philosophy, as professing to exclude doubt and imperfection, and dangerous to the Christian spirit, as encouraging us to ask for more than is given us, as fostering irreverence and presumption, confidence in our reason, and a formal or carnal view of Christian obedience. What further evils arise from the political character of these same peculiarities, shall be reserved for a separate Lecture.

LECTURE IV.

DOCTRINE OF INFALLIBILITY POLITICALLY
CONSIDERED.

Ir the object of Rome be to teach moral Truth in its highest or purest form, like a prophet or philosopher, intent upon it more than upon those whom she addresses, and by the very beauty of holiness, and the unconscious rhetoric of her own earnestness, drawing up souls to her, rather than by any elaborate device, certainly she has failed in that end, as was shown in my last Lecture. But if her one and supreme end is to rule the human mind, if man is the object of her thoughts and efforts, and religion but the means of approaching him, if earth is to be the standard, and heaven the instrument, then we must confess that she is most happy in her religious system. What is low in the scale of moral truth, may be the perfection of worldly wisdom; or rather, principles of action which stand first in the school of rhetoric, or politics, are neces

sarily unworthy the ethical teacher. Now the Church of Rome is a political power; and, if she stunts, or distorts the growth of the soul in spiritual excellence, it is because, whether unconsciously or not, she has in view political objects, visible fruits, temporal expediency, the power of influencing the heart, as the supreme aim and scope of her system; because she considers unity, peace, the public confession of the truth, sovereignty, empire, the one practical end for which the Church is formed, the one necessary condition of those other and unknown benefits, whatever these be, which lie beyond it in the next world. I am now to illustrate this peculiarity; and in order that there may be no mistake, I will briefly say what I am to do. I do not attempt to prove that Romanism is a political power; so well known a fact may be taken for granted; but I wish to show that those same principles, involved in the doctrine of Infallibility, which distinguish it from our own creed, morally, conduce to that special political character, which also distinguishes it from our own; that, what is morally a disadvantage, is a political gain: I mean their neglect of the Fathers, their abstract reasonings, and their attention to system.

1. Now, first, their political temper is the cause of their treating the Ancient Fathers with the rudeness and recklessness which has been instanced. Rome acts, like men of keen and impetuous minds,

as

in their dealings with the old or infirm; she supersedes them because they are hard of hearing, are slow to answer, are circuitous in their motions, and go their own way to work. The most vigorous and commanding intellects, through the interposing medium of centuries, will pour but a feeble and uncertain ray, compared with their original lustre ; and Rome considers it better to supersede them with fresh luminaries, than doubtingly and painfully to use them. Emergencies have happened, notions have been circulated, changes have been effected in the Christian Church, which were not contemplated, even in fancy, and can but be indirectly met by the Fathers;—which, moreover, creating exceptions to some general rules, and obliterating exceptions to others, have given their writings an interpretation, which they were never intended to bear. Thus while the highest truths remain in them immutable, to develope and apply them duly in particulars, is the work of much delicacy, and gives an opening to ingenious perversions of their meaning. Here, then, is a second reason why Romanists have been jealous of the Fathers, over and above the weakness of their own cause. They have dreaded the range and complication of materials thus made the body of proof, which from the nature of the case might as easily be made a handle for the errors of others, as a touchstone of their own. Bent upon action, not speculation, they

are unwilling to allow to heretical sophistry the opportunities of so large a field, and are ready to go great lengths to hinder it.

The difficulty in question is ours as well as theirs, but we do not make it a difficulty. We, for our part, have been taught to consider that faith in its degree as well as conduct, must be guided by probabilities, and that doubt is ever our portion in this life. We can bear to confess that other systems have their unanswerable arguments in matters of detail, and that we are but striking a balance between difficulties existing on both sides; that we are following as the voice of God, what on the whole we have reason to think such. We are not bent (to God be the praise!) on proselyting, organizing, and ruling as the end of life and the summum bonum of a Christian community, but have brought ourselves to give our testimony "whether men will hear, or whether they will forbear," and then to leave the matter to God. And, while we are keen and firm in action, we would rather do so according to the occasion, and because it is right to be so, than as connecting our separate efforts into one whole, and contemplating ulterior measures. We would rather act as a duty towards God, the Great Author and Object of their faith, than with unclouded and infallible apprehension of the subject-matter which He sets before us, with a vigorous will, creating for ourselves those realities which the external world but faintly adumbrates,

K