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proved erroneous, and it will be evident that she erred in giving it that sanction, and cannot, therefore, have the prerogative of infallibility.

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Whilst the question of Catholic Emancipation was still pending, many of its Protestant advocates, either through ignorance or disingenuity, loudly disclaimed this dogma on behalf of the Irish Roman Catholic; and the priesthood, perceiving it would be of advantage to their Church at that particular period that the disclaimers should be believed, quietly acquiesced in the imputed renunciation of infallibility. Not a few have thence embraced the opinion that Pohas abandoned some of its absurdities; and that those glaring errors which seem to us so abominable, can be charged on the ignorant Papists of former times only, and are not to be imputed to the enlightened Romanists of this age. We should rejoice to have some ground for believing this. We should be glad were it even left uncontradicted by facts. But are not the candidates for the sacred office, in all their seminaries and colleges, most carefully instructed in the various quibbles and subtilties by which this dogma may be defended? Of such primary importance is it still reckoned, that it occupies an early and prominent place in the system of theological education. On a late occasion, the theological professor in the faculty of the Sorbonne, commenced his course by expounding in what manner infallibility may be maintained and defended.

By the preference thus given to this doctrine, it would seem to be regarded by Romanists as an equally essential and fundamental principle in their system of dogmatic theology as the geometrician holds the axioms to be on which the whole system of geometry is founded. No unnecessary or undue importance is here assigned to this doctrine. It must be regarded as indisputable as an axiom; for unless the traditions

and decrees of councils proceeded from an infallible mind, they could not be alleged as competent proofs of any doctrine. In truth, this is the tenet which gives union and stability to the entire system. It is the very key-stone of the papal arch. Remove it, and the ghostly fabric will tumble to the dust. For if Romanists had not a pretended infallible judge, to whose decision they might refer every matter in controversy, there would be no alternative left them but to appeal to the Supreme authority of Scripture, as we do; and whenever that is done, it will probably be followed by consequences similar to those that resulted from the appeal made to the lively oracles of God, at the evermemorable era of the Reformation.

If transubstantiation be not a true doctrine, there can be no infallibility in the authority which sanctioned it. "But there is no proposition in the world more evidently true, than that transubstantiation is evidently false." If it be true, it must be believed to be so, in opposition to the principles upon which we yield our assent to any other proposition whatsoever-yea, in opposition to the very grounds on which we believe in revelation itself. If there be reason, therefore, to believe in transubstantiation, there can be no reason to believe in any thing else. The reader will find this observation completely verified by a perusal of the Anatomy of the Mass.

It is confessed by some of the most learned of the Romanists, as Occam, Dun Scotus, and others, that transubstantiation cannot be proved from Scripture. Bellarmine admits this is not improbable. Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, of high authority, and a reputed martyr among the Papists, ingenuously acknowledges, that "in the words of the institution, there is not one word from which the true

presence of the flesh and blood of Christ, in our Mass,

can be proved." But, then, it is argued that transubstantiation, according to the Romish exposition of our Lord's words, must have been the uniform and continual belief of the Church, otherwise such a peculiar interpretation could never have been introduced without the most notable opposition; and it is contended, that the time of its introduction cannot be specified, nor any circumstantial account given of opposition to it ;-from thence it is inferred, that transubstantiation hath been the perpetual belief of the Church. This is the sum of Arnauld's celebrated demonstration, in his book on the Perpetuity of the Faith; but this pretended demonstration is built upon a palpable fallacy. It assumes that this doctrine is true, and has been believed ever since the first promulgation of Christianity; not on account of intrinsic credibility, or external evidence, but because it is supposed that those who impugn it cannot eondescend upon the time and manner in which it originated. This supposed inability might, however, arise from the defective skill or learning of opponents, or from defective or mutilated records of the transactions of the times. But inability to prove a particular fact, cannot be construed into a proof of the verity of another directly opposite. bility to prove a panel guilty, is not tantamount to a proof of innocence. There hath been a controversy respecting the first invention of the art of printing; but who, from that, would conclude that the art had existed from the re⚫motest antiquity. The time, however, has been ascertained, as shall by and by appear, when the pernicious doctrine

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* See Archbishop Tillotson's Discourse on Transubstantiation.— Finding the authority of the Church too weak an argument, later defenders of Romanism Bossuet, Hay, Milner, Doyle-rely chiefly upon the literal meaning of the words, This is my body.

of transubstantiation was broached,-by whom, by whom opposed, and by whom at last decreed.

Could it be shewn, that in the present Liturgy of the Romish Church, there is no Canon of the Mass-or that her theological writers never employ the word transubstantiation, or words of equivalent import-would any one hesitate to admit that the Mass service is no part of her worship in the present age, and that transubstantiation is not an article of belief? And will it be denied, that the absence of these from the writings of the primitive Fathers, and the earliest Liturgies, is conclusive evidence that no such opinion or practice then existed?

Corresponding to the simplicity of character that distinguished the Christians of apostolic times, was the simplicity of their form of worship. They adhered closely to the pattern our Lord had left them. In celebrating that solemn service, which the Lord instituted for a perpetual ordinance, the faithful presented oblations of bread and wine upon the sacred table, in acknowledgment that God is the giver of every good gift; thereafter a portion of the oblation was consecrated by prayer and thanksgiving, and then broken and distributed among the people, to be eaten and drunk as the memorial of Christ's sacrifice of himself.*

To this ordinance a variety of names were given; some denoting the action, or part of it-some the manner of performance-others the beneficial effects resulting from the right observance of it.

To these sources may be traced almost all the principal names by which this ordinance has been known; and as the design of this introduction to Du Moulin's Treatise on the

* Compare Mede on the Christian Sacrifice, Larroque Hist. de L'Euch. c. 8, Cabasilas Expos. Litur. c. 2.

Mass is to place the opinions of the Fathers in regard to the subject and object of the Eucharist before the reader in chronological order, it may be of advantage to premise, according to the same method, some brief notices of the chief names that have been given to this Holy Sacrament. But it may serve to illustrate the analogy and harmony subsisting between the Old and New Testaments, and to give us clearer and more definite ideas respecting the nature and properties of the Holy Sacrament of the Supper, and also to shew us the origin and appropriateness of some of its most noted names, to advert, first of all, to the relation in which the people of God were placed under the Jewish economy, and the sacrifices then offered up preparatory to, and prefigurative of, the great sacrifice of the cross, in which they all received their grand consummation.

The Jews were a privileged and peculiar people, because they were a covenanted people. God chose Abram, and promised-that is, bound himself by the pledge of his own eternal veracity-to him, while he was yet childless, and greatly advanced in years, to give him a seed, numerous as the stars of heaven, and likewise the land wherein he dwelt, for an inheritance. "God called Abram from among his kindred, and said unto him, I will bless thee, and make thee a great nation, and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed." Gen. xii.-The promise is renewed in Gen. xv.; where it is added, " And Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness." Yet he immediately afterwards enquired, How shall I know, or what shall be the pledge of these things? Then God commanded to take, or offer, a heifer, a she goat, a turtle dove, and a young pigeon. And Abram did so, and divided them in the midst, and placed the one part opposite the other; and at the going down of the sun, a smoking furnace and burning lamp

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