991 Universality, Antiquity, Consent." BRAMHALL maintains, "Such a tradition is a full proof, which is received semper, ubique, et ab omnibus; always, everywhere, and by all Christians." USHER says, "That which in the time of the ancient Fathers was accounted to be 'truly and properly Catholic,' namely, 'that which was believed everywhere, always, and by all;' that in the succeeding ages hath ever more been preserved, and is at this day entirely professed in our Church." TAYLOR affirms, "It is Vincentius Lirinensis's great Rule of Truth: 'quod ubique, quod semper, quod ab omnibus;' and he that goes against what is said always, everywhere, and by all Christians, hath need of a new revelation or an infallible spirit, for he hath an intolerable pride and foolishness of presumption." STILLINGFLEET says, "That he who questions a clear, full, universal Tradition of the whole Church, from CHRIST's time to this, will, by the same reason, doubt of all matters of faith, which are conveyed by this testimony to us." And adds in another place, "we [the Anglicans] are as ready as they [the Romanists] to stand to the unanimous consent of Fathers, and to Vincentius Lirinensis his rules of Antiquity, Universality, and Consent."5 BEVERIDGE remarks, "There have been, as it were, .. certain common notions from the beginning implanted in the minds of all Christians . . . . from the constant Tradition of the Apostles. . . . for on any other supposition it would be incredible, or even impossible, that they should have been received with so unanimous a consent everywhere, always, and by all." 2 It would be idle to add to these quotations, especially since the rule of Vincentius is so copiously illustrated, explained, and applied in the following pages. In their controversies with the Romanists our divines bring every doctrine, every tradition, to the test of this Touchstone of Truth, and express their unfeigned readiness to abide by the trial.3 Whatever has been believed and practised, semper, ubique, et ab omnibus, in the Catholic Church, that 1 P. 177. 2 3 By Jackson, pp. 52–61, and Hammond, pp. 80—84. 66 Mark, how each Creed stands in that Test reveal'd, Romish, and Swiss, and Lutheran novelties! As in the light of Spenser's magic shield, In darkness bold, bright-shining arms they spy, And down their Parent's mouth the Imps of Error hie!" Lyra Apostolica.-The rule of faith. our branch of the Fold of CHRIST is resolved to believe and practise.' fectibility of the Church. IV. One reason, doubtless, why our Spiritual The indeMother so unreservedly admits the rule of St. Catholic Vincentius is that mentioned by Bishop BEVERIDGE in the above citation, namely, that it is impossible that one system of Doctrine and Discipline should have been thus universally received, unless it had been at first promulged by the Apostolic College; but another and yet more cogent argument is grounded on her belief that "the whole Church, all over the world, will never agree together in teaching and enforcing what is not true." This assertion will probably startle some who have never closely studied the Formularies of our Church, as illustrated by their authorized Interpreter, her standard Divinity—it may be branded as Popery by others, who term by that odious appellation every tenet and principle which distinguishes the Anglican Communion from the "reformed-continental-churches;" but the candid inquirer will acknowledge that I have not mistated the truth. For, first, if we turn to the twentieth Article, we shall find it asserted that the Catholic Church has "authority in controversies of 1 See Bp. Stillingfleet, p. 142, and "Notes to the Introduction," Note (B.) faith." "Now these words certainly do not merely mean that she has authority to enforce such doctrines as can historically be proved to be Apostolical. They do not speak of her power of enforcing Truth, or of her power of enforcing at all, but say that she has authority in controversies;' whereas, if this authority depended on the mere knowledge of an historical fact, and much more if only on her persuasion in a matter of opinion, any individual of competent information has the same in his place and degree. The Church, then, according to this Article, has a power which individuals have not; a power, not merely as the ruling principle of a society, to admit and reject members, not simply a power of imposing tests, but simply authority in controversies of faith.' But how can she have this authority unless she be certainly true in her declarations? She can have no authority in declaring a lie. Matters of Doctrine are not like matters of usage or custom, founded on experience, and determinable by discretion. They appeal to the conscience, and the conscience is subject to Truth alone. It recognises and follows nothing but what comes to it with the profession of Truth. To say the Church has authority, and yet is not true, as far as it has authority, were to destroy liberty of conscience, which Protestantism in all its forms holds especially sacred; it were to substitute something besides Truth as the sovereign lord of conscience, which would be tyranny. If this Protestant principle is not surrendered in the Article, which no one supposes it to be, the Church is, to a certain point, there set forth as the organ or representative of Truth, and its teaching is identified with it."1 Again: our Church's reception of the Hymn of St. Athanasius is another proof of her holding the indefectibility of the Catholic Church in matters of saving faith. "In that Creed it is unhesitatingly said, that certain doctrines are necessary to be believed, in order to salvation; they are minutely and precisely described; no room is left for Private Judgment; none for any examination into Scripture, with the view of discovering them. Next, if we inquire the ground of this authority in the Church, the Creed answers, that she speaks merely as the organ of the Catholic voice, and that the faith thus witnessed is, as being thus witnessed, such, that whoso does not believe it faithfully, cannot be saved.2 'Catholic,' then, and 'saving,' are taken 1 Newman's Lectures on Romanism and Popular Protestantism. Lect. viii. pp. 226, 227. 2 "Do we not read in our Service, the Athanasian Creed, |