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treatises of Petavius on the Patristic language relating to the Holy Trinity; or, to refer to a more accessible work, let him turn to the language of the Fathers on the Immensity of the Son in a well-known work on the Development of Christian Doctrine. The havoc made not only with the writings of the Fathers, but with the doctrines of faith, by those who profess to interpret them, apart from the lineal tradition of the Church, is evidence enough of the falseness of this method. The only Father in whom, it is said, the Church has noted no error, is S. Gregory of Nazianzum. The Church can freely criticise the works of its own disciples: for while they may err, it cannot. And the imperfect conceptions and imperfect definitions of individual fathers of an early age are rectified by the mature conceptions and authoritative definitions of the Church in a later. The maturity of theology is not antiquity, but its later days; and language which was blameless in earlier and

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As a reductio ad impossibile, and I may say, ad absurdum, the following words suffice: 'We must get rid of our preconceived theories of what the Bible ought to be, in order to make out what it really is. The immense layers of Puritanic, scholastic, papal, and patristic systems, which intervene between us and the Apostolic or Prophetic Ages-the elevation of the point of view on which those ages stand above our ownaggravate the intensity of the effort to the natural sluggishness of the human heart and intellect.'-Theology of the Nineteenth Century. Fraser's Magazine, p. 255. It would be still harder to reconcile the 'immense layers' of this counsel with the simplicity of the Divine action, whereby in all ages, pauperibus evangelizatur, 'to the poor the Gospel is preached.'

simpler times, may become heterodox in after ages: for example, the procession of the Holy Ghost from the Father through the Son, the Immaculate Nativity of the Mother of God, and the like. Again, language which once was heterodox may become the test of truth, as the Homoousion, which was condemned by the Council of Antioch in the Sabellian sense, and in half a century was inserted in the Creed by the Council of Nice. No critic except the living and lineal judge and discerner of truth, the only Church of God, can solve these inequalities and anomalies in the history of doctrine. To the Church the facts of antiquity are transparent in the light of its perpetual consciousness of the original revelation.

Lastly, it is evident that in the Church alone the Scriptures retain their whole and perfect meaning. We hear to weariness of 'the Bible and the Bible alone;' but how is it that men forget to add, and 'the right sense of the Bible?' For what can add to or take from, or mutilate the Bible more profoundly than to misinterpret its meaning? Is it Scriptural to say that 'This is my body' does not signify that it is His body; or 'Whosesoever sins ye forgive' does not convey the power of absolution; or 'Thou art Peter, and upon this rock' does not mean that Peter is the rock;' or 'They shall anoint him with oil' does not Surely the Scriptural Church

intend the use of oil?

is that which takes these words in this sense of the

divine facts and sacraments, which were believed and venerated in the world before the Scripture was written.

Nay, more, the Church so honours the written word of God, that it acts upon its lightest word. It is a strange thing to hear men say that such and such doctrines are incredible because so little is said of them in Holy Scripture. Is truth measured by quantity? How many divine words are needed to overcome the unbelief of men? How often must God speak before we obey Him? How many times must He repeat His revelations before we will submit to His divine voice? Does not every spark contain the whole nature of fire? Does not every divine word contain the veracity of God? The Church of God recognises His voice in every utterance, and honours the divine will revealed in the fewest syllables. The words 'He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me,' has filled the world with disciples. Whosoever shall lose his life for my sake shall find it,' has multiplied the army of martyrs. 'Whosoever shall confess me before men,' has made the weakest dare the power of the world. 'If thou wilt be perfect, sell all that thou hast,' has created the state of voluntary poverty. The twentyfifth chapter of S. Matthew has filled the Church with the orders of active charity. 'Mary hath chosen the better part,' has created and sustained the life of

contemplative perfection. These single words, once spoken, are enough for the disciples of the Church, which is the dwelling of the Holy Spirit of Truth, the Author of the Sacred Books. It is this profound faith in their sacredness which made S. Paulinus lay them up in a tabernacle by the side of the Tabernacle of the Blessed Sacrament; and S. Edmund kiss the page of the Bible both before and after reading it; and S. Charles read it kneeling, with bare head and knees. So the Church cherishes its least jot or tittle, and guards it as a deposit dearer than life itself. And now it is every day becoming manifest that in the flood of unbelief pouring at this time upon England, the sole barrier to the inundation, the sole guardian and keeper of Holy Writ in all the integrity of its text and meaning, the sole divine witness of its inspiration, the sole, immutable, and unerring interpreter of its meaning is the Catholic and Roman Church.

CHAPTER V.

THE RELATION OF THE HOLY GHOST TO THE DIVINE TRADITION OF THE FAITH.

THERE now remains but one other subject on which I purpose to speak. It has been affirmed in the last chapter that Christianity whole and perfect was anterior to the records of Scripture and independent of them. It remains now to show that Christianity has been preserved 'pure . . . and unspotted from the world,' that the illumination of Divine Truth, in the midst of which the written record lies encompassed as by a living and intelligent light, sustained by a living and Divine Teacher, is at this day as it was when it came from the Father of lights, without change or shadow of alteration. And this we shall see more clearly by tracing the relation of the Holy Spirit to the tradition of the dogma of faith.

But before I enter upon this point I am irresistibly drawn to say a few words on the analogy between the Church in Rome in the fourth century, and in England in the present.