the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness 1!"

The different doctrines of revelation, I have already observed, are involved and united by a connexion so inseparable, that it is not possible to reject one, without weakening our belief in all the rest. I have already noticed the steps by which, from this beginning, the mind may be led to reject many of the truths of Scripture. But the observation becomes of peculiar importance, when we consider the effect which the rejection of this doctrine has, in disturbing those doctrines which pertain to the constitution and ordinances of the Church. I say of peculiar importance, because the command of Christ to make this doctrine the sum of Christian truth, is given in immediate connexion with the institution of the Sacrament of Baptism, and the promise of his presence with his Apostles and their successors to the end of the world. I should have expected, therefore, that those who entertain false

notions of the nature of Christ and of the Holy Ghost, would likewise entertain false notions of the Church, its constitutions, and its sacraments. Now what has been the fact? We find that the departure from truth, in the former instance, has uniformly tended towards error, in the latter.

For instance, he, who rejects the doctrine of the Trinity, must explain away the promise of Christ, to be to the end of the world.

with his Church

For, if the doc

trine of the Trinity be false, the whole Christian Church, from its foundation, was, for fifteen hundred years, guilty of the most shocking idolatry, and in error upon the fundamental doctrine of religion. Consequently, it will follow, either that the nature of God is a question of secondary importance1; or else, that the true Church

1 This was one mode, by which Socinus evaded the difficulty when the question was put to him, how it could possibly happen, "ut tamdiu, statim ab ipsis Apostolorum temporibus, universalis ecclesia erraverit, ut in primo et præcipuo articulo, cognitionis veri Dei, et Filii ejus, nutaret ?" He answered boldly:

had ceased to exist, and that Christian truth, (and this would be the case whether the doctrine of the Trinity were fundamental, or not,) had utterly disappeared for many centuries. How then is truth to be discovered and brought back? In this wilderness of uncertainty, where wisdom and piety, have for ages gone astray, how is it possible, without guide or landmark, to recover a path so long lost and forgotten? To meet this embarrassment, there must be

"Præcipuus articulus, cognitionis veri Dei, et Filii ejus, non ipsorum naturam sive essentiam; sed voluntatem, et voluntatis obedientiam, potissimum respi

Solutio Scrupulorum, Resp. ad I. Opp. tom. i. pp. 326, 327. After all, however, this is a mere evasion of the difficulty. The difficulty being, how the whole Church could err in a question, not of metaphysics, but of fact. The Catholic Faith has ever been, that the doctrine of the Trinity is revealed in Holy Scripture; and on that faith, the universal Church has acted. The Church professes, not to understand the divine essence, but to believe the divine testimony. How can it be supposed to err in such a belief, without also ceasing to derive any benefit from the promises of Christ? However, we shall see hereafter, that Socinus used very different language, when he had not to serve a turn.

assumed, in the first place, such a sufficiency (or rather self-sufficiency) of Holy Scripture, as will render unnecessary, any concurrent existence of truth in the living beings, in whose hands the Scripture had been deposited, and for whose instruction it was written. Such a sufficiency, as will consist with the non-existence of the true Church. Such a sufficiency as will authorize any man that chooses, to treat all questions of faith de novo: as will, in fact, render it needless to look for the perpetuity of the Catholic Faith, or the fulfilment of Christ's promises in their plain and grammatical sense. For, if, on a point, which, after all, does seem to be (if anything can be) vital to Christianity, truth had, for fifteen centuries, disappeared from among mankind; it may fairly be asked: Can what has so long passed for the Church, be considered as the Church at all? Is this the light of the world? Is it not rather, a conspiracy against light and truth? An unhallowed combination to drive Christianity from the earth? And if it has so long and so completely succeeded, that for

almost the entire period of the Church's existence, you look, in vain, for any remnant, however small or dispersed, of that Church which received truth from the fountain of truth itself; then may it not again be asked: What has become of Christ's promise to his Church? This dif ficulty can be evaded, only by explaining away the meaning of his words. Recourse must be had to the fiction of the Church existing in an invisible state. The promise of Christ's presence with his Church, must be limited to the life time of the Apostles, and restrained to their persons. Apostolical succession must be scouted, as invention of Popery. But this is only a postponement of the difficulty. For if Apostolical succession be a fable, whence can any particular person derive the right to minister in the Church? To escape this, it becomes necessary to make the whole right to minister, flow, from the qualifications of the candidate, and the choice of the people. But still, neither the one nor the other, nor both united, can give their mysterious efficacy to the

an