in part, the carelessness, of Protestants, who unwilling to fight about a name have at length acquiesced in an assumption which ought, perhaps, to have been always strenuously resisted. I have already said that the law of the land gave you and your religion a very different name till the year 1791, when, for the first time, it called you Roman-Catholics. Nay, so little was your exclusive assumption of the title of Catholics then admitted, that you were afraid of so calling yourselves in your petition to parliament lest your petition should on that account be refused admission. You therefore were designated by your own committee as "Protesting Catholic Dissenters." Be this, however, as you will, your chapels may still, for ought I care, retain the name. But for the assertion, that your Church is in this country "exclusively known and distinguished by the name and title of THE CATHOLIC CHURCH," I can only admire the hardihood of the person who has thought fit to make it. I appeal to my protestant readers, whether they are in the habit of hearing the Roman church so distinguished by any of their Protestant brethren. That by protesting against "offensive appellations," deprecating the use of "nicknames," (as your more appropriate denominations are called by Dr. Milner and others,) you have succeeded in obtaining for yourselves, ordinarily the title of Roman-Catholics, often that of Catholics simply, I admit, and for the unfair advantage taken of the concession I sincerely lament. But the abuse has not yet extended so far-we have not yet so utterly forgotten the creed which we every day recite,―as to give this title to your church; that is still, even in common parlance, the Church of Rome; and really, if Dr. Milner has any modesty, he ought to be somewhat more than content with such an appellation, given to it by Protestants; for he must be aware that, on our principles, it is much more manifest that yours is not the Catholic church, than it is easy to prove that you are, in any legitimate sense, a church at all. Many of the wisest and most pious Protestants have denied, in toto, your claim to that title; and the most that any of us can concede, is, that you are still a branch, though a most tremendously corrupt branch, of the Catholic church. This is not a topic on which it is at all my wish to enlarge; but the boldness of the assumptions of Dr. Milner, and others of your writers, respecting "Catholicity," as they are pleased to call it, and the want of clear notions on the subject, which too commonly prevails, ust be my excuse for stating some consideraons, which to yourself, and to those who have er studied the point, may justly appear trite d common-place. Our judgment then of the Catholic Church briefly this That Catholic Church (as the me, you know, expresses) is the Universal hurch, containing within it many particular hurches, even all congregations which retain the faith once delivered to the saints," and ntained in the canonical books of the Old d New Testaments. Every particular Church, hich holds the fundamental points of that ith, and "in which the sacraments are duly ministered according to Christ's ordinance all things necessary to the same,”* is a anch of the Catholic, or Universal Church.' wen if it have introduced the most dangerous rruptions of doctrine and of worship, yet it still hold the foundation, still agree in sentials, it is not wholly cut off. Those nong us, who think, as at the present day ost members of the Church of England reice to think, that the corruptions in your comunion, grievous as they are, do not amount a departure from the foundation, to an utter * XIXth Article of the Church of England. authoritative publication of your Church. You also mention some other works, which, however, cannot be received as of equal authority; such are Bossuet's Exposition of Faith;" 66 Mr. Gother's "Papist misrepresented and represented;" Dr. Chaloner's "Three short summaries of Catholic Faith and Doctrine," and his "Garden of the Soul."* But, above all, you recommend to us Dr. Milner's "End of Controversy," as "the ablest exposition of the "doctrines of the Roman-Catholic Church, "on the articles contested with her by Protes"tants; and the ablest statement of the proofs 66 by which they are supported, and of the his"torical facts with which they are connected, "that has appeared in our language." This is high commendation, and will fully justify the particular attention I shall feel it my duty to pay to this writer in the sequel. But, meanwhile, I must object to all these works, except the Trent Catechism, as of insufficient authority, on which to pronounce what is the doctrine of the Church. That they contain your own particular creed, after the declaration made by you, cannot be doubted: we might look to them, therefore, with entire satisfaction, in any *Book of the Roman-Catholic Church, p. 10. enquiry respecting the religious tenets, for which you are individually answerable. But I need not remind you that our real question is respecting the doctrines speculative and practical, which are to be ascribed to your Church; such, in short, as may fairly be considered as making up its SYSTEM. And here I must protest against being tied down to a consideration of those doctrines only, which are now delivered as articles of faith. These alone, it may be, are to be ascribed, as a matter of course, to you, and every one else who adheres to the communion of your Church; but the Church itself is answerable for all those doctrines, which having been promulgated by high authorities within it, by popes or councils, or writers under the immediate direction of such authorities, and having been long and extensively acted upon, are still undisclaimed, much more those which are still retained with favour at Rome. Let me not be misunderstood. I fully admit that, in general, a full and plain disclaimer of such doctrines by individuals may fairly be considered in relation to those individuals, the same as if the doctrines themselves had never been maintained. But they must, I contend, still be regarded as forming a part (though not equally with articles of faith |