final destruction; Italy tormented by perpetual threats of invasion and civil war; the world one vast workshop for the fabrication of armed hosts, and mankind awaiting the signal for mutual extermination. Had not the belief in a Divine centre of unity been invented, these results would never have happened. Are we wrong, then, in disputing the assertion so often made, that 'unity' springs from the Pontifical chair; and that with the removal, or the diminution of its claim, unity, that is Christianity, would disappear? We know, of course, that whoever does this may expect to hear in the usual terminology of the Vicars of Christ, that he is a 'demon,' a 'viper,' an 'infidel,' a 'child of Satan,' a heretic,' a liar,' a 'robber,' an Atheist,' a ‘Protestant,' a 'blasphemer,' a 'madman,' and so forth. These flowers of rhetoric may be passed over, on Father Newman's principles, as obiter dicta, ineptiæ, &c. They do not touch the merits of the case.

But we come to another branch of the question. Is it a fact that Christianity—the Christian faith-is really dependent on the existence of an infallible Primacy? We may add to this the question suggested by the Gallican Faith. Is it necessary for the preservation of Christianity that the gift of infallibility should be annexed to the decree of a General Synod? The ground taken by the supporters of these theories is, that there must be some tribunal to decide controversies of faith infallibly. Otherwise all will be uncertainty: heresies will devour the Church, and extinguish the true faith.

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Should not those who reason thus reflect, that after all, the power which really keeps men in the path of salvation is simply the grace of God. May we not feel assured that this grace which is pledged for the salvation of souls; for the guardianship of the good tidings;' for the perpetuity of the calling-forth' out of all nations; will accomplish its supreme purpose, with or without the means which we suppose to be requisite ? Is the Truth in itself powerless, if Divine grace accompanies it? Is it so easy to deviate from it, if we really acknowledge its authority? Are its statements so entirely without force, so weak, so indistinct, so inconclusive? I do not think so. I accept and embrace from the inmost depths of my soul and heart the Nicene faith-that glorious exposition of the one truth once revealed from Heaven. I praise God for that spotless and undefiled confession of the Gospel, made by those who had faced death for its sake; but I also feel assured, that if the Council of Nice had never met, Arianism would still have perished before the light of Evangelic truth. What is really contrary to Christianity dies out from inanition; or it reveals its Anti-Christian essence. Endless ingenuity is wasted upon theories really subversive of the good news.' Those hypotheses have their day; they gain great distinction for individuals, they produce great scandals, they unsettle the faith of some, they cause sorrow and trouble to others: they drive some souls to perdition: and then they disappear and are lost. Rationalism, long so noisy and so elaborately subtle, is

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dying out. It is merging in Christianity, or it is becoming avowedly Anti-Christian. These errors are fluctuating, passing, perishing. Christianity advances over the dry bones of extinct heresies and infidelities; and is ever confronted by new forms of antagonism. But the grand work, once inaugurated on earth by Incarnate Deity, is perpetuated by its Divine Author. He sees His people sorely tried in every age, and in every direction. His purpose is so to try them. They are those that shall come out of great tribulation. faith once delivered.' He has commanded it to be preached to all nations; and the efficacy of the command remains unabated. Still the 'good tidings' is preached to all nations: its grand truths have been unremittingly proclaimed throughout the world, though few of them have come for decision before the tribunals of Synods or of Popes.

But He guards His own

Hundreds of millions of souls receive the one faith once delivered. Dissensions, wars, fightings, superstitions, misunderstandings, distance, are unavailing to overthrow the great truth. It is still ascendant. What is Christianity? It is not a philosophy, or a theory, or an opinion, or a creed, or a theology, or a tradition, or a morality. It is good tidings' direct from Heaven; tidings which go straight to the heart and soul of every human being, however illiterate, or however great; the tidings that Death is no longer terrible; that God extends to us pardon and acceptance through His beloved Son. Then truth is

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revealed before us in all its majesty. Then we behold with adoring hearts the Deity Himself for His great love descending from eternal glory, and taking on Himself that humanity of which He had been the creator; so that, being in the form of man, He may have compassion upon our infirmities; may become our own brother; and may taste of death for all. We behold Him forming and instructing His beloved, calling forth' and sending the eternal Spirit of the Father to guide them for ever. see Him ascending to the right hand of the eternal and omnipotent first Cause of all things, and reigning there with Him and with the Eternal Spirit in the unity of the Godhead; and, again, we see Him appearing in His Divine majesty to judge the world, and to gather together His people into unspeakable joy. We behold Him granting a full and perfect amnesty for the past to every contrite and believing soul, initiated in Him by baptism in the name of the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit. We behold Him commanding the perpetual remembrance of Himself, and granting beatific union with Him, in the communion of His flesh and blood. We learn from Him to depart from idols; to reject the imaginary gods of the heathen; to worship God only; to abstain from impurity, murder, enmity, covetousness, revenge; and to be charitable, meek, forgiving, unworldly, humble, pure in heart. We learn from Him the duty and the privilege of perpetual prayer and praise to a reconciled and merciful Father, ever more ready to give than we are to ask, and whose love is wiser

and deeper than the thoughts or the longings of our childish hearts.

Such is Christianity as it was proclaimed from Heaven -that marvellous truth which was to create a new heart in man. And the power of that truth is as great at this moment as it was on the Day of Pentecost. It still transforms the hardened sinner into the broken-hearted and adoring penitent. It still changes the worldly and the cold heart into a new being, transported with the love of God, and penetrated with affection for His creatures. It still sheds glory on the humblest and poorest peasant's hut; still is a balm for the intolerable anguish of parting in this life from the objects of our intensest affection; still enables us to die without despair, knowing what is reserved for us beyond; still nerves the confessor and the martyr to face death and torture in the name of Christ.

And this faith-thus Divine, thus potent-is still preached amongst all nations. From proud Rome and imperial Constantinople, and golden-domed Moscow, to the poorest tabernacle of the sternest Protestant sect that fixes its abode on the mountain waste, or in the most obscure purlieu, all are agreed in proclaiming this faiththe faith of the Scriptures, the faith of the apostles, the faith of the martyrs, the faith of the Nicene fathers, the faith of Athanasius, the faith of the early creeds.

That faith may be in many places half-buried beneath human inventions and additions. It may in others be placed in imperfect lights, through human weakness and