Page:Tracts for the Times Vol 1.djvu/313

 J.—This, Sir, I understand; but there is one difficulty which occurs to me. As the rulers of the true Church are no longer infallible, what is to prevent their all falling together into error, and thus leading astray the whole Church committed to their care?

Dr.—We may infer from Christ's promise already mentioned, that this will never happen to the whole Church at once; that some true Apostles will be found on earth in every age, until that last period of the world's history, which shall witness His coming. But that with regard to particular branches of His Church this may happen, and has happened, is a melancholy truth. There is one simple test, however, by which we may at once assure ourselves that the Church of England has not so fallen away, or, as it is called, apostatized from the faith of her Lord and Master.

J.—And what is that, Sir?

Dr.—As the eternal truth of is contained in His revealed word, the Bible; no Church, whatever may be the errors of its individual members, can be said, as a Church, to have fallen away, and consequently to have lost her claim to the obedience of  true disciples, while she still reverences that Bible;—while she puts it into the hand of each of her followers, and bids him read it, and seek there and there only the proofs of the doctrine which she inculcates; and while she declares, as the Church of England does in her 6th Article, that "Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to salvation; so that whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man that it should be believed as an article of the Faith, or be thought requisite or necessary to salvation."

J.—Then according to you, Sir, the Church of England is not only the true, but the original Church of established in this kingdom.—Now Sam Jones, the Catholic, who attends the Popish Chapel in the next parish, tells me that his is the original Church, and that the Church of England is a new one.

Dr.—That which is truly the Catholic Church, is indeed the oldest; but though we in a common way call the Papists, or followers of the Pope, Catholics, yet it is we who are the true Catholics; for the term only means members of universal Church. The history of the Papists is this. Many centuries ago, strange and corrupt notions and practices prevailed in many of the churches in Europe. Among others, people thought that the Pope or Bishop of Rome was gifted with authority from Heaven to conlroul all the branches of the Church on earth, and that his