you know what marks distinguish a true Church until you receive the Bible?" We ask, you sir, whether the marks which distinguish the true Church are the same now that they were in the infancy of Christianity? If you say,-No; then we demand your proofs. But, if you say-Yea: then we tell you that it is as possible now to know the marks of the true Church, &c. without the Bible, as it was for the primitive Christians to do so, before the New Testament was written. It is self-evident to the meanest capacity, that that which was the rule of Christian Faith in the time of the apostles, must be the one destined by the Divine Founder of Christianity to remain in the Church during all time. Now we again say, that the Bible could not have been the Rule of Faith before the New Testament was written; and none but an ignoramus or a madman will deny that the Church had been fully established and widely extended, long before the completion of the New Scriptures. During all this time the Church had a rule,she had authority,-she demanded submission,-and obedience was submissively paid to her. But you conclude your 1st puzzler in the following manner:-" Thus you see, you put the bottom top, and the top bottom-the effect before the cause, instead of the cause before the effect. We do neither." Poor man, you have proved one thing, if you have done no more, and that is,-that you are as bad a logician as your friend M'Neile, of Liverpool. 'Tis you, and not we, who make religion stand upon its head with its heels in the air. 'Tis you, and not we, who put the effect before the cause, instead of the cause before the effect. We do neither. You build your argument upon a false hypothesis; you have acted, all through your controversial life, as if the New Testament had been published to mankind before the foundations of the Church were laid. This was your grand mistake; it was this which has led, and still continues to lead you astray, on the all-important subject of religion. If the Church could not be known without the Bible, it follows that the Bible must have had a priority of existence over the Church. But that is absurd; and hence it follows as a necessary consequence, that it is you, and not we, who very illogically place the effect before the canse. Men who live in glass houses should avoid throwing stones; and men without faith, and having no fixed principles, should be cautious of provoking controversy: those who pretend to sincerity and to a love of truth should candidly answer important questions, or frankly admit their inability, and earnestly pursue that line of conduct which common prudence would point out for the guidance of those who find, that there are grave objections made against their religious principles, which neither they nor their guides can satisfactorily meet. Ah! my dear sir, it high time that you should pause in your mad career,for admitting that your life should be prolonged even be yond the ordinary term of human existence, still what is time compared to eternity; or what will it profit you if in the end you find that you have been fighting against God Himself when you thought, or wished the world to believe so, that you were doing Him an essential service. One thing is certain, viz. that no good cause can be served by lies,and that you have never ceased, since the commencement of your public career, to misrepresent and calumniate the principles and characters of the professors of Catholicity. I remain, yours, &c. &c. Manchester, Feb. 23rd, 1850. THE EDITOR. A blind fiddler, on crossing a narrow bridge, let fall his instrument into the stream. One of the bystanders, after assisting in vain for its recovery, told the unfortunate musician that he pitied his case. "Oh, hang the case!" cried Scrape, " 'tis the fiddle I want." CHINESE CUSTOM.-Every Chinese of family keeps in his house a table, on which are written the names of his father, grandfather, and great grandfather, before which incense is burnt, and the members of the family prostrate them. selves. When the father of the family dies, his name is inserted on the table, and that of the great-grandfather is taken away. The observance of fasting has been assigned to the four seasons (ember days) in order that through the course of the entire year we may be reminded that we are in constant need of purifications, and that whilst we are tossed about through the vanity of this life, we must always endeavour to blot out by fasting and alms the sins which we have com. mitted through the frailty of nature, and the pollution of our desires.-St. Leo. FORTUNE TELLING. Some one had his fortune told by words, told the man the events of his past, present, and an astrologer. After having, by means of ambiguous future life, the fortune-teller asked him for his customary fee. "What?" said the inquisitive fellow, "you, whe pretend to know what is hidden, were you not aware that I had not a farthing in my pocket?" PAUSE BEFORE YOU FOLLOW EXAMPLE.-A mule laden with salt, and an ass laden with wool, went over a brook together. By chance the mule's pack became wetted, the had passed, the mule told his good fortune to the ass, who, salt melted, and his burden became lighter. After they thinking to speed as well, wetted his pack at the next water; but his load became the heavier, and he broke down under it. That which helps one man may hinder another. AGENTS. Manchester-Mr. A. Heywood, Oldham street. Bolton-Mr. James Mather, Derby-street. Stalybridge-Mr. Ridle; Mr. Harrop. Printed and Published by EDWARD STAVELEY, at No. 183. Great SAINT ELIZABETH, QUEEN OF PORTUGAL. A. D. 1336. (Continued from our last.) At twelve years of age she was given in marriage to Dionysius, king of Portugal. That prince had considered in her, birth, beauty, riches, and sprightliness of genius more than virtue; yet he allowed her an entire liberty in her devotions, and exceedingly esteemed and admired her extraordinary piety. She found no temptation to pride in the dazzling splendour of a crown, and could say with Esther, that her heart never found any delight in the glory, riches, and grandeur with which she was surrounded. She was sensible that regularity in our actions is necessary to virtue, this being in itself most agreeable to God, who shows in all his works how much he is the lover of order; also, a prudent distribution of time fixes the fickleness of the human mind, hinders frequent omissions of pious exercises, and is a means to prevent our being ever idle and being governed by humour and caprice in what we do, by which motives a disguised self-love easily insinuates itself into our ordinary actions. Our saint therefore planned for herself a regular distribution of her whole time, and of her religious exercises, which she never interrupted, unless extraordinary occasions of duty or charity obliged her to change the order of her daily practices. She rose very early every morning, and after a long morning exercise, and a pious meditation, she recited matins, lauds, and prime of the Church office. Then she heard mass, at which she communicated frequently every week. She said every day the little office of our Lady, and that of the dead; and in the afternoon had other regular devotions after even song or vespers. She retired often into her oratory to her pious books, and allotted certain hours to attend her domestic affairs, public business, or what she owed to others. All her spare time she employed in pious reading, or in working for the altar, or the poor, and she made her ladies of honour do the like. She found no time to spend in vain sports and recreations, or in idle discourse or entertainments. She was most abstemious in her diet, mean in her attire, humble, meek, and affable in conversation, and wholly bent upon the service of God in all her actions. Admirable was her spirit of compunction, and of holy prayer; and she poured forth her heart before God with most feeling sentiments of divine love, and often watered her cheeks and the very ground with abundant tears of sweet devotion. Frequent attempts were made to prevail with her to moderate her austerities, but she always answered, that if Christ assures us that his spirit cannot find place in a life of softness and pleasure, mortification is no where more necessary than on the throne, where the passions find more dangerons incentives. She fasted three days a week, many vigils besides those prescribed by the Church; all Advent; a Lent of devotion, from the feast of St. John Baptist to the feast of the Assumption; and soon after this PRICE ONE PENNY she began another Lent, which she continued to St. Michael's day. On all Fridays and Saturdays, on the eves of all festivals of the Blessed Virgin and the apostles, and on many other days her fast was on bread and water. She often visited churches and places of devotion on foot. (To be continued in our next.) TRUTH. ST. IGNATIUS, BISHOP OF ANTIOCH, M. A.D. 107. (Continued from our last.) Speaking of heretics, he says, that he who corrupts the faith for which Christ died, will go into unquenchable fire, and also he who heareth him. It is observed by him that God concealed from the devil three mysteries: the virginity of Mary, her bringing forth, and the death of the Lord: and he calls the Eucharist, the medicine of immortality, the antidote against death, by which we always live in Christ. "Remember me, as I pray that Jesus Christ be mindful of you. Pray for the church of Syria, from whence I am carried in chains to Rome, being the last of the faithful who are there- Farewell in God the Father, and in Jesus Christ our common hope." The like instructions he repeats with a new and most moving turn of thought, in his letters to the churches of Magnesia, and of the Trallians, inculcates the greatest abhorrence of schism and heresy, and begs their prayers for himself and his church in Syria, of which he is not worthy to be called a member, being the last of them. His fourth letter was written to the Christians of Rome. The saint knew the all powerful efficacy of the prayers of the saints, and feared lest they should obtain of God his deliverance from death. He therefore besought St. Polycarp and others at Smyrna, to join their prayers with his, that the cruelty of the wild beasts might quickly rid the world of him, that he might be presented before Jesus Christ. With this view he wrote to the faithful at Rome, to beg that they would not endeavour to obtain of God that the beasts might spare him, as they had several other martyrs; which might induce the people to release him, and so disappoint him of his crown. The ardour of divine love which the saint breathes throughout this letter is as inflamed as the subject is extraordinary. In it he writes, "I fear your charity lest it prejudice me. For it is easy for you to do what you please; but it will be difficult for me to attain unto God if you spare me. I shall never have such an opportunity of enjoying God; nor can you, if ye shall now be silent, ever be entitled to the honour of a better work. For if ye be silent in my behalf, I shall be made partaker of God; but if ye love my body, I shall have my course to run again. Therefore, a greater kindness you cannot do me, than to suffer me to be sacrificed unto God, whilst the altar is now ready; that so becoming a choir in love, in your hymns ye may give thanks to the Father by Jesus FALSEHOOD. MARCION. (Concluded from our last.) As the power of the Demiurgos was not overthrown by Christ, so neither had his promised Messias yet come to re-assemble the Jews, and to form them into a mighty empire. But all those, who by faith entered into a communion with the Redeemer, and by this communion have received a new divine principle of life, have been redeemed for ever from the thraldom of the Demiurgos. Their bodies, inasmuch as they are sprung from matter, shall be destroyed; and their souls, thus freed, shall, by partaking of the holiness of the heavenly Father, be endowed with pure, ethereal bodies, like to the angels. To bestow bles sings, redemption, and beatitude, belongs to the nature only of the true God. He never chastises; the unbelieving and the wicked chastise themselves, by withdrawing themselves from their society with Him, and thereby falling under the indignant justice of the Jewish deity. The system of Marcion introduced severe moral laws. He dissuaded his followers from matrimony, and commanded that baptism should be conferred only on those who passed their lives in celibacy, or upon those who, having contracted marriage, lived in continency. The majority of the Marcionites remained, therefore, in the class of catechumens. The use of flesh meat was forbidden, but the eating of fish commanded. The Marcionites rejected with horror that doctrine of other Gnostic sects, that it was lawful to deny Christ, and many of them suffered martyr dom for their faith in him. Christ, that God has vouchsafed to bring me, the bishop of Syria, from the East unto the West, to pass out of the world unto God, that I may rise again unto him. Ye have never envied any one. Ye have taught others. I desire therefore that you will firmly observe that which in your instructions you have prescribed to others. Only pray for me, that God would give me both inward and outward strength, that I may not only say, but do; that I may not only be called a Christian, but be found one; for if I shall be found a Christian. I may then deservedly be called one; and be thought faithful when I shall no longer appear to the world. Nothing is good that is seen. A Christian is not a work of opinion, but of greatness, when he is hated by the world. I write to the churches, and signify to them all, that I am willing to die for God, unless you hinder me. I beseech you that you show not an unseasonable good-will towards me. Suffer me to be the food of wild beasts, whereby I may attain unto God; I am the wheat of God, and I am to be ground by the teeth of the wild beasts, that I may be found the pure bread of Christ. Rather entice the beasts to my sepulchre, that they may leave nothing of my body, that being dead, I may not be troublesome to any. Then shall I be a true disciple of Jesus Christ, when the world shall not see so much as my body. Pray to Christ for me, that in this I may become a sacrifice to God. I do not as Peter and Paul, command you; they were apostles, I am an inconsiderable person: they were free, I am even yet a slave. But if I suffer, I shail then become the freeman of Jesus Christ, and shall arise a freeman in him. Now I am in bonds for him, I learn to have no worldly or vain desires. From Syria even unto Rome I fight with wild beasts both by sea and land, both night and day, bound to ten leopards, that is, to a band of soldiers, who are the worse for kind treatment. The basis of Marcion's doctrine was the imaginary conBut I am the more instructed by their injuries; yet am I tradiction between the law and the gospel. The Ebionites not thereby justified. I earnestly wish for the wild beasts and the Nazarites stand at one extreme point, attempting that are prepared for me, which I heartily desire may soon to Judaize Christianity; and in the other we find Marcion, despatch me; whom I will entice to devour me entirely with his desire to reject without restriction all that was and suddenly, and not serve me as they have done some contained in the religion of the Jews, and in the Old Teswhom they have been afraid to touch; but if they are tament in the midst stands the Church, which unites in unwilling to meddle with me, I will even compel them to her doctrines all that is true and pure from all that is false it. Pardon me this matter, I know what is good for me. in the two conflicting systems. She must, therefore, have Now I begin to be a disciple. So that I have no desire necessarily expected to be attacked by both parties, the after anything visible or invisible, that I may attain to forces of which were, however, mutually neutralized by Jesus Christ. Let fire, or the cross, or the concourse of their meeting from opposite points. Thus Marcion objected wild beasts, let cutting or tearing of the flesh, let breaking to the Church, that it had fallen back into Judaism: the of bones and cutting off limbs, let the shattering in pieces Apostles were not excepted from this accusation, for, acof my whole body, and all the wicked torments of the de cording to his ideas, only St. Paul had preserved the vil me upon me, so I may but attain to Jesus Christ. genuine doctrines of Christ: the others had corrupted Ahe compass of the earth, and the kingdoms of this them by their Jewish prejudices; and for this reason, St. world will profit me nothing. It is better for me to die Paul was called by Christ himself to regenerate the gospel for the sake of Jesus Christ, than to rule unto the ends of from Jewish defilements. He treated the books of the Old the earth. Him I seek who died for us; Him I desire Testament with an unrestrained freedom; he rejected all who rose again for us. He is my gain at hand. Pardon which he could not accommodate to his own ideas, he me, brethren; be not my hindrance in attaining to life, formed for himself a canon of the New Testament, which for Jesus Christ is the life of the faithful: whilst I desire contained only his gospel of St. Luke, and ten epistles of to belong to God, do not ye yield me back to the world. St. Paul. He mutilated the gospel of St. Luke, and alSuffer me to partake of the pure light. When I shall be tered those parts which differed from his doctrines. He cut there, I shall be a man of God Permit me to imitate the away the first chapter, and commenced his book with these passion of Christ my God If any one has him within him-words:" In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius, self, let him consider what I desire, and let him have God appeared in Capharnaum, a city of Galilee, and taught compassion on me, as knowing how I am straitened. The on the Sabbath-day." He was not less daring with the prince of this world endeavours to snatch me away, and to epistles of St. Paul, of which he received the following change the desire with which I burn of being united to ten the epistle to the Galations, the two to the Corinthians, God. Let none of you who are present attempt to suc the epistle to the Romans, and two to the Thessalo cour me. Be rather on my side, that is, on God's. Ennians, those to the Ephesians, to the Colossians, to the tertain no desires of the world, having Jesus Christ in your mouths. Let no envy find place in your breast. Even were I myself to entreat you when present, do not obey me; but rather believe what I now signify to you by letter. Though I am alive at the writing of this, yet my desire is to die. My love is crucified. The fire that is within me does not crave any water; but being alive and springing within, says, Come to the Father. I take no pleasure in the food of corruption, nor in the pleasure of this life. (To be continued in our next.) Philippians and to Philemon. He maintained that even these had been corrupted, and he therefore subjected them to the same arbitrary criticism with which he had dis figured the gospel of St. Luke. As a support to his system, Marcion composed his book of Antitheses, which was intended principally for the use of those whom he wished to initiate in his doctrines. Its object was to demonstrate the contradictions between the God of the Old and the God of the New Testament, between the Christ of the good God, and the Messias of the Creator of the world. The chief subjects which were there treated, appear to have been the following:-the author of this world, is the author also of evil, which was proved from the words (xlv. 7.) of the prophet Isaias; the infinitely good God could not command this evil, but only permit it. This Creator is neither all-wise nor all powerful; for if so, he would not have suffered man, formed of his own substance, to have fallen into sin. He had shown himself passionate, revengeful and mutable, when he sometimes repented of his actions; on the contrary, the God that was revealed by Christ, is a God of the purest love, who knows neither anger nor revenge; and being the most perfect essence, can never repent. In the same manner, the Christ of the Old Testament is different from the Saviour proclaimed in the New,-different in name as in work. The latter selected, not Levites, nor descendants of Aaron, but poor fishermen and publicans, to be his disciples: he announced a new and heavenly kingdom, whereas the Messias of the Demiurgos, endeavoured only to restore and renew the ancient kingdom of the Jews: he exerted a degree of power far superior to the might of the Demiurgos. Finally, the precepts of the old law contradict in many things the commandments of the gospel: the harsh right of revenge, permitted in the Old Testament, is opposed to the Christian precept of universal charity, and of the patient endurance of injuries and wrongs. The heavy weight of the ceremonial law contrasts with the freedom of the gospel, as does the permission of divorce granted to the Jews with the indissolubility of marriage re-established by Christ. The sect of the Marcionites was in numbers one of the most extensive parties that had separated themselves from the Church; and as late as the fifth century, Theodoret relates that in his diocese he brought many of them back again to the true faith. In their treatment of the Scrip. tures, the disciples imitated the reckless freedom of their master. They refused to admit parts which he had preserved; they borrowed, at their pleasure, passages from the other gospels, especially from St. John, which, when so altered as to suit their ideas, they added to their own fictitious gospel; thus they make Christ (Matt. v. 17) say the contrary to that which we read in the gospel. "I am come" he says, according to them, "I am come not to fulfil the law, but to destroy it." Some of the Marcionites altered particular points in the system of their founder. Marcus took from the purely Gnostic doctrines, and in particular from those of Saturninus, the ideas, that the good God had co-operated in the creation of man, had imparted to him the spirit, which was lost by the fall into sin, and was restored by the redemption; that it was not immortal, for all those who had not participated in the redemption, and had consequently not recovered their spiritual principle, should be annihilated in death. The most famed amongst the Marcionites, was Apelles of Alexandria, who under the influence of the there established ideas of the Gnosis, introduced many important changes into the system of his master; so that his doctrines, as they are recorded by Tertullian, coincide more with those of Valentinian, than of Marcion. THE MAYOR OF GALWAY. (Concluded from our last.) become anxious for life. To these ebullitions of popular rage were added the intercessions of persons of the first rank and influence in Galway, and the entreaties of his dearest relatives and friends; but while Lynch evinced all the feeling of a father and a man placed in his singularly distressing circumstances, he undauntedly declared that the law should take its course. On the night preceding the fatal day appointed for the execution of Walter Lynch, this extraordinary man entered the dungeon of his son, holding in his hand a lamp, and accompanied by a priest. He locked the grate after him, kept the keys fast in his hand, and then seated himself in a recess of the wall. The wretched culprit drew near, and, with a faltering tongue, asked if he had anything to hope? The mayor answered, "No, my sonyour life is forfeited to the laws, and at sun-rise you must die! I have prayed for your prosperity; but that is at an end-with this world you have done for ever-were any other but your wretched father your judge, I might have dropped a tear over my child's misfortune, and solicited for his life, even though stained with murder; but you must die; these are the last drops which shall quench the sparks of nature; and, if you dare hope, implore that heaven may not shut the gates of mercy on the destroyer of his fellow creature. I am now come to join with this good man in petitioning God to give you such composure as will enable you to meet your punishment with becoming resignation." After this affecting address, he called on the clergyman to offer up their united prayers for God's forgiveness to his unhappy son, and that he might be fully fortified to meet the approaching catastrophe. In the ensuing supplica. tions at the throne of mercy, the youthful culprit joined with fervor, and spoke of life and its concerns no more. Day had scarcely broken when the signal of preparation was heard among the guards without. The father rose, and assisted the executioner to remove the fetters which bound his unfortunate son. Then unlocking the door, he placed him between the priest and himself, leaning upon an arm of each. In this manner they ascended a flight of steps lined with soldiers, and were passing on to gain the street, when a new trial assailed the magistrate, for which he appears not to have been unprepared. His wretched wife, whose name was Blake, failing in her personal exertions to save the life of her son, had gone in distraction to the heads of her own family, and prevailed on them, for the honour of their house, to rescue him from ignominy. They flew to arms, and a prodigious concourse soon assem-bled to support them, whose outcries for mercy to the culprit would have shaken any nerves less firm than those of the mayor of Galway. He exhorted them to yield submission to the laws of their country; but finding all his efforts fruitless to accomplish the ends of justice at the accustomed place and by the usual hands, he, by a desperate victory over parental feeling, resolved himself to perform the sacrifice which he had vowed to pay on its altar. Still retaining a hold of his unfortunate son, he mounted with him by a winding stair within the building, that led to an arched window overlooking the street, which he saw filled with the populace. Hre he secured the end of the rope, which had been previous'y fixed round the neck of his son, to an iron staple, which projected from the wall, and, after taking from him a last embrace, he launched him into eternity. The intrepid magistrate expected instant death from the In a few days the trial of Walter Lynch took place, and fury of the populace, but the people seemed so much in a provincial town of Ireland, containing at that period overawed or confounded by the magnanimous act, that not more than three thousand inhabitants, a father was be they retired slowly and peaceably to their several dwellheld sitting in judgment, like another Brutus, on his only ings. The innocent cause of this sad tragedy is said to have died soon after of grief, and the unhappy father of son; and, like him, too, condemning that son to die, as a Walter Lynch to have secluded himself during the resacrifice to public justice. Yet the trial of the firmness of mainder of his life from all society, except that of his the upright and inflexible magistrate did not end here. mourning family. His house still exists in Lombard street, His was a virtue too refined for vulgar minds: the pop-rialway, which is yet known by the name of "Dead Man's lace loudly demanded the prisoner's release, and were only prevented by the guards from demolishing the prison, and the mayor's house, which adjoined it; and their fury was increased on learning that the unhappy prisoner had now Lane," and over the front doorway are to be seen a skull and cross bones, executed in black marble, with the motto, "Remember Deathe, vaniti of vaniti, and all is but vaniti.” M'GREGOR... The Divine Maternity of the B.V. Mary clearly proved from Scripture, Tradition, and the Testimony of the Anglican Church. II. In patrons of the "Protestant Prize Essay,") and sentence of excommunication and deposition solemnly pronounced against the heretic Nestorius. The decision of the coun cil was received with loud shonts of approbation from every quarter: the name of Mary the THEOTOKOS, that is, THE MOTHER OF GOD, was instantly echoed through all the streets of Ephesus. Theodoret took up his pen and wrote against them. this conflict of writings and opinions, the evil increased, the faithful were divided, and nothing but a general Council it was thought, could repair the breach. Both parties addressed the emperor on that subject, as without his aid the distant bishops could not be brought together. Theo-cil had done, and proceeded so far as to pronounce sentence dosius readily adopted the proposal, and jointly with the young Valentinian III., who had succeeded his uncle Honorius in the western empire, directed an order of convocation in the usual style to be sent to all the metropolitans of the empire. The letter was dated November the 19th, 430. The day fixed for their meeting at Ephesus was the 7th of June of the following year. As soon as the Easter holidays were over, St. Cyril and Nestorius set forward for the town of Ephesus, the first with about fifty bishops of Egypt, the latter with a num ber of soldiers, and two military counts at their head, Candidian and Irenæus. Juvenal of Jerusalem, with the bishops of Palestine, arrived five days after the fixed time; with them came Peter, bishop of the Saracens or wander ing Arabs, who had lately embraced the Christian faith. John of Antioch and his Syrians were affectedly slow, on purpose, as the event showed, not to concur in the disgrace of their countryman, Nestorius. When at no great distance, John wrote a friendly letter to St. Cyril, and sent on two of his bishops to desire that the opening of the council might not be deferred on his acoount, promis ing to be there as soon as he conveniently could. Upon this St. Cyril, with the approbation of the other bishops, who had arrived, fixed the 22d June for the day of holding the first session, hoping that the Syrians would, as they might, arrive by that time. On the 21st, four bishops were deputed to notify to Nestorins and his adherents, that the council would hold its first public session on the next day, according to appointment. He answered by a formal protestation against it, signed by sixty-eight bishops of his party. Theodoret was one of them. In the morning of the 22nd of June, as had been agreed upon, a hundred and fifty-eight bishops met in the great church of Ephesus which was dedicated to the B.V. Mary. In the centre, upon a high throne, was placed a book of the holy gospel; the bishops sat on each side, according to their rank; St. Cyril, in the name of Pope Celestine, presided as his representative. Scarcely had the fathers taken their seats, when Count Candidian appeared, and in the emperor's name forbade them to proceed. They called upon him to show the imperial order; he had it not to show; he retired in great wrath, and the council entered upon business. Nestorius having received three citations, and refusing still to appear, an authentic copy of his sermous was produced and read. A general cry instantly arose, repeating, "Anathema to these impious errors; Anathema to him who holds this doctrine; it is a doctrine opposed to the holy Scripture,and to the tradition of our forefathers." Extracts from the most illustrious Fathers of the Church were then read and compared with the positions of Nestorius. In the last place each bishop present was called upon by name to give evidence of the faith believed and taught in his respective Church. Unanimous was the testimony of all, and each individual in affirming the same belief, THAT THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY WAS TRULY THE Mother of GOD. The definition of this declared truth was drawn out in due form, (mark that Messrs. Stowell, M'Grath, Richardson, and the other Five days after, arrived John of Antioch, with fourteen Syrian bishops. The council deputed some of their body to meet and compliment them on their arrival, and to warn them against holding any communication with Nestorius, whom the council had juridically condemned and excommunicated for heresy. But the soldiers, whom Candidian not to let the deputies approach. John and his Syrians had sent to escort the patriarch John into town, had orders went straight to the lodgings of Nestorius, with whom they formed a separate assembly, condemned all that the counandria, and Memnon of Ephesus, and of excommunication of excommunication and deposition against Cyril of Alexagainst the rest of the council. Candidian lent all his authority to the Schismatics, and as he had taken care to intercept the synodical letters of the council in their way to Constantinople, he gave so plausible an account of the Nestorian party in his despatches to the emperor, that Strange confusion reigned at Ephesus. The Schismatical slander triumphed for a while, and truth lay suppressed. bishops were thirty-five in number, protected by a military not to be intimidated. Threats of banishment hung over force and the civil power. But the council was steady and St. Cyril, when three legates arrived from Pope Celestine, and gave a new turn to affairs. A second session was held in which the decisions and acts of the first session were revived and ratified by the new legates: the sentence against St. Cyril and the council declared to be null and against Nestorius was confirmed, that of the Schismatics void. The Catholic doctrine of the Incarnation was defined and subscribed by upwards of two hundred bishops. bishops might have departed home, had it not been for the of Lerins, in his celebrated Treatise on the Antiquity, &c. |