Page images
PDF
EPUB
[blocks in formation]

faith: : was it safe to follow their guidance when they were acting hypocritically, and desecrating the altar of GOD?"

As I uttered these words, I looked at my companion, and found that the fashion of his countenance was changed. His bristling eyebrows darkened into an expression of savage fierceness, and his low forehead became ominously contracted, while his sharp grey eyes were fastened on me with a scrutinizing look of suspicion, that astonished and alarmed me. He stopped short, and, continuing his searching gaze, as if with a view to penetrate my very soul, he said, "Sir, no sound Catholic could talk as you have done; you must be a heretic in disguise."

My reply to this remark was a loud laugh.

“Come, come,” said he, "it is no joke. I am determined to know whether you are a Catholic or not. Can you say the 'Act of Faith?" "

I saw indeed that it was no joke, and that unless his suspicions were removed the issue might be fatal. I therefore assured him that he was quite mistaken, and distinctly repeated the "Act of Faith" as follows:

"O my God! I firmly believe that thou art one only God, the creator and sovereign Lord of heaven and earth, infinitely great and infinitely good. I firmly believe that in thee, one only

God, there are three Divine persons, really distinct and equal in all things, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost. I firmly believe that Jesus Christ, God the Son, became man; that he was conceived by the Holy Ghost, and was born of the Virgin Mary; that he suffered and died on a cross, to redeem and save us; that he rose the third day from the dead; that he ascended into heaven; that he will come at the end of the world to judge mankind; and that he will reward the good with eternal happiness, and condemn the wicked to the everlasting pains of of hell. I believe these and all other articles which the Holy Roman Catholic Church proposes to our belief, because thou, my God, hast revealed them; and thou hast commanded us to hear the Church, which is the pillar and ground of truth. In this faith, I am firmly resolved, by thy holy grace, to live and die.”

[ocr errors]

But it is now time to conclude for the present.

I am, my dear Friend,

Very truly yours.

DISCUSSIONS.

31

LETTER III.

MY DEAR FRIEND,

You will easily perceive, that the occurrences to which I referred in my last letter were fitted to awaken a spirit of inquiry, and there were now abundant opportunities of gratifying such a spirit, for even the newspapers were filled with religious discussions. Laymen vied with the clergy in the vindication of Catholicism. Barristers left the courts of law to figure on the platforms of Bible Meetings. The people eagerly heard and read whatever they could on this subject. They were delighted at the willingness of their Priests to enter the lists with the Biblicals. And oh, with what surprise and alarm they witnessed the effective play of the artillery of Scripture on the citadel of Romanism! They wondered where the Protestants got all the arguments they brought forward, and they were much amazed to find the Bible and the church so frequently at issue. The light began to break into their prison. They saw their chains, and felt the iron of spiritual despotism entering the soul. Many were aroused to shake off their trammels, and succeeded. Their keepers were alarmed. "The agitation

of thought is the beginning of knowledge." The Priests soon saw that their craft was in danger that, in giving their countenance to discussion, they had taken a dangerous step which must be retraced. The alarm was sounded throughout the land; and in Cavan the hierarchy lifted up the ecclesiastical mace, and crushed, for a time, the infant spirit of religious liberty. May we not hope that it is only for a time?

I read eagerly every thing I met on the subject of religion. My attention was particularly arrested by a correspondence in the newspapers on Transubstantiation, carried on between an eminent minister of the Church of England and a distinguished leader of the Catholic party. I remember this particularly, because of the effect which it produced on my mind. Notwithstanding my deep-rooted prejudice, I was obliged to admit that the clergyman had the best of the argument. I saw clearly that if the host were not God, it must be an idol, and that, consequently, in that case, its worshippers must be idolaters. If not, it would be impossible to bring the charge of idolatry home to the heathen; because they themselves think that the objects of their adoration are divine. Their mistake on that point is no justification of the act.

So strongly did I feel the force of this reason

[blocks in formation]

ing that, although I remained some years longer in the Roman communion, I never after adored the wafer. Not having made up my mind to reject the doctrine of Transubstantiation, and being yet doubtful of its truth, I worshipped the host hypothetically. I said, "O Lord Jesus, if thou art really present under the appearance of that wafer, or that wine, I adore thee," &c..

But this is not the sort of service which becomes a disciple of the Pope. In the Vatican School of theology, "to doubt is to be damned.” He that cannot candidly say, "I believe what the church believes," has not imbibed the spirit which she wishes to inculcate. But for my own part, whenever I thought on some of the principal dogmas of the church, I found doubting inevitable. And, in order to avoid the anxiety of suspense, I was obliged entirely to dismiss such matters from my mind, that is, whenever I could.

This is the secret of that aversion to religious discussion manifested by many Roman Catholics. To maintain the infallibility of the church,, is in effect, to acknowledge yourself, in the worst sense, a slave; and to defend Transubstantiation, is to outrage the dictates of common sense, and to do violence to the first principles of reason. If this dogma be true, all other doctrines are

« PreviousContinue »