REFLECTIONS.-ACT OF FAITH.A BIGOT.-DISCUSSIONS.

11

"But was there not too much anger and violence, and too little of the dignity that becomes the priestly office? Can Christ be supposed to sanction such proceedings, conducted in a spirit so opposite to his own? Are there not cases where the authority of a priest may be lawfully questioned? Remember Father Cousins, and others who have, like him, apostatised from the 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 He a scrutinising look of suspicion that astonished and alarmed me. 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.

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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 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. faith I am firmly resolved, by thy holy grace, to live and die."

In this

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

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DISCUSSIONS.-TRANSUBSTANTIATION. THE SENSES.

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, 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, but only for a time.

I read eagerly everything 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 clergyman of the Established Church 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 giving to the creature the homage due only to the Creator.

So strongly did I feel the force of this reasoning, that, although I remained some years longer in the Roman communion, I never after adored the bread. 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 his 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 false; all the luminaries of the intellectual world are at once extinguished, and "chaos is come again." Without the evidence of the senses, we could neither prove the existence of God, nor the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ. Nor could we prove the fact, that a Revelation has been made, or that ever a messenger was sent from God, unless the testimony of the senses be valid. Did not our Lord appeal to the senses of the disciples in proof of his resurrection? And does not this great fundamental principle of our faith rest on what those men saw, and heard, and felt? If the senses are not to be trusted, then our faith is vain; it is a "baseless fabric." Wherefore did Jesus and his apostles work miracles to convince the people, and wherefore does the Church of Rome pretend to do the same, if we are not to believe the united testimony of taste, touch, sight, and smell? How the people at Cana would

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THE SENSES.-POPULAR SUPERSTITIONS.

13

have laughed at Jesus Christ if he had sent them up wine with all the 99 accidents of water! While I am now writing, an excellent test occurs to me, by which an honest priest may learn whether or not there is any change made in the elements after consecration. Let him consecrate a bottle of wine; and, when he drinks it, if it do not, in any degree, intoxicate him, I will give up the point. But would the blood of JESUS (with reverence, I ask the question)—would the blood of JESUS intoxicate? speak as to a wise man: think of what I say.

I

What miserable quibbling is it to say that, because one of our senses may sometimes deceive us, they, therefore, are never to be depended on? How then could you prove a single theorem in Mathematics? If the original impressions produced by seeing are not correct, what does that avail when, under the correction of the other senses, they become accurate after a little experience? Mr. Hayes and others have brought forward confidently the fact, that a straight pole seems crooked in water. But do not our senses tell us that water possesses a power of refracting light, and thus distorting the appearance of things? All we want is a little acquaintance with the laws of nature, of whose phenomena we can know nothing except through the medium of the senses. What was it that corrected the mistake of the eye? Was it not the touch? Did Mr. Hayes know the difference between a straight stick and a crooked one? Then he must have been bowing to that very evidence which he was so anxious to set aside. Shall we not believe our senses when they unanimously testify that we hold in our hands, or rather take upon our tongues, not human bodies, or rather a human body multiplied into many, and yet remaining one-broken into parts, and yet each part being still a perfect man, and equal to the whole-shall we not believe our senses when they unequivocally and invariably testify that we are swallowing, not a living human body, with its blood and bones, but simply a bit of flour paste?

But does not the Church herself, in the very assertion of her own prerogatives in the very exercise of her dictatorial power-appeal to the authority of the senses? Do we not hear one voice issuing from every palace, college, altar, and confessional, throughout her wide dominions,

"HEAR THE CHURCH!"'

But wherefore should they hear, if their treacherous ears deceive them? I have thus given you a specimen, very brief, indeed, of the deductions of reason concerning this "enormous tax on human credulity." I shall have another opportunity of bringing to bear on it the light of Scripture. I must now proceed to trace the progress of my own convictions.

Several circumstances conspired to prepare my mind for an independent examination of the principles of my religion. My reading had lately been in a direction very different from that which supplied my mental aliment at an earlier age. The fabulous history of ancient Ireland, saintly legends, and the devotional treatises circulated among the people, were the subjects of my earliest studies. On these my imagination perpetually feasted. From these I extracted the stories which, repeated in the family circle, excited the horror or kindled the devotion of my hearers. These were the "stuff of which my dreams were made." Such reading natu

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EDUCATION.-RELIGIOUS MELANCHOLY.

rally cherished an unbounded credulity, reason was altogether dormant, and fancy exercised a dominion the most capricious and despotic. There was not a lonely bridge, an aged tree, or a ruined building, which I did not think infested by demons, or haunted by reprobate spirits. If I passed them alone in the night, I blessed myself, uttered devoutly an Ave Maria or Salve Regina, and hurried on as if Satan himself were pressing close behind. A solitary bush, or a gate-post, seen in the night, appeared to my bewildered view a gigantic spectre. The shadowy creations of superstition, under a thousand fantastic forms, hovered around me on every side. In the midst of this twilight of reason all was dim and visionary. The power of reading, misdirected as it was, seemed but to confirm the reign of prejudice. I read nothing, indeed, but what might be called the Literature of Superstition. Hence imagination was preternaturally developed, and conscience rendered morbidly scrupulous; while the reflecting powers of the mind were totally unexercised, being destitute of the materials of sound knowledge to work upon. But the prime object of education—the cultivation of proper feelings, and the formation of correct habits-was never "dreamed of in the philosophy" of my teachers. So long as theology is learned from the "Lives of the Saints," and political economy from the Irish Rogues and Rapparees," we cannot expect to see right-minded Christians or useful members of society. "Do men gather grapes off thorns, or figs off thistles?"

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The first book that set me to think in earnest, and aroused all the energies of my mind, was a quarto, whose title I do not now remember, but the author of it was a person named Ramsay. It was a metaphysical treatise and one of its objects, I recollect, was to prove the temporary character of the torments of hell, and the final salvation of all the damned. The writer laid down certain axioms, from which I found it difficult or impossible to withhold my assent; and on this foundation he reared a superstructure of argument which seemed to me quite convincing, as it resembled Euclid's elements, but which led to conclusions so startling that the author seemed to conduct me to the very confines of heresy. His principles, however, seemed so reasonable that I boldly defended them for some time, until a spiritual guide put into my hands "The four last things-Death, Judgment, Hell, and Heaven." In this little book the eternity of hell was so clearly established, on the authority of Scripture, that I was compelled to relinquish my new opinions. It is worthy of remark, that the naked statements of the Word of God had more effect on my mind than any of the reasonings advanced by the writer. Quotations from the Bible appeared as a clap of thunder, or a shaft of lightning, or as the clear and steady radiance of day, or as if the Almighty himself had broken silence, and delivered an utterance intelligible, authentic, and decisive to all."*

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Con

But various are the motives that operate on the heart of man. victions may be frequent, and pungent, and powerful, and yet exert very little practical influence. We seek an opiate for the conscience in the allurements of pleasure, the excitement of business, or in the day-dreams

* Rev. Dr. Urwick.-Essay on Popery in America.

INFLUENCE OF CONFESSION.-SUSPENSE PAINFUL.

of the imagination.

15

To the last of these I often fled for refuge from the anguish that secretly preyed on my spirit. I thought on eternity, and the thought was distressing in the extreme.

"The wide, the unbounded prospect lay before;
But storms, clouds, and darkness rested on it."

Reflections of this kind communicated a sombrous hue to all the operations of my mind. I felt alone in the world. I was conscious of no principle of attraction drawing me to the scenes of youthful pleasure, in which others around me so much delighted. Indeed, the laughter and joyousness of such scenes, whenever circumstances compelled me to witness them, occasioned me real pain. They seemed to mock the heaviness of my heart. I had sorrows which my companions knew not of, and with which they could not sympathise. "A wounded spirit, who can bear?" Accountable to God, guilty and mortal, I felt myself miserable in the present life, and had no prospect but one of misery for that which is to come. Had I then heard of that redeeming blood which cleanses an accusing conscience, it would have been balm to my spirit and gladness to my heart! But, alas! I knew it not. I looked for consolation to my penances; but this was leaning on a broken reed that pierced my hand. If the sanctifying influence of the confessional were to be the evidence of the efficacy of my penitential performances, I saw there was no hope. The symptoms of my spiritual diseases, instead of abating, became daily more virulent. The gloom that had at first invested the confessional gradually disappeared as I became familiar with its forms. My penances were light, and gave me little trouble. Five minutes spent in reading was the utmost required to atone for a mortal sin; and, as the confession of venial faults was not deemed necessary by the Church, and as the line of demarcation between these two classes of transgressions has never been, in fact, distinctly drawn, and as the discrimination is left to the sinner's own judgment, subject to the powerful and blinding influence of self-love, I saw that the whole business was so involved in uncertainty that it could not be a source of peace to a rational mind. Why leave a matter of such importance as the classification of sins-so deadly on the one hand, and so trifling on the other to the private judgment of the sinner himself, prone as he must be to mitigate, to palliate, and to overlook, his own delinquencies ? Suppose he has two departments in his memory-the one for mortal sins, and the other for venial— and supposing the distinction between these to be well-founded, will he not be often tempted to rank the mortal with the venial? Will not the heart plead importunately for the darling passion, and say, "is it not a little one?" And may not a man thus cherish all his life an evil habit, "roll sin as a sweet morsel under the tongue," and, when the act of indulgence has passed by, wipe his lips as if nothing worth notice had happened?

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I freely confess that considerations such as these greatly weakened my confidence in priestly absolutions; and, when coupled with the instances of caprice and inconsistency to which I have already adverted, tended to render my visits to my 'ghostly father” few and far between compared with what they had been. Nature, say the old philosophers, abhors a vacuum: we may add, that the human mind abhors suspense. It is painful to remain long in deliberation. Conflicting reasons draw the judg