Puslapio vaizdai
PDF
„ePub“

lower part of Cochinchina, nine hundred grown persons hal been baptized in the course of two years, besides vast numbers of children. The empire of China contains six bishops and some hundreds of Catholic priests. In a single province of it, Sutchuen, during the year 1796, fifteen hundred adults were baptized, and two thousand five hundred and twenty-seven Catechumens were received for instruction. By letters of a later date from the above mentioned martyr Dufresse, bishop of Tabraca and Vic. Ap. of Sutchuen, it appears, that during the year 1810, in spite of a severe persecution, nine hundred and sixtyfive adults were baptized, and during 1814, though the persecution increased, eight hundred and twenty-nine, without reckonag infants, received baptism. Bishop Lamote, Vic. Ap. of kien, testifies that, in his district, during the year 1810, ten thousand three hundred and eighty-four infants, and one thousand six hundred and seventy-seven grown persons, were baptized, and two thousand six hundred and seventy-four Catechumens admitted. From this short specimen, I trust, dear sir, it will appear manifest to you, on which Christian society God bestows his grace to execute the work of the apostles, as well as to preserve their doctrine, their orders and their mission.

As to the wonderful effects which your visiter expects from the Bible Society, and the three score and three translations into foreign tongues of the English translation of the Bible, in the conversion of the Pagan world, I beg leave to ask him, who is to vouch to the Tartars, Turks, and idolaters, that the Testaments and Bibles, which the society is pouring in upon them, were inspired by the Creator? Who is to answer for these translations, made by officers, merchants, and merchants' clerks, being accurate and faithful? Who is to teach these barbarians to read, and, after that, to make any thing like a connected sense of the mysterious volumes? Does Mr. C. really think that an inhabitant of Otaheite, when he is enabled to read the Bible, will extract the sense of the 39 Articles or of any other Christian system whatever from it? In short, has the Bible Society, or any of the other Protestant societies, converted a single Pagan or Mahometan by the bare text of Scripture? When such a convert can be produced, it will be time enough for me to propose to him those further gravelling questions which result from my observations on the Sacred Text in a former letter to you. In the mean time let your visiter rest assured, that the Catholic church will proceed in the old and successful manner, by which she has converted all the Christian people on the face of the earth; the same, which Christ delivered to his apostles and theit

Fuccessors: Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature. Mark. xvi. 15. On the other hand, how illusory the gentleman's hopes are, that the depravity of this age and country will be reformed by the efforts of the Bible Society, has been victoriously proved by the Rev. Dr. Hook, who, with other clear sighted churchmen, evidently sees that the grand principle of Protestantism, strictly reduced to practice, would undermine their establishment. One of his brethren, the Rev. Mr. Gis borne, had publicly boasted, that in proportion to the opposition, which the Bible Society had met with, its annual income had increased, till it reached near a hundred thousand pounds in a year: Dr. Hook, in return, showed, by lists of the convictions of criminals during the first seven years of the society's existence, that the wickedness of the country, instead of being diminished, had almost been doubled!* Since that period up to the present year, it has increased three-fold and four-fold, compared with its state before the society began.

POSTCRIPT.

1 HAVE now, dear sir, completed the second task which I undertook, and therefore proceed to sum up my evidence. Hav ing then proved in my twelve former letters, the rough copies of which I have preserved, that the two alleged rules of faith, that of private inspiration and that of private interpretation of Scripture, are equally fallacious, and that there is no certain way of coming to the truth of divine revelation but by hearing that church which Christ built on a rock and promised to abide with for ever; I engaged, in this my second series of letters, to demonstrate, which, among the different societies of Christians, is the church that Christ founded and still protects. For this purpose I have had recourse to the principal characters or marks of * List of capital convictions, in London and Middlesex, in the following vears, from Dr. Hooks Charge, and the London Chronicle:

In the year 1808 1809 1810 1811 1812 1813 1814||1815 1816 1817

Convictions 728 863 884 872 998 101210272299 2592 3177 Capital convictions in England and Wales, during the former seven years, from Dr. Hook's Charge:

2723 32383158 3163|391344224025||

N. B. To the convictions, during the three last years, in London and Middlesex, are added those of Surry, in the London Chronicle, March 9 1818.

Christ's church, as they are pointed out in Scripture and formally acknowledged by Protestants of nearly all descriptions, no less than by Catholics, in their articles and in those creeds, which form part of their private prayers and public liturgy, namely, unity, sanctity, Catholicity and apostolicity. In fact, this is what every one acknowledges who says in the apostles' Creed, I believe in the holy Catholic church; and, in the Nicene Creed,* 1 believe one Catholic and apostolic church. Treating of the first mark of the true church, I proved from natural reason, Scripture, and tradition, that unity is essential to her; I then showed that there is no union or principle of union among the different sects of Protestants, except their common protestation against their mother church, and that the church of England, in particular, is divided against itself in such manner, that one of its most learned prelates has declared himself afraid to say, what is its doctrine. On the other hand, I have shown that the Catholic church, spread as she is over the whole earth, is one and the same in her doctrine, in her liturgy, and in her government; and, though I detest religious persecution, I have, in defiance of ridicule and clamour, vindicated her unchangeable doctrine, and the plain dictate of reason, as to the indispensable obligation of believing what God teaches; in other words, of a right faith: I have even proved that her adherence to this tenet is a proof both of the truth and the charity of the Catholic church. On the subject of holiness, I have made it clear that the pretended Reformation every where originated in the pernicious doctrine of sal vation by faith alone, without good works; and that the Catholic church has ever taught the necessity of them both; likewise that she possesses many peculiar means of sanctity, to which modern sects do not make a pretension, likewise that she has, in every age, produced the genuine fruits of sanctity; while the fruits of Protestantism have been of quite an opposite nature: finally, that God himself has bore witness to the sanctity of the Catholic church, by undeniable miracles, with which he has illustrated her in every age. It did not require much pains to prove that the Catholic church possesses, exclusively, the name of CATHOLIC, and not much more to demonstrate that she alone has the qualities signified by that name. That the Catholic church is also APOSTOLICAL, by descending in a right line from the apostles of Christ, is as evident as that she is Catholic. However, to illustrate this matter, I have sketched out a genealogical, or, as I call it, the apostolical tree, which, with the help of a

See the Communion Service, in Com. Prayer.

note subjoined, shows the uninterrupted succession of the Catholic church in her chief pontiffs and other illustrious prelates, doctors, and renowned saints, from the apostles of Christ, during eighteen centuries, to the present period; together with the continuation in her of the apostolical work of converting nations and people. It shows also a series of unhappy heretics and schismatics, of different times and countries, who, refusing to hear her inspired voice and to obey her divine authority, have been separated from her communion and have withered away, like branches, cut off from a vine, which are fit for no human use. ilzek. xv. Finally, I have shown the necessity of an uninterrupted succession from the apostles, of holy orders and divine mission, to constitute an apostolical church, and have proved that these, or at least the latter of them, can only be found in the holy Catholic church. Having demonstrated all this in the foregoing letters, I am justified, dear sir, in affirming that the motives of credibility, in favour of the Christian religion, in general, are not one whit more clear and certain than those in favour of the Catholic religion in particular. But without inquiring into the degree of evidence attending the latter motives, it is enough for my present purpose that they are sufficiently evident to influence the conduct of dispassionate and reasonable persons, who are acquainted with them, and who are really in earnest to save their souls. Now, in proof, that these motives are at least so far clear, I may again appeal to the conduct of Catholics on a death-bed, who, in that awful situation, never wish to die in any religion but their own: I may also appeal to the conduct of so many Protestants in the same situation, who seek to reconcile themselves to the Catholic church. Let us, one and all, my dear sir, as far as is in our power, adopt these sentiments in every respect now, which we shall entertain, when the transitory scene of this world is closing to our sight, and during the countless ages of eternity. O the length, the breadth, and the depth of the abyss of ETERNITY! "No security," says a holy man, too great where eternity is at stake."*

[ocr errors]

can be

I am,

&c. J. M.

• "Nulla satis magna securitas ubi periclitatur Eternitas "

[ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

From JAMES BROWN, Esq. to the Rev. J. M. D. D. F. S. A

REVEREND SIR,

INTRODUCTION.

THE whole of your letters have again been read over in our society; and they have produced important though diversified effects on the minds of its several members. For my own part, I am free to own, that, as your former letters convinced me in the truth of your rule of faith, namely the entire Word of God, and of the right of the true church to expound it in all questions concerning its meaning; so your subsequent letters have satisfied me that the characters or marks of the true church, as they are laid down in our common creeds, are clearly visible in the Roman Catholic church, and not in the collection of Protestant churches, nor in any one of them. This impression was, at first, so strong upon my mind that I could have answered you nearly in the words of king Agrippa, to St. Paul: almost thou persuadest me to become a Catholic, Acts xxvi. 28. The same appear to be the sentiments of several of my friends: but when, on comparing our notes together, we considered the heavy charges, particularly of superstition and idolatry, brought against your church by our eminent divines, and especially by the bishop of London (Dr. Porteus,) and never, that we have heard of, refuted or denied, we cannot but tread back the steps we have taken towards you, or rather stand still, where we are, in sus pense, till we hear what answer you will make to them I speak of those contained in the bishop's well known treatise called A Brief Confutation of the Errors of the Church of Rome. With respect to certain other members of our society, I am sorry to

« AnkstesnisTęsti »