Lectures on catholicity and protestantism : lecture fourth : the doctrines and evidences of the Holy Catholic Church




THE FOURTH LECTURE
Of the series, on Catholicity and Protestantism, appeals to the

charity of the Catholic, and the candor of the non-Catholic reader.
Doubtless it has its faults and imperfections. Should it, or any of the
series, contain errors of fact or of doctrine, I beg to be informed, that I
may have them corrected in future editions.

The series of Lectures, of which this is one, consists of the following

:

I. The History of the Holy Catholic Church.
II. The History of Protestantism.
HI. The Popular Objections to Catholicity.
IV. The Doctrines and Evidences of Catholicity.
V. The Catholic Church the Church of the Bible.

They are mailed to subscribers, who order them for distribution, at the
rate of 15 copies for $1 ; 50 copies for $3 ; 100 copies for $5, whether of a
single number, or the series

;
and, as they are stereotyped, any quantity of

any or all of them can be furnished for distribution.

Up to the present time, six thousand copies of the series, or an aggre-
gate of thirty thousand copies have been ordered by the venerable prelates
and clergy, and zealous laity. I hope that this number may be greatly
increased.

I have solicited contributions to enable me to send a copy of each
lecture to three thousand American editors.

Although 1 wish the lectures to be judged by each reader, and to make
their own success, I may, I trust, without impropriety, for the sake ot
those who have not seen the other lectures of the series, copy the follow-
ing notices, such as I happen to have at hand, out of the whole number
for which I am indebted to a liberal Catholic press.

From the “Metropolitan Record,” Official Organ of the Most Rev.
John Hughes, D. D., Archbishop ofNew York.

LECTURES ON CATHOLICITY AND PROTESTANTISM. Lecture
third: Popular objections to Catholicity. By T. L. Nichols.

This is, as the title imports, the third of the admirable series of lectures
whicli are now in course of publication, and which we are pleased to learn
have met with most decided success. The subjects of which they treat
are presented in a most popular form, and all the strong points are brought
out and sustained with vigor and ability. They exhibit much industry
and research, and a judicious arrangement of facts, while the style is clear
simple, and forcible. The lecturer is thoroughly acquainted with the
prevalent prejudices and slanders against the Catholic Church, and in his
answers thereto has made a most discriminating use of the material which
he has had at his disposal. The very low price at which these lectures are
sold places them within the reach of all, and we trust they will have a still
larger circulation, particularly among our Protestant fellow-citizens.



LECTURES
ON

CATHOLICITY AND PROTESTANTISM.

LECTURE FOURTH:

THE DOCTRINES AND EVIDENCES OF
THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH.

B Y

T. L. NICHOLS, M. D.

NEW YORK

:

PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR,
1859.



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1859,

BY JAMES B. KIRKER,
In the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the Unitod States for the

Southern District of New York.



THE DOCTRINES AND EVIDENCES
OF THE

HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH.

While Protestants and Infidels calumniate and
persecute Catholics, they betray in their conversation,

speeches, sermons, and writings, the most astonishing

ignorance of Catholic Doctrines, and of the Evidences

which not only retain millions of intelligent people

in the Catholic faith, but which are producing the

conversion of great numbers in all Protestant coun-

tries.

Catholics, who cannot comprehend this ignorance
of otherwise well-informed people, of what is so famil-

iar to them
;

or who cannot see how honest people
can bitterly condemn what they know nothing about,
and what they take no pains to know about, are liable

to be wanting in charity to their calumniators and

persecutors. They forget that Protestants, while con-

demning traditions, are the blind dupes and victims

of traditions, in their opposition to the Catholic Faith.

These traditions have come down to them from the



212 THE DOCTRINES AND EVIDENCES

days of the terrible persecutions of Catholics under
Queen Elizabeth and her successors, when the hor-
rible cruelties inflicted upon the Catholic clergy and
people of England and Ireland, were sought to be jus-
tified by the invention of even more outrageous^ be-
cause longer lived, falsehoods. The bloody and bar-
barous executions, tortures, imprisonments, &c., un-
der the Penal Code of England, were “ light afflic-
tions, in comparison with the base calumnies and
strange misrepresentations which have kept alive the
dread and hatred of the Catholic Church in the minds
of millions for centuries. It was a less crime to tor-
ture, hang, draw, and quarter, or burn hundreds of
Catholics, as was done under Elizabeth of England,
than to invent one of those lies which have prevented
whole nations from long ago returning to the faith of
our ancestors.

As a general rule, the sins of Americans against
Catholics are sins of ignorance

;
their greatest fault is

in not seeking to know the truth
;
and it is the duty

of Catholics to bear every wrong with patience, say-
ing ever—“ Father, forgive them, they know not what
they do.”

In rpy ^hird J^ctilre I b&v'e clearly Stated Aand
briefly answere(jksome of^the IjOP&iae 0 jbj

n

s'fb

Ca^olicit^^JJ^ I wish^o^fo?rn Protestants
what Catholics really believe ,* what are the Evidences
of their belief that the Catholic Church is the true
Church ; in a word, of what it is to be a Catholic.



OF THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH. 213

In the fifth and concluding lecture of this series,

I intend to show, by an appeal to the Holy Scriptures,

that the Catholic Church is the Church of the
Bible; proving, also, by the same means, that all

other religious organizations, claiming to be churches

—all Protestant sects—fire anti-scriptural.
Reason and revelation assure us that there is but

one True Religion. One God, one Humanity, one
relation between man and his Creator. All men are
involved in the same liability to error and sin—all
need the same salvation

;
Christ came for all

;
one

faith was once for all delivered to the Saints. The
True Religion must be that which He has taught us

;

which is worthy of Him
;
and there can be but one.

Of two or more contradictory doctripes, but one can
be true. Man is, by the faculties of his mind and
heart, adapted to a certain relation to God

;
there can

be but one religion that so relates him.

But though reason shows that there must be one,
and can be but one True Religion, experience teaches

that unaided reason was not able to attain to it. Man
was dependent on God himself, to teach him his rela-
tion and duty to his Creator. Hence the necessity
of a Revelation. This Revelation must be in har-

\
mony with the nature of man, and such as his reason
can approve, or he could not accept it. There is no
truth contrary to reason. God does not contradict
himself. He does not give man reason for his guide,
and then make a revelation which that reason must



214 the doctrines and evidences

reject. God requires of man only a reasonable ser-
vice.

When Divine Revelation teaches to manthat there
s One God, the Father Almighty, maker of Heaven
and Barth reason accepts with joy a fundamental
truth When revelation asserts the immortality of
the human soul, reason finds its echo in her own
thought. When revelation declares the primitive
purity, and subsequent fall of man, his state of sin
an his need of salvation, reason finds in the nature
and history of man a basis of faith in this revelation
When it is announced that God, out of his boundless
love for the creatures he has made, has taken upon
himself their sufferings, and the punishment of their
sms, and has joined himself to humanity, that we
might be saved

;
though this involves things beyond

our comprehension, reason does not reject the higher
mystery of Faith. As far as we understand, reason
approves. We feel that our Faith does not go coun-
ter to reason, but only that she takes a higher flightm the same direction. We reject the ^natural, but
the supernatural we can accept, because we have
iaculties fitted for its acceptance.

Having received this One Revelation of God toman—for though given at various times, and to, and
through, many individuals, it is in perfect unity—we
derive from it One Faith, the acceptance of which
necessitates the rejection of every other. And this-
revelation declares its own unity. It is of God, noi



OF THE HOLT CATHOLIC CHURCH. 215

gods. It teaches us the way, not ways
)
of salvation.

It opens to us the one Fold, not folds
,
of one great

Shepherd. We have One Lord, One Faith, One Bap-
tism, not many. Christ tenderly gathered his chil-

dren into One Church, not churches

;

praying the

Father “ That they all may be one
,
as thou, Father,

in me, and I in thee
;
that they all may be one in us

;

that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.”
What is the great obstacle of the world’s conversion
to faith in Christ ? Is it not the various and discord-

ant beliefs and practices of professing Christians ?

Christ is the Shepherd; His followers are the

lambs and sheep of his flock
;
the Church is His fold,

and there is but One Fold, as there is but One Shep-

herd. The Church of Christ is his spiritual kingdom,

called in Scripture the Kingdom of Heaven. In

every kingdom there must be unity of government and

administration. “ A kingdom divided against itself
cannot stand.” The Church is called an army, “ fight-

ing the good fight of faith.” An army must be united
under one chief. Christ did not teach two kinds of

doctrine. How can they be his followers who teach
twenty ? He did not command his disciples to divide
themselves into a variety of sects, to suit the various

tastes and notions of mankind. Christ and his Apos-

tles did not say

—

Be at variance ; hate one another ;
be perfect in division / follow after the things that

make for strife ; let there be divisions among you ;
beware of unity ; Christ is divided ; let there be



216 THE DOCTRINES AND EVIDENCES

schisms among you ; he of many minds ; live in
strife ; One Lord, many faiths, and various bap-
tisms ; I beseech you be ofmany minds in the Lord

,

be ye carried about with divers and strange doc-
trines; do not obey them that ha.ve rule over you

,

nor submit yourselves.
There is no fact connected with Divine Revelation

more evident in itself, and more conformable to rea-
son, and all we can know and feel of the truth of relig-
ion, than that the visible Church of Christ on the
earth is one body, teaching and holding one doctrine;
with an organization of one united government, ad-
ministering oneform ofsacraments, and receiving all
believers into the onefold of Christ, and the one ivay
of salvation. Two such societies, differing from each
other; two doctrines, two heads, two kinds of worship
and ordinances, involve contradictions and absurdi-
ties without end

;
and we are compelled to say, of two

or many faiths, either one is true and all others are
false, or there is none that is true. Those who examine
with care proportioned to the importance of the sub-
ject, come to the first conclusion

;
but many, for the

want of such care, arrive at the second. Sectarianism
is both the direct and indirect source of infidelity.
Some are infidels because sects afford them no assur-
ance of faith, others because the variety of sects seems
to prove that no faith is true.

If the Doctrines of the Holy Catholic Church—
the Church of Christ and the Apostles—as it was first



OF THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH. 217

established and has ever existed, one great, united,

Divinely guided Society, for eighteen centuries ; with

one regular succession of holy teachers, under one ap-

pointed head, in the same city where it was established

in the first century, presiding over the same venerable

churches, over the catacombs where the martyrs of

that one Church were buried—if these doctrines, as I
present them to you, do not move your reverence,

satisfy your desires, and find acceptance in your faith,

it will be owing to the weakness, imperfectness, and

obscurity with which they are presented to you, or

some evil in yourselves.

What no Catholics believe ? What is it to be

a Catholic?

You can buy a little catechism of the Catholic

Faith for SJle'cents. It is contained in the Nicene

Creed
;
more briefly in the Apostles’ Creed. It is even

included, full and entire, in one sentence of this prim-

itive symbol of the Christian Faith.

He who says, “ I believe in the Holy Catholic

Church,” accepts all that she teaches and does all

that she requires.

A Catholic, making an Act of Faith, says : “ 0
my God, I firmly believe all the sacred truths the Cath-

olic Church believes and teaches, because Thou hast

revealed them, who canst neither deceive nor be de-

ceived.”

Thus, one point of doctrine includes all others.

19



218 the doctrines and evidences

.

Protestants say : The Bible, and the Bible alone
is the foundation of our Faith.

Catholics, who know that their faith existed, and
was taught to, and by, the Church, before it was writ-
ten in the Bible, or even in the Creed of the Apostles

' Say : Our Faith is founded on the Word of God. They
believe that the true faith, as well as the Scriptures and
their proper interpretation, was committed to the care
of the Church, which is the pillar and ground of truth.

The voice of the Church, and its testimony con-
cerning the faith, has been given through its general
councils and its appointed Chief Pastor. Thus God
lives in and speaks through His Church.

The Symbol of the Apostles was expanded, and
more clearly defined at the Council of Nice, a.d. 325,
and this Nicean Creed is the one used in the formal
profession of faith, usually recited in the Mass, or chief
Qfit of Catholic Worship.

The last General Council, held at Trent, in the
sixteenth century, defines certain articles of faith, not
expressly declared in the Symbol of Nice. Finally,
Ilis Hriliiujsa.-tlre-yBwiwt Pope Pius IX basin’
expression to the faith of the whole Chuwffi, in defin-
ing the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the
Blessed Virgin Mary

;

It is to be understood that lj/is not, and never l _
was. the office of Pope, or Cojjtfcil, or of the Church,
to invent or make articles of faith. They can only
declare them. The,.Catholio Faith is that which was

Tkjk., CVuaaoX
/%*\0

/



OF THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHUKCH. 219

given by Christ, taught by His Apostles, handed down

by the Bishops, their successors, and defined and de-

clared by the General Councils and the Pope or Chief

Pastor.

Christ, ever living in the Church, which is His

Body
;
the Holy Spirit which he promised should guide

his disciples into All Truth
;
these make the voice of

the Church the voice of God, and enable us to make

the act of Faith, in which we say: u I believe in the

Holy Catholic Church ”—“ I firmly believe all the
sacred truths the Catholic Church believes and teaches,

because Thou hast revealed them.” We hold this
faith, relying on the promises of Christ, as surely and

securely, as we do the first article of our Creed, which

says : “ I believe in God the Father Almighty.”
After the Council of Trent, the last of the great

series of General Councils of the Catholic Church,

His Holiness, Pope Pius IV., prepared “.A Profes-

sion of Catholic Faith,” in accordance with the Canons

and decrees of that Council
;
and as this is the profes-

sion which all persons admitted into the Church are

required to make, I shall make use of it as the basis of
this lecture. I will state the points of belief, one by
one, with such explanations as seem necessary

;
after

which, I. will give more systematically than I have
hitherto done, the Evidences of this Holy Faith $ r$-
s@rvi.ng, however, as I have- already intimated, the

Scripture proofs for th^coticluding lecture.



220 the doctrines and evidences

u The Nicene Creed.”
“I believe in one God, the Father Almighty,

maker of heaven and earth, and of all things, visible
and invisible

;
and in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only

begotten Son of God, and born of the Father before
all ages

;
God of God

;
Light of Light

;
true God of

true God; Begotten, not made; consubstantial to the
Father

;
by whom all things were made

;
who for us

men, and for our salvation, came down from heaven,
and was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin
Mary, and was made man. He was crucified also
for us under Pontius Pilate; he suffered and was
mined. And rose again on the third day, according
to the Scriptures, and ascended into heaven, and sit-
teth at the right hand of the Father, and shall come
again with glory to judge both the living and the
dead

;
of whose kingdom there shall be no end. And

m the Holy Ghost, the Lord and giver of Life, who
proceeds from the Father and the Son, who, together
with the Father and the Son is glorified; who spake
by the Prophets. And One, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic
Church. I confess one Baptism for the remission of
sins. And I expect the resurrection of the dead

;
and

the life of the world to come. Amen.”

.

“
* believe in One God.” Matter and spirit, “ all

things, visible and invisible,” and all their qualities,
combinations, and aggregations, atoms and worlds, de-
monstrate a unity of Infinite Power, Infinite Wisdom,



OF THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH. 221

Infinite Goodness—and this is God. Our Creator and
Almighty Father has revealed himself to us through

the Church he has established, by the holy men whom

He has inspired, and in the written revelation of His

word, as the Holy Trinity, One God in three Persons

;

Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. This is a Sublime

Mystery, which we do not attempt to comprehend, but

which we believe, because it is revealed to us. It is

a dogma of Divine Revelation, given to us by the

authority of the HTfly
n
8itfiolic Church. Those who

reject the Church, and her authority and testimony,

reject the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, and whatever

else they may consider inconvenient, or absurd, or im-

possible. We, living in a universe full of sublime and

incomprehensible mysteries, unable to comprehend

even our own existence, exercise the blessed faculty

of faith, and believe what we have good evidence that

Almighty God has been pleased to reveal to us. Fur-

ther on we shall investigate the nature of that evidence.

« And in one Lord Jesus Christ”
—“ who for

US MEN, AND FOR OUR SALVATION, CAME DOWN FROM

HEAVEN, AND WAS INCARNATE BY THE HOLY GHOST OF

the Virgin Mary, AND WAS MADE MAN.”

Christ, truly God, equal with the Father, of the

same substance, became truly man. We believe in
the Glorious Mystery of His miraculous Incarnation.

We honor her, most favored among women, who be-
came truly Mother of God.



222 the doctrines and^iwiJSS AND EVIDENCES

Fn]
T

«
e C1' urch

’
in ier s^mbols of faith, and by the

body rS“ f6 Hving voiee of ber teachingbody the Bishops, who are the successors of the
thorize to "t 1

Chr
F Wh°m th6J ordain ar‘d au-thonze to teach, speaks to us of the holy life thebitter sufferings, the shameful death, the glorious

S^ZI TITrn “f °Ur iDCarnate God
tbft

en

r
ntU1'ieS

’ baVe believed facts, to wliifhthe Apostles gave their testimony to the world - towhich the writings of the fathers, an unbroken trl

^
ion the blood of the martyrs, and countless mira-'s m every age, are witnesses.

“And shall come again with glokv to judgeboth the living and the dead.”
Catholics believe in the general judgment of th«

as day
;
they also believe in a particular judgmentby which the place or condition of each individual

And now comes that article of the Catholic Creedwhich is, so to speak, the key-stone of the arch of

cZtZ °
NE

’ H0L7> CAm0LIC
’ Apostolic

‘S °Ur PerPetuaI> bving, unfailing, and infallible witness. Take away the Church and we are



OF THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH. 223

left to tlie dim light of nature alone, and our unaided
reason. Take away the Church and we have no as-
surance of a divine revelation. Prove her fallible

,

and you cover every thing with doubt and despair.

Prove that there is not one living, visible, infallible

Church—“ the body of Christ,”—“the pillar and
ground of truth take away her existence, her testi-
mony, her authority, and you have no proof of a

Divine revelation, or of one item of the Christian

faith, beyond what reason teaches us. It is for this

reason that all who have left the Church are
on the road to, or have arrived at Rationalism, Infi-

delity, or Atheism.

Accept the fact that there is such a Church, and
you have in her the assurance of faith, and the prom-
ise of life everlasting.

So the great question—“ Catholic or Infidel ? ”

—

rests here
j
and, to the intelligent and logical mind,

there is no resting place between.

A Church which is One, and whose existence for-
bids the idea of any other.

A Church which is Holy in her doctrines and
requirements.

A Church which is Catholic

—

spread over the

earth, and in all times and everywhere the same.

A Church which is Apostolic, whose bishops are
the successors of the apostles, by an unbroken line of
consecration, and who acknowledge as their spiritual
head the successor of St. Peter, their appointed chief.



224 the doctrines and evidences

Catholics believe in this Church; they believeher testimony; they believe the doctrines she teaches;

JLtiz,r™r:rz;
r ™

™

the T,o!l

Cath
.

0li
." Chu

j

rch Reaches the resurrection of
y and individual immortality. The soul isimmortal; it lives separated from the body it shallbe reunited to it. Many persons, who admh theseparate existence and immortality of the soul, deny

e possibility of a bodily resurrection. But ourSaviour taught it; St. Paul explains it; the Churchhas always believed it. Catholics believe that thebody as well as the soul is sanctified
;
that Christ inputting on a human body, and in that body being

raised from the dead, assured the glorious resume-tmn of the bodies of all his saints.
It is not believed that the gross matter, which

“Ts“i
or

St. Paul calls the spiritual body, is that which isised, and that there is such a body, composed ofa oms of matter, which have impressed upon them ae,U,„ tol.tie. to the to»l, which e,„ „0L be2,IS peifectly consistent with chemical science andmost certainly “ possible with God.” ’



OF THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH. 225

The life of the world to come—the life of the
blessed, is one whose unspeakable happiness consists in

the enjoyment of the Beatific vision of God. “ Eye

hath not seen, ear hath not heard, neither hath it en-

tered into the heart of man to conceive.” Still there

are degrees in the happiness of heaven, “ as one star

differeth from another in glory.”

So in the condition of those who reject God’s

grace and salvation, there must be wide degrees of

misery, from the pain of loss to the deepest torments

of the worm that never dies. We are assured that
every one is rewarded according to his works ; that

some are beaten with few, and some with many stripes.

What is the nature of the punishment, or what the

character of the sufferings of those who die in a state

of mortal sin, the Church does not inform us. Neither

do we know the state of those souls who, for a season,

are detained in a middle place of purgation or purifica-

tion.

Next to the Nicene Creed in this Confession, as

next in importance, and the basis of much that fol-

lows, we have this declaration :

“ I most firmly admit and embrace Apostoli-

cal and Ecclesiastical Traditions, and all other

Constitutions and Observances of the same

Church.”

This is but the assertion of the authority and in-

fallibility of the Catholic Church. It is but saying,



226 the doctrines and evidences

I believe m the promises of Christ; I believe that
®
t
U
;!

fc h
L
ls

„
Church uP°n a rock, and that “ the gates

of hell shall not prevail against it.” I believe that

v, !°,
iS Chur0h the Eo]y SPiri‘ of Truth, to

abide with her forever. I believe that his apostles,
filled with the power of the Holy Ghost, have taught
all things whatsoever he commanded them, and that
e will be with them and their successors, the ap-

pointed teachers of his Church, “all days, even to
the consummation of the world.” We do believe
that the Holy Ghost, resting upon the apostles, did
teach them all things, and brought to their minds
all things whatsoever he had said to them. We
believe that he said to the pastors of this Church
“ Whatsoever you bind upon earth shall be bound in
heaven.” That he that heareth the Church, heareth

We believe that we should “ obey our prelates and
be subject to them, imitating their faith.” We be-
lieve that we should “stand firm, and hold the tradi-
tions which we have learned,” whether by word or by
the Epistles of the Apostles. Believing all this, re-
lying with a firm faith upon the promises of Christ
of the presence and guidance of the Holy Ghost in
his Church, we hold her, as of necessity and in fact,
infallible

;
and humbly accept whatever she teaches’

and in whatever form it may be given.
Protestants have made a great clamcr about this

belief in tradition. The traditions of the Church are



OF THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH. 22 ?

the unwritten word of God, which is as Divine as the

written
;
nay, it may he more sacred and interior.

What
!
you can believe nothing but Scripture ?

When Christ first sent out his disciples to preach the
gospel to the whole world, not a line of this Scripture

on which you rely was written. There was neither

gospel nor epistle : it was all tradition. And so it
remained for a long period. And because not written
or printed, you would not have believed it ? But

Jesus said of this oral teaching : “ He that believeth
shall be saved

;
but he that believeth not shall be

condemned.” What were all the unrecorded things

which Jesus said to his disciples for the forty days

between the resurrection and ascension to heaven,

when he completed the organization of His Church ?

All but the few words recorded in the gospels they

treasured up in their hearts, and handed down as pre-

cious traditions. St. John says, at the end of the last

and fullest of the gospels, and the one which recorded

most of these Divine lessons : “But there are many

other things which Jesus did : which if they were

written every one, the world itself I think would not

be able to contain the books that should be written.”

And was all this to be forgotten ? Was all this

tradition of no value? Jesus said: “The Holy

Ghost shall teach you all things, and bring to your

mind whatsoever I shall have said to you.” Here is

our warrant for believing and cherishing all the

treasures of the traditions and teachings of the



218 THE DOCTRINES AND EVIDENCES

Church, for they all come from the words of Christ
aad the teachings of the Holy Ghost.

“ I ALSO ADMIT THE SACRED SCRIPTURES, ACCORD-
ING TO THE SENSE IN WHICH OUR HOLY MOTHER,
the Church, has held, and does hold them, to
WHOM IT BELONGS TO JUDGE OF THE TRUE SENSE
AND INTERPRETATION OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES

?

*

NOR WILL I EVER TAKE AND INTERPRET THEM OTHER-
WISE THAN ACCORDING TO THE UNANIMOUS CONSENT
oe the Fathers.

In this confession belief in tradition comes before
belief in Scripture. And rightly; for the spoken
word was before the written word

;
and it is faith in

the former which gives us assurance of the latter.
And Catholics believe the Scriptures, not according to
what each individual reader, or Adam Clarke, or Mar-
tin Luther may fancy their meaning to be, but “ ac-
cording to the sense in which our Holy Mother, the
Church, has held^d.dpes hold them.”

s
And why?

Simply because commandfij/'to hear the
Church. Because the Church has given us the
Scriptures, and is the only voucher for their genuine-
ness and canonicity. Have you any other? Because
the Scriptures were given by the Holy Ghost, and the
Holy Ghost is the perpetual guide of the Church,
leading her into all truth. Let the Holy Spirit, then,
be the interpreter of His own inspirations. He in-
spired men to write

;
He inspired the Church to re-



OF THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH. 229

ceive, keep, and interpret, and knowing that “ no

prophecy of Scripture is of private interpretation,”

we will not run the risk of “ wresting them, as the

unlearned and unstable do, to their own perdition.”

“ I PROFESS ALSO, THAT THERE ARE TRULY AND

PROPERLY SEVEN SACRAMENTS OF THE NEW LAW,

INSTITUTED BY JESUS ClIRIST OUR LORD, FOR THE SAL-

VATION OF MANKIND, THOUGH NOT ALL NECESSARY FOR

EVERY ONE, VIZ. : BAPTISM, CONFIRMATION, EUCHARIST,

Penance, Extreme Unction, Holy Order, and

Matrimony
;
and that they confer grace

;
and

that of these, Baptism, Confirmation, and Holy

Order, cannot be reiterated without sacrilege.”

Here, also, believing in the one Holy Catholic

Apostolic Church; believing that she was founded,

and has been miraculously preserved, established, and

guided by God, as a medium of the blessings of His

grace, and the appointed and ever-inspired teacher of

His holy will, we humbly and faithfully accept the

Sacraments appointed for our initiation into the

Church
;

for feeding and strengthening us in the

spiritual life
;
for giving us courage and fortitude to

fight as good soldiers
;
for curing us of relapses into

sin
;
for providing us with authorized teachers and

administrators of these holy Sacraments
;

for sanctify-

ing, by the blessing of the Church, our tenderest and

most important earthly relations, and for preparing

us, in the solemn hour of death, to take our places in



230 the doctrines and evidences

the Church suffering, and finally in the Church trium-
phant in Heaven.

We believe in the Church. We give her our
faith, our obedience, and our love

;
we accept with

unspeakable gratitude all her holy Sacraments. Not
one could be spared from the sacred number. It was
fitting that those who have corrupted the doctrines
of the Church should attempt to despoil her of her
Sacraments. But they have only robbed themselves,
and those, alas ! whom they have led into error

According to the faith of the Catholic Church,
the Sacraments are sensible signs, instituted by our
Lord Jesus Christ, having the power of conferring
grace for our sanctification.

6

They are not idle forms, useless ceremonies or
mere memorials. Every Sacrament is a Miracle. ' In
Baptism, the soul is miraculously washed from every
stain of sin, and initiated into the family of God-
made a member of the body of Christ, his Church. In
Confirmation, the soul is miraculously strengthened
and fortified, by receiving the graces of the Holy
Spirit. In the Blessed Sacrament of the Holy Eu-
charist, we miraculously receive the body of our Divine
Lord, to nourish our souls to everlasting life. In the
Sacrament of Penance, we receive, by a miraculous
grace, the pardon and absolution of sins committed
after baptism. In the Sacrament of Extreme Unc-
tion, by holy anointing, with the laying on of hands
and prayers, we are miraculously strengthened for the



OF THE HOLT CATHOLIC CHUECH. 231

trying hour of death. In the Sacrament of Holy
Orders, those who are called to be priests of the
Church, are miraculously endowed with the powers
and graces necessary to the exercise of their holy func-

tions and solemn duties. In the Sacrament of Holy
Matrimony, those who are united with the blessing of
the Church, in the bonds of a consecrated wedlock, are

miraculously made one flesh, and endowed with the
needed graces.

Does your faith stagger at the idea of all these

miracles ? The formation of this Church was a miracle.
The mission of its Divine Founder was attested by
wonderful miracles. Still greater miracles have at-

tested the Divine Authority and Sanctity of the Apos-

tles, Martyrs, Saints, and Missionaries of the Church

in every age. The existence of the Church is mirac-
ulous. Its doctrines are supernatural, and superna-

tural are the graces of which it is the medium to every
true believer. If there be a Church of Christ, it is

not natural, but supernatural, and its functions are

miraculous. The Holy Ghost is with the Church, the
soul of this body

;
and its works are always miracles.

If there are no miracles, then there is no church. If

the Sacraments do not supernaturally and miracu-

lously confer sanctifying graces, then they are no

Sacraments. If our priests have no Divine Commis- *

sion, and Supernatural Endowment, then are they no

priests. You must believe in all this, or you must
descend to simple naturalism, which so many are do-



232 the doctrines and evidences

mg, and believe in nothing—or become a prey to all
vagaries, diabolisms, and fanaticisms.

Protestantism, after destroying faith in the church,
and doing away with the apostolic succession of her
holy orders, rejected five of the Sacraments in name,
and six in fact; for the Protestant Communion, denying
the real presence, and administering without orders,
cannot properly be called a Sacrament. But the Seven
Sacraments of the Catholic Church are necessary to
her life. By Baptism her children are born in Jesus
Christ

;
they are fortified in their faith by Confirma-

tion
;
nourished by the Holy Eucharist; healed by

Penance; their strength is renewed by Extreme Unc-
tion

;
Holy Orders perpetuate ministers of the Sacra-

ments
;
and Matrimony perpetuates the faithful who

are to receive them. Can one be spared from this
sacred number of Divine gifts and blessings?

Baptism is the first and most important, or most
indispensable of the Sacraments. We can better dis-
pense with all the rest, for it effaces Original Sin, and
actual sin committed previously

;
it remits the pun-

ishment due to sin
;

it makes us children of God and
heirs of heaven

;
it makes us children of the Church,

our Holy Mother, and gives us a right to all her
goods; it imprints upon the soul an indelible charac-
ter, which distinguishes us from all who are not Chris-
tians.

Confirmation is that Sacrament, described in the
eighth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles : “ Then



OF THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH. 233

they ^id their hands upon them, and they received

the Holy Ghost.” Most sects dispense with any pre-

tence of this Sacrament, but the Catholic Church does

not rob her children of any good gift. As a tender

parent, when her children ask for bread, she does not

give them a stone. Confirmation is
u a Sacrament in-

stituted by Christ to confer into our souls the Holy

Ghost, and an increase of our baptismal grace, to re-

sist with a manly strength, and to encounter, courage-

ously, all our spiritual enemies, and to profess con-

stantly the faith of Christ.”

The Blessed Sacrament for which all other Saera-

ments were made—the Sacrament of the Holy Eu-
charist—receives special mention in the Confession
of Faith. In the Mass, or principal service of the

Catholic Church, it is offered as a true, proper, and

propitiatory sacrifice—a clean oblation—for the living
and the dead. And our Holy Church teaches, accord-

ing to the Scriptures, and the constant belief of the

whole Church, that “ in the most holy Sacrament

of the Eucharist, there is truly, really, and

SUBSTANTIALLY PRESENT, THE BODY AND BLOOD,. TO-

GETHER WITH THE SOUL AND DIVINITY OF OUR LORD

Jesus Christ; and that there is made a conver-

sion OF the whole substance of the bread into

the body, and of the whole substance of the

WINE INTO THE BLOOD
;
WHICH CONVERSION THE CaTH-

olic Church calls Transubstaxtiation. I con-

fess ALSO, THAT UNDER EACH KIND CHRIST 1&



234 the doctrines and evidences

WHOLE AND ENTIRE, AND A TRUE SACRAMENT IS RE-
CEIVED.”

Such is the declaration. What is its support 9 If
you accept the authority of the Church, that alone is
su eient. If, rejecting that, you are inconsistent
enough to receive the Scriptures, which themselves
rest on no other basis, then read every passage in
w leh the institution of this Sacrament is mentioned
and you have the proof required. « This is my body ”
“Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink
his blood, ye have no life in you.” “ My flesh is meat
indeed, and roy blood is drink indeed.” “He that
eateth and drinketh unworthily, is guilty of the body
.and blood of Christ,” &c . The Jews were scandal-
ized; His disciples were offended; many turned back
and walked no more with him

;
but Jesus, who had

Willed to give his spiritual and glorified body, and his
whole Divine Human being for the salvation and sus-
tentation of his Church, only asserted, more and more
emphatically, the plain, literal verity, “this is my
body.” Protestants of modern date say he probably
meant. This signifies or this represents my body. If so
why did not Christ or his apostles ever say so ? Why
did no one in his Church for so many centuries ever
say so? No. As every Sacrament is a miracle
this is only the greatest, the most loving, and most
sublime. God can give us of his own substance to
nourish our souls if he choose to do so. It is the
faith—the happy, undoubting, adoring faith of the



OF THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH. 235

whole Catholic Church, that He every day, and in
thousands of places, performs this miracle. The

Church teaches, and every Catholic believes, that

Christ, our glorious Lord and Saviour, at every con-

secration of the Elements in the Holy Mass, descends

upon the Altar, takes the form of bread and wine, and

thus gives His body to us, according to his word. Is

this absurd, or impossible ? No
;

it i$ only superna-

tural and Divine. The Creator of the Universe—the
Lord of Life, can surely work a miracle like this.

And by this miracle, we have in every Catholic
Cburch, and on every altar, the Real Presence of our

Blessed Lord. We bow before Him; we adore His
Divine Majesty

;
we receive this Bread of Heaven

;

and it is this which constitutes the holy charm, and

the infinite solemnity of Catholic worship
;
and it is

the want of this that is felt in every Protestant ser-

vice, and the place of which no eloquence, or fervor,

or fanaticism can ever supply. It is the One Thing
Needful. We have Christ on our altars

;
we receive

Christ into our bosoms, and enjoy this ineffable mys-

tery of redeeming love^.^
Infidelity and a half-infidel ProtestantSSfe* ask,

how is this possible ? Is God possible ? Is the uni-
verse possible ? Are all things, material and spiritual,

possible ? Is it possible for you to think, or imagine,

or for God to create ? It is folly to talk of impossi-
bilities, when we are surrounded with a whole universe
of marvels. The absurd alone is impossible. Is it



236 THE DOCTRINES AND EVIDENCES

absurd that God, who could take upon Himself human-
ity, for our redemption, should nourish those He has
redeemed with His own Divine substance ? It is no
more absurd or improbable, than that every plant
should find its own nourishment in the air and sun-
shine, and the Infinite Providence of the Almighty.

A belief in the real presence of Christ in the
blessed Sacrament of the Catholic Church, is the
heart of our religion. Could this be taken away,
there would be left but a cold, lifeless body. It is
when we kneel before the altar, and feel that our God
is there, that our faith is renewed, our love enkindled,
our penitence deepened, our whole souls filled with
the Divine Presence. We bow before our God in
humble adoration

j
we see him under the sacramental

veils
;
we receive him into our bosoms, and feel with-

in us the circulation of a new and Divine life.
But for this communion with the Divine Creative

Spirit, there must be a fitness in the creature. The
soul that receives God in the blessed Sacrament of
the Eucharist, must be free from the stains of mortal
sin, and in a state of grace. This state is attained
by Baptism

;
but as there is left still the freedom of

the will and liability to sin, how shall the soul be
purified and prepared for this communion ? By an-
other sacrament, instituted for that very purpose
the Sacrament of penance.

Christ said to those to whom he committed the
care of his Church to the end of the world,

—

“Be-



OF THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH. 237

ceive ye the Holy Ghost : whose sins you shall for-

give, they are forgiven ; and whose sins you shall

retain, they are retained.” And that they might be

able to judge whose sins should be retained and whose

forgiven, there was instituted the practice and obliga-

tion of confession. This is a terror to Protestants

;

it is often also a terror to bad Catholics. But to

those who are truly sorry for their sins, who wish to

avoid them, who pray that they may be forgiven, it is

no terror, but a great blessing, to humbly confess

every sin of one’s life, and to receive the absolution

which God has commissioned his priests to confer on

the truly penitent.

The Jews were scandalized when Jesus said, “ Son,

thy sins are forgiven thee.” Immediately, by a mani-

festation of his almighty power, he showed them that

he had the right to forgive sins. When he commis-
sioned his disciples, he said, u As the Father sent me,

even so send I you.” The office of Christ is con-

tinued, through all ages, in the persons of his ap-

pointed ministers. They exercise his powers—they
execute the authority delegated to them. In the

place of Christ, acting for Christ, Christ acting with,

them and in them, they give absolution to the con-

trite soul, and fit her to receive the blessed Sacrament

of the Holy Eucharist.

Sacramental confession, as a part of the Sacrament-

of Penance, has been practised from the beginning.

Without it, and without the proper dispositions

—



238 the doctkines and evidences

contntbn for sin and a pure purpose of amendment

could L he°/ ,
• The W°rds °f the P**could he he deceived, would hare no value God

TheTathor T ^^ wU1 “ot be clea“sed-Ihe Catholic does not expect to be saved against his
11, nor without the required dispositions; and there
not m the whole Catholic Church one humblepenuent soul, that does not thanh God for the

of the Sacrament of Penance, by which the wound!and diseases of the soul are healed, and she is restored to her baptismal purity. The two happymoments in the life of every Catholic, are,-when he
ses from the confessional, with the blessing of the

priest who has given him absolution; and when so
punfied, he kneels before the altar and receives thebody of his Divine Lord.

Extreme Unction, or anointing the sick, with

m-essl

Jlng °n

f/
nd

,

S aDd Prayer
’
is a lament ex-

pressly appointed and commanded in the Holy ScriD-
tures, (in St James's Epistle,) and ever practised bythe true Church from apostolic times. Very tender
is the care of the Church for her dying children. She
takes them m her arms, she carries them in herhosom through the dark valley of the shadow of death
'Her fervent prayers and holy offices attend the part-
ing soul to the confines of eternity; they bear her
acroSS the gulf; they never forsake her, until she en-
>ters the portals of eternal rest.

To receive this sacrament of the sick and dying
>



OF THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH. 239

the Church requires that the recipient shall be in a

state of grace. He must have made confession and
received absolution of any mortal sin, or he must have

desired this sacrament. The sinner, at every step,

however assisted by the grace of God, must still

work out his own salvation. God neither saves nor

damns men against their wills. In order to be saved,

you must be willing to be saved
;
and in order to be

damned, you must be willing—nay, so determined to
be damned, that even the grace of God cannot save

you, without a violation of your freedom. Granting

the function of the priest, as standing in the place of

Christ, with his forgiving, consoling, and strengthen-

ing power, who would reject so beautiful, and so

needed a sacrament as that of Extreme Unction ?

That the five preceding sacraments might be ad-

ministered to the whole Church, through the whole

period of her existence, it became necessary to insti-

tute the Sacrament of Holy Orders, which give3
power to those on whom it is conferred, to perform
ecclesiastical functions, and the grace to exercise them

in a holy manner. When Christ said, “ Go ye into
all the world, and preach the gospel to every crea-

ture ”—when he said, “ As my Father sendeth me,
even so send I you

;
he that heareth you heareth me,

and he that despiseth you despiseth me when he
said, “ Do this in commemoration of me,” he insti-
tuted the Sacrament of Holy Orders, by which the

Church is supplied with an unbroken succession of



240 THE DOCTRINES ANT) EVIDENCES

teachers and pastors. Holy orders give to the
priest. the most awful and majestic of powers and
functions that the world can know. They take hold
of eternity; they are supernatural, miraculous, divine.
By this sacrament, and the grace it imparts, a man is
commissioned to perform acts, which he can do only
by the Divine Power acting in and through him The
priest consecrates the body of our Lord; he baptizes
us into the Church of Christ; he forgives our sins;
he prays for us, instructs us, sanctifies us, and solaces
us in our misfortunes, and smooths for us, with Divine
consolations, the bed of death. Society owes every
thing to the Sacrament of Holy Orders, for there can
be no society without religion, no religion without
priests, and no priest without the Sacrament of Holy
Orders. J

The last of the seven sacraments is that of Matri-
mony, by which the Church is perpetuated. What
the world calls marriage is the natural union of the
sexes, according to custom or civil law

;
but Christ

gave to his Church an altogether supernatural and
Sacramental Marriage, by which special grace is im-
parted to those who receive it, and in which children
are blessed. Out of this Sacramental Marriage,
established by Christ in his Church, I think no time
marriage exists, or is possible. The morals of the
world show the need and necessity of this sacrament.
The Pagan and Mohammedan world has no marriage.
The Protestant and Infidel world has, it is to be



OF THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH. 241

feared, only its appearance. The marriages of non-

Catholic states are limited partnerships, enforced

by law, and subject to divorce for various causes.

The Catholic Church is considered bigoted for not

permitting divorce. But, if marriage be a sacrament,

in which, in the true order, God joins two souls and

bodies to be one, what human power can put them

asunder ? The Church admits of separation, but not

of divorce. Her standard of purity is high above

all worldly standards. Her most cherished state is

that of a holy virginity, a perpetual chastity, in which

body and spirit are alike given to the Lord. But

she also sanctions and sanctifies, even with sacramen-

tal sanctity, the union of a pure, and loving, and in-

dissoluble marriage.

These are the seven sacraments, full of blessings

for humanity, of the Holy Catholic Church ; and of

which God has constituted her the medium, guardian,

and administrator.

« I also admit the Ceremonies which the

Catholic Church admits and approves of, in the

solemn administration of all the above said

Sacraments.”

The ceremonies of the Church are the visible

body of their spirit ; or you may consider them the

robes, costumes, and appropriate adornments. Thus

the Council of Trent has well said :
“ And, whereas,

such is the nature of man, that without external helps

11



242 THE DOCTRINES AND EVIDENCES

he cannot easily be raised to the meditation of Divine
things; therefore has Holy Mother Church instituted
certain rites. She has likewise employed ceremonies,
such as mystic benedictions, lights, incense, vestments
and many other things of this kind, derived from an
apostolical discipline and tradition, whereby both the
majesty of so great a sacrifice [the Mass] might be rec-
ommended, and the minds of the faithful be excited
by those visible signs of religion and piety, to the con-
templation of those most sublime things which are
hidden m this sacrifice.”

To those who are familiar with Catholic worship,
i need say nothing in favor of its most beautiful, sic-,
mficant, and sublime ceremonial. There is not a
vestment worn by Bishop or Priest which is not typi-
cal of the Passion and sufferings of Christ. There is
not a ceremony at the altar which is not beautifully
significant of some scene in that tremendous mystery
that Divine tragedy, in which God manifest in the
flesh, gave Himself up, a sacrifice for a lost world.
There is not the least ceremony of Catholic worship
which any Catholic would willingly dispense with.
It is a language which comes home to every heart,
and is adapted to every comprehension. To the rude*
and unlearned, as well as to the refined and educated,
it is alike necessary, alike beautiful, alike Divine. By
these ceremonies, or sensible signs and representations,
the attention is arrested and fixed, the mind is im-
pressed, the heart is melted, the soul is elevated, the



OF THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHUKCH. 243

’whole being, with all its powers, is wrapped in adora-

tion and love. Oh ! the cold, dry, hard, barren wor-
ship of Protestantism ! It is a tree without foliage,

or flowers, or fruitage, or sign of life. It is a bare

skeleton. A desert, in which the soul starves. God
has mercifully adapted His religion to the faculties and

wants of His people
;
and in the ceremonies of Catholic

worship you will find all that the soul requires of the

beautiful, the noble, the elevating, and inspiring. The

proof of its Divine origin is, that while the humblest

soul is fed, the most elevated is still exalted by its

sublimity.

“ I RECEIVE AND EMBRACE ALL AND EVERY ONE OF

THE THINGS WHICH HAVE BEEN DEFINED AND DECLARED

in the Holy Council of Trent, concerning original
SIN AND JUSTIFICATION.”

The Council of Trent declares, as the Doctrine of

the Holy Catholic Church, held and taught univer-

sally from the beginning, that Adam, by his trans-

gression, lost the holiness and justice wherein he had

been constituted
;
and that he thereby incurred the

wrath and indignation of God, and was made worse,

body and soul, incurring death, and the power of the

devil. That this fall injured also his posterity. That

this sin, transfused into all by propagation, has no

other remedy than that of the one Mediator, our

Lord Jesus Christ, applied in the Sacrament of Bap-

tism, in which, by the grace conferred by this Sacra-



244 THE DOCTRINES AND EVIDENCES

ment, the guilt of original sin is remitted. Yet, after
the baptism, there remains the tendency and liability
to sin, and the need of other sacraments to purify and
strengthen the soul, and fit it for heaven.

The doctrine of Justification teaches that man
must, in his freedom, co-operate with, or correspond
to the sanctifying grace of God

;
and while he is not

able, of his free will, to sanctify himself without grace,
neither will grace sanctify, without his free co-oper-
ation.

“ Of Justification, the final cause is the glory of
God and of Jesus Christ, and life everlasting; the
Efficient Cause is a merciful God, who washes and
sanctifies gratuitously; but the Meritorious Cause is
our Lord Jesus Christ and His adorable sacrifice, and
most Holy Passion

;
the instrumental cause is the

Sacrament of Baptism, which is the sacrament of
faith; while the alone formal cause is the Justice of
God, with which we are endowed by him, according
to each one s disposition and co-operation

;
whereby

he receives faith, hope, and charity. For faith, un-
less hope and charity be added thereto, neither unites
man perfectly with Christ, nor makes him a living
member of His body.”—Decrees and Canons of the
Council of Trent.

Here are no horrible doctrines, such as were
broached by Luther, Calvin, and their fellow-reform-
ers, of total depravity, the absolute sinfulness of all

natural goodness, predestination to damnation, the



OF THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH. 245

denial of reason and free will, justification
by

faith alone, without good works or charity, &c.
The

Catholic doctrine comes home to the needs of every

human heart, and it is supported in every point by

the teachings of the Scriptures, as
you may see, if you

will only take the trouble to read any
catechism of

the Catholic faith.

Catholics believe that, in the Holy Sacrament

op the Eucharist,
“ under each kind, Christ is

WHOLE AND ENTIRE, AND A TRUE SACRAMENT IS RE-

CEIVED.”

Upon this doctrine of the Real Presence, is

founded the usual practice of the Catholic
Church, of

giving the Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist
under

one species only, the cup being taken only by
the offi-

ciating priest, who offers the Holy Sacrifice. Having

given the reasons for this general
practice of the Cath-

olic Church in my third lecture, I need do no more

here than to present the doctrine as
above stated.

Catholics “ hold that there is a Purgatory,

AND THAT THE SOULS THEREIN DETAINED
ARE HELPED

BY THE SUFFRAGES OF THE FAITHFUL.

Most Protestant sects teach that every
soul, at

death, goes at once to heaven or hell.
The Catholic

Church teaches that there is, even for
penitent and

believing souls, who have yet some stain
of impurity

or defilement of venial sin, a
middle place or period



246 the doctrines and evidences

of preparation, purgation, or purification, before they
can be fit to enter into the ineffable joys of the beatific
vision of God. The most exemplary Christian may
commit some venial sin, as of an “ idle word;” all are
liable to sudden death. Our Lord, in saying that the
sin against the Holy Ghost “hath no forgiveness,
neither in this world, nor in the world to come,” very
plainly recognized the common belief of the Jews and
his disciples, that some sins are forgiven in the world
to come. And as the Jews, as we are informed in 2
Maccabees, made prayers and offerings for the dead,
so, from the establishment of the Christian Church,
prayers and alms, or “ the suffrages of the faithful,”
have been offered for the souls of the departed.

St Peter says that Christ went and preached to
the spirits in prison

;
not in heaven, surely not in a

hell of hopeless misery; but in that place, often so
called in Scripture, the abode of departed spirits, or
the Purgatory which the Church teaches.

The Catholic Church, holding to “ the Communion
of Saints,” teaches that “the Saints reigning to-
gether with Christ are to be honored and invo-
CATED

;
THAT THEY OFFER PRAYERS TO GOD FOR US, AND

THAT THEIR RELICS OUGHT TO BE VENERATED.”

Such is the consoling faith that binds the whole
Church, militant, suffering, and triumphant, together
in one holy bond of sympathy and brotherhood, so
that all heaven rejoices over one repenting sinner; so



OF THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHUECH. 247

that the holiest saint who kneels before the eternal

throne may pray to God for mercy to the poorest sin-

ner here, or the most suffering soul in purgatory.

How reasonable as well as joyful is this faith 1 How

utterly unreasonable and dreadful is the belief that

the saints in heaven no longer know, or love, or care,

or pray for their earthly brethren ! Christ represents

the Rich Man in Hell as praying that means might

be taken to instruct and save his brethren ; shall we

say, then, that the saints of God—men who spent their
whole lives in efforts for the salvation of sinners,

no

longer care for them—no longer pray for them—no
longer listen to their supplications ? God forbid ! Let

us rather believe that they love us more than ever

,

more than ever desire our salvation ; and are more

than ever ready to respond to our desires when we

say, Holy Saints of God, pray for us !

That we should venerate the relics of those whom

we loved and venerated on earth, or those who, long

since departed, were worthy of such love and vener-

ation, is so human and holy a thing, that no one can

have the heart to deny it, who is not chilled in his

feelings by some heretical creed. We all value relics.

All nations preserve the relics of their heroes.
Shall

the Church of God alone forget, neglect, or desecrate

the memorials of her holiest children. It never
was

so, and it never can be so. From the very beginning,

the relics of the saints and martyrs of the Church

were preserved with piou3 care, and held in a venera-



248 THE DOCTRINES AND EVIDENCES

tion, justified by countless miracles which God was
pleased to work through the means of these relics.

The Church therefore sanctions, and sanctifies,
that proper devotion or veneration, which her children
pay to the relics of her departed saints

;
honoring God

in this devotion.

She teaches also that “ the images,” whether statues
or paintings, or by whatever medium represented, “ of
Christ, and of the Mother of God, ever a virgin,
AND ALSO OF THE SAINTS, ARE TO BE HAD, AND RETAINED,
AND THAT DUE HONOR AND VENERATION ARE TO BE GIVEN
to them.” Not the adoration and worship due to
God alone

;
not veneration of the mere material

;
but

of the sacred and consecrated image, which conveys
more vividly to the mind, the thought and love of our
Lord, and of His Mother, whom the Angel Gabriel
addressed in the same language as is used by every
Catholic in the world.

I cannot understand the heresy and fanaticism of
the Iconoclast, or image-breaker. It seems to me un-
reasonable to stupidity. When I think of Christ, or
the Blessed Virgin Mary, His Holy Mother, and
therefore Mother of God, I must form of them an
image in my mind

;
and so of every saint, or other

personage. And this image in my mind I worship,
or venerate and honor, as the case may be. Suppose,
now, with the inspiration of art, I produce this image
of my mind in marble or ivory, on canvas or in an en-



OF THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH. 249

graving; must I no longer hold it in honor and vener-

ation ? May I not, when my devotion grows weak,

look at it, to recall to my mind the feeling that in-

spired it ?

The Catholic also believes “ that the power op

Indulgences was left by Christ to the Church,

AND THAT THE USE OF THEM IS MOST WHOLESOME TO

Christian people.”

The power of Indulgences was given by our Lord,

when He said : “ As the Father hath sent me, so send

I you;
” “ I will give to thee the keys of the kingdom

of heaven;
” “ Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall

be bound also in heaven, and whatsoever ye shall loose

on earth shall be loosed also in heaven.” Here are

plenary powers. Here is authority enough.

An Indulgence, as I have explained in my third

lecture, is not a license to commit sin ; it is not the

forgiveness of a sin committed ; it is not available but

to those who seek it in a truly penitential spirit. It

is only the remission of some part or all the penance

or temporal punishment, belonging to some sin or sins,

on condition of some other mode of penance, or good,

works. The Church is our Mother, tender and in-

dulgent. Her Divine Spouse has given to her a rich,

treasury of graces. The merits of Christ are infinite ;,

the prayers and alms, and all the good deeds of the

saints are the patrimony of her children. Out of this-

rich treasury she exercises the power spoken of in the

11 *



250 THE DOCTRINES AND EVIDENCES

Scriptures above quoted, and to those who are worthy,
grants those indulgences which aid us on our heavenly
journey, or shorten the period of our purification.

Strictly defined, an indulgence is “ a release from
the temporal punishment due to actual sins, already
remitted as to the guilt.” For example, the sin of
David was forgiven

;
the temporal penalty, however,

was that the child must die
;
a remission of that pen-

alty would have been what Catholics mean by an in-
dulgence.

Protestants have filled the world with clamors
against indulgences, as encouraging immorality

;
and

at the same time, in their favorite doctrine of justifi-
cation by faith alone, they have proclaimed a plenary
indulgence to all who are in their communion, doing
universally, by wholesale and without condition, what
they denounce.

All Catholics (i acknowledge the Holy Cath-
olic Apostolic Roman Church to be the Mother
and Mistress of all Churches; and promise true
'OBEDIENCE TO THE BlSHOP OF Rome, THE SUCCESSOR
of St. Peter, Prince of the Apostles, and Yicar
of Jesus Christ on earth.”

In my-deetu^e on the History of the Holy Catholic
Church, I have pH^ed the Primacy of St. Peter, and,
consequently, of his successors. I have shown that
if there exist such a Church as the prophets and
apostles speak of, it is thkone known over the whole



OF THE &OLY CATHOLIC CHUKCH. 251

world as the Roman Catholic Church. The successor
of St. Peter is the Visible Head of the Visible Church,

and as such, standing to us in the place of Christ, we

owe him a “ true obedience ”—that is, an obedience
in all that appertains to the functions of his hbly office.

In every true order there must be a centre or

head
;
and in this, as every other. The Protestant

says, Christ is the Head of His Church. It is true,

but a visible earthly Church requires a visible earthly

head. God was the Head, and Guide, and Director

of the hosts of Israel in the desert
;
but there was

none the less a human chief—first Moses, then Joshua.
Every earthly body must have its earthly head. The

dependent colonies of distant sovereigns have their

viceroys, governors-general, &c. If the visible

Church, when it consisted of but a few hundred per-

sons, required a visible head and acknowledged chief

in St. Peter, not less does that Church, spread over

the world, require a centre and a head, such as she

has at Rome, and in the Supreme Pontiff.

When God has commanded us to do any thing, he
has provided the means by which we could obey him.

He commanded His Church to keep the unity of the
faith, and in order to do this, it wras necessary that

there should be a central, supreme head of the Church.

Without a primacy, how was union possible ? Who
but a Pope could assemble, or preside over, or give

authority to the decisions of a general council ? Take

away the papacy from the Catholic Church, and it



252 THE DOCTRINES AND EVIDENCES

would be “lohere!” and “lo there!” Instead of
one Father and Chief, there might be a chief in every
state—a pope in every parish. Every prince would
set himself up as head of the Church in his own
dominions; and every legislature or city council
would define articles of faith. Take from us the pa-
pacy, and we might fall into the Babel of discord and
confusion seen in all Protestant countries. Therefore

we, as Catholics, cling fast to the Papacy as the sheet
anchor of unity. The Church militant, fighting the
good fight of faith, looks ever to her Standard-bearer

;

and the whole Church of God, round the whole earth,
looks with loving reverence to Borne, and from mil-
lions of Catholics go up unceasing prayers to heaven
that God would bless him who now so worthily fills
the Chair of St. Peter.

And relying with an undoubting faith in the promises
of Christ, we believe in the infallibility of His Church,
and therefore 11 receive and profess whatever has
BEEN DELIVERED, DEFINED, AND DECLARED BY HER
GENERAL COUNCILS, AND ESPECIALLY BY THE LAST
GREAT GENERAL COUNCIL, THE COUNCIL OF TRENT.”
This Council spoke the voice of the whole Church. It
is not denied that there were abuses and laxity of disci-
pline at this period which called for reformation.

Every good Catholic deplored them. Bead the his-
tory and the decrees and canons of the Council of Trent,
and see how nobly, how sacredly, that work was en-
tered upon by the assembled prelates of Christendom.



OF THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHUKCH. 253

While Luther and his followers and rivals were

spreading divisions, dissensions, civil wars, robberies,

and sacrileges
;
laying the foundations for ages of infi-

delity, vice, and crime; ravaging, dividing, and de-

stroying the Church, the Council of Trent labored

with a noble zeal and a heavenly wisdom to reform

abuses, heal divisions, and declare the purity of the

Christian faith. I would ask no more of any intelli-

gent Protestant, than that he would read a truthful

history of the so-called Reformation, and then the his-

tory of the Council of Trent. The difference is that

of “ airs from heaven and blasts from hell.” One is

a deluge of destruction
;
the other a rainbow of peace.

The last defined article of Catholic Faith is one

which, though but recently authoritatively promul-

gated, has ever been most zealously and lovingly be-

lieved—that of the Immaculate Conception of the
Blessed Virgin, Mother of God. It is the doctrine

and belief of the Catholic Church, that this Blessed

Mother of our Lord was conceived without the stain

of original sin. The Second Eve was not merely

sanctified in the womb of her mother, like John the
Baptist, but in the very beginning of her life, con-

ceived pure and sinless, and made worthy of the

highest dignity that God has ever conferred upon

any creature. Hence, as sinless Mother of God, she

takes the highest place, above all angels and arch-

angels, next to her Divine Son, who sitteth at the

right hand of God the Father. 0 how beautiful



254 the doctbines and evidences

how human, how Divine, is this faith ! Mother of
God—Virgin Mother—Mother Immaculate ! Here,
at last, is our ideal found. Here is sinless humanity’
in its most beautiful form, and a sinless humanity
joined to the Divinity in the most tender and holy of
all relations.

And this Holy Mother of our God and Saviour is
the Mother of His Church. She is our tender, pitying
Mother. The only human being unstained with the
taint of sin, she, more than any other, pities and
loves the sinner. He who can scarcely dare to raise
a prayer to God, throws himself at the feet of this
human Mother, who, sinless herself, robed in im-
maculate purity, is the friend and helper of ever sin-
ner who will seek her aid. Therefore around this
Queen of Virgins, Queen of Saints, Queen of Angels,
cluster the love and devotion of all Catholic hearts.
We honor her, knowing that we cannot better please
our Lord than by honoring the Mother He so honored.
We love her, sure that Jesus would have all his chil-
dren love the Mother He so loved. We pray to her
that she will pray for us, assured that she will hear
us, and. that He will listen to her prayers. We sa-
lute her with the salutation of the Angel and of the
Holy Ghost by the mouth of Elizabeth

;
and rais-

ing our eyes to her sweet heavenly majesty, we say,
“ a t> . ..

.

.Misericordiaej -Vita,4ulcediv^

Hail, Holy Queen, Mother of Mercy *



OF THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH. 255

“ Our life, our sweetness, imd our hope, all hail !
“ To thee we cry, poor banished sons of Eve.
“To th£e we sigh, weeping and mourning in this

vale of tear^ :

“ Therefore, 0 our advocate, turn on us those
merciful eyes of thine, and after this, our exile, show

us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
“ 0 merciful, O kind, 0 sweet Virgin Mary

!

“ Pray foivtis, 0 iP(%vMother of God,
“ That vre may be made Worthy of the promises

of Christ”

/

I have wished to give, with this brief statement

of the Doctrines of the Holy Catholic Church, some
idea of the most important Evidences, which have

satisfied the minds of so many millions of men, in all
ages, that this Catholic Church is the True Church;
that her Doctrines are the True Doctrines

;
and that

it is the duty of all men, as they hope for salvation,

to give to her Faith and Obedience.

The candid and earnest inquirer after truth, when
he makes the careful examination which a matter af-
fecting his eternal welfare may surely claim

;
and

when he has cleared his mind of the prejudices of
education, finds existing a great catholic or universal

society, spread over the earth, uniting hundreds of

millions of all nations in the oneness of its faith and



256 THE DOCTRINES AND EVIDENCES

worship. Tracing its history, we find that it has been
the same Church for eighteen hundred years. Ho
traces it, in form and substance, in body and in spirit,
back to the days of the apostles, and to its Divine
Founder. He sees it illustrated, in every age, by the
devotion of martyrs, the sanctity of saints, and the

labors of religious orders. He sees it founded, sus-
tained, and at all times attested by miracles. He
says, if there is a true religion, it can be none but

this; if there be a God, this is his Church; if God
has a Church, this is the only one which bears the

marks of Divinity ;—“ I believe in the Holy Catholicr
Church.”

The first evidence in favor of the Catholic Church
is the fact that it exists, as demonstrated in its Visi-

bility. Protestants, who cannot trace any visible
church they are willing to recognize as such farther

back than "centuries, are driven to deny that

there was any visible church before that period, and

talk about an invisible, spiritual society of the faith-

ful, of whose existence there is no trace, and which,

being invisible, is also incomprehensible. The Church

is a human, organic society
;
and you might as well

talk of an invisible state, or kingdom, or nation, as an

invisible church,

has been visible for

day that St. Peter was called to be the first of apostles

to the present time. It has been visible in its organ-

ization, and hierarchy, and teachings, and worship,

But th& Holy Catholic Church
liitndred years, from the



OF THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHUKCH. 257

and works of spiritual and corporal charity. In the

second century of the Church, if you went into any

city of the civilized world, and inquired for the Cath-

olic Church, it was pointed out to you as now ; and

no one ever thought of calling a conventicle of any

sect a Catholic Church, any more that he would now

designate as such a Presbyterian, or Methodist, or

Quaker meeting-house.

The Antiquity of the Catholic Church is another

evidence of its Divine authority. It exists ; it is a

living fact. That is much. That it has existed with-

out cessation or interruption, from the birth of Chris-

tianity, is more. Possession is held to be nine points

in law. Original, immemorial, and continuous pos-

session, shuts out all other claims. Now there is no

other church than the Catholic which is, and always

has been, recognized as the Catholic Church. This

is a fact of history which cannot be denied. Ad-

mitted that there is a Church, the one visible Church,

founded by Christ and the apostles, where is that

Church, if not where the whole world has recognized

it ? What other sect, ancient and long since dead,

or modern and of yesterday, will you point out as

having any such claim, in comparison with this

Church of the Ages ?

Another evidence that there is a True Church, and

that this Church is the one known everywhere as the

Catholic Church, is its Unity or Oneness. As God

is one, as truth is one, there can be but one true



258 THE DOCTRINES AND EVIDENCES

Church of God. As there is but one true faith, and
one Divine plan of salvation, so there can be but one
organization or society as the medium of this work.
“ 0ue Lord

>
one Faith, one Baptism.” Therefore,

the Catholic Church has miraculously preserved the
purity of the faith in her perfect unity through all
the ages of her history. She has been “ of one mind
she has preserved “ the faith once delivered to the
saints.” All sects,wh(#£ve separated from her, have
been rent by divisions, and convulsed with continual
changes. They have divided and subdivided in their
progress toward dissolution. The Reformers of the
sixteenth century quarrelled with Sa^wbther as vio-
lently as with the Church from which they separated.
Luther and Calvin mutually devoted each other to
the eternal flames. The Lutherans, says Laing, have
such a contempt for Calvin, that they call their dogs
by his name, and hate Calvinists more than Catholics.
The Lutherans changed their confession of faith con-
tinually.. The Prayer Book of the Church of Eng-
land, which is the only repository of its doctrine, was
amended four times, and changed in the most im-
portant particulars. Continual change, or what men
call progress, generally from bad to worse, is the
characteristic of Protestantism. But the Catholic
Church never changes, and has never changed, in
doctrine. What it taught in the days of the apostles
and the first martyrs of Christ, it teaches to-day. Its
faith is the same; its liturgy is the same in all essen-



OF THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHUKCH. 259

tial particulars. Read the Catholic theologian or

ascetic writer of to-day, or one of fifteen centuries

ago, and it makes no difference. The progress of the

Catholic Church is not change in doctrine, for God’s

truth is unchangeable. There is not a dogma of the

Catholic Church, which is held this day, which cannot

be proved from the Scriptures and the writings of the

Fathers, to have been held from the beginning, even

when it has not from the beginning been defined au-

thoritatively as an article of faith. Here is a unity, a

oneness, and unchangingness, which commands our

involuntary reverence. It is “ sure and steadfast.”

The command given in the beginning, was to teach

all nations all things whatsoever He had commanded.

The unity of the Church, in form and doctrine, was

necessary to the performance of its sacred mission. It

was secured by the promised guidance of the Holy

Spirit. A church that changes its doctrines cannot
be the true Church. One which from the beginning

has never changed, has surely one mark of truth.

Judge of the authenticity or genuineness of the

Church as you would of a human society. If you

found four-fifths of all- the Mahommedans united in

one belief, which they had held without change from

Mahomet, while the rest were divided among a hun-

dred sects, all quarrelling among themselves, all vary-

ing in their own doctrine, and taking the names of

their respective leaders, and none of them older than

two or three centuries, could you, as impartial ob-



260 THE DOCTKINES AND EVIDENCES

servers, have any difficulty in deciding which were
the genuine Mahommedans? So, while sectarians
are blinded by their own errors, infidels have no diffi-
culty in seeing and those who are honest acknowl-
edge—that if there is any true Church, it is unques-
tionably the Roman Catholic. Catholic or Infidel
must be the choice of every intelligent inquirer.
There is no resting place between. When an intelli-
gent Catholic loses his faith, he does not stop short
of infidelity. When an intelligent infidel is converted
to Christianity, he does not find rest short of the
bosom of the one true Church.

The Providential Care of the Church, displayed
in its rise and continuance, in spite of all dangers
and opposing influences, is a wonderful evidence
of its truth. It began in a stable. Its Founder, was,
to all human appearance, a poor man, without educa-
tion or any worldly advantage. His followers were
as poor, and illiterate, and disreputable as himself.
After a brief career he was ignominiously put to death
as a malefactor. His doctrines were repugnant to
human pride, ambition, and all selfish passions, and
such as brought no worldly advantage, but only
ridicule, contempt, and persecution. The whole
power of a great empire was exerted for three cen-
turies to crush, root out, and exterminate these doc-
trines and the society which held and promulgated
them. Whoever accepted them, or became a member
of this society, lost social reputation, gave up every



OF THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHUKCH. 261

worldly advantage, renounced every
thing which it is

natural for men to prize and value, and incurred
the

danger and often the certainty of the
most horrible

death. When, in spite of these obstacles,
this society

and this faith had spread over the
world, and gained

the mastery of its greatest empire,
it was again

doomed to meet the shocks, for three centuries
more,

of overwhelming barbarism. When it had
subdued

the barbarians, it was assailed with
schisms and

heresies, wars and persecutions.

Well, in the face of all this, with
all these ob-

stacles, this society, this
Catholic Church, has tri-

umphed—triumphed through three centuries of pagan

persecution; triumphed over centuries of
barbarous

invasions; triumphed over schism
and heresy, perse-

cution without , ancL corruption within, and now,
at

the end of eig&^n centuries, is more
united, more

devoted, more prosperous and glorious,
more humble

and zealous than ever; teaching
the same doctrines,

doing the same work, persecuted
with the same fer-

ocity—in spirit if ‘not in act—yet
triumphing by the

same power.

Is not that Power Almighty ? Is
not that Church

of God? Has not his benign
Providence watched

over her, and his Holy Spirit
guided her? Truly,

this Jesus of Nazareth is the
Christ, the Son of the

living God; and truly did he say of
his Church that

the gates of hell should not
prevail against her.

Thousands of miracles attest the
Divine origin and



262 THE DOCTRINES AND EVIDENCES

authority of the Catholic Church—but the Church
herself is the greatest of all miracles.

The Sanctity of the Catholic Church is an at-
testation of its Divinity, and one of the characteristics
which distinguish it from all other pretended Churches
or religious organizations. It is not that there are
not good men and women, in the natural order of
goodness, out of the Church. It is not that there
are not truly devoted and pious men in their way at-
tached to various denominations. There are good
pagans, honest infidels, devout Mahommedans. But
it is that the Holy Catholic Church, to justify her
name, and fulfil the promises of Christ, has a pecu-
liar and altogether supernatural sanctity.

It is the sanctity of a consecrated virginity
;

de-
nying the flesh and the lusts thereof.

It is the sanctity of an entire renunciation of the
world, leaving all and following Jesus, in the thou-
sands and millions of hermits, anchorites of the desert,
and men and women, who, under holy vows of poverty,
chastity, and obedience, have given their whole lives
to works of penitence, prayer, and holy charity.

It is the sanctity of an extraordinary and super-
natural devotion of the whole soul and body to God,
as exemplified in the lives of the hundreds of saints
who have walked with Christ, performed His miracles,
and died in the odor of this sanctity, which the true
Church can alone exhibit.

It is in the sanctity of a sacred priesthood, set



OF THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH. 263

apart and consecrated to the service of God, and liv-

ing lives of perfect chastity, and entire devotion to

the work of their ministry.

No Protestant sect exhibits any such character-

istics. Where is their giving up all and following

Christ ? Where is their renunciation of the world ?

In what do they take up the cross and follow Jesus ?

Where are their penitential fasts and holy exercises ?

In what sect is the advice and example of St. Paul

followed with respect to a consecrated virginity ?

Where is a ministry set apart in holy chastity to the

pure service of God ? Where else are there great

religious orders of men and women, utterly devoted

to the work of Christ, in prayer, and fasting, and

works of mercy ? Where are the Protestant Sisters

of Charity, Sisters of Mercy, Sisters of the Good Shep-

herd, and other charitable orders, not giving a few

dollars now and then, but their whole lives to caring

for the sick, comforting the afflicted, visiting the

prisoners, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, and

preaching the gospel to the poor ? If you would see

the sanctity of a true Church, seek for it among the

secular clergy, the religious orders, and thousands of

scarcely less devoted lay members of the Catholic

Church.

And this sanctity is the mark which Christ Him-

self has set upon His Church. Not that every pro-

fessed or even practical Catholic attains to this extra-

ordinary sanctity—far from it—but that it is one of



264 THE DOCTRINES AND EVIDENCES

the distinguishing characteristics of the Catholic

Church.

Compare churches, clergy, worship, charities, pious
observances. But how shall we compare what Pro-
testants never had, and make no pretensions to ?
The Church of England professes to be the true
Catholic Church, and her churches bear the names of
Catholic saints

;
but she has never ventured to can-

onize a saint of her own in the three centuries of her
existence. All the best books of devotion, even

among Protestants, are Catholic works—like the
“ Following of Christ,” of Thomas a Kempis; the
“ Spiritual Combat,” of Scupoli, and the writings of
Fenelon and St. Francis of Sales. Protestant sects
have no sacred poverty, no consecrated charity, no
holy chastity. It is in the Catholic Church that you
must look for this following of the precepts and ex-
ample of Christ

;
for churches always open

j
for con-

tinual service of God, and perpetual adoration of the
Holy Sacrament, and hundreds of pious and devout
exercises of which Protestants are in entire ignorance.

I shall mention but briefly the evidence given to

the Truth of the Catholic Church in Miraculous
Attestations. Protestant Christians believe in the

miracles of Christ and his apostles. Some admit
that they were continued to the second, third, fourth,

or fifth centuries, compelled by the testimony of unim-

peached and ever multiplying witnesses. The spread
of Christianity, without miracles, would be a greater



OF THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH. 265

miracle than any recorded of its apostles. But all

Protestants, almost without exception, contend
that

at some period of the past miracles came to an
end.

They know that they do not have them ; and they

will not allow that they are continued in a
Church

which they believe to be full of error, if not anti-

Christian and idolatrous.

But when did miracles cease, and why ? Jesus

said : “ The works that I do, ye shall do also, and
ye

shall do greater works than these. Lo, I am with

you always. As the Father hath sent me, even so

send I you.” The apostles worked miracles;
they

continued to their successors, and no one can fix the

time when they ceased. Nay, there is greater and

more indubitable evidence of miracles worked during

the last three centuries of Christianity
than during

the first three. They have been more carefully ex-

amined and more systematically recorded ; and to this

very day the Church of Borne is in every country
the

scene of miraculous attestation. G-od has
never left

his Church without this testimony. The promises of

OJn’isk have been fulfilled, and are and will be.
There

has been no period, probably of even one
year’s dura-

tion, in which miracles have not been worked by
the

prayers of Catholic priests and the intercession
of

Catholic saints. They are of frequent occurrence in

our country, and can be testified to by hundreds
of

unimpeachable witnesses.

The Infallibility of the Church, as the teacher



266 THE DOCTRINES AND EVIDENCES

of truth, and appointed guardian and interpreter of
the Holy Scriptures, is the consequence of her Divine
origin, and is in accordance with the promises of
Christ. No sect claims infallibility. Every sect
asserts the fallibility of every other, and is compelled
to admit its own. The Catholic Church alone claims
to be the one, only, and Infallible Church of God.
You may not admit the claim as proof, but you will
not certainly award infallibility, or the certainty of
being right, to those who do not claim it. A fallible
Church does not fulfil the purpose of a Church, since
it may lead you into error. Only one Church claims
to be infallible. If there be any true Church, this
must be the one.

As the Order of the Universe proves it the work
of Infinite Wisdom, not less does the Order of the
Catholic Church prove its Divine Origin and Provi-
dential sustentation. I have shown the unity, or
oneness, of the Church as an existing and historical
fact

;
and given that oneness as an evidence of its

Divinity, from the unity and universality of Divine
Truth.

The Church Militant is like a great army under
her Supreme Head, her chiefs, generals, and captains

;

divided into regiments and companies, scattered over
the whole world, but all working together, with a
perfect unity of faith and purpose, and a perfect har-
mony of means and operation So far does the
Catholic Church transcend all human institutions,



OE THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH. 267

in the nature of its work, in the motives of its workers,

in their zeal and devotion, and in the order and har-

mony of its organization, that this order alone is

enough to prove it a Divine Institution—Divine, and
therefore Authoritative—Authoritative, and there-
fore Infallible—Infallible, and therefore entitled to
the Faith and Obedience of every human soul.

This living, organic body, the Catholic Church,

has, in her sublime and supernatural Order, One

visible Head, in communion with, and obedience to

whom, are united, the Cardinal Princes, who form his

Council, and from whose number Popes are usually

elected
;

Archbishops, who preside over provinces

;

Bishops, who govern sees; the Priests and lower

orders of the Clergy, who act as pastors under their

authority. Legates and Vicars Apostolic represent

the Pope in Councils, or places where he cannot be

personally present. Schools, Universities, and Sem-

inaries educate her youth, and prepare her Clergy for

their holy functions

As the world was full of poverty, disease, and

suffering, she instituted Religious Orders of Charity

for every human want. There are orders of men and

women, who have devoted their whole lives to the

care of the sick, to aid the unfortunate, to the visita-

tion of criminals in prison, to pray with the dying, to

redeem captives from slavery, to nurse lepers, and the

most wretched and abandoned of mankind. There

are more than a hundred of such religious orders in



268 THE DOCTRINES AND EVIDENCES

the Catholic Church, devoted to works of piety and

charity, and some of these orders have had tens and

hundreds of thousands of members. There were the

Knights Hospitallers, who bound themselves by reli-
gious vows to protect pilgrims, defend the Church

against the attacks of the infidel, and give succor to

the distressed. Another order was devoted to the

redemption of captives taken and held as slaves by

the Moors or Saracens
;
and these were ready to incur

every danger, and even give themselves up to slavery,

to redeem a captive. You have heard of the monks
of Mount St. Bernard, living upon a lofty pass of the

Alps, where the cold, and a rare atmosphere, shortens

their lives, that they may rescue and comfort chance
travellers, who might else perish in the snows. There
are orders for the care of foundlings and orphans

;

orders to relieve poverty
;
orders to nurse the sick in

plagues and epidemics. Where has the world ever
seen such devotion, such heroism, such an abandon-

ment of all that is merely human, for these super-
human and godlike works, as in the Catholic Church ?

Another evidence of the Truth, Divinity, and

Infallibility of the Catholic Church, is the Reason-

ableness of its Doctrines, and their adaptation to

ALL THE CONDITIONS AND REQUIREMENTS OF HUMANITY.

The Catholic Church recognizes the reason of man as
the gift of God, and, in its own order, Divine and
Infallible

;
and it proposes no doctrine which is con-

trary to reason. God cannot contradict himself, nor



269
OF THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHUKCH.

do absurdities; and to require
a reasonable being to

believe, or do any thing unreasonable,
would be selt-

contradictory, and absurd. When,
therefore, sectaries,

in search of novelty of
doctrine, and wishing to found

religions for their own glorification,
proposed articles

of belief which were contrary
to human reason, and

involved absurdities, they were
obliged to deny and

denounce reason herself.

“ Luther,” says D’Aubigne,
“ is the key of the

Reformation,” and Luther says of reason,
“ its activity

is always evil and godless.”
“ The Christian Revela-

tion,” he says, “ rejects all
human reason ; ” and he

calls the Catholic Schools,
“the Schools of the

Devil,” because they hold up
reason as something

good useful, and necessary to
the knowledge of

Christian truth. “ The man of faith,”
he says,

“ throttles reason, and says to it,
‘ Reason, you are a

blind, silly fool.’
” “ Reason should be destroyed in

all Christians, otherwise,
faith has no place in them,

for reason fights against
faith.”

Catholicity asserts the dignity of
human reason.

It denies the pernicious
doctrine of total de-

pravity.

It asserts the freedom of the
human will.

.

On all these points, it is in direct
conflict with

Luther, Melancthon, Zuingle,
Calvin, and all the

leaders of the so-called Reformation.

It teaches us that man, though
fallen from his

first state of supernatural
holiness, and made liable to



270 THE DOCTRINES AND EVIDENCES

great depths of degradation, has still the power of
choosing the good, and refusing the evil, and bj cor-
responding to the grace which God bestows freely on
all, to secure his salvation by faith in Christ, and by
those good works which are necessary to justification.

u
Original sin,” the Catholic Church teaches,

“ dld not eface tte image of God, stamped upon the
soul. Reason and free will remained, their essence
unimpaired, uncorrupted, uninjured. It did not
despoil man of any of his merely natural faculties,
capacities, or powers.” — See Father Seeker's
“ Aspirations of Nature."

The Catholic Church does not teach that any man
will be damned for original sin, but only for his own
free acts, and voluntary resistance of the grace of
God.

The Catholic Church holds that “ Reason can, with
certitude, demonstrate the Existence of God, the
Immortality of the Soul, and the Liberty of Man.”

The Catholic Church bases her claim to your
faith and obedience on the reasonableness of her doc-
trines. She teaches that u the exercise of reason
precedes faith, and with the aid of revelation and
grace, leads to faith.”

It is Protestantism that denies reason : Catholic-
ity asserts it. The Catholic Church does not ask a
blind, but a reasonable obedience. She does not
accept a conversion of excitement and fanaticism;
but requires an intelligent acquaintance with, and



OF THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH. 211

acceptance of her doctrines and authority. Go to any

priest, and ask to be received into the Church, and

you will be first examined, to ascertain if you under-

stand what she teaches. In every Protestant com-

munity it is not the ignorant who become converts to

the Catholic Church, but the most intelligent ; and

among the converts of the last ten years, in Germany,

England, and the United States, are many of the

most learned, talented, and estimable men of our

times; men of science, metaphysicians, profound

scholars, brilliant writers
;
men who have made the

whole circle of modern ideas, and tested the ultima-

tums of modern progress.
u The struggle between faith and reason,” says

one of these converts (Dr. Brownson), after ten years’

experience,
u

is something wholly foreign to the

Catholic mind.” That struggle belongs to Protes-

tantism, which is a struggle against reason; or,

infidelity, which is a struggle against faith.

To place these assertions beyond doubt, I quote

the highest authority in the following passage from

the encyclical letter of His Holiness Pope Pius IX.,

of 1846.

“ It is certain that there is nothing more foolish,

nothing more impious, and that nothing more con-

trary to reason can be imagined or thought of, than

the opinion which supposes that the Christian faith

gainsays Beason. Although Faith is above Beason,

nevertheless, no discord, no opposition, can ever be



272 THE DOCTRINES AND EVIDENCES

found betwixt them, since both Faith and Reason
spring from one and the same unchangeable and
eternal fountain of truth, the Almighty and Eternal

God
;
and therefore, they afford mutual help to each

other; so that right Reason demonstrates, upholds,

and defends Faith
;
and Faith, on the other hand,

emancipates Reason from all errors, wonderfully

enlightens, confirms, and perfects Reason with the

knowledge of Divine Things.”

One of the highest evidences of the truth and
divine authority of the Catholic Religion, is its

wonderful adaptation to human nature, and all its
wants and aspirations.

Were it to fail in this, it would not be of God,
nor entitled to your reverence. It offers to man all
to which his soul aspires

;
in one word, it offers him

God. Not the 4< Almighty Fiend ” of Protestantism,

but “ Our Father who art in Heaven”—a God our
intelligence accepts

;
a God our reason approves

;
a

God wTorthy of our highest adoration, and our deepest
love.

Protestants make two objections to the Catholic

faith which virtually destroy each other. One party

says : “ The Catholic religion is a logical system
;

it

addresses itself to the intellect
;
but it is destitute of

life, feeling, piety.”

The other party says : “The religion of Rome is
full of sentiment. It gratifies the heart and the im-

agination, but to the philosopher it is full of absurd-



OF THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH. 273

These are the opinions of those who have seen but

one side of this all-comprehending faith.
They have

only to give it a full investigation to find
that it satis-

fies in an eminent and supernatural degree
every

faculty of the human soul. It satisfies the intellect,

reason, imagination, reverence, hope,
love, benevolence,

faith, devotion. To the troubled it brings repose;
to

the mourner, consolation ; to the weary,
rest

,
to the

active, good works ; to the aspiring,
sanctity. The

mind and heart of man can ask nothing which is
not

contained in the broad possibilities of the
Catholic

faith. You want certainty ? Here it is, firm as the

promises of God. You want direction ? Here are

those who are trained and inspired to be masters
oi

the spiritual life. You seek examples of courage,

fortitude, heroism, devotion, and sanctity ?
Find

them in the lives of the saints. You wish for the

purity of a religious life ? The Catholic orders wel-

come you. You would leave all to follow Jesus?

Here are thousands more to sustain you by
their sym-

pathy and prayers, and keep you company.
You

would choose that better part of the
contemplative

and loving life of Mary? You find orders of
entire

seclusion °from the world and perpetual
adoration of

the Beloved One. You would engage with Martha

in corporal works of mercy ? Here are
the Sisters of

Charity, the Sisters of the Poor, and all
the noble

orders of Catholic Keligious, ready to
receive you. Or

would you mingle in the struggle of the worldly
life ?



274 THE DOCTRINES AND EVIDENCES

Here is a religion that offers you its supernatural
gifts and graces to sustain you in the perilous contest.

The Catholic Church brings you faith in a God
all goodness

;
faith in a Saviour such as you need

;

faith in a Holy Spirit for your comfort and support.
It joins you to a living order—an organism of which
you form a vital part, and which satisfies your desire
for the largest unity, and the holiest sympathy, since
the Catholic holds, among other items of his glorious
faith, “ the Communion of Saints.” As a member
of the One Body of Christ, he is joined in the most
intimate and sympathetic union to the whole Catholic
Church, its body and its soul

;
the Church militant

on earth, the Church suffering in purgatory, the
Church triumphant in heaven. Every Catholic is
his brother

;
and while he lives in holy charity with

all on earth, he prays for the souls of the dead, not
yet free from all stains of sin, and he seeks the
prayers of those who already reign with Christ, and
who participate “ in the joy in heaven over one sinner
that doeth penance.” The communion of the saints
joins him to all faithful souls. He is no more a
lonely wanderer on the earth. Every prayer he
breathes may help some soul. Every good work
adds to that great treasury of spiritual blessings.

Tiie Attestation of the Holy Scriptures in
evidence of the Catholic Faith, I have reserved as the

subject of a special lecture
;
but it would not be prop-

er wholly to omit it here. The prophecies of the



OF THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH. 275

Old Testament, and the precepts and requirements

of the New, find their fulfilment only in the Catholic

Church. Were it possible to strike her out ot exist-

ence—could we imagine the world to have existed
during the past eighteen hundred years with no

Church—-nothing but the varying and multitudinous
sects of extinct or dying heresies, the prophecies and

the prayers and promises of Christ would have no

answer or fulfilment. Without the Catholic Church

much of the Scriptures would be meaningless, as it

indeed is to Protestants. Many of the parables of

our Lord picture the Catholic Church, but have no

significance without her.

The Church and the Scriptures are in harmony.

We prove, as we interpret, the Scriptures by the
Church, while they are also her perpetual and in-

spired witness. Nor is this reasoning in a circle j for

we prove the Church independently of the Scriptures.

It is easy to conceive of the Church existing, as it

did in fact, without the Scriptures ; but Scriptures

without the Church would have no use or meaning.

Committed to the Church and preserved by her, they

are a witness to her truth.

The Success of Catholic Missions is a brilliant

evidence of the verity of the Catholic Faith. A
Catholic Missionary lands on a savage island of the

Pacific Ocean, among a population of cannibals. A
few years pass, and you find a whole people converted

to the Catholic faith, and practising its morals and



2*6 THE DOCTEINES AND EVIDENCES

devotions. A St. Francis Xavier goes to the East
Indies and converts whole nations. These wonderful

phenomena have been witnessed in every age of the

Catholic Church—there, and only there. A St. Pat-
rick converted Ireland. A St. Austin converted
England. A St. Boniface, Germany. Every nation
ever converted to Christianity has been converted by

missionaries of the Catholic Church.

On the other hand, the efforts of Protestant mis-
sionaries always have been, and are, and will be,

failures. Where they have had every possible ad-

vantage for a long series of years, as with the British

amd American missionaries in India, they have miser-

ably failed. Tn^SQ^ormons have* converted more

Protestants to Mormoni^ft^a twenty years, than all

the Protesjiant' missionaries ha>Sw£y e r converted of

be^h^hs to Christianity in^three centuries ! Far

from making conquests and converts, Protestantism

has not been able to hold its own in any country

where it was established by the so-called Reformation.

It has almost died out of France
;

it has lost ground

in Germany, Austria, Poland, Hungary, Holland,

Denmark, England, and even in Sweden, though up-

held by penal laws. In all these countries Catholic-

ity is stronger now than it was a century ago
;

in all

of them Protestantism has lost ground, both by its

natural process of disintegration and decline into infi-

delity, and by the numerous conversions to the Cath-

olic Church.



OF THE HOLT CATHOLIC CHURCH. 277

The frequent conversions of men of
eminent

ABILITIES, LEARNING, AND EXCELLENCE OF
CHARACTER

is a striking testimony to the power of
truth in the

Catholic Church. Our papers published, a
little

while ago, a list of more than a hundred
graduates of

one English University, that of
Oxford, who had,

within a few years, become converts to the
Catholic

faith. A large proportion of them were clergymen

of the Established Church, and among
them were

men of remarkable talent, profound learning,
high

character and social position, and holding
some of the

best preferments, and having a fair
prospect of the

highest positions in the Anglican
Establishment.

What are we to think when large numbers of such

men sacrifice all worldly advantages, to
embrace a

faith which England has persecuted for
centuries ?

Another evidence, and the last I shall give in
this

brief and imperfect outline, is The consolation
of

the Catholic Faith in the hour of
death. We

hear sometimes of religions which are
good to iive by,

but not good to die by. This is a
fallacy; yet it is

true that men may profess a religion from
worldly

motives or indifference, which they are
compelled to

abandon when worldly considerations have lost
their

value, and men waken from their dreams as they
ap-

proach eternal realities.

How often do we see the hardened criminal be-

coming a Catholic in prison, and dying on
the gallows

with the faith and fervor of a saint

!



278 THE DOCTRINES AND EVIDENCES

France is sometimes falsely called an infidel coun-

try
;
but it was the testimony of the chaplains of the

Army of Italy, in the late war with Austria, that not
one soldier died in the hospitals without receiving
the sacraments of the Church. Many of them may
have neglected, some may have derided, their religion
in health

;
but when wounded, or sick, and dying, they

appealed, and not in vain, to that religion for aid, and
im its blessed ministrations found comfort and peace.

It is a common thing in this country, and wher-
ever there is a mixed population of Catholics and
Protestants, for those who have been all their lives
attached to some Protestant sect, to send for a priest,
and ask to be received into the Catholic Church in
their last sickness. There have been hundreds of
such cases. There is scarcely a priest of any ex-
perience who has not witnessed such conversions.
But I believe that during the three centuries of
modern Protestantism, not one instance was ever
known of a practical Catholic abandoning his faith,
and professing another, at the hour of death !

And whatever influences may, in rare instances,
induce persons, who have been educated Catholics, to
profess some form of Protestantism, it will be found
that a large portion of them, where they have the
opportunity, recant their errors, and return to their
former faith.

The Assurance of Faith which the Catholic
Church gives to her children is a testimony to her



OF THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHUECH. 279

Divine character, intimately related to those I have

last mentioned. The more a Catholic studies and re-
flects, the more firm and solid is his faith. Protes-

tantism is a state of inquiry, questioning, perplexity,

doubt, change. In it is no rest, no “ peace in believ-

ing. ’’ It is a perpetual conflict of opinions. You are
surrounded by those who are as honest and intelligent
as yourself, who differ from you and from each other.
Adopting the principle of individual interpretation,
each understands his Bible differently from his neigh-
bor. And there is no one to set them right. Their
minister is a man like themselves, and as liable to err
as they are. Protestant commentators differ in end-
less confusion. Each so-called Church declares itself
fallible, and changes and divides perpetually. The
Protestant doubts, and his doubts distress him. ITe
inquires, and his inquiries perplex him. How many
souls have in this way been plunged into utter infi-
delity, or insanity and despair !

As the doctrines of Protestantism are unsettled
and perpetually changing, the social morals, which
rest upon doctrines, also change, from the most rigid
and absurd Puritanism, to the most revolting lieem-
tiousness. The shameful communism of the Perfec-
tionists, and the polygamy of the Mormons, in our
day, like the shocking immoralities of some sects of ^

the sixteenth century, are the legitimate outgrowths

of Protestant principles.

But the Catholic, relying on the promises of Christ,



280 DOCTRINES AND EVIDENCES, ETC.

knows that lie has a sure foundation. His Church is

founded on a Rock, and the gates of hell can never

prevail against her. Christ has promised to he
with

her all days ; she is the
Church of the living God,

the pillar and ground of truth. She is one,
holy,

infallible. In her he finds the assurance of
faith, and

a hope which is like an anchor to the
soul, sure and

steadfast.

Such are some of the evidences of the
Catholic

Faith. The more thoroughly they are examined,
the

more will every earnest inquirer after truth be
satis-

fied that it is to be found here and here
alone, in the

Church which Christ has founded

—

One, Holy,

Catholic, and Apostolic.

Note. The reader is referred to the Decrees
and Canons,

and the Catechism, of the Council of
Trent, and all authoritative

Expositions of the Catholic Faith.
“The Catholic Christian

Instructed,” “Poor Man’s Catechism,” and
‘‘Catechism of

Perseverance,” are good compends. On the
Evidences there

are whole libraries. Read the Lectures
of Cardinal Wisemah, of

Bishop Spalding, Father Hecker’s
admirable, “Questions of the

Soul,” rfnd
a Aspirations of Nature,” especially the latter/

which

I woijdd warmly recommend, as I have
freely quoted*^



From “ Tiie Guardian,” Official Organ of the Rt. Rev. J. M. Spald-
ing, D. D., Bishop of Louisville.

DR. NICHOLS’ LECTURES.
We have received the two first of this popular course of six lectures

published by the distinguished convert and lecturer, Dr. T. L Nichols
The first is a succinct and rapid history of the Catholic Church ' the sec-
ond of Protestantism. The lectures are just what is needed at the present
tune; they contain much matter in a brief compass. Though compen-
dious, they are highly interesting.

1

The statements are, in general, remarkably accurate; and they are
wrought out into a very entertaining and instructive narrative All
Catholics should procure the series, besides ordering several additional
copies for the perusal of their Protestant neighbors and friends We
believe that the work is well calculated to accomplish much ^mod
From the “ Catholic Herald and Visitor,” Official Organ of the Rt.

Rev. Bishop of Philadelphia.

We have already favorably noticed the first lecture of this series, and
find this, the second, equally as excellent We again ur^e our readers to
place before their Protestant friends such admirable expositions of our
Faith as these lectures contain, and assist, as far as possible, in their circu-
lation.

From the Few Orleans “ Catholic Standard,” published with the ap-
probation of the Most Rev. Archbishop ofFew Orleans

,
and his

Suffragan Bishops.
We cordially commend this laudable enterprise to our readers It

should be liberally patronized. The style of these lectures,-dispassion-
ate, clear, and forcible -and their able treatment of the subjects which
they discuss render them deserving of a wide circulation, particularlyamong non-Catholics, even if they should have no other effect than to re-move prejudice and present the Church, its history, morals, and doctrine
in their true light before the American people. VVe feel quite confident’
however, that the perusal of them by ncn-Catholics wo2ld have a stillmore powerful influence, and be the means, under God, of inducing many
to pursue the inquiry they provoke, and consider, as fairly and impartially
as is possible for Protestants, the relative claims of the various dtesentin^Chnstian deiiounnatn,^, and the Catholic Church, upon their confidenceana belief. No one who has a true faith in the Church can doubt thatsuch an investigation would, in numerous instances, if not in every caseresult in conversion.

Similarly gratifying notices have appeared in the Baltimore “Catho-
lic Mirror,” the Boston “ Pilot ” the Charleston “Catholic Miscel-
lany,” the Buffalo “Catholic Sentinel,” and probably in every Catho-
lic newspaper in the United States.

As there is but one more number to be published to complete the
series, I trust that those who have hitherto delayed, will now send in their

T. L. NICHOLS, M. D.
;

INHEVy YORK CITY.



Catholic Books and Newspapers.

QUESTIONS OF A SOUL. By Rev. I. T. Heoker $0 75
ASPIRATIONS OF NATURE. “ ‘ l 0 75
DECREES AND CANONS OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT.. 2 50
CATECHISM OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT 1 00
THE DOCTRINAL CATECHISM 25 to 50 cts.
THE POOR MAN’S CATECHISM 19 to 38 cts.
THE CATHOLIC CHRISTIAN INSTRUCTOR 81 to 50 cts.
CATECHISM OF PERSEVERANCE. Abridged 38 cts.
MANUAL OF INSTRUCTIONS. By Rev. G. H. Doane 62 cts.
THE PAPIST MISREPRESENTED AND TRULY REP-

RESENTED 9 to 18 cts.
THE GROUNDS OF THE CATHOLIC DOCTRINE 9 to IS cts.
MANUAL OF CONTROVERSY 68 cts.
THE TRIALS OF A MIND. By L. Silliman Ives, LL.D., late

Protestant Episcopal Bishop of North Carolina 50 cts.
LECTURES ON THE EVIDENCES OF THE CATHOLIC

CHURCH. By Rt. Rev. Bishop Spalding, of Louisville $1 25
I will send, post-paid, these books-and all others found in the catalogues

of Catholic publishers, or they will bo mailed by any Catholic bookseller,
j

CATHOLIC PERIODICALS.
The following Catholic Papers will also be found full of matter of in-

j

terest to those who wish to know what is transpiring in the Catholic
Church in all parts of the world.

Metropolitan Record; organ of the Most Rev. Archbishop
Hughes. E. Dunigan A Brother (James B. Kirker), Publishers. $2 50
The New lork Tablet; by Messrs. Sadlier. $2 50 a year.
Freeman’s Journal; J. A. McMasters. $2 50 a year. j
Brownson’s Quarterly Review

;
E. Dunigan & Bro. $3

The above are published in New Vork City.
The Pilot ; one of the oldest, largest, and best Catholic papers in the i

country, published by P. Donahoe, Boston, Mass., at $2 50 a year, in ad-
vance

; $1 for four months.
The Catholic .standard; an excellent Catholic paper, pub-

lished at New Orleans. .$3 00 per annum.
The Catholic Telegraph; an able Weekly paper, and organ

|

of the Most Rev. Archbishop of Cincinnati. $2 a year. J. P. Walsh,
' Catholic Publisher, Cincinnati, Ohio.

The tiuardian; published under the auspices of the Right Rev.
Bishop Spalding, Louisville, Ky. $2 a year, by Webb & Levering.
The Catholic; the organ of the Rt. Rev. Bishop O’Connor, by

I: Jacob Porter, Pittsburg, Pa. $1 a year.
The Catholic Miscellany; established by the late Bishop

I England, Charleston, S. C. $8 a year.
The Catholic Mirror; organ of the Most Rev. Archbishop

! Kenrick, Baltimore, Md. $2 a year.
The Catholic Herald; published with the approbation of the

i Right Rev. Bishop of Philadelphia, Pa. $2 50 a year.
The Ruffalo Catholic Sentinel ; published with the appro-

;

bation of Rt. Rev. Bishop Timon, by Michael Hagan, Buffalo, N. Y. $2
The Western Runner; by B. D. Killian, St. Louis, Mo. $2

50 a year.

The Catholic Institute Magazine, Monthly; New-
burg, N. Y. $1 a year.