and which they knew not, for he does not consider it necessary that they should, in a manner, first become Jews before they can be brought to Christianity. He has recourse to a totally different character of evidence; he preaches to them -men of a philosophic and studious mind-a sublimer morality than they had been accustomed to hear; he presents to them the striking doctrine of the resurrection; he shows them the futility and absurdity of their idolatry; he quotes to them the words of their own poets to prove how necessary a purer belief in God, such as he preached, was to the human soul; he intimates that, already among them was discernible a dissatisfaction with their present religion, and a certain longing after a better faith, from their having erected an altar to the unknown God." He lays hold of those threads which he found already prepared in the minds of his hearers, he attaches to them the evidences of Christianity, and thus ensures the introduction of its doctrines within their breasts.* When we come down to a later period, we find the same practice in the church. For in the first century, and in the second, and in the third, we see a totally different system of motives whereupon religion was preached and received by men. We find, for instance, that in the first century it was the courage of the martyrs, the seeing how flesh could endure tortures and death in support of a religion which brought the greatest portion of converts to the truth. In the following centuries, a new system of evidences was introduced. The study of philosophy, which, under the patronage of the Antonines in the west, and through the impulse of the great Platonist schools in the east, was become very prevalent, led to the examination of Christianity in connexion with the systems of ancient Greece. It was soon seen that in them all were problems innumerable, regarding the nature of God, the human mind, the origin and end of man, which all the acuteness and meditation of sages had not been able to solve, and whose solution, however interesting and necessary, they even acknowledged to be out of reason's power. But when Christianity was examined, it was discovered to present a full and consistent answer to every query, a satisfactory solution of every doubt, and a perfect code of ethics and mental philosophy. And this was considered by the Justins, the Clements, the Origens, and other philosophical minds, a sufficient evidence of its truth. For, as we should not * Acts xvii. require other proof that a key was made for a certain lock, than finding that it at once insinuates itself through all its complicated wards, and fits in them, and moves among them without grating or feeling resistance, and easily turns the bolts which they keep drawn, so did the true religion then, and so does it now, require no better demonstration of its being truly made for the mind and soul of man, and of its having come from the same all-wise artist's hands as created them, than the simple discovery of how admirably it winds into all their recesses, and fits into all their intricate mazes, turning at will the bars and opening the entrance of all the secret mysteries of self-knowledge. And, in modern times, the same variety of motives is perceptible in the writing of those who have, within these late years, joined the Catholic faith. I do not allude so much to what has occurred in this country, because however great may have been the spread of the Catholic religion since the commencement of this century amongst us, however frequent the conversions which we hear of and see, all this is, in one respect, as nothing to what goes forward elsewhere. For while with us the work of conversion, with several brilliant exceptions, has been chiefly confined to persons of a less literary class, on the continent--and I speak particularly of Germany-there is hardly a year, and there has not been for some time back, in which some individuals have not embraced the Catholic religion who were previously distinguished in their own country as men of first rate abilities and deep learning; often holding important situations, and, particularly, employed as professors in Protestant universities. Now, many of these have published the motives which brought them to the Catholic religion. I have persued or heard many of their accounts, and some are written in a highly philosophic spirit, and the arguments are conducted with a terseness and closeness which, in this country, could be hardly popular. But, what I wish principally to note, their motives are as varied as the different pursuits in which each of them was engaged. You will find one who has made history the study of his life, and who taught that branch of learning in one of the most celebrated universities, announce to you that he has become a Catholic simply by applying the principles of his study to the facts recorded in the annals of Europe.* You may hear another draw his arguments from motives connected with the philosophy of the human mind-from his *Prof. Phillips, late of Berlin, now of Munich. * discovering that only in the Catholic religion can he find a system of it adapted to the wants of man; and another, whose enthusiasm has first been kindled by observing that the principle of all that is beautiful in art and in nature, is nowhere to be found except in the Catholic religion. You will read a political economist, who tells you that, having made a deep study of that science, he was forced to admit that only in the Catholic morality he could discover the principles whereon it could be honestly conducted, and so was led to the practical adoption of its creed. Another, by watching that very event which has been considered, by some, a proof of the demoralizing power of the Catholic religion, by a deep attentive study of the dreadful tragedies of the French revolution, became a Catholic, and has since written profound treatises connected with public rights. These are but a few out of many instances which I could quote; but now mark the difference between all these motives and those I before explained. I said, that the motives given by Protestants for their adhesion to their religion, did not lead to the principle of conviction-to the adoption of the only grounds on which Protestantism is based. A man may be a Protestant for those reasons which are ordinarily given without his being brought by that circumstance to the personal examination of each doctrine, to that deep study of God's written word, upon which alone his religion allows he can be a Protestant. But, in every one of the cases to which I have referred, no matter whence the conviction came, no matter what was the first impulse, or the line of argument which brought any individual into communion with the Catholic faith, the grounds of connexion or adhesion necessarily ended in the principle of conviction. For none of these men became Catholics by discovering the principles of political economy, or of history, or of the fine arts, or of philosophy, in the Catholic religion. These various motives produced admiration and esteem for it; but, however learned or distinguished, we should not, and could not, have called any of them ours, though they had persevered in these sentiments, unless they had specifically adopted the Catholic principle of church authority, and submitted their understanding and mind implicitly to its teaching. Here, then, we have a characteristic difference between the ground-work of the two * Stolberg, Schlegel, Veith, Molitor, Beautain, &c. VOL. I.-2 religions. For, on the one hand, there is no security given in the profession of Protestantism, that its fundamental principle of individual examination has been practically adopted; while, on the other, no man can be for one instant a Catholic without the vital principle of catholicity being actually embraced; nay, no man can become a Catholic, save through and by its reception. The Catholic church is thus as a city to which avenues lead them from every side, towards which men may travel from any quarter, by the most diversified roads, by the thorny and rugged ways of strict investigation, by the more flowery paths of sentiment and feeling; but, arrived at its precincts, all find that there is but one gate whereby they may enter-but one door to the sheep-fold, narrow and low, perhaps, and causing flesh and blood to stoop as it passes in. They may wander about its outskirts, they may admire the goodliness of its edifices and of its bulwarks, but they cannot be denizens and children, if they enter not in by that one gate of absolute, unconditional submission to the teaching of the church. Assuredly, there is something here beautifully contrasted, to the eye of the philosopher, with the manifest imperfections of the other system. There is a natural and obvious beauty in the simplicity of this basis, which at once gives stability and unity to conviction, which makes the terms whereon men are received into the pale of a religion equal to all, whether learned or illiterate, quick or dull of apprehension, and which obliges all to divest themselves of their peculiar prejudices and opinions, if they clash with the doctrines taught. But the beauty of this system ends not here: for, after each one has thus embraced the religion, upon a principle one and indivisible, his affections and tastes are allowed their fullest play; they may devote themselves to the adoring and commending of their religion, from the various storehouses of topics which their pursuits may afford them; and they will in it find a fitting and a perfect theme to repay all their zeal and love. The motives which led them to the adoption of the faith will still continue within them as links of attachment to its profession; but the ground of their belief will be unchanged for ever. And this leads me to another reflection of no mean importance; for it is extremely common, to ask an untutored Catholic on what grounds he became or is a Catholic; and it will often appear, that the answer which he gives is not logical, or satisfactory. It probably is not to you; but mark! while he answers the question, he is not giving you the grounds on which he believes the doctrines of the Catholic Church, he is only giving you the motives which brought him or bind him to it; and these grounds are as different, as diverse, as the affections, as the pursuits, and as the character of each individual. You have not in your mind the necessary key, to understand the force of the arguments that influenced him. But it is not on that ground that he believes transubstantiation, it is not on that ground-whatever it be that he believes in auricular confession, or that he practises it. He is not giving you, therefore, the grounds of his doctrines; he is giving you the reasons by which he was led to satisfactory inquiries regarding the grounds of faith. And this is certainly remarkable, that in every one who has embraced the Catholic religion, whatever was his difficulty in first receiving it, whatever may have been the first obstacles to his complete conviction, when once he has embraced and received it, it takes as strong a hold upon his affections and thoughts, as it could have done, if he had been educated in it from his infancy. It is, if I may illustrate it by a comparison, like a shoot or a slip, which is forced into the grounds and requires a certain degree of violence for the purpose. It must be by a sharp and wounding point that it is made to penetrate the hard surface of the earth; but no sooner has it once been there placed, than it sends shoots, to go and suck the nourishment on every side, and the earth that has so received it, closes and entwines itself around it, and becomes kindly and attached to it; so, that if you should wish, after a short time, to root it up, you must rend and tear that earth in pieces, into which originally it seemed to be driven against its will. But now, allow me to contrast with the examples of conversion which I have just given you, others of a different class. I have told you, that in perusing the works of men who have within these few years become members of the Catholic Church--men of talent and erudition--I have hardly found two of them agree upon the grounds which they record, as having induced them to embrace the Catholic religion. But, I have also read similar works on the other side, purporting to give the grounds upon which several individuals have abandoned the Catholic Church, and become members of some Protestant communion. It is, indeed, very seldom, that men of any considerable ability, or at all known to the public for their learning, have written such treatises: but still, such as they are, they have been, in general, widely |