cess. Those heretofore carried on by the Dutch, French, and American Calvinists, seem to have been more levelled at the destruction of the Catholic missions than at the conversion of the pagans.* In later times, the zealous Wesley went on a mission to convert the savages of Georgia, but returned without making one proselyte. His companion Whitfield afterwards went to the same country on the same errand, but returned without any greater success. Of the missionaries who went out in the Duff, those who were left at the Friendly Islands and the Marquesas, abandoned their posts in despair, as did eleven of the eighteen left at Otaheite. The remaining seven had not, in the course of six years, baptized a single islander. In the mean time, the depravity of the natives in killing their infants and other abominations, increased so fast, as to threaten their total extinction. In the Bengal government, extending over from 30 to 40 millions of people, with all its influence and encouragement, not more than eighty converts have been made by the Protestant missionaries in seven years, and those were almost all Chandalas, or outcasts from the Hindoo religion, who were glad to get a pittance for their support ;† "for the perseverance of several of whom," their instructors say, tremble."+-How different a scene do the Catholic missions present! To say nothing of ancient Christendom, all the kingdoms and states of which were reclaimed from paganism, and converted to Christianity by Catholic preachers, and not one of them by preachers of any other description; what extensive and populous islands, provinces, and states, in the east and in the west, were wholly, or in a great part, reclaimed from idolatry, soon after Luther's revolt, by Catholic missionaries! But "they * It is generally known, and not denied by Mosheim himself, that the extermination of the flourishing missions in Japan is to be ascribed to the Dutch. When they became masters of the Portuguese settlements in India, they endeavored, by persecution as well as by other means, to make the Christian natives abandon the Catholic religion, to which St. Xaverius and his companions had converted them. The Calvinist preachers having failed in their attempt to proselyte the Brazilians, it happened that one of their party, James Sourie, took a merchant vessel at sea with 40 Jesuit missionaries, under F. Azevedo, on board of it, bound to Brazil; when, in hatred of them and their destination, he put them all to death. The year following, F. Diaz with 11 companions, bound on the same mission, and falling into the hands of the Calvinists, met with the same fate. Incredible pains were taken by the ministers of New England to induce the Hurons, Iroquois, and other converted savages, to abandon the Catholic religion, when the latter answered them: "You never preached the word to us while we were pagans; and now that we are Christians you try to deprive us of it." + Extract of a Speech of C. Marsh, Esq., in a committee of the H. of C., July 1, 1815. See also Major Waring's Remarks on Oxford Sermons. Transact. of Prot. Miss. quoted in Edinb. Review, April, 1808. to come still nearer to our own time: F. Bouchet, alone, in the course of his twelve years' labors in Madura, instructed and baptized 20,000 Indians, while F. Britto, within fifteen months only, converted and regenerated 8,000, when he sealed his mission with his blood. By the latest returns which I have seen, from the eastern missionaries to the directors of the French Missions Etrangères, it appears that in the western district of Tonquin, during the five years preceding the beginning of this century, 4,101 adults and 26,915 children were received into the church by baptism, and that in the lower part of CochinChina 900 grown persons had been baptized in the course of two years, besides vast numbers of children. The empire of China contains six bishops and some hundreds of Catholic priests. In a single province of it, Sutchuen, during the year 1796, 1,500 adults were baptized, and 2,527 catechumens were received for instruction. By letters of a later date from the above-mentioned martyr, Dufresse, Bishop of Tabraca, and Vicar Apostolic of Sutchuen, it appears, that during the year 1810, in spite of a severe persecution, 965 adults were baptized; and that during 1814, though the persecution increased, 829, without reckoning infants, received baptism. Bishop Lamote, Vicar Apostolic of Fokien, testifies that, in his district, during the year 1810, 10,384 infants and 1,677 grown persons were baptized, and 2,674 catechumens admitted.-From this short specimen, I trust, dear sir, it will appear manifest to you, on which Christian society God bestows his grace to execute the work of the apostles, as well as to preserve their doctrine, their orders, and their mission. As to the wonderful effects which your visiter expects in the conversion of the pagan world, from the Bible Society, and the three score and three translations into foreign tongues of the English translation of the Bible, I beg leave to ask him, who is to vouch to the Tartars, Turks, and idolaters, that the testaments and Bibles which the society is pouring in upon them, were inspired by the Creator? Who is to answer for these translations, made by officers, merchants, and merchants' clerks, being accurate and faithful? Who is to teach these barbarians to read, and, after that, to make any thing like a connected sense of the mysterious volumes? Does Mr. C. really think that an inhabitant of Otaheite, when he is enabled to read the Bible, will extract the sense of the 39 Articles, or of any other Christian system whatever from it? In short, has the Bible Society, or any of the other Protestant societies, converted a single pagan or Mahometan by the bare text of Scripture? When such a convert can be produced, it will be time enough for me to propose to him those further gravelling questions, which result from my observations on the sacred text in a for mer letter to you. In the mean time, let your visiter rest as sured that the Catholic Church will proceed in the old and suc cessful manner, by which she has converted all the Christian people on the face of the earth; the same which Christ delivered to his apostles and their successors: "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature." Mark, xvi. 15. On the other hand, how illusory the gentleman's hopes are, that the depravity of this age and country will be reformed by the efforts of the Bible Society, has been victoriously proved by the Rev. Dr. Hook, who, with other clear-sighted churchmen, evidently sees that the grand principle of Protestantism, strictly reduced to practice, would undermine their establishment. One of his brethren, the Rev. Mr. Gisborne, had publicly boasted that, in proportion to the opposition which the Bible Society had met with, its annual income had increased, till it reached near a £100,000 in a year. Dr. Hook, in return, showed by lists of the convictions of criminals during the first seven years of the society's existence, that the wickedness of the country, instead of being diminished, had almost been doubled!* Since that period up to the present year, it has increased three-fold, and four-fold, compared with its state before the society began. POSTSCRIPT. I HAVE now, dear sir, completed the second task which I undertook, and therefore proceed to sum up my evidence. Having then proved in my twelve former letters, the rough copies of which I have preserved, that the two alleged rules of faith, that of private inspiration, and that of private interpretation of Scripture, are equally fallacious, and that there is no certain way of arriving at the truth of divine revelation, but by hearing that church which Christ built on a rock, and promised to abide * List of capital convictions in London and Middlesex in the following years, from Dr. Hook's charge and the London Chronicle: In the year 1808 1809 1810 1811 1812 1813 1814 1815 1816 1817| Convictions 728 863 884 872 998 1012 1027|2299|2592|3177| It appears, by a return made to the House of Commons, in obedience to their order, June 5, in the year 1818, that the number of criminals committed for trial, and of those sentenced to death, during the last thirteen years, nearly corresponding with those of the Bible Society's progress, has been about tripled, namely: with for ever, I engaged, in this my second series of letters, to demonstrate which, among the different societies of Christians, is the church that Christ founded and still protects. For this purpose I have had recourse to the principal characters or marks of Christ's church, as they are pointed out in Scripture, and formally acknowledged by Protestants of nearly all descriptions, no less than by Catholics, in their articles, and in those creeds which form part of their private prayers and public liturgy, namely, unity, sanctity, catholicity, and apostolicity. In fact, this is what every one acknowledges who says, in the Apostles' Creed, I believe in the holy Catholic Church; and in the Nicene Creed,* I believe one Catholic Apostolic Church. Treating of the first mark of the true church, I proved from natural reason, Scripture, and tradition, that unity is essential to her; I then showed that there is no union or principle of union among the different sects of Protestants, except their common protestation against their mother church; and that the Church of England, in particular, is divided against herself in such a manner, that one of its most learned prelates has declared himself afraid to say what is its doctrine. On the other hand, I have shown that the Catholic Church, spread as she is over the whole earth, is one and the same in her doctrine, in her liturgy, and in her government; and, though I detest religious persecution, I have, in defiance of ridicule and clamor, vindicated her unchangeable doctrine, and the plain dictate of reason as to the indispensable obligation of believing what God teaches; in other words, of a right faith. I have even proved that her adherence to this tenet is a proof both of the truth and the charity of the Catholic Church. On the subject of holiness, I have made it clear, that the pretended Reformation everywhere originated in the pernicious doctrine of salvation by faith alone, without good works, and that the Catholic Church has ever taught the necessity of them both; likewise that she possesses many peculiar means of sanctity, to which modern sects do not make a pretension; likewise that she has, in every age, produced the genuine fruits of sanctity; while the fruits of Protestantism have been quite of an opposite nature finally, that God himself has borne witness to the sanctity of the Catholic Church, by undeniable miracles, with which he has illustrated her in every age.-It did not require much pains to prove that the Catholic Church possesses, exclusively, the name of CATHOLIC; and not much more to demonstrate that she alone has the qualities signified by that name. That the Catholic Church is also APOSTOLICAL, by descending in a right line from the apostles of Christ, is as evident as that * See the Communion Service in Common Prayer. she is Catholic. However, to illustrate this matter, I have sketched out a genealogical, or, as I call it, the apostolical tree, which, with the help of a note subjoined, shows the uninterrupted succession of the Catholic Church in her chief pontiffs, and other illustrious prelates, doctors, and renowned saints, from the apostles of Christ, during eighteen centuries, to the present period, together with the continuation in her of the apostolical work of converting nations and people. It shows also a series of unhappy heretics and schismatics, of different times and countries, who, refusing to hear her inspired voice and to obey her divine authority, have been separated from her communion and have withered away, like branches cut off from a vine, which are fit for no human use. Ezek. xv.-Finally, I have shown the necessity of an uninterrupted succession from the apostles, of holy orders and divine mission, to constitute an apostolical church; and have proved that these, or at least the latter of them, can only be found in the holy Catholic Church.Having demonstrated all this in the foregoing letters, I am justified, dear sir, in affirming that the motives of credibility, in favor of the Christian religion in general, are not one whit more clear and certain, than those in favor of the Catholic religion in particular. But without inquiring into the degree of evidence attending the latter motives, it is enough for my present purpose that they are sufficiently evident to influence the conduct of dispassionate and reasonable persons, who are acquainted with them, and who are really in earnest to save their souls. Now, in proof that these motives are, at least, so far clear, I may again appeal to the conduct of Catholics on a death-bed, who, in that awful situation, never wish to die in any religion but their own. I may also appeal to the conduct of many Protestants in the same situation, who seek to reconcile themselves to the Catholic Church. Let us, one and all, my dear sir, as far as in our power, adopt those sentiments in every respect now, which we shall entertain when the transitory scene of this world is closing to our sight, and during the countless ages of eter nity. O the length, the breadth, and the depth of the abyss of ETERNITY! "No security," says a holy man, 66 can be too great where eternity is at stake."* I am, &c. * "Nulla satis magna securitas ubi periclitatur eternitas." END OF PART II. |