I'

F it is a principle of our nature to adopt the safer of two ways that may chance to lie open before us, and if the obligation of selecting the more secure is infinitely greater when our souls are concerned, than when there is question of our corporal wel fare only, then we cannot hesitate a moment in our choice between Catholicity and any other existing form of Christianity. The more closely we examine this proposition, the more firmly shall we be persuaded

of its truth.

We might appeal to the admissions of the most learned and most candid of our separated brethren in proof of our assertion. We might appeal to the unanswerable arguments derived from a plain and simple comparison between Catholic and anti-catholic doctrines and practices. We might appeal to facts with which every Catholic missionary is perfectly familiar,--we allude to those innumerable cases in which we are

VOL. II.-No. 6.

called upon to minister, in the hour of death, to those who were born and educated, and who have lived all their lives in other communions. How is it that the Catholic clergy are so frequently, nay, incessantly summoned to receive dying Christians of other denominations into the Catholic Church, whilst not a single instance can be adduced of a Catholic wishing to die in any other communion than his own? The question is easily answered. It is owing to a conviction which sober reflection and observation have produced and are daily producing upon the minds of many of our separated brethren, that though it is more pleasant to live under the more indulgent auspices of other denominations, it is safer to die in the Catholic religion. A moment's reflection will enable us to account for the circumstance that so many are daily coming to this conclusion, and are acting upon it.

In the first place the Catholic religion

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possesses all the advantages-all the security possessed by any or all of the other denominations; and besides these advantages and this security, common to all, the Catholic religion possesses many great advantages and much important security, of which all other denominations are destitute. The truth of this remark will become apparent if we bear in mind that the difference between Catholicity and the doctrines of those other denominations is, that the former is a positive, the latter a negative system. Those different denominations hold nothing that the Catholic Church does not hold; but the Catholic Church holds many things that are not taught by any of those denominations or by all of them together. Hence it is that the divines of those other denominations admit, and are forced to admit, that salvation is attainable in the Catholic Church; but Catholic divines can never admit that salvation is attainable in those other systems, except in the case of invincible ignorance. Why so? because Christ declares that faith is necessary to salvation; and he also declares that by faith he means the admission, not of some, but of "all things whatsoever" he revealed.

Besides this, the Scripture informs us that "whosoever shall observe the whole law, but offend in one point, is become guilty of all;" so that he who refuses, except in the case of invincible ignorance, to admit one single article of faith revealed by Christ, does not hold the faith of Christ, and consequently, since faith is necessary to salvation, is out of the way of salvation. What, then, must be the dreadful insecurity of those who offend, not only in one point, but who reject five sevenths of the doctrine held by the Church of Christ in all ages? we mean five of the seven sacraments. For each of the five sacraments rejected at the time of the reformation, had always been held in the Catholic Church, as of divine institution, no less than the two retained by those who left the Church at that period. This, then, is one of the many reflections which are constantly operating so powerfully in convincing our dissenting brethren of their alarming insecurity-one of the many reflections which are constantly

inducing them to die Catholics, after having lived separated from the Catholic Church. They know that in making the exchange they are getting more for less. They know that at all events, according to the concessions of their own divines, they can lose nothing in point of security, and that they may secure much, even the salvation of their souls.

Another powerful consideration arising from the circumstance that Catholicity is a positive, and the other a negative system, is this that even supposing some points of Catholic doctrine wrong (which, however, is an impossible supposition, since it is a plain historical fact that every point of Catholic doctrine has been taught in every age from the time of Christ and his apostles), the worst and only consequence would be, according to the acknowledgment of divines of other communions, that the Catholic Church holds some things more than are necessary to salvation; things, however, which all acknowledge to be good in themselves. But supposing, on the other hand, the Catholic doctrine right, what is the consequence? The consequence is, that those other denominations reject some things necessary to salvation.

Let us take an example. Suppose the Catholic Church wrong in holding that baptism, for example, is necessary to salvation. What would be the consequence? The consequence would be that the Catholic Church would require one thing more than is necessary to salvation; a thing, however, which our separated friends, no less than ourselves, acknowledge to be good in itself. But suppose, on the other hand, that the Catholic Church is right in holding that baptism is necessary to salvation. The consequence is, that those who neglect to be baptized, omit something essential to salvation. Is not this true? and is it not as startling as it is true? Is it strange, then, that those who feel a proper solicitude for the salvation of their souls, should be daily seen leaving that less secure for a more secure way?

A similar argument may be used in relation to every one, not only of the five sacraments rejected at the time of the refor

mation, but in relation to each of the seven sacraments; for, at the same time that the so called reformers deprived their followers of the use of the five sacraments, they took away all substance from the two which they retained. They abolished five, and gave only the shadow of the other two. The holy eucharist was no longer what the whole Catholic world had always held it to be, the true body and blood of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, it was nothing more than bread and wine. Baptism, the other sacrament retained, was no longer the means of the remission of sin, whether original or actual; it was a bare "rite," to use the very words in which it has been defined, "no more than a representation of our entrance into the Church of Christ." But we cannot occupy more space, just now, in shewing the extreme meagreness, barrenness, and poverty of every form of Christianity, separated from the Catholic Church. We wish to show how the argument just applied to baptism, applies also to the other

sacraments.

Let us suppose, for example, that the sacrament of penance, as taught in the Catholic Church, is not essential to salvation (though the Catholic world has always held it so)-what would be the consequence? Simply that the Catholic Church requires her children to do one thing more than is necessary to salvation; a thing, however, which our separated brethren, without number, regard as a most admirable and a most useful institution. But let us suppose, on the other hand, that the doctrine of the Christian world up to the time of the reformation is correct, and that the sacrament of penance, of which confession is an essential part, is necessary to salvation-what is the consequence? The consequence is that our separated brethren live and die in the omission of something necessary to salvation. Now, in the absence of all other considerations, which is the safer of these two systems? According to the concession of even the enemies of the Church, there is no risk in belonging to the Catholic religion; but unless the whole Christian world up to the time of the reformation, and the whole Catholic world since that period, be in error,

there is the most imminent danger, nay, absolute certainty, of the most dreadful consequences to those who, except in the case of invincible ignorance, take upon themselves the responsibility of living and dying in the disregard of those necessary means of salvation appointed by Christ.

The same argument may be applied with the same force in the cases of the sacraments of the eucharist and holy orders. And even with respect to the three remaining sacraments, confirmation, extreme unction and matrimony, what is the state of the case? According to the constant doctrine of the Church, they are not, indeed, necessary to salvation as the other four sacraments are, but still they are sacraments; that is, they are rites by which, in virtue of the institution of Jesus Christ, most important graces are conveyed to our souls, and without which our souls remain destitute of those invaluable graces. Now of those three sacramental rites, one, that is, extreme unction, exists not at all, except in the Catholic Church, and the other two, matrimony and confirmation exist not as sacraments, that is, they are not regarded as conferring grace, except in the Catholic Church.

Though this argument, when applied to these three sacraments, must be less cogent, less calculated to strike the mind than when applied to the other four sacraments,-less strikingly demonstrative of the incomparably greater security furnished in the Catholic Church, still much might be said in relation to even these three. And the spiritual aid derived from these three sacraments is so great that even if the Catholic Church possessed no other advantage over other denominations, this alone ought to suffice to make every person who is really solicitous about his salvation, resolve upon entering her communion.

Passing over in silence the important graces received through the mediums of the sacraments of confirmation and matrimony, we come at once to extreme unction. This sacrament is not, indeed, necessary to salvation; but are we to despise every thing that is not necessary to salvation? Is it not possible that an institution may be not abso