CHAPTER IV.

INFIDELITY;

OR, THE ULTIMATE CONSEQUENCE OF

PROTESTANTISM.

I CALL Infidelity the last logical consequence of Protestantism, and I have a right to do so. There are Infidels in Catholic countries, but they are not Infidels in consequence of the Catholic Rule of Faith; Infidelity cannot be deduced from the principle of infallible authority in matters of Faith. But Protestantism by asserting the Private Interpretation of the Bible as the only Rule of Faith, renders faith impossible, and gives a clear right to believe nothing that is beyond the sphere of natural

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truth, since no certainty in relation to supernatural truth can be arrived at by the Private Interpretation of the Bible.

The remarks which I have to make in this chapter, are addressed to Infidels, no matter whence or how their Infidelity may have arisen; if they will only read and reflect for a single hour, they will be forced to acknowledge that In fidelity is self-contradictory. My reasoning shall be brief, as the nature of a popular discussion demands, but it will be conclusive. However, I address myself to those only who are acquainted with history, and capable of following a course of logical reasoning.

I will place before you seven conclusive arguments, each of them so conclusive, indeed, that you must either admit them all in succession, and thus be led to recognize the infallible authority of the Catholic Church, or be at war with

reason.

SECTION I.

INFIDELITY REFUTE D.

FIRST CONCLUSIVE ARGUMENT.

THE UNDENIABLE EXISTENCE OF GOD.

If

There is a God, this is the first in the series of truths to be proved to Infidels. There is a God; to deny it, is to contradict human reason. you look at this world, not like a dumb animal, but with the eye of reason, you must confess that there is a God. If there is no God, how did the world originate? If you deny the existence of God, you must say, either that nothing produced the world out of nothing, or that it has existed from eternity; but either assertion clearly involves a contradiction.

To say that nothing produced the world out of nothing, is not only absurd, but too ludicrous to call for a serious refutation. Where nothing acts upon nothing, nothing must be the result for all eternity.

Father Kircher, the celebrated Roman astronomer and philosopher, had a friend who was a thorough-going Infidel, but admired him for his genius and learning. Father Kircher one day showed him a beautiful miniature globe. "Who made it ?" inquired the Infidel. "Why," answered Father Kircher, "nobody made it. Last night it came into existence out of nothing, and I found it in my room this morning." "Do you mean to make a fool of me?" asked his friend, not a little nettled. "Then you believe," said the father, "that no one but a fool could imagine that this globe came into existence out of nothing of its own accord ; and yet you believe that the whole universe, of which this little globe is but a small representation, started into being without a Creator. Is not this idea a thousand times more extravagant than the other?"

"You cannot find a hut in the woods," says Cicero," without concluding that some one was

there to build it; and you look at this universe, its grandeur, and harmony, and yet pretend that no one made it!"

If you say that there is no need of a Creator because the world has existed from eternity you fall into an absurdity no less glaring. Wherever there is number, there can be no infinity, for numbers can always be increased; and where there is no infinity, there must be a beginning, and consequently no eternity. But there is number in the world; everything in it is changeable; every object in it is in motion; and changes and motions may be computed or numbered. To-day is a day added to yesterday. If the world were eternal, days would have existed from eternity, these would be an infinite number, which is a palpable absurdity, for to any number we can always add unity. Days cannot have existed without a first day, in the same manner that a chain cannot exist without a first link: an infinite number of days, is as absurd as a chain with an infinite number of links, and no first link. As certain as it is that to-day is a day more than yesterday, and that time is time, so certain it is that the world had a beginning, that there is a Creator, who is eternal, that there is a God.