Catholics, who live enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, who mind only earthly things! Philip. iii. 18. But, it must needs be that scandals should come: nevertherless, woe to that man by whom the scandal cometh! Matt. xviii. 7. In short, I bear a willing testimony to the public and private worth of many of my Protestant countrymen of different Religions, as citizens, as subjects, as friends, as children, as parents, as moral men, and as Christians, in the general sense of the word; still I must say that I find the best of them far short of the holiness, which is prescribed in the Gospel, and is exemplified in the lives of those Saints whom I have mentioned. On this subject I will quote an authority, which, I think, you will not object to. Dr. Hey says, 'In England, I could almost say, we are too little acquainted with contemplative religion. The monk, painted by Sterne, may give us a more favourable idea of it, than our prejudices generally suggest. I once travelled with a Recolet, and conversed with a Minim at his Convent; and they both had the kind of character which Sterne gives to his monk; that refinement of body and mind; that pure glow of meliorated passion, that polished piety and hu'manity,' &c. (2) In a former letter to your Society, I have stated that sincere humility, by which, from a thorough knowledge of our sins and misery, we become little in our own eyes, and try to avoid, rather than to gain the praise and notice of others, is the very ground-work of all other Christian virtues. It has been objected to Protestants, ever since the defection of their arrogant Patriarch, Luther, that they have said little, and have appeared to understand less of this essential virtue. I might say the same with respect to the necessity of an entire subjugation (2) Lectures in Divinity, vol. 1. p. 364. of our other congenial passions, avarice, lust, anger, intemperance, envy, and sloth, as I have said of pride and vain glory; but I pass over these to say a few words of certain maxims expressly contained in Scripture. It cannot then be denied that our Saviour said to the rich young man, If thou wilt be perfect, go sell all thou hast and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasures in heaven: nor that he declared on another occasion, There are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs (continent) for the kingdom of heaven's sake. He that is able to receive it, let him receive it. Matt. xix. 12. Now it is notorious that this life of voluntary poverty and perpetual chastity continues to be vowed and observed by great numbers of both sexes in the Catholic Church; while it is nothing more than a subject of ridicule to the best of Protestants. Again: that we ' ought to fast is a truth too manifest to stand in need of any proof:' I here use the words of the Church of England in her Homily, iv. p. 11; conformably with which doctrine your Church enjoins, in her common prayer-book, the same days of fasting and abstinence which the Catholic Church does; namely, the forty days of Lent, the Ember Days, all the Fridays in the year, &c.: nevertheless, where is the Protestant to be found who will submit to the mortification of fasting, even to obey his own church; I may add, that Christ enjoins constant prayer, Luke xviii. 1; conformably with which injunction, the Catholic Church requires her clergy, at least, from the Sub-deacon up to the Pope, daily to say the seven Canonical Hours, consisting chiefly of Scriptural Psalms and Lessons, which take up in the recital near an hour and a half, in addition to their other devotions. Now, what pretext had the Protestant clergy, whose pastoral duties are so much lighter than ours, to lay aside these inspired prayers, except indevotion? Luther himself said his office, for some time after his apostacy.-But to conclude: as it is of so much importance to ascertain which is the Holy Church, mentioned in your creed, and as you can follow no better rule for this purpose than to judge of the tree by its fruits, so let me advise you and your friends to make use of every means in your power, to compare regular families, places of education, and especially ecclesiastical establishments, of the different communions, with each other, as to morality and piety, and to decide for yourselves according to what you may observe in them. I am, &c. J. M. LETTER XXIII. To JAMES BROWN, Esq. &c. ON DIVINE ATTESTATION OF SANCTITY. DEAR SIR, HAVING demonstrated the distinctive Holiness of the Catholic Church, in her Doctrine, her Practices, and her Fruits of Sanctity, I am prepared to show that God himself has borne testimony to her Holiness, and to those very doctrines and practices, in particular, which Protestants object to as unholy and superstitious, by the many incontestible miracles he has wrought in her and in their favour, from the age of the Apostles down to the present age. The learned Protestant advocates of Revelation, such as Grotius, Abbadie, Paley, Watson, &c. in defending this common cause against infidels, all agree in the sentiment of the last named, that Miracles are the criterion of truth. Accordingly they observe, that both Moses, Exod. iv. xiv. Numb. xvi. 29, and Jesus Christ, John x. 37, 38.xiv. 12.-xv. 24, constantly appealed to the prodigies they wrought, in attestation of their Divine mission and doctrine. Indeed the whole history of God's people, from the beginning of the world down to the time of our Blessed Saviour, was nearly a continued series of miracles. (1) The latter, so far from confining the power of working them to his own person or time, expressly promised the same, and even a greater power of this nature to his disciples, Mark xvi. 17; John xiv. 12. For both the reasons here mentioned, namely, that the Almighty was pleased to illustrate the society of his chosen servants, both under the law of nature and the written law, with frequent miracles, and that Christ promised a continuance of them to his disciples under the new law, we are led to expect, that the True Church should be distinguished by miracles, wrought in her, and in proof of her divine origin. Accordingly, the Fathers and Doctors of the Catholic Church, amongst other proofs in her favour, have constantly appealed to the miracles, by which she is illustrated, and reproached their contemporary heretics and schismatics with the want of them. Thus St. Irenæus, a disciple of St. Polycarp, who himself was a disciple of St. John the Evangelist, reproaches the heretics, against whom he writes, that they could not give sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, cast out devils, or raise the dead to life; as he testifies was frequently done in the True Church. (2) Thus also his contemporary, Tertullian, speaking of the heretics, says, I wish to see the miracles they have wrought.' (3) St. Pacian, in the fourth century, writing against the (1) To say nothing of the Urim and Thummim, the Water of Jealousy, and the superabundant harvest of the sabbatical year, it is incontestible, from the Gospel of St. John, v. 2, that the probatical pond was endowed by an Angel with a miraculous power of healing every kind of disease, in the time of Christ. (2) Lib. ii, contra Hær, e, 31. (3) Lib. de Præset, schismatic Novatus, scornfully asks, Has he the gift of tongues or prophecy? Has he restored the dead to life?' (1) The great St. Augustin, in various passages of his works, refers to the miracles wrought in the Catholic Church, in evidence of her veracity. (2) St. Nicetas, Bishop of Treves, in the sixth century, in order to convert her husband, Albion, King of the Lombards, from Arianism, advises Queen Clodosind to induce him to send confidential messengers, to witness the mir, acles wrought at the tombs of St. Martin, St. Germanus, or St. Hilary, in giving sight to the blind, speech to the dumb, &c. adding, Are such 'things done in the Churches of the Arians?' (3) About the same time Levigild, King of the Goths in Spain, an Arian, who was converted, or nearly so, by his Catholic son, St. Hermingild, reproached his Arian Bishops, that no miracles were wrought among them, as was the case, he said, among the Catholics. (4) The seventh century was illustrated by the miracles of our Apostle, St. Augustin of Canterbury, wrought in confirmation of the doctrine which he taught, as was recorded on his tomb: (5) and this doctrine, by the confession of learned Protestants, was purely the Roman Catholic. (6) In the eleventh century, we hear a celebrated Doctor, speaking of the proofs of the Catholic Religion, exclaim thus, (1) Ep. fi. ad. Symphor. (2) Dubitimus nos ejus Ecclesiæ condere gremio, quæ usque ad 'confessionem generis humani ab Apostolica sede, per successionem Episcoporum (frustra hæreticis circumlatrantibus, et partim plebis ipsins judicio, partim Conciliorum gravitate, partim etiam Miraculorum majestate damnatis) culmen auctoritatis obtinuit ?'-De Utilit. Cred, c. iv. (3) Labbe's Concil. tom. v. p. 835. (5) Hic requiescit D. Augustinus, &c. qui operatione miraculorum suffultus, Edelbrethum Regem ac gentem illius ab idolorum cultu ad 'fidem Christi convertit.'-Bed. Eccles. Hist. 1. ii. c. 3. See, in particular, the account of this Saint's restoring sight to a blind man in confirmation of his doctrine. Ibid. c. 2. (6) The Centuriators of Magdeburg, Sæc. 6. Bale. In Act. Rom. Pont, Humphrey's Jesuit, &c. |