115 ENLARGEMENT OF DR. DOLLINGER'S HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.-TRANSLATION OF VEITH'S "VATER UNSER." (To the Editor of the Catholic Magazine.) MY DEAR SIR,-Are the following remarks worthy of a place in your Magazine? In a short review in your last number, in which kind mention was made of a juvenile production of mine, "The Words of the Enemies of Christ," translated from the German of Veith, my unknown friend, the reviewer, expresses a wish that I would make a selection from the Homiletische Vorträge of the same author, promising me that I should thereby confer a benefit on the English Catholic public. I have read-I might say, studied--these, in many respects, beautiful homilies, but I may perhaps be allowed to say that many parts of them would hardly suit our English taste. Besides, I could with difficulty turn my attention at present from many duties, and from that heavy task of translating Dr. Döllinger's History of the Church, which I have imposed upon myself. I do not know how the intelligence will be received, but my readers must be told that I have just learned from Dr. Döllinger that his History (to use his own expression) has grown in his hands. They will not, I hope, regret this when they hear that the succeeding volumes (I mean those succeeding the fourth, which I have completed) contain most interesting and curious matter on the internal History of the Church during the Middle Ages. But Veith is not to be forgotten. His sublime work on the Lord's Prayer, Das Vater Unser, is now being "done out of German,” and, I trust, being "done into English ;" for one is not the necessary consequence of the other. Hoping soon to see your Magazine assume its promised increase of size, I remain, my dear Sir, St. Edmund's College, Yours very truly, EDWARD COX. MR. SIBTHORP'S ANSWER TO HIS ENQUIRERS. Some Answer to the Enquiry, Why have you become a Catholic ?—In a Letter to a Friend. By RICHARD WALDO SIBTHORP, B.D. late Minister of St. James's, Ryde, Isle of Wight. London: Dolman, 1842. : THE sensation in the "religious, world," occasioned by the conversion of Mr. Sibthorp, will be by no means diminished by the appearance of the pamphlet now before us. We expect, on the contrary, that it will excite an interest not less strong and vivid than that created by the “Tracts for the Times," and that its results will not be less beneficial to the Church than those celebrated treatises are, at no distant day, likely to become. Taking motives into consideration, the tractarians will certainly not be to blame for such a consummation: it was with no friendly spirit towards the Catholic Church that they took up their pens they saw, or thought they saw, the unhallowed hand of the State intermeddle with matters spiritual, and they imagined that there was no way of relieving the Established Church from its bondage, but by recurring to, and enforcing those original principles, upon which the Christian polity reposes; which, indeed, are irresistible weapons in the hands of the divinely-constituted guardians of the faith, but which fall pointless when used by those whose only claim to the ministerial or priestly character has been derived from human authority. Beyond the pale of the Anglican establishment, the Oxford tracts can have little influence; but within it, they may operate in different ways; for while their effect in some cases will be to retain persons, who would otherwise have wandered, within the pale of the establishment, it is equally probable that not a few persons, who before thought themselves secure within its walls, will be awakened to a sense of their danger, and take refuge in that Church, whose perpetual duration and indefectibility are guaranteed from on High. In these remarks, we are actuated by no unkindly or uncharitable feeling towards the estimable authors of the "Tracts for the Times." We respect their sincerity, though blind, and far be it from us to insinuate that they are withheld from entering the true fold by any selfish or worldly tie. But we cannot shut our eyes to the fact that the nearer they approximate towards the truth the more anxious do they appear to cling to the untenable notion that the Anglican Church is a part and portion of the Catholic Church, or the ancient Church in a reformed dress. Mr. Sibthorp did not, as some persons have alleged, arrive at the conclusion he has come to by reading the Tracts for the Times. On the contrary, their tendency appears to have been different, for he observes: "I know not a Protestant controversial writer (the authors of the Oxford Tracts alone excepted), whose works did not leave me more a Catholic than before." (p. 36.) His conversion has raised up a host of kindly enquirers, who have requested him to state the reasons of his "secession from the Anglican to the Catholic Church"; and it is to satisfy these, that Mr. Sibthorp has found it necessary to resort to the assistance of the press. But this was not the only reason, as our readers may suppose, for appearing in print. "It is by no means agreeable to one, whose life has for some years been a continuous discharge of unobtrusive ministerial duties, thus to keep himself under public observation, and to anticipate the controversial notices, the critical remarks, the severe judgment, which the publication of his sentiments may possibly call forth. But besides the pressing duty of replying to many earnest and candid enquirers, and the still more urgent one, of not permitting any of these, so far as in me lies, to conclude their questions unanswerable, and their objections to the step I have taken incapable of a reply; the conviction that there is a selfishness in the love of privacy which must be withstood, whenever the interests of the Saviour's kingdom and the unity of the Church may be promoted by the opposite conduct, determines me to sacrifice my own feelings to what better judges than myself deem the call of duty, and to commit to print some of my reasons in answer to the question, 'Why have you become a Catholic ?' "I beg you to observe, that in this letter I give you only some of my reasons, though confessedly such as chiefly have weight with me. I give you them, also, rather in outline, than in full detail; as hints for reflexions, which your own religious knowledge and acquaintance with the controversies of the present day will supply, rather than elaborate arguments. I give you them in the integrity of my heart, as sentiments I hold; in devout prayer to God for His blessing, as truth profitable for all; and in unaffected good will towards those who differ from me, as matters peculiarly claiming to be treated of with courtesy, forbearance, and charity. Every enquirer, with scarcely an exception, has addressed me with a kindness of language and sentiment, as creditable to themselves, as considerate towards me. And far, then, be it from me, my dear friend, not to give utterance to the real sentiments of my own heart, or to allow myself, while avowing and delineating my separation from these my correspondents, and thereby my disapproval of their opinions, to show any want of real esteem for all, of cordial friendship for many, of unaltered affection for others among them. Besides, the servant of the Lord must not wrangle' under any circumstances. I disavow, then, every harsh expression, if such escape me. If, in self-defence, I seem to condemn others, I precondemn myself, if I do so in other language than the fair statement of my own views may require. If I fail to exhibit Christian courtesy and kindness, I humbly ask forgiveness of yourself, and all for whom this letter is penned but especially I ask it of our common Lord and God. May the spirit of truth and of charity ever guide the pens of those who profess to advocate the cause of both! 66 "I judge that I shall best consult your wishes, and most satisfactorily an→ swer the enquiries made of me, if, instead of a formal arrangement of arguments, or of reasons drawn up both pro and con, I give a kind of narrative of what has been passing in my own mind, and has issued in my being now a member of the Catholic Church, in communion with the See of Rome. You are aware that in early life I sought admission into that Church, and, but for the interference of the law, being then under age, should have joined her. Though upon the closest scrutiny of my own heart, I am not conscious of insincerity in my past profession of Protestant principles as a clergyman of the Established Church, yet I freely confess that the remembrance of devotional feelings I then had (almost the first meet to be so called which I remember to have had) never entirely quitted me during subsequent years. I never forgot what had forcibly impressed me, leading to the effort I then made to join the Catholic Church, the apparent devotedness to religious duties, the supreme place which these seemed to have in their regard, the cheerfulness yet earnestness of piety, which marked some members of her communion, whom I then met with. I had found little of these things among my Protestant acquaintance, my misfortune, doubtless; but so it was. Conceiving that religion, if anything, should be the chief thing with every man; knowing it, on divine authority, declared to be, ‘the one thing needful;' when I seemed to find it so esteemed by Catholics, and knew it not to be so esteemed by most of my Protestant acquaintance, but holding quite a secondary and accidental place in their regard, I not unreasonably judged these latter wrong, and those right. I sought to connect myself with the former in the enjoyment of privileges they alone seemed to understand and value. My after acquaintance with both has shown me how much error there was in my estimation of them;—that all Catholics are not in earnest, nor all Protestants indifferent about their salvation far otherwise. Still an impression, and, in the main, a correct one, remained on my mind, that there was among members of the Catholic Church, a dedication to the claims and duties of Christianity, an admission of the influence of their belief upon their ordinary life and devotions, a sort of absorbing interest in their religion, which sustained in me a lingering affection towards them, while I openly condemned what I honestly believed to be the errors of their creed. I often mourned that truth seemed to have less power than error (for such I long judged the distinctive creeds of Protestants and Catholics) to make men devoted to their God; and I could not but affectionately regard those whose religion appeared to be not a cold profession of faith, but an influential principle of daily life, --a source of animating hope, warm charity, lively devotion, and zealous efforts to make others partakers of the same benefit. How far these sentiments and feelings cooperated to my present position, God alone can judge."-—pp. 1-5. Mr. Sibthorp might have retained the "lingering affection" of which he speaks, without entering the pale of the Catholic Church, had not his attention been directed to its high and exclusive prerogatives, in the course of a series of lectures on the Levitical law and institutions, given by him at Ryde, about five years ago; in which lectures he was led to review the Jewish economy, or the Church under the Old Testament dispensation. The Levitical law and institutions, it is admitted, were typical of something better,-" of good things to come." Where, then, was the antitype of this typical dispensation to be found? Mr. Sibthorp naturally sought it in a careful comparison of the Christian dispensation with these types; and he found one immediate answer to his enquiry, and full of holy and consolatory instruction. They had an accomplishment in Christ, as is largely shown by the Apostle to the Hebrews. But these types had not their only accomplishment in the Blessed Saviour, or in Christ personally. He was not the typified Israel, nor the Mount Zion, nor the Holy City; nor solely the temple: neither did the shew-bread, or incense, or seven-branched candlesticks, or the Levitical ministry, prefigure Him, or His work and office only. The types, like most of the prophecies and the psalms, have then a further application than to Christ personally or officially. But to whom, or what? To his mystical body-the Church, under the New Testament. None of these interesting portions of Scripture, Mr. Sibthorp observes, can be rightly understo od without the apprehension of this truth. If all the typical institutions of the old dispensation found their sole and entire accomplishment in Christ, why, he asks, are any continued in the Christian Church correspondent with them? Why are there any sacraments, any separate ordained ministry, any sacrifice, any visible form of the Church, if Christ alone absorbed, so to speak, the fulfilment of all these in himself personally? "The Church should be, as some sectarians hold it, purely spiritual, without distinct ministry, a Christian circumcision, or a Christian passover, holy days or ordinances, or visible constitution and government. Believers, as members of Christ, can then have nothing to do with these things, but have them all in Him, and need not look beyond. But, if the Anglican Church is to be heard, there is, under the New Testament, an ordained ministry, two sacraments, and a corporate character of the Church, singularly accordant with correspondent Levitical institutions. If the primitive Church is to be heard, such was in |