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* and found them in- atraly latwoatabte situation.
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UNITED STATES CATHOLIC MISCLAN
. 7 . - - “ oeVOL, 1x.
Has not Hume* employed all the faculties of his
perverted mind to upset every principle of truth,
and the great, the only basis of moral i
as he-not, to use one of ‘hi rrid an
licly “declared that, itt
blasphemous remarks, pub
een for human waren to justify the character
of G “Has ‘not Gibbont asserted that when.
Jd. tiisseaa compared Soerdte with Jesus Christ?
(our divine and adorable not re-
philosophists can be calle
have expected for any truly religious work, ia which
he might | have eclipsed a Ditton, a Sherlock, ora
ofa God, of the Steruity of torment af the worm
of conscience, and-o' blackest despair, than the
very countenance of this ‘unhappy man. It was cu-
and a desire of seeing whether, death, o
g its blo Om could shake those
intimacy and friendship. whieh ind him admit-
enied entrance into the
50{ met, the
the old} fed h
From the Catholic Presss.
ERRORS OF | THE TIMES.
- Examined by way of Dialogue.—Unrry.oF :
O. . ~
» Can there be more true religions than one?
‘No, there is not in the world but one.true religion |a
but one true God.; and -it is that alone
5
a
‘ that is capable to offer true honor and homage to the
5
upreme eing.
not that a moderate and Jaudable religion which |
allows other religions or mode sof 7 worship admissi-
ble or equally agreenble to G
No, that is not a religion but ‘division of réligious
worship, because it’ makes the deity no better than
n Idol to which any homage is equal.
” How is this shew:
Because the God of truth cannot receive honor
but from the true form of worship of which he must
have been the author himself.—He is a jealous God,
each 0
Give us an example? .
The Pagan who adores many Gods, the Jew, the
1! Christian, and the Mahometan, who adore but one.
The Christian who rejects tle impostures of Maho-
an who only admits Jesus Christ
as the greatest of the © prophets, the Jew who
a blasphe -the Christian who adores
Jesus Christ as the son 1 of God equal to his Father,
ace him. in the
"He
endeavoured to speak of Ged me requested
“him to say he had grown old in,—
and so long propagated his wretch principles that
The Gov or said something
relative to his veing God o} y, and ever ready
“to receive the ning crimi atten y vain ; oven
the mention of mercy started the unhappy man, and
made bir appear to fecl unuttera
olphy’s * Defence of the “Ancient Faith,”
vol. iv. p. 446. 8v0
In reference to lying Iume, T have derived the
‘following anecdote from an aged, upright, and lite-
Tar
Hume's father sent his promising son David, to
“France to compicte his education: After a ‘few
years’ residenc: that delightful country, young:
Hume tvas so struck with the morality, i inte ect and
bec:
religion of the peop’ ple, an a
catholic.. This important conversion he comnmuni-
catedin oneof his letters to his father, who imme-
diately ordered him to return home. ane father on
looking into the trunks af bis son, fou me ca-
holic prayer books in the por table Tibcary of the
young convert, and indignantly oxelaim ed: ‘What!
one of the pious ca-
“'tholics that [sent'you.to France 2, Is it thus you
abused your time, wasted my money, and disappoint-
_ed my expectations ? I wanted to make a gentleman,
astatesman and Philosopher of you! We then
s U: t
afew
to learn oiileseph y ond the elegant and useful quali-
fications of a gentleman of the world, with a threat
that ifhe did not make agood use of his time, he
would be.‘ cut off with a shilling!” Davidis placed
in the hot-bed of: Calvinistic intoleran nce, his chris-
_ tianity ovaporates,” and legenerates into a
noxious w n the arden of Tnfide lity.
ow mai any catholics of thia discription could be
here mentioned ! How many are there, who abusing
‘the grace of God, and’ indifferent about the ‘true
church, eretal become profligate and infamous,
and and mercenary niotives, as
‘well as instigated by distress, and the merited infa-
my into which they have fallen, ridicule and | imp’
ously rail at not only the catholic clergy but the ca-
tholic’ church, head and
d off by suicide as was
\Roussean, call, in ‘their death-bed, moments; | for a
jtlergyman of the catholic church!
“of them ca at unless they itnmediat tely
repent and nt church of their pious and
* catholic forefathers, they may not like i
ay me and die in despair, i in blasphemy of the most
i Essay. on Liberty and Necessity. Beattie’ on
‘t See his reas of the decline and fall of the
: Roman Empire
him call in
an homage equally acceptable would be horrid blas-
hemy.
Tr perceive that there cannot be two or more true
duce any other reason to
ubtedly, since it appertains to God alone to
prescribe the inanner by whieh he desires to be hon.
m the mo e vouchsafes to in-
every ‘other mode of worship they. could institute
would displease him and must be false, superstitious, |
and injurious to a Being infinitely perfe ct such as
This is certainly evident but tom does it happen
that the many religious denominations we see tn the
present dge boast of thsir liberality and modera
nf
Because ‘by this they hope to obtain and si
followers, and-under the mantle of liberality they
deavour to veil their disbelief an
sntncies this is properly eneaking, clay
consequently is a capital ‘duty, ‘Che that
believes not is already judged ””
_Notaithstanding that ie can be but one true reli-
3 do h denomination gsserting
that duthough they “selieve ‘truth to be on their'side, y
e)in the extent of tei liberality concede that others ono
At
ny be right
This, Sir, i is not so general as you may be led to
imagine. even if it were so, that is not ip the least
surprising because it is natural errors,should support
each other, pat that the true religion should counte-
nance all others implies ontradiction, because
whence comes ‘this indi
regard to religious ‘teu and their wish to profess it
according to the diversity of their fanciful concep-
Tbe harman passions wil alone solve the problem,
for the repose of their. conscience t
ize the remorse arising from the gratification of
their propensities, they prefer to embrace pone it in
articular, or perhaps substitule a phantonr
ble disquiet, lulls the. conscience aslee
: affections of the hi
age, and
ence he cannot approve religions that contradict _
ther
cruci-|us.
red, nt
struct mankind, then it becomes their duty to obey, }.
per
withont
sj bu
t
vould not
“ibe aioe what they: call religion. And to tranquil-t
of -g
ral religion i in its place, which, withthe least poss
ep, e | tar
ary. it is altogether spiritual and doctrinal; because
religion offers violence to none, she, indeed, ene
the fate of those who do not follow her holy in,
sirous even to jealouby of postesing nthe
art, she reiects all forced hom-
declares that he who would profess her
doctrines by- constraint ° “makes no, profession’ at -
a
‘tha description ‘do you give of the true elie
S
3
e The true religion i is the true: worship of the true
God, ‘ veri erus ‘cultus Itis a holy .com-
merce between God and: tman whieh unites the two
extremes that an infinite distance seems 10
that teaches him the relations,in whieh he stands vith
bli
May I then conclude that mankind : could never
ing?
9! uredly ; the united wisdom of men to
orm.a religion acceptable to’ God, would be as in-
efficient their. endeavours would have been to
make an ‘atonement to God for the prevarication of
our first parents, thie required nothing less than the
Son of Gud, so in .like manner, it is - imse
who has regulated the “homage he will accept from
He_ has not abandoned this to the Caprice of
ten. .” Hence “te "youldsbe absurd to say that m
kind is not obliged to embrace the religion that God '
himself has revealed and commanded ; it would also
be absurd to say that Go a has revealed contradicto-
ry religions, that “he should have proposed as truth
to some, - what tto others he announced as false, this
nn and sovereign
truth— s the mmon sense will
say that all religion are equally good, equally cer-
tain and equally true.
Whatis the basis of the ¢ conclusion, ¢ that a religion
whose author i: ts God, must necessarily be pure, holy,
and divine !
Tt rests upon the certainty and proofs we have of
its purity, of. its eanctity.- -and of the divinity of reli-~
gion, therefore, the ti @ religion cannot tolerate er~
ror, since she mus! t alway 8 lea aintain va a,
nd preserve inviolate a Yoetrine from hi heave: hich
6 establish, i in whose
Fea Christ.came on eart
e gave for that purpose “his ne mises,
and, ‘indeed every person will readily ‘admit “that the
religion established by the Redeemer is the true reli-
light. mildne: e pea religio th, and controvert all that is opposed to reli-
nota pyater of human 5 nicest for. a philosophy gious truth. Now, Sir, whoever -can form an esti-
which may be varied and improved ; it comes from | mate of religion short of sy cannot conceive a di-
God and vine but a buiman consequently un-
eligio:
worthy of the infinite veracity, “visdom, and sanctity
of jeau tho
| when we treat on religi ‘ous concerns, but ‘o de-
mand if a christian is equa ally and necessarily bound
to gamit civil toleratio:
r, because it is "founded on the mildness of
the ‘pospel, which never allowed us to employ any
t|other means of defence in favour of religion than
persuasion, the practice of virtue, good. example:
and re: asom ond when an t Means were resort-
ed to, the ion was assumed, the better
to conceal | the oiitical tyranny and ambitious views
of men grasping at power, whose hearts were sway-
ed by the worst passions, without a single spark of
religion to redeem them.
T ou, and a wm we vell assured that nothing
¢ than reivil toleration, since the true
‘dulge with impunity the bud
-|you have also explained religious intolerance which
|medns nothing more nor less than FIRMNESS fo main-
Li and ‘transmit the religion reveale y Jesu
and h this sense (rut ile
against the remorse that the infraction of the
| of religion ae necessarily occasion.
Although gion be as clear as that
‘od can give me ma:
doctrine, t yet tts sofessors are sometimes ac
holding an intolerant doctring 5 is then this one, true,
and holy religion intole
es, but-it-is the intolerance of truth which can
ne e leagued with error, ‘charity declares the
truth and thereby honors God and shews her love for
1. XYI. Paris. Maradan. 1794.)
hap. 47, p. ‘
|ber neighbor, this intolerance of truth is not sanguin-|
ust be as intolerant as the’ rh of a mathematical
demonstration the only” dis tinction ts, that the
e rent lass or sank.
d egual. Now,
or morality must have some arguments to support —
them, awill you have the goodness to inform me what
they are 2.
T can assure you Sir, that this toleration with re-
gard to'the doctrines or pr morality of religion, Uiber-
regard to:God, bis. obligations, ‘his dep on
him and that .he is. the, only foundation. of ‘alll his
hopes heres fier :
form or invent a religious worship worthy oft the Sue
I have now a clear idea of the intolerance of truth -
he