I. C. I, saith:

and good conversation." And Pope Gregory, Pastoral, pars. "They who relish the things of God, are relished by God; and they who know not, shall not be known, 1 Cor. XIV, 38. If any man know not, he shall not be known.” Apud Gratian, Dist. 38: Should the priests glide away on the current of light and profane reading-Romances, English Poetry, Magazines, Periodicals, Politics, their taste will soon be corrupted, their piety withered and decayed, and their spritual vocation, if they had any such thing, will soon be forfeited; their sermons, though flowery and eloquent, will lack the holy Catholic unction, and will soon be picked up by the birds of the air. The coolness and indifference of the people and of the pastor, will mutually act upon one another; for it is written by the holy prophet, Osee IV, 8, There shall be like people like priest: And again, Eccle. X, 2, And what manner of man the Ruler of the city is, such also are they that dwell therein.

As to the Classics, though they be the productions of the heathens, the portions of them that are usually selected in our schools, may be safely and profitably read by the youth, not for the sake of the fiction or moral principles in them, but for their verbal beauties, ornaments, and imagery. Nay, whosoever would be poet, orator, or historian, and would seek a model of imitation, he must go back to Homer and Virgil, Demosthenes and Cicero, to Livy and Tacitus; who were not equaled in their respective spheres, these two thousand years, and will not be equaled or excelled until the end of time. Moses and Daniel were skilled in the sciences and philosophy of the Egyptians and Chaldeans, whilst they despised the superstition and idolatry of the heathens; and it is written, Exod. III, 22, that the Israelites, previous to their exodus from Egypt, borrowed and brought with them the silver and gold vessels, and raiments, SS. Paul, Cyprian, Ambrose, Augus

across the Red Sea.

SS. Paul, Cyprian,

tin, Optatus, and a great many other Saints and Fathers, had

brought to us from the heathens abundance of said precious

metals and raiment—an astonishing stock of rhetoric, eloquence, erudition, philosophy, with which they adorned and sustained the Church of God; dressed out in their innate beauty and splendor, the doctrine and principles of the Catholic Church, and routed and dispersed with their own weapons the heathens and nefarious heretics. So must the pastor use whatever flowers and figures of speech he gleans on the classic field, to set forth. and embellish the dogmas of the holy Catholic Church, and to rout and vanquish the rampant infatuated schismatics and heretics. That the silver and gold vessels, and the raiment, which the people of God borrowed and brought away from the Egyp tians, are to be understood spiritually, is proved on various occasions, and particularly in Tom. III. de Doctrina Christiana, lib. 2, Cap. 40, by St. Augustin.

JER. O'CALLAGHAN.

BURLINGTON, VERMONT, ANNUNCIATION B. V. M., 1852.

4

CHAPTER I.

ATHEISM

OF

BROWNSON'S QUARTERLY REVIEW,

BOSTON, MASS., JANUARY, 1851.

Review, page 16. "The distinction of persons in the Godhead is, if there be any truth at all in the orthodox dogma, an eternal distinction, and therefore it is perfectly idle to attempt to resolve it into certain imaginary, or even real distinctions, which originate in time, and have reference to God's manifestation of himself to man. A Trinity, if such there be, that results of necessity from God's revelation to man, is not eternal and self-existent, and therefore is not God, nor is God it."

The words, "If there be any truth at all in the orthodox dogma;" "A Trinity, if such there be, that results from God's revelation to man," prove him a skeptic; that he has no faith whatever in the Blessed Trinity, nor in the Christian religion. If he had taken pains, or time, to learn the Catholic faith on the subject, he has at hand the Athanasian Creed.

The Catholic faith is this: That we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity;

Neither confounding the persons, nor dividing the substance; For one is the person of the Father, another of the Son, another of the Holy Ghost;

But the Godhead of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, is all one, the glory equal, the majesty co-eternal; Such as the Father is, such is the Son, such is the Holy Ghost;

The Father uncreated, the Son uncreated, the Holy Ghost uncreated;

The Father immense, the Son immense, the Holy Ghost

immense;

The Father eternal, the Son eternal, the Holy Ghost eternal; and yet there are not three eternals, but one eternal;

As, also, there are not three uncreated, nor three immense; but one uncreated, and one immense. In like manner the Father is Almighty, the Son Almighty, the Holy Ghost Almighty ;

And yet there are not three Almighties, but one Almighty. So the Father is God, the Son is God, the Holy Ghost is God;

And yet there are not three, but one God.

So, likewise, the Father is Lord, the Son is Lord, the Holy Ghost is Lord;

And yet there are not three Lords, but one Lord.

For, as we are co:npelled by the Christian truth to acknowledge every person particularly to be Lord and God;

So we are forbidden by the Catholic religion, to say there are three Gods, or three Lords.

The Father is made of none, neither created nor begotten; The Son is from the Father alone, not made, not created, but begotten;

The Holy Ghost is from the Father and the Son, not made, not created, not begotten, but proceeding;

There is, therefore, one Father, not three Fathers; one Son, not three Sons; one Holy Ghost, not three Holy Ghosts.