sensible to this motive; for instance, children, slaves, and men of the lowest rank, many of whom died so utterly unknown that not even their names are recorded. From martyrdom many, instead of honor, reaped only shame. Therefore, though the founders of certain sects, though individuals may have given their lives for their religious opinions from motives of ambition, yet in the case of the Christian martyrs such a supposition is, for the reasons alleged, inconceivable.

b. Not the prospect of religious veneration; for many of them knew that this veneration could never be paid to them, since their name and their resting-place were quite unknown. Indeed, owing to the great number of the martyrs, it often happened that death for the faith received little notice.

c. Not the hope of a happy eternity, as a natural motive, influenced the Christian martyrs, as the prospect of a sensual paradise fired the followers of Mahomet. True, the martyrs had the prospect of an eternal reward, which as a supernatural motive, in union with the grace of God, sustained them; but this hope alone, as a mere natural motive, could not produce in them such extraordinary fortitude, because the goods which were promised them were of a spiritual order, and, therefore, less apt to move the sensual man than those pleasures which Mahomet pretended to secure to his followers. Nay, the very understanding of those spiritual and supernatural goods is the work of God, who, besides, must aid the weak will of man that he may not, in spite of the hope of heavenly joys, be overcome by present sufferings.

d. Not fanaticism; for fanaticism urges to action and combat, as it did the followers of Mahomet and of Huss; or, if at times it enables some, like the Brahmins, to bear extraordinary torture, it always betrays a tendency to seek admiration. Fanaticism is always attended with other passions; it deprives a man of self-possession, produces morbid excitement, and is of short duration. But the calm self-possession which the martyrs always maintained shows how far removed they were from any kind of fanaticism.

3. God showed by evident signs that it was He who strength

ened the martyrs in their conflicts. Now He revealed to them the day of their death; now He comforted them by a voice from heaven; now He freed them from all sense of pain; now He took from their torturers the power to hurt them; now He visited apostates with supernatural punishments before the eyes of all.

It is evident that this miracle which we behold in the fortitude of the martyrs is an incontrovertible evidence of the truth of the Christian religion and of the divinity of its origin. For God could not by miracle encourage the faithful to persevere in a false religion. But by the supernatural fortitude of the martyrs, consequently by God's doing, the Christian religion was strengthened and augmented by the accession of thousands, who, invincibly drawn by the example of the martyrs, beheld in Christianity a divine institution. This effect, the natural outcome of such a miracle, must have been intended by God; whence we must conclude that God, by working this miracle through His servants, bore testimony to the truth of Christianity, and thus confirmed those supernatural facts on which rests the evidence of the Christian religion.

SECTION II.

THE CHURCH THE DISPENSER OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

CHAPTER I.

INSTITUTION OF THE CHURCH.

32. The religion of Christ forms one organic whole. The religion founded by Christ comprises those truths, precepts, and means of salvation by which its professors are united with God and, in virtue of this union, with one another. It is, therefore, in the strict sense of the word, one religion, not a plurality of religions.

1. The unity of its founder alone implies the unity of the Christian religion. This conclusion will appear the more evident if we consider Christ in His relation to Moses. Christ was promised as a prophet and law-giver like Moses (19). But Moses was the promulgator of one law, the founder of one religion, which prescribed for all the same faith, the same duties, and the same institutions (17). Therefore Christ, as a prophet and law-giver like Moses, must also have united all His adherents with God and with one another by one religion.

2. Christ expressly declares His intention to unite His followers by one common re igion. "Other sheep I have, that are not of this fold; them also must I bring; and they shall hear My voice, and there shall be one fold and one shepherd" (John x. 16). Christ gathered Jews and gentiles into one fold, of which He Himself was the shepherd. But if all form one fold under one shepherd all have one and the same pasture—that is, one and the same religion. But they can remain united as one flock only so long as they hold and profess the same religion; for, as experience teaches, nothing so divides men as difference of religion.

3. The unity of Christ's religion is manifest from the commission given by Him to the apostles: "Going, therefore, teach ye all nations, baptizing them; . . . teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you" (Matt. xxviii. 19, 20). "Go ye into the whole world and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be condemned " (Mark xvi. 15, 16). One and the same doctrine, namely, the whole of the gospel of Jesus Christ, is to be preached; the same means of salvation are to be dispensed to all the faithful; the same divine precepts are to be imposed upon all. Therefore by command of Christ only one religion was to be preached to the human race.

Nothing, therefore, can be farther from the intention of Christ than the distinction between essential and non-essential articles of belief as advocated by Protestants. Christ wishes His whole gospel to be preached and believed. The distinction, however, between fundamental and secondary truths, which are both alike to be believed, is admissible. Fundamental truths, in this sense, are those upon which the structure of the Christian doctrine rests as on a foundation. Such, for instance, is the dogma of the divinity of Christ, which forms the basis of the Christian religion.

Though the truths of Christianity are to be received without distinction, yet the obligation of knowing them is not the same in regard to each single article. Every Christian, for instance, is bound to know those truths which form the substance of the Apostles' Creed. The same, however, does not hold of all the other truths of revelation. We may, therefore, aptly distinguish between truths which all are bound to believe explicitly, and, consequently, to know, and such as all are bound to believe only implicitly. We believe implicitly inasmuch as we accept the entire Christian doctrine in general, or all that the Church, the guardian of revelation, teaches, whether we have a distinct knowledge of it or not.

33. The Christian religion is destined for all nations and for all individuals.

I. Unlike the Mosaic law, which, according to its spec fic contents (17), was binding only upon the people of Israel, the Christian religion was to bind, not only one people, but all nations and all individuals.

1. This universal character of the Christian religion is manifest from the words of Our Lord to His apostles above cited (32). If the gospel is to be preached to "all nations" and

to "all [rational] cre .tures," it is destined for all, and all are obliged to accept it, apart from the menace of eternal punishment against those who believe not (8).

The gospel answered this universal purpose, inasmuch as it prescribed a divine worship which was not to be confined to one place, but was to be offered everywhere to the omnipresent God (John iv. 21); inasmuch as it introduced laws and customs which were not calculated for one clime only, but were intended to sanctify humanity in every clime; inasmuch as it preached truths which enlighten and elevate every understanding; inasmuch as it held out to its followers goods which fully satisfy the yearnings of every heart.

2. The manner in which the apostles executed their commission shows their conviction that Christianity was to be the religion of all nations and of all men. For, in their preaching they addressed themselves not only to the Jews, though they were sent, in the first instance, to them; but, going forth, they preached everywhere (Mark xvi. 20). Therefore in a few years the gospel is preached, and bears its fruit in the whole world (Col. i. 6). They knew that Christ, the Saviour of all, although He Himself, as preacher of the gospel of salvation, was sent only to the sheep that were lost from the house of Israel (Matt. xv. 24), yet had other sheep that were not of this fold, and which He was to lead into the one fold by means of His disciples (John x. 16).

3. The design of providence, as far as it manifests itself in revelation, points to one religion which is destined to embrace all nations. To all men was promised the Redeemer who was to restore the bond between man and God that had been severed by the disobedience of our first parents (12). It is true, an almost universal apostasy from the supernatural religion ensued (14); but meanwhile God preserved revelation among the patriarchs, and, at the same time, pointed to the coming of the Messias as a source of blessings to all the nations of the earth (16). But only in case that all unite themselves to the Messias, and profess one religion, can He, in the true sense, become the author of their happiness. Though at a later period the Mosaic law introduced a wider separation of mankind, yet the same law points definitely to one by whom the barrier is