the soundness of their faith, and the rectitude of
their acts of worship, are called in question, "to prove all things, and
hold fast that which is good." Thus, when the unbeliever charges us with
credulity in receiving as a divine revelation what he scornfully
rejects, it behoves us all (every one to the extent of his means and
opportunities) to possess ourselves of the accumulated evidences of our
holy faith, so that we may be able to give to our own minds, and to
those who ask it of us, a reason for our hope. The result can assuredly
be only the comfort of a still more unshaken conviction. Thus, too, when
the misbeliever charges us with an undue and an unauthorized ascription
of the Divine attributes to our Redeemer and to our Sanctifier, which he
would confine to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, exclusively of the
Eternal Son and the Blessed Spirit, it well becomes every Catholic
Christian to assure himself of the evidence borne by the Scriptures to
the divinity of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, together with the
inseparable doctrines of redemption by the blood of Christ, and
sanctification by the Spirit of grace; appealing also in this
investigation to the tradition of the Church, and the testimony of her
individual members from the earliest times, as under God his surest and
best guides. In both these cases, I can say for myself that I have acted
upon my own principles, and to the very utmost of my faculties have
scrutinized the foundations {10} of my faith, and from each of those
inquiries and researches I have risen with a satisfaction increased far
beyond my first anticipations. What I had taken up in my youth on
authority, I have been long assured of by a moral demonstration, which
nothing can shake; and I cling to it with an affection, which, guarded
by God's good providence, nothing in this world can dissolve or weaken.

It is to engage in a similar investigation that I now most earnestly but
affectionately invite the members of the Church of Rome, in order to
ascertain for themselves the ground of their faith and practice in a
matter of vast moment, and which, with other points, involves the
principle of separation between the Roman and Anglican branches of the
universal Church. Were the subjects of minor importance, or what the
ancient writers were wont to call "things indifferent," reason and
charity would prescribe that we should bear with each other, allowing a
free and large discretion in any body