AUTHORITY AND CATHOLIC "INSTINCTS."
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTITOR:1
SIR, —It may not be uninteresting to know what impression two points in your article on " The Times and Mr. Orby Shipley' have made upon a Catholic. First, is it " deep-rooted Protes- tantism" to come to believe in authority, after accepting on independent grounds the convictions to which this authority would lead ? No doubt it would imply some sort of reason- ing in a circle, were religion a mere question of logic and argument,—the answer to some metaphysical riddle, and not a solution of the practical wants of life. Surely, if a man finds these have been, for him satisfactorily, anticipated by a Church which claims his obedience, he may think this strong, if merely personal, evidence of that Church's authority, just as the pure theism and exalted morality taught by Christ- ianity is felt to be the strongest argument for its divine origin. To use your own illustration,—it would be an ex- cellent proof of the correctness of a sign-post, to find the names and distances recorded on it correspond to what one had otherwise learned of the country. Secondly, why should it be reasonable to suppose that a celestial guide should anticipate
all the chief diffi aides of every age ? Is it not rather to be ex- pected that such an authority would refuse to answer many questions which men were not prepared to understand, until they had been trained by long discussion, or which were wholly beyond their reach ? As Butler remarks on this subject :—" What would be the consequence, if we could really get an insight into these things, is very uncertain,— whether it would assist us in, or divert us from, what we have to do in this present state." We can see, by the experience of past ages, how closely akin in matters of religion are vital questions and useless subtleties ; and this is to us no slight evidence of the need for a guide, who can show us what are " the secret things that belong unto the Lord our God," what are revealed for our in- struction, and what left open to our study. Thus in the case of one of your examples, the carefully-balanced tolerance of the Dominican and Jesuit theories as to grace and free-will contrasts sharply with the emphatic condemnation, pronounced at that very time, upon the Jansenist view of the same subjects. The reason of this is not far to seek ; the former are harmless solutions of a problem which apparently transcends human intelligence, while Jansenism would most perniciously limit the mercy of God and
the responsibility of man.—I am, Sir, &c., J. R. GASQUET. [Does our correspondent say the same of such a view of eternal punishments as is contained in one of the Irish Catholic class- books, published " consensu superiorum," as contrasted with the view put forward by Cardinal Manning?—En. Spectator.]
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