The Online Library of Liberty

A project of Liberty Fund, Inc.

• Introduction.
• The Truth of Faith Manifested By the Triumph of the Cross.
• Book I.
• Prologue.
• Chapter I.: How By Means of Visible Things We Arrive At the Knowledge of Such As Are Invisible.
• Chapter II.: How the Triumph of Christ Testifies to the Truth of Our Faith.
• Chapter III.: Containing Certain Fundamental and Irrefragable Principles.
• Chapter IV.: Answers to the Objections Which May Be Brought Against the Foregoing Propositions.
• Chapter V.: The Mode In Which Our Argument Must Be Conducted.
• Chapter VI.: The Existence of God.
• Chapter VII.: God Is Not a Body, Nor the Form of a Body, Nor Is He a Complex Substance.
• Chapter VIII.: God Is the Perfect and Supreme Good, and Is of Infinite Power; He Is In Every Place; and He Is Immutable and Eternal.
• Chapter IX.: God Is One.
• Chapter X.: God Knows All Things Perfectly, and Acts of His Own Will, and Not From Natural Necessity.
• Chapter XI.: The Providence of God Extends Over All Things.
• Chapter XII.: The End to Which Man Is Guided By Divine Providence.
• Chapter XIII.: Man’s Last End Cannot Be Attained In This Present Life.
• Chapter XIV.: The Soul of Man Is Immortal.
• Book II.
• Method Observed Throughout This Book.
• Chapter I.: Some True Religion Exists In the World.
• Chapter II.: Religion Is Both Interior and Exterior.
• Chapter III.: No Better Life Can Be Found Than the Christian Life.
• Chapter IV.: The End Presented to Us By the Christian Religion Is the Best Which Can Possibly Be Conceived.
• Chapter V.: A Christian Life Is the Best Possible Means For Attaining to Happiness.
• Chapter VI.: The Christian Life Is a Most Sure Means of Attaining to Beatitude.
• Chapter VII.: The Faith of Christ Is True, Because It Causes Men to Lead a Perfect Life.
• Chapter VIII.: The Doctrines Taught By Christianity Are True, and Come From God.
• Chapter IX.: The Truth of the Faith Proved By Arguments Founded On the Prayer and Contemplation of Christians.
• Chapter X.: Proofs of the Truth of the Christian Religion Founded On Its External Forms of Worship.
• Chapter XI.: The Truth of Christianity Evidenced By Its Effects On the Interior Life of Christians.
• Chapter XII.: The Truth of Christianity Manifested By Its Visible Effects On the Lives of Christians.
• Chapter XIII.: The Truth of the Faith Demonstrated By the Wonderful Works of Christ, Especially Those Which Pertain to His Power.
• Chapter XIV.: The Truth of Christianity Shown By Arguments Based On the Wisdom of Christ.
• Chapter XV.: The Truth of Christ’s Teaching Is Proved By His Goodness.
• Chapter XVI.: The Truth of Christianity Is Proved By the Power, Wisdom, and Goodness of Christ, Considered Collectively.
• Book III.
• Method Observed Throughout This Book.
• Chapter I.: God Contains Within Himself, and Can Perform, an Infinite Number of Things Surpassing Human Understanding.
• Chapter II.: An Examination of Certain Articles of the Christian Creed Which Exceed the Limits of Human Understanding.
• Chapter III.: The Mystery of the Trinity Is Neither Unreasonable Nor Incredible.
• Chapter IV.: The Christian Doctrine of Creation Is Neither Incredible Nor Unreasonable.
• Chapter V.: The Christian Teaching Concerning the Sanctification, Glory, and Resurrection of Rational Creatures Contains No Article Which Is Either Impossible, Or Unreasonable.
• Chapter VI.: The Doctrine of the Damnation of the Wicked Is One Befitting Christianity.
• Chapter VII.: The Doctrine of the Incarnation of the Son of God Is, In No Sense, Incredible, Unseemly, Or Unreasonable.
• Chapter VIII.: The Belief In the Virginal Birth of Christ Is Consistent With Reason, and His Life Befitted, In All Respects, His Dignity.
• Chapter IX.: The Christian Doctrine of Original Sin Is Neither Unreasonable Nor Incredible.
• Chapter X.: Our Belief In the Passion of Christ, In the Other Mysteries of His Humanity, and In All the Articles Defined By the Church, Is Strictly Consistent With Reason.
• Chapter XI.: The Christian Religion Most Prudently Establishes the Two Precepts of Charity, As the Foundation of Our Whole Moral Life.
• Chapter XII.: The Excellence of the Moral Teaching of the Church.
• Chapter XIII.: The Perfect Reasonableness of the Christian Constitution and Code of Judicial Law.
• Chapter XIV.: The Sacraments of the Church Have Been Instituted By Christ, and Are Admirably Adapted to the Needs of Mankind.
• Chapter XV.: The Number of the Sacraments Is Reasonable.
• Chapter XVI.: The Rites Used In the Administration of the Sacraments Are Both Reasonable and Seemly.
• Chapter XVII.: Answers to Certain Objections Brought Against the Doctrine of the Blessed Eucharist.
• Chapter XVIII.: The Reasonableness of the Ceremonies of the Church.
• Book IV.
• Introduction. Method Observed Throughout This Book.
• Chapter I.: No Religion Except Christianity Can Be True.
• Chapter II.: The Defective and Erroneous Religions Taught By Heathen Philosophers.
• Chapter III.: The Futility and Superstition of the Traditions of Astrology.
• Chapter IV.: Idolatry Is of All Things the Most Vain.
• Chapter V.: A Refutation of the Jewish Perfidy and Superstition.
• Chapter VI.: The Malicious Untruthfulness of Heretics.
• Chapter VII.: The Utter Irrationality of the Mahometan Religion.
• Chapter VIII.: The Christian Religion Will Remain True and Unwavering Unto the End.
• Chapter IX.: Epilogue.

CHAPTER XVI.

THE TRUTH OF CHRISTIANITY IS PROVED BY THE POWER, WISDOM, AND GOODNESS OF CHRIST, CONSIDERED COLLECTIVELY.

We may sum up in a few words what has been already said about the power, the wisdom, and the goodness of Christ. Had Christ not been God, He would have been the most proud and the most foolish of men. And if (as some hold) the assertion of His Divinity was not made by Himself but by His disciples, how can a religion of such goodness, wisdom, and power, be the outcome of such a falsehood? If Christ be not God, who is God? God preserves and governs all inferior things by the requisite means; and, as no means are so suitable for the attainment of a virtuous life as the Faith and love of our Saviour Jesus Christ, we must either acknowledge that He is the true means whereby we attain beatitude, or must hold, with fatalists, that things happen by chance; and we must end in denying the existence of God.

Again. If there be any true religion in the world; and if no religion be supported by such arguments and undeniable proofs as is the Christian religion; where, save in Christianity, are we to seek the true religion?

Further. No religion has endured the constant and cruel persecution inflicted on Christianity. Other religions, or rather superstitions, have never roused in the world the hatred excited by the Faith of Christ. Yet, in spite of this fact, other religions which persecuted Christianity, have died out, of themselves, without being persecuted. Christianity has only flourished, and waxed stronger, by means of its conflicts. How do we account for this fact, if Christianity be untrue?

We must remember, likewise, that they who have persecuted Christians have been, not good and upright men, but men of infamous life. Is not this a further proof of the truth of our religion?

Again. No religion has made converts under the same conditions as those in which men have accepted the Faith of Christ. For those who have become Christians have done so, not in hopes of gaining riches, or honour, or pleasure, but with the expectation of having to bear poverty and shame, torture and death. If these men had not been enlightened by true light, could they have acted thus?

This collection of arguments, surely, ought to convince all men of the truth of Christianity. For, although the intellect may not be persuaded by one proof, nor by two, nor by three, a series of proofs carries as much weight as does a chain of mathematical demonstrations, or the sight of a dead man raised to life.

If, then, Christianity be true, all other religions must be false; for none can be saved except by Faith. This condition for salvation is a most reasonable one; for our beatitude is to consist in the vision and fruition of God, to which none can attain, save by the supernatural gift of Faith, without which, as St. Paul says, “it is impossible to please God” (Heb. xi. 6). Neither have they any ground for excuse or complaint who live in distant lands, where Christianity is unknown. For, as all men are endowed with reason, which leads to the knowledge of God, and as God further manifests Himself in the natural order of Creation, it follows that if any one live according to reason, and turn to God for help (as nature teaches every effect to turn to its cause), Almighty God, the Supreme Good who is never wanting to any necessity of, even His irrational, creatures, will still less fail man in matters pertaining to salvation. He will rather enlighten him, either by interior inspiration, as He enlightened Job; or by the ministry of angels, as He instructed Cornelius the Centurion; or by preaching, as He taught the Eunuch of Candace, by means of Philip the Apostle.

BOOK III.