Catholic Priest AND SCIENTISTS. Rev. J. W. VAHEY, Pastor of St. Lawrence's Church, Elk horn, Wis. /& V 7 NEW YORK, CINCINNATI AND ST. LOUIS: BENZIGER BROTHERS, Printers to the Holy A£osto.Uc See. The Library of Congress WASHINGTON •puiilisfjctr toiti) tije Approbation of Most Reverend M. HEISS, D.D., Archbishop of Milwaukee. Copyright, 1883, by Benziger Brothers. PREFACE. Under the following circumstances I introduce this book, entitled " A Catholic Priest and Scien- tists," to the public. During the winter of 1878, while residing in Milwaukee, I was informed that scientists expressed a desire to hold a discussion with me on the eter- nal being of matter, the non-existence of God and revealed religion. Under the impulse of the mo- ment I assented ; but after having consulted Arch- bishop Henni, now deceased, declined from a con- viction that with men who rejected the authority of divine revelation it would be folly to argue. The challenging party then concluded " that I feared to meet them in open debate, owing to the inherent truth of their systems which would clearly establish the eternal being of matter, disprove the existence of a First Cause, the Blessed Trinity, and Christianity, which were purely mythical. " Although I was aware of the force of the adage Noli contendere verbis, ad nihil enim utile est, and although I was aware of the fact that it is folly to argue with atheists on things ineffable which sur- pass human thought, yet, lest my unwillingness to meet these men might promote error and injure the cause of truth, I consented, on condition that two reporters would be admitted; but this they declined on the plea that, until some future time, " they did not wish to give their arguments pub- licity." After the discussion had come to an end, I told my scientists that I would deliver two or more lectures on the propositions argued and publish a 4 Preface. synopsis of them in the Milwaukee Sentinel. I did so, and from the kind manner in which they were received by Catholics and non-Catholics I was induced, at the request of a few friends, to put them in book form. From this it will be seen that I did not com- mence the work from intellectual choice, but from necessity. The character I bear as a priest of the Catholic Church admonished me. that I must be ready at all times to give an account of my faith, and defend the Church of my baptism against the at- tacks of vauntful, subtle atheists, whose portentous systems dazzle intellects that are non-illumined by the light of pure reason and divine faith. The extracts I have taken from the writings of the Fathers, to which I had access through the goodness of Archbishop Henni, replete with phi- losophy founded on nature, with theology based on God, which prove Him to be the Primary Cause of all things, must please the reader, who will contrast them with the wild, vague assertions of my disputants, which I dare not give in full because they breathed a spirit of blasphemy. For the benefit of my less learned readers, I have, wherever the subject would admit, avoided the use of technical language and employed the popular. Although my intellect, from severe application, was once familiar with the subjects treated in this work, yet from the multitude of things that crossed my brain, connected with the discharge of my duty, I found the dogmatic and historic structure of my work difficult, which, I hope, is within the teaching of the Church. Should it not be, I shall be among the first to condemn it. Elkhorn, Wis., August 10, 1882. CONTENTS. PAGE Introduction 7 CHAPTER I. Is Matter eternal ? Did Primary Matter possess the Inherent Energy to form our Solar System and every other in the Immensity of Space ? 13 CHAPTER II. Is the Catholic Church built on the Bible ? Can the Approved Scriptures be convicted of Falsehood ? The First Day of Creation — was it a Solar Day ? Did Moses call it such ? 25 CHAPTER III. Is the Moon a Great Light ? Could God act with Cruelty and Injustice ? Could the Earth's Motion be stopped with- out causing its Destruction ? Are Miracles impossible ? 36 CHAPTER IV. The Creation of Adam. His Supernatural Gifts. His Diso- bedience. A Promise of Redemption was the Only Hope that cheered him and the Hebrews in their Vicissitudes.- Was Evil inherent in Adam's Will ? Is Evil an Entity? In what is the Soul like to God? Did Adam create the Soul of his Offspring? What was the Source of Evil? And what are its Consequences ? 4° CHAPTER V. The Birth of Christ. The Moral Aspect of Society when Christ was born. Was the Body of Christ formed in- dependent of or outside the Natural Order of Genera- tion ? Are there Three Gods in the Blessed Trinity ? Is vi Contents. PAGB the Blessed Virgin no better than any other Woman ? Do Catholics pay her the Worship that belongs to God ?. . . 62 CHAPTER VI. Did our Blessed Lord found the Catholic Church ? Can the Church teach Error ? By what Marks can she be known ? 107 CHAPTER VII. Does the Blessed Eucharist contain, really and truly, the Body and Blood, the Soul and Divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ under the Appearance of Bread and Wine ? 185 CHAPTER VIII. Is there a Purgatory or Middle State ? 208 CHAPTER IX. Did the Catholic Church organize her Priesthood ? Did she commission them to preach the Gospel ? Does she de- mand of Society to receive them as Demigods ? Are they in their Official Capacity no better than Laymen ? Are they inferior to the Laity in Education and Mo- rality ? 222 CHAPTER X. Are the Ceremonies of the Catholic Church Incentives to Idolatry ? 242 CHAPTER XI. Is the Catholic Church the Enemy of Science ? Did she im- prison Galileo ? 253 CHAPTER XII. Is the Catholic Church the Enemy of Civil Liberty? Did she sanction or promote the Massacre of the Huguenots on St. Bartholomew's Day ? 260 Conclusion 269 INTRODUCTION. That our age is drifting down the current of "free-thought" with great impetuosity is a fact that cannot be denied ; that this, which is one of the many results of heresy, tests the dogmas of revealed religion in the crucible of finite reason vitiated by error, and rejects whatever it does not comprehend, is a fact also that cannot be denied. From the inability of this criterion to apprehend the source of matter, or to find its way through the complex ocean of physical immensity, it re- jects the existence of God, the divine origin of re- vealed religion, and boldly asserts that " brute matter always was." That men who call themselves scientists should deliberately shroud with the darkness of error the reason given to them by their Creator, by the exercise of which they could contemplate Him in His works ad extra, is truly sad. It is also sad to find that this class of humanity have no lamp of faith burning in their souls, no temple erected to God in their intellects, in which they could hold prayerful converse with Him. Being strangers to the light of pure reason and divine faith, they re- 8 Introduction. ject the supernatural, and execrate truthful argu- ment from reason and the holy Scriptures, ad- vanced through motives of charity, to dispel their mental darkness, thus verifying the words of the Psalmist; " Tota die verba mea abominabantur."* On politics, medicine, jurisprudence, questions of trade, the mutual affinity particles of matter have for each other, and a thousand other knotty questions, these men reason correctly, but on God, His attributes, the Blessed Trinity, the human soul, and revealed religion, they speak irrationally. These subjects so perplex and startle them, are so enigmatic to their intellects, that they fly into an ebullition of anger whenever they are mentioned. While mentally agitated, these " literary lights" assert that a " mythical Christianity incorporated into its heterogeneous system belief in the exist- ence of God, in the Blessed Trinity, and the neces- sity of obeying moral law, to stultify the human mind and science. ,, Now, in sober thought, does not this wild doc- trine open the door of the human heart to the admission of every vice? Do not its teachings weaken and undermine society ? Do not its teach- ings paralyze the religious, truthful, moral, politi- cal, and social order? Do we not, in proof of this, *Ps. iv.,6. Introduction. 9 see crime succeeding crime, as billow on billow, without being shocked at its enormity, owing to its frequency? To what source but to this can we attribute the many suicides, foeticides, homo- cides, connubial infidelity, theft, bribery, perjury, arson, and the general depravity of society ? It is true that evil passion is deeply rooted in the hu- man heart, and, therefore, that man is prone to it ; but although this is the case, yet it can be ren- dered subject to reason by the grace of God. If this religious and moral degeneracy were con- fined to the illiterate, we might plead their ignor- ance in extenuation of their blindness ; but when found to exist in those who largely constitute intel- ligent society, then indeed we become apprehen- sive for the future of this great country. Nowadays we meet with men who consider themselves stars of the first magnitude in the fir- mament of science, who hold offices of trust, enjoy the emoluments accruing from the learned profes- sions, who are EDUCATORS of the youthful mind, whose hope of future reward soars no higher than the instinct of animals. When remonstrated with for arriving at this dreary conclusion, they reply "that science forced it upon their intelligence." But this is false, because, as God is the source of science, it must have truth for its object. True science only accepts what is revealed in the super- io Introduction. natural order by eternal Truth, and what is defi- nitely discovered in the natural through the light of pure reason. False science rejects the super- natural, sneers at dogmatic propositions which are not founded on speculation, but are the re- sult of divine revelation, accepts in the natural order discoveries plausibly suggested through mere speculation, and therefore incorporates the dreams and emptiness of atheism into its faith which are demonstrable to absurdity. The term science, according to its modern ac- ceptation, is confined to knowledge of the natural order, and, like modern history, must be carefully examined before its conclusions can be accepted as truthful. This follows from the fact that this domain for the last hundred years has been inoc- ulated with error by men whose hatred for God and revealed religion knew no bounds. Of the truthfulness of their theories they entertained no doubt ; they fancied that everything in the cosmos was unveiled to their eyes, and that nothing was left obscure to their mental vision ; they therefore sat in judgment on the existence of God and re- vealed religion, and rendered a verdict that " there is no God, no religion divinely founded, and that everything in nature is the product of eternal matter acting on matter/' Here it may be instructive to my less learned Introduction. 1 1 readers to express the value of the term scientist, in order to understand clearly its meaning. Web- ster defines the word to mean " a savant ; one versed in science." Although this is etymologi- cally true, yet it does not express the modern mean- ing of the term. A scientist is one who argues unintelligibly on questions he is ignorant of, who asserts without caring to know on what he bases his assertion ; who ignores eternal truth, ridicules revealed religion, its laws and precepts ; who as- serts that the human mind evolved from matter, like light, heat, and magnetism ; who turns away in disgust from metaphysical science which searches into the ultimate ground of all being, and settles down in the scepticism his conjectures evoked. To his mind religion is an empty term ; its institu- tion he ascribes to crafty men whose object for self- ish purposes was to degrade human reason. The indwelling of the Holy Ghost in revealed religion he cannot apprehend because the non-existence of God appears evident to his intellect darkened by error, and therefore "with the fool says in his heart, There is no God."* * Ps. lii. i. CHAPTER I. IS MATTER ETERNAL? DID PRIMARY MATTER POSSESS THE INHERENT ENERGY TO FORM OUR SOLAR SYSTEM AND EVERY OTHER IN THE IM- MENSITY OF SPACE? The proof advanced by my physicist to sustain the affirmative of the foregoing questions is as fol- lows : He said that "at some inconceivable time cha- otic matter or igneous fluidity, which always was and occupied infinite space, threw off our solar system and every other in space, through the agency of nebulous rings which condensed ; that matter drawn towards this condensed mass from opposite directions, and at various degrees of velocity, caused a rotary movement to take place, through which the accumulated matter assumed form ; that as this mass gradually contracted and assumed circular form, ring after ring was added to it till the planet was formed, and in this way the work of construction continued until every body in space was formed and perfected." As this theory is evidently erroneous owing to its deification of matter and its denial of the exist- 14 A Catholic Priest and Scientists. ence of a First Cause, I will not examine it in its various ramifications, and therefore I will be rather sketchy than exhaustive in its refutation. That the human mind be enabled to apprehend the existence of a First Cause, and dilate truth- fully and profitably on chaotic matter, the forma- tion of solar systems, the universe and its various orders of entities, it must be illumined by the light of pure reason, actively united with true religion ; otherwise its speculations will be envel- oped in darkness, and therefore repulsive to the instincts of true science and religion. Modern scientists may speculate on the cosmos till the crack of doomsday ; they will neither understand the chain that links together its forces nor the harmony existing between it and these, if their in- tellects be not illumined by this twofold light. If matter were eternal it would be imbued with the qualities that are inherent in an eternal being ; but as these are repugnant to matter it follows that it is not eternal. Now since simplicity, infin- ity, and absolute independence of every other being are qualities that belong to and are inherent in a self-existing being, we cannot affirm them of matter. It follows, therefore, that matter is not a self-existing being and is not eternal. These qual- ities must exist in a self-existing being, for the rea- son that it has not its essence from any other Is Matter Eternal? 15 being, but from itself. It has essence from itself because, by necessity, it is the esse itself. Now, the esse itself must be possessed of these qualities ; if it were not it would not be the esse itself, but a limited, compound, divisible entity, and therefore not the esse itself. Why? Because a limited, compound, divisible entity is confined to being of a limited kind. For example, human being differs from animal, which is confined to mere sensitive being, and is the only endowment of irrational, sentient creatures. The esse itself must be simple because it is inca- pable of increase or diminution ; if it were suscep- tible of these it would be confined to limits, inas- much as it would admit of increase. It is incapa- ble of diminution because if diminished it would be limited ; therefore, then, since it can neither admit of increase nor diminution it is simple. The esse itself is absolutely independent of all other entities ; if it were not it would be subject to their influence, would lose or receive, and therefore be limited. The qualities that exist in the esse itself do not exist in matter which is divisible and there- fore not simple. As matter is subject to division, is sensible, is circumscribed by limits because within a definite plane, it is not infinite, but limited and dependent. If matter be eternal it must be infinite in its collective entity ; but as the whole 1 6 A Catholic Priest and Scientists. contains its parts, the parts so contained must be infinite also. Every blade of grass, grain of sand, drop of water, and particle of matter is eternal and infinite, which argues an absurdity ; therefore matter is not eternal, but is an entity of time. The term " infinite" which my physicist applies to " space" I cannot accept in the sense in which he applies it because it is a mere subjective negative, which by common consent is changed into an objective affirmative to aid the weakness of the human intellect, which cannot assign limits to space owing to its immensity. In mathematics, especially in the higher, under restriction it is " introduced in order to compare two things natu- rally incommensurate." In describing the bodies in space that form the extended cosmos, or the world of externality, which is but dimly known beyond our own terrestrial confines, we use the term " infinite," which, logically speaking, cannot be applied to any being except to a self-existing one. Although we can form no idea of the shape of space nor of anything which could constitute its boundary, and although the energy of human thought can travel with more than lightning speed from body to body, from system to system, through the immensity of space quintillions of miles, yet we cannot say that space is infinite. There is but one Infinite — God, who created and rules the universe. Is Matter Eternal? 17 It is a fact that must be admitted, because true, that fluids unobstructed by extraneous force are obedient to the law of gravity, and therefore form a quiescent or motionless plane. We know from observation that when the force which causes the upheaving of the ocean's billows ceases to act the ocean assumes a quiescent and uniform surface. Now, in the absence of ex- traneous force, how could " igneous fluidity " propel these rings from its bosom and send them on a formative mission ? To assert that the force which gave these rings a formative activity existed inherent in chaotic matter is to contra- dict physical science, which tells us that a body at rest will remain at rest forever unless it is put in motion by a force external to it. The instincts of my intellect tell me that if I want to put a body at rest in motion I must use muscular con- traction, which gives me the certitude that the force I use abides in me and not in the inert body I put in motion. It follows, therefore, that there was no formative energy inherent in " igneous fluidity." But the fallacy of this unscientific theory does not end here. * If these " nebulous rings" formed our solar sys- tem and every other in space, independent of Designing Reason, or of Omnipotent Power, how 1 8 A Catholic Priest and Scientists. is it that there is not one single planet or satellite rotating in space under the influence of blind chance in the wide range of explorable astron- omy ? If the planets and satellites were projected in their orbits by these nebulous rings with a greater or less degree of tangential force, they would either travel outward from their orbits or fall into their respective primaries. But as no such consequence takes place, the conclusion must be accepted that they were not formed by nebulous rings, but by Almighty God, who created them, poised them in space, and linked them together by a chain of natural forces which He framed for the establishment of their unity and harmony. As the terms First Cause, Designing Reason, and Omnipotent Power are apparently meaning- less to the intellect of my friend, he calls upon me to prove the existence of God. Having his spiritual welfare at heart, I most willingly comply with his demand. Of the essence of God I have no knowledge because a finite being cannot fathom the Infinite owing to an infinite chasm, which can never be bridged, that separates the former from an ade- quate knowledge of the latter. Although this is the case, yet I know from natural reason that there is a God who, " in the beginning," created the complex universe and the various orders of The Existence of God. 1 9 sentient entities in it. My soul, being created by the Almighty, bears His image, which is light to it by which it can see that the Author of its being exists. Through this light my soul obtains an apprehension of God, acquires a certitude of His existence, and is attracted towards Him as its ultimate good and end. But as this light is purely natural, it cannot obtain the possession of my ulti- mate end unless the supernatural be united to it. As God is infinitely merciful, He united with this light supernatural light through which rational creatures who proceeded from Him can know Him and return to Him as their ultimate end. From the freedom of the human will the creature can turn his mind from natural and supernatural light in pursuit of the sensible and perishable, and forfeit the possession and enjoyment of his ulti- mate end — God. From metaphysical deductions a priori and a posteriori I acquire a certitude that an Infinite, Omnipotent God exists who is simple being, and exists by force of His essence, outside of whom there is no being, in whom is all being, whose es- sence every being copies and exists by its partici- pation in this essence. As I cannot form an idea of any being existing independent or out of God, I must accept the inference, because true, that all finite beings exist in and through Him ; otherwise 20 A Catholic Priest and Scientists. they would not be intelligible because of their nonentity. But as finite beings cannot be appre- hended unless they exist in infinite essence, it fol- lows that in apprehending them I also apprehend their First Cause — God ; and therefore God ex- ists. In His activity ad extra I also apprehend God. When I see a fabricated thing my mind intuitively concludes that it was designed and its parts put to- gether by a rational agent. Of this I am certain, for I know the thing could not form itself, being dead matter, and therefore devoid of formative energy. In like manner, when I survey the dome of heaven spangled with countless orbs which fill and light up the innumerable chambers of stellar space and travel through it with overwhelming speed, my mind becomes convinced that Omnipo- tent Power must have given them being and bal- anced them in space, because, like the fabricated thing, being dead matter, they could not form themselves, poise in space, or give themselves mo- tion. Of the truth of this I am further certain from the fact that these bodies labor to obtain an end which is the object of their motion. Now it is self-evident to my intellect that whatever labors to obtain an end must be guided in its operations either by its own reason or by reason extrinsic to it; but as these bodies are not endowed with rea- The Existence of God. 2 1 son, being nothing more than ponderous masses of dead matter, it follows, therefore, that in their movements to obtain an end they are guided by eternal Reason — God ; and therefore He exists. As God is infinite truth, it follows that the super- natural truths He has revealed are light to the hu- man soul by which it can apprehend Him. " In thy light we shall see light." * That is, in and through the light of revealed religion we shall see eternal Light — God. We have already seen that the soul, through the light of natural reason, ap- prehends uncreated Light, because natural reason, imparted to the soul by its Creator, is the reful- gence of divine Brightness acting upon and re- flected by it, by reason' of which it is said to be made after the image of God. " The light of thy countenance, O Lord, is signed upon us."f From the exercise of pure reason we acquire a human certitude that God exists, and from the ex- ercise of divine faith we obtain a divine certitude that God exists. From this twofold good of na- ture and grace which constitutes our natural and supernatural state we obtain an apprehension of God and the certitude of His existence. As divine faith is not based on reason, but is an infused virtue, and as man upon his entrance into * Ps. xxxv. 10. t P s - i y - 7- 22 A Catholic Priest and Scientists. this world could neither exercise reason nor elicit an act of faith, he required agents to aid him in de- veloping the germs of both. We know that to the mind of a youth the term science is meaningless. Gradually, through instructions, he acquires a knowledge of scientific terms and the science itself. This mode of instruction forms the basis of human certitude which inclines his will to accept the ob- ject or thing to be believed as true. In the same way the germ of divine faith infused into his soul through the grace of baptism develops itself. Through the teaching of his parents, preceptor, and pastor he accepts revealed truths as object- ively certain, and this acceptation imparts to his understanding a subjective certitude of them. His intellect accepts them as supernatural truths, with- out the least fear of being deceived or of being led into error. As God is infinitely merciful He willed that all men would come to a knowledge of Him through faith in His existence and the practice of true re- ligion. To effect this He provided infallible teach- ers in the Old and New Law, in the persons of the Patriarchs and Prophets, of Christ and His Apos- tles. Christ, who was the Light of lights, the Source of all truth, proclaimed to the world the truths He received from His heavenly Father, that through their light all men might be illumined and The Existence of God. 23 come to a knowledge of Him and His Father. In order, then, to diffuse this light and give univer- sality to these truths He commenced to expound them that mankind might confidently accept them as wholly free from error. He founded His Church, made her the repository of these truths, and consti- tuted His Apostles and their successors till the end of time their exponents. Through the teachings of this Church and obedience to her laws a knowl- edge of supernatural truth is acquired which en- ables the soul to know, love, and serve God and obtain the end for which it was created. " Sir," said my metaphysical disputant, " I cannot accept the statement that finite beings cannot be apprehended unless they exist in infinite essence. Is it not true that sentient beings act under the guidance of instinct and reason, which are gifts of nature? If this be true, and it is, do they not ex- ist by and through nature, which endowed them with these gifts, and not in or through divine or infinite essence?" I can form no conception of entities existing out of God, who is the priinum p?'incipium vitce, the source of all life. As God is the life-giving prin- ciple, every being secundum quid received life from Him and enjoys this through and in Him. If He were to withdraw His influx from the universe for one moment it would cease to be. It is not true 24 A Catholic Priest and Scientists. that nature endowed sentient beings with instinct and reason, because nature is nothing more than the aggregate of entities in the cosmos and the laws that govern it. The conclusion my friend arrives at is false because he attributes to the cause effects that did not exist in it. As reason is a faculty of the human soul, we must look for its root in God and not in inorganic matter. Every system in which this is not incorporated must be rejected, no matter how plausible it may appear. CHAPTER II. IS THE CATHOLIC CHURCH BUILT ON THE BIBLE? CAN THE APPROVED SCRIPTURES BE CONVICTED OF FALSEHOOD? THE FIRST DAY OF CREA- TION — WAS IT A SOLAR DAY ? DID MOSES CALL IT SUCH? My cosmogonist said, " Sir, you must grant that your [my] religion is false if the Bible on which it is built be false. But the Bible is false when it states that the first day of creation was a solar day ; that is, that the measure of time contained in this day was equal to the measure contained in the subsequent days. Now, according to your Bible, the sun was not poised in space before the fourth day, which was an ordinary day, and there- fore did not contain the measure of time the first day did. I therefore conclude that your religion is false because it is built on a Bible convicted of falsehood." In all honesty, it seems unfair that men who ignore the Bible and the principles it inculcates should introduce passages from it difficult of com- prehension for the purpose of disproving the divine origin of revealed religion. If any part of 26 A Catholic Priest and Scientists. the holy Scriptures the Catholic Church presents to us for acceptance be untruthful, then indeed the Bible can be convicted of falsehood ; but as no untruthful statement can be found in God's written Word, its teachings must be accepted as truthful. From the nature of this objection, it will be seen that these men were not impelled by a love for truth, but by a hatred for religion, to engage in this controversy. That this judgment is true will be inferred from the objection and those refuted in the course of this work. The system of these men, as far as we have seen, attempts to sweep the Almighty out of heaven, and His Church from the earth ; but these it will not effect because God is immutable and His Church is too deeply rooted in Him to be annihilated by the attacks of atheism. Every Christian is bound to profess faith in the existence of God, who created the universe, all things visible and invisible, out of nothing. He is not bound to accept this or that system of crea- tion, its time or mode, that does not contain ex- plicitly or implicitly any dogma of his religion. With cold irrational, irreligious systems he has nothing to do ; his duty is, through the light of reason and faith, to profess belief in the existence of a simple, supreme, infinite Being in whom all things visible and invisible eternally existed in a possible state. The Catholic Church not built on the Bible. 27 The Catholic Church is not " built on the Bible" any more than she is on modern science. She is, as we shall see in another part of this work, built on the God-man, Jesus Christ, who promised to be with her all days, and that the gates of hell would not prevail against her. Before a single book of the New Testament was written she lived by faith, enjoyed the spiritual life imparted to her by her Divine Founder, and compiled her dogmas from His lips. To her children she gives the holy Scriptures with the same willingness that she gives them the germ of faith at the baptismal font, tell- ing them to investigate this vast domain with care and caution lest they might construe them con- trary to her faith, and thereby establish heretical doctrine that would sever them from her com- munion. The Mosaic system expresses nothing antago- nistic to revealed religion, nothing that can re- motely cast a doubt on the veracity of the Bible, and nothing at variance with true science. It describes in few words the formless, unorganized, vaporous state of the cosmos after it was created by Almighty Power, leaving our intellects to rea- son on the billions of millions of years it took the agglomoration to condense from a fluid state and form worlds under the supervision of the Divine Architect. Moses, anticipating the light that pure 28 A Catholic Priest and Scientists. science would cast on the genesis of the cosmos, leaves us a dark, mysterious description of the creation of the universe, prophetic in its nature inasmuch as it treats of events that took place millions upon millions of years before his time. " In the beginning God created heaven and earth ; and the earth was void and empty, and darkness was upon the face of the deep ; and the Spirit of God moved over the waters. And God said, Be light made. And light was made. And God saw the light that it was good ; and He divided the light from the darkness, and He called the light Day, and the darkness Night ; and there was even- ing and morning one day."* On this statement of Moses my friend bases his charge of falsehood and his consequent rejection of the Bible and revealed religion. A close ex- amination of the text for a brief period, or rather a sketchy yiew of it, will, I hope, disabuse him of his erroneous and unscientific conclusion. As will be seen, Moses does not call the creation of time, of all things visible and invisible, of the spiritual and material world, a solar or ordinary- day, but one day, to suit the rude and weak intel- lects of the Hebrew people. St. Augustin under- stood the terms heaven and earth to mean " the * Gen. i. 1-5. The Teachings of the Bible Truthful. 29 intelligible, universal, corporeal creation."* The term heaven, then, does not mean the visible hea- ven, but the aggregate of spiritual intelligences. It could not mean the visible heaven because the matter of which it was to be composed was as yet shapeless and chaotic. This we infer from the terms "void and empty'' (inanis et vacua), which convey the idea that the Divine activity was with- drawn, for the time being, from the formation and adornment of the universe. This view St. Augus- tin entertains, who says : " It is not absurd to as- sert that God created matter first without form, and afterwards formed it" * u And darkness was on the face of the deep." From this the inference can be deduced that pitchy, utter darkness, desolation, and silence as dead as that on the lunar disc reigned supreme in boundless space, which was occupied by un- formed, chaotic matter. Et spiritus Dei ferebatur super aquas. " And the spirit of God moved upon the waters." Here we infer that Omniscient Power assumed formative activity by the re-formation of chaotic matter, whose inertia was to give way to motion, whose parts were to be formed into luminous orbs to light the chambers cf unbounded space. Here, * Confess, xiii. § 40, 30 A Catholic Priest and Scientists. too, we infer, and truthfully, that the grand, com- plex universe evolved from Almighty activity, which had its root in the wisdom of the Divine Will, and its inception in the energy of that Will. But were the waters over which the spirit of God moved real waters? They were not because chaotic or primary matter that entered into the formation of the universe was vague, hollow, and empty. Then how are we to understand the term waters? By assuming that Moses used the word to suit the comprehension of the Hebrews. Unbounded space, filled with cosmical vapors, appeared to his vision as an unfathomable deep, and to convey his idea to the Hebrews he called the attenuated matter water. To convey an idea of the extension of aether in the regions of space we often say that a boundless setheral sea fills the uttermost limits of the universe. In this sense, I think, Moses used the word waters. " And God said, Be light made ; and light was made." The Omnific fiat no sooner went forth than the universe exchanged its robes of repulsive darkness for those of dazzling brilliancy. Inorganic matter, so many millions of years inert, desolate and shapeless, is now undergoing re-formation, is now robed in a blaze of splendor which faintly reflects the glory and splendor of Him who evoked it out The First Day not a Solar Day. 3 1 of nothing. The attenuated, imponderable, va- porous fluids, for the first time self-luminous, are borne by the non-luminous aether to the uttermost limits of space, which they light up with so great effulgence that the Creator pronounces his work good. " And God saw the light, that it was good ; and He divided the light from the darkness." Here we must not understand a formal division. The division referred to consisted in bringing light out of- elementary matter which was dark and torpid. It consisted in imparting luminosity to the nebulous fluids, which rendered them dis- tinctive from and superior to aether, which was non-luminous and only a reflector. It consisted, lastly, in the creation of angels, who were light, out of nothing, which was darkness. " And God called the light Day, and the dark- ness Night ; and there was evening and morning one day." It must be evident here to an ordinary biblical scholar that the term " day," yom, does not mean a period of time definite or indefinite ; it means light and its diffusion through space, through the me- dium of tenuous and elastic aether which fills the uttermost bounds of space, and is a conveyance of motion in the stellar regions. If Moses were im- pressed with the certitude that the measure of 32 A Catholic Priest and Scientists. time contained in the first day was no greater than that contained in the fourth day, he would use an ordinal nymber : but this he does not do ; he uses a cardinal number to give us to infer that he had cognizance of, by divine inspiration, the nature of the day which he called one. It is evident, too, that Moses did not intend to convey the idea of an ordinary day by the lan- guage he used, from the fact that he places evening before morning in the formation of this one day. Now as evening is the harbinger of night, and morning of day, we cannot well conceive how evening followed by night could be construed into day. The language simply indicates the activity of God ad extra, by which entities were produced from a possible to an actual state. It means that pure spiritual beings were created out of nothing, that light was produced from darkness, that mo- tion was produced from inertia, and that the dawn of cosmical and spiritual being commenced, and therefore the one day expressed by Moses did not mean a solar day, but the development of being from non-being. It will be granted that the va- porous agglomerations that formed the universe were not all self-luminous ; if they were we would have no opaque bodies suspended in space. But we have, for we know that primaries are self- luminous, while planets are non-luminous and only The First Day not a Solar Day. ^i reflectors. Now Designing Reason or Omnific Power separated the luminous from the non-lumi- nous matter prior to the formation of primaries and satellites, and this separation Moses expressed as that of light from darkness, and calls the act day because it was a manifestation of God ad extra. On the fourth day this apportionment of matter was formed into luminous and non-luminous bod- ies which were poised in space. The Redeemer says, " I must work the works of Him that sent me whilst it is day ; the night Com- eth when no man can work/' * Here we see that the Lord used the word day to signify life, and the word night to signify death. Life, then, is light or day because of its participation in the divine essence which illumines it, while death is night or darkness from its non-reflecting powers on this earth. In the book of Job we find this very obscure question adverted to in the following words : " Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth ?" That is, when Almighty Power cre- ated chaotic matter and formed the universe. "When the morning stars praised me together, and all the sons of God made a joyful melody ?" That is, when the light created was imparted to * John ix. 4. 34 A Catholic Priest and Scientists. nebulous fluids ; when angels were created who admired the power of God and chanted his praise. " Who shut up the sea with doors when it broke forth as issuing out of the womb; when I made a cloud the garment thereof, and wrapped it in a mist as in swaddling bands ?"* That is, when the cosmical vapors or chaotic waters were sepa- rated from nebulous fluids, prior to the formation of the sun's photosphere, our atmosphere, our seas, lakes, rivers and their boundaries. This "in- supportable water,"f aqua intolerabilis, enveloped in dark clouds, corroborates the seventh verse of the first chapter of Genesis, and conclusively shows that the chaotic universe was circum* scribed by limits. St. Thomas says, " Creation took place before primordial day smiled upon the earth/' Sed me~ lius videtur dicendum quod creatio fuerit ante omnem diem.% Such also was the opinion of St. Augus- tin, who says, " In principio, fecisti coelum et terram ante omnem diem."§ In the Summa St. Thomas says again, " Coelum et terram fecit in prima die, POTIUS ante omnem diem." || St. Augustin says of the days of creation, " What kind of days they were it is very difficult to form an idea of, much *Job xxxviii. 8, 9. f Ps. cxxiii. 5. % In II. Sentent. Distinct, xiii. art. 3, ad tcrtiam. § Confess, lib. xii. \ Pars 1, quaest. lxxxiv. art. 2. The First Day not a Solar Day. 35 less explain their nature." Qui dies cujusmodi sint, aut per difficile nobis, ant etiam impossibile est cogi- tare ; quanto magis dicer e* I conclude, therefore, since the days of cre- ation neither represent to our minds solar days nor epochs of time, but the creation of angels, light, the universe, and the various orders of enti- ties in it, out of the deep, dark abyss of nothing- ness, through the steady, orderly, irresistible power of the Almighty, who still acts in the crea- tion of human souls, who can wait millions of ages for the fulfillment of the least of His designs, that the Bible is not convicted of falsehood. * De Civitate Dei, lib. xi cap. vi. CHAPTER III. IS THE MOON A GREAT LIGHT ? COULD GOD ACT WITH CRUELTY AND INJUSTICE? COULD THE EARTH'S MOTION BE STOPPED WITHOUT CAUSING ITS DESTRUCTION ? ARE MIRACLES IMPOSSIBLE ? My atheistic disputant again attempts to con- vict the Bible of falsehood. He says : " The Bible makes a misstatement, and is therefore convicted of falsehood, when it says that the moon is a great light, while on the evidence of physical science, which cannot be rejected, it is an opaque body, and less in magnitude than the stars ; that the God whom Christians believe in and worship is cruel and unjust because He destroyed the antedilu- vians except Noe and his family, overthrew the cities of the Amorrhites, the Moabites and Mad- ianites ; slew their innocent inhabitants, and gave their lands to wandering adventurers, who had no right to them whatever ; that if the motion of the earth were suddenly stopped, as the book of Josue states it was, the earth would crumble into atoms ; that miracles are impossible because con- trary to the laws of physical nature." To refute the first objection, if objection it be, The Moon a Great Light, 37 in the foregoing count, I must briefly view the fourth day of creation, on which the moon is said to be made. "And God made two great lights: a greater light to rule the day, and a lesser to rule the night." Because Moses called the moon a great light, the Bible " therefore" is convicted of falsehood on the evidence of physical science. This is simply nonsense. He could not call it any- thing else, for the reason that it is a great light. The primitive, vaporous matter which filled the uttermost limits of the spatial, dark abyss for mil- lions of years was, after being penetrated by light, divided by the divine Architect into two distinct masses, which after condensation were formed into luminous and non-luminous bodies and sus- pended in space, to be distinct sources of illumina- tion by originating and reflecting light, and thus, as is the case with the two great lights of our sys- tem, " to divide the day and the night, and be signs for seasons, days, and years." According to the law of logic, whatever affords a great light is a great light ; but the moon affords a great light, and therefore, is a great light. The moon is a great light from the fact that the heat and life of night are due to its powers of refraction, radiation, and absorption. Here I ask my scientist, If the cosmical agglom- erations were an effect produced by " nebulous or 38 A Catholic Priest and Scientists. self-luminous rings sent on a formative mission by igneous fluidity," why is it that in our solar sys- tem there is only one self-luminous body ? Why were not our sun, planets, and satellites self-luminous or opaque? If these bodies were formed by chance, as my scientist would have me believe, how did the matter which composed them divide itself into two sorts ? How did one part, in the absence of designing Reason and Power, fall into a self-lumin- ous mass, and another into an opaque ? These are questions for modern science and scientists to an- swer before their inferences can be accepted as truthful. If my friend had any apprehension at all of God, whose infinite essence, without physical exten- sion, fills unbounded space, whose omnipotence could create millions of worlds superior to ours in beauty, whose unchangeableness admits of no change, whose simplicity admits of no increase or diminution, whose glory all entities reflect and whose purity, holiness, and love inundate the celes- tial Jerusalem with rays of divine light infinitely more beautiful than the noonday light that inun- dates the world, he would not charge Him with cruelty or injustice. It was sin unto death that entailed punishment on these people. Every human being that comes into this world in a state of nature has written on What Sin is. 39 his conscience in bold characters a distinction be- tween good and evil, the nature of morality, truth, and justice, outlines of God's law, which the crea- ture must not transgress. When he does, he sins and deserves punishment. Here I was asked to " define what sin is." Sin, mortal sin, is the con- scious and deliberate rebellion of a finite, created will against an infinite, uncreated will. It is a wilful, deliberate transformation of the soul from the image of its Creator to hideous deformity ; a turning away of the intellect through the delib- erate action of the will from right to wrong, from justice to injustice, from purity to sensuality, from the worship of the Creator to that of the creature. It is the transgression of the law.* Man, from the intrinsic principles of his nature, is bound to observe the natural law which is engraven upon his soul. When he transgresses this law know- ingly and wilfully, the justice of God demands that he be punished. This consists in the depriva- tion of life in this world and eternal bliss in the next. As man was called into being by an infinite act of divine love, he has no reason to complain if God deprive him of this gift because of his grossly criminal deeds. As the bestowal of gifts involves no principle of justice, the taking away of them does not argue a violation of justice. * I. John iii. 4. 40 A Catholic Priest and Scientists. The antediluvians sinned so grievously and so repeatedly that the justice of God was forced to strike them. Noe, because he was a just and holy man who feared God, was saved from this general ruin. The Sodomites were consumed by fire from heaven because of their unnatural crimes, while the cities of the Amorrhites, Moabites, and Madian- ites w r ere razed because of the idolatry and sensu- ality of their citizens. It is not historically true that the " Hebrews were wandering adventurers." At the express command of God they were fleeing from pagan persecution — as are the Irish of to-day from Eng- lish — to Chanaan, a land flowing with milk and honey which was given to them by the Almighty. After the Egyptians were afflicted with the tenth plague, Pharao consented to allow the Hebrews to go in peace to Mount Horeb and offer sacrifice to God. While the Egyptians were weeping over the death of their first-born stricken by the Lord, the Hebrews went out of Egypt, and after a tedi- ous journey arrived at Baalzephon, or Beelsephon, on the Red Sea, where they camped. They were, however, no sooner gone than Pharao repented for allowing them to go, and, impelled by a bad spirit, pursued them with an armed force of two hundred thousand footmen, fifty thousand horse- men, and six hundred chariots. The Hebrews, see^ Miracles not Impossible. 41 ing themselves shut in between steep mountains, the sea, and a hostile army ready to slaughter them, were deeply afflicted, and in accents of grief be- wailed the dreadful end that awaited them. In this emergency they appealed to Moses, their leader by divine appointment, for succor, who appealed to God. Moses had no sooner ended his prayer than by divine inspiration he smote the sea with his rod, which parted asunder at the stroke and afforded the Hebrews a safe passage to the opposite shore, a distance of five or more miles. The Egyptian army pursued the Hebrews, and while within the sea it assumed its uniform level and drowned them. From this miracle can be in- ferred the impotency of man when opposed to God. From it, too, can be inferred the care God takes of those who profess faith in His existence, love and serve Him. Moses, after having led the Hebrews within sight of the Promised Land, died. Immediately after his death, Josue, by divine appointment, assumed the leadership of the Hebrews, who were then en- camped in the valley of Jericho. Josue determined to take the city of Jericho, but before he could at- tempt this he had to cross the river Jordan, which at that time of the year overflowed its banks. Having neither boats nor rafts with which to cross the river, he implored the assistance of God, who 42 A Catholic Priest and Scientists, stopped the flow of the river, so that the Hebrews passed over in safety, took the city, whose walls fell on their approach through Almighty Power. Subsequent to this the Amorrhites laid siege to the city of Gabaon, whose people were confederates of the Hebrews, and hence entitled to assistance from their newly acquired allies. This was not denied, for Josue gave battle to the Amorrhites and utterly destroyed them. It was during this engagement that he prayed to God to lengthen the day by the suspension of the earth's motion, in or- der to deal a death-blow to idolatry in the land of Chanaan, a country of south-western Asia, which henceforth was to be the arena of the greatest events in the world's history. The standing still of the sun, or the stoppage of the diurnal motion of the earth for half a revolu- tion, at the prayer of Josue, was a miraculous stop- page to afford Josue a vision of the Amorrhites he was pursuing, whom he completely vanquished. In confirmation of the standing still of the sun Habacuc says, " The sun and moon stood still in their habitation, in the light of Thy arrows;"* and Ecclesiasticus says, " Was not the sun stopped in His anger and one day made as two ?" f But my scientist will not admit a supernatural * Habac. iii. it. f Ecclus, xlvi. 5 Miracles not Impossible. 43 lengthening of the day by the appearance of the sun in the horizon longer than usual, because to his mind everything miraculous or supernatural is contrary and opposed to the physical laws of na- ture. As physical nature and its laws received their being from God, they must depend upon Him for their being: no rational act of the mind can con- ceive them intelligible, except inasmuch as they exist in Him. From this it follows that atheism cannot divorce God's conserving energy from physical nature, and therefore its laws do not con- trol God, but He controls them. As God controls the laws of physical nature from the relation exist- ing between the infinite and finite, the necessary and dependent, miracles are possible. A miracle is an event in which the laws of nature are suspended or interrupted by Omnipotent agency, that man may become conscious, may acquire an apprehen- sion of a Supreme Being in the invisible world. As the laws of physical nature and the laws of univer- sal nature, or the nature of things, are not one and the same, miracles are possible and in conformity to the nature of things. The relation existing between God and man in his fallen state demands the existence of miracles, that man might turn his mind from the material to the spiritual world, from the visible to the invisi- 44 A Catholic Priest and Scientists. ble, and from the dependent to the self-existing. What we are by nature Adam became by his fall, which concealed from his vision his Maker who endowed him with natural and supernatural gifts upon his entrance into time. His abuse of these caused the elements of his nature to war with each other and with God, whom he saw no more. As God willed to redeem man, He established the miraculous order which has continued active in the visible world from man's fall to the present. The Almighty laid the foundation of the miracu- lous order when in the earthly paradise He prom- ised to redeem man. Did not the release of the Hebrews from Egyptian bondage, their passage through the Red Sea, belong to the miraculous or- der ? Did not the production of water from a rock, the manna that rained from heaven, the brazen ser- pent and its healing qualities, belong to the miracu- lous order? The New Testament and the history of the Church record miracles as various and wonderful as those recorded in the Old Testament, wrought by our Lord, the Apostles and Saints, the odor of whose lives exhaled celestial perfumes. The as- sumption of flesh by the eternal Word, His birth, the changing of water into wine, of bread and wine into His body and blood, were deep, stupendous miracles. So numerous and well-authenticated Miracles not Impossible. 45 were miracles in the Church of God that St. Ire- naeus reproached the heretics of his day with the inability of giving sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, and of restoring the dead to life, as was done in the one true Church.* The history of God's people from the fall of Adam to the present is one series of deep, awful miracles which sus- pended every natural iaw of our nature, and which fill our souls with love and admiration for Him through whose power they were wrought. To enumerate the miracles authenticated by history would be difficult because they were wrought in every age of the world by saints replete with supernatural gifts. Prior to man's fall, it is the be- lief of theologians, " that miracles did not exist in paradise, because what is now extraordinary was then ordinary. The Creator conversed with Adam, and he with angels, so that in a certain sense he saw God and the unseen world." f * Lib. ii. contra Haer. cap. 31. f Summa, pars i, quaest. xciv. art. 1, 2. CHAPTER IV. THE CREATION OF ADAM. HIS SUPERNATURAL GIFTS. HIS DISOBEDIENCE. A PROMISE OF RE- DEMPTION WAS THE ONLY HOPE THAT CHEERED HIM AND THE HEBREWS IN THEIR VICISSITUDES. WAS EVIL INHERENT IN ADAM'S WILL? IS EVIL AN ENTITY? IN WHAT IS THE SOUL LIKE TO GOD? DID ADAM CREATE THE SOUL OF HIS OFFSPRING? WHAT WAS THE SOURCE OF EVIL? AND WHAT ARE ITS CONSEQUENCES? " And God said, Let us make man to Our image and likeness ; and let him have dominion over the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the air, and the beasts, and the whole earth, and every creeping thing that moveth on the earth. And God cre- ated man to His own image, to the image of God He created him ; male and female He created them." * On the sixth day of creation, upon the earth perfected, poised in space, adorned with natural scenery, enriched with mineral wealth, teeming with animal life, resplendent from the blaze of * Gen. i. 26, 27. Adams Supernatural Gifts. 47 light shed upon it by the sun, moon, and stars, God placed man, lord of all he surveyed, and next to the angels in intelligence. God did not pro- nounce the creation of man good as He did His other works ; inasmuch as he was an animal, he was included in the other works which were " very good." But inasmuch as he was man and belonged to the empyrean or spiritual world, he was not pronounced "good" because he was on probation, which was to determine whether he was good or not. His introduction into time, therefore, was vespertine, or began with evening, which was to brighten into morning only after his probation ended, on which he would be "good." After God created Adam He placed him in a gar- den of delights,endued with supernatural gifts which introduced the indwelling of the Holy Ghost into his soul, enabled him to converse with his Creator, with the angels, and, as St. Thomas says, in a certain sense, to see God. The possession of these gifts rendered his soul harmonious with itself and God, while they rendered his body immortal. To the continuance of these gifts and their transmission to his posterity only one thing was required of him, namely, the non-eating of the fruit of a certain tree in paradise, pointed out to him by his Creator. The non-eating of the fruit of this tree entered into the compact God made with Adam, was its e&- 48 A Catholic Priest and Scientists. sence, and therefore, upon its non-observance, the deprivation of his supernatural gifts would ensue as a consequence. He did not observe the com- pact, for he knowingly and deliberately ate of the forbidden fruit, and " died the death. " * " Where- fore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and by sin death ; and so death passed upon all men, in whom all have sinned." f As the supernatural gifts Adam received from his Maker were gratui- tous, he, and humanity in him, forfeited them by his fall. Had he remained faithful, had he ob- served the compact, he would be supernaturally " good/' and, therefore, would transmit to human- ity the supernatural gifts conferred upon him. His right, and that of his posterity, to enter into the unseen, spiritual kingdom of God no longer existed ; his sin obliterated it, and therefore, God's kingdom was separated from him and his posterity by a chasm which could not be bridged until the Eternal Word assumed flesh and bridged it on Mount Calvary. Adam had no sooner transgressed than he was confronted by the Almighty, who stripped him of his supernatural gifts and cast him out of para- dise. His unhappy fall weakened his will, dark- ened his intellect, and forced the Holy Ghost to * Gen. ii. 17. f Rom. v. 12. i A Promise of Redemption. 49 depart from his soul, which was no longer in har- mony with God or itself, and planted the seeds of mortality in his body. Henceforth he had to earn his bread by the sweat of his brow. " In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return to the earth out of which thou wast taken ; for dust thou art, and into dust thou shalt return." * Although Adam had " sinned unto death," yet he was not doomed to an endless death as were the fallen angels ; he was more mercifully dealt with than they, through a promise of redemp- tion which, when fulfilled, would wipe out his of- fence and restore him to the friendship of God. " I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed ; she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel."f This promise was the only hope* that cheered him and the Hebrew people in their vicissitudes ; the only plank on which there was safety in their ship- wrecked condition. Here my scientist said, " Unless evil w r ere in- herent in Adam's will, he would not recede from God through disobedience ; but he did, and there- fore, since God created Adam's soul, He created the evil inherent in his will.'* As evil did not develop itself before Adam dis- * Gen. iii. 19. f Ubi sup., 15. 5