Letters to the Rt. REV. John Hughes (1848) (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: Light is the sure death of darkness. The circulation of the Bible will be the death of popery. With great respect, yours, Kirwan. LETTER IV. Transition from Popery to Infidelity?Inqniry awakened?Abstinence from Meats?The Mass?Confession?Transnbstantiation?Religion vanishes. My Dear Sir, ?In my last two letters I have stated to you some of the causes of my early misgivings as to yours being a true church, and as to its holding the true faith. These causes I might multiply indefinitely; for you well know it to be a law of the human mind that when its confidence is once shaken, it sees causes of suspicion even in things true and honest. In my first letter I stated to you that when I deliberately rejected the authority and teachings of your church, I became an infidel. And my object in the present letter is to reveal to you the process through which my mind passed, in its transition from popery to infidelity. I believe that your Reverence will pronounce it a very natural one. On reaching the years of maturity my mind was a perfect blank as to all religious instruction. A nd if such instruction is ever given by your church or priests, my advantages were peculiarly good for receiving it. Indeed I was even talked of as acandidate for Maynooth. Whilst my mind was filled with superstitious notions concerning moats and penances, and external observances, and legends, it was utterly ignorant of the Bible. With my Missal I was somewhat familiar: I said the Catechism when I was confirmed at the age of nine or ten; and that was the amount of my religious education. At the age of eighteen years the Catechism was forgotten, and the Missal was neglected; and as my conscience was uneducated, and my mind unfurnished with religious principles, the only test of truth left me was my com...