Christian Apologetics; A Defense of the Catholic Faith (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: CHRISTIAN APOLOGETICS. PART FIRST. THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. CHAPTER I. GENERAL EXPLANATIONS. ART. I.?GENERAL NOTIONS. I. Religion. Religion.?According to the etymological meaning of the word, religion may be defined as the sum of the ties or relations which bind man to God.1 Between God and man there exist two kinds of relations: one results immediately and of necessity from the very nature of man; the other has been added by the free and sovereign will of God. The first kind, with the duties which flow therefrom, constitutes natural religion; the second forms supernatural religion. It is important to have a clear and accurate idea of this distinction. 1On the Existence of God see Chatard (Ch. Tr.), Clarke, Driscoll, Gibbons (Ch. H.), Lambert, Manning (R. V., a. 1), Northgraves, Archbp. O'Brien, Rickaby, Ricards, Ronayne, Br. W. ii. (Refut. of Atheism), A. C. Q. vi., vii., xi., and in general works against Atheism, Agnosticism, and Positivism, especially Picard, Lucas, Madden, I.E.R., Oct., Nov. 1901; also references on next page. On Religion see Schanz, I., ch. 3, 4. Natural Religion.1?Man, created by God out of nothing, holds from his Creator all that he is and all that he has: his body with all its senses; his soul with all its faculties. He is indebted to God every moment for the preservation and development of this body and this soul, and the divine concurrence is necessary for every one of his acts. From God come also all the creatures with whom we are in perpetual relation by reasons of necessity, pleasure, or profit. If this be our position, and it undoubtedly is, if man holds everything so absolutely from God that without Him he would have nothing, would not even exist and act, it is undeniably evident that man belongs to God; that he is His pro...