PROLEGOMENA. liU. 



authority ; the methodists have zeal, the Svveden- 

 burg^am have enthusiasm, and so on. But what 

 are all these partial virtues, but broken fragments 

 of Catliolicism, the common mother, of whom 

 they are perverted and ungrateful children ? As 

 the sparks of a fire that fall among wet fuel, 

 where ventilation is excluded, are soon ex- 

 tinguished ; so the scintillations of charity, that 

 fall on hearts who have lost their spiritual guide, 

 are soon damped, and are seen here and there 

 going out, like dying embers of the divine flame. 

 How do we see daily thousands of new sects 

 springing up, and changing or utterly disappear- 

 ing ; and this has been the case, from the great 

 heresies of the Arians and Albigenses, down to 

 the ravings of Luther, Calvin, and Socinus — all 

 objects of pity but never of persecution ; for many 

 of their followers and dupes have been persons 

 who have done their best in their ignorance of 

 the truth, and who ought not to excite our pride 

 but our humility, since it may often happen to 

 many of us, that knowing much more than they, 

 and having done less, we may have fallen farther 

 s.hort of our duty. 



But let us turn from commiserating imper- 

 fections to the lives of the Catholic Saints, living 

 lives of comparative perfection, each having his 

 particular character, but all modelled on Christ. 

 For as the sun illumines all the denser planets 



E 



