View Volume II - In Today's Catholic World

EXHORTATION TO CATHOLICS. 397
perdition, by dying separated from the Church, should be a suffi
cient motive to convert every heretic. It was this that made
Henry IV. forsake Calvinism, and become a Catholic. He
assembled a conference of Catholics and Calvinists, and after
listening for a time to their arguments, he asked the Calvinistic
Doctors if it was possible a person could be saved in the Catholic
faith ; they answered that it was "
; then, said the if
king, the
faith of the Roman Church secures salvation, and the Reformed
faith is at least doubtful, I will take the safe side, and become a
Catholic."
All the misfortunes of unbelievers spring from too great an
attachment to the things of this life. This sickness of heart
weakens and darkens the understanding, and leads many to
eternal ruin. If they would try to heal their hearts by purging
them of their vices, they would soon receive light, which would
show them the necessity of joining the Catholic Church, where
alone is salvation. My dear Catholics, let us thank the Divine
goodness, who, among so many infidels aud heretics has given us
the grace to be born and live in the bosom of the Holy Roman
Catholic Church, and let us take heed and not be ungrateful for
so great a benefit. Let us take care and correspond to the
Divine Grace, for if we should be lost (which God forbid), this
very benefit of Grace conferred on us would be one of our
greatest torments in hell.
THE END.