were distinct points, and Bossuet appears to have been anxious to keep them distinct.

"I perceive,' he said to M. Claude, the tendency of your expressions. Whether you will argue, or will have a right to argue, from my doctrine, respecting a christian's faith in the church, as I shall argue from your doctrine respecting a christian's faith in the gospel, we shall quickly see. For the present, let us stick to the fact. I aver that, according to the principles of your church, there is a moment, (I mean the period of examination) in which a christian (I don't speak of an infidel), must doubt of the gospel and of Christ.' I have said,' M. Claude answered, that he is ignorant; he does not doubt. Can he then,' said Bossuet, when the gospel is thus, for the first time, presented to him, make an act of divine faith, that the book presented to him is the word of God.' He cannot;' answered M. Claude, he can only believe it out of deference to the authority of his parents, or of some other person. He is a catechumen.'No,' said Bossuet, he is not a catechumen; he is a christian; he has been baptized, and the alliance which baptism externally sealed on him, has been internally sealed on his heart by the Holy Ghost. On that point,' said M. Claude, there are two opinions; but M. Claude ingenuously added, I admit it.' Then,' said Bossuet, it follows that, in virtue of the faith infused into him in his baptism, a christian, who has attained the use of reason, is qualified to make an act of faith, when it is presented to him. I therefore ask you whether, before he has examined the gospel, a christian can make this act of faith.' I believe the scripture to be the word of God

as I believe God to exist. M. Claude said that, after the christian had read the scripture, he believed it to be the word of God by divine faith; but that, until he had read it, he could not be led to this conclusion by human reasoning only. But human reason,' said Bossuet, is always fallible, and therefore always doubtful. And thus, according to your principles, there is a moment (that of examination), during which the christian necessarily doubts, or, if you prefer the expression, is ignorant of what you call the fundamental article of faith, that the scripture is the word of God, and therefore, during the whole time of examination, is an infidel.'

"In this manner Bossuet professes to have performed his third promise to Mademoiselle de Duras: it remained for him to defend himself against M. Claude's intimation, that, in maintaining a christian's obligation to believe, with divine faith, the authority of the church, it would be necessary for Bossuet to admit that he must previously examine the point, as he must doubt it, during the continuance of such an examination, and be therefore, during the whole of that period, an infidel.

"No such consequence attends the Roman catholic doctrine,' said Bossuet. The first instant after a Roman catholic or any christian comes to the use of reason, he may make this act of divine faith, I believe the church. I entreat you to observe, that I am speaking of a baptized person, of a christian, not of an infidel. In virtue of his baptism the christian has the babit of true faith, and therefore believes, when he attains the use of reason, in God the Father, in God the Son,' in God the Holy Ghost, and in the

holy

holy catholic church. The apostles' creed contains all these articles: and the apostles' creed is not a set of conclusions to which a child arrives by examination, but a declaration of the faith infused into him 'at his baptism by the Holy Ghost. Against this the infidel may argue consistently with his tenets; a christian cannot. Thus the doctrine of Roman catholics is wholly free from the difficulty you have intimated. All Roman catholics, all christians, except protestants, believe the divine authority of the church to be an article of faith, infused by the Holy Ghost into every christian at his baptism. Now, it is a tenet of the church, that the scripture is the word of God. Thus, from the first instant of their reason, the Roman catholics believe their church and the tenets of their church; so that, as there never is a moment in which a Roman catholic doubts of the church, there never is a moment in which he doubts of the divine inspiration of the scripture, which is a tenet of his church. But you, who deny the authority of the church, are driven to the terrible inconvenience of being obliged to admit, that there is a period during which, it is in the necessity of things, that the christian doubts, or, if you prefer the expression, is without the belief of this fundamental article of faith, the divine inspiration, of the scrip

true scriptures, and the true interpretation of them.'

"Bossuet's acknowledgment of the force of this argument, and of the great impression which it made on the persons present at the con ference, should be mentioned in his own words. A more forcible objection than M. Claude's could not be urged. The answer to it immediately occurred to me, but I was apprehensive of not expressing it in a manner to make it fully understood. I trembled as I spoke, for I thought the salvation of a soul was at stake; and I offered a prayer to God that, as he made the truth known to me, he would furnish me with words that would enable me to present it, in its full light, to my hearers. My dispute was with a man who listened patiently, expressed himself with clearness and strength, and was able to avail himself of any thing which the least want of precision opened to attack.'

"Such were Bossuet's feelings, as he himself has expressed them, on M. Claude's observation: the reader probably is curious to see how he delivered himself from the consequences to which it seemed to lead. He remarked to M. Claude that the reformed church was to be distinguished from the Greek, and from all the other churches which he had mentioned; as the members of all those churches professed both to receive, at their baptism, the faith of the true church, and to believe, with divine faith at their first use of reason, her divine authority so that, in their own opinion, there never was a moment in which the members of those churches were without faith in the true church, or faith in her authority, or faith in her scriptures: while, on the other hand, M. Claude, and all F

the

:

spondency) rouse the party to a sense of the atrocity exhibited by Mr. G.! He arrived at the town already mentioned in a stage-coach, and remained at the Saracen's-head Inn informing the attendants, after he had dined, that he was indisposed, they sent for Dr. Waller, who bled him; at the conclusion of the operation, several persons entered the room, upon which the pretended patient drew a pistol from his pocket, and presenting it at them alternately, commanded their instant departure; he then ordered a bed, and almost undressing himself, waited till the chambermaid with drew, when he fired at his head, and severely wounded some part not immediately mortal.

"The people of the house rushed into the apartment, and found Mr. G. sitting upright in the bed with a second pistol in his hand, which he declared he would discharge at the first person who should approach him. Mr. G. having a servant with him, the poor fellow entreated that he might be an exception; but his obdurate master refused, and added, he was ready to hear any thing that the people present wished to say."

"A Mr. Duncomb resolved to make an effort to save the maniac, and had his name announced as that of a physician. This stratagem so far succeeded as to enable him to seize the hand which held the pistol at the very instant when the worthy gentleman would have wrested it from him, the two maids of the house who attended with a candle fled, and left the parties to contend in total darkness: thus circumstanced, Mr. D. very properly resolved on a speedy retreat, which he effected in safety; and his antagonist, now on the alert, would not suffer a man to enter the room, but lay on the bed occasionally convers

ing with the female servants, whom he informed that he had determined to die by the means he had adopted, which was preferable to a lingering death.

"Several persons who felt deeply interested were at one time led to suppose that Mr. G. had fallen asleep, and sent his servant to ascertain the fact; the wary domestic approached with caution, and perceived the unhappy man extended, with the muzzle of the pistol close to his head Mr. G. started, and aiming at the intruder, bade him instantly depart: on his perceiving that he was promptly obeyed, he resumed his first position, and for the last time. The feelings of every person acquainted with this most extraordinary case, were excited to the highest degree of irritation, and holding a council of what was best to be done, they resolved to assemble at the door, and rush thence to the bed, hoping to secure the suicide ere he could recover his faculties from the surprise consequent to their method of proceeding: the fatal moment arrived, they darted forward, the pistol was instantaneously discharged, and in the same dreadful moment Mr. Goringe breathed his last.

"Such was the fortitude or resolution evinced by the miserable self-destroyer, that though he was often heard in prayer, neither complaint nor expression of agony escaped him, although his torture from the wound must have been excessively acute. The following sentences were found in his pocketbook: