fact I am quite sure) without believing
also in the existence of Him, who lives as a Personal, All-seeing,
All-judging Being in my conscience. Now, I dare say, I have not
expressed myself with philosophical correctness, because I have not
given myself to the study of what others have said on the subject;
but I think I have a strong true meaning in what I say which will
stand examination.

Moreover, I came to the conclusion which I have been stating, on
reasoning of the same nature, as that which I had adopted on the
subject of development of doctrine. The fact of the operation from
first to last of that principle of development is an argument in
favour of the identity of Roman and Primitive Christianity; but as
there is a law which acts upon the subject-matter of dogmatic
theology, so is there a law in the matter of religious faith. In the
third part of this narrative I spoke of certitude as the consequence,
divinely intended and enjoined upon us, of the accumulative force
of certain given reasons which, taken one by one, were only
probabilities. Let it be recollected that I am historically relating
my state of mind, at the period of my life which I am surveying. I am
not speaking theologically, nor have I any intention of going into
controversy, or of defending myself; but speaking historically of
what I held in 1843-4, I say, that I believed in a God on a ground of
probability, that I believed in Christianity on a probability, and
that I believed in Catholicism on a probability, and that all three
were about the same kind of probability, a cumulative, a transcendent
probability, but still probability; inasmuch as He who made us, has
so willed that in mathematics indeed we arrive at certitude by rigid
demonstration, but in religious inquiry we arrive at certitude by
accumulated probabilities--inasmuch as He who has willed that
we should so act, co-operates with us in our acting, and thereby
bestows on us a certitude which rises higher than the logical force
of our conclusions. And thus I came to see clearly, and to have a
satisfaction in seeing, that, in being led on into the Church of
Rome, I was proceeding, not by any secondary grounds of reason, or
by controversial points in detail, but was protected and justified,
even in the use of those secondary arguments, by a great and broad
principle. But, let it be observed, that I am stating a matter of
fact, not defending it; and if any Catholic says in consequence that