Summa summae S. Thomae, Tomus III

[« That we might be able to fulfill our duty of embracing the true faith and of persevering in it steadfastly, God instituted the Church through His only-begotten Son, and furnished His institution with manifest notes, so that it could be recognized by all as the guardian and teacher of the revealed word. For to the Catholic Church alone belong all those things which have been disposed by God in so many and so marvelous ways for the evident credibility of the Christian faith. Nay, the Church of itself, by reason of its admirable propagation, its eminent holiness and its inexhaustible fruitfulness in all good things, by reason of its catholic unity and its invincible stability, is a great and perpetual motive of credibility and an irrefragable testimony of its own divine legation. » Synod. Vaticana, constit. Dei Filius, cap. 3, de Fide.]

That the whole force of this argument may be well perceived, several things are to be observed.

1° This Religion spread very quickly. For Paul, at Coloss., I, 6, says that already in his time the faith of Christ was growing and bearing fruit in the whole world. Justin Martyr, who flourished at the beginning of the second century, in his Dialogue with Trypho says there is no race of men among whom it is not worshiped. Likewise Irenaeus, book I, c. 3; Tertull., book against the Jews, c. 7; and Pliny the Younger, who also flourished at the beginning of the second century, book X, epist. 97, to Trajan: « Not only cities, he says, but villages and fields have been overrun by the contagion of that superstition (the Christian). »

2° It was introduced and propagated through a few fishermen, plebeian men, unskilled, ignorant, poor and contemptible: not, like other religions, by the power of arms, the favor of magnates, or the enticements of riches, pleasures and honors, nor by force of human eloquence; but solely by the power and wisdom of Christ, according to that saying of the Apostle, I Cor., I, 27 and 28: The foolish things of the world hath God chosen, that he may confound the wise; and the weak things of the world hath God chosen, that he may confound the strong; and the base things of the world, and things despised, hath God chosen, and those things that are not, that is, which are reputed as nothing, to destroy those things that are, that is, which are held as greatest.

3° This doctrine of the faith is such that it would seem to men rather folly than wisdom: namely, that a man driven to the cross amid outrages and dead should be worshiped as true God; that he rose again; that there is no other name in which we must be saved than the name of this crucified man. Whence the Apostle, I Cor., I, 23 and 24: We preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews indeed a stumbling block, and unto the Gentiles foolishness; but to them that are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Such, I say, is this Religion and doctrine, whereby nothing conduces to earthly happiness; which teaches that the passions must be restrained, that honors, riches and pleasures must be despised; which inculcates nothing but tears, penance, mortification; which promises nothing in this world but perils, afflictions, persecutions, humiliations, torments, crosses.

4° Under the yoke of this Religion, apparently foolish, so hard and severe, these few contemptible fishermen brought into subjection not only the unlettered and simple, but most learned men: Dionysius, Clement, Irenaeus, Justin, Arnobius, Athenagoras, Lactantius, Tertullian, etc. Nor only common people, but princes themselves, kings, emperors.

5° Finally, this Religion and doctrine was propagated and grew amid persecutions, with princes and magistrates opposing it, philosophers contradicting it, the devil raging and resisting with every kind of torment; and the more it was assailed, the more it grew and prevailed, so that the blood of martyrs became the seed of Christians.

Who of sound mind, if he attends to these things, would not recognize that the Religion we have described, born, grown to maturity and propagated in this manner, is not an invention of human genius, but the work of almighty God. For it could never have come about that a doctrine so alien from human wisdom, so repugnant to the senses, so harsh and severe, should so quickly pervade the whole world, and should, amid the persecutions, torments and contradictions of men and demons, be received by princes and learned men, and that too through a few fishermen, poor and unskilled, unless God had wrought most efficaciously, both in those who preached it and in those who received it.

These things being posited, I recapitulate the argument made at the beginning of the dissertation. Reason persuades, nay compels, unless it be wholly inverted and disturbed, to acknowledge that this Religion is true, revealed and instituted by God: 1° that which the Prophets long before foretold; 2° which its author and its cooperators alike confirmed by prophecies fulfilled and by most evident miracles; 3° finally, which by divine power alone, against all the laws of human prudence, was born, grew to maturity and was propagated throughout the whole world. Now this is the Christian Religion. Therefore reason persuades, nay compels, unless it be inverted and disturbed, to acknowledge the Christian Religion to be true, revealed and instituted by God. — No one of sound mind can deny the major. — We have invincibly proved the minor. The conclusion therefore stands unshaken, and consequently it is necessary either that the deist send back the messenger to reason, or that he acknowledge the Christian Religion to be true and divine.