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the first Council of the Vatican will define that the Vicar of Jesus Christ, speaking ex cathedrâ, in matter of faith and morals, is infallible or no, is, and, till the event, must remain a secret with God; but whatsoever the decision of the Council may be, we shall assuredly know that its decision is infallibly right, and we shall embrace it not only with obedience, but with the interior assent of mind and will.

There are, however, two things which the Council will certainly accomplish. First, it will bring out more visibly than ever the only alternative proposed to the human intellect,—namely, rationalism or faith; and next, it will show to the civil powers of the Christian world the inevitable future they are now preparing for themselves.

As to the former, it will be more than ever manifest that the basis upon which God has willed that His revelation should rest in the world is, in the natural order, the testimony of the Catholic Church, which, if considered only as a human and historical witness, affords the highest and most certain evidence for the fact and for the contents of the Christian revelation. They who deny the sufficiency of this human and historical evidence ruin the basis