Obrázky na stránke
PDF
ePub

murder and adultery; concerning which he says: they who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God, Gal. v. 20, 21. Accordingly he orders that a man who is a heretic, shall be rejected, Tit. iii. 10; and the Apostle of Charity, St. John, forbids the faithful to receive him into their houses; or even to bid him God speed, who bringeth not this doctrine of Christ, 2 John, i. 10. This Apostle acted up to his rule, with respect to the treatment of persons out of the Church, when he hastily withdrew from a public building, in which he met the heretic Cerinthus, lest,' as he said, it should fall down upon him.' (1)

I have given, in a former letter, some of the numberless passages, in which the Holy Fathers speak home to the present point; and, as these are far more expressive and emphatical than what I myself have said upon it, I presume they have chiefly contributed to excite the bile of the Rev. Prebendary. However he may slight these venerable authorities, yet as I am sure that you, Sir, reverence them, I will, on account of their peculiar appositeness to the point in question, add two more similar quotations from the great Doctor of the fifth century, St. Augustin. He says: All the assemblies, or rather divisions, who call themselves Churches of Christ, but which, in fact, have sepa rated themselves from the congregation of Unity, do not belong to the true Church. They might indeed belong to her, if the Holy Ghost could be divided against himself; but as this is impossible," they do not belong to her.' (2) In like manner,

(1) S. Iren. I. iii. Euseb. Hist. 1. iii, (2) De Verb. Dom. Serm. ii.

1

addressing himself to certain sectaries of his time, he says: If our communion is the Church of Christ, yours is not so: for the Church of Christ is one, whichsoever she is ; since it is said of her: My dove, my undefiled is one; she is the only one of her mother. Cantic. vi. 9.

But setting aside Scripture and Tradition, let us consider this matter, as Bishop Watson and his associates affect to consider it, on the side of natural reason alone. These modern philosophers think it absurd to suppose, that the Creator of the Universe concerns himself about what we poor mortals do or do not believe, or, as the Bishop expresses himself, that he 'accommodates his judgments to the wrangling of pedantic theologues. With equal plausibility, certain ancient philosophers have represented it as unworthy the Supreme Being, to busy himself about the actions of such reptiles as we are in his sight; and thus have opened a door to an unrestrained violation of his eternal and immutable laws! In opposition to both these schools, I maintain the following clear dictates of reason; that, as God is the author, so he is necessarily the supreme Lord and Master of all beings, with their several powers and attributes, and therefore of those noble and distinguishing faculties of the human soul, reason and free-will;-that he cannot divest himself of this supreme dominion, or render any being or any faculty independent of himself or of his high laws, any more than he can cease to be God;that of course, he does, and must, require our reason to believe in his Divine revelations, no less than our will to submit to his commands;that he is just, no less than he is merciful;-and

supreme

therefore that due atonement must be made to him for every act of disobedience to him, whether by disbelieving what he has said, or by disobeying what he has ordered. I advance a step further, in opposition to the Hoadley and Watson school, by asserting, as a self-evident truth: that, there being a more deliberate and formal opposition to the Most High, in saying, I will not believe what thou hast revealed, than in saying, I will not practice what thou hast commanded; so, cæteris paribus, WILFUL infidelity and heresy involve greater guilt than moral frailty.

You will observe, dear Sir, that in the preceding passage, I have marked the word Wilful; because Catholic Divines and the Holy Fathers, at the same time that they strictly insist on the necessity of adhering to the doctrine and communion of the Catholic Church, make and express exception in favour of what is termed Invincible Ignorance ; which occurs, when persons out of the True Church, are sincerely and firmly resolved, in spite of all worldly allurements on one hand, and of all opposition on the other, to enter into it, if they can find it out, and when they use their best endeavours for this purpose. This exception in favour of the invincibly ignorant is made by the same Saint Augustin, who so strictly insists on the general rule above quoted. His words are these: The Apostle has told us, to reject a man that is a heretic: but, those who defend a false opinion, without pertinacious obstinacy, especially if they have not themselves invented it, but have derived it from their parents, and who seek the truth, with anxious solicitude, being sincerely disposed to renounce

6

their error, as soon as they discover it, such persons are not to be deemed heretics.' (1) Our great controvertist, Bellarmine, asserts that such Christians, in virtue of the disposition of their hearts, belong to the Catholic Church.' (2)

Who the individuals, exteriorly of other communions, but, by the sincerity of their dispositions, belonging to the Catholic Church, who, I say, and in what numbers they are, it is for the Searcher of hearts, our future Judge, alone to determine. Far be it from me and from every other Catholic to deal damnation' on any person in particular!—still thus much, on the grounds already stated; I am bound, not only in truth, but also in charity, to say and to proclaim, that nothing short of this sincere disposition, and the actual use of such means as Providence respectively affords those who are ignorant of the true Church for discovering it, can secure their salvation :-to say nothing of the Catholic Sacraments and other helps for this pur pose, of which such persons are unavoidably deprived.

I just mentioned the virtue of charity; and I must here add, that on no one point are Latitudinarians and genuine Catholics more at variance than upon this. The former consider themselves charitable in proportion as they pretend to open the gate of heaven to a greater number of religionists of various descriptions; but, unfortunately, they are not possessed of the keys of that gate; and when they fancy they have opened the gate as wide as possible, it still

(1) Epist. ad Episc. Donat.

(2) Controv. Tom. ii. lib. iii. c. 6.

1

[ocr errors]

remains as narrow and the way to it as strait, as ou Saviour describes them to be in the Gospel, Mat vii. 14. Thus they lull men into a fatal indifference about the truths of revelation, and a false security of their salvation. Genuine Catholics, on the othe haud, are persuaded that, as there is but one God one Faith, and one Baptism, Ephes. iv. 5., so ther is but ONE SHEEP-FOLD, namely, ONE CHURCH. Hence they omit no opportunity of alarming their wandering brethren, on the dange they are in, and of bringing them into this one Fold of the one Shepherd, John, x. 16. To form a right judgment in this case, we need but ask: Is it cha ritable or uncharitable in the physician to warn his patient of his danger in eating unwholesome food? Again, is it charitable or uncharitable in the Watchman, who sees the sword coming, to sound the trumpet of alarm? Ezech. xxxiii. 6.

But to conclude, the Rev. Prebendary may continue, with most modern Protestants, to assign his Latitudinarianism, which admits all Religions to be right, as a mark of the truth of his sect; thus dividing Truth, which is essentially indivisible: yet will the Catholic Church continue to maintain, as she ever has maintained, that there is only One Faith and one True Church, and that this her uncompromising firmness, in retaining and professing this Unity, is the first mark of her being this Church. The subject admits of being illustrated by the well known judgment of the wisest of men Two women dwelt together, each of whom had an infant son; but, one of these dying, they both contended for possession of the living child, and carried their cause to the tribunal of Solomon

« PredošláPokračovať »