Page:Delineation of Roman Catholicism.djvu/157

 CHAP. IV.] INFALLIBILITY. 149 whole substance of the wine into the subslance of his blood."'* But the twenty-first 8ession of the same council declares that under out kind only tb wlto/e am/perker CAr/st and true sacrament is taken: "If any one shall deny that the whole and entire Christ, the fountain and author of all grace, is received under the species of bread alone, let him be accursed." Thus the Council of Trent contradicts itself', and therefore cannot be infallible. VII. Some place infallibility in the C/mrcA of Ro, or the universal church. 1. Those who do not hold to the infallibility of a council or pope, either joinfly or separately, account no doctrine fundamental unless the whole body of the Roman church receive it. But the whole church could not meet to make decrees, or to choose representatives, or to deliver their sentiments on any question; and less than all would not be the whole church, and so could not claim the privilege. And how, especially, would the ignorant know with certainty when they have all received it, and in what sense they have received it ? But what claim has the Church of' Rome to this right, any more than the churches o Greece, Asia4 Ethiopia, or the Protestant churches ? In brief, were it as easy as it is difficult to collect the several opinions of all Chris- tians in the worM, what one point should they all, in all ages, agree in as necessary, besides those general doctrines of Christianity which are allowed on every hand to be clearly contained in Scripture ? 2. Many doctrines and practices might be adduced which are taught by the Church of Rome, and yet are contrary to Scripture. Such are the use of an unknown tongue, purgatory, transubstantiation, worship of saints and angels, &c. Indeed, although the Church of Rome pretends to infallibility and antiquity, she is peculiarly addicted to novelty and deviation. 3. Let any one possessed of common candour consider these varie- ties of opinion in the Latin church respecting the seat of infallibility, and he must conclude that either it does not exist among them at all, or it leaves them in such uncertainty as to answer no important end. Indeed, it is the source of the most perplexing uncertainty. ]f those who believe the pope to be infallible be right, then those who deny this must be in a deplorable condition. And those who admit his infallibility must be perplexed by the uncertainty arising from the vati- ons opinions on this, namely, whether he is infallible in questions of right or fact, or the uncertainty produced from the reception of' his decrees by the church; while those who believe a council to be infal- lible are in a similar perplexity respecting the number, the character, and the confirmation or reception of their decrees. The uncertainty is increased still when we take into view the various aTae under the four great stems of infallibility already enumerated. But the difficulty does not stop here; for the etmt to which infallibility zeaches is yet a matter of much dispute. Some conline it to fundamentals; others extend it. Some confine it to doctrines and rules of morality; others mini nosira, et totins substantim vini in suostantiam Mnuinis ejus.'---Gip. iv, De Tmmmbetantione. t "$i quis negaveri.t, toturn et integrum Christuna, omniurn gr_iarum fontera et meteran, sub um pun speeb sumi, studherin sd."-.-Osp. iv, DO Gemnmniom, &c. 1
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