Page:Delineation of Roman Catholicism.djvu/176

 168 CATHOLIC AND P!tOTBSTANT RULBS COMPAB. I!D. [BOOK iradictions; know accurately all the cases and wuto of his flock; and then apply his rule of direct/on. The very enumerat/om of the differ* ent parts of this rule show8 it to be an impracticable one, and therefore not what the .4!mighty gave us for our drectiou. 3.  unarrarUab liberti  witA tie word of God by Rosw Cto provo tb cy of tlr rule. (1.) She adds the apocrypha and tradition. (2.) She takes away from the decalogue the second commalmaut, or so abridges it as to do away its force and meaning. (3.) She adds new articles of faith to the word of God. The creed of Pope Pius IV., sw6rn to by all ecclesiastics, adds twelve new ai- cles to the creed of Christians. These additions on the one hand, and subtractions on the other, prove that the rule of faith adopted by the Church of Rome, changed as it has been by them, varies from the unchangeable standard which Christ gave to his church. 4. Tie ,,,.,ss resorted to by tie C/no.ca of Ro, for tie l,u,poe of By her supreme, authoritative decision, the circulation and Perusal of the Scriptures are restricted as follows: No layman can read the Scriptures without a written license from the bishop, and then it must be a Bible translated by a Roman Catholic, and accompanied with notes. The priest who recommends and the bishop who licenses are the only judges of a person's fitneas to read the Scriptures. If Per- mirted to read, he is not allowed to think for himself, but as the church directs. If he reads without license, he cannot get absolution till he delivers up his Bible; and all this on the supposition that reading the Scriptures is injurious to the great body of men. All printers selling without license forfeit their edition, and undergo other penalt/es. And all this is now binding on American citizens as well as on others; and those who reject these laws are anathematized as heretics. A permanent committee, styled the Con$,regat/on of tie Ilez, has charge, by authority, of the work of watching the press, and of prohi- biting the reading of any works they disapprove of. Besides, Pope Clement VIII., in the year 1595, published a decree that all Catholic authors who wrote since 1515 should be corrected, so as not only to blot out doctrines not approved of, but to add what was necessary. The process of purgelion, as we have seen, has also reached the fathers. Where such means are resorted to, what can we infer, but that there exists great deficiency in permanent, stable principles? Were it otherwise, there would be no need of prohibitions against perusing, or of expurgations or additions. 5. T Ronma Catiol mode of D.TSaMmmo mSPUTZS /S costfury zo $o.urs end tie sli,-it of C/r/st/aty, and tie,fore ameer l tie rul etablisied by C/rist. In order to secure uniformity they distinguish between dtrimes and . Those points on which they are divided are called opis/oas. Those on which they' agree are denominated doctr/n. For instance; it is an article of faith that the church is infallible. But where this infallibility is vested is a matter of opinion. As ff it were of any use to possess infallibility unless it were certain who possessed it, or what 1

�