Page:Delineation of Roman Catholicism.djvu/449

 CaP. XI�.] sxts: crton. 44S of Christ, the influences of the Spirit, the exercise of faith and prayer, and comes in the place of holiness of heart and life. ]=,th in the decree of the Council of Trent, and in the Catechism, there seems to be an entire omission of Ode atonement of Christ, and the re.newton.of the Holy Ghost; and in their place we have a process of mcantaxon, by which they are supplanted. Were the matter to end just here, the con- sequence would not be so serious, as an unbeliever or cked man may as well be deceived by this as by partaking of bread and wine, which is the viaticum of many Protestants, who know not the truth ex- perimentally. But the system among them is, when an ignorant Pro- testant on his death-bed is worked on by popish friends, (and they are ever on the watch for such,) so that the priest is sent for; if he finds Ode person under any alarm, and the conscience weak, after having spoken for some time he refuses to absolve, or administer the holy oil, unless not only the dying person is baptized in the church, but also the whole family; and this too often succeeds, and is Ode principal cause of the partial relapse into popery in some places. Indeed, this and similar practices are the most successful modes of bringing ignorant or vicious Protestants into the pale of the Church of Rome. 8. From Ode foregoing exposition it will strike every observer, that Romanists have a strange idea of the state of dying Christians. They represent the soul as peculiarly assailed by the devil at Ode approach of death, and the remedy for this is,ot Christ and his salvation directly, but the priest and his absolution, viaticum and unction. Now, according to Scripture, Christ does not leave his people in their last moments to contend with Satan in their own strength, or in the strength of consecrated oil, applied to different parts of their bodies, by a more creature like themselves. Those who are real Christians are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation. Their whole Christian life is a state of warfare against sin and the present evil world; and though the contest does not terminate till death, odere is no Scriptural mason to conclude that it is necessarily, or even usually, most severe at the approach of death. When a Christian comes to die, he is not entering upon a scene entirely new to him. From the hour of his tlrst believing he became dead to the world. It became part of his daily exercise to contemplate his transition from this world to the next; and his every day's reflections were suitable to the last hour of his life. Such are enabled to say, "Though I walk through the valley and sire. dew of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me, and thy rod and $taff they comfort me." But the popish doctrine represents a dying Christian in a state as unprovided for as if death had been unexpected. The Council of Trent speaks of the powerful protection of the sacrament of extreme unction, as necessary to fortify the latter end of life; and it is to be used only when that period is understood to have arrived. The Church of Rome intends it for the dying only, and applies it for the salvation of persons many of whom never thought of salvation before. They lived in sin, and hoped to be saved from its punishment by virtue of this sacrament, which, like ode rest, is sold to them for money. According to the popish doctrine, as laid down by Bishop Hay, ia his Sincere Christian, when a Christian comes to die, his case is still in perplexing doubffuiness. Whether he shall go to heaven or hell 1 ,Goocle

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