Page:Delineation of Roman Catholicism.djvu/63

 CHAP. 113 scmPTuaE. ', restion of' several lmun doerors, the sam o; necessm'y Ind saying knowlge in a Cliristian. In reference to this point, they make several curious distinctions. One of those is, that a man may believe two propositions perfectly con- tradictory at the same time one e.licitl, the other itnllicit �. An-' other is, that in such a case the implicit, not the explicit, is to be accounted his religious faith. By this means the knowledge of God and of Scripture is superseded to make room for an unbounded conli- dence in and submission to a set of men whom the ignorant regard as the mouth of the unerring church.* By repeating the above-named act offaitfi, with suitable seriousness of m/nd, a Romanist is deceived into the confident persuasion that he is a believer and a true Christian; while in reality he believes nothing at all upon divine authority, and is therefore as destitute of that faith which is connected with salvation as those who never heard of a Saylout, or, having heard, reject him. This is the boasted certainty of the Church of Rome, as opposed to the doubt asad uncertainty of Protestants. It is the certainty of falsehood; for there is such a thing as believing a lie with the full assurance of its truth. "Because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved; and for t]t/s cause God shah send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie," 2 Thess. ii, 10, 11. It is true, they teach the principles of.their religion in catechisms, but still in such a way that the common people must receive all these things in the sense which the church imposes, and in that sense only, so that they are not articles which are believed upon conviction of their truth; for if the people were to think and reason, they would exhibit as great a variety of opinion as the Protestants do; and this is the case among the learned of the Church of Rome. Papists have no doubt with regard to the truth of their religion, because they believe the church or clergy, and never reason on the evidence presented.. Protestants have no doubts in the truth of their religion, because they believe the word of God; and when they give their assent to what God has revealed, they do it, not only with a certain assurance that what they believe is true, but with an absolute certaint tfiat it cannot be false. No �taint can exceed that with which they regard the divine record, that is, every trutA and fact contained in the Bible. Protestants doubt many things taught by the Church of Rome, because they are supported by mere human testimony; and they deny many others, because they are opposed to the divine testimony. Dr. Milner asserts, "that the Protestant has no certa/n assetrance and aIasoe securit as to what is revealed in Scripture, but depends on his own talen/s." To this we reply, that those who receive the gospel as a proclamation of mercy through Christ, by the communicated agency of the Holy Spirit, enjoy the benefit of it in their own personal .salva- tion. They have the witness of God's Spirit testifying to their hearts that they are the children of God. Their guilt is removed, and they have peace and jo?/in believing, and a  of glory in their souls. Here is an ev/dence and an assurance which are altogether unknown to those who depend on priestly absolution. A condemned criminal might derstand the terms in which a reprieve is expressed, and might receive �8am (ampllndl*m Leer. ml Reel. Hht., ]e. xxi'ti, p. 7, where Bona and Gabriel Bial ate quoted. 1

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