Page:Delineation of Roman Catholicism.djvu/86

 The Scripun is b ; lower iU eri n f u ey ; keep i t  men's ds whe ey , ud whe they cun y pee i  b setting up a pretended authority of interpretation which affixes to it sense quite different from what it evidently meaus. 2. It is objected thatf '-Lm resalta from the exercise of privute judgment in the interpretation of Scripture. The extravagances 43( Joanna Southcote and others are adduced as examples. But it is not from reading the Bible that these extravagances arise; for this book is entirely overlooked by fanatics, or they are so nmeh wiser than what is written in it, that they place their own notions in a fr more elevated scale than the word o� Sod. Fanaticism should be rather considered as the offspring of heated passions, a weak under* standing, or extremely superstitious, mistaken, and absurd views few truths, rather than as the result of private judgment in reading the But are members of the Church of Rome, who are either orbidden to read the word of God, or to exercise their judgment in ordeF to derst&ud it, exempt from fanaticism ? The instances of �anciom of the perversions of Scripture which have disgraced Protestant cram- tries from the days of Munster down to those of Joanna Southeote fr omdene in counu'ies where the Bible stood foremost in the list of heretical books, and where the authority of the Church of Rome was predominant. Witness the horrible crucibon of females so minutely detailed by Baron Grim, who was an eye*witness of them durin w his residenee at Paris, and which were put a stop to, not by the interfe* rence of the clergy, but by order of the lieutenant of police. Let any one consult the Edinburgh Review for September, 1814, p. 302, and he will find detailed instances of the most horrible fanaticism which sc- ourred at Paris. We allow such cases of human in6mity call ruther for the exercise of pity and forbes. r&nce than for mutual recrlmnat., But when the Church of Rome countenances the reset u'ing fanati chin, and since many of her usages are forreded and suppoKed b 7 it, we think it necesear 7 to rebut, by a just retort, her charge against the reading of God's holy word. The P, omish Church has been the steedy friend offif and the Cures,' fp. Witness the , in whose procsnions such fanatics as the king of France and the C/.,w* ,'ae have frequently joined. Indeed, many of the Peouli,,r doctrines, rites, and institutions of Ronmnism originated in sheer fanaticism. In their worship of images, in the distribution of works and offices assigned to the vast host of saints, in the canonizing of saints and adding to the objects of worship and veneration, and in the grave pretensions of the Romish Church to miraculous powers, there is a singular exhibition of fanaticism. Doctrinal sentiments sad rites have been defined aud 8el- tied by visions and revelations. Their monkish orders have been G)unded by fanatics in their raving fanaticism; such as the Benedie- tines, Csrthnsiaus, Dominicans, Franciscans, Carmelites, JansenisM, Jesuits, &c. Many of their leading ceremonies and rites may be traced to the same oralroe.* Witness, also, the molmt3m abmirdt 

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