Page:The Collected Works of Theodore Parker Sermons Prayers volume 2.djvu/203

Rh feasts kept. He who hobbled the most in this lame way, and on these artificial crutches, was thought the greatest priest. What a reputation did puritanical Nehemiah get by his zeal in these trifles! But when Jesus of Nazareth came, his heart full of natural religion, he made away with most of these ordinances. Amongst Christians in general there is one specific sacramental opinion,—that Jesus of Nazareth is the only Son of God. The opinion itself is of no value. You may admit all the excellence of Jesus, and copy it all, and yet never have the opinion. I do not find that the historical person, Jesus, had any such opinion at all. Nay, the opinion is an evil, for it leads men to take this noble man and prostrate their mind and conscience before his words; just as much as Jesus is elevated above the human is man sunk below it. But for ages, in the Church, this has been thought the one thing needful to make a man a Christian, to make him "pious" and acceptable to God,—the great internal ordinance and subjective sacrament of religion.

In the Catholic Church there is another sacramental opinion distinctive of that Christian sect,—the belief that the Roman Church is divine and infallible. The Protestants have also their distinctive, sacramental opinion,—that the Scriptures are divine and infallible. The consistent Catholic tells you there is no salvation without the belief of his sentimental doctrine; consistent Protestants claim the same value for their Shibboleth. So a man is to be "saved," and "reconciled with God" by faith; a general faith,—the belief that Jesus of Nazareth is the only Son of God; a particular faith, — the belief in the divine and infallible Church, or the divine and infallible Scriptures.

Then the Catholics have certain additional outward sacraments, which are subsidiary, and called the "ordinances of religion,"—such as baptism, confirmation, penance, extreme unction, and the like. The Protestants have likewise their additional outward sacraments subsidiary to the other, and which are their "ordinances of religion,"—such as bodily presence at church, which is enjoined upon all, and is the great external artificial sacrament of the Protestants; baptism for a few; communion for a selecter few; and belief in all the doctrines of the special sect,—an