Page:William John Sparrow-Simpson - Roman Catholic Opposition to Papal Infallibility (1909).djvu/129

 ] the infallible guidance of the Holy Spirit, as long as all, in their respective positions, whether as Teachers or Believers, are acting and believing according to the unchangeable Deposit, for the preservation and right understanding of which the power of binding and loosing and of feeding the whole flock has been conferred upon the supreme Pastor."

4. Milner's End of Religious Controversy was written to explain the Roman tenets to Protestants and to remove misapprehensions.

"When any fresh controversy arises in the Church, the fundamental maxim of the Bishops and Popes to whom it belongs to decide upon it, is, not to consult their own private opinion or interpretation of Scripture but to enquire what is and ever has been the doctrine of the Church concerning it. Hence their cry is and ever has been on such occasions, as well in her Councils as out of them: So we have received; so the Universal Church believes: let there be no new doctrine; none but what has been delivered down to us by Tradition. The Infallibility, then, of our Church is not a power of telling all things past, present, and to come, such as Pagans ascribed to their oracles; but merely the aid of God's Holy Spirit to enable her truly to decide what her faith is and has ever been, in such articles as have been made known to her by Scripture and tradition. This definition furnishes answer to divers other objections and questions. … The Church does not decide the controversy concerning the Conception of the Blessed Virgin, and several other disputed points, because she sees nothing absolutely clear and certain concerning them, either in the written or the unwritten word, and therefore leaves her children to form their own opinions concerning them. Finally his Lordship, with other controversialists, objects against the Infallibility of the Catholic Church, that its advocates are not agreed where to lodge this prerogative, some