Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

hath also spoken of the same deviation from the pure standard of the Gospel, and of the introduction of a spiritual despotism; and therefore it cannot be objected as a new and strange thing, of which no caution was delivered, and for which no provision was made, that the Church of Christ hath not been infallible in her professions of faith, nor immaculate in her forms of religious service. The sum of these several admonitory predictions is collected by St. Paul in the text, in which both the cause and the effect are unfolded. The Spirit speaketh expressly and without reserve, that in the latter times and after-ages of the Church, some considerable part shall apostatize from the faith-from the faith delivered to the saints, giving heed to erroneous spirits, and doctrines concerning mediatory demons, through the hypocrisy of liars, having a conscience "seared with a “hot iron, forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats"."

66

The cause of this apostasy is an undue attention to erroneous spirits and doctrines

g 1 Tim. iv. 1, 2, 3.

concerning demons, derived from the subtlety and hypocrisy of liars and inventors of fables, who without remorse forbid to marry, and command to abstain from meats. This prophecy will repel every imputation, which the superstitious or the unbelieving can allege against the providence of God in the corruption of his Church, if it can be shewn that the pure faith of the Gospel has been abandoned through a preference to the traditions of men; that the just authority of the Church has been exceeded and abused through the subtlety of liars; and that by these means the worship of the dead, the prohibition of marriage, a distinction of meats, and many legendary and traditional errors in worship and in faith, have been introduced, so contrary to the principles of the Gospel, as to be equivalent to an apostasy from the faith.

1. The difficulty of settling the rule and standard of faith is generally admitted; and the subject is said to be worthy of all the penetration and acuteness of the theologian, since it is the hinge of every contro

versy concerning the faith". The following propositions contain the principal doctrine of the Romanist on the insufficiency of the Scriptures, and the use and value of an uninterrupted tradition. The Scriptures

"of no use as an independent rule of "faith;" they serve only " with a powerful aid to support... the divine truth of the "faith which we have received." "The "well taught Catholic does not apply them

definitively1;" to him they are but as a "silent letter," which can give him "no "security"," and which require a judge and an interpreter besides the private judgment of the reader". Every article of "faith is founded on the word of God, "written or unwritten; the latter is derived "from immemorial tradition, the former

66

h Tractatus de Ecclesia Christi. Autore Lud. Ægid. Delahogue. nunc in R. Catholico S. Patritii Collegio Dogmaticæ Theologiæ Professore, p. 492.

[ocr errors]

i The Faith of Catholics confirmed by Scripture, and attested by the Fathers of the first five centuries of the Church; inscribed to the Catholics of the United Kingdom, by Joseph Berington and John Kirk, p. xiv. k Ibid. p. xv. 1 Ibid. p. xvii. Delahogue, p. 90. m Berington, p. xvii.

n Delahogue, p. 90.

[ocr errors]

"consists of the Scriptures, and the de66 crees of General Councils." Thus are the Scriptures a law and rule of faith.. and they alone can be strictly called the Words of God who speaks, the Oracles of the Holy Spirit, from which, in those things which they contain, it is unlawful to depart. Tradition, which means doctrine not written in the canonical Scriptures, but read in the decrees of Councils and the writings of the Fathers", is one of the sources from which the Church ought to derive doctrine which may be confirmed definitively by its sovereign judgment; " and a Catholic finds no more difficulty "in assenting to any truth she

proposes to

Gandolphy's Defence of the Ancient Faith, vol. i. note in p. 409 to 416. This work, after receiving the strongest testimonies of approbation from the highest authorities at Rome, has been suppressed by the Romish ecclesiastical authority in England. The extracts from it are copied from a pamphlet, entitled, "The Dangers "with which Great Britain and Ireland are now menaced 66 by the Demands of Irish Roman Catholics, shewn and "proved from authentic Documents."

P Delahogue, p. 104. - q Ibid. P. 408.

r Ibid.

"him as an article of faith, than he would "in admitting the oral testimony of God "himself;" and "should any point of his "belief seem to receive little support, or " even no support from any text of Scrip"ture... its truth is not thereby affected." This unwritten tradition has therefore the force of the written law"; and from its connection with the deposit of the faith, a supposition of its failure, or of the corruption of its integrity, would cast a reflection upon the providence of God. The "honour" of our Saviour "demands that the "general body of those whom he has really "chosen to be the spiritual guides of others "should speak no other language but such as "flows from God himself. Confiding there"fore in the pledge which Jesus Christ has given, that his sacred trust will never "be betrayed to the powers of darkness, every Catholic regards their decision upon any controverted

[ocr errors]

66

[blocks in formation]

article of faith

t Berington, p. xvi. x Ibid. p. 420.

y Gandolphy, vol. i. p. 398, 399.

« AnteriorContinuar »