Oh! how greatly do these men dishonour Christ, who dare add, to his all-perfect atonement for our sins, such foolish inventions of their own! And how awfully are these poor souls deluded, who, instead of believing in this all-glorious, almighty, all-sufficient Saviour, for remission of their sins, rest their hopes partly on Him, but still more on their own observances-their own foolish, trifling penances, and pilgrimages, and nonsense, for which they neither have any command in the Scriptures, nor any promise that God will accept of them at their hands. Christ himself says, "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."* John the Baptist says, "The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand. He that believeth in the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him."+ St. Paul says, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved."+ And St. Peter: "Neither is there salvation in any other for there is none other name under heaven, given among men, whereby we must be saved." || The prophet Isaiah says, "All we, like sheep, have gone astray: we have turned *John iii. 16. + John iii. 35, 36. || Acts iv, 12. Lord hath every one to his own way; and the laid on him the iniquity of us all. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows. He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted; yet he opened not his mouth: He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before his shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, (or redeemed.) He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities."* St. Paul says, that, " being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ."+ And the same truths are taught through the whole Bible, and not one single word of any other way of salvation for the sinner-not one single word about confession to a priest—or penance or stated fasts-or repeating prayersor such like. Just think of yourself, and the state of your mind when you are employed in such observances, and then think whether you indeed would choose to appear before God, Isa. liii. 6, 4, 5, 7, 10, 11. + Rom. v. 1. trusting partly to them for pardon and acceptance, without any other authority for doing so but the word of your priest-or whether you would not be in a far other-in a true state of peace and safety, if you cast yourself wholly on the offered, all-sufficient atonement of the Son of God? But we have as yet only mentioned those lies you are taught respecting the means by which your souls are to be justified and pardoned in the sight of God;-for this is the most important of all subjects; but you are equally deceived respecting the holiness required by God, and which is really produced in the hearts and lives of all true Christians. The Scriptures say, in a great many places, that "God looketh on the heart," and that it is holiness of heart that he requires. On this subject your priests lead you into the most dangerous errors; for they teach you not only that you may in part atone for your own sins, but also that you can in part make yourselves holy. Now there is nothing so important as to know the truth on these points; for, as long as we believe that any thing we can do, shall either, in the very smallest degree, atone for our sins, or justify us in the sight of God, we are deceiving our own souls; neither shall we ever attain to that true holiness required by God while we believe this lie, for we must receive all power to be holy from Christ as well as complete pardon for our sins. He must be altogether our Saviour. He says, "Without me ye can do nothing;"* and He will not give His Holy Spirit to teach you any other doctrine than that already taught in His word. Your priests are, therefore, on these points, blind leaders of the blind. They teach you that, by being baptized into the Catholic Church, you become a true Christian, and that, if you do what the Church directs, then you are holy. But this does not even resemble the doctrines taught in the Bible. Christ himself 66 says: Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a man be born from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God.-Except a man be born of water, and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." Christ here says, that a man must both receive the outward baptism of water, and the inward baptism of the Spirit. Now, you are taught by your priests that the baptism they administer to you includes both of these-but surely a moment's reflection would convince you that this cannot be true. They can baptize you with water, but God alone in Christ baptizes with the Holy Spirit. What they teach you is not the doctrine of the Bible; for the Bible teaches, that, wherever the Spirit of God is given, He * John xv. 5. + John iii. 3, 5, 6. produces a complete change of heart—as complete as if the heart was renewed or born again. St. Paul says: "If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His. As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God." And he also teaches us how we are to know whether or not we have the Spirit of Christ. He says, "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance."+ Now, if any Catholic who has been baptized, finds that he has these holy tempers always reigning in his soul, then he may believe that he received the Holy Spirit at his baptism. But St. Paul also describes the state of the unrenewed heart-the flesh-the natural heart. "Now the works of the flesh are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God." If a baptized Catholic finds these, or any of these evil tempers reigning in his heart, or if he lives in the commission of any of these sins of the unrenewed mind, whatever his priest may say, the word of God says that he has not the Spirit of Christ; and, therefore, + Romans viii. 9, 14. + Gal. v. 22, 23. Gal. v. 19, 20, 21. |