TO THE RIGHT REV. DR. BOWEN, BISHOP OF THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH OF SOUTH CAROLINA, ON THE OCCASION OF HIS SANCTIONING THE PUBLICATION OF A PROTESTANT CATECHISM. REVISED FROM THE UNITED STATES CATHOLIC MISCELLANY. "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour."-EXOD. XX. 16. AUTHOR'S INTRODUCTORY NOTE. The following letters originally appeared in the UNITED STATES CATHOLIC MISCELLANY, and are now, at the request of several persons, published in pamphlet form. It will be perceived that they do not assume a controversial character, and therefore are by no means to be considered as a sufficient defence of the tenets of the Roman Catholic Church which are assailed in the Catechism. This defence may be found in the controversial writers of the Church. The object of those letters is merely to show the impropriety of placing this Catechism in the hands of persons seeking instruction: it is a subject of deep regret that it should have been put forth by as amiable a society of ladies as any other of equal numbers in any place. And a hope is indulged that they will withdraw it. RELIGIOUS TRACTS. Published by "The Society of the Protestant Episcopal Church for the Advancement of Christianity in Pennsylvania," for the "Episcopal Female Tract Society of Philadelphia." A PROTESTANT CATECHISM SHOWING THE PRINCIPAL ERRORS OF THE CHURCH OF ROME: IN FOUR PARTS. I. Of the Rule of Faith, and the Infallibility of the Church. II. Of the Pope's Supremacy, and the Treatment of Heretics. III. Of Errors in the Worship of God. IV. Of the Sacraments, and other points of doctrine and practice. ADVERTISEMENT. The following publication is among the Tracts of the Society (in England) for the promoting of religious knowledge: with the exception of a few alterations, not affecting any truth of our holy religion. The notes which have the letters Ed. appended to them, are ADDITIONS to the original publication. 2 VOL. II. WORKS OF DR. ENGLAND. PART I. (CONTINUED.) DOGMATIC AND POLEMIC THEOLOGY. A PROTESTANT CATECHISM. PART I. OF THE RULE OF FAITH AND THE INFALLIBILITY to read them, or, as they have opportunity OF THE CHURCH. St. Mark xii. 14. 7. Q. May all people read the Scriptures? A. They not only may, but it is their duty to hear them read; for our Saviour has expressly commanded to search the Scriptures (John v. 39); and St. Paul ordered his epistle Do you not therefore err, because you know to be read to all the brethren (1 Thess. v. not the Scriptures? 1. Q. Are you a Christian? A. Yes, by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. 2. Q. What do you understand by Christian? A. One who professeth to believe Christ, and to obey him. a in 3. Q. To what church, or society of Christians, do you belong? A. I thank God, I am a Protestant. 4. Q. What do you mean by a Protestant? A. One who protests against the errors of the Roman Catholic Religion, and admits no rule of faith and practice but the holy Scriptures. 5. Q. What do you understand by a Roman Catholic? A. One who acknowledges the Pope to be supreme head of the Church, and besides the Scriptures, receives whatever the church of Rome directs, as the rule of faith and practice. 6. Q. Are the Scriptures a full and sufficient rule of faith and practice? A. Yes; the Scriptures being the word of God, cannot but be a sufficient and perfect rule, and "able to make us wise to salvation." (1 Tim. iii. 15.) "Ye are clean through the word which I have spoken to you." (John xv. 3.) 27); that is, to all Christians: and the Bereans are commended for searching the Scriptures. (Acts xvii. 11.) 8. Q. Doth the Church of Rome allow the free use of the Scriptures to the people? A. No; which is not only very unreasonable, as they are the law by which all men are to be governed and judged, but exceedingly wicked, as Christ and his apostles have commanded us to read them. 9. Q. Why are the Scriptures kept from the people? A. The professed reason is the incompetency of the mass of the people to the right understanding of the Scriptures. The effect is, their not discovering how contrary their religion is to the word of God. 10. Q. Are not the Scriptures obscure and hard to be understood? A. As to whatever is necessary to salvation, they are plain and easy to those who read them with due care, and suitable dispositions. "If the Gospel be hid, it is hid to those that are lost, in whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them that believe not." (2 Cor. iv. 3.) 11. Q. What are those suitable dispositions? A. An humble desire of instruction, and a resolution to practise what we find to be our duty. "Receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls. But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only." (James i. 21, 22.) 12. Q. Do the Roman Catholics allow the Scriptures to be the word of God, and rule of faith? A. They allow them to be the word of God, but not the entire rule of faith, except as explained by their unwritten traditions, and the authority of their church. 13. Q. On what do they found this doctrine? A. On the pretended infallibility of their church. 14. Q. Where do they suppose this infallibility to be placed? A. In that point they are not agreed among themselves. Some place it in the pope; others in general councils approved by the pope; and others in general councils, whether approved by the pope or not. 15. Q. How do you prove that none of these are infallible? A. From many great errors into which several popes and councils have fallen, and from the contradiction of their decrees: one pope condemning what his predecessor had approved, and one council rejecting the decrees of another council.* 16. Q. Does it seem to have been the intention of Almighty God, that there should be an infallible judge among men? A. No; for if an infallible judge had been intended, he would certainly have been declared in Scripture; but there, on the contrary, we are commanded to examine and judge for ourselves. "Believe not every spirit; but try the spirits whether they be of God." (1 John iv. 1.) "Prove all things, hold fast that which is good." (1 Thess. v. 21.) PART II. OF THE POPE'S SUPREMACY AND TREATMENT OF HERETICS. St. Matt. xvi. 23. But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan; for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men. 17. Q. On what pretence does the pope claim to be supreme head of the church t Some popes have been heretical, as Liberius in the fourth century, who joined the Arians, and subscribed an heretical creed. At times, there have been two and three claimants of the papacy, each of whom had the support of no small portion of the Christian world. Of general councils there were none during the first three centuries; and when they were held in the fourth century, in which there were three, the bishops of Rome neither called nor presided in them.Ed. + During 600 years, the bishops of Rome did A. As successor to St. Peter, whom their new creed asserts to have been bishop of Rome. 18. Q. Was St. Peter bishop of Rome? A. It does not appear from Scripture that he was, and it is very doubtful from other history whether he was or not. 19. Q. Had St. Peter any supremacy or power over the rest of the apostles? A. None at all. The apostles at Jerusalem appointed Peter to go to Samaria (Acts viii. 14): they likewise call him to an account for his behaviour, which they could not have done if he had been their superior. (Acts xi. 2.) And St. Paul, speaking of himself, says, "he was in nothing behind the very chiefest of the apostles; and that he withstood Peter to his face, because he was to be blamed." (2 Cor. xii. 11; Gal. ii. 11.) And in the council of the apostles held at Jerusalem, it was not St. Peter, but St. James that presided. (Acts xv. 19.) 20. Q. What do you understand by the Catholic church? A. Not the Roman, or any other church in particular, but the whole church of Christ, that is, the society of all Christian people in every part of the world. 21. Q. How can people who differ so much from one another, as many Christians do, be part of the same church? A. As a flourishing and a withered branch may be part of the same tree.* 22. Q. Is the Church of Rome a sound and uncorrupt part of the Catholic church? A. No; it is extremely corrupt, in doctrine, worship, and practice. not claim jurisdiction over the Christian world. For a long time their authority was bounded by the suburban cities of Italy. In process of time, it reached over the western parts of Europe; in which they were only co-ordinate with the bishops of Constantinople, Antioch, and Alexandria, in their respective spheres. To this day, their authority is disallowed in the widely extended churches of the East.-[Ed. In order to be satisfied of the vast variety of opinion in the church of Rome, it is but to read any history of the Council of Trent. On many important questions, the jarring sentiments were not of any two parties, but of subdivisions without end. Had all this ceased with the rising of the council; yet, what an immensity of error must have been afloat, previously to the bringing of the jarring opinions into contact! But did the discrepancy cease with the determinations of the council? Far from it; while they were yet sitting, the opposing parties in some instances, continued their contentions; each side construing the decisions in its favour. Neither has this been put a stop to since. For instance, the question of the divine decrees has been as keenly argued between the Jesuits and the Dominicans, as between the Calvinists and the Arminians among Protestants.-[Ed. |