"You reject the Roman pontiff as head of the church. I confess, I expected no such thing; especially as I saw you so ready, shall I say so pious, a defender of the pontiff as assailed for many ages by the rage of a thousand calumniating foes. "Melanchthon, Grotius, Leibnitz, acknowledged the beautiful monarchy in the church; and thence greatly lamented that the Roman pontiff was rejected by the Reformers, and saw and hoped for the remedy to the calamities of Christians, from that corner stone on which Christ built his church, that was forever to vanquish the gates of hell. With those learned professors I also associated you, a learned professor, rejoicing thus to magnify both you and my high respect for you. Pardon at least my intention, however grievous to you may have been the expression of my desires. Doubtless I should have been silent, had I foreseen the pain it would give. "With many errors and even pernicious heresies, have the reformed reproached the reformed. These cannot have escaped the notice of so learned a man as yourself. I by no means doubted your rejection of these errors, these heresies, though sailing amid their billows. To me the language of your narrative savored of neither an errorist nor a heretic. Do you expect me to change my opinion? But the Romish faith,' you say, 'neither has been, nor is, nor will be to me the only true faith.' Why then should I now discuss and dispute? It is decided. According to you, the Catholic church has usurped the exclusive possession of truth, which other communities, teaching contrary doctrines, can also claim for themselves. For her intolerable pride, therefore, the church is to be rejected; for how can she be tolerated, if she is a proud and unrighteous usurper? Now, too, there exists no deposit of the faith, which deposit the apostle commanded to be kept; but where will the deposit stand when there shall be no depositary? For who will dare to attribute the depositary to himself, if all, though teaching contraries, may rejoice in an equal right? Montanus says, I enjoy the deposit; and the same thing is said successively by Manes, Arius, Nestorius, Eutiches, Pelagius, and so many myriads of other renovators. Good God, what a deposit of the faith! if there is no society especially designated by Christ exclusively for its custody! What a Christianity! What a church! how squalid! how monstrous !! ' Should some reflecting but illiterate Protestant be disposed here to suspect, 1847.] Roman Catholic Views. 549 "Pardon me, most excellent sir; for from my inmost heart I cleave to the faith commended by Christ, the faith, I say, which was strengthened and sustained by the Saviour's prayers. Simon, Simon, saith he, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat; but I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not.. Always have I believed, that the faith of the prince of the apostles was confirmed and fortified by these words; and not merely the faith of Peter, the first pilot of the church (otherwise he gave nothing more to him than to the rest of the apostles), but also the faith of all Peter's successors, who were to rule the church which was at no time to be conquered by the gates of hell, the church, I say, the pillar and ground of the truth.1 Hence the Roman Leo said, The solidity of this faith which was commended in the prince of the apostles, is perpetual; and as what Peter believed in Christ remains, so what Christ instituted in Peter, remains. Power lives in the faith of Peter, and Christ's authority excels. You will say, perhaps, that Peter is dead. But Chryologus answers, Peter always lives in his see, being represented by his successors, and ever stands before those who seek the truth. Relying on this belief, Irenaeus the disciple of Polycarp intimated, that all heretics were confounded by the Romish see and succession; Augustine boldly declared, that a cause was decided as soon as Rome had spoken; and Jerome was allied to the chair of Peter, following no other but the Roman pontiff. 'Never, you add, is the Romish or Catholic church the only saving church. But it was only to the pastors constituted according to the hierarchy established by himself, that Christ said, The Holy Spirit shall teach you all truth, and suggest to you all things that the sound is in the inverse ratio to the sense, he may be assured that the above is no uncommon specimen of papal logic on such themes. Witness also what follows. It is the best that can be done in such a cause.-TR. 1 So the bishop has always believed. Peter was distinguished from the other apostles only by Christ's thus praying that his faith might not fail. And this prayer was to be equally answered in all his successors on the papal throne, making them the effective guardians of the sacred deposit and the sure guides of the church. Even a Borgia, acknowledged by Catholics themselves to have been one of the wickedest of men, and utterly destitute of Christian faith, was to have his faith so strengthened that it would never fail him. And on this hangs all the supremacy of the Romish church. So our bishop believes. And on his belief of such a point, and on the very doubtful belief of certain early writers whom he proceeds to cite respecting the supremacy of Rome, he seems still to hope that such men as Prof. Voigt may be induced to suspend their faith.-TR. whatsoever I shall have said unto you; go ye therefore and teach all nations. They who alone have the truth, and who alone are sent to teach, how shall they not alone have and confer salvation? Do not the way, the truth, and the life walk with equal steps? He walks in darkness who follows not Christ, the way, the truth, and the life. He follows not Christ, who hears not the church constituted by Christ; and he is to be regarded as a heathen and a publican. Truth, too, is one; for as, according to Paul, there is no coming together of light with darkness, and of Christ with Belial, so neither in a collection of various and alien doctrines with eternal truth. who are born of non-Catholic Judge me not so, I earnestly belong not to the body of the 'Perhaps you will imagine all parents to be condemned by me. beseech you. I know many, who Catholic church, to belong to the soul of the church; very many to err, and not to be heretics. Truly desirable it is, that all should be united to the external body of the church, that all within and without may be one body in Christ; but it is one thing to long for this union, and another to condemn the erring and thrust them all indiscriminately into hell. "Many things still remain to be said respecting your letter; but there is a time to be silent and a time to speak. But, candid professor, though you do not admit the expression of my wishes, yet do not, I pray you, reprobate the earnest longings of my heart as also not to be uttered. Daniel was heard because he was a man of longing desires; but you would not that my sighs for you be heard. But at least, if I am not deceived, the hour will come, known only to the Omnipotent, when you will no longer regard me as a stranger. Too happy shall I be, if the Holy Spirit himself shall penetrate and vivify us with the same unction. Meanwhile, if the impulse of your conscience induce you to pray for me, most certainly the prayers of your heart will not hurt me. Let Christ mould these and you will be safe. "You would not that Gregory VII, but that Christ should meet you as you enter the celestial palace; and yet I confidently say, if it be given you to enter the celestial palace, you will exult at Christ's meeting you, and yet will not repel Gregory. You have celebrated and honored him when dead. You will salute and caress and admire him when glittering in splendor. He opening his arms to you, you will also open yours to him. At home you will not be an enemy to him whom you defended in exile. For 1847.] Result of the Correspondence. 551 you, learned Sir, most sincerely do I long for the day that shall know no end; the only true and unfailing glory; the only unfading crown. "Thus put I an end to the interchange of letters between us. I desire, as I ought, to live and die a Catholic. Do not condemn the charity of the holy mother church when offering her bosom, though you refuse her breast. As I unroll the book of eternity, as I think of the snares of error, as I recollect the enemies of truth, as I ponder the fallacies of a trifle-loving life, for myself and my friends I beg for whatever is good and holy and safe, and dread whatever is injurious, and despise what is transient, and fear what is perilous. For what shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul! "Farewell, dear Professor, and do not repel my complaisance. CLEMENT, bishop of Rochelle." Prof. Voigt informs us, that he did not think it worth while to go any deeper into the discussion, and here the correspondence was closed. The letters were read to a few confidential friends, and a copy of the first two was given to a person of distinction, through whom they found their way to the king of Prussia. The king was so much pleased with Dr. Voigt's letter to the bishop, that he ordered his ministers to write a brief note to Dr. Voigt, expressive of his high satisfaction. This note and the bishop's last letter reached Dr. Voigt at about the same time; and he was earnestly pressed to publish the whole correspondence. But sen. timents of delicacy towards the bishop, who had spoken to him in language of such respect and affection, prevented him, for some years, from yielding to such entreaties. At length, however, in 1844, he found to his surprise, that the bishop had been restrained by no such delicacy. Soon after the correspondence was closed, which was written in Latin, a translation of the whole had been published in a French journal," Ami de la Religion," in December, 1839; and from this French translation another had been made into German and published in a Catholic journal of February, 1840. Nor was this the worst of the matter. 'On comparing the translation with the original letters, Prof. Voigt found in many passages the sense of the words in part so altered and in part so craftily beclouded, that he could not sufficiently wonder how one could allow himself in such mistranslations and distortions.' By such a use of these letters, and by further learning of a so ciety which existed in the diocese of Rochelle for the express purpose of making proselytes to the papal church, and which gloried in its great success at the period when the letters were written, Prof. Voigt 'became perfectly convinced that the bishop, in his letters to himself and Hurter, had merely in view the work of proselyting, and that his panegyrical compliments were merely al. lurements to the only saving church.' These letters of the zealous bishop may afford us some idea of the means employed by the Romish church for making proselytes in this country and England as well as in France and Germany, and may well increase the conviction that secret arts have been very extensively used to excite and increase the widespread movement in the papal direction. Rome is as wise in the selec tion of her objects as in the use of her enchantments. Occasion. ally she may mistake, as in the case of Voigt and of Hurter. But men of feebler intellect and greater vanity, or more superstitious propensities, fall a more easy prey. ARTICLE VII. THE HISTORY OF DOCTRINES. By Rev. Henry B. Smith, West Amesbury, Mass. Lehrbuch der Dogmengeschichte von Dr. K. R. Hagenbach, Prof. der Theol. in Basel. Erster Theil. Bis auf Johannes Damas cenus. Zweiten Theiles erste Hälfte. Von Johannes Damasce nus bis auf die Reformation. Zweiten Theiles zweite Hälfte. Von der Reformation bis auf unsere Zeit. Leipzig: 1840-41. Compendium of the History of Doctrines. By K. R. Hagenbach. Translated by Carl W. Buch. Vol. I Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark. [Clark's Foreign Theological Library, Vol. IIL] 1846. Lehrbuch der christlichen Dogmengeschichte, von Dr. F. Ch. Bauer, ordentl. Professor der evangelischen Theologie an der Universität Tübingen. Stuttgart, 1847. No book is at present more needed in our theological literature than a good history of doctrines. Dr. Murdock's translation 1 |