Alexandria gazette & daily advertiser. [volume] (Alexandria [Va.]) 1817-1822, 1817-10-03

history. IL II
.ve,s s,bsr tristan viii admit, that no
ore without dirins faith can arrive a.
tha. seat Of eternal bles'edneSs, Tor when
man was created. Heb II. o. inc
object OF iaith is truth revealed by Inc
redeemer. Hence it will justly follow
that the belief Of falsehoods is not iai'h'
,r at least not that species ct faith'
.sw;;bout which no one can be saved.
Now let us take member OF two church
IS and aualize their faith; let them be
Catholic and an Unitarian. The Catho-
lie believes, that he redeemer is Tod, the
Unitarian believes, that he is not 600.
Ii is unnecessary TO observe, that 1t the
object Of the Catholics faith be true, that
If the Upitarian's creed is absolute false.
This being granted, it follows, that ell
,ber one or the other of these two creeds
is essentially displeasisg to God, "who'a
being is uncreated and essential TRUTH
Now, speaking ou this subject 81
Paul says, Il Tim. 2, a God wishes
all men to b. saved and to come TO me
knowledge Of the truth" Therefore, he
wishes either the Catholic or the umta'
rian (ior one of them must err to re-
nounce his error. Now, maintain, that
without some iwaHiSls tribunal, it is i'm
possible, generally speaking, for any one
to discover with absolute certainty. land
such certainty is necessary tor faith)
what i, the truth revealed by Almighty
God. Let him read the scripture, you
will say. This is not sufficient to set the
dispute a. rest. First, because it is CD
scu e.; secondly. because, without re-
course to soae intallibility some where
or other, no one can be insallibly certain
that the scripture is the word Of 6od;-
thirdly, supposing even the scripture to
have once been the word Of God, no Pro-
testant can prove that, during the whole
time in which it was in the hands OF ia
pis,s, before the reformation, these wick
ed Papists did not corrupt it-'hus Its
authority is doubtful; fou;tbIy, suPpo'ins
even that it was no. corrupted by Papish
m,leyolcnce and bad faith, no one can BE-
absolutely certain that his scripture con-
talns the correct reading, unless be were
acquainted with the ancient customs and
ideoms of the Jews, and with the Old Ian
euages of Chaldea, and the Hebrews,
- : --i~- and Grerk This Ennuledgn
is not the pOrtiou of every one. Now,
before the scripture be OF infallible au
thority, you must put to flight this crowd
o stubborn objections to its authority =
you must use nothing for this purpose but
the scripture itself; (the scripture, you
know, sir, is the only rule Of faith among
Protestants) you must have no recourse,
sis, whatever to tradition, or to the wri-
tings Of The holy fathers: il you do, you
will stumble into the pale of popery.
But you may reply, those things which
are Of absolute necessity are clearly con-
tanned ia the scripture. Surprising even
this to be true, you have only done away
with the first objection l will not, how
ever, grant the truth of this reply. tits
Of necessity to keep the Sunday holy,
aud yet this you can never prove from
scripture: the scripture always says tha,
Saturday must be kept holy. Besides, if
Ourreply were true, how happens it that !
the point between the Catholic and Uni
tarian has net been settled by the sc,ip-
ture. There have been Unitarians ever
since the fourth century, and yet thirteen
hundred years Of discussion. each party
with the scripture in his hand, and citing
passages from that sacred volume, has not
been allie TO terminate their dispute
Still the object Of their dispute strikes at
the very root Of salvation will still
make another concession, and grant thar
the scripture is no. obscure: still, how