Washington telegraph., 1856-06-11


rebuked by those who speak by the book
of the Pope's infallibility; and for Rome,
they cannot speak authoritatively, nor of
her, do they speak understandingly.-
Within our limits we can but briefly re-
fer to testimony. No divine teacher
of ROme's dogmas, speaks with more
Overshadowing claims to confidence than
does DR. Brownson All admit this; and
because the Pope and his consistories of
bishops, his satraps and his emissaries,
endorse, as orthodox, his views of Rome,
you cannot refuse to admit him as a cred
ible witness, however much you affect to
disbelieve in the power for harm of the
inevitable tendency of the unchecked
growth of the principle to which, by the
force of his reasoning, the power of his
eloquence, and the subtlety of his dan
gerous arts, he may lead the popular
mind if not disabused of the errors which
he clothes in SO specious garb. Right
ly considered the most skillful logician
of the day, he leads the intellect which
receives his premises as correct, to con-
clusion, which seems not less the result
of following the line of thought which
he pursues, than does it seem the truth
itself. But premises, although they be
correct, if they cover only half the ground
to be gone over, cannot lead to a knowl-
edge of the truth. For instance, to prove
that temporal and spiritual sovereignty
does and should of right inure to the
Romish See, DIR. B:ownson says:
''if the church is the spiritual power, with
the right to declare the law of Christ for
all men and nations, can any act of the
State in contravention OF her canOns. be
regarded as law? The most vulgar
common sense answers that 1T cannot
Tell US, then, even suppOsing the church
to have only spiritual power, what ques-
ton can come up between man and man,
between sovereign and sovereign, between
subject and sovereign, or sovereign and
subject, that does not come within the
legitimate jurisdiction of the church p
None"
And so far as his reasoning goes,
it is perfect. But this logic has for its
foundation premises which ''coyer only
half the ground to be gone over in de-
termining these questions. 1t is evident
that, although he does not assume IN
terms that the Church of Rome is the
true Church, he does SO By an appeal to
the faith of those who will admit it, and
the eredibility of those who have not suf-
ficient intelligence to perceive the fallacy
of his basis and hence it is that, argu-
ing from fallacious premise, he deduces
conclusions which are worth no more than
the false theory which he takes as the
groundwork of the doctrine which he as
serts Is right Rather are we right p
For We deny what he asserts as the Sc
quence of his queries to s.
'-Unreasoning faith in unquestioned porer,n
to wit: "that the power she (the
church, exercised over sovereigns in the
middle ages, was not usurpation, but was
and IS hers by diuine right"
Is this the true doctrine, and will YOU
Americans suffer or allow it to become
supreme This is the question which
Protestant America is called on to try
against the most unscrupulous foe to hu-
man liberty that ever immured thought
in a dungeon, or dragged lie, forced out
by agony too awful for human endurance
from the lips of victim to the torture O
rack. Look at the truth, as il relate:
to the Romish dogma concerning the grea
fountain of all truth, all light, all liberty
Rome keeps the Bible from the people
and yet pretends to reverence the Bible
as the repository of the faith. The Pro
testant world recognize the Bible rs th,
great teacher of social, moral and politi
cal duties, and give it into the hands o
every man to read aGd conclude for him
self The people find in the Bible N,
warrant for an exclusive faith-no au
thority for an universal and inquisitoria
surveillance of the human race. the DOW
er to exercise which, to the end of the
issues of life and death, is claimed b,
the Church of Rome. Is not the Romisl
creed an exclusive faith? does not the
vicar of the Lord of Heaven, to give hin
his self-arrogated title for the sake O
courtesy, claim the right-the diriu,
right, to examine here, condemn there
and make each and all subservient to hi.
viii, which he says is the essence OF tn,
faith and the form of the duties commit
ted to the saints, who, by keeping it anC
performing them, have glOrifcd the foun
der and prescriber thereof? Who car
deny it, And where is the warrant ?
And If it is true, as we contend, that tn,
Romish See set up these claims, and i
they have no warrant, as we believe. anC
as the Protestant world assert, and have
declared In testaments written with tht
blood of martyrs, to the right to thinl
1 C. i L