The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1868-03-01

such fundamental principle is fraught will
errors and leads to absurd consequences
that will be enough; for the foundation
being shaken out, the whole fabric must fall
to the ground, and it will become useless te
Now, it is easy to show that the Protestant
principle which lays down the Scriptures
alone as the only rule of faith, draws with
itself several absurdities and impossibiiities,
many evil and pernicious, immoral and inn
pious consequences.
| Faith is firm and mistaken belief that
excludes all hesitation, all doubt, all uncer-
tainty. Therefore, it must be grounded on
indisputable and irrefragable motives,
which alone can give an absolute certainty.
| But those Indispensable and irrefagable mo-
tives cannot be found in the Scriptures alone,
| which, considered in itself, is a dead letter,
lying open to any meaning which any man
will please to afix to it. In order that the
Scriptures, alone and by itself, would afford
motives absolutely certain on our faith, it
should be required that each text should
have meaning indisputable. But this is
ssot the case, as daily experience shows that
the plainest texts are the objects of so many
discussions; and this cannot be the case in
the Protestant system, where all men have
an equal right to discuss and to interpret as
they please.
Let us suppose that q law-giver would
frame for q people constitution and laws,
and statutes, and leave the whole to the
private Interpretation of every man, with
out appointing magistrates and judges en-
trusted with the right-let us say, rather,
the duty-of interpreting and applying the
constitution and laws. Would not COM
plete social anarchy be the unavoidable
consequence of such an act of folyf Now,
we ask of any man of good sense, whether
it would not be impious and blasphemous,
to ascribe such an act of folly to Almighty
God, in supposing that, in giving us his
law in the Scriptures, he has left it, unpro-
tected, to the private Interpretation ofevery
man, without entrusting any one with the
right and duty of explaining and applying
the samef Do we not see the working of
that blasphemeus system in Professionalism,
whereas reigning an increasing confusion
of belief, or rather of opinions, and reli-
gious anarchy completely irremediable 2
Moreover, faith is applied to the truths
which we cannot see with the natural light
of our mind. Such is the notion of faith
given rs by st. Paul, when he says, in his
Epistle to the Hebrews: Gath is the con-
viction of things that appear not" And
st. Gregory the Great, whom we quote here,
not as q doctor of the Church, but simply
as a man Of learning and good sense, COM
menting on this text; justly remarks: ssAEhat
we see with our mind, is not the object of
faith, but the object of knowledge"
But we cannot reasonably believe what
we do not see, unless we rely on some, good
and competent authority. We know that
our Protestant friends don't like that word,
authority but they can't escape it. And
since faith is an unshakable belief, it must
be grounded on an authority which is abso-
futely certain, and can never mislead or
deceive us. In plain words, faith necessa-
rily requires an infallible authority to rely
upon; faith is grounded on infallibility;
and where there isno infallibility, there can
be no faith, but mere opinion, uncertain
and changeable.
Here we come to the very heart of the
question. Where does that infallibility
reside without which faith cannot exist If
it cannot be found in the Church, it must
reside in every man reading the Scriptures,
and Professionals, who recoil at recognizing
infallibiiity in the Church, are compelled to
acknowledge it iii every individual Such,
in fact, is the foundation of the Protestant
system; and Luther says positively, that