The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-05-09

crate the old; but they removed the objects
and occasions of idolatrous worship, leaving
the other things as they found them, and
freely and without scruple making use of
them" Calvin, who was not priest, made
what he called Church without one, and in
his institutes" directs unquiet consciences
to go to their self-copsttuted pastors. Aud
the Puritans repudiated or reformed Calvin.
They razed the altars discredited the orders
of the ministry, superseded the sacramental
system of the Church by a do-nothing-
faith only System of the results of which
Luther himself was ashamed.
They converted the priests of God
they we're sent, and could not tell by what
authority they taught the things they did
teach. And so, by process of attenuation
and intimidation of the Catholic usages of
primitive antiquity, they assimilated them
selves to those who never had any authority
except an authority like Korah and his com
pany in the Church of God.
The puritan in heart, inside aud outside
the Church, still denounces that as Romish
which has always been held in the church
catholic, and in every part of it; and this
church is the only one bulwark from behind
which the puritan can point his guns,
and they are all antique and wornout
artillery which will not bear to be dis
charged, and which are more fatal to
those in the line of their breech than
to those in the line of their muzzle. The
fundamental truths of religion are acknow-
legged to be contained in the creeds of the
Church, and were at first believed as they are
now, because the Church taught them before
any New Testament was written. And Bishop
Bull says:-''The Church does not deliver the
articles of religion as essentials of faith, but
simply as body of pious principles for the
preservation of peace, to be subscribed and
not openly contradicted by the clergy" The
laity are not obliged to subscribe them, and
Arbishop Usher says, 'We do not oblige any
man to believe, but only not to contradict
them" And Bishop Hall, in his Catholic
propositions, says:-''The points of faith are
contained in the canonical Scriptures and in
the ancient creeds, received and allowed by
the whole Church. There are and may be
many theological points which are wont to be
believed and maintained by this or that par
ticular Church, or the Doctors thereof or their
followers, as godly and profitable truths, be-
sides those essential aud main matters of
faith, without any prejudice at all to the COM
mon peace of the Church. But it is not law
full for the same persons to impose or intrude
the same doctrines upon any Church or per-
son as of necessity to salvation, or to eject
out of the Church any person or company of
men that think otherwise. - Vindtcdtt0n, %.
213.
may now enumerate briefly, with few
comments, some of the points on which our
branch of the Catholic Church differs from
the Church of Rome, and you may rely on
my statements as judicialy impartial, no dis
honesty being in my mind more odious than
that which undertakes or overrates the ex-
pressions of an opponent. L do this for the
information of the unwary, as we'll as for the
confutation of ill-informed Protestant and
Popish takers, who know not what they say or
| &c l. II
care for anything but momentary partisan
success.
First, then, we ject the supremacy of the
Pope. We are willing to concede to him a
| primacy, as patriarch, or presiding bishop
of the Latin Church, but we deny his su-
premacy in the Catholic Church, because all
bishops are equal, and no bishop can be su-
preme over his brethren. We are willing to
grant that the Pope, in q general council
of his province, may come to right de-
cisions on faith and usage, but we deny
that he is infallible. This simple
! denial is a corrective of all erroneous
additions to the faith once delivered to the
saints, which additions were made by Papal
authority or insinuation. The Roman Church
has of late been forced to lay aside her tenn
poral power The English Church is now
voluntarily adherent to temporal privileges
of endowments and State support, which the
of so that the Presbyterian Establishment
in Scotland and the English Established
Church are the only two organizations allied
to the State by pecuniary aud privileged ties,
and trying there with lamentable non-success
to serve two masters. believe the English
Church will soon be severed from the State;
and l hope it may be somewhat impoverished
in the process, or at least have it's now un-
! justly allotted endownents redistributed in a
fairer and more equitable way.
Thus in the matter of temporalities the
various branches of the Church are drawing
together again, rejecting human treaties with
States and Kings, and preparing for reunion
| in dependence upon the Divine support OF
Christ without any State aid, when the time
shall come to reunite.
In regard to the doctrine of justification
by faith, the best divines do not think the
doctrine of the Council of Trent so far from
the truth, or the Lutheran doctrine so near
it, as that an honest mind could not strike
a man which would obviate grave objections
on both Sides and unite the opposing parties.
Our articles on justification are so cautiously
expressed that Roman Catholic could, ]
think, sign them freely. But Methodism
brought in the Lutheran doctrine in a flood.
1t is of this doctrine, which Luther claims to
have discovered, that Luther himself thus
writes, IF God had not shut my eyes to con.
sequences, If had foreseen the scandal
should create, would certainly never have
yentured to propagate my doctrine. Ed
Walch. vi. 920.
In the matter of Observation-Disclosures
assertion of a real objective presence is nc
longer thought by intelligent theoloeians OF
devout Christians to imply any physical OF
carnal presence, but sacramentai. snirituaI
mystical, and real presence For on a calon