The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1899-12-23
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! SELECTIONS FR9F1 READINGS :
Is There Salvation Out Of the Church of Christi



exclusive doctrine? If all kinds
of belief were equally good, or
the right belief not absolutely
necessary to salvation, it might reason
ably be asked, why did Jesus Chrlst
and His Apostles, after Him, take SO
much pains to instruct the people anu
teach them the things they were to pc
lieve and warn them against doctrinal
error? Their efforts would have been
useless and only calculated to trouble
| the minds of the people and cause as
sensions Yet st. Paul is so care1ui
and so anxious that we should keep our
| faith pure, he tells us: IF an anger
| from heaven preach gospel TO you
beside that which we have preachea
! to YOU. let him be anathema." Could
/ he express himself in stronger terms +!
Does this not prove of what great con-
sequence it is to have the right faith
not any faith? If a gospel preached
| (were it possible) even by an angel
| contrary to that one preached by the
| Apostles. should become so apomlh-
able, how can the followers of Luther
and of the minions Of Henry VII
and his successors be tranquil? To err
wilfully is to go out of the road TO
! heaven. In the epistle to Titus ST.
! Paul says ga man that is a hereto,
after the first and second admonition,
avoid; knowing that he is such a one
is subverted and sinneth. being con-
demned by his own Judgment
/ MT. -. I,o cd
had a right to exact what conditions of
salvation he pleased. 1t is a vain and
dangerous curiosity to inquire into the
secrets of Providence, to ask why
faith and faith in things superior to
our understanding is required of us.
We have only to examine whether such
a faith is demanded of US, and when we
! find that faith is necessary to our
salvation, we must bow our proud
heads and curb our curiosity. The
sentence pronounced against heret1cs
| (who according to the definition given
of the word in a Protestant catechism
are they that teach a different faith to
! that of the church, is decisive. In the
second epistle of ST. John is said:
whatsoever recedeth and continueth
not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not
God" and st. Paul in his letter to the
| Gallacians, reckons heresies among
| the works of the flesh, which hinder
those who do them from obtaining the
kingdom of God. To say, therefore,
that heretics, or as Protestants style
them. those who teach different faith
from that of the Church, are not in the
way of salvation, is the true doctrine
The Church of England is so con-
WINGED that a right belief is necessary,
that besides teaching in her catechisms
/ that baptism is necessary to salvation,
I that to be saved it is necessary to be
a member of the body Of Christ, which
| is the Church, she adds in her Profess
sion of Faith: 1--WE are justified by
faith only" And in the 18th act de-
clares: "They are to be accused that
presume to say that every man shall
be saved by the law or sect which he
! processes, so that he be diligent TO
frame his life according to that law
and right Of nature; for Holy Scrip
ture doth set out unto US only the name
of Jesus Christ whereby men must be
saved" The Church of Christ begins
from Him who is her head. Every
Church that has had her birth in later
times is not the Church that was built
on Peter is not the Church st. Paul
calls the pillar of truth. The true
Church could not err, and consequently,
could not need reforming. When this
was attempted the Catholics might
justly address the reformers in the
words of St John: "They went out
from us, but they are not of US. For if
they had been of US they would no
doubt have continued with us.
In conclusion, would ask if the texts
of Scripture are so plain in condemning
those who do not believe, if the Apos-
ties have been so anxious to teach the
world all the truths they had learned,
if st. Paul so strongly recommends to
abhor every novelty in point of belief,
if he declares that without faith it is
impossible to please God, and asserts
that there is but one faith, if ST. Paul
again assures us that heretics cannot
inherit the kingdom of heaven, what
can excuse the negligence of those per-
sons who uncertain of the truth of
their belief, do not content themselves
with following the doctrine in which
they were brought up, although their
teachers openly avow they have no pre-
tension to infallibility and therefore.
tacitly admit that they may be leading
their followers astray?
A good life and invincible ignorance
do not without baptism supply the de-
feet of actual visible connection with
the true. Church. Baptism is the new
birth by which we become members of
the family of which Christ is the head.
One can no more be a member of the
Church of Christ without baptism
than one can be a member of the human
family without being born of woman.
Good intentions and invincible ignor
ance presuppose baptism.
merry of Santa Apollonia and found
fI.o,-r