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Show 4 4 4.44-V-f -f -f4l i-f4- -' - : THE PML SYLUWS : X With a. Refutation of the Errors Which It Condemns a Translated from the Italian of L'F.Ueonl. A Sixteenth Error "Man may in the j practice of any religion whatever, find the way to salvation and attain to eternal eter-nal life." Seventeenth Error "Yv'e must at the very least entertain go.nl hope of eter-; eter-; nal salvation of all those who are with-i with-i out the fold of the true church.',' Refutation In t,he last propos'.tk.n we saw that God har. not left the choice of a religion to the discretion of man, but that He has on the c ontrory, distinctly dis-tinctly prescribed the particular manner man-ner in which He desire.; to be worshipped, wor-shipped, establishing the Church as ita authoritative exponent, and obliging all to conform thereto under the penalty of being separated from His f ld and incurring eternal damnation. "Sit ti'oi sicut ethnicus' et public anus, qui non credident condemnabitur." From this it follows that thof- who are without the Church cf Christ, are not on the road to salvation, and cannot, therefore, there-fore, arrive at eternal life. The Good Shepherd confided His entire Hock to the care of Peter: "Pace agues meos, pace oves meas." hence the lambs and eat ranged, and do not, properly speaking, speak-ing, belong to Christ: if t.e Good Shepherd Shep-herd desires to receive them. He will bring thern back to the fcld of Peter, because He has ordained that there shall be but one true fold, and one true shepherd. But, if these wanderers continue con-tinue in their mudness, and refuse to hearken unto the voice of Chrit: calling call-ing them to Himself, they will inevitably inevit-ably become' a prey to ravenous wolves or be hurled headlong over the precipice preci-pice which yawns at their feet. Our Divine Savior constituted Peter chief shepherd of His flock; Peter consigned his charge to Linus, Linus to Clement, and so on through the long line of ages until the acces'.-ion of the present incumbent in-cumbent of the Holy See. Thus, too, it will continue even unto the consummation consum-mation of tht worid. Christ established this unity of fold and shepherd in the interest of His Church; and aj this Church was destined to outlast Peter and fulfil its mission until the end of time, He ordained that others rfioull succeed to the office of the apostles, clothed with the duty of ministering to the wants of His lambs and sheep, and that this succession should continue in an uninterrupted line cf shepherds until un-til the world returned to its original nothingness. There are three different ways of belonging be-longing to the true Church: First, I tho.ie who have been baptized -and are faithful in the observance of the whoI law are members of the body and soul of the Church. Second, those who have , been baptized, but do net live good, j Christian lives, belong to the Churcn, ! provided they have not been cut off by j excommunication. Third, there are . some who belong only to the soul of ! the Church: and in this case are em- j brrerl 11 t'hntp v.ha arp in invinr-ihl ! ignorar.ee, and labor under a moral impossibility of escertaining the true Church, but who are nevertheless influenced influ-enced with love for God and desire to conform entirely to His holy will: i "Delectio Dei est plenitudo legis." Thesa latter observe the whole law fm-plicitly, fm-plicitly, because, it is impossible to love Almighty God without at the same time desiring to d His will in all things. There may, then, be vast numbers of men Who, though materially living in heresy or svjhism, are formally members of the soul of the Catholic Church. Such are in all probabilitp those poor, ignorant people who are wholly taken up with the duty of providing for their own necessities; and who have, perhaps, never been able to properly understand the treason, of which their rulers were guilty in separating them from the true Church. Negative infidelity is not a sin, ay the Church has expressly de-clared de-clared in condemning the doctrines of ! Baina; man should net be held respon- i sible for what he doe necessarily, and ; St. Augustine speaks in extenuating : terms of error su;j:ained without ob-etimacy, ob-etimacy, tmore especially in these who; have received it from others and whose j I hearts are well disposed towards the i truth. , j All that has been hitherto said re- j garcis those only, who are without the ,' Church through no fault of their own; who live in good faith and labor under an igncrance, which it is morally im-pessibie im-pessibie for them to overcome. But they who have at hand the m-earo of enlightening their ignorance, and yet icfuse to profit by their cp- poriuniLittj; wm iiirougn mDuves oi t:elf intercut and human respect, or inter'tand human re-pect, -or through fear eif the hatred and persecution of men, do not endeavor to remove their doubts and put their consciences Jt roz-t theca people have no real desire to ascertain which ii the true religion, j and are content to flatter themselves with that most fatal of all daluisi-onj, ; the hepe that they can be tuved in j any religion whatever. If they are without the rale cf the Church, by reaecn cf their own culpable ignorance, there is no hope to be entertained of their happintct in the world to come. The mere fact that they are indifferent, that they do not care to do what i.s r.weesiary and proper in a matter of e3 extreme importance as is ti-.3ir eternal salvation, is in itself a most sericua fault; such conduct is at variance with every principle cf reason; it is a contempt con-tempt of Godn gcodnti-e, and he who act.5 in this manner will in his turn be despised by Almighty God,' "Conicm-nabitur." "Conicm-nabitur." Eighteenth Error. "ProtC'Hantii.'m i-3 but another form of the iumo true Christian religion, in which fcrm ic '.o given to pleu.ve God equally a? in the Catholic Church." Refutation. Protertan.V.''m, say our adversaries, 13 nothing more or le;i3 than another form cf the same true Christian religion and in it we may please Almighty God equally as well as in the Catholic Church. Protestantism merely another form of the true Christian religion! The true Christian ieligion is wholly based upon the principle of authority: "qui crediderit salvus erit;" Protestantism, on the contrary, rejects all authority, and it ia built upon the doctrine of private judgment in the interpretation of the scriptures. This isi not " a mere difference in form; it is a difference, which reaches to the very tence c? I Catholicity an.! Pntcvtanti-sm. um t f-.-rves to di.-ringui.-h one from t re-Other. re-Other. The doctrine cf private judgment, judg-ment, carried to iM logical d-.-veh p-ment. p-ment. can only result in the couipi-t-annihilation of all supernatural reli-giv-n. iftrci' it is that I'mte-Ua!:ci.-mi. having rejected the auth riry of ti;.-Church, ti;.-Church, vasi unable to prterve it. integrity and was divided into a th ui- :jnd and or.. different -;.-tR Wer- it not 0r the conservative force whi.-ii emanate.-; from the civil power and kti r-' these various sects' together lik-sheep lik-sheep iii a. fold. Pntestnt:.--m wouM today have merely a nominal exi.-it-n ; there would no longer be anv denomi-! denomi-! nr.tii'T. but only U'jlatel individual.--. ' vungiir.g anr.mg tSunvelve"- and 1 e-t in the maze of uncertainty and d ub:. The true Church of Christ is. ..n th contrary, as fresh and igorot:s now . .j when she issued from the hands of h r Divine Founder. She has zt aloiisly preserved all the truths ei-mir.itt. 1 to her keeping, and stiii contirut. s l' preach them in ail their native pur'uy to the nations of the earth, in accord ance with the S.-ivior'.o precept. "Io-cente.; "Io-cente.; cos srrvare omnia qau-cunqti'-manlavi vobis." She has and always mi.-, had but one faith, una Fid1.-, unchanging un-changing and unchanged. On th oth-i-han-i, the most hideous confusion prevails- among Protestant?: s-:ue deiiy one truth. sm ar.-.ihf r, and if all th various -ects be considered in the complex, com-plex, they wilt be found to have i(,ft not a fingie truth intact: some reject one sacrament, some, another: some refuse re-fuse to admit the real presence of out-Lord out-Lord in the Eucharist, some the ne .--pity of Baptism; and others, au'ain, deny the Divine inspiration of the Scriptures. Not knowing what t believe amid this Babylonian confusion of jarring sects. Protestants have fallen into th- absurdity cf distinguishing between fundamental dese trir.-.?; but even in this they have not been able to agree, and some have gone so far as to assert that the Turks themselves admit all th essential dogmas of th-j- Chrhniuti reiigion and should therefore, 1 regarded re-garded as belonging to the Church of Chrisit. Gol has. confounded the w-dom w-dom of these proud men. Unwilling t. submit to the divinely constituted authority au-thority of the Church they have'bcHi humbled and ch-hased to the extent of being at last forced to affiliate themselves them-selves in religion t the followers' of the Koran. Common sense teaches us that God cannot lock with equal favor upon, truth and falsehood. He i-.s truth it-self, it-self, and hates falsehood by a necessity cf His nature. It is. therefore, an absurdity ab-surdity to say that men can please God in the various Protestant sect?, which, makes an open profession of error and are based upon the false assumption that God has not established a supr-m-i ; and infallible leacher to guard, ;nu r-: r-: pret and explain the truths? o: revli-j revli-j tion. j It is a falsehood to assert that t ik, i human reason is adequate to the r-i--x. " ! of explaining thee truths: it is eq-'.ally I false to affirm that there is any iYur.-daticn iYur.-daticn for the distinction which Pro-j Pro-j testants have f;-?n fit to establish b - tween fundamental and non-fundamen-! tal doclrines. Christ de-sired that men should believe with the same submission submis-sion and observe with the same fidelity, ; all the truths taught by Kim; and th.u they should accept all those truth; i through a like motive, that is, on the ; authority cf His divir.-j word. The errors er-rors cr Protestantism are numberless: ' nor i3 there anything surprising in th .t fact: the sects are inspired by the spirit . of falsehood, and are c or sequently ca.-L about by every wind of doctrine: they ; are the auxiliaries employed by the fc.ther of lies in his cease'tSM warfare against truth. This warfare will not terminate until that tremendous hour when Christ r.all invite the h;e?s--d of His Father to receive the kingdom pre- ' pared for them from all eternity, and when the enemies of God shall listen to that terrible sentence of divine justice: "Depart, ye cuised, un:o the everlasting everlast-ing fire which was prepared for the c-;vil and his angels." (To Be Continued.) |