| OCR Text |
Show tin Cwo Bribers .M$on Controversial Dialogue Between a Presbyterian and His Catholic Brother, Leading Up to Former's Conversion. The Presbyterian brother, James, set up that the Greek church had equally as good claim to infallibility as the Roman. John's answer disposed of that argument, and James presented the pretention of the Anglican church as the genuine Catholic church. "The Anglican church," replied John Milwood, "as well as your own, puts on lofty airs, and she now and then tells us gravely that she is Catholic not Roman, but Catholic and let off her double battery of pop-guns on the one hand against Rome, and the other against Presbyterians, Baptists, Con-gregationalists, Con-gregationalists, Methodists, etc., but she has not courage enough to claim to be the Catholic church in its unity and integrity. She claims, at most, to be only a branch of it, which implies that the root and trunk are elsewhere and she does not even pretend that the supreme visible central authority she obeys or exercises is the supreme visible vis-ible authority of the whole church of Christ. Moreover, she confesses that she is fallible, that she has heretofore ners, and may err again. Her claim, therefore, is not the same as that of the Roman church, and her title is not, strictly speaking, an adverse title. So you can succeed no better with her than with the Greek church, or than with your own." Ed. I. M, C XX. "But you told me the other clay," replied re-plied James, after a short pause, "that the essential character of the Romish church is, that she claims to have received re-ceived a divine commission or authority author-ity to teach, or to keep and declare the word of God." "To keep and expound or teach the word of God, I grant; but I conceded this only so far as concerned the special spe-cial controversy in which we .vere engaged, en-gaged, as I then told you. Nevertheless, Neverthe-less, I admit now that the essential claim of the church is, that she has been divinely commissioned or authorized author-ized to teach the word of God." "Then you must concede that any other church claiming to be divinely commissioned is an adverse claimant." "Divinely commissioned to veaen, granted." "Then it is not true that there .'s no adverse claimant against Rome, as you so confidently assert; for, in point of fact, the Greek church, the Presbyterian, Presby-terian, and the Anglican each claim for itself to be divinely commission-ad." "The Greek church claims the commission com-mission for herself in no sense in which she does not conceae it to .no me, and therefore is not an adverse claimant. claim-ant. The Presbyterian and Anli.-an churches do not in reality claim it at all; for both deny the fact of a -?ivine commission in denying the infallibility of the church." "But to deny the infallibility is not necessarily to deny the divine commission com-mission of the teacher; and, therefore, not to claim the infallibility is not to fail to claim the commission." "The commission in question is the commission to teach, and must be the warrant of infallibility in the teacher, unless God can authorize the teaching of error." "That proves too much. All the teachers of your church, you hold, are divinely commissioned; but you cannot can-not hold that each is infallible; for if you should, you would be obliged to hold that Luther himself did not err, since, as is well knowrn, . he was at first a Romish doctor." "The teachers of the church are all divinely commissioned to teach in communion com-munion with and in subordination to the sovereign pontiff, the successor of St. Peter, I admit, and so long as they so teach, they teach infallibly; but whem they break away from that communion com-munion and assume to be independent teachers, they are fallible, for then they have no divine commission." "Is there any of these teachers, taken tak-en individually, who may not break from that communion and assume to be an independent teacher?" ','No one except the pope himself." "What, then, is your warrant that your particular teacher does not err?" "The fact that he teaches in communion com-munion with and in subordination to the sovereign pontiff." so tne pope is nis voucner : "Communion with the pope." "Who vouches for the pope?" "The divine commission which gives him, as the successor of St. Peter, plenary ple-nary authority to teach and declare the word of God.". "If the pope should fail, your whole church might fall to the ground?" "Not necessarily; but the pope cannot can-not fail, because he is divinely commissioned. com-missioned. As the successor of St. Peter he Inherits the authority of St. Peter and the promise made to him: 'Upon this rock will 1 build my church, and the gates , of hell shall not prevail against it.' The pope, therefore, there-fore, since he has the promise of God, cannot fail, unless God himself can fail, which is not supposable." "But your argument, nevertheless, proves too much; for all legitimate civil governments are divinely commissioned, com-missioned, and yet no man can pretend pre-tend that they are infallible." "Commissioned to govern, but not to teach or declare the word of God. There is a difference between the commission com-mission to govern and the commission to teach. Teaching has reference to the conscience, to the internal act of the man; government only to external acts. The teacher is commissioned to teach the truth; government is commissioned com-missioned simply to control and direct the external acts for the general good, according to the rules of prudence; and to attain its end it is not essential that it should be able to propose measures which are absolutely in .all and in every respect the wisest and the best; nor is it necessary, in order to believe it. for the general good, and to obey. all ita commands, that the subject should believe it infallible, or that it can never err in any one of its measures. meas-ures. He can obey an unwise order, and it may be for the general good that sometimes "he should do so. But the end of teaching is the proposition and belief of the truth. All teaching is order to truth. If the teacher be fallible, the end of teaching is not secured; se-cured; for he may propose, and I may believe, on his proposition, what is not true. The commission is authority from God to teach and a command com-mand to those the teacher is commissioned commis-sioned to teach and to believe as the truth, and nothing but the truth, what he teaches. If fallible, then, he may propose, and I believe on divine authority, au-thority, what is false; and then God may authorize the teaching and the believing of falsehood which cannot be; for he i3 infinitely true, and can neither be deceived nor deceive, which would no be the fact, if he could authorize the teaching or the believ-t believ-t lng of falsehood. Therefore, the divine di-vine commission to teach and it is only of the commission to teach that I speak must necessarily be the warrant war-rant of infallibility in the teacher. "Though the divinely commissioned teacher be assumed to be infallible, the commission is not itself necessarily arid essentially warrant of his infallibility?" "To the full extent of the matter covered by commission it is, you yourself your-self do and must admit." "I do not admit it. A commission by the simple fact that it is a commission does no such thing; for a government may commission an ambassador, and yet the ambassador may misrepresent its will and intention." "Commission in general may not, but the divine commission to teach does. Human governments have no power to secure the infallibility of their ministers; minis-ters; but you cannot say this of God. He can make his ministers infallible." "He-can; but it does not, therefore, follow that he does." "I have shown that he must, because be-cause he cannot authorize either the teaching of error, without contracting his own nature, which is infinitely and essentially true; and that he does, to the full extent of their commission to teach, you yourself do and must hold, or give up all belief in external revelation." revela-tion." "Not at all." "Why do you believe our Lord was a son of God?" "Because he himself so declared." "Why do you believe his declarations?" Because he was the Son of God and could not lie." "A good reason, after it Is proved that he was the Son of God; none at all before." (To be Continued.) |
