CHAPTER FROM “FORTY YEARS IN THE CHURCH OF CHRIST.”
REPLY TO DR. C. HODGE OF PRINCETON.
False Liberality with Respect to the Church of Rome.
THE general indifference on the part of Protestants to the real character and evils of Romanism arises largely from the idea that there is a sufficient amount of truth and good in that system to justify its being regarded as a Church of Christ. Cardinal Manning truly stated that “the Roman Catholic Church is either the kingdom of the Son of God or the masterpiece of Satan.” As it is most manifestly the latter, it is certainly not Christianity. The conviction of this must be deepened before much efficient work is done against the diabolical system. It is sad to see some prominent Protestants taking a wrong position on this subject.
Rev. Charles Hodge was a Professor in the Presbyterian Theological Seminary at Princeton for about half a century. He was a man of a powerful intellect and undoubted piety; but on this subject he was weak, and as his opinions had very great weight with many ministers and others, his influence in that direction was, to say the least, unfavourable.
Virgil gives us the history of a skilful mariner, who, deceived by the sweet but perfidious voices of the sirens, perished on the rocks of Scylla. So, when travelling on the sublime and bottomless sea of Christianity, it has been my sad lot to see more than one shipwreck caused by the sweet but deceptive voices of the siren of the man of sin.
The venerable Dr. Hodge was an example of this.* I give here his letter, followed by my reply:—
* Dr. Chiniqy does not mean that Dr. Hodge made “shipwreck” of his soul, but that he was deceived in his favourable opinion of the Church of Rome. Charles Hodge was in many respects admirable as a man and as a divine, but his views about Churches and Church polity were in several particulars too broad, and not safe to follow.—ED.
“MY DEAR SIR,—The question proposed in your letter is one to which wise and good men have given different answers.
“Some say that the Romish Church teaches serious error. As the influence of that Church is everywhere, and, from its nature, hostile to civil and religious liberty, therefore it is wrong to grant it any voluntary support or direct encouragement.
“Others say that, inasmuch as the Roman Catholic Church teaches truth enough to save the souls of men (of which I have no doubt); inasmuch as it proclaims the divine authority of the Scriptures, the obligation of the decalogue, and the retributions of eternity; and inasmuch as it calls upon men to worship God, the Father, Son, and Spirit, it is unspeakably better than no Church at all. And, therefore, when the choice is between that and none, it is wise and right to encourage the establishment of Churches under the control of Catholic priests.
“For myself, I take this latter view. The principle cannot be carried out that no Church should be encouraged that teaches error. For then we could help none but our own. And the principle involves the absurdity that a little error is more powerful for evil than a great deal of truth for good.
“Of course, public men should act on Christian principles, and if it is wrong for a private Christian to help a Catholic Church, it must be wrong for a Corporation to do so.
“While, therefore, I dread the influence of the Romish Church, and recognise its corruptions in doctrines and worship, I nevertheless believe that it is better that men should be Roman Catholics than infidels or atheists. Romanists teach people to worship Christ, and to regard and acknowledge Him as the ‘Salvator Hominum.’—Very truly your Friend, etc.,
CHARLES HODGE.”“DEAR SIR,—Since I accepted, by the great mercy of God, the truth as it is in Jesus, and renounced the errors of Rome, I have now and then heard many strange things about the doctrines of that Church, but nothing looks to me so strange and saddening as the letter which Dr. Hodge, of Princeton, has written to approve the Protestants who build up the churches of Rome. I have just read that letter in your issue of the 24th of August; and though it seems an act of folly on my part to publicly protest against the views of such a learned theologian, my conscience tells me it is an imperious duty to raise my voice against the manifest and most dangerous errors contained in the document.
“If Dr. Hodge had not so many titles to the respect and gratitude of the Protestant community, if he were not truly one of the most shining lights of our firmament, and if his long and matchless service in the defence of the truth had not given him such a title to the confidence of us all, his error would not be so fatal and deplorable, and I would remain silent. My humble position—my very insignificance—would be my excuse, in my own eyes, for remaining as a mute dog in the presence of danger. Even to-day I am tempted to say to my alarmed conscience, ‘Hold your tongue; be still and quiet. You are in the presence of a giant; with a knock of his little finger he can pulverize you. Let these errors go their way and spread; you can’t help. These ugly stones, coming down from a high mountain, roll with irresistible force; you will surely be crushed down if you are foolish enough to put yourself in the way and try to stop them.’
“I see too clearly the errors of Dr. Hodge. I know too well the incalculable injuries they will do to the cause of Christ, to allow myself to be guided by any selfish fear. Though the humblest and weakest soldier of Christ, I have heard Him say to all those who were enrolled under His banners, ‘Fear not.’ Many times the humblest sentinel, from the ignored outpost, has saved the army by sounding the alarm in time.
“Dr. Hodge gives three principal reasons for approving the Protestants who build the churches of Rome. First, The Church of Rome teaches truths enough to save the souls of men. Second, It proclaims the divine authority of the Scriptures, the obligations of the decalogue, etc. Third, The Romanists teach people to worship Christ and acknowledge Him as the Saviour of the world.
“If these assertions are correct, Luther, Calvin, Knox, etc., would be the most guilty men of modern times, and the millions of martyrs whom Rome has slaughtered would be nothing else but rebels justly punished. If the Church of Rome’s teaching can save souls, why should we continue to protest against the great soul-saving Church (?), and why do we not go to the feet of the Pope to make our peace with him?
“Dr. Hodge is a mighty logician. I know it, and he has, probably, many brilliant theories in store to support his position. But the more arguments he will bring to prove that Rome is a soul-saving Church, and that she is a true worshipper of Christ, the better he will prove that Luther and Calvin, with their millions of Protestant followers—Dr. Hodge included—were, and are to-day, the greatest fools and the most wicked of men for having made so much noise—caused so much shedding of blood—to get out of the chains of Rome, the more he will prove the verity of the Rev. Mr. Ecker—’Protestantism is a failure.’ And if the learned theologian of Princeton can persuade the Protestants that they do well to build churches for the Romanists, the surer he will make the prophecy of the same Ecker good—’Before twenty-five years the United States will be Roman Catholic!’
“Had Dr. Hodge been, as I have been, a priest of Rome a quarter of a century, he would have spared his friends and admirers the surprise and sadness we have felt at his strange views on the matter.
“I do not pretend to say I am perfectly sure of what the learned divine means by ‘truth enough to save the soul,’ and I would like to know his mind more positively on the subject. But before I have that favour, I must bear testimony to the truth, and say, ‘After twenty-five years of experience and study as a priest of Rome, I do not know a single truth which that apostate Church has kept intact and unmixed with the most diabolical and damnable errors.’ Let us take the nature, eternity, holiness, and independence of God, for instance, as revealed in Christ and by Christ. What is the god of the Roman Catholic Church, seen or known through the doctrine of transubstantiation? A god made with a piece of bread by a man! Just as Aaron took the bracelets and the earrings of the Israelites, melted them, turned them into a golden calf, and said to the people, ‘These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt,’ so the priest of Rome says to his servant girl, ‘I want to carry the good God (le bon Dieu) to a sick man to-morrow, but there are no more wafers in the tabernacle ; make me fifty wafers or little cakes that I may consecrate them.’ And the domestic mixes the flour with some water, bakes the whole between two red irons on which there is a cross engraved with the abridged name of Jesus. Then she takes her scissors and cuts those cakes, which are originally about five inches large—cuts them into small, round wafers about one inch large, and respectfully hands them to the priest. The next morning that same priest takes those small, round wafers to the altar, pronounces five magic words, and showing to the people the wafers, which are now turned into as many gods, he says, ‘This is our God ; this is the Lamb of God which takes away the sins of the world ; adore Him,’ and the whole people, with the priest himself, falling on their knees with their faces in the dust, adore and worship the new-born or new-made god.
“I ask it—Where is the difference between this modern abomination and the idolatry of the Israelites? The only difference is that the Jewish idolatry was of short duration ; they did not stick to it—they gave it up the next day, and shed tears of repentance. But the iniquity, the awful idolatry, of Rome is a permanent fact. Their wafer-god—their god made by a priest, with the help of the servant girl—is the basis, the life, the grand, constant, and public object of their adoration. I know that the Romanists and Jesuits have very curious though very ridiculous arguments to bind the poor slaves of the Pope, and to prove to them that the adoration of the wafer-god is not idolatry. But I hope that Dr. Hodge will not prostitute his high intelligence in attempting to help the sophists of Rome in the efforts they make to prove to the world that a man can make a wafer, turn it into God, and worship that god which he has just made himself without being an idolater. But if Dr. Hodge confesses that the worship of the wafer-god is an idolatrous act, how can he say that Rome teaches truth enough to save the soul?
“Through her sacrilegious and idolatrous sacrifice of the mass, the Church of Rome has not only dragged back the modern world to the idolatry of paganism, but she has added the brutalizing and degrading dogmas of the priests of Jupiter and Venus.
“During the twenty-five years I was a priest of Rome almost every morning I had to turn into a god a wafer made by my servant girl. I was assured by my Church that that was my true Saviour and my true God. After that I had to eat it in the same way that I eat the food which is on my table. And there are more than 200,000 priests of Rome who to-day believe, and do preach, the same monstrous things. Nay, you do not probably see a single priest in the streets, or in the cars, who does not carry a dozen of those wafer-gods in his vest or pantaloon pockets. And we are gravely told that the Church teaches saving truth about God ! Well, if the reverend theologian of Princeton really believes that the priests of Rome have the power to change the wafer into his very Saviour and God, why does he not go to worship Him at the feet of their altars ? But if—as I am certain of it—that great Christian man would prefer to be thrown into a burning furnace rather than to adore the wafer-god of Rome, how can he tell us that it is no sin to build temples for such a sacrilegious and idolatrous worship ?
“ We are gravely told in that letter that the ‘ Romanists teach Christ, and regard Him as the Saviour of the world.’ Into what strange delusions good and learned men are apt to fall. In writing these lines the celebrated theologian, no doubt, consulted more the kind disposition of his Christian heart than his vast erudition. When the Protestants meet their Roman Catholic neighbours, when they listen to the interesting lectures or read some of their learned books, when they see their smiling lips, their refined manners, they like to conclude that such amiable and learned men are true worshippers of Christ. It does them good to live in that illusion ; they do not even like to hear anything contrary to what they consider the only charitable and Christian way to think of their neighbours. So Rome has many ways to deceive even the most intelligent and learned ones—she is so expert in the art of entrapping and bewitching souls ! Is it not written of that wonderful Church that it will ‘ come after the working of Satan, with all power and signs and lying wonders, with all deceivableness of unrighteousness ’ ?
“ But the kind and Christian, though mistaken, feelings of Dr. Hodge and some other Protestants towards the Roman Catholics will not change the awful truth. The apostate Church of Rome has, long since, forsaken and forgotten the real, divine Christ of the gospel, and has forged another Christ to suit her pride, her lust, and her unquenchable thirst of power and human glory.
“ The Christ of the gospel is the only corner-stone of His Church. The Church of Rome has granted that privilege to Peter. The Christ of the gospel is the head of His Church, but the Christ of Rome says, ‘ It is the Pope that is the head of the Church.’ The Christ of the gospel had promised His Holy Ghost to all His disciples—even to the humblest ones—to guide them in all their ways and teach them the sense of His holy words. But the Christ of Rome has promised his holy ghost only to the Pope, who alone has the understanding of the Scriptures and the knowledge of the truth. The Christ of Rome says to the sinner, ‘ Go to Mary and you shall be saved.’ The Christ of the gospel is the incarnate love towards sinners. He loves them, He likes to be called their friend, He constantly prays for them with a love and mercy that no human language can express. But the Christ of Rome is constantly angry against sinners. He would not listen to their prayers ; he would shut his ears to their humble supplications if his mother were not constantly reminding him of the price he had paid and the blood he had shed for them. The Christ of the gospel is God and man. As God He is as eternal as His Father; He could have no mother. But the Christ of Rome is quite a modern god. He was born about 1900 years ago; his mother is Mary, who everywhere is invoked and called the ‘Mother of God’ by the Romanists.
“As Dr. Hodge is a good logician he will easily find that, if Mary be the mother of God, Saint Anne, who is the mother of Mary, and Joachim, who is her father, must be truly the grandmother and the grandfather of the god of Rome, and Adam his great-grandfather! A most marvelous fact, which, when well understood, will make it more Christian for the Protestants to raise temples to a god who has such glorious grandmothers and grandfathers.
“It is true, as Dr. Hodge says, that the Church of Rome calls her Christ ‘the Saviour of the world.’ But this is just as when her executioners called Him ‘King of Israel.’ It is mockery. For the very moment she has called Christ ‘the Saviour of the world,’ she goes to Mary and calls her also ‘the Saviour of the world.’ Rome says most eloquently in many of her books that Jesus is the hope, the refuge, the salvation of sinners. But this is only to throw dust in the eyes of such good and unsuspecting men as Dr. Hodge. Turn the page and you will see that, with still more eloquence, she calls Mary ‘the only hope, refuge, and salvation of sinners—the door of heaven.’ If some Popes tell you it is through Jesus that every grace comes to man, and that he is the surest foundation of our hope, that glorious truth in the Church of Rome is only a blind to deceive; for many more infallible Popes will assure you, in their infallible encyclicals, that it is Mary who is the surest foundation of our hope. I will not insult Dr. Hodge by giving the names of the Popes and the documents which proclaim those plain, clear, blasphemous doctrines, for he knows them very well.
“The true Christ was meek, and humble, and merciful. He rebuked His apostles when they wanted to punish those who rejected Him. He proclaimed liberty of conscience among men. But the Christ of Rome is a bloody monster, who, through his infallible vicar, the Pope, has approved the slaughter of St. Bartholomew, and covered Europe with rivers of blood and tears.
“No! the Christ of Rome, with his hatred of liberty, his constant oppression to every human progress, his infallible Pope, his holy inquisitions, his hatred of the Bible, cannot be the true Christ who is worshipped at Princeton Seminary. It is an old, false god, smuggled by the Pope from the old Pantheon of Rome, presented to the world under the name of Christ.
“No! the Christ whom I have made, during the twenty-five years, with the help of my servant girl and with a wafer—the Christ who, through his vicar, the Pope, has made me believe the most monstrous lies, who has persuaded me that his body, his blood, his divinity, could be verily and substantially eaten by me, cannot be the Son of the God of truth. He is the father of lies and deception. And the disciples of the true Christ, who raise temples to the spurious Christ of the Popes, may be good, honest, sincere Christians, but they are mistaken. They give a helping hand to the greatest enemy of the gospel; they build up the Bible-burning Church; they strengthen those who, after having destroyed the Bible, will not rest until they destroy every vestige of liberty and true Christianity on earth, even if they have to wade up to their knees in the blood of the disciples of the gospel. The Protestants who build up the Church of Rome give help and strength to the enemy.
(To be Continued.)