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.
(Continued from page 266.)
“REV. DR. HODGE says of the Church of Rome, ‘She proclaims the divine authority of the Scriptures,’ and he takes that as his ground for approving those who build up the churches of the Pope. What would the good Doctor think and say were I to go to him with a golden cup half filled with the purest water, but after having put as much arsenic as there is water in the cup, I would tell him, ‘Please, sir, drink; this is good and refreshing water’? Would he not repulse me with horror, and justly call me a murderer?
“Now, what is the Church of Rome doing with the gospel? Does she not offer it to the people only after she has mixed it with her poisonous tradition? Does not the Church of Rome, in the most absolute and positive way, say that the written gospel (which we call the Scriptures) is only a part—an unfinished fragment—of the gospel? Can Dr. Hodge ignore that the Council of Trent has put the tradition (which they call the unwritten gospel) on a level with the written gospel; that the one is of as much divine authority as the other; and that the Roman Catholic is not allowed to drink the waters of life except when mixed with the deadly poison—arsenical preparations—of Popery?
“The learned theologian says that Rome proclaims the divine authority of the Scriptures, but he forgets that it is only on condition that we receive the Holy Scriptures in the light of Romish tradition. For Rome proclaims the divine authority of the Scriptures, but only with the condition that, under that name, we accept the divine origin and authority of the traditions about Purgatory, Transubstantiation, Indulgences, Auricular Confession, Immaculate Conception, Infallibility of the Pope, etc. Does he really accept the meaning which that Church attaches to the Word of God—Holy Scriptures? Does he believe that by rejecting the authority of the one he rejects the authority of the other? Then he is a good Roman Catholic; he is all right when he takes the side of the priests of Rome, and approves the Protestants who spend money in building the churches of the Pope. But if he rejects, with horror, from his lips the golden cup which Rome offers her blind slaves, then he is wrong. The mistake of Dr. Hodge is very common among the honest and unsuspecting Protestants of the United States. They too easily forget that the Church of Rome very often says one thing and means another quite different. When she speaks of the Holy Scriptures with an apparent respect, and proclaims their divinity, many think that she means only that blessed Word of God which is contained in the Holy Bible, such as they have at Princeton College. But it is not so. When Rome speaks of the Word of God, the Holy Scriptures, she means the Scriptures transmitted through the written and unwritten tradition; she means the Apocrypha, purgatory, celibacy, absolution, mass, holy water, works of supererogation, worship of Mary, infallibility, etc.
“She pretends to have the greatest respect for those two things when perfectly united in one body of doctrine. But she does not conceal her implacable hatred of the true Scriptures—the Bible, as Dr. Hodge has it in his hands. That learned man seems to ignore that the Scripture, the Bible, separated from the traditions and the Romish commentaries, is absolutely declared a dangerous, a soul-destroying, book by Rome, and the Council of Trent has forbidden the people to read it in their mother tongue. He also seems to have forgotten that the Bible Society, whose object is to give the Holy Scriptures, unmixed with traditions, notes, and comments, has been, time after time, declared by the infallible Church of Rome to be an instrument of the devil to destroy the souls of men. No doubt the book of the index expurgatory of Rome is in the library of Princeton. Then let him consult the long list of books forbidden for their impiety and immorality, and he will find that his Bible stands at the head of the list. Let him consult the pages of the history of France, Italy, Spain, Ireland, England, Canada, and even the history of the United States, and he will see that Rome, as often as she has found her opportunity, instead of proclaiming the divine authority of the true and unmixed Scriptures, has burned and destroyed them, as we burn and destroy a viper. Yes, let him open the store of his memory and vast science, and he will remember that not only has Rome destroyed the true and undefiled Holy Scriptures every time she could do it safely, but she has invariably condemned to death those who have been found guilty of reading the Bible.
“The memory of Dr. Hodge cannot be so bad as to have made him forget that the Madiai of Florence, and the twelve noble young men in Spain, only yesterday, were condemned to death by the Holy Inquisition for the unpardonable crime of having the Bible and reading it.
“That great theologian, following more the instincts of his kind nature and Christian feelings than the teachings of history, assures us that the Church of Rome ‘proclaims the divine authority of the Scriptures’! Yes, by putting the Holy Scriptures in the ‘Index’, at the head of the most damnable books which hell ever inspired!
“Rome proclaim the divinity of the Scriptures! Yes, by torturing in her dark and filthy dungeons, slaughtering on her gibbets, burning in her auto da fé, the disciples of the dear Saviour who dare to read, love, and follow those Holy Scriptures. Rome proclaims the authority of the Scriptures, says Dr. Hodge. Yes, says the history of these last thousand years; yes, answer millions of martyrs, she proclaims and acknowledges the divinity of the Scriptures just as the Jews acknowledged and proclaimed the divinity of Christ—by spitting in His face, nailing Him on a cross as a criminal, and killing Him between two thieves.
“There are many deplorable things to be seen among the Protestants of the United States, but one of the most deplorable is the fatal tendency of so many to ignore the great apostasy and abominations of Rome. In Europe, where Rome is better known, Principal Cunningham called that Church ‘the master-piece of Satan’—and surely she is the master-piece of Satan. But what a sad spectacle we have under our eyes on this continent! Almost everywhere the Bible-burning Church of the Pope, instead of being sternly opposed by the children of God, is petted, helped and enriched, encouraged, strengthened, and praised by the greater part of them. Everywhere, with very little exception, the Protestants, shutting their eyes to the silent but rapid progress of Rome, sleep when the enemy is raising and arming his impregnable citadels, training his skilful legions, and sharpening his sword for the approach of the inevitable contest.
“But there will soon be an awakening, and it will be a terrible one. When the Protestants see the extent of their incredible folly in so betraying the interests of truth and liberty into the hands of their greatest enemy, it will be too late! There will be then a Roman Catholic President in Washington. The armies of the great Republic will then be commanded by Roman Catholic generals and officers; the fleets will be commanded by Roman Catholic admirals; and the fortresses will be in the hands of Roman Catholic traitors. Then the treasure and the immense resources of this magnificent country will be at the mercy of the Jesuits, at the service of the Pope, and the flag of liberty will be trampled in the dust. Then the American people, who are to-day sold into the hands of Rome by their politicians, and lulled to sleep by their theologians, will understand that when Rome speaks of the divine authority of the Scriptures it only means that the Bible must be dragged out of the schools and torn away from the hands of old and young to make a bonfire.
“There are two things which Rome hates with an implacable hatred. They are the Bible and liberty. At any cost Rome is bound to fight down these two things till they are completely destroyed. But the more she hates our dear Bible and our glorious liberty, the more she conceals her hatred under the most deceptive words and the most fictitious demonstrations of love and respect. It is just when she lays the surest and most perfidious plans to drag away the Bible from the school and the private house that she proclaims most eloquently its divine authority, just as the murderer puts on a smiling face at the approach of his victim, the better to prevent him from being on his guard. Thanks to the betrayals of the politicians and the delusions of the theologians, except God makes a miracle of it, the Bible and liberty are doomed in the United States.
“Till lately I have had my doubts about that deplorable issue, but these last few years’ study of things and men here makes it impossible to entertain any doubt about it. Blind, indeed, must be the man who does not see the portentious signs which foretell that the days of liberty are numbered and will be very short. With the hundred thousand Protestants who give their daughters, their sons, and their money to the Jesuits, and with the connivance—the silence, if not the public approbation—of thousands of ministers who dare not speak out, Rome is raising her proud banner on every hill, in every valley, of the United States.
“See how Rome is ruling in the midst of all our great cities from New York to San Francisco, from Quebec to San Jago. It would require the united efforts—the stern energies—of all the disciples of the gospel to put a stop to the giant power and aggressive work of Rome; but instead of trying to defeat the public and grand conspiracy of Popery against liberty and the Bible, the Protestants, with few exceptions, are vying with each other who will most efficiently give aid and comfort to the enemy.
“Does Dr. Hodge take the ground that the Church of Rome proclaims the divine authority of the Scriptures? But there is not a student at Princeton who does not know that the faith of Rome in the Holy Scriptures, and the so-called proclamation of their divine authority, are founded on what the logicians call a vicious circle.
“Does not Rome boast that she receives the Holy Scriptures because they point to her as the only infallible Church, when, in the meantime, she refers us to those Scriptures to prove the title she has to the supreme respect and submission of the nations? I ask my intelligent readers, what is all that bombast of Rome about her faith in the dignity of the Scriptures if it is not a castle built in a misty cloud high in the air? Who can believe in the divinity of a thing in favour of which not a single reason can be given which can be accepted by common-sense? Who will believe Rome, proclaiming the divine authority of the Scriptures, when she has no other argument or reason to our intelligence than a vicious circle?
“Though there is a great deal of show in the Church of Rome there is no real faith, even among the priests. The little faith which remains has no more solidity than the building raised on quicksand. From the highest to the lowest ranks of Rome, with very few exceptions, infidelity and scepticism are the rule; very few to-day, even among the priests of that apostate Church, care anything for the Scriptures.
“They do not ask, ‘What saith the Lord?’ but they ask, ‘What saith the Pope?’ It is not necessary to be so profound a logician as the celebrated theologian of Princeton to understand that with an ‘infallible Pope’ there is no need of an infallible Bible. It is just because the Scriptures ceased to be an authority in the Church of Rome that it was found necessary to provide another authority to guide the human intellect. As the Holy Bible had ceased to be the oracle—the source of truth—among the Roman Catholics, it was a question of life or death to find or invent a new oracle—a new fountain of truth and life. Yes, it became a necessity to proclaim an infallible Pope the very day that the Holy Scriptures had ceased to be an infallible guide. Many have misunderstood the terrible logic which forced the Roman Catholics—almost in spite of themselves—to proclaim the infallibility of the Pope. To every serious thinker the proclamation of the dogma is the most natural and most logical fact. These last ten centuries the Roman Catholic nations have sternly, but in vain, tried to resist the logical consequences of the false and anti-Christian principles which their Church had accepted as divine truths. The proclamation of the infallibility of the Pope is not only the logical consequence of the rejection of the divine authority of the Scriptures in the Church of Rome, it is also the last and ultimate effort of that apostate Church to get forever rid of the Holy Scriptures, in every page of which she finds her condemnation written. From the profound thinker, Bossuet, to the learned Montalembert, many intelligent Roman Catholics had foreseen and foretold that the proclamation of the infallibility would be a death-blow to the authority of the Scriptures, and would sweep away the last Christian principle from their Church.
“But logic is stronger than men. When men, in a moment of blindness, have accepted a false principle to replace a Christian one which they have rejected, they are dragged, in spite of themselves, into sit fatal consequences. By admitting the divinity of traditions which were opposed to the Holy Scriptures, the Roman Catholics had prepared for the rejection of the authority of those infallible oracles and the necessity of finding some other infallible guide.
“From one abyss the Roman Catholics had fallen into a profounder one, with the same fatal necessity and irresistible law by which a stone must roll to the bottom of the pit the very moment the crumbling support on which it rested on the side of the precipice had been removed.
“By proclaiming the divine authority of the tradition which gives an infallible Pope, and by accepting that man as equal to God in wisdom and science, the Roman Catholic Church has fallen to the bottom of an unfathomable abyss. Human folly and depravity could not go further. The last link which united Rome to the Christian world has been cut. It is no more from Christ—speaking to him through the Holy Ghost in the Scriptures—that the Roman Catholic will receive the truth; it is from the Pope. By taking away the corner-stone, Christ, whom the Father had laid as the foundation of His Church, in order to give place to her infallible Pope, Rome has renewed on earth the awful rebellion of Lucifer in heaven.
“And the Protestants who build the Church of this modern Lucifer—like those who approve them—may be honest and learned, but they are mistaken men. They give help and comfort to the enemy. They are of those for whom Christ said on the Cross, ‘Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.’
C. CHINQUY.”