ROMANISM. 



were, have ended in the system 

 which we have been considering. 

 And it is strange that the humility 

 of Christ, " whose kingdom was not 

 of this world," to the extent that he 

 would not even give an opinion re- 

 garding the division of an inherit- 

 ance between brothers, should have 

 one like the Pope claiming to be his 

 vicegerent, or " God on earth " the 

 supreme ruler in things temporal as 

 well as spiritual who has shed 

 oceans of blood, and tortured the 

 bodies and souls of men, for no 

 other offence than reading God's 

 Word, and entertaining conscien- 

 tious opinions in consequence there- 

 of. Such a phenomenon, with all 

 its idolatry, can only be accounted 

 for for some such reason as that al- 

 ready given, viz : " And for this 

 cause God shall send them strong 

 delusion, that they should believe a 

 lie, that they all might be damned 

 who believed not the truth, but had 

 pleasure in unrighteousness " (2 

 Thess. ii. n, 12).* 



The Pope has been declared to 

 be infallible to enunciate, but what 

 would that avail if his followers are 

 not equally infallible to understand ? 

 Does this Italian " God on earth " 

 reveal his will from day to day in 

 Latin, when he might not infallibly 

 understand that language ? Who in 

 that case would guarantee the infal- 

 libility of his scribe, or the infal- 

 lible correctness of the translations 

 into the languages of all the tribes 

 of the earth, or their infallible 

 meaning to the bog-trotters and 

 brigands, or the most ignorant 

 of beings, clothed in rags and 

 covered with vermin mere Mum- 

 bo Jumbo religionists who are 

 the most devoted of Romanists? 

 In short, we would require to be 

 all infallible to make the infallibility 

 of one of any use to the world ; and 

 then the infallible proclamation of 

 that one would be in a measure 

 superfluous. As it is, the Pope, 



* See page 53. 



manifesting his divinity in the hear- 

 ing of one who did not understand 

 his language, would illustrate the 

 saying of St. Paul, when he wrote : 

 " If I know not the meaning of the 

 voice, I shall be unto him that 

 speaketh a barbarian, and he that 

 speaketh shall be a barbarian unto 

 me " (i Cor. xiv. n). And who is 

 to decide when the Pope speaks ex 

 cathedra, and when he does not 

 speak ex cathedra, or how can that 

 question be settled ? For all practi- 

 cal purposes, every priest, according 

 to the system, is infallible in the 

 teaching he gives his followers, or 

 how can they feel sure that what he 

 tells them is truth ? And what 

 would that avail them, if they were 

 not also infallible to receive and un- 

 derstand what he tells them ? Un- 

 der any circumstances, even with 

 Romanists, there must be the right 

 of private judgment, whatever it 

 might result in. 



Rather than " search the Scrip- 

 tures," which he dares not say are 

 not infallible, the Pope would have 

 nothing less than the human family 

 receive, as divine and infallible 

 truths, his dogmas, conveyed 

 through a variety of earthen con- 

 duits, some of them being of the 

 basest materials; while he, or the 

 synagogue of which he is the chief, 

 infallibly assures us that mankind 

 at large can make nothing of these 

 Scriptures, and would be guilty of 

 the highest presumption, if not ab- 

 solute profanity, in even attempting 

 to do it, unless in rare instances, or 

 by priestly permission. Of these 

 same Scriptures St. Paul wrote to 

 Timothy : " From a child thou 

 hast known the holy Scriptures, 

 which are able to make thee wise 

 unto salvation through faith which 

 is in Christ Jesus" (2 Tim. iii. 15). 

 The apparent trouble of the Pope 

 in regard to the Scriptures is to get 

 rid of their circulation, and perhaps 

 themselves, altogether, if he could 

 do either with any show of decency ; 

 and, not being able to do it, beyond 



