mination among the Lutherans, which was founded in the year 1550, by Andrew Osiander, a celebrated German divine, whose doctrine amounted to the following propositions : 1. That Christ, considered in his human nature only, could not, by his obedience to the divine law, obtain justification and pardon for sinners: neither can we be justified before God by embracing and applying to ourselves through faith, the righteousness and obedience of the man Christ. It is only through that eternal and essential righteousness which dwells in Christ, considered as God, and which resides in his divine nature, that is united to the human, that mankind can obtain complete justification. PA APISTS, so called by protestants, from their adhering to the pope. Roman Catholics is the title which they apply to themselves. The word pope is derived from the greek of Пaras, which signifies a father. Hence he is styled the Father of the Church. This pontiff is likewise called the Vicar of Jesus Christ, the Visible Head of the Church, and the Successor of St. Peter. He wears the keys, as an emblem of his power to 2. That man becomes a partaker of this divine righteousness by faith, since it is in consequence of this uniting principle that Christ dwells in the heart of man with his divine righteousness. Now, wherever this divine righteousnessdwells, there God can behold no sin : therefore, when it is present with Christ in the hearts of the regenerate, they are on its account considered by the Deity as righteous, although they be sinners. Moreover: this divine and justifying righteousness of Christ excites the faithful to the pursuit of holiness, and to the practice of virtue.* OSSENIANS, a denomination in the first century, which taught that faith may and ought to be dissembled.† open the gates of heaven to repentant sinners, and to excommunicate obstinate offenders. And he wears the triple crown, to inform the christian world that he is constituted with spiritual jurisdiction over priests, emperors, and kings. This denomination suppose that the bishops of Rome are the descendants of St. Peter, and in that quality have from the beginning exercised jurisdiction over the churches. On the other hand, many protes *Mosheim, vol. iv. p. 46. tant writers have dated the rise of the papal power from the year 606, when Pope Boniface the third assumed the title of Universal Bishop, conferred upon him by Phocas, ending A. D. 1866. Others fix it about the middle of the eighth century, A. D. 756, when Pepin invested Pope Stephen with the temporal dominion of Rome, and the neighbouring territories, upon the ceasing of the exarchate of Ravenna. They suppose in the primitive church the jurisdiction of bishops was equal and co-ordinate. They derived perhaps some degree of pre-eminence from the dignity of the see in which they presided. They possess ed, however, no real authoriy or pre-eminence, but what they acquired by superior abilities, or superior sanctity. As Rome had been so long the seat of empire, and capital of the world, its bishops were on that account entitled to respect. They received it but during several ages, they claimed and received nothing more. From these humble beginnings they advanced with such an adventurous and well directed ambition, that they established a spiritual domi nion over the minds and consciences of men, to which all Europe submitted with implicit obedience, till at length their formidable power was weakened by the reformation. The principal points which distinguished the papists from the protestants, together with a few of the reasons they bring to support their sentiments, are comprised in the following summary : 1. That St. Peter was designed by Christ to be the head of the church; and the bishops of Rome, being his successors, have the same apostolic authority. For our Saviour declares in Matt. xi. 18, Thou art Peter, and upon this rock will I build my church: therefore the church is built upon Peter.* A succession in the church is now necessary in the new testament, as Aaron had his succession in the old; but there can be no certain succession now shewn only in the chair of St. Peter at Rome : therefore the bishops of Rome are the true successors of Peter. The church of the old testament was a figure of the church under the new; but they had a high priest above the rest: therefore the *The general doctrine of the church of Rome is, that Peter was not only appointed by our Saviour the chief of the apostles and head of the universal church; but that, after having been seven years bishop at Antioch, he came to Rome, where he was bishop twenty-five years, and suffered martyrdom under the Emperor Nero, pope is superior to other assures us that, in St. Paul's bishops. 2. That the Roman Catholic church is the mother and mistress of all churches, and cannot possibly err in matters of faith: for the church has the Spirit of God to lead it into all truth. The gates of hell shall not prevail against it. (Matt. xi. 18.) Christ, who is the way, the truth, and the life, has promised to the pastors and teachers of the church to be with them always, even to the end of the world." (Matt. xxviii. 10.) It is from the testimony and authority of the church that we receive the scriptures, and believe them to be the word of God; and as she can assuredly tell us what particular book is the word of God, she can with the same confidence inform us what is the true sense of seripture in controvertedpoints of faith. 3. That the scriptures are not sufficient without tradition, and that apostolical traditions are of equal authority with the scriptures. For St. Peter epistles, there are some things hard to be understood, which they who are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, to their own destruction. (2 Pet. iii. 16.) We are directed to stand fast, and hold the traditions which we have been taught, whether by word or by epistle. 2 Thess. ii. 15. 4. That there are seven sacraments instituted by Jesus Christ; viz. baptism, confirmation, eucharist, penance, extreme unction, orders, and matrimony; and that they confer grace.-To prove that confirmation, or imposition of hands, is a sacrament, the Roman catholics argue from Acts viii. 17: They did lay their hands upon them, and they received the holy Ghost. This imposition of hands, together with the prayers here specified, was no doubt the sacrament of confirmation; for here is an outward sign and spiritual grace: therefore confirmation is a sacrament.† -Penance is a sacrament, in The catholics do not profess to believe that the pope is infallible separate from the church. According to them, infallibility resides in the representatives of the universal catholic church; i. e the body of bishops, unit-ing and agreeing with their head, the bishop of Rome, + The church of Rome maintains that confirmation is that which makes us perfect christians. The bishop administers this sacrament to baptized persons only, by the imposition of hands and prayer. He likewise uses the ceremony, which is not considered universally to be essential, of anointing the confirmed person in the forehead with consecrated oil and balm in the manner of a cross, and pronounces these words: "I sign thee with the sign of the cross, and confirm thee with the chrism of salvation, in the name of the Father, Son, and holy Ghost." which the sins we commit after from James i. 14, 15, quoting baptism are forgiven.* It in the text as it is in the vulgar cludes in it contrition and translation: Is any sick among painful sorrow of heart, con- you? Let him call for the priests fession to the priest, and satis- of the church, and let them pray faction to God for our sins, over him, anointing him with and likewise the absolution oil in the name of the Lord; pronounced by the priest,† as and the prayer of faith shall minister of the sacrament. heal the sick, and the Lord Christ instituted this sacra- shall raise him ap; and if he ment when he breathed upon has committed sins, they shall his apostles after his resurrec- be forgiven him.-That holy tion, and said unto them, orders is a sacrament, apReceive ye the holy Ghost: pears from 1 Tim. iv. 14: whose sins ye remit, are remit- Neglect not the gift that is ted; whose sins ye retain, are in thee, which was given thee retained. (John xx. 23.) The by prophecy, with the laying power of the priesthood to on the hands of the presbytery. remit sins is here bestowed That marriage is a sacraupon the apostles and their ment is evident from Eph. v. successors therefore penance 32: This is a great mystery. is truly and properly a sacra- Matrimony is here a sign of ment. To prove that extreme a holy thing, representing the unction, or anointing the sick conjunction of Christ and his with oil, is truly a sacrament, church: therefore it is a sacrathe Roman Catholics argue ment.‡ *The catholics say that Christ alone, through the infinite dignity of his person, is able to offer up to God a sufficient satisfaction for our sins. But, having satisfied superabundantly, he could apply this satisfaction to us, either by granting an entire remission, or changing an eternal punishment into a temporal one. The absolution given by the priest after confession is in this manner : "Our Lord Jesus Christ, who has left power in his church to absolve all sinners who truly repent and believe in him, of his great mercy forgive thee thine offences; and by his authority committed to me, I absolve thee from all thy sins, in the name of the Father, Son, and holy Ghost. Amen." "Christ (say this denomination) having left this power to the pastors of his church, the sentence is looked upon as rendered by him who has established them judges. It is his invisible High Priest who interiorly absolves the penitent, while the priest exteriorly exercises the function." Notwithstanding this they enjoin the celibacy of the clergy, and pretend that it was enjoined on them, as the condition of their ordination, even from the apostolic age. The church of Rome do not allow their clergy to marry, because they do not think it proper that those who, by their office and function, ought to be wholly devoted to God, should be diverted from those duties by the dis tractions of a married hfe, 1 Cor. xiii. 32, 33. 5. That in the mass there is offered unto God a true and propitiatory sacrifice for the quick and dead; and that in the sacrament of the eucharist, under the forms of bread and wine, is really and substantially present the body and blood, together with the soul and divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ; and that there is a conversion made of the whole substance of the bread into his body, and of the wine into his blood, which is called transubstantiation. In Mal. i. 10, 11, God rejects the jewish sacrifice; but declares his acceptance of that sacrifice, or pure offering, which shall be made to him in every place among the gentiles, which, this denomination suppose, refers to the sacrifice of the mass. Christ, in the institution of this sacrament, said to his apostles, This is my body; (Matt. xxvi. 26.) i. e. that which is contained under the form of bread, is my true body. Christ transfigured his body marvellously on the Mount: (Mark ix.) therefore he is able to exhibit his body under the forms of bread and wine.* It is a matter of discipline, not of doctrine, in the Roman Catholic church, to receive the eucharist in one kind; that is in bread only.+ 6. That there is a purgatory; and that souls kept prisoners there do receive help by the suffrages of the faithful. For it is said in 1 Cor. iii. 15, If any man's work shall be burned he shall suffer loss; but he himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire; which, say they, may be understood of the flames of purgatory. 7. That the saints reigning with Christ are to be honoured and invoked, and that they do offer prayers unto God for us ; The catholics suppose that the change is made when the words of consecration ordained by Christ are pronounced by the priest. Then, after having adored, the priest elevates the host and the chalice, to be seen and adored by the people, and to represent the elevation of Christ on the cross. Christ's words (say the catholics) deter them from referring those exterior appearances to the substance of bread, and teach them that his body is really present: hence they pay it their adorations," The priest, in saying mass, makes a solemn offering to Cod in behalf of himself and the people; and the catholics suppose that Jesus Christ, who is present on the altar, offers up himself to his eternal Father. All the priests, though of the most exalted degree, in private communion, receive, as others do, in one kind. The Roman Catholics suppose that souls are released from purgatory by the prayers and alms which are offered for them, principally by the holy sacrifice of the mass? They call purgatory a middle state of souls, where those enter who depart this life in God's grace, yet not without some less stains, or guilt of punishment, which retard them from entering heaven. |