Continued from The Papal System – XXXI. Sins Taken Away By Gifts And Favors.

The admission into heaven of a soul is of unspeakable importance, the pledging of which to an unsaved man, or the denial of which to a regenerated child of Jesus, is exceedingly wicked.

The bull “In Coena Domini” is one of the most notorious documents ever issued by the pontiffs; it has been ratified, confirmed, or enlarged by more than twenty popes, whose names and constitutions are prefixed to the bull itself; it has been published for ages in the Eternal City every Maunday-Thursday. One section of this document reads:

“We do, on the part of Almighty God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and also by the authority of the blessed apostles, Peter and Paul, and by our own, excommunicate and curse all Hussites, Wicliffites, Lutherans, Zwinglians, Calvinists, Huguenots, Anabaptists, Trinitarians, and Apostates from the faith of Christ, and all and sundry other heretics, by whatsoever name they may be reckoned, and of whatever sect they may be; and those who believe in them, and their receivers, abettors, and in general, all their defenders whatsoever; and those who without our authority and that of the Apostolic See knowingly read, or retain, or print, or in any way defend the books containing their heresy, or treating of religion.”

In this instrument the popes curse every denomination of Protestants, and every individual who declines to obey the bishops of Rome; or who aids non-Catholics in any manner; or who, without papal authority, knowingly reads, or retains a Protestant book, or prints it. The curse and excommunication involve and mean the damnation of the soul in its severest pains.

The creed of Pope Pius TV. must be received by every Catholic bishop; it is the standard of orthodoxy in the Church of Rome. This creed makes those who recite it say: “I, N.N., at this present, freely profess, and sincerely hold this true Catholic faith, without which no one can be saved.” This is the creed and oath today of the clergy of the entire Romish sect. We do not brand them with infamy, for such an atrocious conviction; we simply present it as an unquestionable part of papal doctrine,

In Protestant denominations men generally think that each true believer on the Son of God in the papal or in Rome-rejecting communities will surely be saved; that wherever God discovers faith, that soul will be found in heaven. Nor do we hesitate to express our conviction that the Infallible Church has some of the elect of God among her numerous progeny. But that Church consigns us all to damnation in due and solemn form.

No doubt there are many Catholics who reject this atrocious dogma. We have met some of them ourselves: men and women of large hearts and noble impulses. There are priests, too, who secretly hold a generous confidence in the existence of salvation outside the limits of their sect. But, as a Church, Rome curses and consigns to damnation the whole Protestant world. The good and great Bishop Hall says: “The Protestant or Evangelical churches of our European world do justly cry out of the high injustice of Rome in excluding them from the communion of the truly Catholic Church of Christ. What presumptuous violence is this! What a proud uncharitableness! They have both gone from themselves and abandoned us; had they continued what they once were, they had been ours, we had been theirs; and both had been Christ’s.”

Continued in XXXIII. The Mass in Latin

All chapters of The Papal System by William Cathcart

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