331 articles from the existing collection.
They are not inspired by love for Christ, or for the mother of Christ, or for Scripture in their doctrine. Their main desire is to maintain a doctrine differing from that of the Catholic Church. But it is a position, which is rapidly going out of fashion. Learned Protestant scholars to day deny as emphatically as any Catholic th…
No contradiction is involved in the doctrine of the Trinity. The reason why we believe it is because God says that it is true, using terms which express it as nearly as possible in human language. As God ought to know His own intimate nature, His describing it is the best of possible reasons for believing in it.
Some Protestants believe that. Many do not. Good Protestants can be saved, but if they are good they are Protestants in good faith who have the will to do God’s will, and are not Catholics merely because they do not realize their obligation to join the true Church.
No sane man could so delude himself. Such an hallucination, being not temporary but permanent, would suppose in him a pathological state of insane enthusiasm. But Christ’s wisdom and balance of mind absolutely excludes this. His wisdom at the age of twelve astonished the doctors of the Law. The people were lost in admiration of …
I do not wish to do so. Christ was at once God and man. In His created human nature He had deliberately subjected Himself to God’s will. But, since in Him there was but the one personality, He had to use the personal pronoun “I,” whether referring to His divinity or to His humanity. If He referred to His divinity He wag equal to…
Outside the Catholic Church, yes. The Protestant principle, “Do not be toI3 by the Catholic Church what to think on religion, but be free to think for yourself,” is proving fatal to Protestantism. Men have simply asserted their freedom to think Protestantism itself, and indeed all religion, useless. Catholics, who do not accept …
You have been taught wrongly. Scripture itself denies that it is the only rule of faith. The last verse of St. John’s Gospel tells us that not all concerning Our Lord’s work is contained in Scripture. St. Paul tells us over and over again that much of Christian teaching is to be found in tradition. One who clings to the reading …
It has not made havoc of Christianity. It is making havoc of Protestantism. But Protestantism is not really Christianity. The Catholic Church alone is the true representative of Christianity, and she is not affected by rationalism. The Bible is as authentic as ever, and humanitarianism has not affected the fires of hell, even as…
What was the basis for the probable opinion of Ingersoll that he alone had read the Bible through that year? An opinion, to be probable, must have good reasons. A guess won’t do. Ingersoll’s only reason was that other men did not come to his own conclusions. Therefore they could not have read the Bible! If he can get a probable …
At least he did not say that he was God Almighty! He simply meant that, through no merits of his own, he had been promoted to a position which had annexed to it the promise of Christ, “Whatsoever you bind upon earth is bound also in Heaven.” Pope Leo was speaking of his commission, not of himself. Gladstone said to Queen Victori…
Witness in oneself may easily be purely subjective persuasion, and is no sure test of truth. Men holding totally divergent views claim to experience this witness within themselves, yet they cannot all have the exact truth revealed by Christ. Thank God, intellectual mistakes do not always mean evil dispositions. But remember that…
Now you take your own virtue as a standard, and proceed to find other people wanting when measured by it. It often happens that those who practice no religion canonize themselves as the models of perfection, and regard religious people as sinners and hypocrites. But those who go to church are constantly told of their own failing…
You have ignored the element of grace, and have not implored the help of God. Merely human reasoning is not enough. Brains cannot be the condition of salvation. If so, the intellectual would have a better chance of salvation than the less intelligent. You must look round for another method of approach to the religious problem. W…
Now I must ask you to take this reasonably. That there will be millions of human beings proves the existence of God. How can their number disprove it? Each being is a reason for God’s existence, and if anything, the multiplication of beings is the multiplication of reasons for His existence. Meantime I am not aware how many mill…
Had he left the Catholic Church in order to become a better man himself, and in order to make his people better, you might have a case. But he did not.
The stream of converts from the ranks of intelligent men is sufficient answer to that suggestion.
Had He ignored Mary He would not have been a very good son, nor would have had much respect for God who said, “Honor thy father and thy mother.” Christ was a perfect example of virtue in all things. And if He did not recognize Mary, why did He go down to Nazareth and be subject to her? Why did He perform His first miracle at her…
That is an antiquated interpretation abandoned by all the best scholars, Protestants included. Christ did demand a profession of faith from Peter as a pre-required condition, after that, conferring the fundamental primacy upon him personally. But to say that the profession itself was the rock has not a single valid reason in its…
I have not to believe that, and I do not believe it. Yet I believe in Christianity. Why should you, a non-Christian, prescribe for me what I have to believe? You might at least leave that to Christians.
His perfect fulfillment of the Messianic prophecies of the Old Testament; His personal character; His teaching; His miracles, and chiefly His resurrection; His work in establishing a Church which has outlived empires and human institutions against tremendous opposition; the perpetual vitality of His sway over human hearts.
It is just as easy to God to say, “Thy sins are forgiven thee,” as to say, “Arise and walk.” But it is not just as easy to a man unless God has given him the power. But I presume that you are a Christian, and believe in Baptism. What does Baptism do? It destroys sin. Prior to Baptism, the soul is without the life of grace and in…
CHAPTER 9. — THE HOLY GHOST AND THE CHURCH.
You are supposing that the Protestant Churches have the same doctrine, worship, and discipline as those early Churches. But this is an unwarranted supposition. Those early branch foundations of the one true Church had the true doctrine, and were in communion with St. Peter, Bishop of Rome, who addressed his first Epistle to the …
God forbade that tree which could lead man to a knowledge of evil. He gave man reason that he might know what is right and good. It is not advancing in knowledge to acquire erroneous and evil notions. As for the serpent, if you knew what you were talking about, you would not like to have spoken to him. The language he spoke was …
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