we peruse his "English Roman Catholic principles, in reference to God and the country," drawn up, as he tells us, in the reign of Charles II. but retouched by himself, we shall find many of the exceptionable tenets of the Roman Church rejected or explained away. O, may the divine Head of the Church further this blessed approximation to each other, among all the members of his mystical body, until they meet together" in the unity of the spirit, in the bond of peace, and in righteousness of life." But this will never be the case, unless modern apologists for the Roman Church, shall deem it a more wise and Christian measure, candidly to relinquish some untenable posts, than by roundly taxing Protestants with misrepresentation, to lay them under the disagreeable necessity, of exposing the tenets themselves, in all their weakness and futility, to the public eye. And now, having been induced from a sense of duty, and the solicitations of friendship, partially to embark once more on the tide of controversy, the writer of this reply assures the Rev. gentleman and his brethren, that it is neither his wish nor intention to be borne down the stream, into the boundless ocean of polemical contention. But, as a teacher of religious truth, it must ever be a branch of his bounden duty, to refute the fallacy of the most lofty pretensions, when they presume to confine forgiveness of sins, or, in other words, the benefits of redemption, within the limits of one particular communion; when they would shake that blessed assurance of safety and acceptance, which arises from faith in the word of God alone, and encumber practical religion, with observances unauthorized by the Scripture, which have frequently driven the bold offender into Atheism, and the timid into despair. In a word, as a watchman stationed by Providence on the walls of Zion, it is his duty to mark the approach of every error, and to repel every attack upon the sanctuary, whether proceeding from open enemies, or mistaken friends, and to do this with weapons drawn exclusively from the sacred arsenal itself; namely, "with love unfeigned and that meek ness of wisdom, which is from above, first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy, and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy." James iii. 17. E e 2 REMARKS ON DR. O'GALLAGHER'S "BRIEF REPLY" ΤΟ DR. WHARTON'S "SHORT ANSWER ΤΟ A TRUE EXPOSITION OF THE DOCTRINE OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH TOUCHING THE SACRAMENT OF PENANCE," &c. BY CHARLES H. WHARTON, D. D. NEW-YORK: REPUBLISHED BY DAVID LONGWORTH, 1817. PHILADELPHIA: WILLIAM STAVELY, 1834. |