neeted with the sacrament of' baptism, whether received voluntarily or by force. Now it is agreed on all hands that a canon of a general council approved by the Pope--that is, a r?/v of faith delivered to the people, under the fearful sanction of an an?Ac*rna--leaves no other al* teruative to a Roman Catholic but to embrace the doctrine it contains, or to be excluded from his church by excommunication. This is clear from a fundamental principle, an article of the creed of Pope Plus IV.: "I also profess and undoubtedly receive all other thin? delivered, de- fined, and declared by the sacred canons and general councils, particu- larly by t? Aoly Coun? of Trent." By one, then, of this council's canons, every member of the Church of Rome is bound to believe that all baptized persons are liable to be compelled by punislrment to be Christians, or, what is the same in Roman Catholic divinity, spiritual subjects of the pope. It is, indeed, curious to see the Council of Trent, which ?)assed that law, prepare the extension of its ci;?ims, by an unexpected stroke of liberality. In the fourth canon on baptism there is a curse pronounced against any who should say that baptism in.the name of the Trinity, conferred by a heretic, with the intention of doing what the church intends to do in that sacrament, is not true baptism. In the eighth and fourteenth canons compulsiol? by punish- ment is enjoined in order to subjugate all baptized persons under the dominion of the pope. The author of the Book of the Roman Catholic Church says: "It is most true that the Roman Catholics believe the doctrines of their church to be unchangeable; and that it is a tenet of their creed that what their,,4'aith ever has been, such it was from the beginning, such it now is, and such it will ever be." Let them therefore choose betweex? this consistency of doctrixie and the curse of their church. The Coun- cil of Trent, whose decrees are obligatory above all others, has con- vened the sacrament of baptism into an indelible brand of slavery: whoever has received the waters of regeneration is under the dominion of her who declares that there is no other church of Christ. She claims her slaves wherever they may be found, declares thein as sub- ject to her laws, both written and traditional, and, by her infallible de- cisions, dooms them to indefinite punishment till they shall acknow- ledge her authority, and bend their necks to her yoke. $uci been, a?l ?ll ever be the doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church; such is the belief of her true and sincere members; such the spirit that actuates her views, and which, by every possible means, she has always spread among her members. Him that denies this doctrine Rome devotes to destruction. The principles of religious tyranny, supported by persecution, are a necessary condition of true Roman Catholicism; he that revolts at the idea of compelling belief by punish- ment is severed at once from the communion of Rome. (6.) What a striking commentary' on these canons of the Council of observanttam legurn, nullurn benurn effecturn expectare petest, sed magis Peccata fifo- rum et oftenass Dei; ergo, &c. "R. Neg. ant.: contrarium Peter ex mente universm ecclesim, ad peccata autem i!!orom ecclesia so habet mere permissive ob nit/ores rationes, ne scilicet cure apefro scandale fidellure fayere videatur hmresi, dum havrefief ex Pertinacia oua obtinerent commodum, et liberarentur ab oneribus legum, quit)us fideleo subjiciuntur. Deinde earlera ratio rehxandi militaret pro omnibus malis 01?stianis."--Dcn? de/.,?g?/?s, 1?o. ?t7, vol. '?p. I ,Goocle
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