The-papacy-its-history-dogmas-genius-and-prospects-wylie

7CHARACTER OF ROMISH UNITY.IDthe most perfect kind, and of the most despoticcharacter,and not to any spiritual and vivifying principle, whoso influence,descending from thehead, moves the members, andresults in harmony of feeling, unanimity of mind, and unityof action. It is combination, not incorporation ; union, notunity, that characterizes the Church of Home. It is theunity of dead matter, not the unity of a living body, whososeveral members, though performing various functions, obeyone will and form one whole. It is not the spiritual andliving unity promised to the Church of God, wliich preservesthe liberty of all, at the same time that it makes all one :it is a unity that degrades the understanding, supersedesrational inquiry, and annihilates private judgment.It leavesno room for conviction, and therefore no room for faith.Itis a unity that extorts from all submission to one infalliblehead, that compels all to a participation in one monstrousand idolatrous rite, and that enchains the intellect of all toa farrago of contradictory, absurd, and blasphemous opinions.This is the unity of Rome. Men must be free agents beforeit can be shown that they are voluntary agents. In likemanner, the members of the Church must have liberty todiffer before it can be shown that they really are agreed.But Rome denies her people this liberty, and thus rendersit impossible that it can ever be shown that they are united.She resolves all into absolute authority, which in no casemay either be questioned or opposed. Dr Milner, afterstriving hard, in one of his letters,""' to show that all Catholicsare agreed as regards the " fundamental articles of Christianity,""is forced to conclude with the admission, that theyare only so far agreed as that they all implicitly submit tothe infallible teaching of the Church." At all events," sayshe, " the Catholics, if properly interrogated, will confess theirbelief in one comprehensive article, namely this, " / heliecewhatever the Holy Catholic Church believes and teaches.'''' So,then, this renowned champion of Roman Catholicism, forced* Milner's End of Controversy, lot. xvi.