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

;NOX-CATIIOLICITY IX TIME. 20-5question know that the " men of old, of whom tho worhl wasnot worthy," inhabited " dens and caves of the earth ;"andthat the early apostolic, not apostate, Church of Rome, tosave herself from the fury of the- emperors, actually madeher abode in the catacombs beneath the city?* But thequestion to which we have referred, if it means anything,implies that Luther was the inventor of the doctrines nowheld by Protestants, and that these doctrines were neverheard of in the world till he arose. This, indeed, is expresslytaught in Keenan's Catechism :— " For fourteenhundred years," says the writer, " after the last of the apostlesleft this world, Protestant doctrines were unknownamongst mankind."-!- The cardinal truth of Luther's teachingwas "justification by faith alone." This truth Luthercertainly did not invent : it was the very truth which Paulpreached to Jew and Gentile. " Therefore we conclude,"says Paul, writing to theChurch at Rome, " that a man isjustified by faith, without the deeds of the law."jThis wasthe truth which was revealed to the patriarchs, and proclaimedby the prophets. " And the Scripture, foreseeingthat God would justify the heathen through faith, preachedthe gospel before unto Abraham."§ The doctrine of Protestants,then, is just Christianity, and Christianity is asold as the world.That Christianity Luther did not inventhe was simply God"'s instrument to summon it from thegrave to which Popery had consigned it. But with whatforce may it be retorted upon the advocates of Roman Catholicism,"Where was your Church before the middle ages?"Where was transubstantiation before the days of InnocentIIL ? Where was the sacrifice of the mass before the Councilof Trent ? When we go back to tlie twelfth, eighth, and• We would recommend to the Rev. Stephen Keenan the study of" Maitland's Church in the Catacombs," (i. e. provided it is not in tlie IndexExpurgatorius.)He will find among the brief but instructive inscriptionsof these early Christians, numerous traces of A2>ostoUcism, but not asingle trace of Rommmm.t Contro. Cat. p. 22. J Romans, iii. 31. § Galatians, iii. S.