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

2G8NO SALVATION OUT OF THE CHURCH OF ROME.words were consigning all the people of England to the damnationof hell."" He repeated his words emphatically.'"*From a statement which dropped at the same time fromthe learned Professor, it would seem that those even withinthe pale of Rome who deny this doctrine of the Church, doso at the risk of being disowned by her, and incurring thedoom of heretics. Mr Seymour was urging that the RomanCatholics of England and Ireland do not hold that doctrine,when his assertion was met by a decided negative. " He[the Professor] said that it was impossible my statementcould be correct, as no man was a true Catholic who thoughtany one could find salvation out of the Church of Rome.They could not be true Catholics."-!-The solemn judgment of Rome, that no one can be savedwho does not swallow an annual wafer, and live on eggs inLent, gives us no more serious concern than if the head ofMahommedanism should decree that no one can enter paradisewho does not wear a turban and suffer his beard togrow. It is equally valid with the dictum of any societyamong ourselves that might claim infallibility and so forth,and adjudge damnation to all who did not choose toconform to the fashion of buttoning one's coat behind.What ideas can those have of the Almighty, who canbelieve that he will determine the eternal destinies of hiscreatures according to such ridiculous niceties and trifles ?" God so loved the world," says the apostle, " that he gavehis only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him shouldnot perish ;" but perish you must, says the Church of Rome,unless you believe also that a wafer and a little wine, consecratedby a priest, are the real flesh and blood of Christ.When we ask the reason for this compendious destructionof the whole human race save the fraction that belongs toRome, we can get no answer beyond this, that the Pope has* Mornings among the Jesuits at Rome, p. 138. + Idem, p. 136.