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

—ASSURANCE CONDEMNED. 293sion of eternal life if he die in grace, and also an increase ofglory, let him be anathema."*The Roman Catholic Church teaches that the justifiedman has no certainty of eternal life. He may fall, she holds,from a state of grace, and finally perish. Should he so fall,however, that Church has made provision for his recovery,and that recovery is through the sacrament of penance, -fthe " second plank after shipwreck," as the fathers term it." Be mindful, therefore, from whence thou art fallen, and dopenance."! Agreeably with this, that Church teaches that" no one can certainly and infallibly know that he has obtainedthe grace of God."§To stand in doubt on this importantpoint she enjoins as a duty, and anathematizes thedoctrine of " assurance" as a Protestant heresy.Thus the fact is incontrovertible, that the scheme of theChurch of Rome is one of salvation by works. And thequestion is shortly this,—Is this scheme agreeable to Scripture,or is it not ? Papists cannot refuse the authority ofScripture on this, or on any point, seeing they admit it tobe the Word of God. Now, while the Scriptures speak ofa reward of grace,they utterly repudiate, both by generalprinciples and positive statements, what Papists maintain,a reward of merit. If, then, we allow the Bible to decidethe controversy, the Church of Rome errs in a point whereerror is necessarily fatal. Her scheme of scdcatlon by tcorJcsis a scheme which robs God of his glory, and man of his peacenow and his salvation hereafter.* Concil. Trid. sess. vi. can. xxxii. The same doctrine is not less explicitlytaught ill tlie sixteenth chapter of same session,t Concil. Trid. sess. \'i. cap. xiv.:;: Rev. ii. 5, Eoman Catliolic veision.§ Concil. Trid. sess. vi. cap. ix.