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

298 THE SACRAMENTS.himself; they neither possess nor can transmit the trueapostolic ichor. Every host they consecrate, and which isfirst adored, then eaten, by the worshippers, is but a simplewafer. They cannot absolve ; they cannot give the viaticum.But even this is not the whole of the mischief. It mayhappen, that of these pseudo-priests, one may be chosen tofill Peter's chair. He wants, of course, the infallibility ; andso the Church loses her head, and becomes a corpse.Thereis no Romanist who can say with certainty, on his own principles,that there is a true catholic and apostolic Church onthe earth at this day.Roman Catholics are accustomed to grant that the sacramentsin general, and baptism in particular, administered byProtestants or by other heretics, are valid and efficacious asregards their effects.* This is a stretch of charity quite unusualon the part of that Church ; and we may be sure thatRome has good reasons for being so very liberal on thispoint. Good reasons she verily has. She grants that baptismadministered by hereticalhands is valid, in order thatwhen these children grow up she may have a pretext to seizeupon them, and compel them to enter the Roman CatholicChurch.And in the fourteenth canon of the seventh sessionof the Council of Trent, she pronounces an anathema on allwho shall say that such children, when they grow up, are tobe " left to their own choice, and not to be compelled to leada Christian life,"" that is, to become Roman Catholics. Thushas the Pope converted an ordinance which was designedto represent our being delivered from the yoke of' Satan, andmade the frecdmen of Jesus Christ, into a brand of slavery.As in the feudal times the lords of the soil were accustomedto put collars, with their names inscribed, upon the necks oftheir slaves, so baptism is the iron collar which Rome putsupon the necks of her slaves, that she may be able to claimher property wherever she may chance to find it." Here-* Concil. Tiid. sess. vii. can. xii., et de Baptismo, can. iv, : Perrone'sPruclectioucs Tlieologica', torn. ii. p. 36.