Dialogues. The spirit of the new birth exemplified in Methodist preachers towards the Catholic religion and clergy

Abstract

Dialogue II.

The Spirit of the New Birth, exemplified in Methodist Preachers

Meth.- WeII met, neighbour: since our last meeting, I have had several conversations with our people, and they all tell me, that you Catholics are a poor, ignorant, priest-ridden people: that you know nothing of justification by faith; nothing of the new birth; nothing of the witness of the Spirit bearing testimony with your spirit that you are born of God ; in short, you know nothing of the scripture way of salvation by the blood of sprinkling; your whole religion consists in reciting creeds and forms of prayer, like parrots; acting Latin masses in splendid robes, and ceremonies, like the actors of a pantomime; you make the pope your God; saints your mediators; images your idols; priests your law-givers; cruelty your piety; wickedness your business ; and purgatory your hell.

Namos. - These are serious charges, indeed; and, if true, we may well be a by-word of reproach, not only among Christians, but among the heathen themselves. But do you really believe them to be true?

Meth. - I should be sorry to attribute these principles to you; for you have too much good sense to embrace them in theory, or reduce them to practice. You have lived many years amongst us, and we have seen nothing to justify such an opinion of you.

Namos.- Let us have no equivocation, and, above all, no flattery. Do you believe that these are the principles of the Catholic church ?...[Excerpt]