Wesley Corpus

29.) “The sheep should not cast away their skin, because wolves sometimes hide themselves under it.” (St. Austin de Serm. Dom. in Monte.) Q. 13. Since the Scripture may be misunderstood, have they no judge to determine the sense of it? A. They say, “It belongs to the Church” (of Rome) “to judge of the sense of Scripture, and no one may presume to interpret the Scripture contrary to the sense which Mother Church hath held and doth hold.” (Concil. Trid. Sess. 4. Decret. de Edit. et Usu Script.) It cannot be called the Church of God where the legitimate successor of St. Peter in the Roman Chair, and the undoubted vicar of Christ, doth not preside: What the Church doth teach is the express word of God; and what is taught against the sense and consent of the Church, is the express word of the devil. (Cardinal Hosius de expresso Dei verbo, p. 642, 643.) REPLY. While the Apostles were alive, the Churches of Christ, in matters of dispute, applied themselves to them, as in the point of circumcision; (Acts xv.2;) but since they of the Church of Rome can never prove the like infallibility in their Church, nor direct us where it is, we think ourselves as well in our Church as they can be in theirs; and that as long as we have the Scripture, the Church is to be referred to the Scripture, and not the Scripture to the Church; and that, as the Scripture is the best expounder of itself, so the best way to know whether anything be of divine authority, is to apply ourselves to the Scripture. “If I would have the Church demonstrated, it is not by human teachings, but by the divine oracles.” (St. Aug. de Unit. Eccles. cap. 3.) “The way for understanding the Scriptures, is to demon strate out of themselves, concerning themselves.” (Clem. Alex. Strom. l. 7, p. 757.) QUESTION 14. WHAT doth the Church of Rome teach concerning repentance? ANswer (1.) It teacheth that contrition, which is a sorrow for sin past, and a purpose of not committing it for the future, though perfected with charity, is not sufficient to reconcile a person to God without penance, or confession to a Priest either in act or desire. (Concil. Trid. Sess. 14, c. 4. Catech. Rom. Pars 2, de Sacrament. Paenit. n. 38.) A.