Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 1208
“It is written.” Matthew 4:4.
THOUGHTFUL minds anxiously desire some fixed point of belief. The old philosopher wanted a fulcrum for his lever and believed that if he could only obtain it he could move the world! It is uncomfortable to be always at sea—we would gladly discover terra firma and plant our feet upon a rock. We cannot rest till we have found out something which is certain, sure, settled, decided and no longer to be questioned. Many a mind has peered into the hazy region of rationalism and has seen nothing before it but perpetual mist and fog. And, shivering with the cold chill of those arctic regions of skepticism, it has yearned for a clearer light, a warmer guide, a more tangible belief.
This yearning has driven men into strange beliefs. Satan, seeing their ravenous hunger, has made them accept a stone for bread. Many have held, and still hold, that it is possible to find your infallible foundation in the Pope of Rome. I do not wonder that they would rather have an infallible man than be altogether without a standard of truth. Yet it is so monstrous an idea that men should believe in papal infallibility, that did they not, themselves, swear to it, we would think it most insulting to accuse them of it! How any mind can, by any possible contortion, twist itself into a posture in which it will be capable of accepting such a belief is one of the mysteries of manhood!
Why, the popes err in trifles, how much more in great matters? In Disraeli’s, “Curiosities of Literature,” is the following amusing incident, under the title of, “Errata” [plural of erratum—an error in printing or writing]—“One of the most conspicuous of all literary blunders is that of the edition of the Vulgate, by Sixtus V. His Holiness carefully superintended every sheet as it passed through the press and, to the amazement of all the world, the world remained without a rival—it swarmed with errors! A multitude of scraps were printed to satiate the erroneous passages, in order to give the true text. The book makes a whimsical appearance with these patches and the heretics exulted in this demonstration of papal infallibility! The copies were called in and violent attempts made to suppress it. A few still remain for the raptures of Biblical collectors—at a late sale the Bible of Sixtus V. fetched above 60 guineas—not too much for a mere book of blunders! The world was highly amused at the bull of the editorial pope prefixed to the first volume—excommunicates all printers who, in reprinting the work, should make any alterations in the text!”
The notion of infallibility residing in mortal man is worthy of a madhouse and scarcely deserves to be seriously discussed. You can scarcely read a page of such history, as even Catholics admit to be authentic, without discovering that popes have been men and not gods—and their bulls have been as blundering and erroneous as the decrees of worldly princes! So long as a clear understanding remains to a man, he cannot repose in the imaginary infallibility of a priest!
Others, however, linger hopefully around the idea of an infallible Church. They believe in the judgment of general councils and hope, there, to find the rock of certainty. Apparently this is more easy, for in the multitude of counselors there is wisdom—but in reality it is quite as preposterous! If you mass together a number of men, each one of whom is fallible, it is clear that you are no nearer infallibility! It is quite as easy to believe that one man is inspired as that five or 600 are so! The fact is that Churches have made mistakes as well as individual men and have fallen into grievous errors both in practice and doctrine.
Look at the Churches of Galatia, Corinth, Laodicea, Sardis and so on. No, we find that the first disciples of our Lord, who made up the truly primitive and Apostolic Church, were not infallible. They made a great mistake about a simple saying of our Lord. He said, concerning John, “If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to you?” “Then went this saying abroad among the brethren, that that disciple should not die: yet Jesus said not unto him, He shall not die; but, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to you?” Even the Apostles, themselves, could blunder and did blunder. They were infallible in what they wrote when they were under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, but at no other time.
Yet, Brothers and Sisters, I marvel not that in the sore distress to which the mind is often brought, it has found it better to believe in an infallible Church than to be left to mere reason or to be tossed to and fro, a desolate waif, driven by ever changeful winds over the awful leagues of questions which are found in the restless ocean of unbelief. Longing, as I do, for a sure foundation, and rejecting both popes and councils, where shall I look?
We have a more sure word of testimony, a rock of Truth upon which we rest, for our infallible standard lies in, “It is written.” The Bible, the whole Bible, and nothing but the Bible, is our religion! Of this inspired Book we say—