|
The priest, the priest, the priest!
The following is from Spurgeon's sermon,
"The Great Mystery of Godliness" No. 786.
According to their teaching (Roman Catholicism),
God has committed to bishops and priests the
fullness of his grace, which we meekly and
reverently may receive at their venerable hands.
We are told that, in connection with a few drops
of water, sprinkled by the successors of the
apostles, children become regenerate. Through
the laying on of the same blessed hands, we
afterwards become confirmed in the faith, and
assured of our salvation.
Through priestly power we are made partakers
of the very body and blood of Christ, which,
according to them, becomes literally present
through their operation.
When we come to die, they can anoint us
with oil, consecrated by their power, and by
this unction all our sins are forgiven us.
The top and the bottom of the system is
the priest, the priest, the priest.
A man like ourselves, and not a whit better,
but ten thousand times worse for his infamous
impudence in pretending to be what he is not,
this man, dressed out in as many colors as the
peacock, is the divinely appointed medium of grace.
|