Part 16 (1/2)
No. 2 had just read it.
”A very remarkable article that,” said No. 1, ”upon the deathbed of the Pope.”
”No one is beyond hope,” answered No. 2.
”I have heard of it, but not seen it,” said No. 3.
A pause.
”What is it about?” asked Reding.
”The late Pope Sixtus the Sixteenth,” said No. 3; ”he seems to have died a believer.”
A sensation. Charles looked as if he wished to know more.
”The _Journal_ gives it on excellent authority,” said No. 2; ”Mr.
O'Niggins, the agent for the Roman Priest Conversion Branch Tract Society, was in Rome during his last illness. He solicited an audience with the Pope, which was granted to him. He at once began to address him on the necessity of a change of heart, belief in the one Hope of sinners, and abandonment of all creature mediators. He announced to him the glad tidings, and a.s.sured him there was pardon for all. He warned him against the figment of baptismal regeneration; and then, proceeding to apply the word, he urged him, though in the eleventh hour, to receive the Bible, the whole Bible, and nothing but the Bible. The Pope listened with marked attention, and displayed considerable emotion. When it was ended, he answered Mr. O'Niggins that it was his fervent hope that they two would not die without finding themselves in one communion, or something of the sort. He declared moreover, what was astonis.h.i.+ng, that he put his sole trust in Christ, 'the source of all merit,' as he expressed it--a remarkable phrase.”
”In what language was the conversation carried on?” asked Reding.
”It is not stated,” answered No. 2; ”but I am pretty sure Mr. O'Niggins is a good French scholar.”
”It does not seem to me,” said Charles, ”that the Pope's admissions are greater than those made continually by certain members of our own Church, who are nevertheless accused of Popery.”
”But they are extorted from such persons,” said Freeborn, ”while the Pope's were voluntary.”
”The one party go back into darkness,” said No. 3; ”the Pope was coming forward into light.”
”One ought to interpret everything for the best in a real Papist,” said Freeborn, ”and everything for the worst in a Puseyite. That is both charity and common sense.”
”This was not all,” continued No. 2; ”he called together the Cardinals, protested that he earnestly desired G.o.d's glory, said that inward religion was all in all, and forms were nothing without a contrite heart, and that he trusted soon to be in Paradise--which, you know, was a denial of the doctrine of Purgatory.”
”A brand from the burning, I do hope,” said No. 3.
”It has frequently been observed,” said No. 4, ”nay it has struck me myself, that the way to convert Romanists is first to convert the Pope.”
”It is a sure way, at least,” said Charles timidly, afraid he was saying too much; but his irony was not discovered.
”Man cannot do it,” said Freeborn; ”it's the power of faith. Faith can be vouchsafed even to the greatest sinners. You see now, perhaps,” he said, turning to Charles, ”better than you did, what I meant by faith the other day. This poor old man could have no merit; he had pa.s.sed a long life in opposing the Cross. Do your difficulties continue?”
Charles had thought over their former conversation very carefully several times, and he answered, ”Why, I don't think they do to the same extent.”
Freeborn looked pleased.
”I mean,” he said, ”that the idea hangs together better than I thought it did at first.”
Freeborn looked puzzled.
Charles, slightly colouring, was obliged to proceed, amid the profound silence of the whole party. ”You said, you know, that justifying faith was without love or any other grace besides itself, and that no one could at all tell what it was, except afterwards, from its fruits; that there was no test by which a person could examine himself, whether or not he was deceiving himself when he thought he had faith, so that good and bad might equally be taking to themselves the promises and the privileges peculiar to the gospel. I thought this a hard doctrine certainly at first; but, then, afterwards it struck me that faith is perhaps a result of a previous state of mind, a blessed result of a blessed state, and therefore may be considered the reward of previous obedience; whereas sham faith, or what merely looks like faith, is a judicial punishment.”
In proportion as the drift of the former part of this speech was uncertain, so was the conclusion very distinct. There was no mistake, and an audible emotion.