xi.]
and 'that he might save all,' [I Cor. ix.] not as God, but Thy prayer
and counsel."
I wish not to enter upon the question how far this distinction is
consistent with that openness and straightforward undisguised dealing
which is alone allowable when we are contending for the truth; nor how
far the {238} charge of moral obliquity and double dealing, often
brought against it, can be satisfactorily met. But suppose for a moment
that we grant (what is not the case) that in the metaphysical
disquisitions of the experienced casuist such a distinction might be
maintained, how can we expect it to be recognized, and felt, and acted
upon by the large body of Christians? Abstractedly considered, such an
interpretation in a religious act of daily recurrence by the mass of
unlearned believers would, I conceive, appear to reflecting minds most
improbable, if not utterly impossible. And as to its actual _bona-fide_
result in practice, a very brief sojourn in countries where the religion
of Rome is dominant, will suffice to convince us, that such subtilties
of the casuist are neither received nor understood by the great body of
worshippers; and that the large majority of them, when they pray to an
individual saint to deliver them from any evil, or to put them in
possession of some good, do in very deed look to the saint himself for
the fulfilment of their wishes.
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