| | | | | | There are five great revolutions in the history of Man, by virtue of | which he now is what he is, and society now stands as it does | stand, or moves as it does move. The first of these, Christianity, the | great religious revolution, is Hebrew; the second, Printing, the | great literary revolution, and the third, Protestantism, the great | ecclesiastical revolution, are German; the fourth, which alone is | commonly called revolution, is French, and political; the fifth | belongs to us English, and is, like the French, only now in | progress: we may call it the revolution of steam-engines, | spinning-jennies, railways, and joint-stock companies. Any man that | wishes seriously to know on what ground he is now standing, and will | not be buffeted about by priests, statesmen, and political economists, | who knows whither, must study seriously and conscientiously, | digest inwardly, and turn over again and again, so far as he has | opportunity, the history of these five revolutions. It is our | intention, on the present occasion, to offer a few remarks on the | second great German revolution, commonly, but not with much | propriety, called the Reformation. There was some reformation at | the Council of Basle in 1431, and something of the same kind on a | greater scale at the Council of Trent in 1545; but what we call the | Reformation in church history was a Revolution, if ever revolution | was. In what we have to say, we shall study brevity as much as | possible; our space does not allow of historical description or | disquisition; we simply propose to offer a few "Aids to | Reflection." | Properly speaking, every Tory ought to be a Papist; and it is a | strange enough thing, considering the matter on grounds of reason, | that the British Tory normally is not only not a Papist, but a fierce | denouncer, and (what is bad) a vile calumniator of Popery; for a | man should not calumniate or speak falsely of | anyone, not even of | the devil. Much less should the Tories speak falsely of the | Romanists; for if Toryism be a thing of any organism or | consistency; if it exist by virtue of any independent, moral, and | intellectual vitality, it must acknowledge the Roman Pope as the | most consistent, thorough-going, philosophical, practical Tory, that | the history of the world exhibits ~~ not even excepting Napoleon. | But the truth of the matter is, that no political or religious party | (and British Toryism, least of all) represents purely or consistently | a system of principles: parties represent interests; and it may be the | interest of a man's heart on many occasions, and of his purse on | some occasions, (for we would not think altogether basely of | human nature,) to screw his head into a contradiction. British | Toryism, or Conservatism, as it now pleases to be called, (

"the | world is governed by names,"

) represents the stable principle of | society generally, and in this regard may be said to be as necessary | to the constitution of society as the bones are to the body, though | the principle of life is in the heart and in the blood, which we of the | movement boast ourselves to be. Now, it is manifest that the Pope | stands in history as a sort of osteology, and firm frame-work of the | church; he represents the stable principle of the Christianity of | churchmen; so long as he exists, he exists as a living and visible | pledge of the indefectible interests of the Christian hierarchy. All | churchmen (who are mostly Tories,) therefore, and all church | Tories (that is to say the great majority of Tories ~~ for the church | in these times, we are told, is

"the only cock that will fight"

) ~~ | ought naturally to acknowledge the Pope as the great founder of | their faith, or at least as an ancient and venerable ally; a doughty, | though not always a wise, champion. But here comes in the | miracle of time and place, the

"overwhelming influence of external | circumstances,"

the power of purse, the phantasmagoria of | imagination, the fond jugglery of class and caste, the noxious | exhalations, and the dim-flickering blue lights of rotten and boggy | hearts, disturbing all our calculations; for the Tories represent not | only the stable or Conservative | | principle of society generally, ~~ but, specially and mainly, in this | country they represent also the interests of the Protestant clergy in | Great Britain, by act of Parliament established, of Protestant peers, | and of a Protestant noblesse de la robe. | This practical interest confounds all philosophical principles, | suspends all moral affinities. In this country, if we will look | beneath the skin, we have, in truth, not one Pope only, but many | ~~ Cunnignham, Candlish, and Tail, lording it over the Court of | Session as Hildebrand over the German emperor; and these | modern men, for denouncing their brother in Rome, and breaking | the ninth commandment daily, being only baptized with the name | of Protestant (thought God, out of stones, can raise up children to | Calvin,) are paid many guineas from the state Treasury, and fare | sumptuously every day. | But while, in Scotland, this sacerdotal gospel of old Gregory is | being preached in a Protestant name, on the other side of the | Tweed, it is pleasant to observe, men are beginning to act more | honestly. A large section of the Anglican Church ~~ a Church | commonly, if not correctly, called Protestant ~~ has publicly | discarded the designation that has hitherto marked its opposition to | Popery; and out of this wambling limbo of private judgment | wherein we now roll, boasts to be building a bridge into the | ancient, devoutly-desired region of infallibility; ~~ of which | bridge, the Pope is not, indeed ~~ as in the Romish system ~~ the | key-stone, but still remains a chief corner-stone. The Pope is not | the worst thing, nor the essential thing, in Popery; in him there is | no more of the Roman Church than was of the Venetian Republic | in the Doge ~~ than there is of a large lustre in the topmost jet. | Substantially, the bridge which the Purseyites project, is the same | as that which was built by the doctors of the Council of Trent: it is | a sacerdotal bridge; every stone is a priest | legitimately descended, and lawfully ordained ~~ preserving, also, | within itself, the magical power of perpetual propagation; and the | cement of both is the same ~~ the pride and ambition which is the | besetting sin of the priestly order, and the faith of silly women and | intellectual imbeciles, without which it seems impossible that such | a portentous structure should hold together. | The vital doctrine of Popery we hold to be the Infallibility, not of | the Pope, but of the Church ~~ by the Church meaning the | priesthood; for the Pope can no more act without the Church than | the Queen of England can without the Parliament. If | this view be correct, (and we may take another opportunity of | proving it at length,) then the Purseyites are substantially Papists; | for if they do not teach the infallibility, or |

"indefectibility"

(if they | will have it so) of the priesthood, they preach nothing new, and | nothing that comes in collision with the Protestant doctrine of | private judgment. But that they do preach something new is | altogether too plain: they make as much noise in the world as | Robert Owen; and they have got parallelograms in their scheme | too ~~ only diocesan ones: they call the Reformation publicly a | Crime; whereby it is only strange (in accordance with what we | above remarked) that they call Popery also a crime, and in the | same breath. If they mean anything at all, they mean | that the exercise of private judgment is a crime; and that the men | who exercise it ~~ the people commonly called Protestants ~~ use | the weapons of the devil. There can be no mistake there ~~ no | compromise. The alternative is plain: stand upon your own legs, if | you can; if no, take the crutch which the clergy provide. There can | be no doubt that an honest man may get to heaven both ways; only | it certainly does seem more honourable to march up stoutly on | one's own legs, than to be carried in on the back of an old woman. | Protestantism is a thing very simple to be understood. We have | expressed it very plainly here. The Puseyites have said very | plainly, that, as we here express it, they will have nothing to do | with it. We have no difficulty in pronouncing an opinion on the | merits of these men. We admire the chivalrous candour of their | hearts; we despise the puerile imbecility of their intellects ~~ as if | God's whole creation, and man, his noblest creature, were doomed | to trip continually behind the petticoats of a nurse, and be fed with | spoon-meat! Fie! fie! fie! If, indeed, God had stereotyped visibly | among men a council of angels and archangels, cherubim and | seraphim, and creatures

"all eyes,"

as Ezekiel saw them in a | vision; then we might have rejoiced to sit upon the knees of the gods, | and from the lips of the wise know an end of all mysteries. But when | we see creatures with the stature of full-grown men, with solemn | display of Greek and Hebrew, mumbling and maundering the | sheerest puerilities; were it not better to have been born altogether | without reason, than to have it only that we may hand it over to the | safe keeping of these men? Nature rebels against such base | betrayal, such stupid prostration of her noblest functions; and in | this rebellion Protestantism properly consists. Is it strange that a | man having eyes should rebel against spectacles, ~~ which, indeed, | are useful to the weak-sighted, but to the man of healthy vision, | bring only dimness and perplexity? | That the right of private judgment is the grand watchword ~~ the | articulus stantis vel | cadentis ~~ of Protestantism, is a matter on which | it is impossible to entertain any doubt for a moment. Luther, | indeed, when the Emperor and the Papal Legate refused to hear | him, appealed to a general council of the church ~~ a very proper, | prudent, and modest procedure in all respects; as the Romanists | themselves admit that, in the fixing of doctrines, the Pope is not | independent of councils: but it is quite certain, from Luther's whole | future conduct, and | | from the doctrines preached by all the Reformers, that they did not | use the decrees of councils as an authoritative rule, but only as an | useful help of faith. So, in particular, our | Westminster Confession says ~~ | And the Helvetic Confession | ( de Interpretatione Scripturae, ) | has a passage to the same effect, standing in striking | contrast with the Papistical doctrines now preached by the | Puseyites: ~~ (this is a | Puseyite Catholicity to a T; arithmetical orthodoxy, as we may | say,) | About this matter, therefore, there can be no doubt. Another | matter, however, closely connected with it, may not bear such | intuitive evidence to all. It is this; that the Protestant Churches | utterly discard and repudiate the idea of a | priesthood; that a clerical class, caste, or order in any shape, | is altogether foreign to their genius. The Presbyterian Church, for | instance, in this country, recognizes neither clergy nor laity as a | distinct class, but only brethren; no difference of class, but only a | difference of function, for the sake of | order and convenience. And we see weekly, and | monthly, and yearly, in our Kirk Sessions, Presbyteries, Synods, | and Assemblies, that there exists, in fact, no separate body in our | Church similar to that which is called clergy | in the Roman-Catholic or Monarchical, and in the | Anglo-Catholic or Oligarchic Church. Our laymen rule the Church | conjointly and severally with our churchmen; and in the annual | assemblies held at Edinburgh in the month of May, (we | particularize here for the sake of our Trans-Tweedian brethren, not | over-well informed generally on these matters,) the clerical | members from the far North are often sadly humbled to find that | the Church is ruled virtually in the metropolis more by laymen | (specially lawyers) than by churchmen. So the leader of the | Church, in the present great anti-patronage movement, was a | layman and a lawyer; and where the layman led, the churchmen | followed ~~ into a bog. This, however, can be looked on, in no | sense, as a fair specimen of the working of our non-clerical | Church; for there is no doubt that the laity, (we call them so, for | want of another word,) by their mere presence, neutralize much of | the violence and exaggeration which the

"very fervid genius of the | Scots,"

in clerical incarnation, is peculiarly liable to emit. Nor | let it be supposed that the denial of a priestly class is, in any way, | peculiar to Scottish Protestantism. The Helvetic | Confession de Ministris | Ecclesiae ) is very express and very edifying on the subject: | ~~ | The reader will perceive, from this final sentence, how intimately | the two doctrines are connected, ~~ the doctrine that there is no | Christian priesthood, with the doctrine of private judgment. For | what is the use of a bench of judges if any many may expound the | law for himself? It is the every day | | case of trial by jury in those cases where the jury substantially | judges of the law, as well as of the fact; or where the fact, as in a | question of mercantile practice, makes the law. It is useful to hear | the address of the judge; but it is not necessary; and the decision | ~~ guilty, or not guilty ~~ may be given directly in the teeth of the | charge from the bench. In fact, ministers preach and administer in | a Protestant church, just as professors lecture and exhibit in a | German university, ~~ listened to with respect, with enthusiasm, | and even reverence, when they speak sense; | but neglected, ridiculed, and discarded, when they speak | nonsense: for they have no monopoly. | On these two corner-stones, therefore, Protestantism stands: ~~ | <1.> On the assertion of private judgment; <2.> On the denial of a | Christian priesthood. | Let us now observe shortly how the several points of difference, | that divide the Popish and the Protestant churches, are either | specializations or generalizations, or modifications of these. We do | not affect a complete enumeration; but the main points seem as | follows: ~~ | <1.> The Pope. | <2.> Tradition. | <3.> Indulgences. The Keys. | <4.> The Mass and other Sacraments. | <5.> Auricular Confession. | <6.> Penance. | <7.> Celibacy. | <8.> Purgatory. Prayers for the dead. | <9.> Good Works. Merit. | <10>. Worship of the Virgin Mary and the Saints. | <1.> As to the first matter; why does Protestantism deny the | Pope? ~~ not merely or mainly as an ecclesiastical monarch, | ~~ for it would be difficult to show (supposing always that no | particular form of Church government is laid down in | scripture) why the Church should not be governed by a limited | monarch as well as the State, ~~ but the Pope is obnoxious to | us as the living head of the aristocracy of the priesthood, and as | the highest power of sacerdotal presumption. We denounce | him, not because he claims to be the head of the Church, but | because he is the ringleader of the priests. In the denial of the | Pope, therefore, the main thing with Protestants is the denial of | the priesthood in him. If Pope Leo, in Luther's time, had ruled | the Church as moderately as Queen Victoria rules us, no person | would have quarreled with his supremacy; and if Dr. Pusey, in | our time, preaches salvation by the same exclusive privileges | of the sacerdotal caste, against which Martin Luther protested, | it will not save him from being a Papist that he does not seek to | be called a Pope. | <2.> As for tradition, the denial of that arises necessarily out of | the assertion of private judgment. The Protestant mind rebels | against the arbitrary interposition of any secondary source of | evidence, as authoritative between itself and the primary source | of evidence ~~ the Bible. So we seek for the doctrines of | Romanism in the Canons of the Council of Trent, not in the | reasonings of Bellarmin. The denial of tradition in the | Protestant Church, is precisely similar to the refusal of hearsay | evidence in a court of justice, where better evidence is to be | had. Of course, where primary evidence fails, a reasonable man | will take the best he can get. No wise theologian despises | church history; but what rational man will peril his salvation on | the infallibility of a wandering sound? | <3.> Indulgences were the first thing that Luther quarreled with, | ~~ the rank offence that stunk in the nostrils of all good men, | ~~ as if God's favour were a thing to be bought with gold. It is | almost needless to remark, that the denial of indulgences is | merely the denial of the privilege, claimed by the priesthood, of | forgiving sins; or, as they now express it less offensively, the | privilege of remitting the temporal | punishment imposed on sin by the Church; and the | revindication of that privilege to God in Christ. It is a | discarding of the priest as a mediator between God and man, | and a restoration of the independent communion of every free | man with his Creator. It is an implied denial of the sacerdotal | caste. It is ecclesiastical democracy. | We must mention, however, that the | Confession of Faith chap. xxx. of Church Censures | ) asserts the power of the keys in very strong terms, and | peculiarly liable to abuse. But this is a matter of small moment | in a Protestant Church; because the whole body of the laity, | and each individual separately, is, by the right of private | judgment, constituted a supreme judge over all judgments put | forth by the clergy; so that, if any clergyman with us were to | attempt to stamp the seal of God upon his own puerility or | delirium, and launch the same, with ban and bluster, upon the | head of a poor layman, he would only be laughed at. But, | indeed, the thing with us is impossible, having no priesthood; if | we are excommunicated, we are excommunicated by ourselves, | by our own peers and brethren in the Church courts: no mere | clergyman can touch a hair of our heads. | <4.> The mass is the daily miracle performed by the Christian | priesthood; and in so far as Martin Luther protested against | this, he robbed the clergy of that which they must necessarily | hold most dear ~~ not an exclusive privilege only, but a | magical power. It is curious, however, to observe how | backward Protestantism was to acknowledge the sacrament of | the Supper, in its original, simple, symbolical nature, as an | acted parable; for it was, in truth, nothing more, and, in this | view, characteristically consistent with Christ's whole manner | of teaching. Zuingle, the Swiss reformer, alone, has the honour | of having first, in the sixteenth century, proclaimed the ancient | doctrine in its grand simplicity. Luther helped himself with | consubstantiation, which seemed at least | intelligible; Calvin affected a distinction between himself and | Zuingle, which is little better than a solemn trifling with words | ~~ Confession of Faith, | and the Puseyites ~~ whom, however, we cannot call | Protestants ~~ stand most stoutly upon what they call the real | presence, utterly repudiating | | the common-sense doctrine of the Swiss reformer, but less | gross and carnal in their conceptions, as they think, than the | Romanists. All Protestant Churches, however, agree in this, | that they ascribe no miraculous virtue to the clerical | ministration. With them the clergyman, presiding at the | communion table, is merely the dispenser of the means of | grace; with the Papists and with the Puseyites, he is the | conductor (and the one indispensable and necessary conductor) | of the matter of grace. | The same holds with regard to the other sacraments. As livery | of land can be given only by the attorney of the proprietor, duly | authorized, and such livery only is a real and substantial | transference; so the Papists and the Puseyites hold that Baptism | can only be administered by a priest duly commissioned; and | that when so administered, and only | when so administered, it operates, by the grace of God and the | magical power of the priest, a real and substantial regeneration | of the baptized soul. All this Protestantism repudiates, and | must repudiate, because it does not allow of a priesthood at all. | <5.> As for the matter of auricular confession, it is plain enough | that if there is no priestly order, there can be no confession to | them imperative on Christians. The | Lutherans, indeed, practice, or did practice, confession to their | ministers (they call it Beichte in | German; and there is nothing to hinder the clergy in this | country from introducing the same practice, if they think it | tends to edification, and if the people do not kick; but the | proper Protestant doctrine, on the subject of confession, is | contained in that text of the Apostle James | and, in this scriptural sense, it might be well for | Protestants if auricular confession were somewhat more | common than it is. | <6.> Penance is an arbitrary, priest-imposed punishment for sin, | and with the denial of a priesthood necessarily falls. | <7.> Celibacy, like the Mass, if it could only be practiced, would | be another miracle of the priesthood, not more astonishing to | common men than if every priest were born into the world | without a mouth, and with eyes on the point of his fingers, like | the magnetic girls. Even as it is, however imperfectly practiced, | celibacy is the surest fence of the sacerdotal caste; it being very | naturally conceived that the men who cannot do common | things, must possess the power of doing uncommon things; and | thus celibacy not only marks the priestly order, and separates | them from vulgar mortals, but establishes a sort of presumption | in favour of the extraordinary gifts with which they boast | themselves endowed. | <8.> The denial of purgatory is one of the most remarkable | instances of the anti-sacerdotal character of Protestantism. | Purgatory, or a middle state of cleansing and preparation for | indeterminate and mediocre souls, is in itself a most | comfortable and consoling doctrine; and unless a person can | prove (which it will go hard to do) the contrary from the | Scriptures, it is a doctrine which every benevolent-minded | Christian, if he does not know it to be true, will at least wish to | be true. And the fact is, that, latterly, many of the most pious | Protestant writers have taught a middle state, or Purgatory. | But the Romish priests abused this consoling creed, | for the purpose of increasing their own power over the souls of | men, and furthering their unholy warfare of masses for the | dead, sung for hard cash; and this roused the righteous spirit of | Luther so much, that, being given to passionate outbursts (like | Napoleon and other great men,) he denounced the whole | doctrine, and | as the German proverb says. Thus do we | see in the rash dogmatism, as well as in the cautious | scepticism, of the Protestants, that the main instinct of all their | proceedings was a rebellion against the existence of an | imperious and monopolizing priesthood. | <9.> Works and Merit. ~~ This is a delicate subject: and the | present writer not having studied the "Marrow of Modern | Divinity," may possibly stumble into some heresy; but he will | state his opinion quietly, let it go for what it is worth. The man | who believes that any virtuous work, or series of virtuous | works, done by a mortal man, can ground him in a title, and | furnish him with a meritorious claim, to eternal life, is a | presumptuous and conceited fool; and no Papist ever taught a | doctrine so outrageously absurd, and so decidedly anti-Christian | Against this, Protestantism could not | protest. As little could it have entered into the brain of the great | Reformer to protest against virtue, and deeds of Christian | charity, viewed, not as a meritorious cause, but as an | indispensable condition of salvation. One thing, however, he | saw, ~~ an evil, and a clamant one in those days. The priests | who interfered with everything, interfered with Christian works | also; and those deeds which could have no moral value but as | the spontaneous expressions of pure feeling and strong | conviction (faith,) were prescribed and regulated in a variety of | ways; and the ignorant Christian was taught, or naturally led, to | believe that there was a merit in doing them, as mere external | acts commanded by the Church, independently of the motive | from which they might proceed. Further, as works were | tangible things that could be counted and paid for, and withal | exhaustless in number ~~ whereas faith is one, invisible and | indivisible ~~ it was natural that, when the priests wished to | lord it over Christians, they should find it at once more possible | and more profitable to lord it over their works than over their | faith. For these reasons, they magnified the importance of | works, magnifying thereby, manifestly their own power; for | they alone could adjudge the reward of good deeds done, as | they alone could remit the punishment imposed upon their | neglect. Against this mainly (in the judgment of the present | writer,) Martin Luther protested; and as in the other cases, his | protest on this head partly implied, partly expressed, a | | denial of the sacerdotal caste. If the honest Reformer went | beyond this, ~~ calling the epistle of St. James, as he is | reported to have done,

"an epistle of straw,"

and with other | such homely phrases as he was accustomed to bandy, | disparaging genuine deeds of Christian piety, he did what was | not foolish only, but pernicious; for Good Works are the grand | burden and boast of the gospel, and whoso speaks against | them, speaks against the Lord Jesus Christ. |< 10.> The worship of the Virgin Mary and the saints has nothing | directly to do, apparently, with the privileges of the priesthood. | The discarding of the Virgin and the saints necessarily | followed however, as the first result of the exercise of private | judgment; for St. Peter's supremacy may be proved from | Scripture as well as from St. Cyprian | ( de unitate, ) in a fashion: but the duty, or | the propriety of addressing our prayers to the Virgin Mary and | the saints, is altogether without the shadow of scriptural | authority. We must remark, also, that the saints were mostly, if | not all, priests, and that the priests exercised the power of | adding to their number indefinitely by canonization. To deny | the saints, therefore, was, indirectly, to deny the priesthood) in | one of its grandest prerogatives. | So much for the principles of Protestantism, which, we repeat, | are substantially only two ~~ the right of private judgment and | the essential laic character of the Christian Church. If we are | right here, then, without doubt, the Puseyites, who deny these | two principles, are Papists. But we do not say that, on this | account, they are not good members of the Anglican Church; | for we do not know that the Anglican Church is a Protestant | Church; at least, we do not find the principles of Protestantism, | as we have stated them, in the thirty-Nine Articles; | and we know that a large section of that Church has publicly | disclaimed the name of Protestant. It may be, also, that the | Anglican Church is both Protestant and Papist; felicitously | ambiguous, that all creatures may come in, as into Noah's ark, | and be saved. If so, it is a Catholic (or universal) Church | indeed; and there is no great harm done; only it is a sad and a | most iniquitous thing that Papists without the Church, should | be bemired daily with slander and falsehood, and devilry of all | kinds; while Papists within the Church, being called by another | name, are courted and caressed by the great of the land, keep | their purses within belts well lined, and provide their sons with | pleasant places. But a man forgets to stare at such things after | five-and-twenty. | We shall now turn over a leaf, and compare the principles of | Protestantism with the practice; and if we find contradiction | upon contradiction here, we need not be surprised. As there is | indwelling sin in all saints, so in all Protestantism there is | indwelling Popery. Pity, perchance, for the respectability of | some persons that we cannot allow it quietly to remain | within; but our duty commands us to drag | it out into the light of impartial criticism. We have faults, it is | plain; and we may as well train our ears to hear them decently | before the day comes, when we must hear them. We do right, | perhaps, in the general, to hold ourselves out against the | Romanists as immaculate ~~ according to the proverb, | but, | after all, being once detected in a blunder ~~ we are not gods, | but men. | One great practical blunder, or natural self-deception rather, | which Protestants practice upon themselves, is the imagination | that, because their religion secures to them the | right of private judgment, they are thereby | secured in the actual exercise of it. | Now, the fact of the matter is, that Protestantism, when it | asserts private judgment, projects an intellectual, as | Christianity, in the doctrine of regeneration, projects a moral | ideal; and thought it is a very common thing to hear Protestants | boasting of their right of private judgment, when they wish to | declaim against the Papists for a party purpose, (as we have | also religious Pharisees, boasting superior holiness, who yet | have nothing of Christianity but the name;) yet every observer | of the religious culture of this country must know that the | actual exercise of private judgment, among persons calling | themselves Protestant, is in a very small proportion to the | number of them who prate largely of the privilege. We, indeed, | are accustomed to boast of our right of private judgment, as the | Jews did of their descent from Abraham; oblivious, all the | while, that a man may cry

"the Bible, the whole Bible, and | nothing but the Bible!"

lustily enough, and yet mean only the | Catechism; as, for the sake of euphony, men are wont to speak | of love, when they mean lust. Practically, we must know that | the exercise of private judgment, in religious matters, is a very | difficult thing, and a thing which belongs only to strong and | independent minds, and to minds well instructed. To most men, | as society has hitherto been, Christianity, whether under the | Protestant or Papal form, is, and must be, more an atmosphere | than a weapon; and as for practical piety (which is the main | thing,) the philosophic theologian exercising | bona fide the fight of private judgment, and resolving | this atmosphere chemically into its component parts, does not | enjoy a whit better health than the rudest boor and is, more | exposed to asthma. This consideration, if rightly weighed, is of | infinite use towards fostering in our breasts a spirit of charity to | our brethren of the Romish persuasion; for, properly speaking, | private judgment, as a practical privilege, belongs only to | students and thinkers, who have leisure and inclination to set | themselves down seriously to a sifting of creeds, and a critical | study of the Bible. Protestant Christians, like Catholic, are | made so mainly by the teaching of the clergy and the | Catechism. This we must admit, and we may do so without the | slightest disparagement to our dear Protestantism; because it | may be (and we believe it is) that Calvin's catechism reflects | reason and scripture more purely than Bellarmin's; and because | Protestantism, like Christianity, has still | | the grand boast of projecting an ideal, for whose realization it | strives; whereas the Papacy and Puseyism give up that ideal ~~ | the idea of a perfect and ripe judgment for the individual ~~ in | despair. And we have the consolation to think that we are | advancing, by slow and sure steps, sometimes, or, as at the | present era, by rapid strides, to our goal. When education shall | be so diffused that every man can and does think for himself (if | education shall ever effect so much,) then the whole world will | be substantially Protestant, though the name of Catholic may | remain. Whatever opinions men may entertain, if they have | gathered those opinions from an independent, impartial study | of the primary sources of religious evidence, unbiased by the | intervening authority of those secondary sources on which the | Papists and the Puseyites build, they are, and are entitled to call | themselves, Protestants, though their creed may not agree, in | many points, with any of the Confessions commonly received | in the Protestant Churches. The advance of Protestantism | consists not in the increased building of churches, and printing | of catechisms, by this or that particular party; but is the | increased, independent, bona fide study | of the Bible among all parties. And | here we cannot but remark, that the clergymen of all | denominations are not always sufficiently careful to impress | this grand truth on the minds of their hearers; on the contrary, | they often speak as if Bible study were nothing but a searching | the books of Scripture to fish out proofs for the doctrines of the | catechism; whereas, we are told to | And though catechisms and confessions are | very useful and excellent things, yet that clergyman does not | do his duty to his people who habitually recommends one | catechism to their attention, and one only. It is better to study | no catechism at all than to study only one, as such systematic | cramming with favourite dogmas can only serve to fill the | mind with sectarian prejudices, and prevent the free | development of a grand and Catholic Protestantism in the soul. | In this respect private Christians are much better off than | students of theology, for these are often trained more into the | curious knowledge of the Church creed, than to the act of | independent thinking; whereas, Protestantism acknowledges no | creed but the Bible, and regards articles and decrees of councils | merely as illustrations ~~ perhaps only as curiosities. | Another grand practical blunder of Protestantism is of a much | more serious complexion. According to the pure Protestant | idea, private judgment is not merely a right and privilege, but a | duty; and if a duty, then it must be the most gross | self-contradiction and perfect suicide to hinder, in any way directly | or indirectly, the performance of this duty. In other words, the | assertion of the right of private judgment leads necessarily to | the disowning of religious persecution, and to the practice of | universal charity and brotherly toleration of all religious | principles and practices. And this is so manifest that the | Protestant Churches have always been forward to make a | public boast of their religious toleration, as opposed to the | persecuting principle of the Papacy. In the year 1838, for | instance, the Rev. Rt. Candlish, of St. George's Church, in this | city, writing, as the organ of the General Assembly, to the | Dutch Church, has the following protest: ~~ | These are noble and truly Protestant sentiments; | and if sounds that tinkle in the ear as sweetly as the versicles of | a pretty poetess of quality in an embellished Annual, were | necessarily anything more than sound, these sentiments, | expressed as they are in the most comprehensive and general | terms, would prove a great deal. But unfortunately the clang of | consecrated swords, and the screws and cordages of | parliamentary piety tell a different tale. May God fill you with | hatred to the Pope! Said Martin Luther to his friends, as he left | Smalcald: Perrat Diabolus! As the Burschen song says; and, in | the estimation of theologians in a passion, every Non-I is the | devil. Martin Luther rode a fiery steed; he was in the heat of | battle, and a little lack of Christian charity and Protestant | toleration may well be overlooked in him; but the mere pulpit-drum | beaters and theological anatomists that followed in the | fierce strife of wordy denunciation, are altogether | unpardonable. These men mounted a vulgar hobby-horse, and | lashed it soundly; and the name of the hobby-horse was | Church-Orthodoxy, and the name of the lash was the Wrath of | Man, and the name of the rider was the Old Adam! | The intolerant spirit of Protestantism appears historically, not | merely in the practice, but, with marvelous inconsistency, also | in the principles of Protestants. Toleration, indeed, was | unknown in the Christian world, Protestant, as well as Catholic, | till Arminius, Grotius and Episcopius victim of the ever-infamous | synod of Dort, in Holland, and John Locke, in | England, preached it; and even now in this nineteenth century, | the Puseyites, with that grand consistency which characterizes | them, have not hesitated to refer all the evils under which | society at present groans, to the diabolical principles of | toleration. Nor is there anything wonderful here. It | is hard for an old sinner to cut all his sins at once; and there | being two things to be done in the sixteenth century, to cure the | eye of blindness and the heart of bigotry, the latter, as the more | difficult, was left undone. Perfect toleration is in fact only | another word for perfect love, and perfect love is perfect | Christianity. If, therefore, we see newspapers, and reviews, and | magazines of all kinds, preaching intolerance in some shape or | other publicly in this Protestant country, we are to look upon it | with coolness, if possible, and as a thing altogether natural. | Homer has sung for 3000 years, and prose still remains in | | the world. The intolerance of Protestantism, which the reverend | divine above quoted denies to belong to the Established Church | of Scotland, belongs not to that church indeed, nor to any other | church particularly, but to human nature generally. It is one of | the most universal manifestations of that selfishness of men, in | which the self-assertion and self-protrusion necessary to | energetic character is so apt to terminate. All enthusiasm and | all energy, with our crank mortal resolves, naturally rushes into | intolerance; which the balance-wheel of wisdom only in an | elect few of God's own can check. Hence alone we explain the | existence of those persecuting doctrines which the confessions | of the proper Protestant churches, and the writings of the great | Protestant divines set forth without a blush. The wisest | philosophers have believed in astrology; the mildest | magistrates have banished and burned the most pious persons | for the fictitious crimes of heresy and witchcraft; and shall we | account it strange if the most orthodox theologians, | expounding a religion of love, have preached persecution, and | fanned hatred systematically? | For the sake of those deluded partisans in this country, or for | the sake of those whom they (God forgive them!) intentionally | delude, asserting that persecution for religious opinions is a | characteristic of the Papal church only, and not of the | Protestant, we shall here make an extract or two from the | Protestant Confessions. The Helvetic | Confession de Magistratu, | ) says: ~~ And in conformity | with this doctrine of the Swiss Churches, we know that | Michael Servetus was burnt, and that Sebastian Castaglio was | banished, much to the satisfaction of Calvin, who played the | stern Danton, and Beza, who in his famous book, | de hoereticis comburendis, seems, as it | were, the fiery Mirabeau of Geneva. In the earliest Scottish | Confession of Faith, which was that of the English | congregation of Geneva, we find the following very violent and | intolerant passage, denouncing not Papists only, but | Anabaptists, who were Protestants. | The Second Book of Discipline of our Church, says, | to the same purpose, with pith and humour enough: ~~ | this last caveat | meaning, that the magistrate is not to take it upon himself | to decide what heresy is, but this being first decided by the | Kirk, the heretic is to be | to be burnt as Servetus was, for | denying the Trinity, or imprisoned for a few weeks, according | to the milder practice of modern times, as Cleave was, for | selling a deistical pamphlet. These quotations, so strangely in | the teeth of the fair professions contained in Mr. Candlish's | letter to the Dutch Church, prove not only that the Scottish | Church is not tolerant, but that she considers persecution for | religious opinions, by the civil magistrate, as a sacred duty; and | this not only in her old Confessions, but in that of 1647, ratified | by Act of Parliament in 1649, commonly called the | Westminster Confession, which repeats | the doctrine of the Book of Discipline, shortly as follows, | : ~~ A notable | passage, which if established creeds were not unchangeable, | ought certainly to be changed; for it not only makes | intolerance and persecution a duty on all those who subscribe | the Confession of Faith without public qualification and | exception; but it establishes a sort of secular Popedom, or | universal Episcopate of the magistrate over the priest, ~~ | which stamps the seal of orthodoxy on all the late doings of the | lawyers, and turns terribly | | into the ludicrous the sublime Hildebrandistic attitude in which | the Church now affects to stand before the banded | principalities and powers of this world, eager, no doubt, to | pounce upon the tithes. | These extracts from the symbolical books of the Protestant | Churches, (and having these, it is quite unnecessary to point | out doctrines of intolerance from the writings of their doctors,) | prove not so much the inconsistency of Protestant | practice with Protestant principles ~~ which were a small | offence ~~ as the inconsistency of Protestant principles with | themselves, which is a sorry sight. For the sacerdotal | Christians, both Roman and Anglican, when they preach and | practice persecution, are consistent in every point. They believe | that the Church is a living and visible theocracy, instituted and | maintained by God for teaching divine truth, and keeping the | moral world in some decent sort of order; according to which | doctrine the rod in the hand of the bishop is truly in the hand of | God; and in this chastisement we ought to rejoice, for | | But the Protestant Church having abolished the priesthood, and | publicly declared the majority of each individual intellect, | whose instincts cry for emancipation, can no longer, with ay | consistency, keep the world under tutors and curators. In so far, | therefore, as we Protestants cherish or practice intolerance in | any point, we live in habitual contradiction to ourselves, and | carry about with us thus, according to Schiller, the | true and real misery, and genuine hell of a rational being. It | were well, however, after all, if our self-contradiction could be | confined to principles; and if, preaching doctrines of devils, | we, like Epicurus, could boast to practise the precepts of | angels. But our practice, though not quite so bad as our | principles, on this point, is bad enough; for, though we have | (not with the best grace, it must be confessed) repealed much | of the practical intolerance that, to our shame, remained in the | British statute-book longer than in any other calling itself | Christian, there still remains a remnant in | respectable lustihood, as recent acts of Parliament about | jail-chaplaincies, school-inspectorships, and other small matters of | that kind, sufficiently testify. Nay, we may say | truly ~~ and the more publicly it is confessed the better ~~ that | bigotry is engrained in the British constitution; (being | eradicated by slow degrees, every small branch lopped off | requiring a gigantic wrench, and bleeding copiously;) that | oppression of our poor Romanist brother lives a hereditary | guilt in our members, as the spoil of Poland stands a Cain's-mark | on the broad brow of Russia; and that the glorious 1688, | good as it was in its own time and place, was, in the eye of | God, only a sectarian revolution, a heresy, | ( in the Scripture sense,) and | an accursed thing; for every revolution that celebrates in | theological hatred, and stereotypes by civil penalties, the | triumph of one religious faction over another, is contrary to the | spirit of Christianity. This is manifest. For the great principle of | Christianity, as we all know, but very few of us practise, is | Love Thine Enemy; and in Christ Jesus there is neither | Protestant nor Papist, Episcopalian nor Presbyterian, but a new | creature. And if any man say that religious tests and civil | disabilities ~~ of which not a few still remain in this land ~~ | are not persecution and intolerance, that man is a sophist. For | whether you cut off my leg or shut up the road where I am | walking, comes to the same thing. I cannot always choose | another road. Murder, according to the gospel doctrine, is | committed not only by those who kill, but by those who call | their brother Raca; and they are intolerant not merely or mainly | who burn heretics, but who delight to maintain an unrighteous | ascendancy (call it Protestant or call it | Papist) over any class of their fellow men, and deny or grudge | to the poor Samaritan called a Dissenter, the free participation | of the quiet waters and green pastures of God's Catholic | bounty. | Let us ask, in conclusion, what are the signs of the times in | respect of Protestantism? Are we advancing or are we | retrograding? for the present paper is written to no purpose | unless it lead to a serious asking, and a serious answering of | this question. It appears a hard task to read the present times; | for many strange beasts have appeared that are not only large | in bulk, but also bellow, like bulls of Bashan, like the young | lion rejoicing in his strength; and such things are apt to fill the | minds of men with undue terrors. On the whole, we think we | may say that genuine Protestantism is | | on the increase amongst us. The increase of knowledge and the | spread of genuine education insures this, excepting always | such artificial education as aristocratic young men receive at | Oxford, which only confirms prejudices; but Oxonians are a | small part of the British people. As for Puseyism, it is nothing | new, and more a magnificent toy of the clergy than a god | before which the sound sense of England will ever bend. The | sacerdotal creature slept for a century, and now awakes; no | man, at any time, had a right to say that the Anglican Church | ever was a Protestant church; and no man has now any right to | be surprised if it publicly declares itself a Popish Church. We | ought rather to rejoice, that such as the Anglican Church is ~~ | a sacerdotal, and therefore an intolerant church ~~ it now | shows itself, and vaunts itself. There is honesty in this; and an | honest devil is little dangerous; at least it was not this sort of a | devil that tempted Eve in Paradise. But the Church of England; | that is to say, the clergy and the clerical interests, are one thing; | the English people are another, and a very different thing. Of | these latter we think we may safely say, that their grand moral | instincts, their habits, the whole stamp of their character and | tone of their being, are, and will remain essentially Protestant. | Looking to Scotland again, and the hills of our own | Covenanters (God bless their bones!) if the clergy of that part | of the Church which rejoices in the stamp of the magistrate, are | honest in their professed desire to reinstate the body of the | brethren into their original controlling functions, as members | of the Church of Christ, which is as little sacerdotal as it is | secular, we see in this non-intrusion movement a grander | resurrection of genuine Protestant principles, for which God be | praised! Pity only that they should have blundered in the | means, fighting the cause of God with the weapons of the | devil, ~~ for that independence | principle of theirs again, or claim of exemption from the laws | of the land, is Popery worse than Hildebrand's, ~~ a compound | of impudence and folly truly deplorable. But they will get over | this some way or other, by God's blessing if | they are Honest; as the Apostle Paul was pardoned for | worse sins, having committed them in ignorance. Let them | have a care, however, what they do in other matters; especially | in that affair of the Rev. Thomas Wright of Borthwick, who | stands before them at present accused of heresy. The public eye | is upon them here; and if it turns out that this man, being a | good Christian, and a philosophical thinker, and in both | capacities an honour to any Christian church, is cast out of the | communion of the Presbyterian Church of Scotland for small | matters of real or imagined disagreement with the | Westminster Confession; then there will | remain no doubt whatever about a very lamentable matter, | namely, | that the indwelling Popery of Presbyterian Protestantism is yet | very strong. It will be declared publicly before men, that there | is no right of private judgment within | the Church of Scotland, at least not to the clergy. It | will be declared that the ministers of the word are mere parrots | and blind transmitters, upon whose creed you can count in all | points as upon a calculating machine by Babbage; or it will be | declared that the Church is founded on hypocrisy and humbug, | and that a Presbyterian clergyman may think what he pleases | on matters of faith within the range of the Bible, | only let him not speak out. It will be | declared that we are Papists, swearing, not by one, but by many | Popes; that we hold the Bible as in itself worthless, only a sort | of commentary on the shorter Catechism; and that, whereas the | Papists worship an idol with a beast's head, our idol has the | head of a man, but is an idol still. But there is faith to be put in | the Church of Scotland, notwithstanding many offences. Hold | on gallantly, tough old ship, for thou art dear to the gods! Hold | on, not by the tithes only or mainly, (for therein thy life | certainly consisteth not,) but by honourable principle, and by a | good conscience! And if thou hast been playing fantastic tricks | latterly, before high Heaven, beg God's forgiveness to day, if | thou wilt, and be wise to-morrow, if thou canst.