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THE, CATHO
From the Dublin Review, (last No—November).
" The Result of my Wanderings through the Territory
of Protestant Literature; ot, the Necessity of re-
turn to the Catholic Church demonstrated,‘ exclu-
sively from the Confessions of Protestant _Theolo-
*~“gians and Philosophers. By Dr. Julius v. Honing-
haus. Aschaffenburg: 1837. .
Continued from page 59
This is not mere declamation.’ Every day, every
new controversy in Protestant Germany, places the
unhappy truth ina clearer light. Every day draws num-
bers from the standard of what is called—and the name
is an alarming index of the state of religion—the seper-
naturalist party, and adds to the ranks of Rationalism.
Clergy and laity alike fall away; and, although we may
make a large allowance for exaggeration, still it is
melancholy to find it asserted in a leading journal,(a
"that the Rationalists are ninety-nine of every hundred
of the Protestant population, Whata striking illustra-
tion of the plain, common-sense observation, which
Dr. IL. cites frona Cobbett’s History of the’ Reforma-
cion.(b)
*« Two true religions, fwo true creeds differing from
each other, present us with an impossibility: what,
then, are we tothink of twenty or forty creeds, each
differing from the rest? . What is the natural effect of
men seeing constantly before their eyes ascore or two
of sects, all calling themselves Christians, all tolerated
by the law, and each openly declaring that all the rest
are false? ‘The natural, the necessary, effect is,’ that
many men will believe that none of them’ have the truth
“on their side; and, of course, that the thing is false alto-
gether, and invented solely for the benefit of those who
dispute about it... 4... .
** Whether the Catholic be the true religion or, not,
we have not now to inquire; but, while its long con-
tinuance, and in so many nations too, was a strong pre-
sumptive proof of its good moral effects upon the peo-
ple, the disagreement among the Protestants was, and
is, a presumptive proof, not less strong, of its truth: If
there be forty persons, who, and whose ‘fathers, up. to
this day, have entertained a certain belief; and if thirty-
nine of these say, at last, that this belief is erroneous,
we may naturally enough suppose, or at least, we may
think it possible, that the truth, so long hidden, is,
though late, come tolight. Butif the thirty-nine begin,
—aye, and instantly begin,—to entertain, instead of the
one old belief, thirty-nine new beliefs, each differing
from all the other thirty-eight, must’ we ‘not, in. com-
mon justice, decide that the old belief must have been
the true one?, What! shall we hear these thirty-nine
rotesters against the ancient faith, each protesting
against all the other thirty-eight, and yet believe that
their joint protest wasjust? ‘Thirty-eight of them must
now be inerror; this must be : and are we still to. be-
lieve in the correctness of their former decision, and that,
too, relating to the same identical matter ?—‘Thus the
argument would stand, on the supposition that thirty-
nine parts out of forty of all Christendom had protested;’
but there were not, and there are not even unto this
ay, two parts out of fifty. Sv that here we have
thirty-nine persons breaking off from about two thou-
sand, protesting against the faith which the whole of
their fathers had held; we have each of these, thirty-
nine protesting that all the other thirty-eight have pro-
tested upon false grounds; and yet we are to believe
that their joint protest against the faith of the two thou-
sand, who are backed by all antiquity, was wise and
just! Is this the-way.in which we decide in other
cases !—pp. 601-3. :
We have been tempted away from our subject, by
the clear and solid reasoning of this admirable extract ;
and it is not without reluctance we return to that por-
tion of it which we are now considering. .Whocan re-
flect with indifference on the state of morals and reli-
gion, where private opinion is so licentions, and public
preaching so uncontrolled, that a preacher, from the
alpit of one of the first cities of Germany, may dare
G
» to talk. lightly of the sanctity of the marriage tie, and
palliate its violation !—where he. may claim the » pri-
vilege of interpreting thus our Redeemer’s sentence on
the adulteress ; and where, above all, it is openly ac-
knowledged, that there is no principle in Protestant-
ism to check this license of interpretation ?(¢) i:
’ Fearful, however, as are these abuses—disheartening
-:as is the prospect, where the first principles. of i faith
are so utterly corrupted,—still the advocate of the Pro-
; testant doctrines, is forced to look thei steadily, in the
.» face, and acknowledge that they are the necessary con-
. Sequence of that. inalienable right on which his. own
(a) Darmstadt Allgem. Kirch, Zeit. No, 200,
(d) Sect. 203-5. :
‘(¢) Fischer Einleitungindie Dogmatik der Ev. Prot.
Kirche, s, 217. ‘
LI
taa
eh aU av dd oF fh } aa
belief is grounded. The experience of a few years
brought this clearly before the eyes of ‘the fathers of
the. Reformation. » As they had defied the ‘authority of|
the Church, they discovered that their own was disre-
garded in turn: the truths of religion’ slipped, one by
one, insensibly, from their grasp ; and, in bitterness of
heart, they acknowledged thattheir power was unequal
to the task of appeasing the spirit which they had them-
selves evoked.
«Verily, I must acknowledge,’ ‘writes Luther,
* much trouble cometh of my teaching!’ Yea,’ I can-
not deny that this matteroften maketh me’ sorrowful,
when my conscience especially chideth me, in. that I
have torn asunder the former state of the Church, which
was tranquil and peaceful under the Papacy, and exci-
ted much trouble, discord, and faction, by’ my teach-
ing.(d) If the world endureth much longer, we shal]
be forced, by reason of the contrary interpretations of
the Bible which now prevail, to adopt again, and take
refuge in, the decrees of the councils, if we have amind
to maintain unity, of faith.(e)
*Ttis ofno little moment that the dissensions which
have arisen among us, should remain unsuspected by
posterity.” Fort is truly ridiculous, that, after op-
posing ourselves to the entire world, we should, at
the very commencement, differ among ourselves.(f)
‘The whole Elbe could not supply water enough to be-
wail the dissensions of the Reformation. ‘They doubt
with regard to the most momentous doctrines. ‘The
evil is incurable.(¢)
“ Our people are ‘ driven about by every wind of
doctrine. We may, perhaps, still know what they be-
lieve in religion to-day, but we are not sure that to-
morrow they will believe the same. In what single
point are those who have declared war against the Pope,
agreed among themselves ? “‘If we take the trouble to
examine the articles from the first to the last, we shall
find that there is not one whichis not admitted by some
as an article of faith, and by the others rejected as un-
godly.”’(h)—p. 441.
Have these predictions been falsified by the event ?
Has any subsequent modification of the principles of
this unstable creed, checked ‘that wild and licentious
career of dogmatism, the thought of which embittered
the last days of the stern and reckless Reformer ? Has
any balm been’ found for that malady which Melanethon
declared incurable ? - Have those: disgraceful dissen-
sions, which Calvin would conceal from posterity, been
suspended or accommodated in latter times? Let the
history of the Reformation in England, Scotland, the
Low Countries, France, Switzerland, above ‘all, Ger-
many, reply. Do not the same eauses. subsist to the
present day ?—are not their effectsas appalling,—aye,
infinitely more appalling,—than they were’ even-in
those days when the evil was pronounced incurable !
Alas ! disunion and strife seem to be of the very nature
and essence of Protestantism !
“ Discord and schism among the Protestants were
inevitable. We can fancy to ourselves two periods in
the formation of their religious’ opinions:—the first,
theircommon struggle with Catholicity, the protest and
separation of all these new religious parties from ‘the
Catholic: Church ; the second, their own ‘internal pro-
cess of reconstruction. . In the first, all was pulling
down; inthe second, building up: the first was revo-
ution—the second, constitution or organization. But
it also followed that, in the one case, there was unity
of purpose and community of exertion, and, therefore,
union; in the other, diversity of purpose, and, there-
fore, discord and separation. .,. ... .- As soon as they
seriously set about reconstructing the sole true edifice
of Christian faith,—as the architects were notof one
mind, and were self-opinioned and obstinate enough to
wish each for his own plans, models, and designs, in
the erection and ornamenting of the edifice, although
ofier they did not understand each other’s language,—
confusion and strife at once became unavoidable: often-
times, before any considerable part of the work was
done, they, separated, each building a hut for himself,
J
(d) Luther, Op. tom, ii. p. 281, 387.
(e) Ibid. ii.conts Zuinglium. 1
» Cf) Calvin, Ep, ad Melan, p. 143,.In the edition to which
we have referred (Geneva, 1576), it. occurs in p. 108., We
regret to add, that, probably from the absence of the author
during the printing of the present edition, the references are
not unfrequently defective, and sometimes incorrect. He
mentions this circumstance ia the preface to the second edi-
tion, with a promise that, by occasional. notices in the “Uni-
versal Kirchen-Zeitung,”, a periodical which,/has been es-
tablished at Frankfort-on-the-Main,-the defectshall, as far as
possible, be supplied. Some of the references we have been
obliged to give on the authority of the work itself.
* (2): Melancth. Ep, 1. iv. 100,
(4) Andreas Dudith, Schreiben an Beza,’ ‘” a
HERALD,
or taking up some temporary lodging, till he ultimatelY
returned to the original dwelling.’ ‘The expositions Of
Scripture, and the conclusions from it, which one party .
adopted, were rejected by another; and that, notwith-
standing the claims ofhuman authority, which they de-
termined not to allow. ' But meanwhile, although au-
thority was driven out at one door, it was: let’in at
another, although in anew and more friendly - shape.
Before, it had dictated as ‘an arbitrary and infallible
law-giver ; now, it spoke merely as an unerring infer-
terpreter cf the law: instead of the dogma, prescribed :
without proof or: warrant of Scripture, proven and
Scriptural tenets were now proposed: but unfortunately,
many now considered the proofs 28 worthless, and 0!
as little power, as, before, all had deemed the authority .
of the Church from which they had seceded.”’—(7) pp.
52-3. vo
Nor is it possible to find, in the organization of Pro-
testantism, any remedy for this evil. ‘The opinion of
Melancthon, in the sixteenth century, is that of ever:
reflecting Protestant to the present day. ‘
‘* How insecure the Bible is, as a foundation for a
system of religion, may be learned from the fact, that
all the advocates of the Bible have formed their peculiar
and contradictory creeds from the same volume, and
anathematized and persecuted each other on’ the same
plea.(j) | Canany man deny, that there are but: few
passages in the New Testament from which all readers
deduce the same meaning?. Now, which of these is
the right? Which should be adopted?’ Who is to
decide ?—who can decide ?(k) According to genuine
Protestant principles, it is tmpossible that the inter-’
nal dissensions of the Church ean be cured, except
superficially ; they cannot be stopped by the power
of the Chnrch, but must bleed oninternally.(2) Is it
not true that the Holy Scripture is the only rule of the
Christian’s faith, and that there is no infallible inter-
preter upon earth ?: In these two points all Protestants
are agreed, Now, if they be sincerey—if they mean
in their hearts, what, in their sermons, confessions of
faith, and controversies against the Catholics, they have
declared a thousand and a thousand times,—surely itis
an inevitable consequence that.they must acknowledge
in every Christian a right to interpret the Bible for him-
self; and thatthose doctrines alone are articles of faith
for each individual which he reads in the Bible, no mat-
ter whether others can find'them there, or not.’’(m)—
pp. 55, 56. e Thig st ters
“Our Church is founded on liberty of faith: she
tolerates. difference of opinion, and, of course, tolerates
error, and must tolerate it.(n) If we dispassionately
consider the whole organization of the Protestant
Church, there cannot be a doubt that thorough’ consis-
tency is wanting.(o he firm consistency and conse-
cutivenes of the Catholic constitution is wanting to the
Evangelical Church ; it wants that mutual connexion
of the members, and subjection to one head as the centre
of unity.”’(p) :
- Unhappily too, this disposition to dogmatize is not.» ¢
confined to the mere interpretation of Scripture. - It
extends even to the authority itself, and canvasses the
authenticity of every single book; and, indeed, of
every single passage inthe Bible. ‘The opinions of -
Luther with regard to the Epistle of the Hebrews and
the Apocalypse of St. John, his utterand contemptuous
rejection of St. James, recht stroherner Epistel, and,
above all, the principle which he applied as a test of
their authenticity, have not been lost on his successors
in innovation. It is with extreme pain we transfer, to
our own pages a few specimens ofthe impious and
blasphemous spirit, in which the work of biblical eriti-
cism is now pursued; a Jabor, be it remembered, which
the consistent Protestant is bound to undertake, as the
first step in the formation of his religious opinions,
whatever may be’ its dangers, and however inevitable
the abuses to which it leads. ‘The first of the following
extracts is from the preface of a Bible published in 1819
by the Strasburg Bible Society! \\ - .
“ The book of Ruth is a beautiful family picture:
Luther did not consider the Book of Esther as of much
value for Christian readers. ‘The book of Judith is a.
beautiful pious romance, but pure poetry. But, in the
() Henke, Allgem, Geschichte, der Ch. Kirche, Th. iii.
8 27 é CAE . "
(j) Jenaer Allgem. Literatur-Zeitung, No. 48, 1621.
(4) Lessing, Beitrage zur Gesch. der Literat. B. vi. 8. 58.
(J) Schleiermacher, Reformations-alman.:1819. <>!
(m)_ Coste, “Anhang zu’ Locke's. Reasonableness of
Christianity.” 1715. Hh eg oo ped
(ny Schulz. Nassauer, Prediger-Arbeiten. Heft. 1.s. 91.
2
e
() Ullmann, Theolog. Studien und Kritiken, Heft. 2, 5.
301, 1832. : '
(p) Fessler, Gesch. der Ungern, Th. 7, 8- 677. °
arose ceereeersntes