Protestantism: Its Ultimate Principle

INTRODUCTORY.

WITHIN the last five-and-twenty years
a great change has passed upon the
spirit and temper of the English nation. I
can remember the time when the anta-
gonism with which for more than three hun-
dred years the vast majority of the English
people had regarded the Church of Rome, was
one of the most powerful elements of our
national life. It controlled our theological
controversies; it wais appealed to with confi-
dence by the chiefs of political parties; its
influence was obvious in our social intercourse.
Roman Catholic priests were regarded with
mingled distrust, contempt, and dread. The
characteristic doctrines of the Roman Catholic
Church were spoken of with intellectual scorn ; ~
the pretensions of the Pope' to infallibility,
for instance — pretensions which at those times
were not sustained by the authority of a
General Council, — -and the dogma of transub-
stantiation, were supposed to be too monstrous
to require serious discussion ; the invocation
of saints and the homage offered to the
Virgin Mary were treated as nothing better
than idolatry, and reverence for rielics as a
childish superstition. All the instrument^ and
apparatus of Romish worship, decorated altars,
consecrated wafers, crucifixes, the gorgeous
robes of the priests, were regarded as things
which carried infection with them ; and the
worship itself as a profane insult to the
majesty of God.

Contents

I. The Right of Private Judgment . _, .18

II. The Authority of Holy Scripture . . 45

III. Justification by Faith . • . . 75

Conclusion . . . • . . , .87