An Essay on the Development of Christian DoctrineNewman, John Henry
Religion
An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine
Newman, John Henry
Catholic Church -- Doctrines; Dogma, Development of
With this passage from a learned German, illustrating the bearing of the
allegorical method upon the Judaic and Athanasian controversies, it will
be well to compare the following passage from the latitudinarian Hale's
"Golden Remains," as directed against the theology of Rome. "The
literal, plain, and uncontroversible meaning of Scripture," he says,
"without any addition or supply by way of interpretation, is that alone
which for ground of faith we are necessarily bound to accept; except it
be there, where the Holy Ghost Himself treads us out another way. I take
not this to be any particular conceit of mine, but that unto which our
Church stands necessarily bound. When we receded from the Church of
Rome, one motive was, because she added unto Scripture her glosses as
Canonical, to supply what the plain text of Scripture could not yield.
If, in place of hers, we set up our own glosses, thus to do were nothing
else but to pull down Baal, and set up an Ephod, to run round and meet
the Church of Rome again in the same point in which at first we left
her. . . . This doctrine of the literal sense was never grievous or
prejudicial to any, but only to those who were inwardly conscious that
their positions were not sufficiently grounded. When Cardinal Cajetan,
in the days of our grandfathers, had forsaken that vein of postilling
and allegorizing on Scripture, which for a long time had prevailed in
the Church, and betaken himself unto the literal sense, it was a thing
so distasteful unto the Church of Rome that he was forced to find out
many shifts and make many apologies for himself. The truth is (as it
will appear to him that reads his writings), this sticking close to the
literal sense was that alone which made him to shake off many of those
tenets upon which the Church of Rome and the reformed Churches differ.
But when the importunity of the Reformers, and the great credit of
Calvin's writings in that kind, had forced the divines of Rome to level
their interpretations by the same line; when they saw that no pains, no
subtlety of wit was strong enough to defeat the literal evidence of
Scripture, it drove them on those desperate shoals, on which at this day
they stick, to call in question, as far as they durst, the credit of the
Hebrew text, and countenance against it a corrupt translation; to add
traditions unto Scripture, and to make the Church's interpretation, so
pretended, to be above exception."[346:1]
8.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account