I have not a shadow of doubt that these anti-Protestant epigrams are
profoundly true. But I have as little that, in the same sense, the
"Christianity of history is not" Romanism; and that to be deeper in
history is to cease to be a Romanist. The reasons which compel my doubts
about the compatibility of the Roman doctrine, or any other form of
Catholicism, with history, arise out of exactly the same line of
argument as that adopted by Dr. Newman in the famous essay which I have
just cited. If, with one hand, Dr. Newman has destroyed Protestantism,
he has annihilated Romanism with the other; and the total result of his
ambidextral efforts is to shake Christianity to its foundations. Nor was
any one better aware that this must be he inevitable result of his
arguments--if the world should refuse to accept Roman doctrines and
Roman miracles--than the writer of Tract 85.
Dr. Newman made his choice and passed over to the Roman Church half a
century ago. Some of those who were essentially in harmony with his
views preceded, and many followed him. But many remained; and, as the
quondam Puseyite and present Ritualistic party, they are continuing that
work of sapping and mining the Protestantism of the Anglican Church
which he and his friends so ably commenced. At the present time, they
have no little claim to be considered victorious all along the line. I
am old enough to recollect the small beginnings of the Tractarian party;
and I am amazed when I consider the present position of their heirs.
Their little leaven has leavened, if not the whole, yet a very large
lump of the Anglican Church; which is now pretty much of a preparatory
school for Papistry. So that it really behoves Englishmen (who, as I
have been informed by high authority, are all legally members of the
State Church, if they profess to belong to no other sect) to wake up to
what that powerful organisation is about, and whither it is tending. On
this point, the writings of Dr. Newman, while he still remained within
the Anglican fold, are a vast store of the best and the most
authoritative information. His doctrines on Ecclesiastical miracles and
on Development are the Corner-stones of the Tractarian fabric. He
believed that his arguments led either Romeward, or to what
ecclesiastics call "Infidelity," and I call Agnosticism. I believe that
he was quite right in this conviction; but while he chooses the one
alternative, I choose the other; as he rejects Protestantism on the
ground of its incompatibility with history, so, _a fortiori_, I conceive
that Romanism ought to be rejected; and that an impartial consideration
of the evidence must refuse the authority of Jesus to anything more than
the Nazarenism of James and Peter and John. And let it not be supposed
that this is a mere "infidel" perversion of the facts. No one has more
openly and clearly admitted the possibility that they may be fairly
interpreted in this way than Dr. Newman. If, he says, there are texts
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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