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 Presented by W^5>\cX(SY-\\"Y^-V-Vo r\ 
 
 BX A815 .052 1885 
 Olmstead, Dwight Hinckley, 
 
 18277-1901. 
 The Protestant faith; or, 
 
 Salvation by belief 
 
THE 
 
 PROTESTANT FAITH 
 
 OR 
 
 SALVATION BY BELIEF 
 
 AN ESSAY UPON THE ERRORS OF THE PROTESTANT CHURCH 
 
 BY 
 
 DWIGHT HINCKLEY OLMSTEAD 
 
 NEW YORK & LONDON 
 
 G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 
 
 2Ct)e l^nicfecvbocfeer ^vcss 
 
 1885 
 
COPYRIGHT BY 
 
 DWIGHT H. OLMSTEAD 
 X885 
 
 Press of 
 
 G. P. Piitnairi's Sons 
 
 JVe7u York 
 
INTRODUCTION TO NEW EDITION. 
 
 The following essay, In substantially its 
 present form, was read by the author before 
 the Youne Men's Christian Union of New 
 York in 1856, and afterwards on two other 
 occasions in i860. 
 
 In 1874 it was printed, and some copies 
 were distributed gratuitously, but none were 
 placed upon the market for sale. 
 
 The author believes that its publication at 
 this time will be of service to persons whose 
 minds are disquieted by modern doubts, and 
 he presents it to the consideration of those 
 who call themselves Catholic as w^ell as Prot- 
 estant. 
 
 He is aware that the discourse does not 
 affect, except incidentally, the fundamental 
 question of the certainty and consequent re- 
 liability of beliefs and opinions. For, to 
 what extent the latter are voluntary or invol- 
 
4 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 untary is one thing, but how far they can be 
 depended upon and are therefore of value, is 
 quite another. 
 
 He will be prepared to suggest a hypothe- 
 sis upon that subject, after the arguments of 
 this present essay shall have been disposed 
 of. 
 
 The author has taken the liberty of insert- 
 ing in the Appendix a few extracts from news- 
 papers, commendatory of the essay at the 
 time it was previously printed. 
 
 New York, April, 1885. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 I. The Protestant Reformation how occasioned... 7 
 
 II. The Intellectual Character of the Reformation. 11 
 
 III. Free Inquiry against Authority 12 
 
 IV. Justification by Faith 16 
 
 V. What Luther and the Reformers meant by 
 
 Faith 19 
 
 VI. The Relation between Moral Obligation and 
 
 Moral Consequences 22 
 
 VII. The nature of Beliefs and Opinions 30 
 
 VIII. Concluding remarks 45 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Note I 69 
 
 Note 2 69 
 
 Note 3 73 
 
 Note 4 73 
 
 Note 5 73 
 
 Note 6 74 
 
 Commendatory Criticisms 75 
 
AN ESSAY 
 
 ON THE 
 
 PROTESTANT FAITH 
 
 I. 
 
 The Protestant Reformation how occa- 
 sioned. 
 
 The sixteenth century ushered in a period 
 of great intellectual activity. The revival of 
 literature, art and science ; the brilliant mari- 
 time discoveries ; the prevailing spirit of con- 
 troversy and enterprise ; but more especially 
 the introduction of printing, whereby knowl- 
 edge was disseminated, and made common to 
 more than one nation or generation, had all 
 given a new and remarkable impulse to hu- 
 man thought, distinguishing that as the most 
 important epoch in modern history. As men 
 
 7 
 
8 THE PROTESTANT FAITH. 
 
 beo-an to think for themselves, their first pro- 
 testation, as may well be supposed, was 
 against the restraint of thought and its au- 
 thoritative dictation. The fears of the Vicar 
 of Croydon were well nigh realized : ** We 
 ''must root out printing, or printing will root 
 *' out us." 
 
 It must not be forgotten that for centuries 
 the Roman Church had been the prominent, 
 controlling power of Christendom. She did 
 not spring up in a day, but was ''the fruit of 
 "a long array of most learned men, distin- 
 "gulshed colleges and councils, sanctioned by 
 "noble martyrs and numerous miracles." 
 
 So much was she, for these reasons, lifted 
 above the common crowd, it is not surprising 
 if to them her utterances had early the force 
 of law, and that she, in turn, should count her- 
 self infallible. 
 
 But not content with being the spiritual 
 head, she aspired to temporal dominion. She 
 demanded tribute from all nations, and ar- 
 rayed armed legions for her own use ; she 
 made and unmade kings ; she became the 
 
THE PROTESTANT FAITH. 9 
 
 umpire of trade ; she dictated laws and treat- 
 ies. At all Christian courts her legates took 
 precedence, soon assuming to represent that 
 divine right — that supreme authority — by 
 whose sanction alone princes were then, as 
 now, supposed to govern. 
 
 To this supremacy she set up the claim of 
 prescription. Had she not for a thousand 
 years stood firm on that rock whereon Christ 
 himself had set her, amid changing empires, 
 the rude assaults of barbarism, and the decis- 
 ions of hostile councils ? Had not her edicts 
 become the recognized theology of the greater 
 part of the civilized world ? How could she 
 be In error who could point to a history like 
 this ? 
 
 At length her prestige began to decline ; 
 and while that result was In no small degree 
 due to the corruptions of the priesthood, Its 
 main cause is to be found in that growing 
 mental enfranchisement ever since peculiarly 
 characteristic of the Protestant nations. Im- 
 parting to them a superior energy and intelli- 
 gence, derived, as has been most truly said, 
 
lO THE PROTESTANT FAITH. 
 
 *' not from the creeds they hold, but from the 
 ''private liberty which accompanies these 
 " creeds." * 
 
 Never before had the traditional preten- 
 sions and policy of the Church been so seri- 
 ously and persistently questioned, nor ever 
 before had so large a proportion of the Chris- 
 tian world presumed to assert anything con- 
 trary to her canons. But now the boldness of 
 a few learned men at first, and afterwards of 
 the people at large, began to shake her au- 
 thority. 
 
 It was not that men had the right to think, 
 but the undeniable, patent fact, that they did 
 think, and could not help thinking and having 
 intelligent opinions of their own, which gave 
 point to the struggle. 
 
 Thus arose that great conflict between Au- 
 thority, so called, and Opinion — between the 
 authority of the Pope and the opinions of the 
 educated classes ; between the authority of 
 councils and the individual judgment. And it 
 need scarcely be said that the contest, al- 
 * Westminster Review, Jan. 1858. 
 
THE PRO TESTA NT FAITH. 1 1 
 
 though in the most enlightened countries 
 somewhat in favor of the individual, is not 
 concluded even to this day. 
 
 II. 
 
 The Intellectual Character of the Ref- 
 ormation. 
 
 The Lutheran reformation, which had, in 
 reality, been impending from the time of 
 Wyckliffe, was an intellectual rather than a 
 religious movement. From it nothing has 
 been gained directly for religion ; nothing, 
 except what has resulted from independence 
 of thought, free speech, and the present het- 
 erogeneous character of the Christian world 
 — for even this last is progress. 
 
 It was not wholly a failure ; since, whatever 
 may have been the theological errors of Lu- 
 ther, (and grave errors they were), it cannot 
 be denied that in the history of the present 
 wide and fundamental variance between the 
 hereditary assumptions of the Church and 
 common sense, he was among the first who 
 
1 2 THE PRO TES TANT FA ITH. 
 
 opened the gate of free inquiry, disenthralled 
 men from a blind, unreasonable subservience 
 to priestly rule, and directed them to the par- 
 tial liberty they have since enjoyed. 
 
 III. 
 
 Free Inquiry against Authority. 
 
 That this was the occasion and essential 
 feature of the Reformation, an assertion of 
 the right, or rather the recognition of the ne- 
 cessity of private judgment and interpreta- 
 tion, as opposed to the authority and dictation 
 of the Church, it will not be difficult to show 
 from the writings and disputations of Luther 
 himself. 
 
 '' Retract," said the Pope's legate to him at 
 Augsburg. '' Retract ! acknowledge thy er- 
 '' ror, whether thou believest it an error or not ! 
 " The Pope commands thee to do this."* 
 
 '' Convince me," replied Luther. 
 
 One of the conditions imposed upon Luther 
 was '* that he should not circulate any opin- 
 * Michelet, Life of Luther, p, 50. 
 
THE PROTESTANT FAITH. 1 3 
 
 *' Ions at variance with the authority of the: 
 '' Church." 
 
 '' Do you not know," said the cardinal to 
 him, '' that the Pope is above all councils?" 
 
 But '' from the Pope ill informed," Luther 
 appeals ''to the Pope better informed." 
 
 He also afterwards declared, " In what con- 
 ''cerns the word of God and the faith, every 
 '' Christian is as good a judge for himself as 
 ''the Pope can be for him."* 
 
 This conflict between the authority of the 
 Church and private opinion, between the 
 assumption of infallibility and the protest 
 against it, was nowhere more marked than at 
 the Diet at Worms, whereof we have Luther's 
 own account. 
 
 Said the Emperor's orator to him, " Martin, 
 "you have assumed a tone which becomes not 
 
 " a man of your condition You 
 
 " have resuscitated dogmas which have been 
 " distinctly condemned by the Council of Con- 
 " stance, and you demand to be convicted 
 "thereupon out of the Scriptures. But if 
 * Michelet, Life of Luther, pp. 94, 95. 
 
14 THE PROTESTANT FAITH. 
 
 ** every one were at liberty to bring back into 
 "discussion points which for ages have been 
 "settled by the Church and by Councils, 
 " nothine would be certain and fixed — doc- 
 "trine or do^ma — and there would be no be- 
 " lief wdiich men must adhere to under pain 
 "of eternal damnation. You, for instance, 
 " who to-day reject the authority of the Coun- 
 " cil of Constance, to-morrow may, in like 
 " manner, proscribe all councils together, and 
 "next, the Fathers and the Doctors; and 
 " there would remain no authority whatever 
 " but that individual word, which we call to 
 "witness, and which you also invoke." ^^ 
 
 But Luther " could only repeat what he 
 " had already declared : that unless they 
 " proved to him by irresistible arguments 
 " that he was in the wrong, he would not go 
 " back a single inch ; that what the councils 
 "had laid down was no article of faith; that 
 " councils had often erred, had often contra- 
 " dieted each other, and that their testimony 
 " consequently was not convincing." f 
 
 * Michelet, Life of Luther, p. 90. f Ibid. p. 89. 
 
THE PROTESTANT FAITH. I 5 
 
 Further, while resisting the authority of the 
 Church, Luther, at the same time, claimed for 
 his own opinions the weight of authority, 
 binding not alone upon himself, but upon all 
 the world beside. 
 
 When the Zwinglians inquired of him what 
 would effect a reconciliation between them, 
 he answered, '' Let our adversaries believe as 
 we do." 
 
 '' We cannot," responded the Swiss. 
 
 ** Well then," replied Luther, *' I abandon 
 ''you to God's judgment."* 
 
 Robertson, in his history of Charles the 
 Fifth, makes this deserved remark. '' Luther, 
 ''Calvin, Cranmer, Knox, the founders of the 
 " reformed church in their respective coun- 
 " tries, inflicted so far as they had the power 
 "and opportunity, the same punishments 
 " which were demanded against their own 
 " disciples by the Church of Rome, on such 
 "as called in question any article of their 
 " creeds." 
 
 * Merle d'Aubigne, Hist Ref. Vol. IV. p. 99 
 
1 6 THE PROTESTANT FAITH. 
 
 ''God" (said Knox) '' raiseth them up to 
 '' slay those whom the Kirk hateth."* 
 
 IV. 
 
 Justification by Faith. 
 
 Let us now examine the peculiar but per- 
 nicious tenet of ''justification by faith," which 
 Luther advanced, and which is, to this day, 
 the key-note of Protestant theology. That 
 doctrine was thus declared by the regulations 
 published by Joachim in 1539 : 
 
 " That we obtain the remission of sins, jus- 
 *' tification, and final and eternal salvation by 
 '' the mere grace of God, and only through 
 "faith in the redemption of Christ, and by no 
 "worthiness, work, or desert of our own." 
 
 From time immemorial the Roman Catho- 
 lic Church had held that the performance of 
 duty lay in some act, rather than in a belief, 
 although she seems never to have precisely 
 determined the quality essential to salvation. 
 
 * Attributed to John Knox by James Grant, in his novel 
 " Bothwell, or the Days of Mary Queen of Scots." 
 
THE PROTESTANT FAITH. 1/ 
 
 She Imposed the condition of meritorious 
 deeds, and buried her devotees in the cloister 
 with fasting and penance, or sent them forth 
 to administer to human needs, or perchance 
 to perish in battle before the walls of infidel 
 cities. Indeed, so much of real heroism and 
 warlike renown was associated and entwined 
 with this theology of works, that for her to 
 give it up was to surrender and make secular 
 the splendid history of centuries. 
 
 Luther, disgusted with the traffic In indul- 
 gences, the gross impositions and abandoned 
 habits of the priesthood ; unable to reconcile 
 their practices with their professions, or the 
 canons of the Church with either ; and being, 
 if not more spiritual, at least more honest or 
 more bold than they, undertook to interpret 
 the Bible for himself, according to his unques- 
 tionable right so to do. But in that interpre- 
 tation he perpetuated these two most fatal 
 errors : first, the assumed importance of en- 
 deavoring to save the soul, whether by faith 
 or works ; and second, that immunity from 
 moral punishment Is secured by some belief. 
 
1 8 THE PR O TES TA NT FA ITU. 
 
 To these same errors, common to, and the 
 essential features of most if not all prevailing 
 religious systems, let us briefly direct our at- 
 tention. I shall endeavor to show: 
 
 I. lymt the avoidance of moral coiiseqttences 
 being wholly 2Ltilitariaiiy can be no incentive to 
 the performance of diLty ; and that an act per- 
 formed zuith any refer eiice to a personal be7ie- 
 ft, is jnst to that extent without merit. 
 
 II. TJiat belief is not sitbject to the zuill, bnt 
 is involuntary, and is therefore not blame- 
 worthy. 
 
 The importance and bearing of the investi- 
 gation is obvious. For, if a personal wish 
 and effort for salvation be not an act of duty, 
 under a strict definition of that term, and an 
 involuntary belief be not able of itself to ef- 
 fect that salvation, then it follows as a matter 
 of course, that the inquiry common to most 
 Christians as well as heathen, '' What shall we 
 ''do to be saved ?" as also their answers, that 
 salvation comes by '' belief," can find no place 
 in a correct system of moral science. 
 
THE PROTESTANT FAITH. 1 9 
 
 V. 
 
 What Luther and the Reformers meant 
 BY ''Faith." 
 
 Before proceeding directly to the consider- 
 ation of these topics, it is proper to observe 
 that Luther and the reformers meant by the 
 word '' faith," ('' The just shall live by faith "),* 
 not a trust, a hope, a confidence, a reliance, 
 an assurance, a sentiment, or the like, as suor- 
 gested by some persons who have anticipated 
 the arguments I shall urge, but simple intel- 
 lectual belief or mental assent, in its plainest 
 acceptation. As this may be deemed a mat- 
 ter of consequence, let us at the outset dis- 
 pose of it. 
 
 The historian, Merle d'Aubigne, informs us 
 that Luther, Melanchthon, Agricola, Brientz, 
 Justus Jonas, and Osiander, ''being convinced 
 "that their peculiar doctrine on the Eucharist 
 "was essential to salvation, they considered 
 
 * Galatians, iii. ii. 
 
20 THE PROTESTANT FAITH. 
 
 'all those who rejected it, as without the pale 
 ' of the faith." 
 
 '* But that faith (which makes us Chris- 
 *tians)," declares Luther, ''consists in the 
 ^ firm belief thdit Jesus is the Son of God." 
 
 He also says, " A man's sins are not par- 
 * doned unless he believes that they are par- 
 ' doned when the priest pronounces absolu- 
 'tion." And again, "I have affirmed," says 
 Luther, " that no man can be justified before 
 ' God except hy faith; so that it is necessary 
 ' that a man should believe with perfect conh- 
 ' dence that he has received pardon. To 
 'doubt of this grace is to reject it."^* 
 
 Merle d'Aubigne tells us that " Luther ex- 
 ' pressed astonishment that the Swiss divines 
 'could look upon him as a Christian brother 
 ' when they did not believe his doctrines to be 
 ' true."f 
 
 Zwingle also says: "In every nation who- 
 ' soever believes with all his heart in the Lord 
 'Jesus, is accepted of God. Here truly is 
 
 * See also Merle d'Aubigne, Hist. Ref. Vol. II. p. iii. 
 t See Appendix, Note i. 
 
THE PR O TES TA NT FAITH. 2 1 
 
 ** the Church, out of which no one can be 
 '' saved." 
 
 The 44th and last article of the Athanasian 
 creed, as found in modern English Prayer 
 Books, and which is to-day made a test of 
 church membership, is in these words : '' This 
 " is the Catholic Faith, which, except a man 
 '' believe faithfully, he cannot be saved." 
 
 Take away the creeds from the churches, 
 and what remains to distinguish them either 
 as religious organizations or from each other? 
 The ''essential" creeds are certainly the bond 
 of the ''evangelical" churches. Indeed, the 
 difference between the most conservative and 
 progressive sects of the present day — between 
 Episcopalians, Unlversalists, Roman Catho- 
 lics, Methodists, Baptists, Unitarians, and all 
 other denominations — is marked solely and 
 entirely by differences of opinion. That is 
 what really keeps them apart, and not any 
 principle, nor their forms of worship. So, 
 however faith in the abstract may be defined, 
 it is a matter of little moment, since the actual 
 fact appears to be, that diversities of opinion, 
 
22 THE PROTESTANT FAITH. 
 
 or simple intellectual beliefs, and not senti- 
 mentalities, or emotions, or purposes divide 
 religious bodies. 
 
 If the word ''faith" had come to have a 
 different signification from what it possessed 
 at the time of the Reformation (which it has 
 not), it would only prove that Luther and 
 Calvin were not the fathers of modern theol- 
 ogy. 
 
 It might be shown, if necessary, that noth- 
 ing can be further from our volition than an 
 engendered trust, or confidence, or even feel- 
 ing, or any of those mental states proposed 
 to be substituted for plain belief. But such a 
 discussion would be foreign to the present 
 purpose. 
 
 VI. 
 
 The Relation between Moral Obligation 
 AND Moral ConsequExVCEs. 
 
 Having thus shown that the Protestant 
 "faith" means practically the Protestant 
 ''belief," both as understood by the reform- 
 
THE PROTESTANT FAITH. 23 
 
 ers, and by modern acceptation, I proceed to 
 discuss the first topic, namely : the 2tnfitness 
 of an appeal to the sentiment of fear in pro- 
 ducing religious emotion, 
 
 ''What must I do to inherit eternal life?" 
 is the caption of an article in the '' Family 
 *' Christian Almanac," published by the Amer- 
 ican Tract Society. Here follows the answer. 
 '' What must I do ? By the grace of God, 
 ''and according to His truth, I will tell you. 
 " You must admit and feel that you are a sin- 
 " ner, guilty, polluted, condemned, lost, and 
 " so dead in sins as to be in need of eternal 
 <'life." . . . "You must believe that He 
 "is the Saviour, the only Saviour, able to 
 " save to the uttermost ; willing to save all 
 "that will come to Him; ready and willing 
 "to save you, and to save you now;" and 
 much more to the same effect. 
 
 Whatever may be the views and refine- 
 ments of the more educated members of the 
 "orthodox" churches, It Is fair to presume 
 that the foregoing quotation fairly expresses 
 the sum total of the formal relioion of the 
 
24 THE PROTESTANT FAITH. 
 
 majority of them ; that with them the object 
 of reheion is to save the soul, and to save it 
 by a certain prescribed beHef. 
 
 A prominent Presbyterian clergyman of 
 Brooklyn, in a published discourse, remarks : 
 '' Here is the fatal barrier that lies between 
 '* their souls and Heaven — unbelief." . . . 
 '^ Unbelief excludes a sinner from the rest of 
 ''Heaven. It is man's crowning sin." . . . 
 '* The fatal chasm that separates the soul from 
 " its rest, has been not an immoral life, not a 
 '' severe and angry God, not a violated law, 
 ''but unbelief — simple unbelief — a heartless, 
 wilful, determined unbelief." * 
 
 The conclusions hereafter arrived at, as to 
 the involuntary character of beliefs and opin- 
 ions sufficiently refute such theology ; but 
 there are other objections to it. 
 
 Taking the term "salvation" in the strictly 
 orthodox and popular sense, namely, as the 
 remission of a deserved penalty, as an immu- 
 nity, temporal or eternal, from bodily or spir- 
 
 * " The Promise Unrealized," by Rev. J. E. Rockwell, 
 D.D. Published Sept. 1859. 
 
THE PROTESTANT FAITH, 2$ 
 
 itual suffering, what, it may be asked — judged 
 by a moral standard — is the relation between 
 the salvation of the human family hereafter, 
 and their rieht conduct here ? The ideas of 
 right, wrong, duty, moral obligation, have no 
 necessary connection with the notion of re- 
 wards and punishments. The sentiment of 
 duty is wholly removed from that of recom- 
 pense. '' Duty is not measured by reward.'"^' 
 The end of man's moral nature is virtue, not 
 happiness. The punishment of self-disap- 
 proval — of conscience — is undoubtedly conse- 
 quent on wrong doing, either in its earlier or 
 later stages ; but it would be equally wrong 
 doing, whether followed by punishment or 
 not. As virtue is, in the abstract, independ- 
 ent of its rewards, so is sin of its penalties. 
 
 Looking at it in the ''orthodox" view, 
 (which is not admitted to be the correct one), 
 namely, that under the doctrine of free grace 
 the accountability occasioned by sin is but a 
 mere liability to account, the punishment is 
 not certain, even though the law be broken. 
 * Cousin, Hist, Mod. Phil. Vol II, p. 285. 
 
26 THE PROTESTANT FAITH. 
 
 What if we err about the fact of our pun- 
 ishment, will that change either the fact itself, 
 or the obligations imposed upon us ? 
 
 Even were our beliefs voluntary, could it, 
 in a moral aspect, be of any possible avail to 
 us to know the conditions of either our pres- 
 ent or future existence ? for we live subject 
 to a moral law, whether aware of it or not. 
 
 '' It seems enough for us," as Benjamin 
 Franklin said, '' that the soul will be treated 
 " with justice in another life respecting its 
 "conduct in this." 
 
 Whether mankind are to meet their deserts 
 here or hereafter, or what may be their just 
 deserts, is one thing ; but it is quite another 
 how far the performance of one's duty is to 
 be affected by a solution of the question. 
 
 We are enjoined by orthodox theology to 
 attend to the salvation of our souls. But why 
 should we ? The sense of duty is an author- 
 itative consciousness, imperatively imposed, a 
 voice as of God within us, carrying its own 
 sanction, arud must be obeyed, like any other 
 law, for its own sake, because to each of us it 
 
THE PROTESTANT FAITH. 2J 
 
 evidently and undeniably commands what is 
 right. 
 
 Self-approval and disapproval— which are 
 the monitions of conscience — moral sentinels, 
 so to speak, having the same relation to the 
 spiritual well-being as pain has to the bodily 
 — simply point to the rule of right, and are 
 its accidents, but do not afford the reason of 
 it. An action may seem to tend to desirable 
 results, yet there can be no personal virtue in 
 its performance unless it is performed from a 
 sense of duty alone ; and, whoever acts for 
 the sake of recompense, (as he must who 
 makes the recompense a motive), is just to 
 that extent not virtuous ; because the very 
 idea of a virtuous act, as recognized in the 
 mind, is that it is something to be performed 
 wholly regardless of consequences. 
 
 Virtue is disinterested, is superior to self 
 and disregards it. If it does not disres^ard 
 expediency as an end, then it is not virtue. 
 Nay, it contains the idea of sacrifice. 
 
 Again, as before remarked, a just law vindi- 
 cates itself — bears its own sanction — and the 
 
2 8 THE FR O TES TA NT FA ITH. 
 
 obligation to obey it does not proceed from 
 the personal consequences of its infraction, 
 however lamentable they may be, but from 
 its evident justness and fitness. '' Right is 
 '' not right because God wills it to be right, 
 '' but from its own reasonableness ; " other- 
 wise God would be a tyrant. I ought to do 
 a certain thing, or follow a certain course of 
 action, because it seems to me that I ought ; 
 because /, {Ego, myself) being the sole 7dtimate 
 authority, believe it to be right. Can argu- 
 ment add any strength to that affinPxation? 
 Would not the denial of it be to deny what 
 at the same time I myself affirmed? Con- 
 science therefore is not so much an instinct, 
 as a declaration of the person himself in re- 
 spect to those things which ought to be done 
 or to be left undone ; and that affirmation be- 
 ing undeniable by the individual himself, is 
 on that account conclusive on him. 
 
 The theology which looks to the mere sal- 
 vation of the soul, whether from punishment 
 or from sin itself, can be defended neither on 
 principle, nor — paradoxical as it may seem — 
 
THE PROTESTANT FAITH. 29 
 
 on the plea of expediency ; certainly not, if 
 he be the happiest who is the most virtuous. 
 
 Take a practical illustration : Is a child 
 really better, or more virtuous, because he 
 has refrained from doinor an interdicted thinof 
 for fear of the punishment which awaited 
 him ? and would he grow up under such a 
 course of training a better man ? Assuredly 
 not ; for his whole aim then, would be simply 
 and entirely to enjoy as much, and suffer as 
 little, as possible. He might, through this 
 continual fear of punishment, form an exterior 
 habit of right conduct, of outward morality, 
 which would pass him reputably through life. 
 But would he be inwardly and really a better 
 man ? Assuredly not ; and it needs only an 
 adequate temptation to break that habit, and 
 disprove the false philosophy in which he had 
 been reared. We see It every day. But let 
 the child be sound at the core, at the heart, 
 without regard to what Is external — to the 
 husks of a base expediency ; let him be taught 
 to follow, unfettered by theological systems, 
 the dictates of his conscience, and obey the 
 
30 THE PKOTESTANT FAITH. 
 
 divine mandate within him, and then what 
 end shall there be to his noble aspirations ! 
 He will be prepared to enter — aye, will actu- 
 ally have already entered on immortal life. 
 
 Alas, that so many pure natures should 
 have strueeled and sorrowed under so much 
 ignorance and superstition in endeavoring to 
 reconcile their own inward promptings with 
 the so-called inspired, but really most unrea- 
 sonable faith, said to have been *' once deliv- 
 '' ered to the saints ! " 
 
 VII. 
 
 The Nature of Beliefs and Opinions. 
 
 I now pass to the consideration of the sec- 
 ond main proposition, viz.: that all belief is 
 involuntary, and is that which, of our own 
 will, we can neither choose, change, nor con- 
 trol. It is therefore not blameworthy. 
 
 This position is not new, having received 
 the sanction of some of the best minds in 
 every age. 
 
 Concernino- the followers of the once fa- 
 
THE PROTESTANT FAITH. 31 
 
 moiis Duns Scotus, Sir James Mackintosh 
 says: ''The Scotlsts affirmed the blameless- 
 ** ness of erroneous opinions ; a principle 
 ** which is the only effectual security for con- 
 "scientious enquiry, for mutual kindness and 
 " for public quiet." * 
 
 Mackintosh also declares : '' It is as absurd 
 '' to entertain an abhorrence of intellectual 
 " inferiority or error, however extensive or 
 *' mischievous, as it would be to cherish a 
 '* warm indignation against earthquakes or 
 ''hurricanes/'f 
 
 Other writers are equally to the point. A 
 very old one says: *'We know that faith 
 "• comes by persuasion, and is not to be con- 
 ^'trouled."$ 
 
 Another, still older, and of high authority 
 
 in the Church, says : " Religion by compul- 
 
 ''sion is no longer religion; it must be by 
 
 ** persuasion, and not by constraint. Religion 
 
 ** is under no control, and cannot by power 
 
 *'be directed." § 
 
 =^ Elh. Phil. Vol. I. p. 46. t Ibid. p. 150. 
 
 X Flechier, Bishop of Nismes, Lett. 10. 
 § Lactantius, B. 3. 
 
3 2 THE PRO TES TANT FAITH. 
 
 Citations from more modern philosophers 
 and thinkers might be added without number. 
 A few will suffice : '' Our will hath no power 
 '' to determine the knowledge of the mind 
 '' one way or the other. No more than in 
 '' objects of sight it depends on the will to see 
 '' that black which appears to be yellow, or in 
 '' feeling to persuade ourselves that what 
 '' scalds us feels cold." * 
 
 *' It does not depend on man to believe or 
 " not to believe." f 
 
 '' It is not in our power to judge as we 
 
 '^wiir$ 
 
 ''In total and absolute error all conscious- 
 **ness perishes." § 
 
 '* Thought and belief have not yet become 
 *' choice." II 
 
 *' Our opinions on any subject are not vol- 
 '' untary acts but involuntary effects."^ 
 
 * Locke, " Essay on the Human Understanding," Vol. 
 II. Chap. 13. 
 
 t Locke, Letter on Toleration. 
 
 X Reid, Essay on the Intellectual Powers, p. 545. 
 
 § Cousin, Hist. Mod. Phil. p. 136. 
 
 II Hickok, Moral Phil. p. 212. 
 
 ^ Samuel Bailey, Essays on Opinions and Truth. 
 
THE PROTESTANT FAITH. 33 
 
 '* Belief is not an act of volition." * 
 
 '' He [man] is impelled by the very consti- 
 ' tution of his nature, to believe if there is ev- 
 ' idence ; and, on the other hand, he is utterly 
 'unable to believe if evidence is wanting." f 
 
 '' Philosophical belief is a spontaneous as- 
 ' sent or adhesion of the mind." % 
 
 '' Be not deceived ; belief of, or mere assent 
 ' to the truth of propositions upon evidence 
 ' is not a virtue, nor unbelief a vice ; faith is 
 ' not a voluntary act, it does not depend upon 
 ' the will ; every man must believe or disbe- 
 
 * lieve, whether he will or not, according as 
 'evidence appears to him. If therefore men 
 
 * however dignified or distinguished command 
 ' us to believe, they are guilty of the highest 
 'folly and absurdity, because it is out of our 
 ' power ; but if they command us to believe, 
 ' and annex rewards to belief, and severe pen- 
 ' alties to unbelief, then they are most wicked 
 ' and immoral, because they annex rewards 
 
 ^ Percy B3^sshe Shelley, 
 t Upham, Treatise on the Will, p. 92. 
 X Sir William Hamilton, Philosoplw,. p.. 158.. 
 3 
 
34 THE PROTESrANT FAITH. 
 
 " and punishments to what is involuntary, and 
 ''therefore neither rewardable or punisha- 
 
 -ble."* 
 
 These conclusions appear to be fully war- 
 ranted for the following reasons : 
 
 First: If belief be voluntary, why should 
 there be any doubt, or uncertainty, or degrees 
 of probability in the world? It is plain that 
 were belief consequent upon the will, there 
 need be no such thing as doubt ; for then one 
 would only will to have any belief in order to 
 possess it. 
 
 Let one reflect whether he can change or 
 choose his belief at pleasure ; he will find he 
 cannot, and that it is beyond his power, even 
 with a dishonest or evil purpose, to believe 
 for the time otherwise than he does. It is 
 true that he may and must, from time to time, 
 chanee his belief as new evidence is presented 
 to him, or as he more carefully considers that 
 already before him ; but for the time being 
 he cannot, if he would, believe otherwise than 
 he does. 
 
 * Letter of William Pitt. 
 
THE PROTESTANT FAITH, 35 
 
 Second: Belief is simply the result of 
 thought ; it is a mental state or condition. 
 Its primary signification is to assent to/^ 
 Hence it depends wholly upon evidence; and 
 in the very same ratio as the evidence appeals 
 to our consciousness for its reception, so is 
 our belief. Thus we speak of " full," '' firm," 
 and ''strong" belief — belief which we call 
 knowledge — belief which admits of doubt — 
 and various degrees of probability. We may 
 repel the evidence, but over the belief conse- 
 quent upon that evidence, are powerless. 
 
 Third : It will be seen, on reflection, that 
 one cannot rationally retain a belief which his 
 judgment repudiates. Therefore, one cannot 
 rationally admit his present beliefs to be erro- 
 neous ; for just as soon as he thinks that they 
 are erroneous, they cease to be his beliefs; 
 and since he cannot consciously err in his be- 
 liefs, his erroneous beliefs are involuntary. 
 
 From which it follows, that what in me is, 
 for the time, error, does not receive that name 
 from any judgment of mine, but from the 
 
 * Webster. 
 
3 ^ THE PR O TES TANT FA ITH. 
 
 judgment of others ; and whosoever avers 
 that I err In opinion, assumes all the points In 
 discussion betweeij us ; he substantially de- 
 nies to me what he claims for himself, namely, 
 authority to pass upon the question. 
 
 Whence it also appears that error is igno- 
 rance ; an idea well expressed by Cousin : 
 ** In total and absolute error all consciousness 
 ^' perishes." 
 
 Fou7dh : Belief is not volition nor anything 
 like it ; It has no more necessary connection 
 with the will than the idea of number has with 
 the idea of justice. 
 
 The expression, *' I believe," is conven- 
 tional, and is used in the same manner as we 
 say I "feel," or "hear" or " see " or "am." 
 That Is, the /, the Ego, ikv^ personality, takes 
 cognizance of some impression on the mind or 
 sense, observes some phenomenon, or appear- 
 ance, and passes upon it authoritatively. The 
 will appertains to the personality, but not to 
 the judgment ; and while objects of thought, 
 or phenomena, may, through the exercise of 
 the will, or regardless of the will, be presented 
 
THE PROTESTANT FAITH. 37 
 
 to the judgment, the conclusion of the judg- 
 ment itself, or, what Is the same thing, the 
 authoritative, conclusive, subjective assertion 
 of the Ego in respect to such phenomena, Is 
 involuntary. 
 
 We can direct our attention and investi- 
 gate ; but the results of that Investigation — 
 our conclusions — will stand before us regard- 
 less of our wishes or intentions In the matter. 
 
 Abercromble admits that ''the state of mind 
 " which constitutes belief Is, indeed, one over 
 "which the will has no direct power. But," 
 he goes on to say, ''belief depends upon evi- 
 "dence ; the result of even the best evidence 
 " is entirely dependent on attention ; and at- 
 " tentlon Is a voluntary intellectual state over 
 "which we have a direct and absolute con- 
 "troL"'*' 
 
 Dr. Chalmers states the case thus : 
 
 " Lord Byron's assertion that ' Man Is not 
 
 " responsible for his belief,' seems to have pro- 
 
 "ceeded from the Imagination that belief is in 
 
 "no case voluntary. Now, it Is very true that 
 
 * Moral Feelings, p. 182. 
 
38 THE PROTESTANT FAITH. 
 
 '' we are only responsible for what is volun- 
 '' tary, and it is also true that we cannot be- 
 " lieve without evidence. But then it is a 
 ^* very possible thing that a doctrine may pos- 
 *'sess the most abundant evidence, and yet 
 ''not be believed, just because we choose to 
 ''shut our eyes against it ; and our unbelief in 
 "this case is owinof not to the want of evi- 
 " dence, but to the evidence not being at- 
 " tended to. Grant that belief is not a volun- 
 "tary act — it is quite enough for the refuta- 
 "tion of Lord Byron's principle, if attention 
 "be a voluntary act. One attends to a sub- 
 "ject because he chooses; or he does not at- 
 " tend to it because he so chooses. It is the 
 " fact of the attention being given or withheld, 
 "which forms the thing that is to be morally 
 "reckoned with. And if the attention has 
 "been withheld when it ought to have been 
 " given, for this we are the subjects of a right- 
 "ful condemnation." 
 
 I admit attention to be a voluntary act; 
 but, while insisting, for reasons hereafter ex- 
 plained, that it is not one's duty even to inves- 
 
THE PROTESTANT FAITH, 39 
 
 tigate a subject unless he thinks It to be his 
 duty to do so, it is evident that Dr. Chalmers 
 has not met the question. He would instruct 
 us that because a man has power over his will, 
 he can therefore control his senses ; because 
 he can thrust his finger into the fire or with- 
 hold it, it is optional with him to be free from 
 pain ; because he has the ability to reason or 
 not, that is, to direct his attention, he need 
 not come to any conclusion ; because he can 
 think when he chooses, he can believe as he 
 chooses. Of course a clear statement of the 
 proposition carries its own refutation. 
 
 It is said that because belief depends upon 
 attention to the evidence offered, and atten- 
 tion depends upon the will, I am therefore. In 
 a secondary sense, accountable for the belief, 
 because accountable for my voluntary disposi- 
 tion. Because not strictly correct, the state- 
 ment Is not correct at all. It Is plain that 
 while I can fix my attention, and look, I can- 
 not tell beforehand whether the color will be 
 white or black ; and it Is equally plain that 
 while the attention Is voluntary and controlled 
 
40 THE PROTESTANT FAITH. 
 
 by the will, the belief or conclusion following 
 the attention, is not at all voluntary. And if 
 the belief be not voluntary, then Byron's as- 
 sertion that *' Man is not responsible for his be- 
 ''lief" is unquestionably correct; and it does 
 not suffice for the refutation of that state- 
 ment to show the act of attention to be vol- 
 untary. 
 
 For our voluntary dispositions, for the at- 
 tention, as the legitimate act of the person, it 
 is said that we are accountable. Be it so ; 
 but the argument can go no further than 
 that. 
 
 While the will may, and does, direct the at- 
 tention, it has no power over the belief, which 
 results independently of the volition, and 
 independently of the attention also. The 
 utmost attention by different persons does 
 not ensure the same belief, and precisely 
 the same evidence is not always regarded by 
 different persons alike ; nor does it invariably 
 lead in different minds to the same conclusion. 
 Nay more, the very same evidence, presented 
 at different times to the same mind does not 
 
THE PROTESTANT FAITH. 4I 
 
 always lead to the same conclusion ; but in 
 neither case is the conclusion a matter of will. 
 
 Had Abercrombie and Chalmers reflected a 
 moment, they must have seen the manifest 
 difference between attention as an act of the 
 will, and belief as the result of that attention ; 
 the one being voluntary, the other involun- 
 tary. 
 
 A man who shutting his eyes fires into 
 the street and kills another, is not punished 
 for killing the identical person who happens 
 to be hit, but for the antecedent intention and 
 purpose of his mind. True, he is not pun- 
 ished as for murder, if no one be injured, be- 
 cause human laws take cognizance of overt 
 acts merely, of the intention only when it is 
 accompanied by' a result ; but in a moral as- 
 pect, the purpose alone is considered, as ap- 
 pears from the circumstance that where the 
 purpose is shown to be wanting, no crime can 
 be imputed. 
 
 The voluntary disposition of the person de- 
 termines the quality of his moral actions, oc- 
 casions the sense of approval and disapproval, 
 
42 THE PROTESTANT FAITH, 
 
 and renders him deserving of praise or blame. 
 This the child, as soon as he is able to reflect, 
 the man, and everybody knows. 
 
 I therefore conclude that, strictly and hence 
 correctly speaking, all belief — and, of course, 
 all erroneous belief — is in itself wholly invol- 
 untary ; and for that reason no one should be 
 censured for his belief or disbelief upon any 
 subject however sacred or profane, whether 
 such belief be thought by others to be errone- 
 ous or not, or even pernicious. 
 
 This point, if well taken, it cannot be de- 
 nied, strikes at the very existence of the 
 churches, and is fatal to their present form of 
 organization. For, were they to retain all 
 persons of right intentions and pure disposi- 
 tions, and reject all others— taking members 
 for what they are, that is for their characters 
 and motives rather than for their doctrines — 
 or for what they say are their doctrines — 
 would not the complexion of the churches be 
 materially changed ? 
 
 Riorht intentions do not, as has been seen, 
 
 o 
 
 necessarily or often ensure the same beliefs. 
 
THE PROTESTANT FAITH. 43 
 
 How those intentions are to be arrived at, 
 (since the creeds do not determine them,) 
 whether by the assertion of the individual 
 himself, (for he may tell an untruth,) or by 
 the judgment of his fellow communicants, (for 
 they may be deceived,) it is difficult to say. 
 I leave the solution of this hard problem to 
 the churches themselves. 
 
 The idea that men are accountable for their 
 beliefs and opinions in a secondary, but 
 strictly incorrect and most unphiloscphical 
 sense, rather than for conscientious action- 
 making creed rather than character the crite- 
 rion of morality— although it seems at first a 
 trifling and unimportant distinction, has been 
 and is now a gross theological and metaphys- 
 ical error — the most gross and vital in its ef- 
 fects of any recorded by history ; having need- 
 lessly excited the animosity of one class or 
 sect against another — of the civilized against 
 the barbarous— of the Jew against the Gen- 
 tile — of the Protestant against the Catholic. 
 It has occasioned terrible devastating wars • 
 the annulling of private friendships and pub- 
 
44 THE PR O TES TA NT FA ITH. 
 
 lie comities ; and has inflicted incalculable 
 evils upon the whole human race. 
 
 1 am aware where I stand. I stand on a 
 platform which holds sectarianism, in its ex- 
 clusive form, to be both irreligious and un- 
 philosophical, and all wars of sects unholy ; 
 which throws down the barriers between 
 ''evangelical" and '' unevangelical " denomi- 
 nations, and renders meaningless those terms 
 as now applied ; and which summons all men 
 — Christians and Pagans — from unseemly 
 contentions to obedience to the high rule of 
 tolerance and charity. 
 
 I think I have fully demonstrated the two 
 propositions with which I set out ; namely : 
 that salvation is not a proper incentive to the 
 performance of duty ; and that belief is invol- 
 untary. 
 
 In no sense did this so-called scheme of re- 
 demption—salvation through faith or belief, 
 (''the just shall live by faith,") — as understood 
 by Luther and his followers, contain the solu- 
 tion of any religious question. It did not dif- 
 fer in kind from the theology of the Roman 
 
THE PROTESTANT FAITH. 45 
 
 Church. To Luther's assertion of the neces- 
 sity of free thought, and the right of free 
 speech, together with the revival of letters, 
 must be attributed the great uprising of his 
 age ; and it is not too much to say that Prot- 
 estants, in embracing and giving such prom- 
 inence to religious tenets — especially the error 
 of adopting creeds as a test of membership in 
 their churches — have failed to comprehend 
 their own history, and totally lost sight of the 
 principle of personal authority and individual 
 judgment, which is the foundation and root of 
 every protestation they have ever uttered. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 Concluding Remarks. 
 
 It must not be supposed that because any 
 particular beliefs are unessential to a religious 
 life, or because beliefs and opinions are invol- 
 untary, they are thence unimportant. So far 
 as the performance of one's own duty goes, be- 
 lief is Indeed of no consequence ; because duty 
 does not consist in believing. But doubtless 
 
46 THE PR O TES TA NT FA ITH. 
 
 the happiness and well-being of mankind de- 
 pend very much upon the opinions which they 
 hold ; since men will act more or less In ac- 
 cordance with their opinions and beliefs, 
 whether well founded or not. For example, 
 public sentiment respecting drunkenness, slav- 
 ery, and very many questions affecting the so- 
 cial relations, has within a few years under- 
 gone a marked change ; and thus have arisen 
 In men's minds new Ideas of their rights and 
 duties as to those relations ; and all honest 
 men will act in accordance with their new be- 
 liefs. 
 
 The churches have always deemed them- 
 selves obliged to conform to the current no- 
 tions of right and wrong, of virtue and vice, 
 and have disciplined their members accord- 
 ingly. A church member Is now expelled for 
 drunkenness when he would not have been a 
 century ago. 
 
 The churches practically cannot live on 
 their faith alone. The faith is not enough. 
 The conduct according to the professed faith 
 
THE PROTESTANT FAITH. 47 
 
 is and must be a necessary test In addition to 
 the formal creeds. 
 
 I am no iconoclast. I am willing that the 
 churches, synagogues, mosques, and temples 
 of all peoples and climes, should stand just 
 where they are until better ones can be built 
 upon their sites ; I admit the fact of number- 
 less religions in the world, and do not forget 
 the multitude of Christian sects;* I recog- 
 nize the sanction of martyrdom for every 
 faith, right or wrong. I recognize alike the 
 great moral points of agreement between 
 Buddhism, Mohammedanism, and Christian- 
 ity, and the minor theoretical divergences be- 
 tween them all. In a word, I recognize the 
 voice of conscience, everywhere and among 
 all men. And while mindful of these things, 
 I insist that others shall not ignore them. 
 
 Let the sectarian, whoever he may be, place 
 his own church or his own sect alongside 
 these facts of history, and tell us, if he can, 
 what is the religious element common to all 
 
 * See Appendix. Note 2, 
 
48 THE PROTESTANT FAITH. 
 
 religious organizations ; what is the law of 
 duty that applies to man universally. 
 
 That such a law or principle exists — a law 
 which shall solve the riddle of the broad 
 church — precisely define the terms ''virtue" 
 and '' moral obligation " — assign to moralities 
 their exact place in ethics, and at the same 
 time satisfactorily account for the different 
 religious phases of the world, is, and always 
 has been, the great, central idea of theology. 
 For without such a law there is no one relig- 
 ion for the race. 
 
 The lawgivers and religious Instructors, of 
 whatever creed or nation, proceed upon the 
 assumption of one universal moral law. Upon 
 it are founded our ideas of justice, of virtue, 
 and the equal accountability of mankind. 
 
 *' All nations have in truth only one rellg- 
 " Ion," says Bucer. 
 
 •' Such a rule " (says HIckok) " must be ap- 
 " prehended by the subject, and thus promul- 
 *'eated to the conscience, and must be so uni- 
 '* versal that it may come home in its convic- 
 •' tions to the consciences of the race, other- 
 
THE PROTESTANT FAITH. 49 
 
 *' wise there can be no valid ground for a com- 
 '* prehensive science of morals."* 
 
 This law existed in the human mind ante- 
 rior to the Christian revelation ; nay, it must 
 exist apart from any outward revelation. 
 
 Sir James Mackintosh remarks : "■ If there 
 *' were no foundation for morality antecedent 
 "■ to revealed religion, we should want that 
 " important test of the conformity of a revela- 
 '' tion to pure morality by which its claim to 
 '* a divine origin is to be tried." f 
 
 The law is within the individual as a pri- 
 mary, axiomatic, universal intuition. A law 
 not always nor often perhaps, objectively ap- 
 prehended ; but this is immaterial, since the 
 deductions and analogies of science continu- 
 ally remind us that we live under and are sub- 
 ject to innumerable laws of which we have no 
 conception. Says Cicero : '' The same eter- 
 '' nal immutable law comprehends all nations, 
 '' at all times, under one common Master and 
 '' Governor of all." 
 
 * Moral Philosophy, p. 32. 
 t Eth. PhiL p. 155. 
 4 
 
5 O THE PR TES TA NT FAITH. 
 
 What, then, is this rule — this reHgious law ? 
 
 I know of no other than the simple law of 
 nature that conviction is the criterion of duty. 
 
 St. Paul said : '* To him that esteemeth any 
 "thing to be unclean, to him it is unclean."* 
 
 And Christ : '' If ye were blind ye should 
 ''have no sin ; but now ye say, we see ; there- 
 *' fore your sin remaineth."f 
 
 The followers of Zwingle said (rather in- 
 consistently with their creed) : '' What is not 
 " faith is sin. If therefore we constrain Chris- 
 " tians to do what they deem unjust we force 
 " them to sin." J 
 
 Luther himself declared at the Diet of 
 Worms : '' It is neither just nor innocent to 
 " act asfainst a man's conscience." § 
 
 Rev. Henry Ward Beecher is reported to 
 have said that, *' Sound doctrine is truth, pur- 
 *' ity, love, good works ; and bad living is 
 " heresy in the New Testament. Nay," he 
 
 * Rom. xiv. 14. 
 t John ix. 41. 
 
 X Merle d'Aubigne, Hist, Ref. Vol. IV. p. 73. 
 § John Scott, Luther and the Lutheran Reformation, 
 Vol. L p. 133. 
 
THE PRO TESTANT FAITH. 5 1 
 
 adds, "■ I go further and say, that nowhere In 
 '' the New Testament can the term heresy be 
 ''found appHed to any error of belief, but 
 *' only to error of life." 
 
 No nobler thought was ever uttered than 
 that attributed to Abraham Lincoln : *' To 
 "do the right as God gives me to see the 
 '' right." 
 
 From the recognition of this common au- 
 thoritative consciousness, which declares the 
 performance of duty to consist In no seeking 
 for a personal benefit, and In no belief, but 
 simply In the effort to live conformably to 
 one's beliefs, however for the time they hap- 
 pen to be ; true to one's self, honestly and 
 without hypocrisy, making Christianity, (or 
 by whatever name It may be known,) as Col- 
 eridge has It, '' not a theory, or a speculation, 
 '' but a life — not the philosophy of life, but a 
 ** life and a living process," will arise the New 
 Church, (If a Church be possible,) rhe coming 
 Reformation. 
 
 Has It not already begun ? 
 
 I can only advert to It, but It would be easy 
 
52 THE TROTESTANT FAITH. 
 
 to demonstrate how the present various re- 
 ligious movements are vindicating my con- 
 clusions, not merely in an occasional man- 
 ner, but In their whole tendency; how free 
 thought, liberal sentiments, and the multiply- 
 ing diversities of opinion consequent upon an 
 increasing intelligence, are producing those 
 mental and social conditions which will ere 
 long render it impossible to hold any body of 
 men- together by what are called ''essential 
 ^'truths." Instead of vainly striving for a 
 unity of belief, it w^ill be seen that civihzation 
 advances in the precise ratio of the multipli- 
 cation of beliefs.* The human intellect will 
 then be truly free. 
 
 Bound to no assumed facts or asserted au- 
 thoritative data, the lover of science will pur- 
 sue his investio-ations without fear of discred- 
 iting the statements of the Bible ; and the 
 theologian will find somethinor better to do 
 
 * In this respect I cannot agree with ]o\\\-\ Stuart Mill, 
 who says, that " As mankind improve, the number of doc- 
 "trines which are no longer disputed or doubted, will be 
 " constantly on the increase." (Essay on Liberty^ 
 
THE PROTESTANT FAITH. 53 
 
 than wasting his time In childish disputes re- 
 specting the construction, interpretation, and 
 truth of that book. 
 
 Such beHefs and opinions as do not affect 
 the well-being of mankind will be deemed o£ 
 little account, and efforts tending to elevate 
 humanity will soon, in one form or another, 
 take the place of liturgy and creed. 
 
 But I charge evangelical clergymen with In- 
 consistency. Without committing myself to 
 the '' higher law" doctrine, as they understand 
 It,"^ I desire to inquire whether the recognition 
 of that doctrine by them, (and it Is quite gen- 
 eral,) detracts nothing from the force of the 
 Thirty-Nine Articles? Are we to be told, 
 and to believe because so told, that rieht and 
 wrong are really relative ideas — that convic- 
 tion of duty is the only guide to Its perform- 
 ance, and, in the same breath, that there Is 
 some other guide ? Shall we accept the 
 higher law of moral obligation, and with It the 
 lower rule of the Church ? Shall we declare 
 for free-will, for a conscious moral volition, 
 * See Appendix. Note 3. 
 
54 THE PROTESTANT FAITH. 
 
 and be bound down to a belief to which our 
 understandinor refuses its assent ? 
 
 The intelHgence of the masses has already- 
 risen to the level of these questions, and is 
 /lemonstrating how a people will be provided 
 with that religion, as well as political life, for 
 which they are fitted. 
 
 The clergy, orthodox and heterodox, con- 
 ceding something to the popular sentiment,' 
 have pretty much left off talking about the 
 creed, except for church and state purposes, 
 and tell us now that faith is not bare belief ; 
 but hope, trust, enthusiasm, sentiment ; a mat- 
 ter of the heart, love of God, love of man- 
 kind ; a living faith ; a state of mind which, 
 according to Aquinas, leads to belief — almost 
 anything and everything except belief ; that 
 religion has passed historically from belief 
 into feeling, and from feeling into action — into 
 good works, charitable objects, and the like, 
 wherein all can be agreed. 
 
 Do they really think so ? Is there a Church 
 which will accept, as its condition of member- 
 ship, the definition which St. James gives of 
 
THE PR TES TA NT FAITH. 5 5 
 
 religion : '' Pure religion and undefiled, before 
 " God, even the Father, is this : To visit the 
 '* fatherless and the widows in their affliction, 
 '' so as to keep oneself unspotted from the 
 ^'world"?* 
 
 Can you, O most moral, philanthropic, con- 
 scientious man, connect yourself with their 
 body ? Try it. Are 3'^ou excluded by no want 
 of faith, by no heretical doctrine ? Their 
 churches and Christian associations, founded 
 in the eternal fitness of things, are not con- 
 ventional bodies, with arbitrary rules, but 
 claim to be holy catholic churches, and evan- 
 gelical associations, with broad aisles and open 
 doors. To the communion of those churches 
 are invited every tongue and tribe upon the 
 habitable globe, and vast expenditures for 
 tracts and missionaries attest hovv^ sincere and 
 urgent is the invitation. But the poor hea- 
 then scarcely approaches the door of the sanct- 
 uary before he discovers some stumbling- 
 block in the shape of a ''creed," which he is 
 
 * James i. 27. Our common version does not quite ex- 
 press the meaning of the original. 
 
S^ THE PROTESTANT FAITH. 
 
 enjoined to believe, but which he soon learns 
 that Christians themselves do not fully under- 
 stand, and about the meaning and Interpreta- 
 tion of which few of them are agreed. 
 
 Is it to be wondered at that the heathen 
 and uncultivated remain unconverted to prop- 
 ositions which even the most enlightened and 
 cultivated fail to comprehend ? * 
 
 The pagan Is told that the Bible is an au- 
 thority. But how, as a bare a7Ukority, is it 
 preferable to the Vedas ? For the authority 
 Is not in the Bible Itself, nor in those who 
 wrote it, but in him who reads It and passes 
 upon It. As an authority /^r se, admitting of 
 no question or comment, (and If authoritative 
 It cannot be questioned,) It can have no 
 greater force than any other book. 
 
 I concede to the Bible all the weleht to 
 which it is entitled In the light of my own 
 judgment. No other test is possible by me 
 than that. 
 
 Religion in its noblest, broadest accepta- 
 tion, recognizes no ultimate authority foreign 
 * See Appendix. Note 4. 
 
THE PROTESTANT FAITH. 57 
 
 to the person himself. It defines no peculiar 
 belief or creed which is orthodox to-day and 
 heterodox to-morrow. The aspirations of the 
 Christian Church toward its highest ideals, 
 regardless of creeds, account sufficiently for 
 its past successes. It has an aspect apart 
 from its speculative theology. 
 
 With increasing intelligence and a higher 
 moral culture, comes a juster sense of mutual 
 relations and responsibilities ; and the con- 
 formity of men to those ideas in any age, 
 measures in history the Christianity as well as 
 civilization of that period."^ 
 
 Certain Churches have attempted to evade 
 the question of the essential character of be- 
 liefs by putting articles of faith to vote, and 
 then promulgating them as a mere statement 
 of the belief of the members, as their ^'aver- 
 '' age sentiment," without imposing them upon 
 the individual conscience. But it must be 
 perfectly evident that so soon as a Church re- 
 linquishes the essential character of its creeds, 
 and simply holds itself out as a body of men 
 * See Appendix. Note 5. 
 
5 8 THE PROTESTANT FAITH. 
 
 professing a common faith, it has lost its 
 claim to be called a Church, in any received 
 acceptation of the term, and admits itself to 
 be without ecclesiastical authority. 
 
 The religious spirit of our age, advancing 
 in the direction we have been pursuing, seeks 
 something better than the restoration of a be- 
 lief — even of one universal belief — or of a 
 spiritual unity. It demands the statement of 
 a rational principle which logically deduces 
 morality from the sense of moral obligation ; 
 to faith adds w^orks ; justifies all truly good 
 m-en, of whatever creed or race, who have ever 
 lived ; and, throwing open the door for inves- 
 tigation, finds use for the material already ac- 
 quired in the march of general improvement. 
 Especially does it aim to abate the rancor of 
 sectarianism, by uniting in closer bonds the 
 human family. To this end the material and 
 commercial interests of the world are rapidly 
 converging. To this end science is also tend- 
 ing. 
 
 And if it can be affirmed that the perform- 
 ance of duty consists neither in believing nor 
 
THE PROTESTANT FAITH. $9 
 
 in disbelieving; but in being true to one's 
 self, in a continual advancement toward the 
 highest ideal, whether that ideal be reason, 
 sentiment, revelation, inspiration, the inner 
 light, or in whatever else it consists, or what- 
 ever else it be called — so that it meets with a 
 personal approval — then there Is eliminated 
 from theology that which occasions sects. And 
 in emerging from them, we embrace at once 
 in our communion the whole human brother- 
 hood. 
 
 '^ An eloquent preacher, Richard Mott, In a 
 " discourse of much unction and pathos, Is 
 " said to have exclaimed aloud to his cono-re- 
 ''gation, that he did not believe there was a 
 " Quaker, Presbyterian, Methodist, or Baptist, 
 *'in Heaven. Having paused to give his 
 "audience time to stare and to wonder, he 
 ''said, that in Heaven, God knew no distinc- 
 "tion, but considered all good men as his 
 '' children, and as brethren of the same fam- 
 ''ily."'^ 
 
 The same question which caused the Lu- 
 ^ Letter of Thomas Tefferson. 
 
60 THE PROTESTANT FAITH. 
 
 theran Reformation still remains to be set- 
 tled : Shall authority, falsely so named, exter- 
 nal to the person, and predicated on an as- 
 sumption, triumph, or shall the person himself 
 triumph over that authority ? Luther scouted 
 papal authority, but he set himself up in its 
 place and stead as an authority from which 
 there should be no appeal. And wherever to- 
 day in the Christian Church we have not 
 papal Rome, we have Luther, or Calvin, or 
 somebody else. 
 
 The '' essential truths " — those so-called 
 truths and formulas constituting the essence 
 of the Protestant Church, bereft of which it 
 would cease to exist — are without doubt the 
 same in kind as those constitutinor the essence 
 of the Roman Catholic Church, whether re- 
 garded as authority superior to reason and 
 ignoring it, or as tl>eories essentially unreas- 
 onable in themselves. 
 
 However much Luther may have scouted 
 the argument of the papal legate, from their 
 common stand-point, it was conclusively 
 against him. '' If every one were at liberty 
 
THE PROTESTANT FAITH. 6 1 
 
 "to bring back Into discussion points which 
 '' for ages have been settled by the church 
 "and by councils, nothing would be certain 
 "and fixed, doctrine or dogma, and there 
 "would be no belief which men must adhere 
 "to under pain of eternal damnation." 
 
 Dr. Dix, the Rector of Trinity Church, 
 New York, in a recent discourse'^ admitted, 
 with great precision and frankness, that be- 
 tween external authority and private judg- 
 ment, there was no middle ground ; and upon 
 the rock of authority he planted his church. 
 There let it rest. If this age of free thought 
 and general intelligence prefers tradition to 
 reason in matters of religion when the issue 
 is squarely made, we must perforce be con- 
 tent. 
 
 There Is more to be feared from the influ- 
 ence of those representative liberal men who 
 starting from right premises, and admitting 
 the necessity of private judgment, still find 
 some excuse for erroneous conclusions ; who, 
 while acknowledging the fact that the Church 
 * Delivered in the Broadway Tabernacle. 
 
62 THE PROTESTANT FAITH. 
 
 Universal lies beyond the narrow bounds of 
 sectarianism, still cling to old ideas as fixed 
 and unalterable; as ''points which for ages 
 ''have been settled;" and insist on their re- 
 ception, not because they are reasonable, but 
 because they seem necessary (as they un- 
 doubtedly are) to the maintenance of an es- 
 tablished, visible Church, because the Church 
 cannot exist without them. And, on the 
 other hand, thinking the Church to be a di- 
 vine authoritative institution, having grown 
 up with the notion that to assail it, however 
 lightly, is nothing less than sacrilege, there 
 comes upon them a mistrust that reason can 
 afford no solution to the questions which agi- 
 tate the relieious world. 
 
 A distinguished Unitarian clergyman, in a 
 sermon which created at the time of its pubH- 
 cation a profound sensation says, "There are 
 " truths in regard to poHtics, society, religion, 
 " history, Christianity, manners, science, art, 
 " which are no longer properly in debate. 
 "True they are debated, as Hazlitt debated 
 " the Newtonian astronomy ; as Godwin de- 
 
THE PROTESTANT FAITH, 63 
 
 ''bated the existence of society; as Buckle 
 '* debates the influence of reHgion on civiliza- 
 '"' tion ; but they are debated only by eccen- 
 *'tric, abnormal, or presumptuous minds — 
 ''minds out of pitch in the great concert of 
 "the race." He calls it a "perilous folly" to 
 allow polity, morals, religion, to be wholly 
 open questions.* 
 
 But can the reverend gentleman inform us 
 precisely what truths are really fixed ? what 
 questions are not open ? He says there are 
 certain ones not even to be discussed. He 
 sets up "truths" for us to take as authorita- 
 tive.f This is the old question, and the real 
 issue. The general assertion, and assumption 
 without proof, that there are "truths no 
 "longer in debate" will not satisfy this gener- 
 ation. Do the ever-varying discoveries in 
 science and psychology, or the indefinitely 
 multiplying ideas and diversities of opinion 
 which distinguish civilized and thinking from 
 
 ^ Sequel to " The Suspense of Faith," by Rev. Dr. Bel- 
 lows, Sept. 25, 1859. 
 
 t See Appendix. Note 6. 
 
64 THE PROTESTANT FAITH. 
 
 barbarous nations, confirm it ? Have our 
 Orthodox Churches in their Union Meetings 
 and EvangeHcal AlHances, yet found a com- 
 mon ground of union? Is the present poHti- 
 cal, reHgious, and moral condition of our own 
 favored land, where the people are taught to 
 read and reflect, such that we can infer stabil- 
 ity from intellectuality, or hope for any nearer 
 approach to universal agreement ? Why, this 
 is just the inevitable conflict of the age ; not 
 of the new against the old, but of investiga- 
 tion against assumption ; of doubts against 
 established systems ; of opinion against 
 usurped authority; of inquiry against dogma- 
 tism and superstition. On the one hand are 
 arrayed traditions, mysteries, proscription, 
 slavery ; on the other, intelligence, humanity, 
 liberty. To the former belong the cramped 
 and crowded intellect, temporal power and 
 oppression, the divine right of kings ; to the 
 latter, freedom, individuality, and mental en- 
 franchisement. 
 
 Again, religion must, so far as it is to be 
 
THE PROTESTANT FAITH. 65 
 
 reasonable, necessarily rest on the conclusions 
 of reason. 
 
 Cousin rightly declares that whatever is 
 purely sentimental or emotional; which, ex- 
 punging reason, leaves nothing in its place 
 but ^^ecstacy" or "abstraction "—which prom- 
 ises me a superhuman science on the condi- 
 tion of my first losing consciousness, thought, 
 liberty, memory, all that constitutes me an in- 
 telligent and moral being— is without the pale 
 of speculation, and unreasonable ; for it uses 
 reason to deny reason. 
 
 On the contrary, the reason, so far as it is 
 the expression of man's self-consciousness, is 
 and must be supreme, and its deductions are 
 unanswerable, and without appeal. 
 
 The universal conscience is likewise incon- 
 trovertible, being nearest in ijs to what is di- 
 
 vme. 
 
 "The Word proclaimed by the concordant voice 
 Of mankind fails not; for in man speaks God."^ 
 
 I appeal to the natural law, which, fixed 
 * Hesiod, Work and Days. 
 
66 THE PROTESTANT FAITH. 
 
 and eternal, guides alike the planets, in their 
 immense courses, and human wanderings how- 
 ever erratic, in a predetermined orbit. 
 
 "Oh, backward looking son of time, 
 The new is old, the old is new; 
 The cycle of a change sublime 
 Still sweeping through. 
 
 " Take heart ! the waster builds again ; 
 A charmed life old goodness hath ; 
 The tares may perish ; but the grain 
 Is not for death." * 
 
 * John G. Whittier. 
 
APPENDIX, 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 NOTE I. Page 20. 
 
 " Let the Christian reader's first object always be to 
 " find out the hteral meaning of the Word of God ; for on 
 " this and this alone is the whole foundation of faith and 
 " Christian theology." — Luther, Expositio7i of the Book of 
 Dcuterono7ny. 
 
 NOTE 2. Page 47. 
 
 " It is a lamentable fact that throughout the whole 
 " world there is no system of religion, the votaries of 
 " which are subdivided into so many sectaries as those 
 "' who jDrofess an adherence to the Christian faith." — 
 Thomas Dick, Influence of Knowledge on Morals, p. 115. 
 
 The following is a recent enumeration of some of the dif- 
 ferent religious sects in Great Britain and the. United States : 
 African Methodist Episcopal Church, African Methodist 
 Episcopal Zion Church, Associate Presbyterians, Agapae- 
 monians, Anglo-Catholics, Albrights, Apostolics, Armin- 
 ians. Advent Christians, Anglican Church (High Church, 
 Low Church and Broad Church), Apostolics, Baptized Be- 
 lievers, Bereans, Believers in Christ, Bible Christians, Bi- 
 ble Defence Association, Brethren, Believers in Divine 
 Visitation of Joanna Southcott, Benevolent Methodists, 
 Blue Ribbon Army, Campbellites, Church of God, Church 
 
 69 
 
^0 APPENDIX. 
 
 of England and Wales, Christian Connection Methodists, 
 Calvinistic Methodists (Whitefield's Connection), Countess 
 of Huntingdon's Connection, Calvinists, Calvinistic Bap- 
 tists, Cumberland Presbyterian Church, Church of Scot- 
 land, Church of Scotland in England, Cameronians, Cov- 
 enanters, Congregationalists, Catholic and Apostolic 
 Church, Christians who object to be otherwise designated. 
 Christian Believers, Christian Brethren, Christian Eliasites, 
 Christian Israelites, Christian Teetotallers, Christian 
 Temperance Men, Christian Unionists, Church of Christ, 
 Christians owning no name but the Lord Jesus, Christian 
 Mission, Christadelphians, Church of the People, Coven- 
 try Mission Band, Christian Disciples, Church of Progress, 
 Catholic Christian Church, Disciples, Dutch Reformed 
 Church, Dissenters, Derbyites, Disciples in Christ, Danish 
 Lutherans, English Seventh-Day Baptists, Eastern Re- 
 formed Presbyterian Church, Eastern Orthodox Greek 
 Church, Eclectics, Episcopalians, Evangelical Free 
 Church, Evangelical Mission, Episcopal Free Church, Free 
 Gospel Church, Free-Will Baptists, Free Christian Bap- 
 tists, Free Church (Episcopal), Free Church of England, 
 Free Union Church, Free Church of Scotland, Free Con- 
 gregations, Free Thinkers, Free Religionists, Friends or 
 Quakers, Followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, Free Grace 
 Gospel Christians, Free Christians, Free' Christian Asso- 
 ciation, Free Evangelical Christians, Free Grace Gospel 
 Church, Free Gospel and Christian Brethren, Free Gos- 
 pellers, Free Methodists, Free Church, General Baptists, 
 General Baptist New Connection, German Evangelical 
 Union of the West, German Reformed Church, German 
 Lutherans, Glassites, German Roman Catholics, Greek 
 Catholic Church, Glory Band, Harmonists, Hicksite 
 Friends, Hooker Mennonites, Hallelujah Band, Halifax 
 
APPENDIX. yi 
 
 Psychological Society, Hope Mission, Humanitarians, 
 Independents, Irvingites, Independent Religious Reform- 
 ers, Independent Unionists, Inghamites, Independent 
 Methodists, Israelites, Jews, Jumpers, Lutherans, Latter- 
 Day Saints or Mormons, Mennonites, Methodist Episcopal 
 Church, Methodist Episcopal Church South, Methodist 
 Protestants, Modern Methodists, Morrisonians or Evan- 
 gelical Unionists, Millerites or Second Adventists, Meth- 
 odist Reform Union, Moravians, New Society Baptists, 
 New Jerusalem or Christian Church, New Castle Sail- 
 ors Society, New Church Society, New Wesleyans, Old 
 Baptists, Original Connection of Wesleyans, Original 
 United Seceders, Orthodox, Oneida Community or Perfec- 
 tionists, Oratorians, Old Catholic, Open Baptists, Order 
 of St. Austin, Orthodox Eastern Church, Peculiar People, 
 Plymouth Brethren, Pedo-Baptists, Protestant Episcopal 
 Church in the United States, Primitive Methodists, 
 Presbyterians, Presbyterian Church in the United 
 States, (Old and New School), Presbyterian Church 
 in the United States South, Puseyites, Positivists, 
 Practical Christian Republic, Progressive Friends, Pro- 
 gressionists, Protestants adhering to the Articles of the 
 Church of England, I. to XVIII. inclusive, but rejecting 
 order and ritual. Providence Quakers, Peculiar Baptists, 
 Polish Protestant *Church, Portsmouth Mission, Presby- 
 terian Baptists, Primitive Congregation, Primitive Free 
 Church, Protestant Trinitarians, Protestant Union, Pres- 
 byterian Church in England, Primitive Christians, Pro- 
 testant Members of the Church of England, Recreative 
 Religionists, Regular Baptists, River Brethren, Reformed 
 Methodist Evangelical Association, Refuge Methodists, 
 Reform Free Church of Wesleyan Methodists, Reformed 
 Presbyterians or Covenanters, Redemptionists or Congre- 
 
72 APPENDIX. 
 
 gation of the Most Holy Redeemer, Roman Catholic, 
 Ranters, Reformers, Revivalists, Rational Christians, Re- 
 formed Church of England, Reformed Episcopal Church, 
 Revival Band, Seventh-Day Baptists, Six-Principle Bap- 
 tists, Scotch Baptists, Sandemanians, Secession Presby- 
 tery, Scotch Presbyterians, Separatists (Protestant), Sab- 
 batarians, Second Advent Brethren, Schwenkfelders, 
 Shakers or the United Society of Believers, Southcot- 
 tians. Spiritualists or Spiritists, Swedenborgian or New 
 Jerusalem Church, Salem Societ}^, Strict Baptists, Secular- 
 ists, Shakers, Spiritual Church, Salvation Army, Society 
 of the New Church, Tunkers, Testimon\' Congregational 
 Church, Trinitarians, Temperance Methodists, United 
 Christian Church, United Secession Church, Union Bap- 
 tists, Universalists, Unitarian Baptists, United Brethren 
 or Moravians, United Free Methodists, United Presby- 
 terian Church Unitarians, United Christian Church, 
 United Brethren in Christ, United Original Seceders, 
 Unionists, Unitarian Christians, Union Free Church, 
 Unsectarians, Wesleyan Methodists, Wesleyan Methodists 
 New Connection, Welsh Calvinistic Presbyterians, Welsh 
 Calvinistic Methodists, Welsh Free Presbyterians, Wes- 
 leyan Reformers, Wesleyan Reform Glory Band, Welsh 
 Calvinists, Welsh Presbyterians, Working Man's Evangel- 
 istic Mission, Wesleyans, and others. 
 
 There are said to be more than a thousand different re- 
 ligious systems among mankind, but, in the words of 
 Locke, " should any one a little catechise the greater 
 " part of the partisans of most of the sects in the world, 
 " he would not find concerning those matters they are so 
 " zealous for, that they have any opinions of their own." 
 — Essay on the Hiwian Under standifig, p. 464. 
 
APPENDIX. 73 
 
 NOTE 3. Page 53. 
 
 " I perfectly agree with my brother Heath in reprobat- 
 " ing any distinction between 7nalum proJiibitiun and ma- 
 " lum ill se, and consider it pregnant with mischief." — 
 RooKE, J., in Aicbert v. Maze 2 Bos. and Fiil. 371, A.D. 
 1801. . 
 
 " The moraUty of the position of the learned commen- 
 " tator [Blackstone] has been well questioned. Its sound- 
 " ness as a legal principle, though it once had sway in the 
 " courts, has been since repudiated." — i Sharswood's Blac. 
 Com. p. 58 {iiote by Editor), 
 
 NOTE 4. Page 56. 
 
 " I have never united myself to any Church, because I 
 " have found difficulty in giving my assent, without mental 
 " reservation, to the long, complicated statements of Chris- 
 " tian doctrine which characterize their Articles of Belief 
 " and Confession of Faith." — Abraham Lincoln, Carpen- 
 ter's Six Months at the White House, p. 190. 
 
 NOTE 5. Page 57. 
 
 " The measure of what is everywhere called and es- 
 " teemed virtue and vice, is the approbation or dislike, 
 " praise or blame, which by a secret or tacit consent, es- 
 " tablishes itself in the several societies, tribes, and clubs 
 " of men in the world ; wdiereby several actions come to 
 " find credit or disgrace among them according to the 
 "judgment, maxims^ or fashions of that place." — Locke, 
 Essay on the Human Understanding, p. 336, § 10. 
 
74 APPENDIX. 
 
 NOTE 6. Page 63. 
 
 Dr. Bellows, in a letter from Chamouni, Savoy, dated 
 September 15, 1867, comments in this fashion upon the 
 manner of worship at the English Chapel in that place : 
 " Any one who watches the girls and boys, the young 
 " women and young men, saying the creed of the English 
 " Litr.rgy, with an implicit reverence, into which thought 
 "and choice evidently enter very little, sees plainly that 
 " the theory is not to encourage any thought or choice 
 *' about it, but to take the best means for stamping a faith 
 " which has been thought out and agreed upon by compe- 
 '• tent persons, upon those who are probably to have no 
 " faith, or only a very foolish and ineffectual one, if they 
 " are not thus furnished. There is an immense deal to be 
 " said in favor of this side of the question." — New Yo?'k 
 Liberal Christian, Nove7nber 2, 1867. 
 
 THE END. 
 
COMMENDATORY CRITICISMS ON 
 THE ESSAY. 
 
 " Dwight H. Olmstead has published a lecture, given in 
 this city some years ago on The Pi'otestant Faith. It is a 
 candid criticism of Luther's cardinal doctrine of justifica- 
 tion by faith. That doctrine, as laid down by Joachim in 
 1539 was, 'That we obtain the remission of sins, justifica- 
 tion, and final and eternal salvation by the mere grace of 
 God, only through faith in the redemption of Christ, and 
 by no worthiness, work, or desert of our own.' Mr. Olm- 
 stead contends that seeking salvation is not a religious, 
 but a selfish act. An act performed with reference to a 
 personal benefit is without merit. In the second place, 
 belief is not subject to the will, but is involuntary, and is 
 therefore neither praiseworthy nor blameworthy. These 
 points he maintains with brief but conclusive arguments, 
 and shows that Protestantism cannot stand on the ground 
 which Luther defended with so much of zeal and energy." 
 — The Golden Age, New York, Oct. 24, 1874. 
 
 " This lecture was delivered many years ago before the 
 Young Men's Christian Union of New York. Its style is 
 excellent and its reasoning able. It is a severe criticism ' 
 of the position of Protestantism, and for the most part, a 
 just one." 
 
 " We should do right for its own sake and not from a . 
 hope of Heaven or a fear of Hell. Belief is involuntary, 
 and, therefore, no merit or demerit attaches to its posses- ' 
 
 75 '^^ 
 
'J^ CO MM END A TOR V CRITICISMS. 
 
 sion. These two points are ably stated and well sustained. 
 The two main positions of Protestants, that we are saved 
 by faith and that hope of reward and fear of punishment 
 are the chief incentives of life, are very clearly shown to 
 be errors in this lecture." — The Liberal Worker, Sharo?i, 
 Wis., Dec. 1 6, 1874. 
 
 " A sharp, readable criticism of orthodoxy and episco- 
 pacy by a liberal. It will pay any enquirer to read it 
 carefully." — Household Messenger^ London Eidge, Dec., 
 1874. 
 
 " It is written in an attractive, clear and forcible style, 
 and its arguments are most powerfully and logically 
 stated." — The Maiden Mirror, Mass., Oct. 31, 1874. 
 
 " His reasoning is well arranged, terse, and compact in 
 expression." — Utica Herald, 1874. 
 
 " The author of this little pamphlet has ransacked the 
 treasures of history for information bearing upon the sub- 
 ject which he has so ably discussed, and from the stand- 
 point which he, in common with many others occupies, 
 has given in a small and compact compass a most elo- 
 quent and philosophic vindication of the tenets of his be- 
 lief. Acute, logical, and unimpassioned, he subjects the 
 various religious creeds and systems to a rigid analysis, 
 treating them with remarkable impartiality and with a de- 
 gree of justice rarely met with in the doctrinal and theo- 
 logical discussions of the day. He starts out with two 
 propositions and maintains his argument with exceeding 
 skill. His first proposition is that ' salvation is not a 
 proper incentive to the performance of duty,' and in this 
 connection very pertinently remarks : ^ The theology that 
 looks to the mere salvation of the soul, whether from pun- 
 ishment or from sin itself, can be defended neither on 
 principle nor, paradoxical as it may seem, on the plea of 
 
COMMENDATORY CRITICISMS. // 
 
 expediency ; certainly not, if he be the happiest who is 
 the most virtuous.' " 
 
 " The autlior then passes to the consideration of tlie 
 second of his propositions, ' that all belief is involuntary,' 
 and fortifies his premises by most distinguished and un- 
 questionable authorities, and concludes ' that all belief— 
 and, of course, all erroneous belief — is in itself wholly in- 
 voluntary, and for that reason no one should be censured 
 for his belief or disbelief upon any subject, however sa- 
 cred or profane.' This point he claims if well taken 
 * strikes at the very existence of the churches and is fatal 
 to their present form and organization.' " 
 
 " We regret that we have not the space to do fuller and 
 more ample justice to his conclusions, conclusions that 
 betra}^ a sound judgment, critical discriminations and 
 careful balancing of evidence. Such critical disquisitions 
 possess great interest and furnish suggestive lessons 
 which few can study without profit." — The Palisade News, 
 West Hoboken^ N. J., Oct. lo, 1874. 
 
RECENT TRAVEL AND DESCRIPTION. 
 
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