Romanists charge against Protestantism that its re- sistance of dogmatism makes it synonymous with scep- ticism (q. v.) and unbelief. This is very unfair. Prot- estantism reposes implicitly on what it believes to be the divine authority of the inspired writers of the books of Holy Scripture; whereas scepticism and un- belief acknowledge no authority external to the mind, no communication superior to reason and science. Prot- estantism, although by its attitude of independence it seems similar to the other two systems, is really sepa- rated by a difference of kind, and not merely of degree. " The spiritual earnestness which characterized the Ref- ormation," says Farrar (Crit. Hist, of Free Tkovgkt, p. 7 ). •• prevented the changes in religious belief from de- veloping into scepticism proper; and the theology of the Reformation is accordingly an example of defence and reconstruction as well as of revulsion." Protestantism was a form of free thought, but only in the sense of a return from human authority to that of Scripture. It was equally a reliance on a historic religion, equally an appeal to the immemorial doctrine of the Church with Roman Catholicism, but it conceived that the New Testament itself contained a truer source than tradition for ascertaining the apostolic declaration of it.
Some writers — Romanists, and even some within the Protestant fold, but hardly of the faith — have declared " Protestantism a failure." They have attempted to show that its territory is principally within the limits it acquired in the period of the great Reformation, and that its prospects for extension are lessening every day. Maeaulay has treated this question in a spirited essay, in which with certain reasons which are pertinent and valuable is coupled a singular denial that the knowl- edge of religion is progressive, or at all dependent upon the general enlightenment of the human mind. Apart from his paradoxical speculation on this last point, his statement of the grounds of the arrest of the progress of Protestantism, though eloquent and valuable, is quite incomplete. The principal causes of this arrest have been thus ably pointed out by Prof. Fisher (Hist, of the RefpAlb sq.): (l.)The ferment that attended the rise of Protestantism led to a crystallizing of parlies, and thus incited to raise a barrier in the way of its fur- ther progress. (2.) The political arrangements which were adopted in different countries, in consequence of the religious division, all tended to confine Protestant- ism within the limits which it had early attained. (3.) The want of the spirit of propagandism. Romanism is always aggressive ; Protestantism, generally speaking, maintains only that which comes within its sphere. (4.) The counter-reformation of the Romish Church and its avowed determination to remove gross abuses ha ve stayed
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but too often the step of aggression from the Protestants. (5. The disjointed condition of Protestantism; its con- stant warfarings of brother with brother; the absence of a toleranl -pint for difference oi opinion in non-es- sentials, havi facilitated the advance of their common enemy, still further strengthened by perfect organiza- tion. (6.) The inability of Protestantism to turn to the the wide diversity of talents and char- acter which is constantly developing in evangelical Christianity. In Romanism [gnatius and Bellarmine can labor side by side. In Protestantism Wesley and VVhitefield must become the founders ol new sects, | 7. i The disposition of races. Montesquieu, in his Esprit ties /."is. remarks thai Protestantism i- prevalenl in Northern, < !atholicisra in Southern Europe, and explains most judiciously, "C'esl que les peuples du nord ont et ni, mm toujours tin esprit d'inde'pendance 1 1 de liberie, que n'ont pas les peuples du midi."
If Protestantism he a failure, it has its failure in its successes. These arc well set forth in the following ex- tracl from Prof, fisher's address at the Evangelical Al- liance t longress in 187 I :
"(1.) Its whole character is favorable to civil and relig- ious freedom and the promotion of the multiplied ndvan- i tges which freedom brings in its train. Under Roman Catholicism man was deprived of his personal rights; under Protestantism he regained them. The progress of civilization, in the long course of history, is marked by the growing respect paid to the rights of the individual, and the ampler room afforded for the unfolding of bis powers, and for the realizing of his aspirations. There was something imposing in those huge despotisms— Kgypl, Assyria, I! ihylon, Persia— ill which a multitude of human beings were welded together under an absolute master. Such empires were an advance upon a primitive state 'if things, where every man's hand was against his neighbor. Vet they were a crude form of crystallization, and they were intrinsically weak. The little cities of < I eece, w ith their freer political life, and the larger scope which they allowed for the activity and the culture of the individual— communities of citizens proved more than a match for the colossal might of the East. Among the Greeks and Romans, however, although governments of
law had BUpphlUted naked force, the State was supreme, and to the State the individual must yield an exclusive allegiance. It was a great gain when the Christian Church arose, and when the individual became conscious ■ •I' in allegiance of the soul to a higher kingdom nn alle-
I ich did not supersede his loyally to the civil .au- thority, hat limited while it sanctioned this obligation. Hat the Church itself a; length erected a supremacy over the individual inconsistent with the free action of reason and conscience, .and even stretched thai supremacy s > tar as to dwarf and overshadow civil society. It reared a i i:e, icracy, and subjected everything to its unlimited sway. The Reformation gave hack to the individual hi- proper autonomy. The result is a self-respect, an intellectual activity, a development of inventive capacity and of en- ergy of character, which give rise to such achievements