Part 29 (2/2)
”In the daily special issues of the organs of the sacerdotal party we find much more freedom of expression. They have run the whole gamut--Disbelief, Doubt, Desolation, Detraction, Demoralisation, and Dismay. Rome and Ritualism have received a shock which demolishes and destroys the very foundation of their sinful system.
”Carnal in its conception it cannot survive.
”'The wors.h.i.+p of the corporeal presence of Christ's natural flesh and blood' (_vide_ the so-called _Black_ rubric at the end of the order of the administration of the Lord's Supper) was always prohibited in the Protestant Reformed Communion, but this idolatrous practice has been the glory and boast of Babylon, and the aim and object of the Traitors, within the Established Church of England, whom we have habitually denounced.'
”'The times of this ignorance G.o.d winked at, but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent.'
”Hidden by the Divine Providence till the fulness of time, a simple inscription has taught us the full meaning of Paul's mysterious words, 'Yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we Him no more.'--2 Cor. v. 16.
”Paul and Protestantism are vindicated at last. 'There is a natural body and there is a spiritual body.' The spiritual body that manifested the resurrection of Jesus to His disciples has too long been identified with the natural body that was piously laid to rest by Joseph and Nicodemus. Much that has been obscure in the Gospel narratives is now explained.
”Men have always wondered that the Apostles, in preaching their risen Lord, attempted no explanation of His manifestations of Himself.
”We can understand now why it was that they were divinely protected from imagining that the spiritual Body is a dead body revived.
”How often have perplexed believers been troubled by the questions of our modern scientists as to the physical possibilities of a future resurrection of the body! The material substance of humanity is resolved into its elements, and again and again through the centuries is employed in other organisms.
”'How then,' men have asked, 'can you believe that the body you have deposited beneath the earth shall collect from the universe its dissipated particles and rise again?'
”Hitherto we have been content to put the question aside with a simple faith that 'with G.o.d all things are possible.' But to-day we are enabled to have a further comprehension of the Lord's words, 'It is the spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing.'
”Doubtless those who, even among our own company of Evangelical Protestants, have attached too much importance to the teaching of the so-called 'Fathers of the Church' (who so early corrupted the sweet simplicity of the Gospel) will find themselves compelled to a more spiritual explanation of some pa.s.sages of Holy Scripture; but Faith will find little difficulty in rightly dividing and interpreting the word of Truth.
”The Protestant cause has little to fear from facts. We have been by G.o.d's Providence gradually prepared for a great elucidation of the truth about the Resurrection.
”Those who studied with attention the treatise of the late Frederick W. H. Myers (the man who, of all moderns, has best appreciated the personality of Paul the apostle) had come to a conviction on the survival of Human Personality after death on scientific grounds.
”The Resurrection of the Lord Jesus was no longer to them 'a thing incredible,' its unique character was recognised as consisting in its spiritual power.
”'Some doubted,' as on the mountain in Galilee. Protestantism on the Continent, especially in Germany, the home of what is misnamed the 'Higher Criticism,' has been hampered in this way by the study of the 'letter,' and so in some degree has lost the a.s.sistance of 'the spirit which giveth life.'
”But the great heart of Protestant England is still sound, and whilst Rome and Ritualism are aghast as the foundation of their fabric of lies crumbles into dust, we stand sure and steadfast, rejoicing in hope.
”Some readjustment of formularies may be conceded to weak brethren.
”Our great Reformers drew up that marvellous manifesto of the Protestant faith--'Articles agreed upon by the archbishops and bishops of Both Provinces, and the whole clergy in the Convocation holden at London in the year 1562 for the avoiding of diversities of opinions, and for the establis.h.i.+ng of consent touching True Religion.'
”England was at that time--alas, how often has it been so!--inclined to compromise.
”There were timid men amongst the great divines who brought us out of Babylon, and the 4th article of the Thirty-nine was notoriously drawn up in antagonism to the teaching of the holy Silesian n.o.bleman, Caspar Schwenckfeld, to satisfy the scruples of the sacerdotal party, which clung to the benefices of the Establishment then as now.
”The omission of twelve words would remove all doubt as to its interpretation. We may be content to affirm that 'Christ did truly rise again from death' without stating further 'and took again his body with flesh, bones, and all things appertaining.'
”It has always been the curse of Christendom that man desired to express in words the ineffable.
”'Intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind.'
”But it need not now be difficult with the aid of a Protestant Parliament, which has so recently and so gloriously determined on the expulsion of sacerdotalists, to modify, in deference to pious scruples, too rigid definitions. Time will suffice for these necessary modifications of sixteenth-century theology.
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