Confessions of an Inquiring Spirit | Page 7

words for my inmost thoughts, songs for my joy, utterances
for my hidden griefs, and pleadings for my shame and my feebleness?
In short, whatever FINDS me, bears witness for itself that it has
proceeded from a Holy Spirit, even from the same Spirit, WHICH
REMAINING IN ITSELF, YET REGENERATETH ALL OTHER
POWERS, AND IN ALL AGES ENTERING INTO HOLY SOULS,
MAKETH THEM FRIENDS OF GOD, AND PROPHETS. (Wisd. vii.)
And here, perhaps, I might have been content to rest, if I had not
learned that, as a Christian, I cannot, must not, stand alone; or if I had
not known that more than this was holden and required by the Fathers
of the Reformation, and by the Churches collectively, since the Council
of Nice at latest, the only exceptions being that doubtful one of the
corrupt Romish Church implied, though not avowed, in its equalisation
of the Apocryphal Books with those of the Hebrew Canon, and the
irrelevant one of the few and obscure sects who acknowledge no
historical Christianity. This somewhat more, in which Jerome,
Augustine, Luther, and Hooker were of one and the same judgment,
and less than which not one of them would have tolerated--would it fall
within the scope of my present doubts and objections? I hope it would
not. Let only their general expressions be interpreted by their treatment
of the Scriptures in detail, and I dare confidently trust that it would not.
For I can no more reconcile the doctrine which startles my belief with
the practice and particular declarations of these great men, than with
the convictions of my own understanding and conscience. At all
events--and I cannot too early or too earnestly guard against any
misapprehension of my meaning and purpose--let it be distinctly
understood that my arguments and objections apply exclusively to the

following doctrine or dogma. To the opinions which individual divines
have advanced in lieu of this doctrine, my only objection, as far as I
object, is--that I do not understand them. The precise enunciation of
this doctrine I defer to the commencement of the next Letter. Farewell.

LETTER II.

My dear friend,
In my last Letter I said that in the Bible there is more that FINDS me
than I have experienced in all other books put together; that the words
of the Bible find me at greater depths of my being; and that whatever
finds me brings with it an irresistible evidence of its having proceeded
from the Holy Spirit. But the doctrine in question requires me to believe
that not only what finds me, but that all that exists in the sacred volume,
and which I am bound to find therein, was--not alone inspired by, that
is composed by, men under the actuating influence of the Holy Spirit,
but likewise--dictated by an Infallible Intelligence; that the writers,
each and all, were divinely informed as well as inspired. Now here all
evasion, all excuse, is cut off. An infallible intelligence extends to all
things, physical no less than spiritual. It may convey the truth in any
one of the three possible languages--that of sense, as objects appear to
the beholder on this earth; or that of science, which supposes the
beholder placed in the centre; or that of philosophy, which resolves
both into a supersensual reality. But whichever be chosen--and it is
obvious that the incompatibility exists only between the first and second,
both of them being indifferent and of equal value to the third--it must
be employed consistently; for an infallible intelligence must intend to
be intelligible, and not to deceive. And, moreover, whichever of these
three languages be chosen, it must be translatable into truth. For this is
the very essence of the doctrine, that one and the same intelligence is
speaking in the unity of a person; which unity is no more broken by the
diversity of the pipes through which it makes itself audible, than is a
tune by the different instruments on which it is played by a consummate
musician, equally perfect in all. One instrument may be more

capacious than another, but as far as its compass extends, and in what
it sounds forth, it will be true to the conception of the master. I can
conceive no softening here which would not nullify the doctrine, and
convert it to a cloud for each man's fancy to shift and shape at will.
And this doctrine, I confess, plants the vineyard of the Word with
thorns for me, and places snares in its pathways. These may be
delusions of an evil spirit; but ere I so harshly question the seeming
angel of light--my reason, I mean, and moral sense in conjunction with
my clearest knowledge--I must inquire on what authority this doctrine
rests. And what other authority dares a truly catholic