234 ESSAYS IN PHILOSOPHY 



prools of God's presence and authoritative voice, 

 but can never come to anything that is conclu- 

 sively and palpably the Divine being. To show 

 this, I must ask you to review with me, briefly, 

 the history of religious Evidences. 



Here it is that the chief point of dispute between 

 Rome and orthodox Protestantism arises. Both 

 teach that the primary source of authority is the 

 sovereign declaration or revelation of God ; but on 

 the question of its supreme medium for man- 

 kind they profoundly differ. The Romanist lodges 

 this vicegerent authority over human reason in the 

 Holy Catholic Church ; the orthodox Protestant 

 lodges it in Holy Scripture. Both appeal to a 

 miraculous communication of the Divine will ; but 

 the Romanist teaches that this communication is 

 directly to the Church, the corporate whole quickened 

 by the indwelling of the Holy Ghost, while the 

 orthodox Protestant maintains that it is directly to 

 the single inspired writer, whoever he may be. 

 Preeminently, of course, for both, the Divine Reve- 

 lation is in the Person and Work of Jesus of Naz- 

 areth, taken for God Incarnate ; but the witness 

 to the Incarnation must be absolutely competent 

 and intact, and this the orthodox Protestant finds 

 in the supposed infallible inspiration of the writers 

 of the Scriptures, while the Romanist finds it in 

 the supposed infallible inspiration of the Church : 



