Page:Newman - Phases of Faith, 1850.djvu/6

 immensely greater than a personal one. So it happens, that to vindicate himself is to establish a mighty truth; a truth which can in no other way so well enter the heart, as when it comes embodied in an individual case. If he can show, that to have shrunk from his successive convictions would have been “infidelity” to God and Truth and Righteousness; but that he has been “faithful” to the highest and most urgent duty;—it will be made clear that Belief is one thing and Faith another ; that to believe is intellectual, nay possibly, “earthly, devilish;” and that to set up any fixed creed as a test of spiritual character is a most unjust, oppressive and mischievous superstition. The historical form has been deliberately selected, as easier and more interesting to the reader: but it must not be imagined that the author is giving his mental history in general, much less an autobiography. The progress of his creed is his sole subject; and other topics are introduced either to illustrate this, or as digressions suggested by it.

March 22nd, 1850.