Page:The Collected Works of Theodore Parker volume 3.djvu/198

Rh evidence of human nature in us, and the world of matter out of us, and so roots into consciousness and observation; the other comes from the dictation of a minister or a priest, who dogmatizes at will about man, God, and the most important of all human concerns, and does not root into our spontaneous or reflected consciousness, and like doctrines of philosophy grow thence, but is only grasped by the will and thereby is retained.

In the Catholic church I ask, "What is truth; what is religion?" I am sent to the opinion of the Catholic church, which I must believe, not because it is true—for that would imply that I can myself determine what is true but because the infallible church says it must be believed. So, as evidence of a theological doctrine—the existence of God, the immortality of the soul—I have the word of a Roman priest!

In the Protestant church I ask the same question, and am sent to the opinion of somebody in the New Testament or the Old. I am told to believe the doctrine, not because it is true, conformable to my own nature, bat because it is written in the infallible Scriptures. And as evidence for a theological doctrine—the nature of God, or man, or daily duty—I have the word of somebody in the Bible!

Thus in both divisions of the Western church the free spirit of humanity is shut out, and we are referred to an outward standard, not one within mankind. I ask the Catholic, "How do you know your church is infallible?" and the Protestant, "What is the proof of the Divinity and infallibleness of your Bible?" but neither has any valid argument to offer; each assumes the chief point on which all else depends, and puts a master on the neck of mankind. The inquirer is not to ask, "What is true—conformable to the instincts and reflections of human nature?" only, "What is ecclesiastical and of the church? or, What is Scriptural and of the Bible?" Thus the outside caprice of some man, often of some unknown man, is made to take precedence of the facts of the universe. God is postponed and a priest preferred.

What is yet worse, in both the Latin and the German church, much more stress is laid on the Christian theology than on the Christian religion. Natural piety, natural morality—the religion of human nature—is thought good