Page:Tracts for the Times Vol 2.djvu/211

 No. 67.

pious and well instructed member of our Church will in the abstract acknowledge, that in examining whether any doctrine be a portion of revealed truth, the one subject of inquiry must be, whether it be contained in Holy Scripture; and that in this investigation, he must on the one hand defer, in some degree, to the system of interpretation handed down to us through the early Church, on the other he must lay aside all reference to the supposed influence of such doctrine, the supposed religious character of those who held it at any given time, and the like.

Any right-minded person, I say, will readily acknowledge this in the abstract; for to judge of doctrines by their supposed influence upon men's hearts, would imply that we know much more of our own nature, and what is necessary or conducive to its restoration, than we do: it would be like setting about to heal ourselves, instead of receiving with implicit faith and confidence whatever the Great Physician of our souls has provided for us. The real state of the case is indeed just the contrary of what this habit would imply. We can, in truth, know little or nothing of the efficacy of any doctrine but what we have ourselves believed and experienced. Even in matters of our own experience, we may easily deceive ourselves, and ascribe our spiritual