An Apostle of Doubt [pp. 337-345]

1884.] AK APOSTLE OF DOUBT. 343
Protestant enthusiasm, you are called on to swallow the Bible
whole; it will do you no good so." And having cut that ground
also from beneath his followers' feet, he leaves them, something like the Neo-Platonites, "safely landed at the bottom of the
bottomless, and disporting themselves on the firm floor of the
primeval nothing." *
Indeed, the infallibility of the Bible is the subject of Mr.
Haweis' most repeated onslaughts. That and the doctrine of
Transubstantiation are the two points he combats most violently,
as though unconsciously aware of their supreme significance.
Yet he is ready to maintain that the Scriptures are inspired,
though not infallible, and he defends his anomalous position as a
clergyman of the Anglican Church with lawyer-like ability, holding, and not without reason, that the very action of the state in
remodelling the forms of faith was a protest against the fixedness
of such forms. He does not hesitate to declare that the only
ground for church authority is held by the Roman See, and that
in breaking away and substituting the authority of the Bible
the Church of England once for all sacrificed its claims to any
such supremacy. What man has done he believes that man can
do again, and perhaps a little better the next time; and so, undeterred by any reverence for his forefathers, he lets loose upon
the Thirty-nine Articles the whole force of his satiric humor and
absolute disbelief. In regard to the first, which defines the doctrine of the Trinity, he sadly observes that "there was, no doubt,
some powerful meaning intended by the framers of this article
which to them did not seem opposed to common sense. But
they have not, so far as I can see, been fortunate in their attempts to hand that meaning down to us." He would have the
whole thirty-nine remodelled, if possible~ and if not, gives it as
the best substitute to "twist them as publicly as possible..
Theology must be modified in the long run to accord with the
best obtainable religious feeling and common sense.
These views are hardly calculated to place him high in favor
with his ecclesiastical superiors; but the fact remains the same
that he is an acknowledged minister of the Church of England,
believed by the devout to possess that apostolic succession at
which he would be the first to scoff, and the one of all others
selected by the late Dean Stanley to preach the "Sermons for
the People" in Westminster Abbey. Nevertheless, he gives it
as his opinion that "Mr. Spurgeon is much nearer the practice
of apostolic times than the Established Church," and startles us
* Charles Kingsley.