It reconducted the spirit, indeed, to the depths of religious and moral consciousness, but it did not see the tenor of the whole, and—it does not see it even at the present time. It remained faithful to its glorious principle of the right of free inquiry, on the ground of the ability of the human being to comprehend the truth, and on the ground of the enlightening operation of the Holy Spirit, on every honestly-seeking mind. Perhaps it could not be so during the enfranchised adolescence—if I may be allowed the expression—of the human race, as many occurrences, during the earliest times of the Reformation, seem to demonstrate. Mankind had so long walked in the leading-strings of the church, that they had not yet learned to advance independently, guided by the light of the gospel, in the footsteps of the Saviour. The church, even, which protested against Rome, made itself the guardian of the mind, fettered it anew to the letter of the word, and forbade the use of thought—or, at least, the teaching of any doctrine which was not conformable with her own established dogmas. She based them upon the word of God in the Holy Scriptures, but she forbade their interpretation in any way
long to whatever community of Christians he may, is a member
of this church, a member of the holy community, as the
apostolic confession of faith more closely decides the signification
of the word; a holy, universal church.
I have taken the first passage from the Italian Catechism for children and young persons, generally used at the present time. The latter, I have extracted from a kind of Protestant Catechism, the title of which I do not now recollect; but members of the Evangelical church will not deny its principles to be their own.—Author's Note
