The Difficulties of Protestantism Author:John Fletcher Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: Struck, indeed, with the astonishing production, and unable to make any reasonable reply to it, the Protestants remained silent;—or rather, they honestly acknowl... more »edged the variations imputed to them. They even appeared to wonder, that they had not varied more than they had done. So sensibly did they feel for their own instability, and for the obvious tendency of their own leading principles. XXII. After an acknowledgment like the above,—and it is what every well-informed,—if candid—Protestant will equally make,—there remains only one form of defence, which the reformed churches can, with any kind of semblance of reasonableness, pretend to allege in their own support. It is this;—To maintain, that the doctrines, upon which they have varied so much, and contradicted each other so very widely, are not, in themselves, essential doctrines ; and that, therefore, men may admit, or reject them, without any violation of Christianity, or without any risk, or sacrifice, of their salvation. It was thus, that was first begotten, and introduced, that favourite, and now general, system of fundamentals;— a system, which reduces the necessity, and obligation, of faith to a certain, but small number of articles ; and considers all the rest,—or at least, tolerates all the rest,—as immaterial; or as objects, at all events, of very inferior, if not trifling consequence. It is true, indeed, that the adoption of this unfortunate device is the necessary result, both of the character of the Protestant principles, and of the situation, and state, of the Protestant societies. The abettors of the Protestant cause were compelled—(they had no other resource)—to come forward in its defence, from the nature of the controversy, which they had to maintain with the Catholics, concerning the divine authority of...« less