Private Judgment # 3

Private Judgment # 3

Suppose that, in fear of private judgment, we resolve to believe whatever the Church believes. Where is our security against error? The Church is not infallible. There was a time when almost the whole of Christendom embraced the Arian heresy, and did not acknowledge the Lord Jesus Christ to be equal with the Father in all things. There was a time, before the Reformation, when the darkness over the face of Europe was a darkness that might be felt.

The General Councils of the Church are not infallible. When the whole Church is gathered together in a General Council, what does our twenty-first Article say? "They may err, and sometimes have erred, even in things pertaining unto God. Therefore things ordained by them as necessary to salvation, have neither strength nor authority, unless it may be proven that they be taken out of Holy Scripture."

The particular branches of the Church are not infallible. Any one of them may err. Many of them have fallen foully, or have been swept away. Where is the Church of Ephesus at this day? Where is the Church of Sardis at the present time? Where is Augustine's Church of Hippo in Africa? Where is Cyprian's Church of Carthage? They are all gone! Not a vestige of any of them is left! Shall we then be content to err - merely because the Church errs? Will our company be any excuse for our error? Will our erring in company with the Church remove our responsibility for our own souls? Surely it is a thousand times better for a man to stand alone and be saved - than to err in company with the Church, and be lost! It is better to "prove all things" - and go to Heaven; than to say, "I dare not think for myself" - and go to hell!

But suppose that, to cut matters short, we resolve to believe whatever our minister believes. Once more I ask - where is our security against error? Ministers are not infallible, any more than Churches. All of them have not the Spirit of God. The very best of them are only men. Call them Bishops, Priests, Deacons, or whatever names you please - they are all earthen vessels. I speak not merely of Popes, who have promulgated awful superstitions, and led abominable lives. I would rather point to the very best of Protestants and say, "Beware of looking upon them as infallible - beware of thinking of any man (whoever he may be) - that he cannot err." Luther held consubstantiation - that was a mighty error. Calvin, the Geneva Reformer, advised the burning of Servetus - that was a mighty error. Crammer and Ridley urged the putting of Hooper into prison because of some trifling dispute about vestments - that was a mighty error. Whitgift persecuted the Puritans - that was a mighty error. Wesley and Toplady in the last century quarreled fiercely about Calvinism - that was a mighty error.

All these things are warnings, if we will only take them. All say, "Cease from trusting in man!" All show us that if a man's religion hangs on ministers, whoever they may be, and not on the Word of God - it hangs on a broken reed. Let us never make our ministers into Popes. Let us follow them so far as they follow Christ - but not a hair's breath further! Let us believer whatever they can show us out of the Bible, but not a single word more. If we neglect the duty of private judgment, we may find, to our cost, the truth of what Whitby says: "The best overseers do sometimes make oversights." We may live to experience the truth of what the Lord said about the Pharisees: "If the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch." (Matthew 15:14). We may be very sure no man is safe against error, unless he acts on Paul's injunction - unless he "proves all things" by the Word of God.

I have said that it is impossible to overrate the evils that may arise from neglecting to exercise private judgment. I will go further, and say that it is impossible to overrate the blessings which private judgment has conferred both on the world and on the Church.

I ask my readers, then, to remember that the greatest discoveries in science and in philosophy, beyond all controversy, have arisen from the use of private judgment. To this we owe the discovery of Galileo, that the earth went round the sun,. To this we owe Harvey's discovery of the circulation of the blood. To this we owe Jenner's discovery of vaccination. To this we owe printing press, the steam engine, the power loom, the electric telegraph, railways and gas. For all these discoveries we are indebted to men to dared to think for themselves. They were not content with the beaten path of those who had gone before. They made experiments for themselves. They proclaimed new systems, and invited men to examine them, and test their truth. They heard the clamor of prejudiced lovers of old traditions without flinching. And they prospered and succeeded in what they did. We see it now. And we who live in the nineteenth century are reaping the fruit of their use of private judgment.

~J. C. Ryle~

(continued with # 4)