April c. 1880 A.D. What is Protestantism?

April c. 1880 A.D. What is Protestantism?

Sparshott, T.H. “What is Protestantism.” Church Society. 1880? http://www.churchsociety.org/publications/catracts.asp. Accessed 16 Mar 2015.

WHAT IS PROTESTANTISM? Church Association Tract 273 

BY THE REV. T. H. SPARSHOTT

Clerical Organizing Secretary of the Church Association 

The statement that Protestantism is only a system of negation, has been so often repeated by Ritualists, that many believe that it is true, and yet nothing could be farther from truth. The word Protestantism means witnessing for or in behalf of something. The famous Protest issued from the Second Diet of Spires, 1529, was a witness for the sufficiency of Holy Scripture for salvation, the right of every man to study the Bible for himself, and to teach its precious truths to his children. 

Protestantism is then— 

A WITNESS that Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to salvation. 

A PROTEST that whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man that it should be believed, as an article of the faith, or be thought requisite or necessary to salvation. 

A WITNESS for the whole truth of God, as set forth in His Word. 

A PROTEST against all the dogmas of Rome and Ritualism, which are founded upon other authority, whether that authority be called, “The Fathers,” “Catholic Antiquity,” “The Church,” or “Tradition.” 

A WITNESS for the Sovereign Priesthood of the Lord Jesus Christ. 

A PROTEST against every form of priestcraft, which comes between the sinner and the Saviour. 

A WITNESS for the one sacrifice of Christ, offered once for all. 

A PROTEST against the Mass, the supposed continued presentation of that sacrifice in heaven, or any repetition or re-presentation, of that sacrifice in the Eucharist. 

A WITNESS for the doctrine of justification by faith only, through the free grace of God. 

A PROTEST against the opus operatum theory of baptismal regeneration, or baptismal justification, or any supposed merit in good works, or free will, to help forward the salvation of the soul. 

A WITNESS for the right of every believer to come boldly to the throne of grace, in the name of Jesus. 

A PROTEST against the need of any confessor, between the conscience and Christ. 

A WITNESS for the holy Catholic Church, as consisting of all true believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, of every generation, of every name, of every nation, people, kindred and tongue. 

A PROTEST against the pretensions of Rome and Ritualism to be “Catholic,” whereas their distinguishing dogmas were unknown in the days of the Apostles, or in the early centuries of the Christian Church.

This Protestantism has been the secret of all civil, social, and religious liberty to our own, or any other country where it has been established. Greatness, glory and liberty are the fruits of National Protestantism—while decrepitude, decay, degradation and bondage have been the fruits of every rejection of Protestantism.