Monday, December 20, 2004

Especial Boldness of Speech

[C]an we doubt that many a confident expounder of Scripture, who is so sure that St. Paul meant this, and that St. John and St. James did not mean that, would be seriously disconcerted at the presence of those Apostles, if their presence were possible, and that they have now an especial "boldness of speech" in treating their subject, because there is no one authoritatively to set them right, if they are wrong?

J. H. Newman, An Essay in Aid of A Grammar of Assent, Chapter VI, Section 2.