actual heretical quotes From Westcott & Hort’s own Books:

The Atonement of Christ:  

(i) “The fact is, I do not see how God’s justice can be satisfied without every man’s suffering in his own person the full penalty for his sins.” (ii) “Certainly nothing can be more unscriptural than the modern limiting of Christ’s bearing our sins and sufferings to His death, but indeed that is only one aspect of an almost universal heresy.”

i.  Hort, Arthur Fenton, Life and Letters of Fenton John Anthony Hort, (New York, 1896), Vol. 1, p. 120ii. Hort, Arthur Fenton, Life and Letters of Fenton John Anthony Hort, (New York, 1896), Vol. 1, p. 430.

Baptismal Regeneration:  

(i)“…at the same time in language stating that we maintain ‘Baptismal Regeneration’ as the most important of doctrines…the pure ‘Romish’ view seems to me nearer, and more likely to lead to, the truth than the Evangelical.”

i. Hort, Arthur Fenton, Life and Letters of Fenton John Anthony Hort, (New York, 1896), Vol. 1, p. 76.

The Bible:   

(i)“I am very glad to have seen both your note and Lightfoot’s – Glad too that we have had such an opportunity of openly speaking. For I too “must disclaim setting forth infallibility” in front of my convictions. All I hold is that the more I learn, the more I am convinced that fresh doubts come from my own ignorance and that at present I find the presumption in favor of absolute truth- I reject the word infallibility-of Holy Scripture overwhelming.”

i. Westcott, Arthur, Life, and Letters of Brooke Foss Westcott, (New York, 1903), Volume 1, P. 207.

Communism 

(i) “I have pretty well made up my mind to devote my three or four years up here to the study of the subject of communism.” (ii)  “I can only say that it was through the region of pure politics that I myself approach Communism.”

i. Hort, Arthur Fenton, Life and Letters of Fenton John Anthony Hort, (New York, 1896), Vol. 1, p. 130.

ii.  Hort, Arthur Fenton, Life and Letters of Fenton John Anthony Hort, (New York, 1896), Vol. 1, p. 138

Creation

 (i) “No one now, I suppose, holds that the first three chapters of Genesis, for example, give a literal history—I could never understand how anyone reading them with open eyes could think they did—yet they disclose to us a Gospel. So it is probably elsewhere.”

i. Westcott, Arthur, Life, and Letters of Brooke Foss Westcott, (New York, 1903), Volume 2, P.69

The Garden of Eden 

(i) “I am inclined to think that no such state as “Eden” (I mean the popular notion) ever existed and that Adam’s fall in no degree differed from the fall of each of his descendants, as Coleridge justly argues.”  

i. Hort, Arthur Fenton, Life and letters of Fenton John Anthony Hort, (New York, 1896) Vol. 1, P.78.

Evangelical Christianity   

(i) “Further I agree with them [Authors of Essays and Reviews] in condemning many leading specific doctrines of the popular theology…Evangelicals seem to me perverted rather than untrue. There are, I fear, still more serious differences between us on the subject of authority, and especially the authority of the Bible.”

i. Hort, Arthur Fenton, Life, and Letters of Fenton John Anthony Hort, (New York, 1896) Vol. 1, p.400 – This letter was written to Rev. Rowland Williams, 10/21/1858. – True Christians had rebuffed the Oxford movement (also known as the Tractarians) which was a movement to bring the Church of England under the authority of Rome. Hort embraced the Oxford movement.

Evolution 

(i) “But the book which has most engaged me is Darwin. Whatever may be thought of it, it is a book that one is proud to be contemporary with…My feeling is strong that the theory is unanswerable. If so, it opens up a new period.”  

i. Hort, Arthur Fenton, Life and Letters of Fenton John Anthony Hort, (New York, 1896), Vol. 1, Pages 414-416

The Greek Text of the King James Bible

(i) “I had no idea till the last few weeks of the importance of texts, having read so little Greek Testament, and dragged on with that villainous Textus Receptus…Think of that vile Textus Receptus leaning entirely on late MSS [manuscripts]; it is a blessing there are such early ones.  

i. Hort, Arthur Fenton, Life and Letters of Fenton John Anthony Hort, (New York, 1896), Vol. 2, p. 211.

 On Heaven 

(i)(1) “No doubt the language of the Rubric is unguarded, but it saves us from the error of connecting the Presence of Christ’s glorified humanity with place; ‘heaven is a state and not a place.’” (i)(2)“Yet the unseen is the largest part of life. Heaven lies about us now in infancy alone; and by swift, silent pauses for thought, for recollection, for aspiration, we cannot only keep fresh the influence of that diviner atmosphere but breathe it more habitually.” (i)(3)“We may reasonably hope, by the patient, resolute, faithful, united endeavor to find heaven about us here, the glory of our earthly life.”  

i. Westcott, Arthur, Life, and Letters of Brooke Foss Westcott, (New York, 1903), Volume 2,

   Page 49  

   Page 253  

   Page 394  

Hell

(i) “Certainly in my case, it proceeds from no personal dread; when I have been living most godlessly, I have never been able to frighten myself with visions of a distant future, even while I ‘held’ the doctrine.”

i.Hort, Arthur Fenton, Life and Letters of Fenton John Anthony Hort, (New York, 1896), Vol. 1, p. 122.

Mariolatry

(i)(1) “After leaving the Monastery, we shaped our course to a little oratory which we discovered on the summit of a neighboring hill…Fortunately, we found the door open. It is very small, with one kneeling-place, and behind a screen was a ‘Pieta’ the size of life (i.e. a Virgin and dead Christ)…Had I been alone, I could have knelt there for hours.”  (i)(2) “It is smaller than I expected, and the coloring is less rich, but in expression it is perfect. The face of the virgin is unspeakably beautiful. I looked till the lip seemed to tremble with intensity of feeling—of feeling simply, for it would be impossible to say whether it be awe or joy or hope—humanity shrinking before the divine, or swelling with its conscious possession. It is enough that there is deep, intensely deep, emotion such as the mother of the Lord may have had.” (i)(3) “I have been persuaded for many years that Mary-worship and ‘Jesus’ worship have very much in common in their causes and results.”

i. Westcott, Arthur, Life, and Letters of Brooke Foss Westcott, (New York, 1903), Volume 1,

   Page 81

   Page 183

Hort, Arthur Fenton, Life and Letters of Fenton John Anthony Hort, (New York, 1896), Vol. 1, p. 81 – This was a letter written to Westcott on October 17, 1865.

Satan 

(i)(1) “Now if there be a devil, he cannot merely bear a corrupted and marred image of God; he must be wholly evil; his name evil, his every energy and act evil. Would it not be a violation of the divine attributes for the Word to be actively the support of such a nature of that?”  (i)(2) “The Word upholds his existence, not his evil. That is in himself; that is the mysterious, awful possibility implied in his being a will. I need scarcely say that I do not mean by this acknowledgment of an evil spirit that I acknowledge a material devil. But does anyone?”  

i. Hort, Arthur Fenton, Life, and Letters of Fenton John Anthony Hort, (New York, 1896), Volume 1,

  Page 121

  Page 50

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