ected no opportunity of increasing and ex- | root, another error began to spread :-namely, tending her power. The praises, the flattery, that it was needful that there should be some and exaggerated compliments paid to her, and outward representative of that unity. Though her being consulted by other churches, became no trace of any primacy of St. Peter above the in her hands as titles and documents of her rest of the Apostles appears in the Gospels; authority. Such is the heart of man exalted although the idea of a primacy is at variance to a tnrone; flattery intoxicates him, and his with the mutual relations of the disciples as head grows dizzy. What he possesses im- "brethren,"-and even with the spirit of the pels him to aspire after more. dispensation which requires all the children of the Father to minister one to another,* (1 Pet. iv. 10,) acknowledging but one Master and Head; and though the Lord Jesus had rebuked his disciples whenever their carnal hearts conceived desires of pre-eminence;-a Primacy of St. Peter was invented, and supported by misinterpreted texts, and men proceeded to acknowledge in that Apostle, and in his pretended successor, the visible representative of visible unity-and head of the whole Church! The doctrine of "the Church," and of "the necessity for its visible unity," which had gained footing as early as the third century, favoured the pretensions of Rome. The great bond, which originally bound together the members of the church, was a living faith in the heart, by which all were joined to Christ as their one Head. But various causes ere long conspired to originate and develope the idea of a necessity for some exterior fellowship. Men, accustomed to the associations and political forms of an earthly country, carried their views and habits of mind into the spiritual and everlasting kingdom of Jesus Christ. Persecution-powerless to destroy, or even to shake the new community, compressed it into the form of a more compacted body. To the errors that arose in the schools of deism, or in the various sects, was opposed ⚫ the truth" one and universal" received from the Apostles and preserved in the church. All this was well, so long as the invisible and spiritual church was identical with the visible and outward community. But soon a great distinction appeared:-the form and the vital principle parted asunder. The semblance of identical and external organization was gradually substituted in place of the internal and spiritual unity which is the very essence of a religion proceeding from God. Men suffered the precious perfume of faith to escape while they bowed themselves before the empty vase that had held it. Faith in the heart no longer knit together in one the members of the church. Then it was that other ties were sought; and Christians were united by means of bishops, archbishops, popes, mitres, ceremonies, and canons. The Living Church retiring by degrees to the lonely sanctuary of a few solitary souls,-an exterior church was substituted in place of it, and installed in all its forms as of divine institution. Salvation no longer flowing forth from that word which was now hidden-it began to be affirmed that it was conveyed by means of certain invented forms, and that none could obtain it without resorting to such means! No one, it was said, can by his faith attain to everlasting life: Christ communicated to the Apostles, and the Apostles to the Bishops, the unction of the Holy Spirit; and this Spirit is found only in this order of communication. In the beginning of the Gospel, whosoever had received the spirit of Jesus Christ was esteemed a member of the church:-now the order was inverted; and no one, unless a member of the church, was counted to have received the spirit of Jesus Christ. The constitution of the patriarchate contributed further to the exaltation of the Roman Papacy. As early as the first three centuries, the churches of the metropolitan cities had been held in peculiar honour. The Council of Nice, in its sixth canon, named especially three cities, whose churches, according to it, held an anciently established authority over those of the surrounding provinces. These were Alexandria, Rome, and Antioch. The political origin of this distinction may be discerned in the name which was at first given to the bishops of these cities; they were called Exarchs, like the political governors.5 In later times they bore the more ecclesiastical name of Patriarch. It is in the Council of Constantinople that we find this title first used. This same Council created a new Patriarchate, that of Constantinople itself, the new Rome, the second capital of the Empire. Rome at this period shared the rank of Patriarchate with these three churches. But when the invasion of Mahomet had swept away the bishoprics of Alexandria and Antioch, when the see of Constantinople fell away, and in latter times even separated itself from the West, Rome alone remained, and the circumstances of the times causing everything to rally around her, she remained from that time without a rival. New and more powerful partisans than all the rest soon came to her assistance. Ignorance and superstition took possession of the true and real One-ness of BELIEVERS was to be *From the previous reflections it is clear that the author does not disparage that Unity which is the manifested result of the partaking of the life of the Head by the members; but only that lifeless form of unity which man has devised in place of it. We learn from John xvii. 21—23, that the manifested, so that the world might believe that the Father had sent Jesus.-Hence we may conclude that the things which divide, instead of ga thering, the "little flock" are contrary to his mind: and among such things must be classed not alone the carnality of names, (1 Cor. iii. 4.)--but every commandment or requirement of men that excludes the very weakest whom God has received. As soon as the notion of a supposed necessi- (Rom. xiv. 1-3; Acts xi. 17, compare Acts ii. 44, ty for a visible unity of the church had taken | &c.)-Translator. Church, and delivered it up to Rome, blind- Yet this bringing into captivity was not To silence the cries of the churches, Rome found new allies. Princes, who in those troublesome times often saw their thrones tottering, offered their adherence to the Church, in exchange for her support. They yielded to her spiritual authority, on condition of her paying them with secular dominion. They left her to deal at will with the souls of men, provided only she would deliver them from their enemies. The power of the hierarchy in the ascending scale and of the imperial power which was declining, leaned thus one toward the other and so accelerated their twofold destiny. usurped authority between the East, which she repelled, and the West which she courted; thus erecting her throne upon two revolutions. Alarmed by the progress of the Arabs, who had made themselves masters of Spain, and boasted that they would speedily traverse the Pyrenees and the Alps, and proclaim the name of Mahomet on the seven hills;-terrified at the daring of Aistolpho, who, at the head of his Lombards, threatened to put every Roman to death, and brandished his sword before the city gates-Rome, in the prospect of ruin, turned on all sides for protection, and threw herself into the arms of the Franks. The usurper Pepin demanded the confirmation of his claim to the throne:-the Pope granted it; and, in return, obtained his declaration in defence of the "Republic of God." Pepin recovered from the Lombards their conquests from the Emperor; but instead of restoring them to that Prince, he deposited the keys of the conquered cities on the altar of St. Peter's; and with uplifted hand, swore that it was not but to obtain from God the remission of his sins, and to do homage for his conquests to St. Peter! Thus did France establish the temporal power of the Popes. Rome could not lose by this. An edict of Theodosius II. and of Valentinian III. pro-in the cause of man that he had taken arms,― claimed the bishop of Rome "ruler of the whole church." Justinian issued a similar decree. These decrees did not contain all that the Popes pretended to see in them. But 2.600in those times of ignorance it was easy for them to gain reception for that interpretation which was most favourable to themselves. The dominion of the Emperors in Italy becoming every day more precarious, the Bishops of Rome took advantage of it to withdraw themselves from their dependence. Charlemagne appeared.-At one time we see him climbing the stairs of St. Peter's, devoutly kissing the steps:-again he presents himself, but it is as master of all the nations composing the Western Empire, and of Rome itself. Leo III. decided to confer the rank on one who already possessed the power; and in But already the forests of the North had the year 800, on Christmas day, he placed the poured forth the most effectual promoters of crown of the Roman Emperors on the brow papal power. The barbarians who had in- of the son of Pepin. From this period the vaded the West and settled themselves there- Pope belonged to the empire of the Franks, in, but recently converted to Christianity, and his connexion with the East was at an ignorant of the spiritual character of the end: thus loosing his hold on a decayed tree, Church, and feeling the want of an external nodding to its fall, in order to graft himself pomp of religion, prostrated themselves in a upon a wild but vigorous sapling. Little could half savage and half heathen state of mind at he then have dared to hope for the elevation the feet of the Chief Priest of Rome. At the that awaited his successors among the German same time the people of the West also sub-nations, to which he thus joined himself. mitted to him. First the Vandals, then the Charlemagne bequeathed to his feeble sucOstrogoths, a short time after the Burgundians and the Alains, then the Visigoths, and at last the Lombards and the Anglo-Saxons came bowing the knee to the Roman Pontiff. It was the sturdy shoulders of the idolatrous children of the North which elevated to the supreme throne of Christendom, a pastor of the banks of the Tiber. These events occurred in the West at the beginning of the seventh century, at the precise period that the Mahometan power arose in the East, and prepared to overrun another division of the earth. From that time the evil continued increasing. In the eighth century we see the Bishops of Rome on the one hand resisting the Greek Emperors, their lawful sovereigns, and endeavouring to expel them from Italy; whilst on the other they court the French Mayors of the Palace, and demand from this new power now arising in the West, a share in the wreck of the empire. We see Rome establish her cessors only the wreck of his own power. In the ninth century disunion every where weakened the civil authority. Rome perceived that this was the moment to exalt herself. What better opportunity could offer for achieving the Church's independence of the state, than when the crown of Charles was broken, and its fragments scattered over his former empire. It was then that the pretended decretals of Isidorus appeared. In this collection of alleged decrees of the Popes, the most ancient bishops, contemporaries of Tacitus and Quintilian, were made to speak the barbarous Latin of the ninth century. The customs and constitutions of the Franks were gravely attributed to the Romans in the time of the Emperors. Popes quoted the Bible in the Latin translation of St. Jerome, who lived one, two, or three centuries after them. And Victor, bishop of Rome in the year 192, wrote to Theophilus, who was archbishop of Alexandria in 385. The impostor who had fabricated this collec-rors were not sorry to see the Popes reforming tion, endeavoured to prove that all bishops abuses-strengthening the influence of the derived their authority from the bishop of church-holding councils-choosing and deRome, who held his own immediately from posing prelates in spite of foreign princes. Christ. He not only recorded all the succes- for in all this the Papacy, by its pretensions, sive acquisitions of the Pontiffs, but carried did but exalt the power of the reigning Emthem back to the earliest times. The Popes peror, its suzerain Lord. But such excesses did not blush to avail themselves of this con- were full of peril to his authority. The temptible imposture. As early as 865, Nicho- power thus gradually acquired might at any las I. selected weapons from this repository moment be directed against the Emperor himto attack princes and bishops. This bare self, and the reptile having gained strength, faced fabrication was for ages the arsenal of might turn against the bosom that had warmed Rome. it, and this result followed. The Papacy arose from its humiliation and soon trampled under foot the princes of the earth. To exalt the Papacy was to exalt the Church, to aggrandize religion, to ensure to the spirit the victory over the flesh, and to God the conquest of the world. Such were its maxims; in these, ambition found its advantage, and fanaticism its excuse. The whole of this new policy is personified in one man, HILDEBRAND. Nevertheless the vices and atrocities of the Pontiffs were such as suspended for a time the object of the decretals. The Papacy signalized its sitting down at the table of Kings by shameful libations; and intoxication and madness reigned in its orgies. About this time tradition places upon the Papal throne a girl named Joan, who had taken refuge at Rome with her lover, and whose sex was betrayed by the pains of child-birth coming upon her in the midst of a solemn procession. Hildebrand, who has been by turns indisBut let us not needlessly exaggerate the shame creetly exalted or unjustly traduced, is the of the Roman Pontiffs. Women of abandoned personification of the Roman pontificate in its character reigned at this period in Rome. strength and glory. He is one of those chaThe throne which affected to exalt itself above racters in history, which include in themthe majesty of kings, was sunk in the filth selves a new order of things, resembling in of vice. Theodora and Marozia installed and this respect Charlemagne, Luther, and Nadeposed at their pleasure the pretended teach-poleon, in different spheres of action. ers of the Church of Christ, and placed on the throne of St. Peter their lovers, their sons, and their grandsons. These two well authenticated charges may have given rise to the tradition of the female Pope Joan. Rome was one vast scene of debauchery, wherein the most powerful families in Italy contended for pre-eminence. The counts of Tuscany were generally victorious in these contests. In 1033, this family dared to place upon the pontifical throne, under the name of Benedict 1Xth, a young boy brought up in debauchery. This child of twelve years of age continued when Pope, in the practice of the same scandalous vices. Another party elected in his stead Sylvester III., and Benedict, with a conscience loaded with adulteries, and hands stained with homicide, at last sold the Papacy to a Roman ecclesiastic." The Emperors of Germany, roused to indignation by these enormities, purged Rome with the sword. In 1047, a German bishop, Leo IX., possessed himself of the pontifical throne. The Empire, using its right as suzerain, raised up the triple crown from the mire, and preserved the degraded Papacy by giving to it suitable chiefs. In 1046, Henry III. deposed the three rival popes, and pointing with his finger, on which glittered the ring of the Roman patricians, designated the bishop to whom St. Peter's keys should be confided. Four Popes, all Germans, and chosen by the Emperor, succeeded. Whenever the Pontiff of Rome died, a deputation from its church repaired to the Imperial court, just as the envoys of other dioceses, to solicit the nomina1on of a bishop to succeed him. The Empe Leo IX. took notice of this monk as he was going to Cluny, and carried him with him to Rome. From that time Hildebrand was the soul of the Papacy, till he himself became Pope. He had governed the Church under different Pontiffs, before he himself reigned under the name of Gregory VII. One grand idea occupied his comprehensive mind. He desired to establish a visible theocracy, of which the Pope, as the vicar of Christ, should be the head. The recollection of the ancient universal dominion of heathen Rome, haunted his imagination and animated his zeal. He wished to restore to Papal Rome what Rome had lost under the Emperors. "What Marius and Cæsar," said his flatterers, "could not effect by torrents of blood, you have accomplished by a word." Gregory VII. was not actuated by the spirit of Christ. That spirit of truth, humility, and gentleness, was to him unknown. He could sacrifice what he knew to be the truth, whenever he judged it necessary to his policy. We may instance the case of Berengarius. But without doubt he was actuated by a spirit far above that of the generality of Pontiffs, and by a deep conviction of the justice of his cause. Enterprising, ambitious, persevering in his designs, he was at the same time skil ful and politic in the use of the means of success. His first task was to remodel the militia of the Church. It was needful to gain strength before attacking the Imperial authority. A council held at Rome, removed the pastors from their families, and obliged them to devote themselves undividedly to the hierarchy. The law of celibacy, devised and carried into operation by the Popes, (who were themselves monks,) changed the clergy into a monastic order. Gregory VII. claimed to exercise over the whole body of bishops and priests of Christendom, a power equal to that possessed by an abbot of Cluny over the order subjected to his rule. The legates of Hildebrand passed through the provinces, depriving the pastors of their lawful partners, and the Pope himself, if necessary, excited the populace against the married clergy.12 But Gregory's great aim was to emancipate Rome from subjection to the Emperor. Never would he have dared to conceive so ambitious a design, if the discord which disturbed the minority of Henry IV., and the revolt of the German princes from that young Emperor had not favoured his project. The Pope was at this time one of the magnates of the empire. Making common cause with some of the greatest of its vassals, he strengthened himself in the aristocratic interest, and then proceeded to prohibit all ecclesiastics from receiving investiture from the Emperor, under pain of excommunication. instance, spread far and wide, and everywhere confirmed his authority:-the pious pilgrims, who in imagination had seen saints and angels conducting their armed hosts, and who entering humbly and barefooted within the walls of Jerusalem, had burned alive the Jews in their synagogue, and shed the blood of tens of thousands of Saracens on the spots where they came to trace the footsteps of the Prince of Peace, bore with them to the East the name of the Pope, whose existence had been scarcely known there, since the period when he exchanged the supremacy of the Greeks for that of the Franks. Meanwhile that which the arms of the republic and of the empire had failed to effect, was achieved by the power of the Church. The Germans brought to the feet of a bishop the tribute their ancestors had refused to the mightiest generals; and their princes thought they received from the Popes their crown, while in reality the Popes imposed upon them a yoke. The kingdoms of Christendom, already subject to the spiritual empire of Rome, became her serfs and tributaries. Thus every thing was changed in the Church. He thus snapt asunder the ancient ties which connected the several pastors and their churches with the royal authority, but it was At the beginning it was a society of breththat he might bind them to the pontifical ren, and now an absolute monarchy is reared throne. He undertook to restrain by a power- in the midst of them. All Christians were ful hand, priests, princes, and people; and to priests of the living God, (1 Pet. ii. 9,) with make the Pope a universal monarch. It was humble pastors for their guidance. But a Rome alone that every priest was to fear-and lofty head is uplifted from the midst of these in her only he was to hope. The kingdoms pastors; a mysterious voice utters words full and principalities of the earth were to be her of pride; an iron hand compels all men, small domain; and kings were to tremble before the and great, rich and poor, freemen and slaves, thunders of the Jupiter of New Rome. Wo to take the mark of its power. The holy and to those who should resist her. Their subjects primitive equality of souls before God is lost were released from their oaths of allegiance-sight of. Christians are divided into two their whole country placed under interdictpublic worship was to cease the churches to be closed-the bells mute-the sacrament no longer administered-and the malediction extended even to the dead, to whom, at the command of the proud Pontiff, the earth refused the peace and shelter of the tomb. The Pope, whose power had been from the very beginning subordinate, first to the Roman Emperors; then to the Frankish princes; and lastly, to the Emperors of Germany; at once freed himself, and assumed the place of an equal, if not of a master. Yet Gregory the VIIth was in his turn humbled; Rome was taken, and Hildebrand obliged to flee. He died at Salerno; his last words were, Dilexi justitiam et odivi iniquitatem; propterea morior in exilio. And who will dare to charge with hypocrisy words uttered at the very gates of the tomb. The successors of Gregory acted like soldiers arriving after a great victory. They threw themselves as conquerors on the unresisting Churches. Spain, delivered from the presence of Islamism, and Prussia, reclaimed from idolatry, fell into the embrace of the crowned priest. The crusades, undertaken at his 1 have loved righteousness and hated iniquity-therefore I die in exile. strangely unequal camps. On the one side a separate class of priests daring to usurp the name of the Church, and claiming to be possessed of peculiar privileges in the sight of the Lord. On the other, timid flocks reduced to a blind and passive submission; a people gagged and silenced and delivered over to a proud caste. Every tribe, language, and nation of Christendom submitted to the dominion of this spiritual king who had received power to overcome. But side by side with that principle that should have pervaded the history of Christianity was a principle that was given to preside over its doctrine. This was the great principle of Christianity; its leading ideathat of grace, of pardon, and amnesty, and of the gift of eternal life. This idea supposed an alienation from God, and an inability in man to enter, by any power of his own, into communion with an infinitely holy Being. The opposition of true and false doctrine cannot assuredly be entirely summed up in the question of salvation by faith or by works. Nevertheless, it is the most striking feature in the contrast. We may go farther: Salva tion considered as derived from any power in man is the germinating principle of all errors and perversions. The scandals produced by this fundamental error brought on the Refor-dition of life itself. The word of the Apostle mation;—and the profession of the contrary heard across the interval of ages is, “Having principle was the means by which it was begun in the spirit, are ye now made perfect achieved. It is therefore indispensable that by the flesh." this truth should be prominent in an introduction to the history of that Reformation. Salvation by Grace. Such, then, was the second peculiarity which was designed especially to distinguish the religion that came from God from all human systems. And what had become of this great and primordial thought? Had the Church preserved it as a precious deposit? Let us follow its history. The inhabitants of Jerusalem, of Asia, of Greece, and of Rome, in the time of the Roman Emperors, had heard this gospel. YE ARE SAVED BY GRACE-THROUGH FAITH-IT IS THE GIFT OF GOD, (Eph. ii. 8;) and at this voice of peace, at the sound of these good tidings, at this word of power, multitudes of sinners believed, and were attracted to Him who alone can give peace to the conscience; and numerous societies of believers were formed in the midst of the degenerate communities of that age. But ere long an important error began to prevail, as to the nature of Saving Faith.Faith (according to St. Paul) is the way through which the whole being of the believer, -his understanding, his heart, and his will, enters upon present possession of the salvation purchased by the incarnation and death of the Son of God. Jesus Christ is apprehended by Faith, and from that hour becomes all things to, and all things, in the believer. He communicates to the human nature a divine life; and the believer, renewed and set free from the power of self and of sin, feels new affections, and bears new fruits. Faith, says the theologian, labouring to express these thoughts, is the subjective appropriation of the objective Work of Christ. If faith is not the appropriation of Salvation it is nothing-the whole economy of Christian doctrine is out of place; the fountains of the new life are sealed, and Christianity is overturned from its foundation. And this consequence did in fact ensue. By degrees this practical view of Faith was forgotten, and ere long it was regarded, as it still is by many, as a bare act of the understand ing, a mere submission to a commanding evidence. Another error contributed to unsettle the doctrine of Grace. This was Pelagianism. Pelagius asserted that man's nature was not fallen,-that there is no such thing as hereditary evil, and that man having received power to do good has only to will in order to perform it.13 If the doing "good things" consists in certain external acts, Pelagius judged truly. But if regard is had to the motives whence these external acts proceed,-or to the entire inward life of man, (see Matt. xii. 34,) then we discern in all his works selfishnessforgetfulness of God, pollution and weakness. This was the doctrine of St. Augustine. He proved that to entitle any action to approval, it was needful not merely that it should seem right when looked at by itself and from the outside, but above all that its real spring in the soul should be holy. The Pelagian doctrine rejected by St. Augustine from the church when it presented itself broadly for investigation, re-appeared ere long with a side aspect as semi-Pelagian, and under forms of expression borrowed from St. Augustine's own writings. It was in vain that eminent Father opposed its progress. He died soon after. The error spread with amazing rapidity throughout Christendom-passing from the West to the East, and even at this day it continues to disturb and harass the Church. The danger of the doctrine appeared in this: that by placing goodness in the external act rather than in the inward affections, it led men to put a high value upon outward action, legal observances and works of penance. more of such works the greater the reputed sanctity-heaven was to be obtained by means of them-and (extravagant as such a thought must appear to us) it was not long before certain persons were believed to have made attainments in holiness beyond that which was required of them. The Thus did the proud heart of man refuse to give the glory to that God to whom all glory belongs. Thus did man claim to deserve, what God had decreed to give freely! He essayed to find in himself the salvation which the Gospel brought to him ready wrought out from heaven. He spread a veil over the saving truths of salvation which cometh from God, and not from man-a salvation which God gives-but barters not; and from that day all the other truths of religion were overclouded; darkness spread over the church, and from this deep and deplorable gloom were seen to arise innumerable errors. From this primary error a second necessarily resulted. When Faith was robbed of its practical character, it could no longer be maintained that Faith alone saved. Works no longer following in their places as its fruits-it seemed necessary to range them on one line with it; and the Church was taught to believe that the sinner is justified by FAITH and by WORKS. In place of that Christian And in the first place we may observe that unity in doctrine, which comprises in a single both great divisions of error converged to one principle Justification and Works-Grace and effect. Pelagianism, while it corrupted the a rule of life-belief and responsibility, suc- church's teaching, strengthened the hierarchy: ceeded that melancholy quality which regards by the same influence by which it hid the religion and moral duty as things altogether unconnected; a fatal delusion which brings in death, by separating the body from the spirit, whose continued union is the necessary con doctrine of grace, it exalted the authority of As soon as salvation was taken out of the |