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V ; I xf' ,^\ v .^ y % & %*/ THE CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION AMD ITS THEOLOGY. THE CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION AND ITS TgEOKlGY: AS REPRESENTED IN THE AUGSBURG CONFESSION, AND IN THE HISTORY AND LITERATURE OF THE EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CHURCH. By CHARLES P. KRAUTH, D.D., NOilTON PROFESSOR OF THEOLOGY IN THE EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN THEOLOGICAL 9EMINART, AND PROFESSOR OF INTELLECTUAL AND MORAL PHILOSOPHY DJ THE UNIVERSITY OP PENNSYLVANIA. PHILADELPHIA t GENEKAL COUNCIL PUBLICATION BOAED. ^ ^o l -D VX Two Copies Keceiv^a MARIO 1908 IB t*49 COPY B. rJ. Copyright, 1871, by J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO. Copyright, 1899, by HARRIETT R.SPAETH. ®a tft^ Pemurg CHAELES PHILIP KRAUTH, D.D. MY VENERATED AND SAINTED FATHER, THIS BOOK ^dmttl PREFACE. fjTHAT some form of Christianity is to be the religion of the world, J- is not only an assured fact to the believer in Revelation, but must be regarded as probable, even in the judgment which is formed on purely natural evidence. Next in transcendent importance to that fact, and beyond it in present interest, as a question relatively un- decided, is the question, What form of Christianity is to conquer the world? Shall it be the form in which Christianity now exists, the form of intermingling and of division, of internal separation and warfare? Is the territory of Christendom forever to be divided be- tween antagonistic communions, or occupied by them conjointly? Shall there be to the end of time the Greek, the Roman, the Protestant churches, the sects, and the heretical bodies ? Or shall one or other of these specific forms lift itself above the tangled mass, and impose order on chaos ? Or shall a form yet unrevealed prove the church of the future? To this the answer seems to be, that the logic of the question, supported by eighteen centuries of history, renders it probable that some prin- ciple, or some combination of principles now existent, will assuredly, however slowly, determine the ultimate, world-dominating type of Christianity. Unless there be an exact balance of force in the differ- ent tendencies, the internally strongest of them will ultimately prevail over the others, and, unless a new force superior to it comes in, will be permanent. The history of Christianity, in common with all genuine history, moves under the influence of two generic ideas: the conservative, which desires to secure the present by fidelity to the results of the past ; the progressive, which looks out, in hope, to a better future. Reforma- tion is the great harmonizer of the two principles. Corresponding with Conservatism, Reformation, and Progress are three generic types of Chris- tianity ; and under these genera all the species are but shades, modifica- tions, or combinations, as all hues arise from three primary colors. Conservatism without Progress produces the Romish and Greek type VUl PREFACE. of the Church. Progress without Conservatism runs into Revolution, Radicalism, and Sectarianism. Reformation is antithetical both to pas- sive persistence in wrong or passive endurance of it, and to Revolution as a mode of relieving wrong. Conservatism is opposed to Radicalism both in the estimate of wrong and the mode of getting rid of it. Radi- calism errs in two respects : in its precipitance it often mistakes wheat fo' tares, and its eradication is so hasty and violent that even when it plucks up tares it brings the wheat with them. Sober judgment and sober means characterize Conservatism. Reformation and Conservatism really in- volve each other. That which claims to be Reformatory, yet is not Con- servative, is Sectarian ; that which claims to be Conservative, and is not Reformatory, is Stagnation and Corruption. True Catholicity is Con- servatism, but Protestantism is Reformatory ; and these two are com- plementary, not antagonistic. The Church problem is to attain a Pro- testant Catholicity or Catholic Protestantism. This is the end and aim of Conservative Reformation. Reformation is the means by which Conservatism of the good that is, and progress to the good yet to be won, is secured. Over against the stagnation of an isolated Conservatism, the Church is to hold Reformation as the instrument of progress. Over against the abuses of a separatistic and one-sided progressiveness, she is to see to it that her Reformation maintains that due reverence for history, that sobriety of tone, that patience of spirit, and that moderation of manner, which are involved in Conservatism. The good that has been is necessary to the safety of the good that is to be. There are to be no absolutely fresh starts. If the foundation were removed, the true course would not be to make a new one, but to find the old one, and lay it again. But the foundation never was wholly lost, nor was there, in the worst time of the accumulation of wood, hay, and stubble, an utter ceasing of the building of gold, silver, and precious stones upon it. The Reformation, as Christian, accepted the old foundation ; as reform- atory, it removed the wood, hay, and stubble ; as conservative, it care- fully separated, guarded, and retained the gold, silver, and precious stones, the additions of pious human hands, befitting the foundation and the temple which was to be reared upon it. Rome had accumulated greatly and given up nothing, till the foundation upheld little but per- ishing human traditions, and the precious things were lost in the heaps of rubbish. The revolutionary spirit of the radical Reform proposed to leave nothing but the foundation, to sweep from it everything which had been built upon it. The Conservative, equally accepting the foundation which has been laid once for all, proposed to leave on it everything pre- PREFACE. IX cious, pure, and beautiful which had risen in the ages. The one proposed to pull down the temple ; the other, to purify it, and to replace its weak and decayed portions with solid rock. The great work of the sixteenth century, which bears the generic title of the Reformation, was divided be- tween these tendencies ; not, indeed, absolutely to the last extreme, but yet really divided. The whole Protestant movement in the Church of the "West was reformatory as over against papal Rome, and was so far a unit ; but it was divided within itself, between the conservative and radi- cal tendencies. The conservative tendency embodied itself in the Ref- ormation, in which Luther was the leader; the radical, in Zwingle and his school. Calvin came in to occupy a relatively mediating position, — conservative as compared with the ultraism of Zwinglianism, and of the heretical tendencies which Zwinglianism at once nurtured, yet, rela- tively to Lutheranism, largely radical. The Church of England is that part of the Reformed Church for which most affinity with the conservatism of Lutheranism is usually claimed. That Church occupies a position in some respects unique. First, under Henry VIIL, ceasing to be Popish without ceasing to be Romish ; then passing under the influences of genuine reformation into the positively Lutheran type ; then influenced by the mediating position of the school of Bucer, and of the later era of Melancthon, a school which claimed the ability practically to co-ordinate the Lutheran and Calvinistic positions ; and finally settling into a system of compromise, in which is revealed the influence of the Roman Catholic views of Orders in the ministry, and, to some extent, of the Ritual ; of the Lutheran tone of reformatory conservatism, in the general structure of the Liturgy, in the larger part of the Articles, and especially in the doctrine of Baptism ; of the mediating theology in the doctrine of predestination ; and of Calvin- ism in particular changes in the Book of Common Prayer, and, most of all, in the doctrine of the Lord's Supper. The Conservatism of the Church of England, even in the later shape of its reform, in many respects is indubitable, and hence it has often been called a Lutheranizing Church. But the pressure of the radicalism to which it deferred, perhaps too much in the essence and too little in the form, brought it to that eclecticism which is its most marked feature. Lutheranizing, in its conservative sobriety of modes, the Church of England is very un- Lutheran in its judgment of ends. The conservatism of the Lutheran Reformation exalted, over all, pure doc- trine as the divine presupposition of a pure life, and this led to an ample and explicit statement of faith. While the Church of England stated doctrines so that men understood its utterances in different waya. s PREFACE. the Lutheran Church tried so to state them that men could accept them in but one sense. If one expression was found inadequate foi this, she gave another. The Lutheran Church has her Book of Con- cord, the most explicit Confession ever made in Christendom; the Church of England has her Thirty-nine Articles, the least explicit among the official utterances of the Churches of the Reformation: The Eclectic Reformation is like the Eclectic Philosophy, — it accepts the common affirmation of the different systems, and refuses their nega- tions. Like the English language, the English Church is a miracle of compositeness. In the wonderful tessellation of their structure is the strength of both, and their weakness. The English language is two languages inseparably conjoined. It has the strength and affluence of the two, and something of the awkwardness necessitated by their union. The Church of England has two great elements ; but they are not perfectly preserved in their distinctive character, but, to some extent, are confounded in the union. With more uniformity than any other great Protestant body, it has less unity than any. Partly in rirtue of its doctrinal indeterminateness, it has been the home of men of the most opposite opinions : no Calvinism is intenser, no Arminianism lower, than the Calvinism and Arminianism which have been found in the Church of England. It has furnished able defenders of Augustine, and no less able defenders of Pelagius. Its Articles, Homilies, and Liturgy have been a great bulwark of Protestantism ; and yet, seem- ingly, out of the very stones of that bulwark has been framed, in our day, a bridge on which many have passed over into Rome. It has a long array of names dear to our common Christendom as the masterly vindicators of her common faith, and yet has given high place to men who denied the fundamental verities confessed in the general creeds. It harbors a skepticism which takes infidelity by the hand, and a revised medievalism which longs to throw itself, with tears, on the neck of the Pope and the Patriarch, to beseech them to be gentle, and not to make the terms of restored fellowship too difficult. The doctrinal indeterminateness which has won has also repelled, and made it an object of suspicion not only to great men of the most opposite opinions, but also to great bodies of Christians. It has a doctrinal laxity which excuses, and, indeed, invites, innovation, conjoined with an organic fixedness which prevents the free play of the novelty. Hence the Church of England has been more depleted than any other, by secessions. Either the Anglican Churcn must come to more fix- edness in doctrine or to more pliableness in form, or it will go on, through cycle after cycle of disintegration, toward ruin. In this land, PREFACE. si which seems the natural heritage of that Church which claims the Church of England as its mother, the Protestant Episcopal Church is numerically smallest among the influential denominations. Its great social strength and large influence in every direction only ren- der more striking the fact that there is scarcely a Church, scarcely a sect, having in common with it an English original, which is not fai in advance of it in statistical strength. Some of the largest commu- nions have its rigidity in form, some of the largest have its looseness in doctrine; but no other large communion attempts to combine both. The numbers of those whom the Church of England has lost are millions. It has lost to Independency, lost to Presbyterianism, lost to Quakerism, lost to Methodism, lost to Romanism, and lost to the countless forms of Sec- tarianism of which England and America, England's daughter, have been, beyond all nations, the nurses. The Church of England has been so careful of the rigid old bottle of the form, yet so careless or so helpless as to what the bottle might be made to hold, that the new wine which went into it has been attended in every case by the same history, — the fermenting burst the bottle, and the wine was spilled. Every great religious movement in the Church of England has been attended ultimately by in irreparable loss in its membership. To this rule there has been no exception in the past. Whether the present movement which convulses the Church of England and the Protestant Episcopal Church in America, is to have the same issue, belongs, per- haps, rather to the prophet's eye than to the historian's pen. Yet to those who, though they stand without, look on with profound sympathy, the internal difficulties which now agitate those Churches seem in- capable of a real, abiding harmonizing. True compromise can only sacrifice preferences to secure principles. The only compromise which seems possible in the Anglican Churches would be one which would sac- rifice principles to secure preferences, and nothing can be less certain of permanence than preferences thus secured. These present difficul- ties in the Anglican Churches proceed not from contradiction of its prin- ciples, but from development of them. These two classes of seeds were sowm by the husbandmen themselves. — that was the compromise. The tares may grow till the harvest, side by side with the wheat, with which they mingle, but which they do not destroy, but the thorns which choke the seed must be plucked up, or the seed will perish. Tares are men ; thorns are moral forces of doctrine or of life. The agitation in the An- glican Churches can end only in the victory of the one tendency and the silencing of the other, or in the sundering of the two. In Protestant- ism nothing is harder than to silence, nothing easier than to sunder. Xii PREFACE. If the past history of the Anglican Church, hitherto unvaried in the ultimate result, repeat itself here, the new movement will end in a formal division, as it already has in a moral one. The trials of a Church which has taken a part in our modern civilization and Christi- anity which entitles it to the veneration and gratitude of mankind, can be regarded with indifference only by the sluggish and selfish, and with malicious joy only by the radically bad. The classification of Churches by tendencies is, of course, relative. No great organization moves so absolutely along the line of a single tendency as to have nothing in it beyond that tendency, or contradic- tory to it. The wilfulness of some, the feeble-mindedness of others, the power of surrounding influences, modify all systems in their actual working. There was some conservatism in the Swiss reformation, and there has been and is something of the reformatory tendency in the Church of Eome. The Reformation took out a very large part of the best material influenced by this tendency in Rome, but not all of it. The object of this book is not to delineate the spirit and doctrines of the Reformation as a general movement over against the doctrinal and practical errors of the Roman Church, but to state and vindicate the faith and spirit of that part of the movement which was conserva- tive, as over against the part which was radical. It is the Lutheran Reformation in those features which distinguish it from the Zwinglian and Calvinistic Reformations, which forms the topic of this book. "Wherever Calvin abandoned Zwinglianism he approximated Lutheran- ism. Hence, on important points, this book, in defending Lutheranism over against Zwinglianism, defends Calvinism over against Zwinglian- ism also. It even defends Zwinglianism, so far as, in contrast with Ana- baptism, it was relatively conservative. The Pelagianism of the Zwinglian theology was corrected by Calvin, who is the true father of the Reformed Church, as distinguished from the Lutheran. The theoretical tendencies of Zwingle developed into Arminianism and Ra- tionalism ; his practical tendencies into the superstitious anti-ritualism of ultra-Puritanism: and both the theoretical and practical found their harmony and consummation in Unitarianism. The plan of this book is, in some respects, new. It aims at bringing under a single point of view what is usually scattered through different classes of books. It endeavors to present the Exegesis, the Dogmatical and Confessional development, and the History associated with each doctrine, with a full list of the most important writers in the literature of each topic. Its rule is, whether the views stated are accepted or rejected, to give them in the words of their authors. The citations PREFACE. xill from other languages are always translated, but when the original words have a disputed meaning, or a special force or importance, they are also quoted. The author has, as nearly as he was able, given to the book such an internal completeness as to render it unnecessary to refer to other works while reading it. While he has aimed at some- thing of the thoroughness which the scholar desires, he has also en- deavored to meet the wants of that important and growing class of readers who have all the intelligence needed for a full appreciation of the matter of a book, but are repelled by the technical difficulties of form suggested by the pedantry of authors, or permitted by their care- lessness or indolence. So far as the author's past labors were available for the purposes of this work, he has freely used them. In no case has a line been allowed to stand which does not express a present conviction, not simply as to what is true, but as to the force of the grounds on which its truth is argued. In what has been taken from his articles in Reviews, and in other periodicals, he has changed, omitted, and added, in accordance with a fresh study of all the topics. He has also drawn upon some of the Lectures delivered by him to his theological classes, and thankfully acknowledges the use, for this purpose, of the notes made by his pupils, Rev. F. W. Weiskotten, of Elizabethtown, Pa., and Messrs. Bieber and Foust. To Lloyd P. Smith, Esq., Librarian, and to Mr. George M. Abbot, Assistant Librarian, of the Philadelphia and Loganian Li- braries, the author is indebted for every possible facility in the use of those valuable collections. An Index has been prepared, in which the effort has been made to avoid the two generic vices of a scantiness which leaves the reader in perplexity, and a minuteness which confuses him. The positions taken in this book are largely counter, in some respects, to the prevailing theology of our time and our land. JNo man can be more fixed in his prejudice against the views here defended than the author himself once was ; no man can be more decided in his opinion that those views are false than the author is now decided in his faith that they are the truth. They have been formed in the face of all the influences of education and of bitter hatred or of contemptuous disregard on the part of nearly all who were most intimately associated with him in the period of struggle. Formed under such circumstances, under what he be- lieves to have been the influence of the Divine Word, the author is per- suaded that they rest upon grounds which cannot easily be moved. In its own nature his work is, in some degree, polemical ; but its conflict is purely with opinions, never with persons. The theme itself, as it involves XIV PREFACE. questions within our common Protestantism, renders the controversy principally one with defects or errors in systems least remote in the main from the faith vindicated in this volume. It is most needful that those nearest each other should calmly argue the questions which still divide them, as there is most hope that those already so largely in af finity may come to a yet more perfect understanding. The best work of which isolated radicalism is capable is that of destroying evil. The more earnestly radicalism works, the sooner is its mission accomplished. Conservatism works to a normal condition, and rests at last in habit. Radicalism presupposes the abnormal. Itself an antithesis, it dies with the thing it kills. The long, fixed future must therefore be in the hands of conservatism in some shape ; either in the hands of a mechanical conservatism, as in the Church of Rome, or of a reformatory conservatism, as represented in that histori- cal and genuine Protestantism which is as distinct from the current sectarianism, in some respects, as it is from Romanism in others. The purest Protestantism, that which best harmonizes conservatism and reformation, will ultimately control the thinking of the Christian Church. The volume which the reader holds in his hand is meant to set forth some of the reasons in view of which those who love the Evangelical Protestant Church, commonly called the Lutheran Church, hope to find pardon for their conviction that in it is found the most perfect assimilation and co-ordination of the two forces. It has con- served as thoroughly as is consistent with real reformation ; it has reformed as unsparingly as is consistent with genuine conservatism. The objective concreteness of the old Apostolic Catholicity, Rome has exaggerated and materialized till the senses master the soul, they should serve. The subjective spirituality of New Testament Christianity is iso- lated by the Pseudo-Protestantism, which drags the mutilated organism of the Church after it as a body of death from which it would fain be delivered, and which it drops at length, altogether, to wander a mel- ancholy ghost, or to enter on the endless metempsychosis of sectarianism. To distinguish without separating, and to combine without confusing, has been the problem of the Lutheran Church. It has distinguished between the form of Christianity and the essence, but has bound them together inseparably : the Reformatory has made sacred the individ- ual life and liberty, the Conservative has sanctified the concrete order. Nor is this claim extravagant in its own nature. No particular Church has, on its own showing, a right to existence, except as it believes itself to be the most perfect form of Christianity, the form which of right should and will be universal. No Church has a right PREFACE. xt» to a part which does not claim that to it should belong the whole. That communion confesses itself a sect which aims at no more than abiding as one of a number of equally legitimated bodies. That communion which does not believe in the certainty of the ultimate acceptance of its principles in the whole world has not the heart of a true Church. That which claims to be Catholic de facto claims to be Universal dejure. A true unity in Protestantism would be the death of Popery ; but Popery will live until those who assail it are one in their answer to the question : What shall take its place ? This book is a statement and a defence of the answer given to that question by the communion under whose banner the battle with Rome was first fought, — under whose leaders the greatest victories over Rome were won. If this Church has been a failure, it can hardly be claimed that the Reformation was a suc- cess ; and if Protestantism cannot come to harmony with the principles by which it was created, as those principles were understood by the greatest masters in the reformatory work, it must remain divided until division reaches its natural end, — absorption and annihilation. Mabch 17, 1871. CONTENTS. Aet. Pass , I. 1 II. 22 . m. 88 IV. 112 . v. 162 VI. 201 VII. 268 THE CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION AND ITS THEOLOGY. A. The Conservative Reformation : I. Occasion and Cause ... • • II. Chief Organ : Luther III. Chief Instrument: Luther's New Testament . B. Church of the Conservative Reformation : Lutheran Church C. Confessional Principle of the Conservative Reformation . D. Confession of the Conservative Reformation: I. Primary Confession : Augsburg Confession • • II. Secondary Confessions : Book of Concord . . E. History and Doctrines of the Conservative Reformation ; Mistakes Cor- rected VIII. 329 P. Specific Theology of the Conservative Reformation: I. Original Sin (Augsburg Conf., Art. II.) II. Person of Christ ( " " III. Baptism ( " " IV. Lord's Supper ( " " 1. Thetically Stated . 2. Antithesis Considered . 3. Objections Answered XYll rt. II.) . . IX. 355 " III.) . • • 2L. 456 " IX.) . . XI. 518 « X.) ... . XII. 585 ... . XIII. 664 • • • . XIV. 755 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. THE REFORMATION ITS OCCASION AND CAUSE * THE immediate occasion of the Reformation seemed insignifi- cant enough. Three hundred and fifty-three years ago, on the 31st of October, immense crowds were pouring into an ancient city of Germany, hearing in its name, Wittenberg, the memorial of its founder, Wittekind the Younger. The weather-beaten and dingy little edifices of Wittenberg forbade the idea, that the beauty of the city or its commer- Tbe da y be ^ cial importance drew the masses to it. Within vly." that city was an old church, very miserable and battered, and * On the history of the Reformation, the works following may be consulted : Bretschneider: Die Deutsch. Reformat. 1855. Claude : Defence of the Reformation. Transl. 2 vols. 8vo. London : 1815. Cochl-eus : Commentaria de Act. et Scrip. Lutheri. 1549. Fol. Cyprian: Niitzlieh. Urkunden. z. Erl. der erst. Reformations- Geschichte. Leipz. : 1718. 12mo. 2 Parts. D'Aubigne: Histoire de la Reform. Par.: 1835-1838. (Engl., Lond. : 1839. New York: 1841.) Forstemann: Archiv. f. d. Gesch. d. K. Reformation. Halle: 1831. 8vo. Gerdes : Introd. in historiam. Ev. Sec. XVI. renov. 4 vols. 4to. Groning. : 1744-1752. Hagenbach : Vorles. iib. Wes. u. Gesch. d. Reformation. Leipz. : 1839. 8vo. Junius : Compend. Seckendorf. (1755) — Reform. Gesch. in Auszug. v. Rocs. Tub. : 1788. 2 vols. 8vo. Keyser: Reformat. Almanach. Erf. 4 vols. 12mo. 1817-1821. Mai: Hist. Reformat. Frankf. : 1710. 4to. Maimbouro: Hist. du. Lutheranism. Par. : 1680. 4to. 1 1 z CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. very venerable and holy, which attracted these crowds. It was the " Church of all Saints," in which were shown, to the in- expressible delight of the faithful, a fragment of Noah's Ark, soma soot from the furnace into which the three young He- brews were cast, a piece of wood from the crib of the infant Saviour, some of St. Christopher's beard, and nineteen thou- sand other relics equally genuine and interesting. But over and above all these allurements, so well adapted to the taste of the time, His Holiness, the Pope, had granted indulgence to all who should visit the church on the first of November. Against tbe door of that church of dubious saints, and dubi- ous relics, and dubious indulgences, was found fastened, on that memorable morning, a scroll unrolled. The writing on it was firm ; the nails which held it were well driven in ; the sen- timents it conveyed were moderate, yet very decided. The material, parchment, was the same which long ago had held words of redemption above the head of the Redeemer. The contents were an amplification of the old theme of glory — Christ on the cross, the only Xing. Tbe Magna Charta, which had been buried beneath the Pope's throne, reappeared on the church door. The keynote of the Reformation was struck full and clear at the beginning, Salvation through Christ alone. It is from the nailing up of these Theses the Reformation takes its date. That act became, in the providence of God, the Maimbourg: Hist. clu. Calvinisme. Par.: 1682. 4to. Marheineke : Gesch. d. Teutsch. Reform. Berl. : 1831. 4 vols. 12mo. Myconius: Hist. Reformat. Cyprian. Leipz. : 1718.;'/ 12mo. Neudecker: Gesch. d. Evang. Protestantism. LeipzL : 1844. 2 vols. 8vo. Ranke : Deutsch. Gesch. im Zeitalt. d. Reformat. Berl. : 1839. 3 vols. 8vo. (Transl. by Sarah Austin.) Philad. : 1844. 8vo. Scultetus : Kirchen. Reformat, in Teutschl. d. Guolfium. Heidelb. : 1618. 4to. SeckexNdorf : Lutheranism. Leipz. : 1694. Fol. Deutsch. 1714. 4to. Sleidan : de Stat, relig. et reipub. (1557. 8vo.) Boehme am Ende. Frankf. a. M. : 1785-86. 3 vols. 8vo. Spalatin: Annales Reformat. (Cyprian.) Leipz.: 1718. 12mo. Tjgbxzel: Reformat. Lutheri (Cyprian.) Leipz.: 1718. 12ieo. Vok Seelen: Stromata Lutherana. Lubeck: 1740. 12mo. Tillers: Ess. sur l'e'sprit et l'influ. d. 1. Reformat, de Luth. Par.: 3d. ed, 1808. 8vo. Ubers. von Cramer, mit vorred. v. Henke. 2d. ed. Hamb. : 1828. 2 Parts. 12mo. Wadiungton: Reformat, on the Contin. Lond. : 1841. 3 vols. 8vo. THE DAY BEFORE "ALL SAINTS' DAY." 3 starting-point of the work which still goes on, and shall for- ever go on, that glorious work in which the truth was raised to its original purity, and civil and religious liberty were re- stored to men. That the Reformation is the spring of modern freedom, is no wild assertion of its friends. One of the great- est Roman Catholic writers of recent times, Michelet, in the Introduction to his Life of Luther, says : " It is not incor- rect to say, that Luther has been the restorer of liberty in modern times. If he did not create, he at least courageously affixed his signature to that great revolution which rendered the right of examination lawful in Europe. And, if we exer- cise, in all its plenitude at this day, this first and highest privilege of human intelligence, it is to him Ave are most in- debted for it ; nor can we think, speak, or write, without being made conscious, at every step, of the immense benefit of this intellectual enfranchisement ; " and he concludes with the re- mark : " To whom do I owe the power of publishing what I am now inditing, except to this liberator of modern thought? " Our Church, as clearly, in one sense, the mother of the Reforma- tion, as, in another, she is its offspring, the first, and for a tih)e, the exclusive possessor of the name Protestantism, its source and its mightiest bulwark, our Church has wisely set apart a day in each year to commemorate this great deliver- ance, and wisely has kept her great Jubilees. There are other ways of noting time, besides by its loss. The Church Festi- vals note it by its gains, the Church Year marks the time which has been redeemed for ever. An old writer describes the Church of All-Saints at Wittenberg, as a manger, where in his lowly glory the Son of God was born again. Blessed forever be the day ! On it, through all time, men shall gather, bringing their offerings of praise ; remembering, treasuring, and keep- ing untarnished, the holy faith whose restoration was thus begun. It is well, then, to have added to the grand order of the Church Year, the Festival of the Reformation, and to the revolution of the centuries, its Jubilee. Whether as the child or as the parent of the Reformation, whether she would awake her heart to gratitude as its daughter, or arouse herself to an 4 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. ei /"nest sense of responsibility as its mother, our Church can claim it, as pre-eminently her privilege, and acknowledge it as pre-eminently her duty so to do. When the Festival of the Eeformation shall come and shall wake no throb of joy in her bosom, her life will have fled. For if the Reformation lives through her, she also lives by it. It has to her the mysterious relation of Christ to David ; if it is her offspring, it is also her root. If she watched the ark of the Lord, the ark of the Lord protected and blessed her, and when it passes from her keeping her glory will have departed. Let her speak to her children then, and tell them the meaning of the day. In the pulpit, and the school, and the circle of the home, let these great memories of men of God, of their self-sacrifice, of their overcoming faith, and of their glorious work, be the theme of thought, and of word, and of thanksgiving. The Festival of the Reformation is at once a day of Christmas and of Eas- ter and of Pentecost, in our Church year ; a day of birth, a day of resurrection, a day of the outpouring of the Holy Ghost. Let its return renew that life, and make our Church press on with fresh vigor in the steps of her risen Lord, as one begotten again, and born from the dead, by the quicken- ing power of the Spirit of her God. Let every day be a Fes- tival of the Reformation, and every year a Jubilee. The occasions and cause of so wonderful and important an specific occasion and event as the Reformation have naturally oc- mation. cupied very largely the thoughts of both its friends and its foes. On the part of its enemies the solution of its rapid rise, its gigantic growth, its overwhelming march, has been found by some in the rancor of monkish malice — the thing arose in a squabble between two sets of friars, about the farming of the indulgences — a solution as sapient and as com- pletely in harmony with the facts as would be the statement that the American Revolution was gotten up by one George Washington, who, angry that the British Government refused to make him a collector of the tax on tea, stirred up a rappy people to rebellion against a mild and just rule. The solution has been found by others in the lust of the human heart for change — it was begotten in the mere love SPECIFIC OCCASION AND CAUSE. 5 of novelty : men went into the Reformation as they go into a menagerie, or adopt the new mode, or buy up some " novel- ist's last." Another class, among whom the brilliant French Jesuit, Audin, is conspicuous, attribute the movement mainly to the personal genius and fascinating audacity of the great leader in the movement. Luther so charmed the millions with his marvellous speech and magic style, that they were led at his will. On the part of some, its nominal friends, reasons hardly more adequate have often been assigned. Con- founding the mere aids, or at most, the mere occasions of the Reformation with its real causes, an undue importance has been attributed in the production of it to the progress of the arts and sciences after the revival of letters. Much stress has been laid upon the invention of printing, and the discovery of America, which tended to rouse the minds of men to a new life. Much has been said of the fermenting political discon- tents of the day, the influence of the great Councils in dimin- ishing the authority of the Pope, and much has been made, in general, of the causes whose root is either wholly or in part in the earth. The Rationalist represents the Reformation as a triumph of reason over authority. The Infidel says, that its power was purely negative ; it was a grand subversion ; it was mightier than Rome, because it believed less than Rome ; it prevailed, not by what it taught, but by what it denied; and it failed of universal triumph simply because it did not deny everything. The insect-minded sectarian allows the Reforma- tion very little merit except as it prepared the way for the putting forth, in due time, of the particular twig of Protest- antism on which he crawls, and which he imagines bears all the fruit, and gives all the value to the tree. As the little green tenants of the rose-bush might be supposed to argue that the rose was made for the purpose of furnishing them a home and food, so these small speculators find the root of the Reformation in the particular part of Providence which they consent to adopt and patronize. The Reformation, as they take it, originated in the divine plan for furnishing a nursery for sectarian Aphides. But we must have causes whicr. , however feeble, are adapted 6 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. to the effects. A little fire indeed kindleth a great matter^ but however little, it must be genuine fire. Frost will not do, and a painting of flame will not do, though ' the pencil of Raphael produced it. A little hammer may break a great rock, but that which breaks must be harder and more tena- cious than the thing broken. There must be a hand to apply the fire, and air to fan it ; it must be rightly placed within the material to be kindled ; it must be kept from being smoth- ered. And yet all aids do but enable it to exercise its own nature, and it alone kindles. * There must be a hand to wield the hammer, and a heart to move the hand ; the rock must be struck with vigor, but the hammer itself is indispensable. God used instruments to apply the fire and wield the hammer ; His providence prepared the way for the burning and the breaking. And yet there was but one agency, by which they could be brought to pass. Do we ask what was the agency which was needed to kindle the flame ? What was it, that was destined to give the stroke whose crash filled earth with wonder, and hell with consternation, and heaven with joy ? God himself asks the question, so that it becomes its own answer : " Is not My Word like as a fire ? Is not My Word like the hammer which breaks the rock in pieces ? " It is not without an aim that the Word of God is presented in the language we have just quoted, under two images ; as fire and as a hammer. The fire is a type of its inward effi- cacy; the hammer, of its outward work. The one image shows how it acts on those who admit it, the other how it effects those who harden themselves against it ; the one sym- bolizes the persuasive fervor of that Word by which it makes our hearts burn within us in love to the Son of God, the other is an image of the energy with which, in the hands of the King on the holy hill of Zion, it breaks the opposers as with a rod of iron. The fire symbolizes the energy of the Word as a Gospel, which draws the heart to God, the hammer sha- dows forth its energy as a law which reveals the terrors of God's justice against transgressors. In both these grand aspects the Word of God was the creator of the Reformation and its mightiest instrument. It aroused the workers, and THE BIBLE IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 7 fitted them for their work ; it opened blind eyes, and subdued stubborn hearts. The Reformation is its work and its trophy. However manifold the occasions of the Reformation, the Wokd, under God, was its cause. The Word of God kindled the fire of the Reformation. That Word lay smouldering under the ashes of The rn.ie in centuries; it broke forth into flame, in Luther the Middle Age8 - and the other Reformers ; it rendered them lights which shone and burnt inextinguishably ; through them it imparted itself to the nations ; and from the nations it purged away the dross which had gathered for ages. " The Word of God," says St. Paul, "is not bound." Through the centuries which followed the corruption of Christianity, the Word of God was still in being. In lonely cloisters it was laboriously copied. Years were sometimes spent in finishing a single copy of it, in the elaborate but half barbaric beauty which suited the taste of those times. Gold and jewels, on the massive covers, decorated the rich workmanship ; costly pictures were painted as ornaments on its margin ; the choicest vellum was used for the copies ; the rarest records of heathen antiquity were some- times erased to make way for the nobler treasures of the Ora- cles of the Most High. There are single copies of the Word, from that mid-world of history, which are a store of art, and the possession of one of which gives a bibliographical renown to the city in whose library it is preserved. No interdict was yet laid upon the reading of the Word, for none was necessary. The scarcity and costliness of books formed in themselves a barrier more effectual than the in- terdict of popes and councils. Many of the great teachers in the Church of Rome were devoted students of the Bible. From the earliest writings of the Fathers, down to the Refor- mation, there is an unbroken line of witnesses for the right of all believers freely to read the Holy Scriptures. No man thought of putting an artificial limitation on its perusal ; on the contrary, there are expressions of regret in the mediaeval Catholic writers that, in the nature of the case, so few could have access to these precious records. In communities separate from the Church of Rome, the 3 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. truth was maintained by reading and teaching the Holy Scrip* tures. The Albigensian and Waldensian martyrs, were mar- tyrs of the Word : " Those slaughtered saints whose bones Lie scattered on the Alpine mountains cold, Even those who kept God's truth so pure of old, WI en all our fathers worshipped stocks and stones." The invention of printing, and hardly less, the invention of paper made from rags — for what would printing he worth, if we were still confined to so costly a material for hooks as parchment — prepared the way for the diffusion of the Scrip- tures. The Church of Rome did not apprehend the danger which lay in that Book. Previous to the Reformation there were not only editions of the Scripture in the originals, hut the old Church translation into Latin (the Vulgate) and versions from it into the living languages were printed. In Spain, whose dark opposition to the Word of God has since become her reproach and her curse, and in which no such book as the one of which we are about to speak has come forth for centuries, in Spain, more than a hundred years before there was enough Hebrew type in all England to print three consecutive lines, the first great Polyglot Bible, in Hebrew, Chaldee, Greek, and Latin, was issued at Complutum under the direction of Ximenes, her renowned cardinal and chief minister of state. It came forth in a form which, in splendor and value, far sur- passed all that the world had yet seen. We may consider the Complutensian Polyglot, the crown of glory to the labors of the Middle Ages. It links itself clearly in historical connec- tion with the Grand Biblical Era, the Reformation itself, for though the printing of it was begun in 1502, and finished in 1517, it was not published till 1522, and in 1522, the first „ edition of the New Testament, in German, came from the hand of Luther, fixing the corner-stone of the grand edifice, whose foundation had been laid in the Ninety-five Theses of * 1517. This, then, is the historical result of the facts we have pre- WHERE THE BIBLE FELL OPEN. 9 eented, that the Middle Ages "became, in the wonderful provi- dence of God, the conservators of the Word which they are charged with suppressing ; and were unconsciously tending toward the sunrise of the truth, which was to melt away their mists forever. The earliest efforts of the press were directed to the multi- plication of the copies of the Word of God. The where the Biwe , first hook ever printed, was the Bible. Before the fel1 open ' first twelve sheets of this first edition of the Scriptures were printed, Gutenberg and Faust had incurred an expenditure of four thousand florins. That Bible was the edition of the Latin Vulgate, commonly known by the name of the " Maza- rin Bible," from the fact that a copy of it which for some time was the only one known, was discovered about the mid- dle of the eighteenth century in the Library of the College of the Four ISTations, founded at Paris by Cardinal Mazarin. At Mentz and Cologne, the Vulgate translation of the Holy Scriptures was multiplied in editions of various sizes. Some of these Latin Bibles had been purchased for the Uniyersity Library at Erfurth at a large price, and were rarely shown even to visitors. One of them was destined to play a memor- able part in the history of mankind. While it was lying in the still niche of the Library, there moved about the streets of the city and through the halls of the University, a student of some eighteen years of age, destined for the law, who already gave evidence of a genius which might have been a snare to indolence, but who devoted himself to study with an unquenchable ardor. Among the dim recesses of the Library, he was a daily seeker for knowledge. His was a thirst for truth which was not satisfied with the prescribed routine. Those books of which we now think as venerable antiques, were then young and fresh — the glow of novelty was on much of which we now speak as the musty and worm-eaten record of old-time wisdom which we have outgrown. There the city of Harlem, through Laurentius, and the city of Mentz, through Faustus, and the city of Strasburg, through Guten- berg, put in their silent claims for the glory of being the cra- dle of the magic art of printing. There the great masters in 10 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. jurisprudence and in scholastic philosophy challenged, and not in vain, the attention of the young searcher for knowl- edge. Some of the most voluminous of the Jurisconsults he could recite almost word for word. Occam and Gerson were his favorites among the scholastics. The masters of the clas- sic world, Cicero, Virgil and Livy, " he read," says a Jesuit author, " not merely as a student whose aim was to under- stand them, but as a superior intellect, which sought to draw from them instruction, to lind in them counsels and maxims for his after life. They were to him the flowers whose sweet odor might be shed upon the path he had to tread, or might calm the future agitation of his mind and of his heart." Thus passing from volume to volume, seeking the solution of the dark problem of human life, which already gathered heavily upon his deep, earnest soul, he one clay took down a ponderous volume hitherto unnoticed. He opens it ; the title-page is " Biblia Sacra" — the Holy Bible. He is disappointed. He has heard all this, he thinks, in the lessons of the Missal, in the texts of the Postils, in the selections of the Breviary. He imagines that his mother, the Church, has incorporated the whole Book of God in her services. Listlessly he allows the volume to fall open at another place, in his hand, and carelessly looks down at the page. What is it that arouses him ? His eye kindles with amazement and intense interest. He rests the Book on the pile of the works of Schoolmen and of Fathers which he has been gathering. He hangs entranced over it ; his dreamy eyes are fixed on the page ; hour after hour flies ; the shades of night begin to gather, and he is forced to lay the volume aside, with the sigh, 0, that this Book of books might one day be mine ! Was it accident, or was it of God, that this Book opened where it did ? Could we have arranged the providence, where would we have had the Book to open? It opened at the first , chapter of First Samuel, the simple story of Hannah conse- crating her boy to the Lord. There are many parts of the Bible as precious as this ; with reverence we speak it, there are some more precious, " for one star difi'ereth from another star in glory," though God made them all. Why opened not WHERE THE BIBLE FELL OPEN. 11 tLat Book at some of the most glorious revelations of the New Testament ? This might have been, and who shall say what incalculable loss it might have wrought to the world, had it been so ? For this very portion might have been one of the Epistles, or Gospels, or Lessons of the Romish Service, and thus might have confirmed the false impression of the young man that he already knew all the Bible. This was a critical period of Luther's life. Already was his mind tending to an absorp- tion in studies which would have given a wholly different cast to his life. The sound of a drum upon the street was the turning point of the spiritual life of an English nobleman. It lifted him from his knees, and drew him again into the full march upon everlasting death. On what little things may God have been pleased to hang the great impulses of the man, who proved himself capable of leading the Reformation, and who, but for these little things, might have been lost to the world. Nothing in God's hand is trifling. The portion on which Luther's eye fell was not in the Church Service. It quickened him at once with a new sense of the fulness of God's Word. In a double sense it stood before him, as a revelation. His eyes were opened on the altar of that inextinguishable fire, from which a few sparks had risen into the Romish Ritual, and had drifted along on the night-breezes of the ages. Did the angel of the Covenant with invisible hand open that page, or was it a breath of air from some lattice near at hand ? It matters not — God opened the Book. That Book was to Luther, henceforth, the thing of beauty of his life, the joy of his soul forever. He read and re-read, and prayed over its sacred teachings, till the place of each pas- sage, and all memorable passages in their places fixed them- selves in his memory. To the study of it, all other study seemed tame. A single passage of it would ofttimes lie in his thoughts days and nights together. The Bible seemed to fuse itself into his being, to become a part of his nature. Often in his writings he does not so much remark upon it, as catch its very pulse and clothe his own mind in its very garb. He is lifted to the glory of the reproducer — and himself becomes a secondary prophet and apostle. His soul ceased to be a mere 12 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. vessel to hold a little of tlie living water, and became a foun- tain through which it sprang to refresh and gladden others. As with Luther, so was it with Melanchthon, his noble co- worker, with Zwingle in Switzerland, at a later period with Calvin in France, with Tyndale and Cranmer in England, with Knox in Scotland. The Word of God was the fire in their souls which purified them into Christians — and the man who became a Christian was already unconsciously a Reformer. The fire which the "Word of God kindled in the Reformers thev could not lone; conceal. "Thev believed — Luther's Bible. J b J therefore they spoke." One of the first, as it was one of the greatest, revelations of the revived power of the Word of God, was, that it sought an audience for itself before the peo- ple, in their own language. Every new Pentecost revives the miracle and wonder of the first Pentecost : men marvelling, say of the apostles to whom the Holy Ghost has again given utter- ance: "We do hear them speak in our tongues the wonder- ful works of God." Foremost in this imperishable work of the Sixteenth Century, was the man who was first and chief in more works, and in greater ones, than ever fell to any of our race, in the ordinary vocation of God. Great monuments has the Sixteenth Century left us of the majesty revealed by the human mind, when its noblest powers are disciplined by study, and sanctified by the Spirit of God. Great are the legacies of doctrinal, polemical, historical and confessional divinity which that century has left us. Immortal are its confessions, its de- votional, practical, hymnological and liturgical labors. It was the century of Melanchthon's Loci and of Calvin's Institutes, of the Examen of Chemnitz, and the Catalogus Testium of Flaccius, and of the Magdeburg Centuries. Its confessions are still the centres of great communions, its hymns are still sung by devout thousands, its forms still mould the spirit of wor- ship among millions. But its grandest achievement was the giving of the Bible to the nations, and the centre and throne of this achievement is Luther's Translation of the Bible, the greatest single work ever accomplished by man in the de- partment of theological literature. The Word of God, in whole or in pavt, has been translated into several hundred of LUTHER'S BIBLE. 13 the dialects of our race. Many of these translations, as for ex- ample the Septuagint, the Vulgate, and our own authorized version, have great historical significance ; but in its historical connections and significance, Luther's is incomparably most important of all. Had it been his sole labor, the race could never forget his name. Never were a greater need and the fittest agent to meet it, so brought together as in the production of this translation. One of the earliest convictions of Luther was, the people must have the Bible, and to this end it must be translated. It is true, that beginning with the Gothic translation of Ulphilas, in the fourth century, there had been various translations of the Scriptures into the Germanic tongues. About 1466, ap- peared the first Bible, printed in German. It came from the press of Eggesteyn, in Strasburg, (not as has been frequently maintained, from the press of Faust and Schoffer, in 1462.) Between the appearance of this Bible and that of Luther, there were issued in the dialect of Upper Germany some fourteen editions of the Word of God, beside several in the dialect of Lower Germany. These were, without exception, translations of a translation ; they were made from the Vulgate, and, how- ever they may have differed, they had a common character which may be expressed in a word — they were abominable. In a copy of one of them, in the library of the writer of this article, there is a picture of the Deluge, in which mermaids are floating around the .ark, arranging their tresses with the aid of small looking-glasses, with a most amphibious non- chalance. The rendering is about as true to the idea, as the picture is to nature. There is another of these editions, re- markable for typographical errors, which represents Eve, not as a house-wife, but as a " kiss-wife," and its typography is the best part of it. How Luther raised what seemed a bar- barous jargon into a language, which, in flexible beauty, and power of internal combination, has no parallel but in the Greek, and in massive vigor no superior but the English, writers of every school, Protestant and Romish alike, have loved to tell. The language of Germany has grown since Luther, but it has had no new creation. He who takes up Lu- 14 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. tbcr's Bible grasps a whole world in his hand — a world which will perish only, when this green earth itself shall pass away. In all lands in which the battle of the Reformation was fought, the Bible furnished banner, armor, and The Only Rule. T m • J J ^ • \i arms. It was, indeed, more than ensign, more than shield, more than sword, for " the Word of God is quick and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." The Word of God opened the eyes of the Reformers to the existing corruptions ; it called them forth from Babylon ; it revealed to them the only source of healing for the sick and wounded Church ; it inspired them with ardor for their holy work ; it lifted them above the desire for man's favor, and the fear of man's face. The Bible made them confessors, and pre- pared them to be martyrs. The Reformers knew where their strength lay. They felt that what had redeemed them could alone redeem the Church. They saw that, under God, their ability to sustain their cause depended on His Word. The supreme and absolute authority of God's Word in determining all questions of doctrine and of duty, is a fundamental principle of the Reformation — a prin- ciple so fundamental, that without it, there would have been no Reformation — and so vital, that a Reformation without it, could such a Reformation be supposed, would have been at best a glittering delusion and failure. It is true, that there was testimony from human sources, which was not without value, in its right place, in the con- troversy with Rome. In a certain sense, her condemnation had already been anticipated by her own lips. In the long- gone days of her purity, the Church of Rome had men of God, who held to the truth as it is in Christ Jesus. Thirty years after our Lord's Ascension, St. Paul wrote to the Church of Rome, " I am persuaded of you, my brethren, that ye also are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, able also to admonish one another. Your obedience is come abroad unto all men." This glorious condition did not pass away speedily. There were generations following, in which the truth was kept com- THE ONLY RULE. 15 paratively pure. Papal Rome could no more stand before the judgment of the early writers in the Church of Rome yet un- defiled than she could before the Scriptures. Hence, the con- fessors declared* that, in their doctrine, there not only was nothing in conflict with the Holy Scriptures, and with the true Church Catholic, or Church Universal, but nothing in conflict with the teachings of the true Church of Rome, as her doctrines were set forth by the writers of the earlier ages. The quotations made from these Fathers, in the Confession, best illustrate the meaning of this declaration, and prove its truth. Thus, for example, they quote the Mcene Fathers, as witnesses to the doctrine of the Trinity ; Ambrose is cited to show, "that he that believeth in Christ, is saved, without works, by faith alone, freely receiving remission." In the ar- ticles on Abuses, the testimony of the purer Fathers and Coun- cils is used with great effect. But not because of the testimony of the Church and of its writers did the Reformers hold the truth they confessed. They knew that individual churches could err, and had erred griev- ously, that the noblest men were fallible. Nothing but the firm word of God sufficed for them. They thanked God, indeed, for the long line of witnesses for the truth of His Word. Within the Church of Rome, in the darkest ages, there had been men faithful to the truth. There were men, in the midst of the dominant corruption, who spake and labored against it. There were Protestants, ages before our princes made their protest at Spires, and Lutherans, before Luther was born. But not on these, though they sealed the truth with their own blood, did the Reformers lean. They joyfully used them as testimony, but not as authority. They placed them in the box of the witness, not on the bench of the judge. Their utterances, writings, and acts were not to be the rule of faith, but were themselves to be weighed in its balance. In God was their trust, and His Word alone was their stay. When the great princes and free cities of our Church at Augsburg, in 1530, laid their Confession before the Emperor * Augs. Confess. 47 : 1. 16 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. and potentates, civil and ecclesiastical, of the realm, they said: " We offer the Confession of the faith held by the pastors and preachers in our several estates, and the Confession of our own faith, as drawn from the Holy Scriptures, the pare Word of God"* That Confession repeatedly expresses, and in every line implies that the Word of God is the sole rule of faith and of life. The same is true of the Apology or Defence of the Confession by Melanchthou, which appeared in the following year, and which was adopted by the larger part of our Church as expressing correctly her views, f Seven years later, the articles of Smalcald were prepared by Luther, for presentation at a general council, as an expression of the views of our Church. In this he says : X " Not from the works or words of the Fathers are articles of faith to be made. We have another rule, to wit : that God's Word shall determine arti- cles of faith — and, beside it, none other — no, not an angel even." Half a century after the Augsburg Confession had gone forth on its sanctifying mission, our Church in Germany, in order that her children might not mistake her voice amid the bewildering conflicts of theological strife, which necessarily followed such a breaking up of the old modes of human thought as was brought about by the Reformation, set forth her latest and amplest Confession. This Confession, with refer- ence to the harmony it was designed to subserve, and under God did largely subserve, was called the Formula of Concord. That document opens with these words : " We believe, teach, and confess that the only rule and law, by which all teachings and all teachers are to be estimated and judged, is none other ichatsoever than the writings of the prophets and the apostles, alike of the Old and of the New Testament, as it is written : 4 Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path ; ' and St. Paul saith (Gal. 1:8): ' Though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other Gospel unto you, than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.' " " All other writings," it continues, " whether of the Fathers, or of recent authors, be their name what they may, are by no * A. C. Prsefat. 8. f Apol. Con. 284 : 60. J 303 : 15. PROVIDENCE AND THE WORD. 17 means whatsoever to be likened to Holy Scripture ; but are, in such sense, to be subjected to it, as to be received in none other way than as witnesses, which show how and where, after the apostles' times, the doctrines of the apostles and prophets were preserved." " "We embrace," say our confessors, "the Augsburg Confession, not because it was written by our theologians, but because it was taken from God's Word, and solidly built on the foundation of Holy Scripture." With equal clearness do the other Churches of the Reforma- tion express themselves on this point. If, then, the Reformers knew the movements of their own minds, it was God's Word, and it alone, which made them con- fessors of the truth. And it is a fundamental principle of the Reformation, that God's word is the sole and absolute author- ity, and rule of faith, and of life, a principle without accept- ing which, no man can be truly Evangelical, Protestant, or Lutheran. Fire not only makes bright and burning the thing it kin dies, but gives to it the power of impartation ; The ProvidenC e whatever is kindled, kindles again. From the of God and His Reformers, the fire spread to the people ; and from together in the cold and darkness the nations seemed to struggle Reformation - upward, as by a common touch from heaven, in flames of holy sacrifice ; and here, too, the Word showed its divine power. We acknowledge, indeed, with joyous hearts, that God had prepared all things wondrously, for the spread of the flame of the truth. In Germany, the fire was to burst forth, which was to spread to the ends of the earth. "In no event in the history of mankind does the movement of Divine Providence present itself more unmistakably, than in the Reformation in Germany." * The time, the place, the circumstances, the con- dition of the religious and of the political world, were in won- derful unison. They worked with each other, compensating each other's weaknesses, and helping each other's power, so as to give a sure foundation, a firm hold, a healthy direction, a high purity, a mighty protection, a wide-spread recognition, a swift and joyous progress, an abiding issue to the glorious *Dr. H. Kurtz, K. G. §211. 18 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. work. The soul of the best men of the time was alive to the wretched condition into which the Church had fallen. A pro- found longing for the Reformation filled the hearts of nations ; science, literature, art, discovery, and invention were elevating Europe, and preparing the way for the triumphal march of pure religion, the queen of all knowledge. In the Papal chair sat Leo X., a lover of art and literature, careless and indolent in all things else. Over the beautiful plains of Germany wan- dered Tetzel, senseless and impudent, even beyond the class to which he belonged, exciting the disgust of all thinking men, by the profligate manner in which he sold indulgences. To protect the trembling name of the truth from the fierce winds, which, at first, would have extinguished it ; to protect it till the tornado itself should only make it blaze more vehemently, God had prepared Frederick, the Wise, a man of immense influence, universally revered, and not more revered than his earnest piety, his fidelity, his eminent conscientiousness de- served. The Emperor Charles V., with power enough to quench the flame with a word, with a hatred to it which seemed to make it certain that he w^ould speak that word, was yet so fettered by the plans of his ambition, that he left it unsaid, and thus was made the involuntary protector of that which he hated. These and a thousand other circumstances were pro- pitious. But in vain is the wood gathered, and in vain do the winds breathe, unless the fire is applied. In vain would Luther, with his incomparable gifts, have risen — in vain would that genius, to which a Catholic writer declares Luther's own friends have not done full justice — in vain would that high courage, that stern resolve have presented themselves in the matchless combination in which they existed in him, had there not been first a power beyond that of man to purify him, and from him to extend itself in flame around him. With all of Luther's gifts, he might have been a monster of wickedness, or a slave of the dominant superstition, helping to strengthen its chains, and forge new ones, had not the truth of God made him free, had not the Spirit of God in His Word made him an humble and earnest believer. Luther was first a Christian, A LESSON FOB OUR TIME. 19 and then a Reformer, and lie became a Reformer because lie was a Christian. " He believed, therefore he spoke." But Christian as he was, he could not have been a successful Re- former, had he not possessed the power of spreading the fire of Divine truth. The fatal defect in all the Reformatory move- ments in the councils and universities of Paris in the fifteenth century, was that they were not based* upon the true founda- tion, and did not propose to attain the great end by the right means. The cry had been for a Reform " in the head and members " by outward improvement, not in the Spirit and through the Word. The Reformation was kindled by the Word ; it trusted the Word, and scattered it everywhere, directing attention to it in every writing, and grounding every position upon it. The Word soon made itself felt throughout all Europe. Even in the lands most thoroughly under Papal power, sparkles of the truth began to show themselves, as in Austria, Spain, and Italy. But from Wittenberg through Germany, from Zurich through Switzerland, the first flame spread, and but a few years passed ere all Europe, which is at this hour Protestant, had received the pure faith of the Word of God. The fire of the Divine Word destroyed the accumulated rubbish of tradition, swept away the hay, wood, and stubble, which the hand of man had gathered on the foundation and heaped over the temple, and the gold, silver, and precious stones of the true house of God appeared. The Bible, like sunshine bursting through clouds, poured its light upon the nations. The teaching of mere men ceased to be regarded as authority, and the prophecy was again fulfilled : " They shall all be taught of God." Three hundred and fifty -three years ago, the first thrill of the earthquake of the Reformation was felt in Europe. Men knew so little of its nature, that they imagined it could be suppressed. They threw their weight upon the heaving earth, and hoped to make it lie still. They knew not that they had a power to deal with, which was made more terrible in its outburst by the attempt to confine it. As the result of the opposition to the Reformation, A Lesson for our time. 20 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. Europe "was made desolate. After the final struggle of the Thirty Years' War, Europe seemed ruined ; its fields had been drenched with blood, its cities laid in ashes, hardly a family remained undivided, and the fiercest passions had been so aroused, that it seemed as if they could never be allayed. Yet the establishment of the work of the Reformation has richly repaid Europe for all it endured. The earthquake has gone, the streams of desolation have been chilled, and the nations make a jubilee over the glorious anniversary of that grand movement which, by the depravity of men, was made the occasion of so much disturbance and misery. The evils of which the Eeformation was the occasion, have passed away. We must go to the page of history to know what they were. The blessings of which the Reformation was the cause, abide ; we feel them in our homes, in the Church, in the State ; they are inwoven with the life of our life. Once feeling them, we know that this would be no world to live in without them. And how instructive is this to us in the struggle of our day for the perpetuation of the truth restored by the Reformation. Kot alone by Rome, but also by heretical or fanatical Pseudo- Protestants, is it still assailed — and when we see the guilty passions, the violence and odious spirit of misrepresentation excited, and feel them directed upon ourselves, we may be tempted to give up the struggle. But we are untrue to the lessons of the Reformation, if we thus yield. Men tremble and weep as the molten and seething elements make the earth quake, and pour themselves out in red and wasting streams. But their outbursting is essential to their consolidation, and to their bearing part in the work of the world. What was once lava, marking its track in ruin, shall one day lie below fair fields, whose richness it has made. The olive shall stay the vine, and the shadows of the foliage of vine and olive shall ripple over flowers ; and women and chil- dren, lovelier than the fruits and the flowers, shall laugh and sing amid them. The blessings from the upheaving of the heart of the world shall gladden the children of those who gazed on it with wo-begone eyes. Had a war of three hun- A LESSON FOB OUR TIME. 21 dred years been necessary to sustain the Reformation, we now know the Eeformation would ultimately have repaid all the sacrifices it demanded. Had our fathers surrendered the truth, even under that pressure to which ours is but a feather, how we would have cursed their memory, as we contrasted what we were with what we might have been. And shall we despond, draw back, and give our names to the reproach of generations to come, because the burden of the hour seems to us heavy ? God, in His mercy, forbid ! If all others are ready to yield to despondency, and abandon the struggle, we, children of the Eeformation, dare not. That struggle has taught two lessons, which must never be forgot- ten. One is, that the true and the good must be secured at any price. They are beyond all price. We dare not compute their cost. They are the soul of our being, and the whole world is as dust in the balance against them. ~No matter what is to be paid for them, we must not hesitate to lay down their redemption price. The other grand lesson is, that their price is never paid in vain. What we give can never be lost, unless we give too little. If we give all, we shall have all. All shall come back. Our purses shall be in the mouths of our sacks. We shall have both the corn and the money. But if we are niggard, we lose all — lose what we meant to buy, lose what we have given. If we maintain the pure Word inflexibly at every cost, over against the arrogance of Eome and of the weak pretentiousness of Eationalism, we shall conquer both through the Word ; but to compromise on a single point, is to lose all, and to be lost. II. LTJTHEK PICTURED BY PENCIL AND PEN.* THE pictured life of Luther, by Konig and Gelzer, which alone we propose to notice at any length, is a charming book — a book with a great subject, a happy mode of treatment, well carried out, and combining the fascination of good pictures, good descriptions, and elegant typography. It is an offering of flowers and fruit on the altar of the greatest memory which the heart of modern Christianity enshrines. It is the whole history of Luther told in pictures, and descriptions of those *Dr. Martin Luther der Deutsche Reformator. In bildlicben Darstellungen von Gustav Konig. In gesckichtlichen Umrissen von Heinrich Gelzer. Ham- burg: Rudolf Besser. Gotba : Justus Perthes. 1851. [Dr. Martin Luther the German Reformer. In pictorial representations, and historical sketches.] 4to. (In English, Lond. : 1853.) (With Introduction by T. Stork, D. D. Philada. : 1854.) Audin : Histoire de M. Luther. Nouv. ed. Louvain. : 1845. 2 vols. 8vo. (Transl. into English, Phila. : 1841. 8vo. London: 1854. 2 vols. 8vo.) Bower: Life of Luther. (1813.) Philada. : 1824. 8vo. Cochl^tjs : Historia M. Lutheri. (1559.) Ingolst. : 1582. 4to. Engelhard: Lucifer Wittenberg. Leb. Lauf Catherinae v. Bore.) 1747. 12mo. Fabricius : Centifolium Lutheranum. Hamb. : 1728. Hunnius, N. ; Off. Bew. d. D. M. L. zu Ref. beruffen. n. Apologia Olearii. keipz. : 1666. 12mo. Juncker: Guld. u. Silb. Ehren.Ged.D. Mart. Luth. Frankf. u.Leipz.: 1706. 8vo Jurgens: Luther's Leben. Leipz. : 1846. 3 vols. 8vo. Kreussler: D. M. L.'s Andenk. in Miinzer. Leipz.: 1818. 8vo. Labouohere: Illustr. of the Life of Martin Luther. (D'Aubigne\) Philada, 4ith. Board: 1869. 4to. (Photographs. — A beautiful book.) Ledderhose : M. L. n. s. aussern u. innern Leben. Speyer. : 1836. 8vo. Luther: Briefe. De Wette. Berl. : 1826 seq. 6 vols. 8vo. " Concordanz d. Ansicht. etc. Darmst. : 1827-31. 4 vols. 8vo. " Opera. Erlangen: 1829 seq. Jena: 1556. Wittenb. : 1545-58. 22 LUTHER'S CHILDHOOD. 23 pictures, followed by a connected sketch, of the Reformation as it centred in him. The work contains forty-eight engravings, divided, with ref- erence to the leading events of his life, or the Luthe r's cwi* great features of his character, into seven parts. hood - The first division embraces the years of his childhood — and, not uncharacteristically of the German origin of the book, pre- sents us as a first picture Martin Luther (such we must here call him by anticipation) on the night of " his birth, 11 o'clock, November 10th, 1483." Speaking of Luther's birth, Carlyle says: "In the whole world, that day, there was not a more entirely unimportant-looking pair of people, than this miner and his wife. And yet what were all Emperors, Popes, and Potentates, in comparison ? There was born here, once more, a Mighty Man ; whose light was to flame as the beacon over long centuries and epochs of the world ; the whole world and its history was waiting for this man. It is strange, it is great. It leads us back to another Birth-hoar, in a still meaner en- vironment, eighteen hundred years ago — of which it is fit Luther: Werke. Altenburg: 1661. Erlangen : 1826 seq. (2d ed. Frankf. a. M. : 1869 seq.) Halle (Walch.) : 1740-52. Leipzig : 1729-34. Wittenberg: 1539-59. Luther: Table Talk. Hazlitt. Luth. Board Public, Philada. : 1868. Mathksius : Dr. M. L. Leben. In XVII. Predigt. (1565.) Berlin: 1862. Melanchthon : Vita et Act. Lutheri. (1546.) Ed. Forsteinann. Nordhau- »en : 1846. 8vo. Melanchthon : Aus d. Lateinischen. (Mayer.) Wittenb. : 1847. Meurer : Lutliers Leben a. d. Quellen. 2d edit. Dresden : 1852. 8vo. Morris, J. G. : Quaint Sayings and Doings concerning Luther. Philada. : 1859. Muller : Lutherus Defensus. Hamb. : 1658. 12mo. Niemeter, C. H. : M. L. n. s. Leben u. Wirken. Halle- 1817. 8vo. Scott : Luther and the L. Reformation. New York : 1833. 2 vols. 12mo. Sears : Life of Luther. Am. S. S. Un. Stang : M. L. s. Leben u. Wirken. Stuttg. 1835. 4to. Ukert: L.'s Leben, mit d. Literat. Gotha: 1817. 8vo Ulenberg : Gesch. d. Lutherischer Reformatoren. Dr. M. Luther, &c. Mainz: 1836. 2 vols. 8vo. Weiser: Life of Luther. Balto. : 1853. Wieland: Charakteristik. D. M. L. Chemnitz: 1801. 12mo. Zimmermann, K. : Luther's Lebea ; n Reformat. Schriften D. M. L. Darm« Btadt: 1846-1849. 4 vols. 8vo. 24 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. that we say nothing, that we think only in silence ; for what words are there ! The Age of Miracles past ? The Age of Miracles is forever here ! " * In the second picture, Master Martin is brought to school, to a terrible-looking school- master, with a bundle of rods in his hand, and with a boy whom you can almost hear sobbing, crouching at the back of his chair. In the third, wandering with his little com- rades, he comes, singing, to the door of Madame Cotta in Eisenach, (1498.) In a little niche below, his gentle protect- ress brings him his lute, to win him for a while from his books. The second division leads us over his youth, in seven illus- trations. In the first, Luther is seen in the Li- Luther's Youth. . brary 01 the University ot Lriurt, gazing eagerly, for the first time, on the whole Bible — his hand unconsciously relaxing on a folio Aristotle, as he reads, (1501.) Next, the Providence is smiting, together with the Word. His friend Alexis, as they journey, falls dead at his side, by a thunderstroke. Then follows the step of a fearful heart. With sad face, and with the moon, in her first quarter, beaming on him like that faith which was yet so far from the full ; with his heathen poets beneath his arm, he takes the hand of the monk who welcomes him to the cloister of the Augustinian Eremites, (1505.) Next the monk receives the solemn consecration to the priesthood, and now with the tonsure, the cowl and the rosary, barefooted, with the scourge by his side, he agonizes, with macerated body and bleeding heart, at the foot of the crucifix. We turn a leaf — he lies in his cell, like one dead — he has swooned over the Bible, which he now never permits to leave his hand. The door has been burst open, and his friends bring lutes, that they may revive him by the influence of the only power which yet binds him to the world of sense. Now a ray of light shoots in : the Spirit chafing in the body has brought him hard by the valley of death ; but an old brother in the Cloister, by one word of faith gives him power to rise from his bed of sickness, and clasp his comforter around the neck. With this touching scene, ends this part. * On Heroes and Hero-Worship — or Six Lectures by Thomas Carlyle - -New Tork, 1849, p. 114. LUTHER AT THE UNIVERSITY. 25 In the third period, we have illustrations of Luther's career at the University of Wittenberg. As a Bachelor Lu ther at the of Arts he is holding philosophical and theo- Universit y- logical prelections, (1508.) Then we have him preaching in the Cloister before Staupitz, and the other brethren of his order, as a preliminary to appearing in the Castle and City church. Luther's journey to Eome (1510) is shown in four pictures grouped on one page. In the first he is starting eagerly on his journey to the " holy city " — in the second, at first view of that home of martyrs hallowed by their blood, and not less by the presence of the vicar of Christ and vicegerent of God, he falls upon his knees, in solemn awe and exultation ; in the centre, he is gazing on the proud and godless Pope Julius, riding with pam- pered cardinals in his train — and in the last, he looks back, and waves over that city the hand whose bolts in after time seemed mighty enough to sink it to that realm — over which, its own inhabitants told him, if there was a hell, Eome was certainly built.* " To conceive of Luther's emotions on entering Eome, we must remember that he was a child of the north, who loved privation and fasting — who was of a meditative nature, and had vowed to the cross of Christ an austere worship. His Christianity was of a severe and rigid character. When he prayed it was on the stone ; the altar before which he knelt was almost invariably of wood ; his church was time-worn, and the chasuble of its ministers of coarse wool. Imagine, then, this monk — this poor Martin, who walked twelve hun- dred miles, with nothing to support him but coarse bread ; think of him suddenly transported to the midst of a city of wonders, of pleasure, of music, and of pagan antiquity. What must have been his feelings : he who had never heard any greater sound than was made by the falling water of the con- vent fountain — who knew no recreation beyond that of his lute, when prayers were over, and who knew no ceremony more imposing than the induction of an Augustinian monk — how must he have been astonished, even scandalized ! He had fancied to himself an austere religion — its brow encircled with * "So hab ich selbs zu Rom gehort sagen: ist eine Holle, so ist Rom darauf gebaut." 26 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. care, its ministers lying on the "hard ground, sating their thirst at heavenly founts, dressed as were the Apostles, and treading on stony paths with the Everlasting Gospel in their hands. In place of this he saw cardinals home in litters, or on horse- hack, or in carriages, their attire blazing with jewels, their faces shaded by canopies, or the plumes of the peacock, and marking their route by clouds of dust so dense as completely to veil and hide their attendants. His dreams reverted to those days, when the chief of the Apostles, a pilgrim like himself, had only a staff to support his weakness. The poor scholar, who, in his childhood, had endured so much, and who often pillowed his head on the cold ground, now passes before palaces of marble, alabaster columns, gigantic granite obelisks, sparkling fountains, villas adorned with gardens, cascades and grottos ! Does he wish to pray ? He enters a church, which appears to him a little world ; where diamonds glitter on the altar, gold upon the ceiling, marble in the columns, and mo- saic in the chapels. In his own country, the rustic temples are ornamented by votive flowers laid by some pious hand upon the altar. Is he thirsty ? Instead of one of those springs that flow through the wooden pipes of Wittenberg, he sees fountains of white marble, as large as German houses. Is he fatigued with walking? He finds on his road, instead of a modest wooden seat, some antique, just dug up, on which he may rest. Does he look for a holy image ? He sees nothing but the fantasies of paganism, old deities — still giving em- ployment to thousands of sculptors. They are the gods of Demosthenes, and of Praxiteles ; the festivals and processions of Delos ; the excitement of the forum ; in a word, pagan folly: but of the foolishness of the Cross, which St. Paul extols, he appears nowhere to see either memorial or representation."* These are the concessions, and this the apology of a Roman Catholic historian, and we permit them to pass together. After his return we see Luther with high solemnities created Doctor of the Holy Scriptures, Carlstadt as Dean of the Theo- logical Faculty, officiating at his promotion, (1512.) The close of this era leaves Luther busy in dictating letters, and per * Audin's Life of Lutk^r. THE REFORMATION IN ITS RISE. 27 forming the functions of "a Vicar-General of the Augustinian Order," with which he had been intrusted by Staupitz, (1516.) By this office he was fitted for that part which he took in giving form to the Church when it ere long began to renew its youth like the eagle's. We come now to the Reformation itself, (1517,) the warning flash, the storm, and the purified heaven that The Reforma followed it. This period is embraced in sixteen tion in its rise - principal pictures, with seven subsidiary ones on a smaller scale. The first of these grouped pictures presents four scenes. Be low, Luther is refusing, as the Confessor of his people, to give them absolution, while they exultingly display, their indul- gences ; in the centre, Luther nails to the door of the church- tower the immortal theses — on the left, Tetzel sells indulgences, and commits Luther's writing to the flames, and on the right, the Wittenberg students are handling his own anti-theses in the same unceremonious way. The smoke from both fires rises to a centre above the whole, and, like the wan image in a dream, the swan whose white wings were waving before Huss' dying eyes, is lifting herself unscathed from the flames. Now Lu- ther bends before Cajetan, and then at night, "without shoe or stocking, spur or sword," flies on horseback through a portal of Augsburg. The picture that follows is one of great beauty, rich in portraits. It represents the dispute at Leipsic between Luther and Eck, (1519.) In the Hall of the Pleissenburg the two great chieftains face each other — the one bold, cogent, overwhelming — the other sly, full of lubricity, sophistical and watchful; the one Hercules, the other the Hydra. By Lu- ther's side sits Melanchthon, with the deep lines of thought upon his youthful face ; at their feet, Carlstadt, with a book in each hand, with knit brows searches for something which his treacherous memory has not been able to retain. In the centre of the court, Duke George of Saxony listens earnestly to the dispute, till at Luther's words, that " some Articles even of Huss and the Bohemians accorded with the Gospel," he in- voluntarily exclaimed, " The man is mad ! " At his feet sits the court-fool, gazing with a puzzled and earnest air at Dr Eck, 28 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. as though he dreaded remotely that he had in him a danger- ous competitor for his own office. Next we have Luther burn- ing the Papal bull, (1520,) then his reception at Worms, (1521.) These are followed by a double picture : above, Luther is pre- paring by prayer to appear before the Emperor and the Diet ; his lattice opens out upon the towers of the city, and the calm stars are shining upon him. It reminds us of the garden at Wittenberg, where, one evening at sunset, a little bird has perched for the night: "That little bird," says Luther — "above it are the stars and deep heaven of worlds ; yet it has folded its little wings ; gone trustfully to rest there as in its home.'' His lute rests by his side, his brow is turned to heaven and his hands clasped fervently ; below, he approaches the entrance to the Diet ; the knight Frundsberg lays a friendly hand upon his shoulder, and speaks a cheering word. In the angles of the ornamental border appear statues of those two heroes who declared themselves ready with word and sword, if need were, to defend at Worms their " holy friend, the un- conquerable Theologian and Evangelist ; " Hutten rests upon the harp and lifts the sword in his right hand ; his brow is crowned with the poet's laurel ; the brave Sickingen lifts the shield upon his arm, and holds in his right hand the marshal's staif. Luther has entered the hall — stands before the mighty — and is represented at the moment when he throws his whole soul into that " good confession," surpassed in moral grandeur but by one, in the whole history of the race. " The Diet of Worms, Luther's appearance there on the 17th of April, 1521, may be considered as the greatest scene in modern European History ; the point, indeed, from which the whole subsequent his- tory of civilization takes its rise. The world's pomp and power sits there, on this hand : on that, stands up for God's truth, one man, the poor miner Hans Luther's son. Our petition — the petition of the whole world to him was : ' Free us ; it rests with thee ; desert us not.' Luther did not desert us. It is, as we say, the greatest moment in the Modern History of Men — English Puritanism, England and its Parliaments, America's vast work these two centuries ; French Revolution, Europe and its work everywhere at present : the germ of it all lay FANATICISM. 29 there : had Luther in that moment done other, it had all "been otherwise."* Next follows his arrest on the way, (1521.) Next, sitting in the dress of a knight, his cap hanging on the head of the chair, his sword resting at its side, in a quiet chamber of the Thuringian castle, we see him at work on his translation of the Bible. But his active spirit prompts him to return to his former duties at any risk ; now, with his book resting on the pommel of his saddle, he rides away from the Wartburg ; meets the Swiss students at the hostelry of the Black Bear in Jena, who can talk about nothing but Luther, who sits unknown, and is recognized by them with astonishment when at Wittenberg they meet him in the circle of his friends. A new stadium is now reached in this era. The danger greater than all outward dangers, that which arises within great moral movements, now begins to display itself. From applying the internal remedies well calculated to eradicate the cause of disease, men begin to operate upon the surface; instead of curing the leprosy, they com- mence scraping off its scales. The war against images in the churches commenced ; ' Cut, burn, break, annihilate,' was the cry, and the contest was rapidly changing, from a conflict with errors in the human heart, to an easy and useless attack on paint and stone. A harder struggle, than any to which he had yet been called, demands Luther's energy. He must defend the living truth from the false issues into which its friends may carry it. Luther arrests the storm against images. The artist places him in the centre of a band of iconoclasts in the temple. His hand and voice arrest a man who is about climbing a ladder to de- stroy the ornaments of the church. Near him a youth hold- ing a chasuble is pausing to hear ; on the floor, a peasant sus- pends the tearing of a missal in the middle of a page ; an older man, with a heap of sacred vestments beneath him and a broken crosier under his foot, half relaxes his hold on the Monstrance, and looks scowlingly around. On the extreme right of the picture, there is a fine contrast between the fanatical countenance of a man who has just lifted a heavy hammer against the statue of a saint, and the placid face which he is * Carlyle, Heroes and Hero-Worship, p. 121. W CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. about to destroy. Carlstadt, with his foot propped upon the shoulder of a devout old bishop in stone, looks on Luther with an expression of impotent wrath. The next picture leads us to a calmer scene. Luther is in his Luther and quiet room. His translation of the Bible is grow- Keiancbthon. .^ | )eueat ] 1 ^^ ^ n ^ By fog g^ rendering invalu- able aid, is Melanchthon : " Still," said Luther, " in age, form, and mien, a youth : but in mind a man." This was the time of their first love, when they were perfectly of one spirit, and full of admiration, each of the other's wondrous gifts ; when Melanchthon knew no glory on earth beyond that of looking upon Luther as his father, and Luther's chief joy was to see and extol Melanchthon, (1523-24.) Next, as if the artist would lead us through alternate Luther's mar- scenes of sunshine and tempest, we have Luther ni,ge ' preaching in Seeburg against the peasant war, (1525;) a noble picture crowded with varied life. Then from revelry, arson, and rapine, we are led into a private chapel in the house of the Registrar of "Wittenberg. The jurist, Apel, and the great painter, Cranach, stand on either side ; Bugen- hagen blesses the plighted troth of Luther and Catherine, who kneel before him, she with her long hair flowing over her shoulders, and the marriage wreath on her brow, her face meekly and thoughtfully bent downward ; he holding her right hand in his, his left pressing on his heart, and his eyes turned to heaven, (June 13th, 1525.) From sunshine to storm — Luther's conference with Zwingle on the question of the Sacrament, (October 1-4, 1529.) Luther Luther and had redeemed the Gospel doctrine of the Supper from zwingie. .^e gross materialism and scholastic refinings of Rome: it was now his work to maintain it against the error which violent reaction had produced, a hyperspiritualizing, which was driven to so violent a resort as confounding the benefits of our Redeemer's flesh with the feebleness of our own. It was to save the living body of Christ himself from dissever- ance, to rescue the Reformation from a tendency toward Sect, which an easy perversion of some of its principles might cause, that Luther struggled. As the Protestant world has receded THE AUGSBURG CONFESSION. 31 from the great sacramental principles which Luther main- tained at Marburg, just in that proportion has it been torn with internal dissension — and just in proportion to its return to them, has there risen a more earnest striving toward a consummation of the Saviour's prayer: that all his people might be one. No man in Luther's time, no man since, so harmoniously blended, so kept in their due proportion all the elements of a real Reformation. "Luther's character," says Bengel, "was truly great. All his brother Reformers to- gether will not make a Luther. His death was an important epocha ; for nothing, since it took place, has ever been really added to the Reformation itself." The artist closes this period fitly, with the delivery of the Augsburg Confession, (1530,) that great providen- The Augsburg tial act by which God, having brought to mature Confession - consciousness the leading doctrines of the Gospel, gave them currency in the whole world. Thirteen years had passed since the truth, like a whisper in a secret place, had been uttered at Wittenberg ; now it was to ring like a trumpet before the Emperor and his whole realm. " In sighs and prayers," writes Luther from Coburg, " I am by your side. If we fall, Christ falls with us — if He fall, rather will I fall with him than stand with the Emperor ; but we need not fear, for Christ overcometh the world." In the picture, the artist has ranged the Evangelical party to the right, the Romish to the left of the spectator : contrary to the historical fact, he has introduced Melanchthon, who stands most prominently, with folded arms and careworn face. Below him, the Elector, John the Con- stant, clasps his hands in silent invocation ; behind whom stands George, Margrave of Brandenburg, and by his side sits Philip, Landgrave of Hesse, bracing himself on his sword. In the centre sits Charles, his Spanish origin showing itself in his features. Back of his seat is embroidered the double- headed crowned eagle of the Empire. A crown with triple divisions, the central one of which is surmounted by a small cross, rests on his head — the sceptre is in his hand. The ermine, crosiers, mitres, cowl, and cardinal's hat mark the party to his right. Before him the Chancellor Baier reads 32 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. the Confession. Around the picture are thrown connected Gothic ornaments ; in the upper arch of which Luther is pros- trate in prayer. At its base an angel holds in either hand the coat of arms of Luther and Melanchthon, with an intertwining band, on which are traced the words from Luther's favorite Psalm : " I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord." From the highest point, not without significance, rises the cross, and here this part appropriately ends. The Church thus fairly brought to a full self-consciousness, The Reforma- the fifth part, presents us, in four characteristic tion in its remits. p i ctureS) t k e m ^ 5 . j n t he first, Luther, with all his co-laborers, Christian and Jewish, around him, labors on that translation of which even a Jesuit historian speaks thus : " Luther's translation of the Bible is a noble monument of litera- Transiation of ture, a vast enterprise which seemed to require the Bibie. more than the life of man; but which Luther accomplished in a few years. The poetic soul finds in this translation evidences of genius, and expressions as natural, beautiful and melodious as in the original languages. Luther's translation sometimes renders the primitive phrace with touch- ing simplicity, invests itself with sublimity and magnificence, and receives all the modifications which he wishes to impart to it. It is simple in the recital of the patriarch, glowing in the predictions of the prophets, familiar in the Gospels, and collo- quial in the Epistles. The imagery of the original is rendered with undeviating fidelity ; the translation occasionally ap- proaches the text. We must not then be astonished at the enthusiasm which Saxony felt at the appearance of Luther's version. Both Catholics and Protestants regarded it an honor done to their ancient idiom."* In the picture, Luther stands be- tween Bugenhagen and Melanchthon ; Jonas, Forstensius, Creu- ziger, and the Rabbins are engaged in the effort to solve some difficulty that has risen. The second result is shown in a scene in a school-room, in which the Catechism has just been introduced. Luther sits in the midst of the children teaching them the first Article of the Creed. Jonas is distributing the * Audin's Luther, chap. xxiv. LUTHER IN PRIVATE LIFE. 33 book among them, and in the background a number of teachers listen that they may learn to carry out this new feature in their calling. The third result is shown in the pulpit. Luther had given the Bible for all ages, and all places ; he had laid The Pulpit primal principles at the foundation of human church service, thought, by introducing the Catechism into the schools ; now he re-creates the service of the church. In the engraving the artist has grouped happily, all that is associated with the Evangelical service. Luther, in the pulpit, is preaching to nobles and subjects, with all the fervor of his soul. The font and altar, illumined by a flood of sunbeams, recall the Sacra- ments ; the organ reminds us of the place which the Reforma- tion gave to sacred music, and the alms-box, of its appeals to sacred pity. The fourth picture represents the administra- tion of the Lord's Supper in both kinds ; Luther extends the cup to the Elector John Frederick, whilst Bugenhagen distrib- utes the bread. The sixth general division shows us Luther in private life. First we have two pictures illustrating his relations x ° m Luther in pri- to his princes. In one he is represented reading vateiife. Princes. from the Bible to his devoted friend, the Elector Friend8 ' FiimiIy> John the Constant ; in the other, on his sick-bed, he is visited and comforted by the Elector John Frederick, (1537.) Secondly, we have him in his relations to his personal friends. In the first picture, Luther is sitting for his likeness, to Lucas Cranach ; in the next he is rousing Melanchthon almost from the torpor of death, by the prayer of faith ; the third, illustrating the intro- duction of the German church music, conducts us into Luther's " Chantry in the House." With his children and friends around him, he is giving voice to the first Evangelical hymns. The little choir is led by Walter, Master of the Electoral Chapel ; on the left stands the Chanter, on the right, Mathesius. Thirdly. we see him in his family. The first picture shows him in the enjoyment of all that imparts delight to summer — with his household and his most familiar friends about him. It is a charming scene of innocent festivity which the artist here brings before the eye. Under a trellis mantled with vines 34 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. loaded with rich clusters of grapes, the party is assembled, at sunset. Luther holds out his hands to his youngest child, who, by the aid of his mother, is tottering towards his father with a bunch of grapes weighing down his little hands. The oldest boy, mounted on a light ladder, hands down the grapes, which Madeleine receives in her apron. The third boy is bring- ing to his father a cluster remarkable for its size ; the second son is playing with the dog, perhaps that very dog which, Luther said, had "looked at many books." The ground is covered with melons. One of Luther's friends plays upon the flute, another sketches a basket of beautiful fruit ; two of them sit beneath the arbor, and two others wander in the garden in friendly converse. Through an arch in the wall the river is seen winding quietly along, under the last rays of the declining sun. What a change from the time of scourging before the crucifix ! As a counterpart to this scene, we next have Luther on Luther at Christmas Eve in the family circle. This is a Christmas. picture that touches the heart. The Christ mas-tides of Luther's life might indeed be considered as its epitome. Fourteen times Christmas dawned on the cradle, or on the sports of Luther as a peasant boy. Four times Christmas found the boy in the school at Magdeburg. Long years after in his old age, he gave a sketch of those Christmas days. " At the season when the Church keeps the festival of Christ's birth, we scholars went through the hamlets from house te house, singing in quartette the familiar hymns about Jesus, the little child born at Bethlehem. As we were passing a farm-yard at the end of a village, a farmer came out, and in his coarse voice, offered us food. His heart was kind, but we had become so familiar with the threats and cruelty of the school, that we fled at the sound of harsh tones. But his re- peated calls reassured us, and we returned and received his gifts." Four times Christmas found him amid the toil3 of the school at Erfurt. Then came a Christmas in which the angel voice seemed no more to sing, " Peace on earth, good will LUTHER AT CHRISTMAS. 35 toward men ; " nothing but wrath seemed above him, and the pains of death around him. In the gray stone walls of the cloister he shut himself up to wrestle with dark doubts and agonizing fears. Christmas after Christmas came. Some sunshine nickered in successive years over the cell of the monk. The gentle hand of him who came as the Babe of Bethlehem was touch- ing and healing the heart corroded with care. Gleams of in dwelling greatness began to break forth from the . cloud in which he had been folded. The turn of the autumn leaves of 1517 reminded children that Christmas was once more drawing near ; but on the gales which swept those leaves from the trees was borne, through all Christendom, the first sounds of a mighty battle for the right of the Babe of Bethlehem to sit upon the throne of all hearts as the Saviour of the race. Years followed, but Christ- mas and all festivals, and all waking and all dreaming thoughts of men were directed to one great life-question, were absorbed in one surpassing interest. In half of Christendom, as Christmas eve came on, the soft light in children's eyes turned to a fierce glare, as lisping amid their toys and echoing the words of the old, they spoke of the traitor to the mother of the blessed Babe, the heretic who would destroy their Christmas if he could. In the other half of Christendom the eyes of men grew bright, and those of women w r ere suffused with tears of gratitude, and children shouted for gladness at the mention of the name of one who had led back the race tc the cradle, and taught them to bow there, as did the shep- herds in childlike trust — trust not in the mother, but in her holy Child. All days were Christmas to the great Restorer. He had found the Christ, and when he was not kneeling with the shepherds, he was singing with the angels. One Christmas he spent in his rocky Patmos, but a starlight, as soft as that of Palestine on the mystic night, touched every pinnacle of the old towers. The next Christmas passed in that circle of near friends which loved and was loved by one of the greatest and warmest hearts that ever beat in human bosoms. Bat- 36 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. tie and storm, sorrow and sickness came, but Christmas came too. Then came a bright year, not the most glorious, but the most happy of his life. That great home-nature had never had a home. His Christmas had been spent in the home of others. There came a Christmas, and by his side, as he thanked Grod once more for the great gift to whose memory it was consecrated, there knelt by him his wife, her hand in his, and her face turned with his towards the world, whose light and song is the Babe of Bethlehem. The heaven of the presence of children was in that home in the Christmas of after years. Madeleine and Martin, Paul and Margaret, im- mortal by their birth, were the olive-plants around the Christ- mas tree. In the beautiful pictures by Konig, one of the happiest is devoted to Luther at Christmas in the family circle. The Christmas tree blazes in all its glory in the centre; the tapers imparting a new ravishment to those inconceivable fruits, trumpets, horses, cakes, and dolls, which only Christ- mas trees can bear. On Luther's lap kneels his youngest child, clasping him around the neck. Its little night-cap and slip and bare feet show that it has been kept from its bed to see the wonderful sight. On Luther's shoulder, and clasping his hands in hers, leans Catherine, with the light of love, that light which can beam only from the eye of a devoted wife and mother, shining upon him. The oldest boy, under Melanch- thon's direction, is aiming with a cross-bow at an apple on the tree, recalling to our mind that charming; letter which his father wrote from Coburg to him, when he was only four years old, in which are detailed the glories of that paradisiacal garden, meant for all good boys, where, among apples and pears, and ponies with golden bits and silver saddles, cross- bows of silver were not forgotten.* * Luther's letter to his little son is so beautiful and characteristic that our readers, though they have read it a hundred times, will not pass it by as we give it here. It was written in 1530, from Coburg, when Luther's destiny, and the whole future of his work, seemed trembling in the balance. It shows that his childlike mind was at once the cause and the result of his repose of spirit in God. "Grace and peace in Christ, my dear little son. I am very glad tt> know that LUTHER AT CHRISTMAS. 37 At the table, " Muhme Lehne" (cousin Helena, not a with- ered old woman, as she is generally pictured, but Luther's young niece, who was not married till Madeleine was nine years old,) is showing a book of pictures to the second boy ; the third boy clasps his father's knee with one hand, in which, however, he manages to hold a string also, by which he has been drawing along a knight in full armor on horseback, while with the other hand he holds up a hobby-horse. Madeleine is clasping in her hand, in ecstasy, the little angel which always stands apeak of all orthodox Christmas trees — when it can be had — and which, when the curtain of the gorgeous child- drama of Christmas eve has fallen, is given to the angel of the household — the best of the children. Her doll by her side is forgotten, the full light from the tree is on her happy face, in which, however, there is an air of thought, something more of heavenly musing than is wont to be pictured upon the face of a child. you learn your lessons well, and love to say your prayers. Keep on doing so, my little boy, and when I come home I will bring you something pretty from the fair. I know a beautiful garden, where there are a great many children in fine little coats, and they go under the trees and gather beautiful apples and pears, cherries and plums : they sing, and run about, and are as happy as they can be. Sometimes they ride about on nice little ponies, with golden bridles and silver saddles. I asked the man whose garden it is, What little children are these \ And he told me, They are little children who love to pray and learn, and are good. Then I said: My dear sir, I have a little > at home; his name is little Hans Luther ; would you let him come into the garden too, to eat some of these nice apples and pears, and ride on these fine little ponies, and play with these children ? The man said : If he loves to say his prayers, and learn his lesson, and is a good boy, he may come. And Philip and Jocelin may come too ; and when they are all together, they can play upon the fife and drum and lute and all kinds of instruments, and skip about and shoot with little cross-bows. He then showed me a beautiful mossy place in the middle of the garden, for them to skip about in, with a great many golden fifes, and drums, and silver cross-bows. The children had not yet had their dinner, and I could not wait to see them play, but I said to the man: My dear sir, I will go away and write all about it to my little son, John, and tell him to be fond of saying his prayers, and learn well, and be good, so that he may come into this garden ; but he has a cousin Lehne, whom he must bring along with him. The man said, Very well, go write to him. Now, my dear little son, love your lessons, and your prayers, and tell Philip and Jocelin to do so too, that you may all come to the garden. May God bless you. Gi7e cousin Lehne my love, and kiss her for me." 38 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. Oh, happy Christmas ! thou mayest he the prelude to wail ing. The little coffin may follow the Christmas tree within our door. Thy babe, Bethlehem, turned in the sleep of that hallowed night, his pure, pale face toward Gethsemane. The angel of the Christmas tree could not guard the home from life's sorrows. Days of grief are coming thick and fast upon that noble one, whom heaven, earth, and hell knew so well. Carrying the weight of a wounded heart, that form was bowed, which neither kings, nor popes, nor devils could bend. The candles of the Christmas tree of 1542 were not mirrored in the eyes of his beautiful and darling Madeleine. Those gentle eyes had been closed by her father's hand three months before — the ruddy lips parting in joy at the Christmas festival, one year ago, had received the last kiss — their music was hushed in the home, and the little ones grew still in the very flush of their joy, as they thought that their sister was lying in the church-yard, with the chill snows drifting around her grave. The old man's heart was longing for Christmas in heaven, and his sigh was heard. Through threescore and two years he had on earth opened his eyes upon the natal day of our Redeemer. When the next Christmas came he stood by that Redeemer's side in glory ; and transfigured in heaven's light, and in surpassing sweet- ness, there stood with him that fair girl who had gazed upon the angel of the Christmas tree with dreamy eyes, which told that even then, in thought, she was already in heaven. As we think upon the obvious meaning of the artist in her attitude and occupation, the heart grows, not wholly unpre- pared for the next and last of these family scenes. Luther kneels by the coffin of this same lovely daughter. The struggle is over ; a holy serenity illumines his face. He has given her back, with no rebellious murmur, to her God. To those who Luther and Ma- h ave contemplated the character of Luther only deieine. { n his public life, it might appear strange to assert that there never was a heart more susceptible than his to all that is tender in human emotion, or melting in hu- man sympathies. The man who, while he was shaking to its LUTHER AND MADELEINE. 39 foundation the mightiest dominion the world ever saw, re- mained unshaken, was in his social and domestic life a perfect example of gentleness. " Perhaps no man of so humble, peace- able disposition ever filled the world with contention. We cannot but see that he would have loved privacy, quiet dili- gence in the shade ; that it was against his will he ever became a notoriety." — "They err greatly who imagine that this man's courage was ferocity — no accusation could be more unjust. A most gentle heart withal, full of pity and love, as indeed the truly valiant heart ever is. I know few things more touching than those soft breathings of aifection, soft as a child's or a mother's, in this great wild heart of Luther. Luther to a slight observer might have seemed a timid, weak man ; mod- esty, affectionate shrinking tenderness, the chief distinction of him. It is a noble valor which is roused in a heart like this, once stirred up into defiance ; all kindled into a heavenly blaze." * How open his heart was to those influences which sanctify whilst they sadden, he showed on the death of Eliza- beth, his second child, in infancy: " My little daughter is dead. I am surprised how sick at heart she has left me ; a woman's heart, so shaken am I. I could not have believed that a father's soul would have been so tender toward his child." " I can teach you what it is to be a father, especially a father of one of that sex which, far more than sons, has the power of awakening our most tender emotions." Yet more touching was that event to which our artist has consecrated this pic- ture. Madeleine, his third child, and second daughter, died in September, 1542, in the fourteenth year of her age — four years before her father. " Luther bore this blow with wonderful firmness. As his daughter lay very ill, he exclaimed, as he raised his eyes to heaven, c I love her much, but, my God ! if it be thy will to take her hence, I would give her up to thee without one selfish murmur.' One day she suffered violent pain : he approached her bed, and taking hold of her small thin hands, pressed them again and again to his lips. ' My dearest child, my own sweet and good Madeleine, \ know you would gladly stay with your father here ; but in heaven there * Carlyle's Heroes and Hero-Worship, p. 125. 40 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. is a better Father waiting for you. You will be equally ready to go to your Father in heaven, will you not?' ' yes, dear father,' answered the dying child, ' let the will of God be done.' 1 Dear little girl,' he continued, ' the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.' He walked to and fro in agitation, and said, 1 Ah, yes ! I have loved this dear child too much. If the flesh ls so strong, what becomes of the spirit ? ' Turning to a friend who had come to visit him : ' See,' said he, l God has not given such good gifts these thousand years to any bishop as He has to me. We may glorify ourselves in the gifts of God. Alas I I feel humbled that I cannot rejoice now as I ought to do, nor render sufficient thanks to God. I try to lift up my heart from time to time to our Lord in some little hymn, and to feel as I ought to do.' — l Well, whether we live or die, we are the Lord's.'" The night before Madeleine's death, her mother had a dream, in which she saw two fair youths beautifully attired, who came as if they wished to take Madeleine away with them, and conduct her to be married. When Melanchthon came the next morning and asked the lady how it was with her daughter, she related her dream, at which he seemed frightened, and re- marked to others, "that the young men were two holy angels, sent to carry the maiden to the true nuptials of a heavenly kingdom." She died that same day. When the last agony came on, and the countenance of the young girl was clouded with the dark hues of approaching death, her father threw himself on his knees by her bedside, and with clasped hands, weeping bitterly, prayed to God that he would spare her. Her consciousness ceased, and resting in her father's arms she breathed her last. Catherine, her mother, was in a recess of the room, unable, from excess of grief, to look upon the death- bed of her child. Luther softly laid the head of his beloved one upon the pillow, and repeatedly exclaimed : " Poor child, thou hast found a Father in heaven ! my God ! let thy will be done ! " Melanchthon then observed that the love of pa- rents for their children is an image of the divine love impressed on the hearts of men. God loves mankind no less than parents do their children. LUTHER AND MADELEINE. 41 On the following day she was interred. When they placed her on the bier, her father exclaimed, " My poor, dear little Madeleine, you are at rest now!" The workman had made the coffin somewhat too small. " Thy couch here," sa ; d Lu- ther, "is narrow; but oh! how beautiful is that on which thou restest above ! " Then looking long and fixedly at her, he said, "Yes, dear child, thou shalt rise again, shalt shine as the stars, yes, like the sun. . . I am joyful in spirit ; but oh, how sad in the flesh ! It is a strange feeling, this, to know she is so certainly at rest, that she is happy, and yet to be so sad." When the body was being lowered into the grave, " Farewell ! " he exclaimed, " Farewell, thou lovely star, we shall meet again." The people in great crowds attended the funeral, showing the deepest sympathy with his grief. When the bearers came to his house and expressed their sorrow, he replied, " Ah, grieve no more for her ; I have given to heaven another angel. Oh ! that we may each experience such a death : such a death I would gladly die this moment." " True," said a bystander ; to whom Luther replied, "Flesh is flesh, and blood is blood. But there may be joy in the heart, whilst there is sorrow in the countenance. It is the flesh that weeps and is afflicted." At the grave the language of condolence was offered. " We know how you suffer." — " Thanks for your sympathy," said he, "but I am not sad — my dear angel is in heaven." Whilst some laborers were singing at the grave the words "Lord remember not our sins of old," he was heard to sigh: " No, gracious Lord ; nor our sins of to-day, nor of times tc come." When the grave-digger threw the earth on the coffin, " Fix your eyes," said Luther, " on the resurrection of the flesh ; heaven is my daughter's portion — 'body and soul — all is the arrangement of God in his providence. Why should we re- pine ? Is it not His will that is accomplished ? We are the children of eternity. I have begotten a child for heaven." On returning from the burial, he said, amongst other things, "The fate of our children, and above all, of girls, is ever a cause of uneasiness. I do not fear so much for boys; they can 42 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. find a liviog anywhere, provided they know how to work But it is different with girls ; they, poor things, must search for employment, staff in hand. A boy can enter the schools, and attain eminence, but a girl cannot do much to advance herself; and is easily led away by bad example, and is lost. Therefore, without regret, I give up this dear one to our Lord. Children die without anguish ; they know not the bit- ter pains of death ; it is as if they fell asleep." This affliction struck Luther to the heart. He looked upon it as an admonition of Heaven : it was another thunderbolt. The first had taken from him the friend of his youth, Alexis : the second snatched from him an idolized child, the joy of his old age. From this period, all his letters are tinged with melancholy : the raven wing of death was ever fluttering in his ear. On receiving a letter from the Elector, who wished him many years of long life, he shook his head mournfully, and in reply to his friend wrote : ' The pitcher has gone too often to the well; it will break at last.' One day, while preach- ing, he drew tears from his audience, by announcing to them his approaching death. " The world is tired of me," said he, " and I am tired of the world; soon shall we be divorced — the traveller will soon quit his lodging." Soon after her death, he wrote to a friend : " Report has, no doubt, informed you of the transplanting of my daughter to the kingdom of Christ ; and although my wife and I ought only to think of offering up joyful thanks to the Almighty for her happy end, by which she has been delivered from all the snares of the world, nevertheless, the force of natural affection is so great, that I cannot forbear indulging in tears, sighs, and groans ; say rather my heart dies within me. I feel, engraven on my inmost soul, her features, words, and actions ; all that she was to me, in life and health, and on her sick-bed — my dear, my dutiful child. The death of Christ himself (and oh ! what are all deaths in comparison?) cannot tear her away from my thoughts, as it should. She was, as you know, so sweet, so amiable, so full of tenderness." When the coffin had been covered with earth, a small tomb- stone was placed over it, on which was the name of the child, LUTHER'S LAST DAYS. 43 her age, the day of her death, and a text of Sciipture. Some time after, when Luther could apply himself to labor, he com- posed a Latin inscription, which was carved upon a monu- mental slab : and which breathes a spirit of subdued melan- choly, and resignation to God's will : "Dormio cum Sanctis hie Magdalena, Lutheri Filia, et hoc strato tecta quiesco meo ; Filia mortis eram, peccati semine nata, Sanguine sed vivo Christe redempta tuo." "I, Luther's daughter Madeleine, with the Saints here sleep, And covered, calmly rest on this my couch of earth ; Daughter of death I was, born of the seed of sin, But by thy precious blood redeemed, Christ! I live." "We looked," says Audin, the Eomish historian, who, ani- mated by a strange enthusiasm for the great opposer of the corruptions of his Church, followed his footsteps as a pilgrim — "we looked for this tomb in the cemetery at Wittenberg, but could not find it." The mild, regular features, the gentle eyes, the broad forehead, the flowing hair, and womanly repose, which the picture ** of this child presents, are all in keeping with the image which her father's grief has impressed upon the heart ; and though the searcher looks in vain for the stone which marks her lowly resting-place, her memory shall dwell sweetly in the heart of the world, with that of her more than illustrious father, to the end of time. The next two pictures illustrate Luther's strength of char- acter while in personal jeopardy. Tie first rep- Luther » a last resents Luther and Kohlhase — the second, Lu- da y s - Death - ther among the dying and the dead, during the plague. The last three pictures present the closing scenes of his life — his journey to Mansfeld on a mission of peace and conciliation, his death and burial. During his last hours he repeated fre- quently the words : " Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit. Thou hast redeemed me, God of truth." When Jonas and Coelius asked him, "Eeverend father, do you die faithful * This portrait is given in Juncker's interesting work on the medals of tho Reformation. 44 CONSERVATIVE HE FORMATION. to Christ, and to the doctrine you have preached? " He replied distinctly, " I do ! " These were his last words on earth, and in the first hour of February 18th, 1546, he fell asleep in Jesus. "Now," said Melanchthon, as he stood by the coffin, — "now he is united with the prophets of whom he loved to speak, now they greet him as their fell ^w-laborer, and with him thank the Lord who collects and upholds his Church to the end of time." In addition to the descriptive matter that accompanies each picture, we have " Historical Sketches " by Gelzer. First we have an introduction, and then four sketches. The first sketch presents the preparation and ground- work of the Reformation — the Reformation before Luther, and the great work which took place in him before he came forth to the world. The second sketch embraces the contest with Rome; the third, " Reformation and Revolution ; " the last, the Reformer and his work. There was one picture promised us, which we would fain charies v at nave had, but which is not given. It is one which Luther's tomb, connects itself with the Providence of God watch- ing over the ashes of his servant, whose body he had protected in life. Luther had been "taken from the evil to come." The year after his death Wittenberg was filled with the troops of Charles V., many of whom were full of intense hate to the great Reformer. One of the soldiers gave Luther's effigies in the Castle-church two stabs with his dagger. The Spaniards earnestly solicited their Emperor to destroy the tomb, and dig up and burn the remains of Luther, as this second Huss could not now be burned alive. To this diabolical proposition the Emperor sternly replied : " My work with Luther is done ; he has now another Judge, whose sphere I may not invade. I war with the living, not with the dead." And when he found that the effort was not dropped, to bring about this sacri- legious deed, he gave orders that any violation of Luther's tomb should be followed by the death of the offender.* Charles, it is said, died a Protestant on the great central doctrine of *Bayle's Dictionary, (H. H.) Juncker's Guldene und Silberne Ehren Ge- dachtniss Lutheri. Franckf. und Leipz. 1706, p. 281 LESSING — HEINE. 45 justification by faith. May we not hope that after the war- fare of life, Charles, the most ambitious of the Emperors of his age, and Luther, the greatest disturber of his plans of ambition, have reached a common consummation. It is a hopeful thing that the German heart, through all religious and civil convulsions, has remained true to the mem- ory of Luther. Romanists have emulated Protest- Luther charac . ants in his praise ; Rationalists have seemed to te 'i z ed. venerate him whilst they were laboring to undo his work. After three centuries of birth-throes, Germany feels that she has given to the world no second Luther. The womb of Time bears such fruit but once in thousands of years. " In such reverence do I hold Luther," says Lessing, "that I rejoice in having been able to find some defects in him ; for I have, in fact, been in imminent danger of mak- ing him an object of idolatrous veneration. The proofs, that in some things he was like other men, are to me as precious as the most dazzling of his virtues." — "What a shame,''" says Hamann, (1759,) " to our times, that the spirit of this man, who founded our Church, so lies beneath the ashes ! What a power of eloquence, what a spirit of interpretation, what a prophet ! " — ""We are not able to place ourselves even up to the point from which he started." " He created the German language," says Heine. " He was not only the greatest, but the most German man of our history. In his character all the faults and all the virtues Heine. of the Germans are combined on the largest scale. Then he had qualities which are very seldom found united, which we are accustomed to regard as irreconcilable antag- onisms. He was, at the same time, a dreamy mystic and a practical man of action. His thoughts had not only wings, but hands. He spoke and he acted. He was not only the tongue, but the sword of his time. When he had plagued himself all day long with his doctrinal distinctions, in the evening he took his flute and gazed at the stars, dissolved in melody and devotion. He could be soft as a tender maiden. Sometimes he was wild as the storm that uproots the oak, and then again he was gentle as the zephyr that dallies with the 46 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. violet. He was full of the most awful reverence and of self- sacrifi 3e in honor of the Holy Spirit. He could merge himself entire in pure spirituality. And yet he was well acquainted with the glories of this world, and knew how to prize them. He was a complete man, I would say an absolute man, one in whom matter and spirit were not divided. To call him a spiritualist, therefore, would be as great an error as to call him a sensualist. How shall I express it ? He had something original, incomprehensible, miraculous, such as we find in all providential men — something invincible, spirit-possessed." " A fiery and daring spirit," Menzel calls him. " A hero in the garb of a monk." But the most interesting; Menzel. ^ testimony is that borne by Frederick Schlegel ; in- teresting not only because of the greatness of its source, but because based on a thorough knowledge of the person of whom he speaks, because uttered by a devoted and conscientious Ro- manist, and accompanied by such remarks as to show that, deep as is his admiration of Luther, he has in no respect been blinded by it. We will give ex- tracts from his three great works: on " the History of Liter- ature:" on "Modern History:" and on the "Philosophy of History." " I have already explained in what way the poetry and art of the middle age were lost, during the controversies of the sixteenth, and how our language itself became corrupted. There was one instrument by which the influx of barbarism was opposed, and one treasure which made up for what had been lost — I mean the German translation of the Bible. It is well known to you, that all true philologists regard this as the standard and model of classical expression in the German lan- guage ; and that not only Klopstock, but many other writers of the first rank, have fashioned their style and selected their phrases according to the rules of this version. It is worthy of notice, that in no other modern language have so many Bibli- cal words and phrases come into the use of common life as in ours. I perfectly agree with those writers who consider this circumstance as a fortunate one ; and I believe that from it has been derived not a little of that power, life, and simplicity, SCHLEGEL. 47 by which, I think, the best German writers are distinguished from all other moderns. The Catholic, as well as the modern Protestant scholar, has many things to find fault with in this translation; but these, after all, regard only individual pas- sages. In these later times, we have witnessed an attempt to render a new and rational translation of the Bible an instru- ment of propagating the doctrines of the illuminati ; and we have seen this too much even in the hands of Catholics them- selves. But the instant this folly had blown over, we returned, with increased affection, to the excellent old version of Luther. He, indeed, has not the whole merit of producing it. We owe to him, nevertheless, the highest gratitude for placing in our hands this most noble and manly model of German expression. Even in his own writings he displays a most original eloquence, surpassed by few names that occur in the whole history of lit- erature. He had, indeed, all those qualities which fit a man to be a revolutionary orator. This revolutionary eloquence is manifest, not only in his half-political and business writings, such as the Address to the Mobility of the German Nation, but in all the works which he has left behind him. In almost the whole of them, we perceive the marks of mighty internal con- flict. Two worlds appear to be contending for the mastery over the mighty soul of this man, so favored by God and nature. Throughout all his writings there prevails a struggle between light and darkness, faith and passion, God and him- self. The choice which he made — the use to which he de- voted his majestic genius — these are subjects upon which it is even now quite impossible for me to speak, so as to please you all. As to the intellectual power and greatness of Luther, abstracted from all consideration of the uses to which he ap- plied them, I think there are few, even of his own disciples, who appreciate him highly enough. His coadjutors were mostly mere scholars, indolent and enlightened men of the common order. It was upon him and his soul that the fate of Europe depended. He was the man of his age and nation." * Let us hear another expression of the opinion of this great man. " That the Reformation did not at its very commence- * Lectures on the History of Literature, New York, 1841, p. 348-350. 48 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. ment become a revolution of this kind, we are chiefly indebted to Luther, (a revolution in which war and the flames of popu- lar passion took their own destructive course.) He it was who thus gave permanency to the Reformation. Had not Luther opposed with all his power the dangerous errors into which some of his adherents at the very first fell ; had these fanatical doctrines of universal equality, and of the abolition of all tem- poral authority as a thing superfluous in the new state of things, obtained the upper hand ; had the so-called Reformation of faith and of the Church become wholly and entirely a political and national revolution ; in that case, the first shock of civil war would have been incontestably more terrific and more universal ; but it would, probably, when the storm had blown over, have subsided of itself, and a return to the old order of things would have ensued. The princes in particular were indebted to Luther for having contributed so vigorously to stifle the flames of rebellion ; and he must thereby have gained consideration even among those who disapproved of his doc- trines and proceedings. His personal character in general was excellently adapted to consolidate and perpetuate his party. The great energy, which gave him such a decided preponder- ance over all who co-operated with him, preserved as much unity as was at all possible in such a state of moral ferment. With whatever passionate violence Luther may have expressed himself, he nevertheless, in his principles and modes of think- ing, preserved in many points the precise medium that was necessary to keep his party together as a distinct party. Had he at the first beginning gone farther, had he sanctioned the fanaticism adverted to above, the whole affair would then have fallen sooner to the ground. The very circumstance, that he did not at first secede from the ancient faith more than he did, procured him so many and such important adherents, and gave such strength to his party. He was undeniably gifted with great qualities. Luther's eloquence made him a man of the people ; his principles, however, despite his passionate expres- sion of them, remained, nevertheless, in essentials, both with regard to political subjects and to matters of faith, within cer tain limits; and joined to that circumstance, the very obstinacy SCHLEGEL. 49 P- 202 » \ Seckendorf, Historia Lutheranismi, 1. i., p. 96. 68 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. on the B Ornish side. He declined the task of refuting Luther, for which his second reason was : " it is a work above my abil- ities," and the fourth : that he is not willing to endure the resentment it would occasion. " By the little of Luther's writings which I have rather run over than examined, I thought that I could discern in him natural talents, and a genius very proper to explain the holy Scriptures according to the manner of the fathers, and to kindle those sparks of Evan- gelical doctrine, from which common custom, and the doctrines of the schools upon speculations more subtile than useful, had departed too far. I heard men of great merit, equally respect- able for learning and piety, congratulate themselves for having been acquainted with his books. I saw that the more unblam- able their behavior was, and the more approaching to Evangel- ical purity, the less they were irritated against him. His moral character was recommended even by some who could not endure his doctrine. As to the spirit with which he was ani- mated, and of which God alone can judge with certainty, I chose rather, as it became me, to think too favorably than too hardly of it. And, to say the plain truth, the Christian world hath been long weary of those teachers, who insist too rigidly upon trifling inventions and human constitutions, and begins to thirst after the pure and living water drawn from the sources of the Evangelists and Apostles. For this undertaking Luther seemed to me fitted by nature, and inflamed with an active zeal to prosecute it. Thus it is that I have favored Luther ; I have favored the good which I saw, or imagined that I saw in him." * In the same tone is his letter to the Archbishop of Mentz, (1520.) In it, he shows his prevailing spirit of temporizing, which reaped its fit reward in the hatred of the Romish and the contempt of the Protestant party. " Let others affect martyrdom ; for my part, I hold myself unworthy of that honor." "Luther," said Erasmus to the Elector Frederic, (1520,) f " hath committed two unpardonable crimes ; he hath touched the Pope upon the crown, and the * Letter to Campegius, 1520, quoted in Jortin's Life, p. 232. f " When Charles V. had just been made Emperor, and was at Cologne, the Elector Frederick, who was also there, sent to Erasmus, desiring that he would ERASMUS. 69 monks upon the belly." He then added, in a serious manner, that the doctriDe of Luther was unexceptionable. He solicited the ministers of the Emperor to favor the cause of Luther, and to persuade him not to begin the exercise of his imperial dignity with an act of violence. To Frederic he presented the following Axioms for his consideration : ' That only two Uni- versities had pretended to condemn Luther ; ' ' That Luther made very reasonable demands, by offering to dispute publicly once more. That, being a man void of ambition, he was the less to be suspected of heresy.' The Pope's agents, finding Erasmus so obstinately bent to defend Luther, endeavored to win him over by the offer of abbeys, or bishoprics : but he answered them,* "Luther is a man of too great abilities for me to encounter ; and I learn more from one page of his, than from all the works of Thomas Aquinas." The Lutherans acknowledged their obligations to Erasmus for these favors, by a picture, in which Luther and Hutten were represented car- rying the Ark of God, and Erasmus, like another David, dancing before them with all his might. f That Erasmus went thus far, is wonderful ; that he would have gone much farther, if he had simply acted out his con- victions, is certain. "But if Luther," he says, (1521,) "had written everything in the most unexceptionable maimer, I had no inclination to die for the sake of the truth. Every man hath not the courage requisite to make a martyr ; and I am afraid, that if I were put to the trial, I should imitate St. Peter." \ "I follow the decisions of the Pope and Emperor come to his lodgings. Erasmus accordingly waited on him. It was in Decem- ber, and they conversed at the fireside. Erasmus preferred using Latin instead of Dutch, and the Elector answered him, through Spalatine. When Erasmus waa desired freely to give his opinion concerning Luther, he stood with lips com- pressed, musing in silence for a long time; whilst Frederic, as was his wont in earnest discourse, fixed his eyes upon him in an intense gaze. At last he broke the silence with the words we have quoted. The Elector smiled when they were uttered, and in after time, not long before his death, recalled them. Erasmus afterwards begged Spalatine to return the manuscript of the axioms, lest it might be used to his hurt." — Seckendorf. Jortin. * Melchior Adami, Vita Lutheri. f Critique de l'Apol. d'Erasme, quoted by Jortin, p. 242. Seckendorf gives the same facts in still ampler detail. % Letter to Pace, quoted in Jortin, p. 273. 70 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION when they are right, which is acting religiously ; I submit to them when they are wrong, which is acting prudently, and I think that it is lawful for good men to behave themselves thus, when there is no hope of obtaining any more." * " There is a certain innocent time-serving and pious craft, "f Lamartine says : " No great man is cunning." This was a truth to which Erasmus does not seem to have attained. On the train of cir- cumstances which led to the controversy between Erasmus and Luther, on free will, it is no place here to dwell. Erasmus wrote to prove the freedom of the will, though his very doing so, he confesses, was a proof that his own will was not free. Through Luther he struck at the Reformation itself. "Luther replied, and had unquestionably the best of the argument."^ " I count this," says Yaughan, speaking of Luther's reply, " a truly estimable, magnificent and illustrious treatise." " Luther did not rejoin to Erasmus' twofold reply : he well knew that Erasmus was fighting for victory, not for truth, and he had better things to do than to write books merely to repeat unan- swered arguments." § Gelzer, who wrote the sketches which accompany Konig's pic- tures, says of Luther : " If we recall, among other great names in German history, the Reformers Melanchthon and Zwingle, the Saxon Electors, Frederick the Wise and John the Constant, Gustavus Adolphus and Frederick the Great ; or among intellectual celebrities, Klopstock and Lessing, Hainan and Herder, Gothe and Schiller ; or turn to the great religious reformers of the last centuries, Spener, Franke, Zinzen- dorf, Ben gel, and Lavater, they all exhibit many features of rela- tionship with Luther, and in some qualities may even surpass him, but not one stands out a Luther. One is deficient in the poetic impulse, or the fulness and versatility of his nature ; another wants his depth of religious feeling, his firmness of purpose and strength of character ; others again, want his elo- quence or influence over his contemporaries. Luther would * Jortin, p. 274. f Erasmus, quoted by Jortin. J Rees' Cycl., art. Erasmus § Martin Luther on the Bondage of the Will, translated by E. T. Vaughan, London, 1823, preface, xlix. Vaughan gives a sketch of Luther's Life, and a view of his character, a mere abridgment of Dean Milner's continuation of hi« brother's Church History. LUTHER'S TOLERATION. 71 not have been Luther, without these three leading features: his strong faith ; his spiritual eloquence ; and firmness of char- acter and purpose. He united — and this is the most extra- ordinary fact connected with him — to large endowments of mind and heart, and the great gift of imparting these intellec- tual treasures, the invincible power of original and creative thought, both in resisting and influencing the outer world." " The history of the Reformation, which Guericke presents in his admirable compend, is in keeping with his r . . , Guericke. strong, consistent Lutheran position, and though it does not contain any distinct, elaborate analysis of Luther's character, presents a just view of his career and his qualities." * The Twelfth Lecture of Guizot,f is devoted to the Reforma- tion. In a note at the close of the chapter, the remark of Robertson is quoted, that w ' Luther, Cal- vin, Cranmer, Knox, the founders of the Reformed Church, in their respective countries, inflicted, as far as they had power and opportunity, the same punishments which were denounced by the Church of Rome upon such as called in question any article of their creed." Upon this passage of Robertson, SmytheJ remarks, that "Luther might have been favor- ably distinguished from Calvin and others. There Luther > 8 To i er . are passages in his writings, with regard to the atiou - interference of the magistrate in religious concerns, that do him honor ; but he was favorably situated, and lived not to see the temporal sword at his command. He was never tried." The closing words of Smythe are in defiance of the facts in the case. More than any private man in the sixteenth cen- tury, Luther had the temporal sword at his command. He was tried. He was a shield to his enemies, both in person and doctrine, when the penalties of the law were hanging over them. Single-handed he protested against resort to violence. He averted war when the great Protestant princes were eager * Handbuch der Kirckengeschichte von H. E. F. Guericke, 9te Aufl., Leipzig, 1867, vol. iii., 1-778. -j- General History of Civilization in Europe, from the Fall of the Eoman Em- pire to the French Revolution, 3d American from the 2d English edition, with occasional notes by C. S. Henry, D. D., New York, 1846, p. 248-268. % Lectures on Modern History, Am. ed., p. 262. 72 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. for it. He had a great, loving heart, as full of affection and forbearance for man, even when straying, as it was full of hatred to error in all its forms. Bancroft makes a more correct statement of Luther's true principles in regard to persecution:* "Luther was more dogmatical than his opponents; though the deep philosophy with which his mind was imbued, repelled the use, of violence to effect conversion in religion. He was wont to protest against propagating reform by persecution and mas- sacres ; and with wise moderation, an admirable knowledge of human nature, a familiar and almost ludicrous quaintness of expression, he would deduce from his great principle of justification by faith alone, the sublime doc- trine of freedom of conscience." To this is added the note: " Nollem vi et csede pro evangelia certari," (I could not wish any to contend for the Gospel by violence and slaughter.) Lu- ther's Seven Sermons— delivered in March, 1522. " Predigen will ichs, sagen will ichs, schreiben will ichs, aber zwingen, dringen mit Gewalt will ichs Niemand ; denn der Glaube will ich ungenoethigt und ohne Zwang angenommen werden." (I will preach, I will talk in private, I will write, but I will force, I will coerce no man : for I will have the faith accepted, without constraint and without force.) We have a testimony to the same effect, in the History of Germany ,f by Kohlrausch : " Shortly previous to the commencement of the sanguinary war of religion, Luther, the author of the grand struggle, breathed his last. He had used all the weight of his power and influence in order to dissuade his party from mixing external force with that which ought only to have its seat within the calm profundity of the soul; and, indeed, as long as tie lived, this energetic Reformer was the warm advocate for the maintenance of peace. He repeatedly reminded the princes that his doctrine was foreign to their warlike weapons, and he beheld with pain and distress, in the latter years of his life, the grow- ing temporal direction given to the Holy Cause, and the in- creasing hostility of parties, whence he augured nothing good." In that immortal work of John Gerhard (theologorum prin- ceps, tertius a Luthero et Chunnitio, orbis Evangelici Atlan- * Hist. United States, i. 274. f Lond., 1844, p. 402. GERHARD— HAGENBACH. 73 tis), the 'Confessio Catholica,' in which the concessions of Romish writers are employed in defence of the truth,* he answers in full all the calumnies directed against the life, and the attacks on the doctrines of Luther. He shows Gerhard. that Luther was actuated by no blind fury against the Church of Rome, but distinguished in it the precious from the vile, and that he was an instrument of God endowed with extraordinary qualities for an extraordinary work. In show- ing this, he cites at large the opinions of Mellerstadt, Staupitz, the Emperor Maximilian, Yon Hutten, Erasmus, Frederick, Elector of Saxony, Langius, Fisher f (Bishop of Rochester and Chancellor of the University of Cambridge), who afterwards wrote against Luther, Mosellanus, Cellarius, Ulner, Podusca, Phsenicius, Schiruer, Rosdialovinus, Margaret, Archduchess of Austria, Emser, Kigelin, Masius, and Severus. \ These persons were all in the Church of Rome at the time that these favorable testimonies were given. Portion by portion is taken up by Gerhard, and disposed of with most eminent judgment, sustained by incredible learning. "It may be said," is the remark of Hagenbach, " that Mar- tin Luther became emphatically the reformer of the /-m ^-i i inn r> n Hagenbach. German Church, and thus the reformer of a great part of the Universal Church, by his eminent personal character and heroic career, by the publication of his theses, by sermons and expositions of Scripture, by disputations and bold contro- versial writings, by numerous letters and circular epistles, by advice and warning, by intercourse with persons of all classes of society, by pointed maxims and hymns, but especially by his translation of the Sacred Scriptures into the German language.! * " Doctrina Catholica et Evangelica, quam Ecclesiae Augustanse Confessioni addictse profitentur." — From the title of the "Confessio Cathol., Frankfurti et Lipsige, 1679," folio. f In a letter to Erasmus he commends Luther highly, and among other things speaks of him as " Scripturarum ad miraculum usque peritum." ;}; Preceptor of Ferdinand, author of the distich, " Japeti de gente prior majorre Luthero Nemo fuit, nee habent secla futura parem." — Conf. Cathol., p. 58 seq. | Compendium of the History of Doctrines, by K. R. Hagenbach, Dr. and Professor of Theology in the Univt rsity of Basle, translated by Carl W. Buch, 74 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. It is . . unjust . . to maintain that Luther's profound and dynamic interpretation of the sacrament, which on that very account was less perspicuous and intelligible, had its origin in nothing but partial stupidity or stubbornness. The opinion which each of these reformers (Zuinglius and Luther) enter tained concerning the sacraments, was most intimately con- nected with his whole religious tendency, which, in its turn, stood in connection with the different development of the churches which they respectively founded." Hallam has offered, in his "Introduction to the Literature of Europe," a work acceptable in the great dearth, in our language, of all books of the kind, but neither worthy, in all respects, of the subject nor of the reputa- tion of its author. For too much of it is obviously, in the most unfavorable sense, second-hand, and even in its dependence, it does not rest on a thorough acquaintance with the best sources whence opinions can be had ready-made. Would it not be thought preposterous for a man to write an introduction to classic literature who knew nothing of the Latin language, and depended for his information on the translations existing in his mother tongue? Hallam has been guilty of a greater absurdity than this ; for in total ignorance of the most import- ant language in Europe, he has pretended to give a view of its literature — a literature almost none of which, comparatively, exists, even in the imperfect medium of translations into Eng- lish. He displays everywhere, too, an ignorance of theology which ninkes his views on theological literature not only inad- equate, but often absurd. There is, too, an air of carelessness in his treatment of it, which seems, at least, to involve that he feels little interest in it, or that a man of his position in general letters is condescending, in touching such matters at all. It is one of the poorest affectations of men of the world to talk of theology, in a tone of flippancy, as if it were too Edinburgh, Clark, 1847, vol. ii., 15G, (Am ed., edited by Dr. H. B. Smith, 1862.) Hagenbach's work has an occasional slip. An illustration lies just under our eye: "Nor did the authors of the Symbolical Books differ from Luther, on Transubstantiation." Very true, but half of Hagenbach's proof is a citation from the Smalcald Articles, *". e. he proves that Luther did not differ from Luther. HALL AM. 75 va^ue for a thinker, too dull tc inspire enthusiasm. They speak and write of it, as if they wore with difficulty repressing a yawn. But Hallam is not guilty of mere listlessness in his treatment of theological topics. He is a partisan, and a very ill-informed one. Especially is his account of the Reformation and of Luther full of ignorance and full of prejudice. He seems to have pre- pared his mind for a just estimate of Luther hy reading, with intense admiration, Bossuet's " Variations, " though, as he tells us, with great impartiality, " It would not he just probably to give Bossuet credit in every part of that powerful delineation of Luther's theological tenets." He charges on the writings of Luther, previous to 1520, various " Antinomian paradoxes," hut yet he has the candor to say: "It must not be supposed for a moment that Luther, whose soul was penetrated with a fervent piety, and whose integrity, as well as purity of life, are unquestioned, could mean to give any encouragement to a licentious disregard of moral virtue, which he valued as in itself lovely before God as well as man, though in the technical style of his theology he might deny its proper obligation. But his temper led him to follow up any proposition of Scripture to every consequence that might seem to result from its literal meaning." " Every solution of the conduct of the reformers must be nugatory except one, that they were men absorbed by the con- viction that they were fighting the battle of God." — "It is hardly correct to say of Luther, that he erected his system on the ruins of Popery, for it was lather the growth and expan- sion in his mind of one positive dogma, justification by faith, in the sense in which he took it, (which can be easily shown to have preceded the dispute about indulgence,) that broke down and crushed successively the various doctrines of the Romish Church."* * Literature of Europe, vol. i., p. 166. Hauara, putting a different construc- tion from Le Clerc on some theological expressions, adds: "But of course my practice in these nice questions is not great." Vol. ii., p. 41, n. After adjust- ing in the text the comparative merits of half a dozen theologians, he says he has done it "in deference to common reputation," "for I am wholly ignorant of the writings of all." Page 287. 76 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. " A better tone " (in preaching) " began with Luther. His language was sometimes rude and low, but persuasive, artless, powerful. He gave many useful precepts, as well as examples, for pulpit eloquence." — "In the history of the Reformation, Luther is incomparably the greatest name. We see him, in the skilful composition of Robertson, the chief figure of a group of gownsmen, standing in contrast on the canvas with the crowned rivals of France and Austria, and their attendant warriors, but blended in the unity of that historic picture. It is admitted on all sides, that he wrote his own language with force, and he is reckoned one of its best models. The hymns in use with the Lutheran Church, many of which are his own, possess a simple dignity and devoutness never probably excelled in that class of poetry, and alike distinguished from the poverty of Sternhold or Brady, and from the meretricious ornament of later writers." — " It is not to be imagined that a man of his vivid parts fails to perceive an advantage in that close grap- pling, sentence by sentence, with an adversary, which fills most of his controversial writings ; and in scornful irony he had no superior."* * Literature of Europe, vol. i., p. 197. The great currency which Hallam's name gives to any view he expresses, would make it well worth while for some one competent to the task, to review all his charges against Luther, and posi- tive Evangelical Protestantism, as has been done, so ably, on some points, by Archdeacon Hare. An instance of the knowing air with which a man ignorant of his subject may write about it, occurs in the following sentence (i. 278): •'After the death of Melanchthon, a controversy, began by one Brentius, relating to the ubiquity, as it was called, of Christ's body, proceeded with much heat." " One Milton, a blind man," has grown into a classic illustration of happy appre- ciation of character. "One Brentius" ought to contest a place with it. Bren- tius, whose name, in the department of polemic theology, is mentioned next that of Luther and of Melanchthon in the early history of the Reformation — Bren- tius, who stood so high in the judgment of Luther himself, one of the acutest judges of character, to whom Luther applied terms of commendation which seemed so near an approach to flattery, that he felt it necessary to protest that he is speaking in godly sincerity, whom he compared, in relation to himself, to the "still small voice following the whirlwind, earthquake, and fire" — Brentius, whose contributions to sacred interpretation not only stood in the highest repute in his own land, but several of which had sufficient reputation to lead to their translation in England, (as, for instance, his "Arguments and Summaries," translated by John Calcaskie, London, 1550 ; his Commentary on Esther, by John Stockwood, London, 1554 ; his Homilies and Exegesis on John, by Richard Shirry, ARCHDEACON HARE. 77 Next to the Milners,* who were the first English writers who gave a large and just view of Luther's character and Lu- ther's work, is to be placed Archdeacon Hare, who in a note to his " Mission of the Comforter," a note which grew into a volume, vindicated Luther against "his recent English assailants." f First of these is Hall am ; then follow Newman, Ward, and Dr. Mill. The last reply is to Sir William Hamilton, who has left an indelible disgrace upon his name by the manner and measure of his attack upon Luther. He has largely drawn his material from secondary sources, wholly unworthy of credit, and has been betrayed into exhibitions of ignorance so astouuding as to excite sus- picion that Sir William was rather a large reader than a thorough scholar. His fierceness of polemic, which his greatest admirers lament, was never more manifest nor more in- excusable than it is here. Archdeacon Hare's vindication is everywhere successful, and not unfrequently overwhelming. He has won for himself the right of being listened to respect- fully, even reverently, in his estimate of Luther:;): "As he has said of St. Paul's words, his own are not dead words, but liv- ing creatures, and have hands and feet. It no longer surprises us that this man who wrote and spoke thus, although no more than a poor monk, should have been mightier than the Pope, and the Emperor to boot, with all their hosts, ecclesiastical and civil — that the rivers of living water should have swept half Germany, and in the course of time the chief part of Northern Europe, out of the kingdom of darkness into the region of Evangelical light. No day in spring, when life seems bursting from everv bud, and gushing from every pore, is fuller of life than his pages; and if they are not without the strong breezes London, 1550;) and whose writings are still consulted with delight by the scholar, and republished — such a man could not have had such a seal of insignificance attached to his name by any other than a writer ignorant at least of this part of his theme. * Hist, of Church of Christ, by Joseph Milner, with add. by Is. Milner, Lond. (1819) 1847, 4 vols. 8vo. f Vindication of Luther, 2d ed., Lond., 1855. + Mission of the Comforter, from 2d Lond. ed., Boston, 1864, pp. 281, 402 403. 78 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. of spring, these too have to bear their part in the work of purification." — "How far superior his expositions of Scripture are, in the deep and living apprehension of the primary truths of the Gospel, to those of the best among the Fathers, even of Augustin I If we would do justice to any of the master minds in history, we must compare them with their predecessors. When we come upon these truths in Luther, after wandering through the dusky twilight of the preceding centuries, it seems almost like the sunburst of a new Revelation, or rather as if the sun, which set when St. Paul was taken away from the earth, had suddenly started up again. Yerily, too, it does us good, when we have been walking about among those who have only dim guesses as to where they are, or whither they are going, and who halt and look back, and turn aside at every other step, to see a man taking his stand on the Eternal Rock, and gazing steadfastly with unsealed eyes on the very Sun of righteousness." Hase, most eloquent, most condensed, most happy in giving the cream of things of all the writers of his school, shows a just and appreciating spirit in all he has said of Luther. ]STot only in his general allusions to the primal spirit of the Reforma- tion embodied in Luther, his correct deduction of that great movement, neither from the skeptical nor scientific tendency, but from faith and holy desire, but still more fully in the happy outline of Luther's career in his Church history, has he shown that as far as one occupying so different a theological position from Luther can thoroughly understand him, he does so. Not only as a fine illustration of our theme, but as a highly characteristic specimen of the work of Hase, to which we have just alluded, we give the whole of his chapter on " Luther's death and public character." "In the last year of his life, Luther, worn out by labor and sick- ness, took such offence at the immorality and wanton modes at Wittenberg, that he left it, (1545,) and only consented to return at the most urgent supplications of the University and Elector. He saw a gloomy period impending over the land of his fathers, and longed to depart in peace. Over his last days still «hone some of the brightness of his best years — the EASE. 79 words bold, child-like, playful, amid exalted thoughts. Hav- ing beeu called to Eisleben to act as arbitrator in settling some difficulty of the Counts of Mansfeld, he there, on the night of February 18th, 1546, rested in a last calm and holy sleep. The mutations of the times on whose pinnacle he stood, im- parted to his life its stronger antitheses. He had regarded the Pope as the most holy, and most Satanic father. In his roused passions emotions had stormily alternated. The free- dom of the Spirit was the object of his life, and yet he had been jealous for the letter. In trust on all the power of the Spirit, he had seized the storm of revolution by the reins, and yet on occasion had suggested that it would be well if the Pope and his whole brood were drowned in the Tyrrhene Sea. But throughout he had uttered with an unbounded ingenuous- ness his convictions, and was a stranger to every worldly interest. "With a powerful sensuousness, he stood fast rooted in the earth, but his head reached into heaven. In the crea- tive spirit, no man of his time was like him ; his discourses were often rougher than his own rough time seemed to ap prove, but in popular eloquence his equal has never arisen in Germany. From anguish and wrath grew his joy in the con test. Where he once had discovered wrong, he saw nothing but hell. But his significance rests less upon those acts by which he searched and destroyed — others could more easily and more readily tear themselves away from the old Church- it rests much more upon his power of building up, on his earn est full faith and love ; though in hours of .gloom, through the temptations of Satan, he imagined that he had lost God, and Christ, and all together. Especially, in opposition to his antagonists, did he believe, and declare without reservation, that he was a chosen instrument of God, known in heaven, on earth, and in hell. But with himself, personally considered, he would have nothing to do ; he would recognize no doctrine of Luther, and his sublime trust in God pointed not to his personal delivery from dangers, but to the faith that God could every day create ten c Doctor Martins.' Insipid objections and narrow vindications are forgotten ; such a man belongs not to one party, but to the German people and to Christendom." 80 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. The distinctive characteristics of Gothe and Herder dis- played themselves in the difference of their feelings towards Luther. " What seemed to Gothe narrow and partial, Her- der called noble and philanthropic ; while, on the contrary, what Herder admired as the infinitude of a great idea, reveal- ing; itself to man in various godlike emanations — Herder. . . in the valor of the hero, the wisdom of the legisla- tor, the inspiration of the poet, or the events of a world — this sort of elevation moved Gothe so little, that such characters as Luther and Coriolanus excited in him a sort of uncomforta- ble feeling, which could be satisfactorily explained only on the hypothesis that their natures stood in a mysterious sort of opposition to his. Gothe's genius and disposition were for the beautiful; Herder's for the sublime." Herder has given, in his writings, the most unmistakable evidence of his admiration of Luther. There is no author whom he cites so frequently, so largely, and so admiringly, as Luther, "Luther has long been recognized as teacher of the German nation, nay, as co-reformer of all of Europe that is this day enlightened. He was a great man and a great patriot. Even nations that do not embrace the principles of his religion enjoy the fruits of his Reformation. Like a true Hercules, he grappled with that spiritual despotism which abrogates or buries all free, sound thought, and gave back to whole nations the use of reason, and in that very sphere where it is hardest to restore it — in spiritual things. The power of his speech and of his honest spirit united itself with sciences, which revived from him and with him ; associated itself with the yearnings of the best thinkers in all conditions, who, in some things, had very different views from his own, and thus formed for the first time a popular literary public in Germany and the neighboring countries. Now men read what never had been read ; now men learned to read who had never learned before. Schools and academies were founded, German hymns were sung, and preaching in the German language ceased to be rare. The people obtained the Bible, possessed at the very least the Catechism ; numerous sects of Anabaptists and other errorists arose, many of which, each in its own way, contributed to the HERDER. 81 scientific or popular elucidation of contested matters, and thus, also, to the cultivation of the understanding, the polishing of language and of taste. Would that his spirit had been fol- lowed, and that, in this method of free examination, other objects had been taken up which did not lie immediately in his monastic or church sphere ; that, in a word, the principles on which he judged and acted had been applied to them. But what avails it to teach or reproach times gone by ? Let us rise and apply his mode of thought, his luminous hints, and the truths uttered for our time, with equal strength and naivete. I have marked in his writings a number of sentences and ex- pressions in which (as he often called himself) he is presented as Ecclesiastes, or the preacher and teacher of the German nation." " Of Luther as a preacher," Herder says : " He spoke the simple, strong, unadorned language of the understanding ; he spoke from the heart, not from the head and from memory. His sermons, therefore, have long been the models, especially of those preachers in our church who are of stable minds." Speaking of the contents of the Psalms, he says, in the same beautiful letters from which we have just quoted: " I am sure I can give you no better key to them than the exquisite preface of Luther to this, his darling book. He will tell you what is in them, how to apply them, and turn them to use." Speaking of the romantic and moonshiny way of preaching which prevailed in his time, he closes a most severe paragraph with the exclamation : " Luther ! when we recall thee and thy pure, solid language, comprehended by all ! " " Would you hear the nature, power, and necessity of this liv- ing principle of faith, treated in a manner living and clearly defined, read Luther's writings. He shows a hundred times and at large, how little is contained in that beggar's bag of a gradual reform of our bad habits ; how little of Christianity there is in it, and of how little worth it is before God. But he himself, even at that early day, mourned that so few formed a right conception of that which he called true, life- restoring faith, how few knew how to give it, in accordance with his meaning, its practical power ! " " The doctrine of justification 6 82 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATIO*. is so closely associated with that of faith, that one must stand or fall with the other. On this, also, the corner-stone of Lutheranism, pre-eminently hold fast, I beg you, by Luther's writings. I think it was Spener who had felt, with reference to this system, a doubt which, it seemed to him, nothing could overthrow ; he read Luther's writings and his doubts vanished. But, as I have said, Luther already mourned that not all com- prehended him, and whilst every one was crying out about faith, justification, and good works, few had really grasped his meaning and his spirit ; the consequences, both immediate and long after his death, were melancholy enough. When in this matter you need instruction, or long to have difficulties re- solved, go to this living man of faith himself, this legitimate son of Paul. In his writing is so much sound sense, with such strength of spirit and fervor of an honest heart, that often, when worn out with the frigid refinings and speculations of a more recent date, I have found that I was revived by him alone." "Conjoin with his biography, his own writings, (0 that we had a complete collection of them in the languages in which he wrote them !) read these, and you will know him differently, for he gives a picture of himself in every line." " May the great Head of the Church revive in this land (Germany) — the cradle of the Reformation — the spirit of the reformers, so that the mantle of Luther may fall upon his pro- fessed followers and admirers, that all who pretend to teach may be taught of God, men of faith, learning, research, and above all, of ardent and unfeigned piety," Kahnis : * " Nothing but the narrowness of party can deny that there are respects in. which no other reformer can bear comparison with Luther as the person of the Re- formation. The Romanists do but prejudice their own cause, when they undervalue a man who, with nothing but the weapons of the Spirit, shook to its lowest depths the ■itomau Catholic ent ire Church of the Middle Ages. Every Cath- judgment. stui- olic who claims to be a lover of truth, should concur in the judgment of Count Stolberg, who, though he deserted Protestantism for the Catholic Church, says: * Ueb. d. Principien d. Protestantismus, Leipz., 1865. F. V. RAUMER'S REPLY TO PALAVICINI. 83 ' Against Luther's person I would not cast a stone. In him I honor, not alone one of the grandest spirits that have ever lived, but a great religiousness also, which never forsook him.'" There have indeed been Roman Catholics, who did not breathe toward Luther the spirit of Schlegel and Stolberg, and from one of the greatest of these, whose sketch is peculiarly full of genius, and has been called " an official one," by F. V. Raunier, we quote. Palavicini, the historian of the Council * Palavicini. of Trent, thus characterizes Luther: "A fruitful genius, but one that produced bitter rather than ripe fruits ; he was rather the abortive birth of a giant, than a healthy child born in due time. A mighty spirit, bat better fitted for tear- ing down than for building up. His learning was more like a drenching rain which beats down all before it, than like the soft shower of summer, beneath which nature grows fruitful. His eloquence was in its language coarse, and crude in its mat- ter, like the storm which blinds the eyes with the dust it drives before it. Bold in beginning strife, no man was more timor- ous when danger was near ; his courage was, at best, that of a beast at bay. He frequently promised to be silent, if his oppo- nents would be silent too — a proof that he was determined by earthly influences. He was protected by the princes, only because they coveted the Church's goods ; he was a disturber of the Church, to the injury of others, and without benefit to himself. History will continue to name him, but more to his shame than to his renown. The Church, the vine, has been pruned, that it may shoot forth with fresh life: the faithful have been separated from the seditious. Opposed to him stands the major part — the more noble, the more moderate, the more holy." To this no better answer can be furnished than that which the great historian and statesman, F. V. Raumer, has given " To this judgment of Palavicini," he says, "after a conscientious testing of all the facts, we cannot assent — but are constrained to acknowledge the truth to be this : A fruitful F v Raumer8 grenius, whose fruits could not all come to a mellow reply to Paiavi- ripeness, because they were prematurely shaken down by storms. A mighty spirit, who helped to - r e the storms ; 84 CONSERVATIVE BE FORMATION. but, had not the building been undermined by fearful abuses, a purification might have been possible without overthrowing it. Only because the builders who were called to the work of reform, not only refused to perform it, but increased the evil, did he become their master; and with success grew his boldness or his faith in his divine vocation, and his wrath against his opponents. In his contest with the Papacy he placed in the van Evangelical freedom of faith, and this is the source of Protestantism ; in the establishment of his Church he often was willing to shackle thought, lost his own clearness of percep- tion, and became intolerant. But his hardest and least becom- ing language appears mild in comparison with the blood-thirsty intolerance of his opponents, mild in comparison with the heads- man's axe and the stake. A noble eloquence supplanted the unintelligible prattle of the schools ; through him Germany once more learned to speak, the German people once more to hear. He who is displeased with his style, or with his mat- ter, must yet confess that his- writings reveal everywhere the inspiration of the fear of God and the power of faith. Luther never dissimulated. Persuasions, promises, threats had no power to shake his rock-firm will, his indomitable purpose ; and the seeming self-will and severity connected with this arose, at least, from no commonplace and perverted character. No man ever grasps the whole truth, in perfect clearness ; but few have more earnestly striven to attain it, and with more perfect self-renunciation confessed it, than Luther. Among his oppo- nents not one can be compared with him in personal qualities : with all his faults, he remains greatest and most memorable among men ; a man in whose train follows a whole world of aspiration, effort, and achievement." In affinity with that of Yon Raumer is the estimate of Ranke : " Throughout we see Luther directing his weapons on both sides — against the Papacy, which sought to reconquer the world then struggling for its eman- cipation — and against the sects of many names which sprang up beside him, assailing Church and State together. The great Reformer, if we may use an expression of our days, was one of the greatest Conservatives that ever lived." WIELAND— STANG— MELANCHTHON: 85 Ernst Karl AYieland opens the last paragraph of his Charac- teristics of Luther with the words : " Such was he, so great in whatever aspect we view him, so worthy of admiration, so deserving of universal gratitude ; alike great as a man, a citizen, and a scholar." Stang, to whom we are indebted for one of the best lives of Luther, thus closes his biography : " We stand before the image of the great Eeformer with the full conviction that between the first century, when Christianity appeared in its youth, and the sixteenth, when it obtained the maturity of its riper age, not one of our race has appeared, in whom the ever-creative spirit of God, the spirit of light and of law, has found nobler embodiment, or wrought with richer sequence." But among all the tributes which the centuries have laid at the feet or on the tomb of Luther, none are more touching than the words in which Melanchthon showed that Melanchthon. Luther's death had brought back, in all its tender- ness, the early, pure devotion. Melanchthon, the Hamlet of the Reformation, shrinking from action into contemplation, with a dangerous yearning for a peace which must have been hollow and transient, had become more and more entangled in the complications of a specious but miserable policy which he felt made him justly suspected by those whose confidence in him had once been unlimited. Luther was saddened by Me- lanchthon's feebleness, and Melanchthon was put under restraint by Luther's firmness. Melanchthon was betrayed into writing weak, fretful, unworthy words in regard to Luther, whose sur- passing love to Melanchthon had been sorely tested, but had never yielded. But death makes or restores more bonds than it breaks. When the tidings of Luther's death reached Wittenberg:, Me- lanchthon cried out in anguish : w4 my father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof! " — tributary words from one of the greatest, to the greatest. He was gone of whom Melanchthon, cautious in praise, and measured in language, had said, from a full heart : " Luther is too great, too wonderful for me to depict in wor.ds." — " If there be a man on earth I love with my whole heart, that man is Luther.' 86 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. And, again : " One is an interpreter ; one, a logician ; another, an orator, affluent and beautiful in speech ; but Luther is all in all — whatever he writes, whatever he utters, pierces to the soul, fixes itself like arrows in the heart — he is a miracle among men." What need we say more, after such eulogies ? The greatness of some men only makes us feel that though they did well, others in their place might have done just as they did : Luther had that exceptional greatness, which con- vinces the world that he alone could have done the work. He was not a mere mountain -top, catching a little earlier the beams which, by their own course, would soon have found the valleys ; but rather, by the divine ordination under which he rose, like the sun itself, without which the light on mountain and valley would have been but a starlight or moonlight. He was not a secondary orb, reflecting the light of another orb, as was Melanchthon, and even Calvin ; still less the moon of a planet, as Bucer or Brentius ; but the centre of undulations which filled a system with glory. Yet, though he rose won- drously to a divine ideal, he did not cease to be a man of men. He won the trophies of power, and the garlands of affection. Po- tentates feared him, and little children played with him. He has monuments in marble and bronze, medals in silver and gold ; but his noblest monument is the best love of the best hearts, and the brightest, purest impression of his image has been left in the souls of regenerated nations. He was the best teacher of freedom and of loyalty. He has made the righteous throne stronger, and the innocent cottage happier. He knew how to laugh, and how to weep ; therefore, millions laughed with him, and millions wept for him. He was tried by deep Borrow, and brilliant fortune ; he begged the poor scholar's bread, and from Emperor and estates of the realm received an embassy, with a prince at its head, to ask him to untie the knot which defied the power of the soldier and the sagacity of the statesman ; it was he who added to the Litany the words : " In all time of our tribulation, in all time of our prosperity, help us good Lord ;" but whether lured by the subtlest flattery SUMMARY OF LUTHER'S CHARACTER. 87 or assailed by the powers of hell, tempted with the mitre, or threatened with the stake, he came off more than conqueror in all. He made a world rich forevermore, and, stripping himself in perpetual charities, died in poverty. He kuew how to com- mand — for he had learned how to obey. Had he been less courageous, he would have attempted nothing ; had he been less cautious, he would have ruined all : the torrent was resist- less, but the banks were deep. He tore up the mightiest evils by the root, but shielded with his own life the tenderest bud of good ; he combined the aggressiveness of a just radicalism with the moral resistance — which seemed to the fanatic the pas- sive weakness — of a true conservatism. Faith-inspired, he was faith-inspiring. Great in act as he was great in thought, proving himself fire with fire, "inferior eyes grew great by his, exam- ple, and put on the dauntless spirit of resolution." The world knows his faults. He could not hide what he was. His trans- parent candor gave his enemies the material of their misrepre- sentation ; but they cannot blame his infirmities without bear- ing witness to the nobleness which made him careless of appear- ances in a world of defamers. For himself, he had as little of the virtue of caution as he had, toward others, of the vice of dissimulation. Living under thousands of jealous and hating eyes, in the broadest light of day, the testimony of enemies but fixes the result : that his faults were those of a nature of the most consummate grandeur and fulness, faults more precious than the virtues of the common great. Four potentates ruled the mind of Europe in the Reformation, the Emperor, Erasmus, the Pope, and Luther. The Pope wanes, Erasmus is little, the Emperor is nothing, but Luther abides as a power for all time. His image casts itself upon the current of ages, as the moun- tain mirrors itself in the river that winds at its foot — the mighty fixing itself immutably upon the changing. III. LUTHER'S TRANSLATION OF THE NEW TESTAMENT* THE author's best vindication of his vocation to a work must, in the nature of the case, be the work itself. The fact of success seems to dispense with the necessity Luther's call- x d ing as a trans- of any argument, in advance, as to his fitness for lator of the scrip- ^q labor on which he entered. We need no a tures. priori proof that Milton had a vocation as a poet, or Bacon as a philosopher, or Gerhard as a theologian. To argue it, is to argue in the sunlight the question of the sun's adaptation for shining. Luther's translation of the Bible is itself the invincible proof of his vocation to the work of * The most important works on Luther's Bible are the following: I. — In defence or criticism of his translation. Andrew: Erinerung v. d. Teutschen. Bibl. Dollmetsch. Tubing. 1564. Traub : Avisa o. Warnung von Luther's Teutsch. Bib. Ingolst. 1578. Wicelii: Annotationes. Leipz. 1536. Zanger: Examen Versionis. Maintz. 1605. Beringer: Rettung. 1613. Raithii: Vindiciae. 1676. A. H. Francke : Obs. Biblicse. 1695. Hallbauer : Animadversiones in Nov. Germ. Version. Jena : 1731. Zehner: Probe. 1750. Marheiijecke : Relig. Werth. d. Bibeliibersetz. Luther. Berl. 1815. Stier: Altes und Neues. 1828. (In defence of Meyer's Revision.) Darf Luther's Bibel, etc. 1836. Grashof : D. M. L's. Bibeluber. in ihr.Verhalten. z. d. Bediirfn. d. Zeit. 1835. Hopf : Wurdig. d. Luthersch. Bibel. Verdeutscht mit Rucks, d. Alt. u. Neuen Uebersetzung. Niirnb. 1847. Rossler: Be Vers. Luth. caute emend. 1836. LUTHER AS A TRANSLATOR. 89 preparing it. It shines its own evidence into the eyes of every one who opens it. Nevertheless, it is not without historical interest, little as it is necessary, logically, to look at the evidence of Luther's fitness for the work. Some of the facts which naturally attract our attention here, are the following : I. Luther was well educated as a boy. He went to school in Mansfeld until he reached his fourteenth year ; thence he went to Magdeburg ; four years he spent at Eisenach, under the tuition of a teacher of whom Melanchthon testifies that in the grammatical branches, the very ones which were so largely to become useful to Luther as a translator, he had no superior. Here he finished his school-days proper — already as a boy, by his great proficiency, giving indications of extra- ordinary talents and industry. Melanchthon says of him at this era : "As he had great genius, and a strong predispo- sition to eloquence, he speedily surpassed the other youths in the fulness and richness of his speech and of his writing, alike in prose and verse." Even as a boy, he was already marked out as a translator. II. Luther received a thorough collegiate education. In 1501 he repaired to the college at Erfurt, where he was matricu- lated during the presidency of Truttvetter, whom he loved and venerated as a man and a teacher, and where he faithfully used all the advantages which surrounded him. EL — Bibliography and History. Mayer, J. F. : Hist. Vers. Luth. 1701. Kraft: (1705-1734.) Zeltner: Historie. 1727. Bertram: Giese : Nachricht. (1771.) Palm: Historie — Gotze. 1772. " De Codicibus. 1735. Gozen's: Sammlung. 1777. Vergleichung der Uebersetz. v. Luther, von 1517 — b. 1545. Erst. St. 1777; 2d, 1779. Neue Entdeckungen, 1777. Panzer: Entwurf. 1791. Gcetz: Ueberblicke. 1824. Schott: Geschichte. 1835. Bindseil. (1841.) Reuss: Gesch. d. Heil. Schriften. N. T. 1860. Fritzsche : Bibellibersetzungen Deutsch. 1855. (in Herzog's Real Enc. iii. 337.) Popular Histories: Kuster (1824) ; Weideman (1834) ; K.Mann (1834); Krafft, C. W (1835 ) 90 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION III. Luther was a devoted student of the Hebrew and Greek* In 1505, after his entrance into the cloister, Luther devoted himself, with that earnestness which marked all he did, to the study of Hebrew and Greek. He had skilful teachers in both languages. As professor and preacher in Wittenberg, he con- tinued both studies with great ardor. In Hebrew, Luther regarded the illustrious Reuchlin, the Gesenius of that day, as his teacher, compensating for the want of his oral instruction by a thorough use of his writings. But Luther was not of the race of sciolists who think that, because books can do much, they can do everything. He knew the value of the living teacher. To obtain a more thorough mastery of Hebrew, he availed himself of the instruction of his learned colleague, Aurogallus, the Professor of the Oriental languages at Witten- berg. When he was at Rome, in 1510, he took lessons in He- brew from the erudite Rabbin Elias Levita. Luther was master of the Hebrew according to the standard of his time, as his contemporaries, and learned men of a later date, among them Scaliger, have acknowledged. "If Luther," says Fritzsche,* " was not the greatest philologist of his time, he was yet suf- ficiently learned to see for himself, and to be able to form an independent judgment. What he lacked in philological pro- fundity was compensated for, in part, by his eminent exegetical feeling, and by the fact that he had lived himself completely into the spirit of the Bible." Luther's first master in Greek was Erasmus, through his writings ; his preceptor, both by the book and the lip, was Melanchthon. These were the greatest Greek scholars of the age. Luther happily styles Melanchthon, " most Grecian." IY. With genius, the internal mental requisite, and learn- ing, the means by which that genius could alone be brought to bear on the work of translation, Luther united piety. His soul was in affinity with the spirit of the Bible. He was a regenerate man. A De Wette may produce a translation which the man of taste admires, but he cannot translate for the people. We would not give a poem to a mathematician for translation, whatever might be his genius ; still less would *Herzog's Real Encyc, iii. 340. NEW TESTAMENT— PROTESTANT VERSION 91 we give the words of the Spirit to the hand of a translator who had not the " mind of the Spirit." Luther, the man of faith, of fervent prayer, the man who was as lowly toward God as he was inflexible toward men — Luther was called to that work of translation in which generations of the past have found a guide to heaven, and for which millions of our race, in generations yet to come, will rise up and pronounce him blessed. V. All these gifts and graces as a translator found their channel in his matchless German. In this he stood supreme. The most German of Germans, towering above the great, yet absolutely one of the people, he possessed such a mastery of the tongue, such a comprehension of its power, such an ability to make it plastic for every end of language, as belonged to no other man of his time — to no other man since. His German style is the model of the scholar, and the idol of the people. The plan of a great human life is not something which the man makes — it is something which makes the man. The wide and full-formed plans which men make before The fir8t Prot , they begin to act, are always failures. The achieve- estant version of ments of the great masters in the moral revolutions ment . itseariy of our race have invariably, at first, had the sem- lli8tor y- blance of something fragmentary. The men themselves were not conscious of what their own work tended to. Could they have seen the full meaning of their own first acts, they would have shrunk back in dismay, pronouncing impossible those very things with the glorious consummation of which their names are now linked forever. So was it with Luther in the work of the Reformation. The plan of it was not in his mind when he began it. That plan in its vastness, difficulties, and perils would have appalled him, had it been brought clearly before him. So was it also in regard to his greatest Reform- atory labor — the translation of the Bible. At a period when he would have utterly denied his power to produce that very translation which the genius and learning of more than three centuries have failed to displace, he was actually unconsciously taking the first step toward its preparation. Like all great fabrics, Luther's translation was a growth. 92 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. The memorable year 1517, the year of the Theses, was also the year of Luther's first translation of part of the Holy Scrip tures. It is earlier, however, than the Theses, or the contro- versy with Tetzel, and yet its very preface implies the Prot- estant doctrine of the right of the illumined private judg- ment of Christians. It embraced only the Seven Penitential Psalms, (vi., xxxii., xxxviii., li., oil, cxxx., cxliii.) He used in its preparation the Latin translation of Jerome, and another by Peuehlin, which had appeared at Tubingen in 1512. In the Annotations, however, he frequently refers to the Hebrew. Between 1518 and the appearance of his New Testament complete, in 1522, Luther translated eleven different portions of the Bible. In 1518 appeared two editious of a translation and exposition of the Lord's Prayer. The first edition was issued without Luther's consent, by Schneider, one of his pupils. Luther himself published the second edition, which deviates very much from the other. It appeared with this title : " Exposition, in German, of the Lord's Prayer, for the Bimple Laity, by Dr. Martin Luther, Augustinian Monk, of "Wittenberg. E"ot for the learned. " The same year he trans- lated the CX. Psalm. In 1519 appeared the Gospel for the Festival of St. Peter and St. Paul, and the Prayer of Manas- seh. In 1520 he published his first Catechetical work, em- bracing the Ten Commandments. In 1521, Luther was seized, on his way from Worms to Wittenberg, and carried to the castle of the Wartburg, where he remained from May 4th, 1521, to March 6th of the fol- lowing year. These months of calm, and of meditation, led to the maturing of his plans for the promotion of the Reform- ation, and among them, of the most important of the whole, the giving to the people the Word of God in their own tongue. Before his final leaving the Wartburg, Luther, in disguise, made his way to Wittenberg, and spent several days there, known only to a very few of his most trusted friends. During that mysterious and romantic visit, they may have urged upon him personally this very work of translation. He had been urged to this work, indeed, before. " Melanchthon," says he, "constrained me to translate the New Testament." Various FIRST DRAFT. 93 fragments of translation were published during the earlier part of Luther's sojourn in his Patmos, but not until his return from Wittenberg did he begin the first grand portion of his translation of the Bible as a whole. Luther translated the New Testament in the first draft in about three months. It sounds incredible, hut the evidence places it beyond all doubt. He was only ten months at the Wartburg ; during this period he wrote many other things ; did a good deal of work on his Postils, and lost a great deal of time by sickness, and in other ways, and did not commence his New Testament until his sojourn was more than First draft. half over. Never did one of our race work with the ardor with which Luther wrought when his whole soul was engaged, and never, probably, was that great soul so engaged, so fired, so charmed with its occupation, as in this very work of translating the New Testament. The absurd idea that Luther was assisted in this first work by Melanch- thon, Cruciger, Amsdorf, and others, has arisen from confound- ing with this a different work at a different period. In this, he was alone, far from the aid, far from the co-operating sym- pathy of a single friend. He did not translate from the Vulgate, though he used that ancient and important translation with sound judgment. In his earlier efforts as a translator we see more of its influence than at a later period. This influence was partly, no doubt, unconscious. His thorough familiarity with the Vulgate would shape his translation to some extent, even when he was not thinking of it. But the Vulgate was of right the most important aid, next to the sacred text itself. Consequently, though Luther grew less and less depend- ent upon it, and saw more and more its defects, he never ceased to value it. He well knew, too, that many of the most serious faults of the received form of the Vulgate were the results of the corrupted text, the state of which before the critical labors which ran through the sixteenth century, was almost chaotic. "We will give a few illustrations of the fact that in certain cases Luther followed the Vulgate, in his earliest translation, with- out warrant from the Greek text. We will distribute our 94 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. illustrations under these heads : I. of Additions ; II. of Omis- sions ; III. of Renderings; IV. of Readings, in which Luther follows the Vulgate when the Vulgate does not represent the Greek text — or at least that text to which alone Luther had access. I. — Additions of the Vulgate and of Luther to the Eras- mian Text. (1516, 1519.) Mark vi 2. Were astonished, Luther adds : Seiner Lehre : so Coverdale : at his learning. " xvi. 9. Luther adds : Jesus. " xii. d. Luther adds : Alle : all the whole world : Cranraer. 1 John v. 12. He that hath the Son, Luther adds : Gottes — of God. II. — Omissions of the Vulgate and Luther from the Erasmian text. These are few, for the sins of the Vulgate against the pure text are most frequently those of addi- tion. Matt. i. 18. Omit: Jesus. Matt. v. 22. Whosoever is angry with his brother, omit : without a cause. Matt. vi. 4. Omit : himself. III. — Renderings in which the Vulgate and Luther depart from the Greek text. Matt. x. 42. Little ones, Luther renders : one of the least. So Coverdale. Mark xv. 4. Behold how many things they witness against thee, Luther renders : Wie hart sie dich verklagen. Coverdale: How sore they lay to thy charge. 1 Cor. xv. 44. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body, Luther renders : Hat man ein natiirlichen Leib, so hat man auch cinen geistlichen Leib. Coverdale : If there be a natural body, there is a spiritual body also. 1 Thess. i. 7. Renders : an example : Vulg. : ensample. FIRST DRAFT. 95 IV. — Readings m which Luther follows the Vulgate. Matt. iii. 8. For : fruits, Luther reads : fruit. Matt. x. 25. For: Beelzeboul, reads: Beelzebub. John xi. 54. For : Ephraim, reads : Ephrem. Acts ix. 35. For : Saron, reads : Sarona. Acts xiii. 6. For : Bar Jesus, reads : Bar Jehu. Eph. iii. 3. For : he made known, reads : was made known. Eph. v. 22. For : Wives submit yourselves, reads : Let the wives be subject to. 1 Tim. iii. 16. For : God was manifest in the flesh, reads : Which was manifest in the flesh (in all the early editions). Heb. iv. 1. For: any of you, reads: any of us. So Tyn- dale and Coverdale. Heb. ix. 14. For : your consciences, reads : our con- sciences. Rev. xiv. 13. For : I heard the voice, reads : the voice which I heard. A number of these adhesions to the Yulgate are to be traced to his judgment that it here represented a purer text than that of Erasmus.* Luther used the Basle Edition of 1509. To have rendered even the Yulgate into the noble German which Luther used would have been a great task. The very defects of the old German versions from the Yulgate which did not prevent their wide circulation, is a pathetic proof of the hungering of the people for the bread of life. But it was characteristic of Luther's originality, vigor, and clearness of perception, that he at once saw — what now seems so obvious, but which had not been seen for ages — that to give the people what they needed, required more than a translation of a trans- lation. If we remember that in our own day the general feel- ing is, that the new translations to be prepared for the Bible Society should be conformed to our English version, and not independent versions from the original, we have before us a tact which may help us, though very imperfectly, to realize how daring it seemed, in Luther's time, to prepare a trans- * Palm, De Codicibus : quibus Lutherus usus est. Hamburg,1735. Palm, Historie. Halle, 1772, p. 245. 96 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. lation for the people from the original, involving, as it did, the idea that the Vulgate, embalmed as it was in the reverence of ages, was not in all respects a pure representation of the "Word of God. When Luther's translation appeared, there was no point which the Romanists made with more frequency, vio- lence, and effectiveness, than that it ignored the Vulgate ; though the reason for which the Vulgate was ignored was that it departed from the Greek. There is no decisive reason for thinking that Luther used any manuscripts of the Greek text. The Greek texts which had been published, or at least printed, when Luther was engaged in his translation of the New Testament, were : 1. The Complutensian, folio, printed 1514 ; not published till 1523. Though doubts have been expressed as to Luther's having used the Complutensian, to which some Greek texts f orce j s given by his nowhere citing it, yet Me- used by Luther. © - •/ © ' J lanchthon, his great co-worker in the New Testa- ment, cites it during Luther's lifetime. The copy sent to the Elector of Saxony (six hundred were printed in all) was placed in the library at Wittenberg, whence it was removed, two years after Luther's death, to Jena. His not citing it is no evidence over against the irresistible presumption of the case ; and Krell (1664) asserts positively that Luther was familiar with the Complutensian.* 2. The first Erasmus, 1516, folio. 3. The Aldine, 1518, folio ; follows for the most part the first Erasmus, even in its blunders, yet has some peculiarities worthy of note, as in James iv. 6. The Septuagint, in this edition, was used by Luther. 4. The second Erasmus, 1519, folio. 5. The Gerbelius, based on the second Erasmus and the Aldine, 1521, 4to. 6. The third Erasmus, 1522, folio. It is evident that Luther's choice was confined at first to the Editions ^-5. The Complutensiau and Erasmus 3 appeared too late for his earliest New Testament translation. We might illustrate Luther's adherence to the Erasmian *Hopf, Wiirdigung. 45. GREEK TEXTS USED BY LVTHER. 97 Greek text over against the Vulgate : I. In his additions from the Greek of what the Vulgate omits. II. In his omissions, following the Greek, of what the Vulgate adds. III. Of read- ings in which he does the same. IV. Of renderings in which he forsakes the Vulgate for the Greek. The last head we defer for the present. I. — Additions from the Greek where the Vulgate omits. Matt. ii. 18. adds: lamentation. Tyndale: mourning. " vi. 4, 6, 18. adds: openly. " vi. 13. adds: For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. So Coverdale. Tyndale omits. Matt. vi. 14. adds : their trespasses. " vi. 25. adds : or what ye shall drink. " vi. 32. adds: heavenly. Mark vi. 11. adds : Verily I say unto you, it shall be more tolerable city. II. -- Omissions, following the Greek, where the Vulgate adds. Matt. vi. 15. omits : your trespasses. " vi. 21. omits : he shall enter into the kingdom of the heavens. " vii. 29. omits: their; and, Pharisees. Mark xi. 26. omits : But if ye do not . . . trespasses. Luke xvii. 36. omits : Two men shall be in the field . . . and the other left. John xix. 38. omits : He came therefore and took the body of Jesus. J as. iv. 6. omits: Wherefore he saith, God resisteth .... the humble. All the editions of Erasmus and Gerbelius omit these words, but the Asu- lanus (Aldine) of 1518 has them, and so the Complutensian. Tyndale 1. Cov. omit. 1 John v. 7. omits : There are three that bear record . . . and the Holy Ghost. ThLS text Erasmus Ed. 1, 2, Asulanus, Gerbelius omit. Eras- mus : Ed. 3-5 has it, though he did not be- 98 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. lieve it to be genuine. The Complutensian has it with slight variations. Luther rejected it on critical grounds, and it did not appear iii any of his Bibles published in his lifetime. The Codex Amiatinus of the Yulgate omits it. Tyndale has it, either from the Yulgate or Erasmus 3. Tynd. 2. and Cov. put it in brackets. Jtlev. xii. 10. omits : the accuser of our brethren. " xviii. 23. omits : and the light of a candle . . . thee. " xix. 9. omits : the marriage. II] — Of Headings in which he follows the Greek. Matt. v. 4, 5. reads in order of Greek. Yulgate puts 5 first. " v. 47. reads : publicans ; Yulgate : heathen. " vi. 1; reads : alms ; Yulgate : righteousness. " vi. 5. reads : thou pray est ; Yulgate : ye pray. Acts xiii. 33. reads: first Psalm ; so Tynd., Cov. ; Yulgate reads : second Psalm. Rom. xv. 2. reads : Every one of us ; Yulgate : of you. Rev. ii. 13. reads: in my days ; Yulgate : in those days. " v. 12. reads: riches and wisdom; Yulgate: divinity and wisdom. The most important peculiarities of Luther's first version, as we see by this minute examination, are solved at once by a comparison of it with the text of Erasmus. The differences in the four editions — two of them reprints of Erasmus — are not, for the most part, important ; 2 and 3 may be considered as in the main one text, and 3 and 4 another. A minute examination seems to indicate that Luther had them all, and u£ed them all ; but the second Erasmus seems, beyond all doubt, to have been his chief text, though the first Erasmus, and the Gerbelius have both been urged by scholars for the post of honor. Of the Aldine edition of Erasmus, 1518, there is a copy, in fine condition, in the City Library of Philadelphia. The ERASMUS. 99 author has all the later editions mentioned, except the first Erasmus and the Complutensian,* in his own library. The admirable edition of the New Testament by Van Ess f gives all the various readings of Erasmus and the Complutensian, in the best form for comparison with each other and the Yulgate. Mill, and Wetstein, and Bengel also, give these various read- ings, but not in so convenient a shape. The Complutensian readings are presented very fully also in Scrivener's Plain In- troduction to the Criticism of the Eew Testament, (Cam- bridge, 1861,) pp. 349-358. But the most desirable modern edition for the collation of the Complutensian text is that of Gratz, ~H. T. Textum Grsecum ad exemplar Complutense, ed. Nova Mogunt., 1827, 2 vols. 8vo. It may be interesting to present a few illustrations of the variations between the Complutensian (1514) and the first Erasmus (1517), comparing both with Luther and our Author- ized Version. I. Matt. i. 14 II. (< ii. 6 III. «< ii. 6 IV. <{ ii. 11 V. M iii. 8 VI. <( ii. 11 VII. (( iv. 15 VIII. «( 17 IX. It 18 X. «« v. 12 XI. «« 27 XII. (( 47 Complutensian, 1514. Acheim For Shall come they saw fruit the Holy Ghost land of N. From that he walking Your reward It was said friends First Erasmus, 1516. Achen omits shall come to me they found fruits the Holy Ghost and with fire Nepthalim and from that Jesus walking Our reward was said by (or to) them of old time brethren Luther, 1522. Achin. For (Denn) sol mir kom- men they found fruit m. d. h. g. u. mit feur Nepthalim From that Jesus walking Your reward said to (zu) them of old time. Briidern Auth. Engl., 1611. Achim for shall come they saw fruits w. t. h. G. and with fire, land of Nep- thali From that Jesus walking your reward said by (or to) them of old time brethren In these twelve examples, Luther agrees with the Complu- tensian in four cases ; the Authorized Version agrees in seven. Erasmus retained in all his editions his readings ]STos. 1, 3, 4, * The writer has examined the Complutensian Polyglot in the library of the Theological Seminary at Princeton, and the New Testament, formerly the prop- erty of Judge Jones, of Philadelphia, now in the choice collection of Professor Charles Short, of New York. f Tubingen, 1827. L OF C. 100 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. 5, 6, 7, 9, 11, 12. He coincides in editions 2, 3, 4, 5 witL the Complutensian in Nos. 2, 8, 10. We will now illustrate the different readings of the fi.ve edi- tions of Erasmus : Erasmus 1, Erasmus 2, Erasmus 3, Erasmus 4, Erasmus 5, Luther, 1522. 1516. 1519. 1522. 1527. 1535. I. Matt. vi. 14 our our our your your Your, as 4, 5 II. " vi. 24 Manion Mamon Mammon Mammon Mammon Mammon, as 3, 4,5 You, as 3, 4, 5 III. " vi. 26 we we you you you IV. " viii.25 you you us us us us, as 2, 3, 4, 5 V. " x. 8 raise the dead, cleanse lepers Cleanse le- pers, raise the dead as 2 as 2 as 2 Cleanse the le-j peres, raise the dead, as 2, 3, 4, 5 i VI. « xiii. 8 of the Sabbath of the S. also as 2 as 2 as 2 as 2, 3, 4, 5 VII. " xiii. 27 the tares tares the tares the tares the tares as 1, 3, 4, 5 us us you you us us, as 1, 2, 5 VIII. " xiii. 56 envies Murders, as 2 as 2 as 2 as 2, 3, 4, 5 IX. " xv. 19 (phthnoi) (phonoi) X. " xv. 36 And having Om: and as 2 as 2 as 2 as 2, 3, 4, 5 » given thanks This table illustrates the lack of accuracy in the printing of Erasmus — shows that Luther was not misled by typographical errors, and that he used the later editions in each case. In none of these instances does he follow a reading for which there is no authority but the first of Erasmus. The order of the books in Luther's New Testament varied somewhat from that of the Yulgate and Erasmus ; which is the one retained in our Authorized Version. Luther places Peter and John immediately after Paul's Epistles. Then come Hebrews, James, Jude, and Revelation. He based his arrangement on the relative clearness of the canonical authority of the books. His order is followed by Tyndale (1526), and in all the editions which bear the name of Tyndale, Matthews, or Rogers. It is also the order in Coverdale's Bible. This is one proof, among , , a great number, of the large iniiuence of Luther Order of the P ' o Books of the New upon those versions. The " Great Bible " of 1539, the Cromwell Bible, frequently called the Cranmer, restores the arrangement of the Yulgate — and in this is fol- lowed by the Genevan, Bishops, and the Authorized. Luther bestowed great care upon the division of the text into para- graphs, and as a result of this there are some changes in the division into chapters, which had been made very imperfectly in the Yulgate, in the thirteenth century. No German New Testament appeared in Luther's lifetime with the division into REVISION— PUBLICATION. 101 verses. Their place, nearly to the close of the century, was partly supplied by capital letters, dividing the page at regular intervals. There were Introductions to the ]Sew Testament, and to some of the books: marginal notes and parallel passages. The same spirit which had impelled Luther to prepare this translation made him eager to have it as speedily as possible in the hands of the people. This desire, no less than the neces- sity of quelling the uproar and arresting the ruin which the fanaticism of Carlstadt was bringing about, led to his flight from his prison, and his final return to "Wittenberg, (March 14, 1522.) Here, in the house of Amsdorff, especially with the counsel and aid of Melanchthon, he revised his translation with great care.* He interested in the work his friend Spalatin, the chaplain, librarian, and private secre- tary at the court ; he solicited from him aid in suggesting apt words, " not words of the court or camp, but simple words ; for this book wishes to be luminous in simplicity." He ob- tained through him the privilege of an inspection of the Elec- toral jewels, that he might more accurately render the names of the gems in the twenty-first chapter of Revelation. Thev were sent to Luther, and returned by him through Cranach^ the great painter. After a thorough revision, Luther put his ^sTew Testament to press, urging on the work of printing with all his energies. Three presses were kept going, from which were thrown off ten thousand sheets daily. Luther complained of the slow- ness of the progress. The steam-presses of our oavu day would hardly have worked rapidly enough for him. The first edition embraced probably three thousand copies, and appeared about September 21st, 1522. So eagerlv was it received, / . -, . . -r Publication. that m December another edition came forth. It was hailed with delight wherever the German tongue was used, and within three months of its appearance an edition was issued at Basel by Petri. It woke a thrill of rapture everywhere among those who loved the Word of God. Xone received it more eagerly than the pious women of the time. The people and the evangelical part of the pastors vied with * March 30, 1522. Omnia nunc elimari (to polish) cepiams, Pldlippus et ego. 102 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. each other in the enthusiasm with which they greeted it ; Lange, the Senior at Erfurt, had translated several of the books of the New Testament into German : when Luther's translation came into his hands, he at once used and cited it in his preaching. Lifted by his noble evangelical spirit above the littleuess of vanity, he was the first to give its true position iu the Church to the work which forever consigned his own to oblivion. There lie at our hand, as we write, three early impressions of these first editions. One is a folio, dated 1523, and was printed by Hans Schonsperger, in the city of Augsburg. It was fitting that in that imperial city should early appear a work from which sprang the great Confession, which was des- tined to be set forth in its halls a few years later. The second is a Basel edition, in quarto, of 1523, with its pictures richly colored. The third was printed at Strasburg, in 1525, by John Knoblauch. All these editions have engravings. They are espe- cially rich in pictures in the Book of Revelation ; and there the Early impres- ar tists have been allowed ample room for the play of Bioiu. their imaginations. The discolored pages, the an- tique type, the grotesque cuts, the strange devices of the print- ers, the binding of stamped hogskin, the curious clasps, the arms of the old families in whose libraries they once stood, gilt upon the sides or engraved on book-plates, the records in writing on margin and fly-leaf, made by men of different gen- erations, nay, a kind of odor of the past — all these, as we handle these ancient books, carry the mind back to days long gone — to sore struggles, whose blessings we enjoy; to the seed-time of weeping, whose harvest-sheaves we bear in our bosom. In the heart of those times there comes before the vision that immortal man to whom the world owes the eman- cipation of the Word, and its own redemption by that Word unbound. We see him bending over his work in the Wart- burg. There are times when the text beneath his eyes fails to reveal to him the mind of the Spirit, and in the ardor of prayer he raises them to the Eternal Source of all illumination, and lifts them not in vain. Well may we take the Bible in our hands, reverently and LUTHER'S VERSION. 103 prayerfully, most of all because it was God who gave it to the Fathers. Well may we lift it tenderly and gratefully for the sake of martyrs and confessors, who toiled and died that it might be transmitted to us and to all time. Amid the enthusiasm with which Luther's translation of the New Testament was received, there were, of ■• : , Luther s ver- course, not wanting voices whose tones were by sion. Early ene- no means in unison with the general laudation. ^Geor " e ry ^ m / One of these growls of disapproval came from a very august source — from a gentleman portly in form, and charged by some who professed to know him well, with exhib- iting a self-will of the largest kind. He is memorable in his- tory for winning the title of " Defender of the Faith " — a faith which he afterward had his people burned to death for receiving in a part or so which interfered with his later dis- coveries. Bitterly disappointed, as he had been, in his matri- monial anticipations, he yet exhibited evidences of what Br. Johnson said was illustrated in second marriages : " The tri- umph of hope over experience." He had entered into contro- versy with Luther, and had discovered that there was one man, at least, who was bold enough to " answer a fool accord- ing to his folly," although that fool might wear a crown. Not having it in his power to relieve his feelings in regard to Lu- ther, in his favorite mode, which would have been to have had his head taken off, he relieved himself, as he best could, by venting his wrath in savage words, and in trying to rouse the enmity of others against the man he detested and feared. Henry the Eighth wrote, in January, 1523, to the Elector Fred- erick and to the Dukes John and George, of Saxony, as follows: " As I was about to seal this letter, I recollected that Luther, in the silly book which he put forth against me, excused him- self from giving an answer on certain points, on the ground, that the work of translating the Bible left him no time for it. I thought it well, therefore, to solicit your attention to this matter, so that he be not allowed to go on with this thing. I do not think it right, in general, that the Holy Scriptures should be read in the living tongues, and consider it specially perilous to read it in a translation by Luther. Any one can 104 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. foresee how unreliable he will be ; he will corrupt the blessed Scriptures by his false interpretation, so that the common reader will believe that he is drawing from the Holy Scriptures what that accursed man has derived from damnable heretical books." The German nobles, to whom this letter was addressed, received it in very different ways. Duke George replied, that he had bought up all the copies of Luther's translation which had found their way intc his dominion, and had interdicted the circulation of it. The Elector Frederick and Duke John, in their reply, passed over this point with significant silence. The mandate of Duke George spoke with special bitterness of the pictures in Luther's ISTew Testament, pictures which it characterized as " outrageous, tending to throw scorn upon the Pope's holiness, and to confirm Luther's doctrine." Luther's comment, which he bestowed upon the Duke himself, was, " I am not to be frightened to death with a bladder : " and to inspire some of his own courage in others, he wrote his treatise "Of Civil Authority — how far we owe allegiance to it," in which he declares that rulers who suppress the Holy Scriptures are tyrants — murderers of Christ — worthy of a place with Herod, who sought the life of the infant Saviour. Jerome Emser managed to set himself involved in the amber The counter- °f Luther's history ; and so we know of him. After translation. Em- Duke George had entered on his crusade against Luther's New Testament, especially against the pictures in it, (and in this latter point, we confess, something might be urged for the duke, in an artistic point of view,) he found his Peter the Hermit in a Catholic theologian, a native of Ulm, who had studied at Tubingen and Basle. He had been chaplain of Cardinal Raymond Gurk, and had travelled with him through Germany and Italy. On his return, he obtained the chair of Belles-Lettres at Erfurt. Subsequently, he became secretary and orator to Duke George. He was originally a friend of Luther, but his friendship was not permanent. It gave way at the Leipzig disputation, in 1519, and he transferred his allegiance to Eck. He had the honor of being the first literary antagonist of Luther's version. Duke George, the * See Goz, Ueberblicke, etc., p. 300. THE COUNTER-TRANSLATION— EMSER. 105 Bishop of Merseburg, Prince Adolphus of Anhalt, and the Bishop of Meissen, not satisfied with legal measures of sup- pression, called in Emser, to use the more formidable weapon, the pen, the gigantic power of which Luther was then exhib- iting. About a year after the publication of the first edition of Luther's ISTew Testament, Emser came forth with his con- futation of it. Its title stated its object, which was, to show " On what ground, and for what reason, Luther's translation should be prohibited to the common people," and he claimed to have discovered in the unfortunate book about four errors and a quarter, more or less, to each page, some " fourteen hundred heresies and falsehoods," all told. Luther did not consider the work worthy of a reply ; but Dr. Regius took up its defence, and confuted Emser in the robust manner which characterized that very hearty age. It seemed, however, as if Emser were about to illustrate his honesty in the very highest and rarest form in which a critic can commend himself to human confidence ; it seemed as if he were about to prepare a book of the same general kind as that which he reviewed, in which he could be tested by his own canons, and his right to be severe on others demonstrated by the masterly hand with which he did the work himself. He prepared to publish a counter-translation. He had the two qualities, in which many translators have found the sole proofs of their vocation : he could not write the language into which, and did not under- stand the language from which, he was to translate. But his coolness stood him in better stead than all the knowledge he might have had of Greek and German. AVith little trouble, he produced a translation, equal, on the whole, as even Luther himself admitted, to Luther's own, and literally free from every objection which he had made to Luther's. We have had books on the Reformers, before the Reformation ; on Lutheranism, before Luther, and such-like ; and another might be written on the Yankees, before the sailing of the Mayflower. Emser was one of them. The way he did the masterly thing we have mentioned was this : He adopted, not stole (he was above stealing) — he adopted Luther's translation bodily, only altering him where he had 106 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. had the audacity to desert the Vulgate for the original. These alterations removed nearly all the fourteen hundred heresies at a sweep. But this was not enough. As the people looked at the " outrageous " pictures, not merely in spite of Duke George's prohibition, but with that zest with which human nature always invests forbidden things, it was determined not merely to have pictures, but the happy idea, which none but men nobly careless of their reputation for consistency would have harbored for a moment, was fallen on — the plan of having the very same ones. Duke George paid Cranach forty rix thalers for copies of them, and thus secured for himself the great satisfaction of seeing the book he had denounced going forth in substance, and the pictures which he had specially assaulted, scattered everywhere by his own ducal authority. In his preface, Emser has anticipated a style of thinking which has crept into our Protestant Churches. He says: " Let the layman only attend to having a holy life, rather than trouble himself about the Scriptures, which are only meant for the learned." ¥e have had a good deal of nonsense ventilated in our churches in this country very much in the same vein. It means about this : Be pious, be in earnest ; never mind having ideas or doctrines — they only create divisions; be zealous about something, whether it be right or wrong. You may read your Bibles, but be careful not to form an opinion as to their meaning, or if you do, attach no importance to it if any one does not agree with you. The English moralist was thought to go very far when he said, " He can't be wrong whose life is in the right ; " but we have something beyond him and Emser; it is in effect: "He can't be wrong whose sensations are of the right kind," and who gives himself up blindly to the right guidance, and takes the right newspaper. Luther's New Testament, with Luther's pictures, thus adopted, and with its margin crowded with Papistical notes, which were meant, as far as possible, to furnish the antidote to the text, went forth to the world. The preparation was made for a second edition of it. Duke George furnished for it a preface, in which, after exposing the enormities of Martin Luther, he characterized Emser as his dearly beloved, the THE COUNTER-TRANSLATION— EMSER. 107 worthy and erudite, and gave him a copyright for his work, which was to reach over the next two years. Poor Emser, suffocated in such a profusion of praises and privileges, died before he could enjoy any of them. His vanity was very great. Oue special token of it was, that he had his coat of arms engraved for the books he published. A copy of his New Testament lies before us, in which there figures, as a part of his crest, that goat's head from which Luther — wmose sense of the ludicrous was very active — derived his ordinary sobriquet for Emser, " the goat." In his Treatise on Translation, Luther thus characterizes his opponent and his work : " We have seen this poor dealer in second-hand clothes, who has played the critic with my New Testament, (I shall not mention his name again — he has gone to his Judge ; and every one, in fact, knows what he was,) who confesses that my German is pure and good, and who knew that he could not improve it, and yet wished to bring it to disgrace. He took my New Testament, almost word for word, as it came from my hand, removed my preface, notes, and name from it, added his name, his preface, and his notes to it, and thus sold my Testament under his own name. If any man doubts my word, he need but compare the two. Let him lay mine and the frippery man's side by side, and he will see who is the translator in both. If any man prefers the puddle to the spring, he need not take my work ; only, if he insist on being ignorant himself, let him allow others to learn. If any man can do the work better than I have done, let him not hide his talent in a napkin ; let him come forth, and we will be the first to praise him. We claim no infalli bility. We shall be thankful to those who point out our mis- takes. Mistakes we have no doubt made, as Jerome often made them before us." The New Testament, in common with the rest of the Scrip- tures — yet with a pre-eminence among them — continued to be the object of Luther's repeated study up to the time of hi3 death. The last revision of the translation of the whole Bible was commenced in 1541. The last edition printed under Lu- ther's own eyes appeared in 1545. In February, 1546, he 108 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. died.* The Exegetical Library — not to speak of the Fathers, and of other indirect sources — had grown around him as he advanced. The Complutensian Polyglott, (1514-18,) and the editions of the New Testament which followed its text, had Growth of n.t. become accessible. Erasmus had carried his Greek literature. New Testaments, with their translation and anno- tations, through five editions, (1516-1535.) The fifth remains to this hour the general basis of the received text. The Aldine of 1518 had been reprinted frequently. Colinaeus had issued his exquisitely beautiful f edition, (Paris, 1534,) which antici- pated many of the readings fixed by modern criticism. Robert Stephens, the royal and regal printer, issued the wonderfully accurate X mirificam edition of 1546, the text based upon the Complutensian, but with a collation of sixteen manuscripts, only a little too late for Luther to look upon it. Great efforts, and not unsuccessful, had been made, especially by Robert Stephens, to amend the current and greatly corrupted text of the Yulgate, (1528-1540.) Flacius had issued his Clavis, the immortal work in which he developed, as had never been done before, the principles of Hermeneutics, (1537.) Pagninus had done the same work from a relatively free Roman Catholic position, in his Introduction to Sacred Letters, (1536.) The era of Luther was an era of translations, in whose results there has been specific improvement in detached renderings, but no general advance whatever. Germany has produced no translation of the ISTew Testament equal, as a whole, to Lu- ther's. Our authorized English Version is but a revision of Tyndale, to whom it owes all its generic excellencies and beauties. Among the Latin translators, Pagninus (1528) took a high rank, by his minute verbal accuracy, which caused his translation, in after times, to be used as an interlinear. A Latin version of the E"ew Testament appeared in 1529, with the imprint of Wittenberg, an imprint which is probably spu- rious. It has been believed, by many scholars, to have been the work of Luther ; others attribute it to Melanchthon ; but *St;e Panzer's Entwurf, pp. 370-376. ■f Perquam nitida. Le Long. (Boehmer-Masch.), i, 206. J Nitidissima-duodecim sphalmata duntaxat accurunt. Le Long., i, 208. RIVAL TRANSLATIONS. 109 the authorship has never been settled. Tne Zurich trans- lators, Leo Juda and his associates, had issued their Latia version, marked by great merits, not verbal, as Pagninus', but more in the reproductive manner of Luther, shedding light upon the meaning of the text, (1543.) Luther's version had been followed by a number of rival or antagonistic translations in German, all of them freely using him — many of them, in fact, being substantially no more than a re-issue of Luther — with such variations as, they supposed, justified, sometimes, by the original, but yet more frequently by the Vulgate. Zurich sent forth its version, (1527,) Rival transla . Hetzer and other fanatics sent forth theirs. The ti011s - Eomish theologians did Luther good service by the rigorous process, to which they subjected his translations in every way.. To the labors of Emser (1527) were added those of Dietenber- ger, whose Bible appeared in 1534, (a compound of Emser's Recension of Luther's ~New Testament, of Luther's Old Testa- ment, and of Leo Juda's Apocrypha, with corrections of the Hebrew and Greek from the Latin, and a body of notes,) and of Eck, 1537. The gall of their severity was certainly sweet- ened by the unconscious flattery of their plagiarism — and whatever may have been the spirit in which objections were made to his translations, Luther weighed them carefully, and wherever they had force, availed himself of them. It was the age of inspiration to the translator, and the foundations of Biblical Versions, laid by its builders, will stand while the world stands. Luther had many and great competi- tors, in this era, for the highest glory in this grand work ; but posterity accords him the rank of the greatest of Biblical trans- lators. " His Bible," says Reuss,* "was, for its era, a miracle of science. Its style sounded as the prophecy of a golden ao-e of literature, and in masculine force, and in the unction of the Holy Spirit, it remains a yet unapproached model." For Lu- ther may be claimed, that in the great edifice of the people's knowledge of God's Word, he laid the noblest stone, the cor- ner-stone, in his translation of the New Testament Future ages may, by their attrition, wear away the rougher points of *Geschichte der Heiligen Schrift, N. T., 3 47. 110 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION its surface, but the massive substance will abide, the stona itself can never be displaced. Up to this hour, Luther's version of the New Testament has been the object of minute examination by friend and foe Protestant scholarship has subjected it to a far severer test sources of de- tnan tne enmity of Rome could bring to bear upon feces in Luther's fa That particular mistakes and defects exist in it, its warmest admirers will admit, but the evidence of its substantial accuracy and of its matchless general beauty is only strengthened by time. The facts which bear upon its defects may be summed * up in the statements which follow : I. The influence of the Vulgate was necessarily very power- ful on Luther. It was felt when he thought not of it, felt when he was consciously attempting to depart from it where it was wrong. Imagine an English translator preparing now a version of the New Testament — and think how the old version would mould it, not only unconsciously, but in the very face of his effort to shake off its influence. II. Luther's Greek text was in many respects different from that now received, as the received is different from the texts preferred by the great textual critics of our century. III. Luther's words, as they were used and understood in his day, were an accurate rendering of the original, at many places, where change of usage now fixes on them a different sense. He was right, but time has altered the language. Luther, for example, used " als," where " wie " (as) would now be employed ; "mogen " for " vermbgen," (to be able ;) " etwa " for " irgend einmal," (sometime ;) "schier" in the sense of "bald," (soon).f IY. Many of the points of objection turn on pure triviali- ties. V. Many of the passages criticized are intrinsically difficult, Scholars in these cases are not always agreed that Luther was wrong, or yet more frequently when they agree so far, they are not agreed as to what is to be substituted for his rendering. *Hopf, WUrdigung, p. 214. f On the antiquated words in Luther's Bible, see Pischon, Erkl'arung., Berl., 1844; and Beck, Worterbuch z. L.'s Bibeliibers., Siegen. u. Wiesbaden, 1846; Hopf, 230-241. REVIEW OF LUTHER'S TRANSLATION. Ill Over against this, the felicity in his choice of words, the exquisite naturalness and clearness in his structure of sentences, the dignity, force, and vivacity of his expressions, Review of , u , his affluence of phrase, his power of compression, the^s translation. and the rhythmic melody of his now of style, have excited an admiration to which witness has been borne from the beginning by friend and foe. When the time shall come, as come it mast, when the toils and discoveries of centuries shall be brought to bear upon Luther's version, in changes which shall be recog- nized by the Church as just, Luther's grand work will not only remain in the new as the foundation, but will abide as the essential body of the structure itself. The German nation will never have a Bible for which, next to its great Source, they can cease to bless Luther's name. IV. CONSERVATIVE CHURCH OF THE REFORMATION- THE EVANGELICAL PROTESTANT (LUTHERAN) CHURCH.* FIRST at "Wittenberg, and not long after at Zurich, when, at the beginning of the sixteenth century, the fulness of God's time had been reached, "there blazed up a fire which had long been hidden beneath the ashes. It burst into a mighty flame. The farthest horizon of North- Restoration .^ i • i • i i • -i • of the purified em Jiurope grew bright as with some glorious dis- church of the pj av f ^e won( } r0 us electric lisvht, the reflection West. . . of which touched, with its glory, the remote South — even to Italy and Spain. The truth, which had been set free, moved with bold steps to the conquest of the hearts *Goebel: D. relig. Eigenthiim. d. Luth. u. ref. Kirch. 1837. Augusti: Beitr. z. Gesch. u. Statist, der Ev. Kirch. 1838. Hering: Gesch. d. kirch. Unionsb. 1838. Rudelbach : Ref. Luth. u. Union. 1839. Dorner: D. Princip. Uns. Kirch. 1847. Wigger's : Statistik. 2 vols. 1842. Ullmann: Z. Charakter. d. ref. Kirch, (in Stud. u. Kritik. 1843.) Herzog: D. Einh. u. Eigent. d. beid. Ev. Schwesterk. (Berl.l. Zeitung, 1844.) Nitzsch: Prakt. Theol. 1847. Schweizer: Die Glaubensl. d. Ev. Ref. Kirch. Baur: Princ. d. Ref. Kirch. (Both in Zeller's Jahrb. 1847.) Ebrard: Dogmatik. 1851. (2d ed. 1861.) Schenkel: D. Princip. d. Protestantism. 1852. Heppe. (1850. Stud. u. Krit.) Schenkel. (1852: Prinzip. 1855: Unionsberuf. 1858: Dogm.) 112 RESTORATION OF TEE PURIFIED CHURCH. 113 *>f men. The princes and people of the great Germanic races were ripest for its reception, and were the first to give it their full confidence. Such a triumph of the Gospel had not been witnessed since the times of the Apostles. The corner-stone of the purified temple of the Holy Ghost was laid anew — nay, it also seemed as it were the very top-stone which was laid, while the regenerated nations shouted, ' Grace, grace ! ' unto it. The Gospel won its second grand triumph over the Law, and a second time Paul withstood Peter to the face because he was to be blamed. In place of a bare, hard set of words, of a lifeless and mechanical formalism, there reappeared the idea, the spirit, and the life, in the whole boundless fulness and divine richness in which they had appeared in the prim- itive Church."* To comprehend the Reformation, it is neces- sary to trace the essential idea of Christianity through its whole history. " The Greek Church saw in Christianity the revelation of the Logos, as the Supreme Divine Reason. Christianity was to it the true philosophy. The Church of the West, the Roman Catholic Church, laid its grand stress on the Organism of the Church. There dwelt the truth, and there the life-controlling power." f " Catholicism had unfolded itself into a vast system of guarantees of Christianity ; but the thing itself, the Christianity they were to guarantee, was thrown into the shade. The antithesis between spurious and Gass : Ges. d. Prot. Dogmat. 1853. Zeller: Syst. Zwinglis. 1853. Wetzel: (Ztschr. Rudelb. u. Guerik. 1853.) Lucke: Ueb. d. Geschicht. ein. richt. Formulirung. (Deutsch. Zeitschr. 1853.) Muller: 1854-63: Union. Hagenbach: Z. Beantw. d. F. lib. d. Princ. d. Protest. (Stud. u. Exit. 1854.) Schxeckenburger : Vergl. Darstell. d. Luth. u. Ref. Lehrbeg. 1855. 2 vola Harnack: Die Luth. Kirche in Licht. d. Geschicht. 1855. Rudelb ach: Die Zeichen d. Zeit. inn. d. Ev.-Luth. Kirche. 1857. Stahl: Die Luth. Kirche u. d. Union. 2d ed. 1861. Thomas : Union Luth. Kirch, u. Stahl. 1860. Hundeshagen : Beitr'ag. z. Kirch. Verf. etc., d. Protest. 1864. Kahnis: Ueber d. Princip. d. Protestantis. 1865. Luthardt : Handb. d. Dogmat. 2d ed. 1866. K\hnis: Luth. Dogmat. iii. 1868. Seiss : Ecclesia Lutherana : A Brief Surv. of E. L. C. 1868. * Wigger's Statistik, i. 92. f Luthardt, Dogm. \ 11, 3. 8 114 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. real Christianity came more and more to be narrowed to the affirmation or denial of the validity of these guarantees — until it became the error most fundamental of all errors, to assail the infallibility of the Pope, and of the Church." * In the Roman Catholic Church a vast system of outward ordi- nances and institutions had grown up, a stupendous body of ritualistic legalism — under which the old life of the Gospel went out, or became dim, in the heart of millions. The pow- ers that ruled the Church were Moses, without the moral law, and Levi, without his wife. The grand distinctive character- istic of the Reformation over against this, the characteristic which conditioned all the rest, was that it was evangelical, a restoration of the glad tidings of free salvation in Jesus Christ — and thus it gave to the regenerated Church its exalted character as "Evangelical." Both the tendencies in the Reformation claimed to be evangelical. Both, as contrasted with Rome, rested on the Gospel — Christ alone ; grace alone ; justification by faith alone ; the Bible the only rule ; but in what is now styled the Lutheran Church, the Evangelical prin- ciple, as opposed to legalistic, deterministic, and rationalistic tendencies, came to a more consistent development, both in doctrine and life. The large body of Christians whose historical relation to the great leader of the Reformation is most direct, forms a Church, which, in the language of a writer of another communion,f EvanodicaiPro- " * s ^e most important, the greatest, the most testant church, weighty of the churches " which arose in that glorious revolution. It has been her misfor- tune to be known to English readers, not through her own matchless literature, but by the blunders of the ignorant, the libels of the malicious, and the distorted statements of the partisan. Yet it would be easy to present a vast array of evidence in her favor, which should be taken, not from the language of her apologists, but exclusively from the writings of large-minded and intelligent men in other churches ; and if, in this sketch of the Lutheran Church, the reader should be struck with the fact that in sustaining our position by cita- * Martensen, 30. f Goebel. Die relig. Eigenthiinilichk. d. Luther. u. reform. Kirch., 1837. DENOMINATIONAL NAME. 115 tions, our own authors seem to be passed by in some eases where they might appropriately be quoted, he will account for it by the preference which we naturally feel for the testimony of those who can be suspected of no partiality for the object of their eulogy. It is a curious fact in denominational history, that, as an ordinary rule, the more large, catholic, and churchly the title of a sect, the smaller, narrower, and more sectarian is Denomination- the body that bears it. In a certain respect, the al Name - Eoman Catholic Church is one of the narrowest of sects, first, because of the bigotry of its exclusiveness, not only over against the Protestant bodies, but also toward the venerable Church of the Orient, with which it is in such large doctrinal and ritual affinity, and with which it was once so closely united, but in which there has been produced by irritating and aggressive acts a more than Protestant ardor of aversion to the Papal See ; and secondly, because of its building upon a solitary earthly see as a foundation. If you look round among the Protestant bodies, you will find such glorious titles as "Disciples of Christ,' - ' " Church of God," " Christians," worn as the distinctive cogno- men of recent, relatively small, heretical or fanatical bodies, who have largely denounced all sectarianism, for the purpose of build- ing up new sects of the extremest sectarianism, and who reject the testimony of ages and the confessions of Christendom, for the purpose of putting in their place the private opinion of some pretentious heresiarch of the hour. The latest assaults upon the old-fashioned denominationalism are made, every now and then, by some new church, the statistics and leading features of which are somewhat as follows: ministers, one; members, intermittent from the sexton up to a moderate crowd, accord- ing as the subject of the sermon advertised on Saturday takes or does not take the fancy of those who spend the Lord's day in hunting lions ; churches, one (over, if not in, a beer saloon ;) creed, every man believes what he chooses ; terms of member- ship, every one who feels like it shall belong till he chooses to leave. This uncompromising body, which looks forward to the speedy overthrow of all Christendom because all Christen- dom rests on human creeds, is styled " Church of the Ever- 116 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. lasting Gospel," "Pure Bible Christians Church," or some- thing of the kind. Had the Lutheran Church chosen her own name, therefore, it would have furnished no presumption against her — it would have only shown that, as sectarianism may take the names which point to a general catholicity, so, on the other hand, the most truly catholic of Christian bodies might be willing to submit to the historical necessity of assuming a name which seemed to point to a human originator. There was a time when the true Catholics were tauntingly called Athanasians, and could not repudiate the name of Athanasius without faith- lessness to the triune God himself. But our Church is not responsible for this portion of her name. She has been known by various titles, but her own earliest and strongest preference was for the name Evangelical, (1525,) and many Evangelical. n , ,-i,t i . . ■. . of her most devoted sons have insisted on 2:1 v- ing her this title without any addition. ~No title could more strongly express her character, for pre-eminently is her system one which announces the glad tidings of salvation, which excites a joyous trust in Christ as a Saviour, which makes the word and sacraments bearers of saving grace. In no system is Christ so much as in the Lutheran ; none exalts so much the glory of his person, of his office, and of his work. The very errors with which her enemies charge the Lutheran Church are those which would arise from an excess in this direction. If she believed in a local ubiquity of Christ's whole person, (as she does not,) this would be the excess of faith in his presence ; if she believed in consubstantiation, (as she does not,) this would show that though her faith in Christ was blind, yet it hesitated at nothing which seemed to rest on his word ; if she denied the obligation of the Church to keep the Christian Sabbath, (as she does not,) it would show that she had carried to excess her disposition to see in Christ the sub- stance of all shadows. Happy is the Church whose failings bear in the direction of safety, which, if it err, errs not in a legal- istic direction, but in an excess of evangelism. The heart of unbelief works only too surely in reducing an excess ; but hovf shall a Church be revived, which, in its very constitution, is CHURCH OF THE AUGSBURG CONFESSION. 117 defective in the evangelical element ? The name Evangelical is now given, ont of the bounds of the Lutheran Church, to the Christianity of the heart everywhere, to all that makes much of Christ in the right way. It is a poor trick of some extravagant party within a party — some paltry clique m Protestantism at large, or in one of its communions — to attempt to monopolize the name Evangelical. Where thoughtful men accept the word in this narrowed sense, they despise it — -but it is, in its true, original compass, a noble, a glorious name, not to be lightly abandoned to those who abase it. The true cor- rective of abuse, is to restore, or hold fast the right use. Our Church, to which it belongs in the great historic sense, has a claim in her actual life, second to none, to wear it. She is the Evangelical Church. At the Diet of Spire, (1529,) the Evangelical Lutheran Con- fessors, from their protest against the government of the Bishops and against the enforced imposition of the Mass, received the name of Protestants. This continued to be the diplomatic style of the Church till the peace of Westphalia, 1648. r \ 7 Protestant. " The name Protestants," says Archbishop B ram- hall, " is one to which others have no right but by commu- nion with the Lutherans." This name, in European usage, is indeed, to a large extent, still confined to them. In Poland and Hungary, the official title of our communion is " Church of the Augsburg Confession," and this Church of the is the name which, on the title-page of the Form of Augsb^g eonfes- Concord, and repeatedly within it, is given to our S1< churches.* The name Lutheran was first used by Eck, when he published the Bull against Luther. Pope Hadrian VI. (1522) employed it, also, as a term of reproach. It was applied by the Roman- ists to all who took part against the Pope.f Luther strongly disapproved of the use of his name, while he warned men at * ''Electors. Prince, and States of the Augsburg Confession," "who embrace the Augsburg Confession." Gerhard, in the title-page of his "Confessio Cath- olica " : " The Catholic and Evangelical doctrine as it is professed by the churches devoted (addictae) to the Augsburg Confession." f In the German of the Apology of the A. C, 213, 44, it is said: " The saving doctrine, the precious, Holy Gospel, they call Lutheran." 118 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. the same time against such a repudiation of it as might seem to imply a rejection of the doctrine of God's word preached by him. " It is my doctrine, and it is not my doctrine ; it is in my hand, but G-od put it there. Luther will have nothing to do with Lutheranism except as it teaches Holy Scripture Lutheran. x •/ x purely. * " Let us not call our Church Lutheran," said Gustavus Erichson, King of Sweden, "let us call it Christian and Apostolic." The Church simply tolerates the name to avoid the misapprehension and confusion which would arise if it were laid aside. " We do not call ourselves Lutherans, but are so styled by our enemies, and we permit it as a token of our consent with the pure teaching of the word which Luther set forth. We suffer ourselves to bear his name, not as of one whc ^as invented a new faith, but of one who has restored the old, and purified the Church." f " Our faith does not rest upon Luther's authority. We hearken to the voice of Christ in his word, to which, as his faithful teacher and servant, Luther led us." " We are called Lutherans only by Papists and other secta- rians, as in the ancient Church the Arians styled those who held the true faith Athanasians." In the Form of Concord, indeed, the Church has uttered a solemn protest against all human authority, which ought forever to remove the misapprehension that any other position is conceded to Luther than that of a witness for the truth. $ It is not indeed difficult to see why the name of Luther should attach itself so firmly to the part of the Church in whose Reformation he was the noblest worker. He was the first Reformer — the one from whom the whole Reformation of the Sixteenth Century evolved itself. What may be the date Reason of the °^ the private opinions of others has nothing to do name. with this question. A reformer is not one who thinks reformation, but one who brings it about. Men had not only had reformatory ideas before Luther was born, but had died for them, and in some sense, though not utterly, had died in vain. The names of Wiclif, Huss, Jerome of Prague, * See the passages collected in Cotta's Gerhard, xi. 229. f Gerhard: Loci, xi. 224, 228, 230. J Form. Concord, 518, 2, 8. REASON OF THE NAME. 119 and Savanarola, will be forever dear to mankind. Yet the Re- formers before the Reformation were only such potentially- So often did the Reformation seem to hang upon Luther's own person, that Ave are justified in saying that God gave him the place he filled, because there was no other man of his age to fill it. With all the literary grace of Erasmus, how feeblo does he seem, " spending his life," as Luther happily said, "trying to walk on eggs without breaking them." Without Luther, we see no evidence that the Reformation of the six- teenth century would have taken place, or that the names of Zwingle, Melanchthon, or Calvin would occupy their present place in history. ^To position is so commanding as that of Lu- „er. He rises above the crowned heads, above the potentates m Church and in State, and above all the Reformers of his era. In this or that respect he has had equals — in a few respects he has had superiors, but in the full circle of those glorious gifts of nature and of grace which form a great man, he has had no superiors, and no equals. He sustained a responsibility such as never rested upon any other man, and he proved himself sufficient for it. In the Reformation, of the Germanic and Scandinavian type, his views carried great weight with them. His name to this hour is revered with a singleness and passion- ateness of affection without a parallel. ISTo man was able to take to the Swiss type of Reformation, the attitude Luther took to the Germanic. In its own nature, the Reformed divi- sion has no ideal embodied in an actual life ; it cannot have a solitary man who is its microcosm. It can have no little Cosmos, because it has no great Cosmos ; it can have no name equally revered in all its branches. Luther is more a hero to it than any one of its own heroes. It could have at best but a unity like that of those great stars which have beeu broken, and as asteroids are now separate in their unity. Eut, in fact, it has no unity, no tendency to draw around a common historical centre. It binds itself closely to the par ticular nationalities in which it is found. It is German, Dutch, Scotch. Out of this arises a confusion, when these churches make a transition into other nationalities. So little is there of the tendency to unity, that they keep up their old divisions 120 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. with their old names, when they have put an ocean between them and the land of their origin. The name of the national tongue cleaves to the body, until the vague yearning of union- istic feeling overcomes the Calvinistic positiveness, or the sense of the living nationality completely overcomes the tradi- tionary feeling of the old, or a broader catholicity is substituted for the earlier denominational feeling. Then only the name of tongue or race drops, but with it vanishes an evidence, if not a source of fealty to the original tendency of the Zwinglo- Calvinistic Reformation. The Swiss Reformation, which had commenced with the Pelagianizing and rationalistic tendency imparted by Zwingle, was redeemed by Calvin, who, under influences originating in the Lutheran Church, was brought to that profounder faith which, in many of its aspects, is a concession to the Lutheran system over against the Zwinglian. Calvin was, as compared with Zwingle, Lutheranizing in doctrine and in worship ; but, as compared with Luther, he was Zwinglianizing in both. But the Lutheranizing element which Calvin brought, and by which he saved the Swiss tendency from early transition to chaos, was not sufficient to overcome all its defects. The com- parative unity of Calvinism has been broken in upon by the nationalizing tendency showing itself in the rise of a variety of national creeds, where there was little real difference of doctrine ; by the internal sectarian tendency producing Calvin- istic denominations within the national Calvinistic churches ; and by the branching off of Arminian and other sects. The Lutheran Church, on the other hand, has had a great relative unity. It has not felt itself divided by the nationalities into which it is distributed. It has a common Confession through- out the world ; and while it repudiates the idea that true unity depends upon outward uniformity, its unity of spirit has wrought a substantial likeness throughout the world, in life, usage, and worship. In view of all these facts, it is not sur- prising that the name of Luther has adhered to the Church. It has an historical definiteness which no other of the greatest- names associated with the Reformation would have. The system of Zwingle, as a whole, is not now the confessional REASON OF THE NAME. 121 system of any denomination. The Arminians who would accept his sacramental views, reject his fatalistic ideas. The Calvinists reject his sacramental views and his Pelagianism. The name of Calvin would not define denominational character ; for within the Calvinistic denominations there is so real a diversity that parts of the Reformed Churches vary more from each other than those most in affinity with the Lutheran Church vary from it. Of all the Church-names suggested hy the ingenuity of men, by the enmity of foes, or hy the partiality of friends, what name, in the actual state of Christianity, is preferable to the name Lu- theran ? The name " Christian " has no divine warrant. First used at Antioch, it may have been meant as a reproach ; and St Peter alludes to it only as actually used, not as commanded. We know that " Nazarenes '' and " Galileans " were the earlier names of the disciples of Christ. To assume the name Christian, or any other title which belongs to all believers, as the exclusive name of any part of Christendom, is in the last degree pre- sumptuous. The name " Catholic " is also without divine com- mand : it embraces the whole true Church invisible ; and while our Church claims that her true members are a part of this Church Catholic, and that she confesses in all their purity its doctrines, she would repudiate the claim of any particular Church to the sole possession of this great title. The " Ortho- dox Church " of the East is only entitled to that name if the rest of Christendom is heterodox. " Roman Catholic " is a contradiction in terms. The Church which bears it ceases to be Catholic just in the proportion in which it is Roman. To call a church "Episcopal," is to give it a title which only marks its government, and that a government not peculiar to it: the Church of Rome, the Greek Church, the Oriental sects, are all Episcopal in government. To limit it by " Pro- testant " still leaves it vague. The Lutheran Church in Denmark, in Norway, and in Sweden, and the Moravian Churches are Episcopal in government and Protestant in doc- trine. The name " Presbyterian " only indicates a form of gov- ernment in which great bodies of Christians concur who differ in faith and usage. " Methodist " simply preserves a college nickname, and is given to a variety of bodies. "Methodist 122 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. Episcopal " unites that nickname with a form of government older and wider than Methodism. The name " Baptists " only indicates the doctrine concerning the external mode and the proper candidates for a Christian sacrament, and covers a great number of communions which have nothing else in common. The name " Reformed " applies to a species that belongs to a genus. There is, indeed, in every case, a history which ex- plains, if it does not justify, these names : nevertheless, every one of them, as the distinctive name of a communion, is open to the charge of claiming too much, expressing too little, or of thrusting an accident into the place of an essential principle. The necessity of distinctive names arises from the indisputable divisions of Christendom, and in the posture of all the facts the name of Luther defines the character of a particular Church as no other could. It has been borne specifically by but one Church ; and that Church, relieved as she is of all the responsibility of assuming it, need not be ashamed of it. ]STo name of a mere man is more dear to Christendom and to humanity. It is a continual remembrancer of the living faith, the untiring energy, the love of Christ and of men, on the part of one who did such eminent service to the Church, that men cannot think of her without thinking of him. The name thus given her in scorn by her foes stands, for historical reasons, in conjunction with the name she first chose for herself. As distinct from the Romish Church, and all churches which obscure the grace of the Gospel, or do not confess its doctrines in all their fulness, let her consent to be called THE EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CHURCH, to testify, if God so please, to the end of time, that she is neither ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, nor of Christ's servant who, in the presence of earth and of hell, restored that Gospel, preached it, lived it, and died in the triumphs of its faith. Oar age has been extraordinarily fertile in efforts at defining the distinctive and antithetical characteristics of the Lutheran and Reformed Churches. One age develops principles — another speculates on them. The sixteenth century was creative — the nineteenth is an ase of cosmogonies: the one made worlds — the other disputes how they were made. " The owl of Mi- DISTINCTIVE PRINCIPLE. l23 nerva," says Hegel, " a. ways flaps her wings in the twilight." * Gobel, Mtzsch, and Heppe affirm that in Reformed Protest- antism, the formal principle of the exclusive normal authority of the Holy Scriptures (acknowledged by both) is the domi- nating principle. In Lutheran Protestantism, the material principle, justification by faith, (acknowledged by both,) dom- inates. In the former, Scripture is regarded more exclusively as the sole source ; in the latter, more as the norm of a doc- trine which is evolved from the analogy of faith, and to which, consequently, the pure exegetical and confessional tradition of the Church possesses more value. Herzog says Distinctive that Lutheran Protestantism is the antithesis to principle of the the Judaism of the Romish Church — an antith- esis which has imparted to the Lutheran doctrines a Gnos- ticizing tinge : the Reformed Protestantism was opposed to the paganism of the Roman Church, and thus came to exhibit in its doctrine a Judaizing ethical character. Schweizer says : " The Reformed Protestantism is the protestation against every deification of the creature, and, consequently, lays its empha sis on the absoluteness of God, and the sovereignty of his will. This is its material principle, with which coheres the exclusive emphasizing of Scripture as the normal principle." In a sim- ilar vein of thought, Baur says: "The Reformed system begins above, and comes down ; the Lutheran begins below, and ascends." We might perhaps phrase it : the Reformed begins with God, and reasons down to manward ; the Lutheran begins with man, and reasons up to Godward. In opposition to this view, Schneckenburger says that the distinction does not arise from the predominance of the theological in the one sys- tem, of the anthropological in the other, of the absolute idea of God upon the one side, or of the subjective consciousness of salvation on the other, but in the different shape taken in the two systems by the consciousness of salvation itself; from whicl it results that the one system falls back upon the eter- nal decree, the other is satisfied to stop at justification by faith. Stahl, approximating more to the view of Schweizer, finds in the " absolute causality " of God the dominating principle of * Kahnis, Princip. d. Protestant., 4. 124 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. the Eeformed doctrine, and regards it as its chai act eristic that its line of thought is adverse to the recognition of mysteries.* " The entire structure of the Reformed Church is determined, on the one side, by a motive of opposition to the mysterious, (no actual dispensation by the means of grace,) which was imparted to it by Zwingle ; and on the other side, by the evangelical theocratic impulse, (the glorification of God in the congregation,) which was derived from Calvin."-)* How far these estimates may be accepted as well-grounded, our readers can judge with the facts more fully before them. The Lutheran Church has peculiar claims upon the interest of the thoughtful reader of history, as she is the oldest, the most clearly legitimate, the most extensive of Protestant Churches, and in a certain sense the mother of them all. Em- bracing the North of Europe, the Scandinavian kingdoms, the German States, with millions of her children in Russia, Hun- gary, Poland, France, Holland, and in almost every part of the globe where Protestantism is tolerated, she speaks in more tongues, and ministers in more nationalities than all the others claims and cha- together. She is the most conservative of them racter of the Lu- a l} ? though she bore the first and greatest part theran Church. • , -i j -i • • , -it-it in the most daring aggression on established error. No church has so vigorously protested against the abuses of human reason, and none has done so much for the highest culture of the human mind — she has made Germany the educator of the world. No church has been so deeply rooted in the verities of the ancient faith, and none has been marked by so much theological progression : in none has independent religious thought gone forth in such matchless ornature of learning, and under such constant con- trol of a genuine moderation. No church has enunciated more boldly the principles of Christian liberty, and none has been bo free from a tendency to pervert it to licentiousness. No church has more reverently bowed to the authority of God's "Word, and none has been more free from the tendency to sect and schism. More than forty millions of the human race acknowledge her as their spiritual mother ; and she gives * Luthardt, Dogm., \ 13, 1. f Stalil, Die Luth. Kirch., 65. CLAIMS AND CHARACTER. 125 them all, not only the one rule of faith, but she does what no other church does: acknowledging the Bible as the only authority, she gives to her various nationalities one confession of faith, the Augsburg Confession, of which the most popular historian of the Reformation, a French Calvinist, says: "It will ever remain one of the masterpieces of the human mind enlight- ened by the Spirit of God," and which Bishop Bull calls " the greatest, the most noble and ancient of all the confessions of the Eeformed Churches." This immortal document furnishes an integral defining term to the Lutheran Church. Through all time and in all lands this is hers : it is her grand distinction that she is the Church of the Augsburg Confession. It has been said with some truth that the Evangelical Lutheran development of Christianity is closely allied with that of Augustine, but it is wholly remote from his fatalistic tendencies, and from his indeterminate and often self-contra- dictory attitude toward many important points of doctrine. The Romish Church makes divine things objects of sense, the ultra-Protestant principle would make them objects of the understanding, the Lutheran Church holds them as objects of faith. The Romish Church too much confounds the divine and the human, as for example, in the person of Thp Lutheran Christ, in Scripture, in the Church, and in the church. The r 3 - Sacraments. Ultra-Protestantism separates them churches. S The. too much. The Evangelical Lutheran Church Romish ehurch. holds herself alike remote from confounding and from sepa rating them, and maintains them as at once distinct in their essence, and inseparable in their union. * " Zwingle's labors were from the outward to the inward, Luther's wholly from the inward to the outward. The Reformed Reformation, like all the earlier efforts, would probably have failed, if the Reformed had not received from Luther the internal element of faith. It cannot be denied that that Reformation which was actually brought to pass, was begun by Luther. With full justice, in this respect, he is entitled to be called the first Reformer." f "The Lutheran Church is the most glorious and most complete earthly image of the invisible Church. * Kurtz, Lehrb. d. K. G., ed. 6th, 1868, § 140. f Goebel, 52. 26 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. The word in the spirit, the spirit in the word, the body in the idea, the idea in the body, the visible in the invisible, and this again in that, the human and natural in the divine and super- natural, and these latter elements again in the former — this is what she aims at, and this it is she has. As the Romish Church represents mere rest and stability, the Reformed mere unrest and mobility, and both are consequently defective in development and in history in the highest sense of those terms, the Lutheran Church, on the other hand, has in it the true germ of historical life, which constantly expands itself toward a higher perfection. In the Romish Church the life of history dries up, in the Reformed it is comminuted ; in the one it compacts itself to a mummy, in the other it dissipates itself into atoms. There is a Lutheran Church, but there are only Calvinistic or Reformed Churches." * " The Lutheran Church in its distinctive character," says a Reformed writer, f " can tolerate no sects. The number of the Reformed sects is prodigious, literally innumerable. In Edin- burgh alone there are sixteen of them, in Glasgow twenty-six. It seems as if the production of these sects, which shoot up as mushrooms in the soil of the Reformed Church, were neces- sary to the preservation of her life and health. They have all proceeded from the same principle, and have only striven to carry it out more logically, and she is therefore bound to recog- nize them as her genuine children. The Lutheran Church is like the trunk of a great tree, from which the useless branches have been cut off, and into which a noble scion (justification by faith) has been grafted. It is one complete, well-arranged, closely compacted church, which unsparingly removes all wild growths and pernicious off -shoots, (sects.) The Reformed Church has cut down the tree to the root, (the Holy Scrip- tures,) and from that healthy root springs up a wide thicket. The dying out of one of the twigs only leaves ampler nourish- ment for the others." The most powerful conservative influ- ences within the Reformed Churches have, in fact, invariably been connected more or less immediately with the Lutheran Church. With her principles is bound up the only hope of Protestant unity. * Wiggers, i. 96. f Goebel, 176. ARMINIANISM AND CALVINISM. 127 111 the unaltered Augsburg Confession, (1530,) the Lutheran Church has a bond of her distinctive life through- ° The doctrines of out the entire world. As a further development the Evangelical of her doctrines, the larger part of the Church ™»™°w»*- recognizes the confessional character of the " Apology for the Augsburg Confession," (1530,) the Larger and Smaller Cate- chisms of Luther, (1529,) the Smalcald articles, (1537,) and the Formula of Concord, (1577,) all which were issued together in 1580, with a preface signed by fifty-one princes, and by the oificial representatives of thirty-live cities. The whole collec- tion, bore the title of the "Book of Concord." The funda- mental doctrine most largely asserted in them is, that we are justified before God, not through any merit of our own, but by his tender mercy, through faith in his Son. The depravity of man is total in its extent, and his will has no positive ability in the work of salvation, but has the negative ability (under the ordinary means of grace) of ceasing its resistance. Jesus Christ offered a proper, vicarious, propitiatory sacrifice. Faith in Christ presupposes a true penitence. The renewed man co- works with the Spirit of God. Sanctification is progressive, and never reaches absolute perfection in this life. The Holy Spirit works through the Word and the Sacraments, which only, in the proper sense, are means of grace. Both the Word and the Sacraments bring a positive grace, which is offered to all who receive them outwardly, and which is actually imparted to all who have faith to embrace it. Luther, in consequence of his rigid training in the Augus- tinian theology, had maintained, at an earlier period, a particu- laristic election, a view which he gradually aban- Arniinianism doned. The views of Arminius himself, in regard and Calvinism - • to the five points, were formed under Lutheran influences, and do not differ essentially from those of the Lutheran Church ; but on many points in the developed system now known as Arniinianism, the Lutheran Church has no affinity whatever with it, and on these points would sympathize far more with Calvinism, though she has never believed that in order to escape from Pelagianism, it is necessary to run into the doctrine of absolute predestination. The " Formula of Con- 128 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. cord " touches the five points almost purely on their practical sides, and on them arrays itself against Calvinism, rather by the negation of the inferences which result logically from that system, than by express condemnation of its fundamental theory in its abstract form. It need hardly be added that the Lutheran Church holds firmly all the doctrines of the pure Cath- olic faith, and of our general Protestant and Evangelical or- thodoxy. The Evangelical Lutheran Church reg rds the "Word of God, the canonical Scriptures, as the absolute and only law of faith and of life. Whatever is undefined by its letter or its spirit, is the subject of Christian liberty, and pertains not to the sphere of conscience, but to that of order ; no power may enjoin Rule of faith upon the Church as necessary what God has forbid - and creed. c | en ^ or ^g p asse( j Iqj \ n silence, as none may for bid her to hold what God has enjoined upon her, or to prac- tise what by His silence he has left to her freedom. Just as firmly as she holds upon the one hand that the Bible is the rule of faith, and not a confession of it, she holds, on the other hand, that the creed is a. confession of faith, and not the rule of it. The pure creeds are simply the testimony of the true Church to the doctrines she holds ; but as it is the truth they confess, she, of necessity, regards those who reject the truth confessed in the creed, as rejecting the truth set forth in the Word. While, therefore, it is as true of the Lutheran Church as of any other, that when she lays her hand upon the Bible, she gives the command, " Believe ! " and when she lays it on the confession, she puts the question, " Do you believe ? " * it is also true, that when a man replies " No," to the question, she considers him as thereby giving evidence that he has not obeyed the command. Believing most firmly that she has the truth, and that her testimony to this truth is set forth in her creeds, she is distinguished among Protestant churches by her fidelity to her Confession. " During the time of unbelief, the State Church of Holland, the Church of the Palatinate, and the Re- formed Synod of Lower Saxony, renounced all confessions of faith. No Lutheran Church, however, ventured to do this."f * See Goebel, 122, note. f Do., 123. BAPTISM. 129 Very great misrepresentations have been made in regard to certain doctrines of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, which it may he well to notice. Xo doctrine can be Doctrines mis- charged upon her as a whole unless it is set forth, ^presented, or fairly implied in a Confession to which she gives a universal recognition. The only creeds which have this attribute are the oecumenical creeds and the Augsburg Confession. The large majority of the Church which explicitly receives the other Confessions does so on the ground that one system is embraced in the whole, that to accept one ex animo intelli- gently, is logically to accept all, and that it is wise for the Church so fully to state her faith, and its grounds, that as far as human preventives can go, the crafty shall not be able to misrepresent, nor the simple to mistake her meaning. As the Church did but the more surely abide by the Apos- tles' Creed in setting forth the Mcene, and did but furnish fresh guarantee of her devotion to the Nicene in adopting the Athanasian, and gave reassurance of her fidelity to the three oecumenical creeds in accepting the Augsburg Confession — so in the body of symbols in the Book of Concord she reset her seal to the one old faith, amplified but not changed in the course of time. The doctrines in regard to which she has been misrepre- sented, may be classed under the following heads : I. Baptism. The Lutheran Church holds that it is necessary to salvation to be born again of water (baptism) and the Spirit, (John iii. 5, and Augsburg Confession, Art. II. and IX. ;) but she holds that this necessity, though absolute as regards the work of the Spirit, is, as regards the outward part of baptism, ordinary, not absolute, or without exception; that the con- tempt of the sacrament, not the want of it, condemns ; and that though God binds us to the means, he does *-; 7 Baptism. not bind his own mercy by them. From the time of Luther to the present hour, the Lutheran theologians have maintained the salvability and actual salvation of infants dying unbaptized. The rest of the doctrine of the Lutheran Church, as a whole, is involved in her confessing, with the Mcene creed, " one baptism for the remission of sins, " and that through 9 130 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. it the grace of God is offered, that children are to be baptized and that being thus committed to God, they are graciously received by him. At the same time she rejects the theory of the Anabaptists, that infants unbaptized have salvation because of their personal innocence, and maintains that the nature with which we were born requires a change, which must be wrought by the Spirit of God, before we can enter into heaven (A. C, Art. IX. and II.,) and that infants are saved by the application of Christ's redemptory work, of which Baptism is the ordinary channel. II. Consubstantiation. The charge that the Lutheran Church holds this monstrous doctrine has been repeated times without number. In the face of her solemn protestations the falsehood oonsubstantia- * s st ^ circulated. It would be easy to fill many fcion - pages with the declarations of the Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, and of her great theolo- gians, who, without a dissenting voice, repudiate this doc- trine, the name and the thing, in whole and in every one of its parts. In the " Wittenberg Concord," (1536,) prepared and signed by Luther and the other great leaders in the Church, it is said : " We deny the doctrine of transubstantiation, as we do also deny that the body and blood of Christ are locally included in the bread." * In the "Formula of Concord," f our confessors say : " We utterly reject and condemn the doc- trine of a Capernaitish eating of the body of Christ, which after so many protestations on our part, is maliciously imputed to us ; the manducation is not a thing of the senses or of rea- son, but supernatural, mysterious, and incomprehensible. The presence of Christ in the supper is not of a physical nature, nor earthly, nor Capernaitish, and yet it is most true." It would not be difficult to produce ample testimony of the same kind from intelligent men of other communions. One or two of the highest order may suffice. Bishop Waterland, in his great work on the Doctrine of the Eucharist, speaks thus : " As to Lutherans and Calvinists, however widely they may appear to differ in words and names, yet their ideas seem all to concentre in what I have mentioned. The Lutherans deny * In Rudelbach, 664. f Muller's ed., 543, 547. UBIQUITY. 131 every article almost which they are commonly charged with by their adversaries. They disown assumption of the elements into the humanity of Christ, as likewise augmentation, and impandtion, yea, and consubstantiation and concomitancy ; and if it be asked, at length, what they admit and abide by, it is a sacramental union, not a corporal presence." * D'Aubigne says: l< The doctrines (on the Lord's Supper) of Luther, Zwingle, and Calvin were considered in ancient times as different views of the same truth. If Luther had yielded (at Marburg) it might have been feared that the Church would fall into the extremes of rationalism . . . Taking Luther in his best moments, we behold merely an essential unity and a secondary diversity in the two parties." III. Ubiquity. The Lutheran Church holds that the essen- tial attributes of the divine and of the human natures in Christ are inseparable from them, and that, therefore, the attributes of the one can never be the attributes of the other. But a large part of her greatest theologians hold, also, that as His human nature is taken into personal union with the divine, it is in consequence of that union rendered present through the divine, wherever the divine is ; that is, that the human nature of Christ, which as to its finite presence is in heaven, is in another sense, equally real, every- where present. " Our Church rejects and condemns the error that the human nature of Christ is locally expanded in all places of heaven and earth, or has become an infinite essence, "f " If we speak of geometric locality and space, the humanity of Christ is not everywhere." " In its proper sense it can be said with ^ruth, Christ is on earth or in His Supper only ac- cording to his divine nature, to wit, in the sense that the humanity of Christ by its own nature cannot be except in one place, but has the majesty (of co-presence) only from the divin- ity."' " When the word corporeal is used of the mode of presence, and is equivalent to local, we affirm that the body of Christ is in heaven and not on earth." " Of a local presence of the body of Christ, in, with, or under the bread, there never was any controversy between the Luther- * Works, Oxford, 1843, iv. 642. f Form of Concord, p. 548, 695. 132 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. ans and Calvinists ; that local presence we expressly reject and condemn in all our writings. But a local absence does not prevent a sacramental presence, which is dependent on the communication of the divine Majesty." IV. The Lord's Day. The Augsburg Confession touches on this subject only incidentally in connection with the question of Church power. It teaches that the Jewish Sabbath is abolished ; that the necessity of observing the First day of the week rests not upon the supposition that such observance has in itself a justifying power, as the Romanists contended, but on the religious wants of men. It teaches, moreover, that the Lord's day is of apostolic institution. The prevalent judgment of the great theologians of our Church has been that the Sabbath was instituted at the creation of man ; that the generic idea it involves, requires the devoting one day of the week as the minimum, to rest from labor and to religious duties, and so far pertains to the entire race through all time ; and that the law of the Sabbath, so far as it is not determina- tive and typical, but involves principles and wants of equal force under both dispensations, is binding on Christians. An ample discussion of all the points here summarily pre- sented will be found in their place in this volume. Perhaps no stronger testimony to the general purity of the doctrines of the Lutheran Church could be given, than that which is presented in the statements of the great divines of the Reformed Communion. Zwingle* says: " Luther has brought Reformed tes- f° r th nothing novel, (nihil novi;) but that which is timony to the Ln- laid, up in the unchanging and eternal Word of God, 1. zwingie. 2. he has bountifully drawn out; and has opened to caivin. Christians who had been misled, the heavenly treas- ure." Calvin :f ci Call to mind with what great efficacy of teaching Luther hath to this time been watchful to overthrow the kingdom of Antichrist, and speak the doctrine of salvation." Anthony de Bourbon, King of Navarre, $ (1561,) said: "Lu- 3 Kin ofNa- ^her auc ^ Calvin differed in forty points from the varre. Pope, and in thirty-eight of them agreed with one another ; there were but two points on which there was con- * Explau. Art. XVIII. f Ep. ad Bullinger. $ Tlmanus, lib. xxvii KING OF NAVARRE— ALTING. 133 troversy between them, but in bis judgment they should unite their strength against the common enemy, and when he was overthrown it would be comparatively easy to harmonize on those two points, and to restore the Church of God to its pristine purity and splendor." Henry Alting* says, that one great object of his writing his book is to show " to those into whose hands it may come how truly both the Palatinate Church (which has always been regarded as the mother of the other churches of Germany,) and the other Reformed Churches with her, still adhere to the Augsburg Confession, and have by no means departed from the old profession of faith." He then takes up article by article, claiming that the Heidelberg Catechism and the Helvetic Consensus are in unity with the Augsburg Con- fession. Quoting the Second Article, (of original sin,) he says : " The Palatinate Catechism teaches the same thing in express words — we are all conceived and born in sin — and unless we be regenerated by the Holy Spirit, are so corrupt, that we are able to do no good whatever, and are inclined to all vices. It is a calumny that the Reformed teach that the children of believers are born holy, and with- out original sin." On the Third : " It is a calumny that the Reformed Churches dissolve the personal union of the two natures in Christ ; and abolish a true and real communion of natures (communicatio idiomatum)." In the Tenth Article (of the Lord's Supper) : " This is a manifest dissent of the Con- fession — but not of such a character that it ought to destroy the unity of the faith, or distract with sects the Evangelical Christians, — so that the dissent is not total in the doctrine of the Lord's Supper, neither as regards its principal thing, nor much less, as regards a fundamental article of faith and of the Christian religion." Of the Eleventh Article (of private abso- lution): " The Heidelberg Catechism never condemns or abro- gates Confession and Private Absolution, but leaves it as a thing indifferent and free." "And this," he says in conclu- sion, " is a collation of the Augsburg, Palatinate, and Helve- tic Confessions, in all the articles, which most clearly exhibits \ Exegesis Log. et Theol. Augustan. Confess. Amstel., 1648, 4to. 134 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. and demonstrates their orthodox agreement in every article, except the Tenth, and there the disagreement is not entire." The illustrious Dr. Spanheim, (d. 1701,) one of the greatest Calvinistic divines of the seventeenth century, in his work on Religious Controversies, preparatory to a discussion of the point on which Lutherans and Calvinists differ, gives a sketch of the points on which they agree. 1. "Both Lutherans and Calvinists have the same rule and principle, to wit : Holy Scripture ; rejecting human and Papistical 5. spanheim. traditions, and the decrees of the Council of in General. Trent. 2. Both have the same fundamental doc- trine as to the cause of our salvation, both the efficient and the meritorious cause ; as it relates to the person, verity of the natures and their union, the office and benefits of Christ our Lord; in fine, as to the mode of justification, without the merits or causality of works. 3. Both have the same wor- ship, of the one true and triune God, and of Christ our Saviour, remote from all idolatry, superstition or adoration of the crea- ture. 4. Both hold the same duties of the Christian man, the requisites to sanctification. 5. Both make the same protesta- tion against papal errors, even in the matter of the Lord's Supper. They protest alike against all papal idolatry, foul superstitions, Romish hierarchy, cruel tyranny, impure celi- bacy, and idle monkery. 6. Both are under the same obliga- tions to forbear one another in love, in regard to those things which are built upon the foundation and treated in different ways, while the foundation itself remains unshaken. 7. Both finally have the same interests, the same motives for estab- lishing Evangelical peace, and for sanctioning if not a concord in all things, yet mutual toleration forever. From such a toleration would flow a happier propagation of the Gospel, the triumph of Evangelical truth, the mightier assault on Anti- Christ, and his final fall ; the repression of tyranny, the arrest of Jesuitical wiles, the assertion of Protestant liberty, the removal of grievous scandals, the weal of the Church and of the State, and the exultation of all good men. " I. Both Lutherans and Calvinists agree in the Article of the Lord's Supper, that the spiritual eating of Christ's body Is MORE SPECIFICALLY. 135 necessary to salvation, and to the salutary use of the Sacrament ; by which eating is understood the act of true faith, as it directs itself to the body of Christ delivered to death for More specific . us, and his blood shed for us, both apprehended any. and personally applied with all Christ's merits, "II. In the Articles of predestination, grace, and free will, both agree: 1. That after the fall of man, there were no remaining powers for spiritual good, either to begin or to complete : 2. That the whole matter of the salvation of man depends alone on the will, good pleasure, and grace of God. 3. Neither approves the Pelagian doctrine, but each condemns it, and both reject Semi-Pelagianism. " III. In the Article of the person of Christ, both agree - 1. That the divine and human natures are truly and personally united, so that Christ is God and man in unity of person ; and that this union is formed, without confusion or change, indivisibly and inseparably : 2. That the names of the natures are reciprocally used ; truly and in the literal sense of the words, God is man, man is God ; the properties of each of the natures are affirmed truly and really, of the whole person in the concrete ; but according to that nature to which those properties are peculiar, which is called by theologians, communicatio idiomatum (com munion of properties.) 3. That the human nature of Christ is not intrinsically omnipotent nor omniscient ; that in the union, the natures conjoined remain distinct, and the essential proper- ties of each are secure. 4. That the human nature was lifted to supreme glory, and sitteth at the right hand of God. 5. Both reject the heresies of Nestorius, Eutyches, Marcion, Arius, Plotinus Paul of Samosata, and their like. " IV. In the Article of holy baptism, both Lutherans and Calvinists agree: 1. That infants are to be baptized: 2. That the object of baptism is that they may be inserted into Christ, and spiritually regenerated : 3. That baptism is necessary, yet not absolutely, but so that the despising of baptism is damning : 4. That infants have the capacity of receiving regenerating grace, and 5. That these things pertain to the essentials of this Sacrament. M V. As to the ceremonies, especially as regards exorcism in 136 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. the baptismal formula, both are agreed : 1. That it is not to be imagined that an infant is corporeally possessed by Satan : 2. That the rite of exorcism may not be employed for any other end than to signify the habitual inherence of original sin: 3. That these formulas of exorcism may be omitted, and special prayers be substituted therefor." It may be well to note that the practice of exorcism e\en vvith these safeguards and limitations, never was universal in the Lutheran Church ; never vvas regarded as essential by those who practised it, always had strong opposers among the sound- est men in the Church, and long ago fell into general disuse. It never could have been styled, without qualification, a Lu- theran usage. All that could with truth have been said, at any time, was that the Lutheran Church in this or that country, retained it in the exercise of church liberty, among things indifferent. Lutheran unity is based upon heartfelt consent in the doctrines of the Gospel, and in the essential parts of the administration of the Sacraments, and consistency, as Lu- therans, requires no more than tbat we should maintain and defend these. So much it does demand, but it demands no more. Claude,* one of the greatest theologians of the French Reformed Church, says : " Those of the Augsburg Confession (who are called Lutherans) are in difference with us only about the point of the real presence, and about some questions of the schools which we cannot yet impute to their whole body ; and as for the rest, they reject with us the invocation of saints, religious worship of images, human satisfactions, indulgences, purgatory, worship of relics, the pub- lic service in an unknown tongue, the merit of good works, transubstantiation, the sacrifice of the mass, the supremacy of the Pope, the opinion of the infallibility of the church, and the principle of blind obedience to the decisions of councils. They acknowledge the Scriptures to be the only rule of faith ; they carefully practise the reading of them ; they own their sufficiency ; they believe their authority, inde- * Defence of the Reformation, 1673, translated by T. B., London, 1815, vol. i., p 291. THE CHURCH OF GENEVA — PICTETUS. 137 pendent of that of the Church ; they distinctly explain the doctrine of justification, and that of the use of the Law, and its distinction from the Gospel ; they do not conceive amiss of the nature of faith, and that of good works ; and as for popu- lar superstitions, we can scarce see any reign among them." John Alphonsus Turretin * has collected a great body of witnesses whose testimony tends to the same gen- *' . ° 7. J. Turretin. eral point : the possibility and desirableness of con- cord between the Lutherans and the Reformed. He argues for the same position at great length, on the same general grounds with the divines we have quoted. The pastors of the church at Geneva, and the Professors in its Academy, in their letter to Wake, Archbishop of Canterbury, (1719,) say: " As regards our Lu- G ^ e ^ urch of theran brethren, we doubt not that you are aware what exhibitions of love, what ardent desire (cupidinem) of hav- ing concord with them our Church has shown at all times." Pictetus (d. 1724) thus addresses the theologians of the Augsburg* Confession :+ "Let the names of Luther- & ° . . ' 9. Pictetus. ans and Calvinists be blotted out, let altar no more be set up against altar. happy day, in which all your churches and ours shall embrace each other, and with right hands joined and with souls united we shall coalesce into one body, (in unmn corpus coalescimus,) with the benediction of God, the plaudits of angels, the exultation of holy men." The object of these citations is to show that, judged by candid and great men who are not of her communion, the Lutheran Church is pure in all the fundamental doctrines of the Christian faith, a Church to be revered and loved even by those who cannot in all respects unite in her Confession. According to the simple and sublime principles of the New Testament, accepted by the Evangelical Lutheran Church, true church unity rests upon the common acceptance of the funda- mental doctrines of the Gospel in the same sense, and in agreement in the Scriptural essentials of the administration of the Sacraments. On the second point we are in unity with * Nubes Testium, Genevse, 1719, 4to. | Dissert, de Consens. ac Dissens. int. Reform, et Aug. Conf. Fratres, 1697. 138 ClNSERVATIVE REFORMATION. all Evangelical and Protestant bodies except the Baptists, and with them we here fail of unity not because of their Relations of the . _ . . Lutheran church practice ol immersion, which, as a free mode, might to otlior Christian communions. be allowed simply as a matter of preference, but in regard to their doctrine of its necessity, and in that they deviate from the Scripture essential of baptism as to its proper subjects, excluding from it children, to whom God has given it. In regard to the externals of the Lord's Supper, the Lutheran Church has nothing to prevent unity with the rest of the Evangelical Protestant world. To her, questions of kneeling, sitting, standing, of leavened or unleavened bread, or of its thickness, are questions dismissed from the sphere of essentials into that of the liberty of True unity. the Church. They have nothing to do with the essence of unity. The Presbyterian is none the less one with us because he sits at the table while we kneel or stand, unless he construes into a matter of conscience a thing in itself indifferent, neither enjoined nor forbidden. Luther* says: u Eix steadfastly on this sole question, What is that which makes a Christian ? Permit no question to be put on a level with this. If any one brings up a matter, ask him at once : 4 Do these things also make a man a Christian ? ' If he answer, No, let them all go." If Luther's life seemed largely one of warfare, it was not that he did not love peace much, but that he loved truth more. He could not take Zwingle's hand at Marburg, (1529,) because that would have meant that the great point which divided them was not an article of faith, and Luther believed in his inmost heart that it was ; but he prepared and signed his name to the Declaration then set forth, " that both sides, to the extent to which the conscience of either could bear it, were bound to exercise mutual charity — both were bound earnestly and unremittingly to implore Almighty God, that through his Spirit he would vouchsafe to confirm us in the true doctrine." The Wittenberg Concord, between Lu- ther, Melanchthon, and others, upon one side, and Capito, * Ep'istle to the Strasburgers, (1524,) occasioned by Carlstadt's doctrine of the Lord's Supper, and his fanaticism. Briefe, De Wette, ii. 514, Leipz., xix. 225. Walch., xv. 2444. TRUE UNITY. 139 Bucer, and their associates, (1536,) on the other, filled the heart of Luther with pure joy. When no principle was endangered Luther could be as gentle as Melanchthon. "When the intelli- gence reached Luther that the Swiss had accepted the Witten- berg Concord, he wrote to Meyer, the burgomaster of Basel (February 17, 1537) : "I have marked with the greatest joy your earnestness in promoting the Gospel of Christ. God grant us increasing grace that we may harmonize more and more in a true, pure unity, in a sure accordant doctrine and view . . that to this end we forgive one another, and IT. B.," (the nota bene is Luther's,) "bear with one another as God the Father forgives us and bears with us in Christ. We must for- get the strifes and smarts of the past, and strive for unity with patience, meekness, kindly colloquies, but most of all with heartfelt prayer to God, the Father, the Father of all concord and love." * On December 1, of the same year, Luther wrote an official reply to the letter of the representatives of the Swiss Church. He addresses them as " venerable, dear sirs, and friends," and wishes them " grace and peace in Christ our Lord and Saviour," and goes on to say : " I rejoice that the old bitterness and suspicion, between us, have been laid aside, aitdthat you propose, in great earnestness, to promote concord. God himself will graciously consummate a work so well begun. It cannot indeed but be that so great a schism will not heal easily, and leave no scar. There will be some, both with you and with us, who will not be pleased with this Concord, but will regard it with suspicion. But if there be earnestness and diligent effort on both sides, by God's grace, the opposition will die out, (za Tod blut,) and the raging waters will be calmed. Certainly, if strife and clamor could accomplish anything, we have had enough of them. God is my witness that nothing shall be wanting on my part to promote concord. This dis- cord has never benefited me or others, but has done great mis- chief. iSfo good ever was, or ever is to be hoped from it." On the Lord's Supper, on which the Concord had seemed to embody a substantial agreement, Luther, in a few words, shows how greatly he had been misunderstood, and then adds : " Yet, as * Luther's Briefe, De Wette, v. 54, Waleh. xxi. 1282. 140 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. I said before, where we in this point (hierin) have not come fully to an understanding, (wir nicht ganzlich verstiinden,) the best thing for the present (itzt) is that we be friendly to each other, that we put the best construction on each others' acts, (das beste zu einander versehen,) till the mire (Glum) that has been stirred up settles. On our side, and I speak especially for my own person, (sonderlich mein person halben,) we will, from the heart, dismiss all unkindness and regard you with confi- dence and love. When we have done all in our power, we still need God's great help and counsel. We need not indulge the disposition to suspect each other, and stir up strife, for Satan, who hates us and the Concord, will find his own, to throw trees and rocks on the way. Let it be our part to give each other our hearts and hands (die herzen und hand einander reichen) to hold fast with equal firmness, lest the after state of things be worse than the first. May the Holy Ghost fuse our hearts together in Christian love and purpose, and purge away all the dross of suspicion, to the glory of His sacred name, and to the salvation of many souls." * A similar spirit is breathed in Luther's letter of reply to the Council of the Reformed Churches of Switzerland held in Zurich, 1528 : " I beseech you that you go on, as you have begun, to aid in consummating this divine w^ork, of the peace and unity of the Christian Church, as I doubt not ye are ready with all joyfulness to do."t To the Council at Strasburg, Luther had written (May 29, 1536) : " There shall be nothing lacking on my part, whether of act or of suffering, which can contribute to a genuine, thorough, steadfast unity, for what are the results of the dissensions of the Churches, experience, alas ! has taught us." J Luther's cordial spirit toward the Waldenses, his fervent appeals to them when it was rumored that they were about mak- ing peace with Rome, his noble witness to his fellowship with * Luther's Briefe, De Wette, v. 83 : Leipz. xxi. 107. Walch. xvii. 2594. In Latin: Hospinian. H. S. i. 275. Buddeus : 258. •j-L.'s Briefe, De Wette, v. 120. Leipz. xxi. 110. Walch. xvii. 2617. Latin* Hospin. H. S. ii. 164= Buddeus, 292. % Briefe, De Wette, iv 692. Leipz. xxi. 106. Walch, xvii. 2566. Latin : Bud- deus. 251. LUTHERANISM NOT HIGH- CHUB CHISM. 141 Huss and Jerome of Prague, reveal his large catholic heart. Nor even in the ardor of his bitterest conflict with Rome did he ignore the truly Christian elements and great blessings which had been perpetuated in the Church of the West. He distinguished between Popery in the Church of Rome, and the Church of Rome herself, and between the false living rep- resentatives of the Roman Church, and her ancient, true rep- resentatives. From the true ancient Roman Church as known in the writings of the earliest Fathers, neither Luther nor the Lutheran Church ever separated. It was the true old Roman Church which in the Reformation revived, over against the modern corrupted Church of Rome. Not destruction, not revolu- tion, but reformation, was that at which Luther aimed, and re- formation is not revolution, but the great preventive of it. If Europe passed through revolutionary convulsions in and after the sixteenth century, it was not because Reformation was accepted, but because it was resisted. Against the High-Churchism, which makes dividing walls of forms, ceremonies, modes of government, the Lutheran Church enters a living protest. " Where," says Luther, "the Gospel is rightly and purely preached, there must be a Holy Christian Church."* "The Holy Church Universal is pre- eminently a fellowship whose internal bond is faith and tbe Holy Spirit in the heart, and whose outward token is the pure Word and the incorrupt Sacraments. The Lutheramsmuot Church is a communion of saints, to wit, the assem- ni-h-churcinsm. bly of saints who are in the fellowship of the same Gospel or doctrine, and of the same Holy Spirit, who renews, sanctifies, and governs the heart/' f The unchanging marks of the Church are " the pure doctrine of the Gospel and the Sacra ments. That Church which has these is alone properly the pillar of the truth, because it retains the pure Gospel, and as St. Paul saith, the foundation, that is the true knowledge of Christ, and true faith in him." With every external human thing alike there is no unity if the parts of a communion are alien in faith. On the other hand, with every external human thing diverse, there is unity * Werke, Jena, vi 109, (103.) f Apology, (Art. IV.) 142 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. if there be harmony in faith. Our Church desires uniformity not as if it were itself unity, or could be made a substitute for it, but because it illustrates unity, and is one of its natural tendencies and its safeguard. If there be a High-Churchism genuinely Lutheran, it is a very different thing from that which bears that name in other churches. The Lutheran Church does claim that it is God's truth which she confesses, and by logical necessity regards the deviations from the doctrines of the Confession as deviations from divine truth, but she does not claim to be the whole Church. " The Christian Church and Christian holiness, both name and thing, are the common possession of all churches and Christians in the world."* It is enough for her to know that she is a genuine part of it, and she can rejoice, and does rejoice, that the Saviour she loves has his own true followers in every part of Christendom. She says : Liberality and " The Catholic [Christian] Church consists of men charity of the scattered throughout the whole world, from the ' rising of the sun to the going down thereof." f She unchurches none of other names, even though they may be unsound. It is not her business to do this. They have their own Master, to whom they stand or fall. She protests against error ; she removes it by spiritual means from her own midst ; but she judges not those who are without. God is her judge and theirs, and to Him she commits herself and them. Our Church confesses " that among those who are upon the true foundation there are many weak ones, who build upon the foundation perishing stubble, that is, empty human notions and opinions, and yet because they do not overthrow the founda- tion, are still Christians, and their faults may be forgiven them, or even be emended." J "An error," says Luther, "however great it may be, neither can be called heresy, nor is heresy, unless it be held and defended obstinately as right." "Erring makes no heretics ; but the defending and protecting error with stiffness of neck, does." "There never has been a heresy which did not also affirm some truth. Wherefore we must not deny the truth (it contains) on account of the falsehood (it mixes with it)." § " Heretics not merely err, but refuse to be * Luther. f Apology, Art. IV. % Apology, Art. IV. \ Werke, Walch. xxi. 120; xviii. 1771 ; iii. 2294. LIBERALITY AND CHARITY. 143 taught ; they defend their error as right, and fight against known truth, and against their own consciences — self-willed and consciously they remain in their error." "It is not right, and I am truly sorry that these miserable people are murdered, /burnt, and executed. Every one should be left to believe what he will, (man sollte ja einen jeglichen lassen glauben was er wollte.) How easy is it to err ! Let us ward against them with the Scripture, not with fire." * It is not charity to bear with others because the differences between us are trifling ; it is charity to bear with them although the differences are great. Charity does not cover error ; because error is the daughter of sin, and charity is the daughter of God. Charity covers errorists so far as she may without pal- liating their errors, for the errorist, as a man, is God's child. Charity is the reflex of love to God, and our Church, there- fore, is loyal to his truth even when she is most tender to those who err from that truth. If there have been bigoted, inquisi- torial, and harsh judges of others who bear her name, it is not from her they derived these peculiarities, and such men know not the spirit they are of. Never are great systems more cruelly misrepresented than by some who claim to be their friends. While, therefore, many of the pretended representations of Lu- theran theology have been gross misrepresentations, they have not always been the result of ignorance, or of malice, but have proceeded from nominal friends, sometimes from timidity of character, and sometimes from a harsh, fierce spirit, which delights to aggravate differences, and make them hopeless. This aggravation has been made by enemies from hatred of the sys- tem. The^y wished to excite disgust at it. But the same sort of representation has also been made by a different class, who were moved by hatred to other systems, quite as much as by love to the system they espoused. They considered the Lu- theran system not only as true, but as in such sense having all the truth, that no other church has the least share of it. They were not satisfied with showing that others are less scrip- . tural than ourselves, or in important respects depart from the teachings of the Word, but they were determined to show that *Werke, Walch. xvii. 2624. 144 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. they are scriptural in nothing. Such hopeless errorists are not sound, on the showing of these polemics, even on the general truths of the Apostles' Creed : they are douhters of the very elements of Christianity : they are on the way to Atheism, only kept from running into it by their fear or by their ina- bility to follow their premises to their fair conclusions. It is true, the most extravagant of this school in the Lutheran Church have been far outstripped in their exclusiveness by sec- tarians of different kinds : but this is no apology for them. A Church so large-hearted, so truly catholic in her genius, and so mild in her spirit as is the Lutheran, expects better things of her children. As she does not rear them with a sectarian bias, she cannot allow them to plead sectarian excesses as an offset to their own. In treating of the doctrines of such a Church, men should be thoroughly acquainted with them, deeply convinced of their truth, and transformed by their power ; and men of this stamp will develop them not in a little, sectarian spirit, but with a largeness and nobleness of mind, which will attest the moral power of the truth they hold. If our Church ever could have been moved to a dif- ferent spirit, it would have been during those exasperating con- troversies with open enemies, and still more with false breth- ren, which led to the preparation of the Formula of Concord. Yet, in the Preface to the book in which that Formula was embodied, the Electors, Princes, and Orders of the a g ^st al the°per* Empire thus declare themselves : "It is by no secution of other me ans our will and intent, in the condemnation of false and impious doctrines, to condemn those who err from simplicity, and who do not blaspheme the truth of God's Word. Still less do we wish to condemn whole churches either within the bounds of the German Empire or beyond it, . . . for we entertain no doubt whatever (ganz und gar keinen zweifel machen) that many pious and good people are to be found in those churches also, which to this time have not thought in all respects with us ; persons who walk in the sim- plicity of their hearts, not clearly understanding the points involved, . . . and who, it is to be hoped, if they were rightly instructed in the doctrine, through the guidance of the Holy OFFICIAL PROTEST. 145 Spirit, into the unerring truth, of God's Word, would consent with us. . . . And on all the theologians and ministers of the Church is the duty specially incumbent to admonish, and teach out of God's Word with moderation those who err from the truth through simplicity or ignorance, lest the blind leading the blind, both perish. Wherefore, in this our writing, in the presence of Almighty God and before the whole Church, we testify that it was never our purpose, by this Christian Formula of conciliation, to create trouble or peril for those poor op- pressed Christians who are now enduring persecution. . . . For, as moved by Christian love, we long ago entered into the com- panionship of suffering with them, so do we abhor and from our soul detest the persecution and most grievous tyranny which has been directed against these hapless persons. In no degree or respect do we consent to this shedding of innocent blood, which doubtless, in the awful judgment of God, and before the tribunal of Christ, will be strictly demanded at the hands of their persecutors." This plea and protest of the Lutheran Princes and Estates was made specially in behalf of the Huguenots, the French Calvinists, whose bitter sufferings had culminated in the frightful massacre of St. Bartholomew, (August 24, 1572.) The Princes and Estates add, to show that their charity was a heavenly love, and not the indolent passiveness of laxity in doctrine : " Our intent has been . . . that no other doctrine than that which is founded in God's Word, and is contained in the Augsburg Confession and its Apology, accepted in their genuine sense, should be set forth in our lands, provinces, schools, and churches, ... in order that among our posterity also the pure doctrine and confession of the faith may be pre- served and propagated, through the aid of the Holy Spirit, until the glorious coming of our only Redeemer and Saviour Jesus Christ." These are words to stir the inmost heart. Alike in their revelation of faith, hope, and charity, they are words without a parallel in the history of churches. Where, among Confessions, but in the Confession of the Lutheran Church, is there so tender, so apologetic, a reference to those differing in faith? Where, but in it, is there so noble a confession of the 10 146 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. fellowship of saints, and so hopeful an expression of confidence m the better mind and sincerity of those who err ; where is there so brave, earnest, and heartfelt an allusion to the trials of those of another communion ? so sublime a protest against their persecution, and consequently against all persecution for conscience' sake? God grant that the spirit of these holy men may be perpetuated in the church which they so signally served in their generation, and that their devout aspirations may be fulfilled, that when the Son of Man cometh, he may find faith on the earth still shedding its holy light in the midst of those whose fathers loved him so purely, loved his Truth so fervently ; and yet, like their Master, refused to call down fire from heaven on those who followed not with them. In affinity with this spirit, a great living theologian in Ger- many has said : " I think I may say, I am not conscious of belong- ing to any parti/, but have followed truth alone. In the path- way of my search for truth, I was led to Jesus Christ, who is the truth, and by him was led to the Lutheran Church, which I have held, and do now hold to be not the only true church, BUT THE PILLAR OP THE TRUTH IN THE CHURCH UNIVERSAL. I know, moreover, that he only who has received the spirit of this Church, who stands immovably on the foundation of the Apos- tles and Prophets, who lives in the fixed conviction that the Confession of the Lutheran Church is in its very essence in con- sonance with the pure gospel, and who yet has felt the influ- ence of the past three centuries, I know that he only has an (Ecumenical mind and catholic heart for that which is true in all churches ; he only has an ear for the harmonies of truth which still ring out from the dissonances of the countless varieties of the notes of our times. I have never shrunk from the reproach of orthodoxy, so far as its cause is the cause of Christ, and yet I have constantly said that I could not he the defender of those who seek in the faith of the Church that only which is old, fixed, and finished. With justice, we withdraw our confidence from a theological writer who vio- lently rushes from one extreme to another. But can we, on the other hand, trust a theologian of whom we know that, having once taken a position, it is entirely impossible for him CONTROVERSIES. 147 forever after to doubt its correctness. Truth gives itself only to hiin who seeks it, but he who seeks it wilL not find it, if he can let nothing go." The life of a Church may be largely read in its controversies. As the glory or shame of a nation is read upon its battle-fields which tells for what it perilled the lives of its sons, so may the glory or shame of a Church be determined when we know what it fought for and what it fought against; Controversie8 how much it valued what it believed to be truth ; of the Lutheran what was the truth it valued ; how much it did, and how much it suffered to maintain that truth, and what was the issue of its struggles and sacrifices. Tested in all these ways, the record of the Lutheran Church is incomparably glo- rious. It has contended for great truths at great sacrifices, and in every conflict in which it has borne a part, truth has ultimately been victorious. A Church which contends for nothing, either has lost the truth, or has ceased to love it. Warfare is painful, but they whose errors create the necessity for it are responsible for all its miseries. At times, especially in the early history of the Lutheran Church, there arose con- troversies, the most important of which were: 1, the Philip- istic, arising from the excessive desire of Melanchthon and his school to harmonize with the Roman Catholics and the Re- formed ; 2, the Antinomistic (1537 -'40, 1556), caused by the effort of Agricola to introduce what has been called a " Pela- gianism of the Gospel ; " 3, the Osiandrian (1550 -'67), so called from Osiander, who confounded sanctification with justifica- tion ; 4, the Adiaphoristic (1548 -'55); 5, the Majoristic (1551 -'52), on the necessity of good works ; 6, the Synergistic (1555 -'67), on the co-operation of the human will in conver- sion, in the course of which Flacius spoke of original sin as substantial, not accidental ; 7, the Crypto-Calvinistic (1552-'74). The view of Calvin in regard to the Lord's supper was so much profounder than that of Zwingli, (which Calvin strongly con- demned,) and indeed in some aspects so Lutheranizing that Me- lanchthon, without abandoning the Lutheran view, thought that Calvin's might be tolerated, and the points of difference ignored in the Confessions. This position was assailed by the 148 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. stricter Lutherans. In the course of controversy the more general questions connected with the person of Christ were discussed. All these questions were settled in the " Form of Concord," (1577.) So deeply was the church grounded in fun damental unity of faith, that none of these controversies, vio- lent as some of them were, were able to rend it into denomina- tional fragments. The subsequent controversies have been on syncretism (1655), pietism (1686), and rationalism (1751), and those connected with the Union and the revival of Lutheran- ism (from 1817, Harms's Theses, to the present hour). Theological science flourished in the sixteenth century most of all in the universities of Wittenberg, Tubingen, Strasbourg, Marburg, and Jena. To this era belong Luther, Melanchthon, Flacius, Chemnitz, Brentius, and Chytrseus. In the seventeenth century occur the names of Glassius, Pfeiffer, Erasmus Schmidt, Hakspan, Gier, Seb. Schmidt, Calovius ; in dogmatics, Hutter, Gerhard, Quenstedt, Calixtus, Hunnius ; in church history, Rechenberg, Ittig, Sagittarius, Seckendorf, and Arnold. In the eighteenth century, Loscher closes the ancient school ; and the Pietistic school, practical rather than scientific, is illustrated by Lange. The Conservative Pietistic, avoiding the faults of the others and combining their virtues, embraces Hollazius, Starck, Buddeus, Cyprian, J. C. Wolf, Weismann, Deyling, Carpzov, J. H. and C. B. Michaelis, J. G. Walch, Pfaff, Mosheim, Ben- gel, and Crusius. The school which treated theology after the philosophical method of Wolf numbers S. J. Baumgarten, Rein- beck, and Carpzov ; to the transitional school belong Ernesti, J. D. Michaelis, Semler, who prepared the way for rationalism, and Zollner ; the principal members of the rationalistic school Theological sd- were Greisbach, Koppe, J. G. Rosenmuller, Eich- lu- horn, Gabler, Bertholdt, Henke, Spittler, Eberhard, and A. H. Memeyer. Of the supranaturalistic school, abandoning the ancient orthodoxy in various degrees, but still maintaining more or less of the fundamentals of gen- eral Christianity, are Morus, Doderleiu, Seiler, Storr, Knapp, Reinhard, Lilienthal, and Koppen ; and in church history, Schrockh, C. W. F. Walch, Staudlin, and Planck. The founder of the distinctive theology of the nineteenth century was ence in the theran Church. THEOLOGICAL SCIENCE. 149 Sclileiermacher (died 1834), the greatest of the defenders of the union between the Lutheran and Reformed Churches of Germany. Influencing all schools, he can he claimed for none. Xeander may be classed as pietistic supranaturalist, Be Wette as historico-critical rationalist, Hase as philosophico-aesthetic rationalist. The chief defenders of the vulgar ration- alism are Rbhr, Paulus, Wegscheider, Bretschneider, and Ammon ; of historico-critical rationalism, Winer, Fritzsche, Credner, Schulz, Yon Colin, R/iiekert, Gesenius, Tuch, Knobel, Hupfeld, Hitzig, Ewald, Bertheau, and Len- gerke. The rational sujpranaturalistic school is represented by Tzschirner, Tittmann, C. F. K. Eosenmiiller, and Baumgarten- Crusius ; supranaturalism proper, or suprarationalism, by E. G. Bengel, Flatt, Heubner, Augusti, Hahn, Bohmer ; pietistic supranaturalism by Tholuck (who approached more closely in the course of his studies to a thoroughly Lutheran position), Hengstenberg, Olshausen, Stier, Havernick, Steiger, and Bun- sen in his early position, though in his latest years a ration- alist. The representatives of the " new " or " German " theol- ogy, of the school of Schleiermacher, of Lutheran origin, are Liicke, Mtzsch, Julius Miiller, Ullmann, Twesten, Dorner, Liebner, and Martensen ; also Rothe, I. T. Beck, Auberlen, Umbreit, Bleek, H. A. "W. Meyer, Huther, Wieseler, and Tischendorf. The writers of the nineteenth century whose names we have given are or were within the "Union," and defenders of it, with a few exceptions. The representatives of the Lutheran theology, for the most part, in its strictest sense, are Glaus Harms, who struck the first decisive blow at rationalism (1817), Scheibel, Sartorius, Rudelbach, of Denmark, Guericke, Harless, Hbfling, Thoma- sius, Philippi, Harnack, Dieckhof, Lohe, Yilmar, Xrabbe,Klie- foth, ])elitzsch, M. Baumgarten, Luthardt, Dreschler, Caspari, Oehlei , Keil, Zochler, and J. H. Kurtz. Two distinguished jurists, K. F. Gb'schel and F. J. Stahl, are to be included among the defenders of the Lutheran confession. Among the names which once took undisputed place in this part of the roll of honor, are three which have dropped from it, J. C. K. v. Hofmann, Thiersch, and Kahnis — the last 150 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. by his assent to the rationalistic Criticism of the Canon, his rejection of the Church Doctrine of the Trinity, and his denial of the supreme divinity of the Son and the Spirit (subordin- atism), and by his rejection of the Lutheran Exegesis of the Words of the Institution of the Supper, while he yet professes to hold fast to the substance of the Lutheran Doctrine of the Eucharist. If the Nineteenth Century has not been an era of the most safe and solid thinking, it has, beyond all dispute, been the most brilliant era in the history of theological science ; and alike of the inventiveness that glittered, and of the sobriety that restrained, the theological impulse which the world owes to the Lutheran Church, has been the spring. In the United States the energies of the best men in the Church have been directed mainly into the channels of prac- tical activity ; yet there has nevertheless been an honorable exhibition of theological ability and learning. Among the names of those to whom we owe books, either as writers, translators, or editors, may be mentioned: Anspach; Bach- man; S. K. Brobst ; F. W. Conrad; Demme ; G.Diehl; L. Eichelberger ; Endress ; Goering ; Greenwald ; S. "W. Harkey ; Hazelius ; Helmuth ; the Henkels, Paul, D. M., Ambrose, and Socrates ; J. N. Hoffman ; Hutter ; M. Jacobs ; Henry Jacobs ; E. W. G. Keyl; C. Philip Krauth; Krotel; Kunze; B. Kurtz; Lape ; Lintner ; the Lochmans, J. G. and A. H. ; Loy ; W. J. Mann ; P. F. Mayer ; John McCron ; Mealy ; F. V. Mels- heimer ; C. B. Miller ; J. G. Morris ; the Muhlenbergs, II. M., H. E., F. A. ; Norelius; Officer; Oswald ; Passavant ; Peixoto Pohlman; Preus ; Probst; Quitman; Reynolds; Salyards the Shaeffers, F. D., D. F., F. C, C. F., C. W. ; H. I. Schmidt J. G. Schmauck ; the Schmuckers, J. G., S. S., B. M. ; Seiss Seyffarth ; Sheeleigh ; G. Shober ; C. A. Smith ; J. Few Smith M. L. Steover; F. C. Stohlman; T. Stork; P. A. Strobel Stuckenberg ; Titus ; Van Alstine ; Vogelbach ; Wackerha gen ; C. F. W. Walther ; Weiser ; D. Worley ; F. C. Wyne ken. There are others worthy of a place in our list of authors but as they have not put their labors into the permanent shape EDUCATION IN THE LUTHERAN CHURCH. 151 of books, it does not fall within our plan to enumerate them.* The imperfect list we give of the great names in our Church, especially in Germany, may serve to explain the strong terms in which writers of other churches have felt themselves constrained to speak of Lutheran theology : " The Lutheran Church has a great pre-eminence over the Reformed in regard to its internal theological development. German theological science comes forth from the Lutheran Church. The theology of the Lutheran Church supported by German diligence, thor- oughness, and profundity, stage by stage, amid manifold strug- gles and revolutions, arose to an amazing elevation, astounding and incomprehensible to the Swiss, the French, and the Eng- lish." f " The Lutheran Church," says Lange, " is the Church of theologians." \ At once as a cause and a result of this greatness in the highest form of learning, may be regarded the fact that the Lutheran Church is an Educating Church from the humblest sphere of the children of the poor to the highest range of the scholar's erudition. The early efforts of Luther in behalf of education were continued by his successors through the means of catechetical instruction, congregational and public schools, and universities. There are no exclusively Eeformecl universities in Germany proper. The universities which the Lutheran Church has in part or in whole may be classified as follows : 1, those in which the three confessions are represented — Tubingen, Giessen, Breslau, and Bonn; 2, the two confessions, Lutheran and Eeformed — Heidelberg, Greifswalde, Marburg, Konigsherg, Halle, Erlangen, (the professors Lutheran with one 1 o * \ xr Education in exception,) and Berlin ; S, exclusively Lutheran — the Lutheran Leipsic, Rostock, (Wittenberg, transferred to Halle in 1817, now a seminary for candidates for the ministry,) Jena, Kiel, and Gottiugen; in Denmark, Copenhagen; in Xorway, Christiania ; in Sweden, Lund and Upsal ; in Russia, Dorpat. * For the completest list of "Publications by Lutherans in the United States," up to 1861, see Evangelical Review, April, 1861, 542. f Goebel, 263, 277. J Kurtz, \ 176, 6. 152 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. In the United States she has fourteen Theological Seminaries, sixteen Universities and Colleges, nine Female Academies, sixteen Academies, and various societies for Education and Publication. The Periodicals devoted to her interests are, nine English, -fifteen German, two Norwegian, two Swedish. Nor has the Lutheran Church been satisfied with meeting the wants of her own children. She has been, and is a Church of Missions. In 1559, Gustavus Yasa, of Sweden, founded a mission among the Laplanders, which was continued with renewed earnestness by Gustavus Adolphus, Denmark also aiding. Thomas von Westen (died 1727) was the apostle of this mission. Heyling, of Liibeck, without any aid, labored as a missionary in Abyssinia, (1635,) and others, of the circle of his friends, engaged in the same cause in various parts of the East. Frederick IV., of Denmark, established the East India mission at Tranquebar, (1706,) for which Fran eke fur- nished him two devoted laborers, Pliitzschau and Missions. Ziegenbalg, the latter of whom translated the New Testament into Tamil, (1715.) The labors of this mission were also extended to the English possessions. From the orphan-house at Halle went forth a succession of missionaries, among whom Schwartz (died 1798) is pre-eminent. An insti- tution for the conversion of the Jews was established at Halle, in 1728. Egede of Norway (died 1758) commenced his labors in Greenland, in 1721. In 1736, he returned, and established in Copenhagen a mission seminary. Though the larger part of the Lutheran Church is unfavorably situated for Foreign Missions, the work has ever been dear to her — and her missions have been, and are now among the most successful in the world. Many embarrassing circumstances prevented the Lutheran Church from developing her life as perfectly in her church constitution as in her doctrines and worship. The idea of the universal priesthood of all believers at once over- churchConsti threw the doctrine of a distinction of essence mtioii. between clergy and laity. The ministry is not an order, but it is a divinely appointed office, to which men must be rightly called. No imparity exists by divine right ; an hierarchical organization is unchristian, but a gradation DIVINE WORSHIP. 153 (bishops, superintendents, provosts) may be ooserved, as a thing of human right only. The government by consistories has been very general. In Denmark, Evangelical bishops took the place of the Roman Catholic prelates who were deposed. In Sweden the bishops embraced the Reformation, and thus secured in that country an "apostolic succession" in the high-church sense; though, on the principles of the Lutheran Church, alike where she has as where she has not such a succession, it is not regarded as essential even to the order of the Church. The ultimate source of power is in the congregations, that is, in the pastor and other officers and the people of the single communions. The right to choose a pas- tor belongs to the people, who may exercise it by direct vote, or delegate it to their representatives. The Lutheran Church regards preaching as an indispen- sable part of a complete divine service. All worship is to be in the vernacular ; the wants of the heart as well as of the reason are to be met. Whatever of the past is spiritual, beau- tiful, and appropriate, is to be retained. The church year, with its great festivals, is kept. With various national diver- sities there is a substantial agreement in the liturgical services of the Lutheran Church throughout almost all the world. The hymns are sung by all the people with the Divine wor- organ accompaniment. The clergymen in their sh,p ' official functions wear a distinctive dress, usually a black robe, with the bands, though the surplice has also been largely retained. In Denmark and Sweden, the chasuble is also worn in the altar service ; and in Sweden, the mitre and bishop's crosier are retained. A preparatory service pre- cedes communion. The doctrine and practice of auricular confession were rejected at the beginning. The " private confession," which was established in some parts of the Church, involves no enumeration or confession of particular sins whatever, unless the communicant desires to speak of them ; and the " private absolution " is simply the annun- ciation of the gospel promise with the gospel conditions to the individual penitent, a promise which in its own nature is collative, that is, actually confers remission, when it is re- 154 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. eeived in faith. The " Exorcism " in the shape in which it existed in some of the Lutheran Churches, involved little more than " the Renunciation, " and can be defended on some of the same grounds. Simply as a rite long estab- lished, and which might be tolerated if regarded as no more than a symbolical representation of the doctrine that our nature is under the dominion of sin, it was practised in parts of the Church, but has fallen everywhere into oblivion. Persons are received to the communion of the Church by confirmation performed by the pastor, after thorough instruc- tion in the Catechism. But especially in sacred song has the Lutheran Church a grand distinctive element of her worship. "The Lutheran Church," says Dr. SchafF, "draws the fine arts into the service of religion, and has produced a body of hymns and chorals, which, in richness, power, and unction, surpasses the hymnology of all other churches in the world." "In divine worship," says Goebel, "we reach a point in which the Lutheran Church has one of its most glorious features of pre-eminence. The hymns of the Church are the people's confession, and have wrought more than the preaching. In the Lutheran Church alone, German hymn- ology attained a bloom truly amazing. The words of holy song were heard everywhere, and sometimes, as with a single stroke, won whole cities for the Gospel." What has been the practical working of the Lutheran sys- tem in the life of the Church ? This question is an extensive one, and we offer but a fact or two bearing on the answer to it. In the Lutheran system the word of God works from - . , within to the outward. The Romanic nations are Practical work- ing of Lutheran- characteristically less contemplative and more radi- cal and inclined to extremes than the Germanic, and the Swiss Reformation had a large mingling of political elements. The Lutheran type of Reformation and of religion is consequently milder and less demonstrative, less obtrusive and more averse to display, than the Zwinglian and Calvin- istic ; but the piety it matures is unequalled in firmness, calmness, earnestness, joyousness, and freedom. The character of Luther himself, is largely mirrored in the Church which WORKING OF LUTHER ANISM IN TEE LIFE. 155 cherislies his memory as one of her most precious possessions. The Lutheran Church is very rich in devotional works for the people. It is more in affinity with high aesthetic culture than other Protestant Churches. It is less open than others to excessive tendencies to voluntary (especially to secret) associa- tion not under the control of the Church. It may be claimed for it that it is the most healthfully cautious of Churches, and, therefore, most sure to make the most permanent, if not the most rapid progress. Gcebel, a Reformed writer, says : " That charming, frank good-humor, and that beneficence which rise from the very depth of the soul, and which so advantageously distinguish the German nation from others, are wanting among the Reformed — even among the Germans of the Reformed Church. The piety of the Lutherans is deep, fervent, heart- felt." And a far greater theological scholar, (Dr. Schaff,) also of another communion, has said : " The Lutheran piety has also its peculiar charm — the charm of Mary, who sat at Jesus feet and heard his word. ... It excels in honesty, kindness, affection, cheerfulness, and that gemlithlichkeit for which other nations have not even a name. The Lutheran Church meditated over the deepest mysteries of divine grace, and brought to light many treasures of knowledge from the mines of revelation. She can point to an unbroken succession of learned divines who devoted their whole lives to the investi- gation of saving truth. She numbers her mystics who bathed in the ocean of infinite love. She has sung the most fervent hymns to the Saviour, and holds sweet, child-like intercourse with the Heavenly Father." A fair construction of the whole history of the past will inspire faith in the character of the people whom God has given to our Church to be gathered under her banners and to fight her battles. Not all the havoc which state-meddling, war, and infidelity have made wrth the true German character in Europe can efface the evidence of the past and the present, that of all nations the German is the most simply and pro- foundly religious, that the Germans are what Dr. Arnold calls them : " the regenerating race — the most moral race of men," 156 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. and a large part of this glory is due to that Church which so faithfully exhibits and nurtures the genuine Germanic life. And not unworthy of a place with this noble element is the other great family of Lutheran nations, which next to the Ger- mans, are adding to the greatest treasure of this lew World, thousands of Christian men. The name of Scandinavians recalls great Lutheran nationalities which have deserved well of the The scandina- world. With it is connected the name of Gustavus vian Lutherans, Yasa, King of Sweden, who pleaded for the Re- formation with tears, who laid down his sceptre and refused to take it again until the love of his people for him made them willing to receive the Reformation, and who founded, among the poor Laplanders, one of the first Protest- ant Missions. It recalls the name of the martyr-hero, Gus- tavus Adolphus, whose name should be dearer to Protestants, and most of all to Lutherans, who justly claim to be the most Protestant of Protestants, dearer than the name of Washing- ton to Americans, for a part of the price he paid for the rescue of the religious liberty of Europe was his own blood. But for him, our Protestantism might have been borne down, and swept away from the world in a torrent of blood and fire. He, too, was zealous in the cause of missions. It was a Scandinavian Jdng, Frederick IY. of Denmark, who established at Tranque- bar, the East India Mission, which was blest with the labors of Ziegenbalg, and of the greatest of missionaries of all time, Christian Frederic Schwartz. It was a Scandinavian Lutheran preacher, Hans Egede, of Norway, who, amid toil, peril, and suffering, planted a pure Christianity among the Greenlanders. " In the eighteenth century," says Wiggers, " Denmark shone in the eyes of Evangelical Europe as a fireside and home of missions." a In Sweden," says the same distinguished writer, " the Lutheran Church won a noble and pure people, full of a vigorous and steadfast faith, a people marked by clearness and brightness of intellect, by pure and simple morals, and the soul of chivalry ; a people always ready fearlessly to wage warfare for the Gospel with the sword of the spirit, and if necessity urged, with the temporal sword. United with the state by THE S CA ND IN A VIA N L UTHER A NS. 157 tlie most intimate ties, not of bondage, but of mutual love, entering thoroughly into every part of the national life, exer- cising through its control of the schools the mightiest and holiest influence in the training of the young, with a ministry whose fidelity and wisdom accomplish the more, because they are sustained by high temporal position and adequate support, with a people who exhibit a calm and pious humility, and an unlimited confidence in their pastors, the Church of Sweden shines, like a star with its pure mild light, in the northern sky." For the Anglicized and English portion of our Church, which best represents it, we claim a character in consonance with its great antecedents — a character of simplicity, earnest- ness, devoutness. In the departments of business, the calm of home, the sacred duties of the Church, the sphere of citizens, they show a solid worth, which testifies to the thoroughness of the Christian nurture of the communion they love. Of what our Church is, and of what she brings to this, her new home, witness has been borne by more than one thought- ful man of other communions. But among them all, there is none of more value than that given by Dr. John W. Kevin, of the Reformed Church. £To amount of divergence from Dr. Kevin's views, could prevent a man of candor from acknowl- edging in him the presence of a great intellect, of the most unpretending simplicity and modesty, and of the most uncompromising love of truth. Our country has few men who can be classified with him. In originality and general vigor of conception and of style, Bushnell and Parks would be thought of as most like him ; but we do not think that on any just estimate of the men, they could be claimed as his superiors. Dr. Kevin's range of thought is at once broader and deeper than that of most of our theological thinkers. It is comprehensive without becoming shallow. For the Lutheran Church in its genuine life he expresses great affection and reverence, and his witness is of peculiar value, for no man out of our Church knows more fully than he what is in it. He Bays, in speaking of the cultivation of an historical spirit in his own Church : " But this cannot fail to bring with it, at the same time, the power of understanding and appreciating 158 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. also the vast historical significance which belongs to the other great Protestant Confession, the Lutheran Church. In recog- nizing our identity with the Reformed CoDfession in general, while we yet discard the peculiarity of our position in it as a German Reformed Church, w r e come necessarily into the feel- ing of w T hat Lutheranism is for the church at large, in a way that is not by any means so easy for the thinking of otLer branches of the Reformed Communion in this country. In understanding ourselves and in learning to do justice to our own historical character, we are made conscious not simply of our difference from the Lutheran Church, but also of our old nearness to it, and of what we owe to it for our universal church life. The power of estimating intelligently the merits of the value ottheLu- Heidelberg Catechism, must prove for us the power theran church to f honoring also the Augsburg Confession, as it Christianity at ° . . large. Dr. j. w. was honored in the beginning by the framers of the Catechism. We can have no sympathy with that type of Reformed thought, whether in New England or elsewhere, which has fallen away entirely from the original Spannung of the two great Protestant Confessions ; w T hich has lost all sense for the old theological issues, that threw them asunder in the sixteenth century ; and for which Lutheranism, in the profound distinction which then belonged to it, has become an unmeaning memory of the dead past. We are in the way more and more, it may be hoped, of knowing better than this. We can have no wish to have the Lutheran Church overwhelmed in this country by the reigning unhistorical spirit of our American Christianity — no wish to see it Americanized, in the sense of anything like a general rupture with its original theological life. The whole Reformed Church here, whether it be perceived or not, has a vast interest at stake on the power of the Lutheran Church to remain true and faithful to her con- fessional mission. For all who are capable of appreciating at all the central and vital character of the questions that shook the Protestant world in the age of the Reformation, and who are able to make proper account of the unsacramental tenden- cies of the present time, it must be a matter for congratulation that German Lutheranism has grown to be so numerically THE LUTHERAN CHURCH IK AMERICA. 159 powerful within our borders, and that it is coming to be in every way so vast an ecclesiastical power in the land ; while it ought to be the prayer of all, that this power may be so exer- cised more and more as to be a principle of wholesome redemp- tion and preservation for the universal Protestantism of the nation." That such a Church has a mission of extraordinary import- ance in this land in which exist such dangerous tendencies to sectarianism and radicalism, and whose greatest ° Mission of the need is the cultivation of historical feeling, under Lutheran church the restraint of a wholesome conservatism, requires no argument. The Lutheran Church daily becomes better known through the translations of her literature, though most of them are very bad ones ; but her work of good cannot be consummated till she renders her genius and life themselves into the idiom of the new nationality into which she is here passing. Protestant to the very heart, yet thoroughly histori- cal, happy in her liberty of adaptation in things indifferent, while she is fast anchored in the great doctrine of justification by faith and the doctrines which cluster around it, popular in her principles of church government, which, without running into Independency, accord such large powers to the congrega- tion, principles free from the harshness of some systems, the hierarchical, aristocratic, autocratic tendencies of others, the fanaticism and looseness of others, possessing liturgical life without liturgical bondage, great in a history in which all mankind are interested, her children believe that she bears special treasures of good to bless the land of her adoption. Immovable in her faith and the life it generates, our Church, the more heartily and intelligently, on this very account, ac- cepts the great fact that God has established her in this west- ern world under circumstances greatly different from those in which her past life has been nurtured. New forms of duty, new types of thought, new necessities of adaptation, are here to tax all her strength, and to test how far she is able to main- tain her vital power under necessary changes of form. The Lutheranism of this country cannot be a mere feeble echo of any nationalized species of Lutheranism. It cannot, in the 160 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. Dational sense, be permanently German or Scandinavian, out of Germany and Scandinavia, but in America must be Ameri- can. It must be conformed in accordance with its own princi- ples to its new borne, bringing bitber its priceless experiences in tbe old world, to apply tbem to the living present in the new. Our Church must be pervaded by sympathy for this land ; she must learn in order that she may teach. She must not be afraid to trust herself on this wild current of the quick life of America. She must not cloister herself, but show in her freedom, and in her wise use of the opportunity of the present, that she knows how robust is her spiritual life, and how secure are her principles however novel or trying the tests to which they are subjected. The catholicity of the range of our Church among nations, in which she is entirely without parallel among Protestant Churches, does, indeed, make the problem of the fusion of her elements very difficult ; but it is the very same problem which our nation has had to solve. In spite of all the difficulties of inflowing nationalities, we consider their presence in our coun- try as politically a source of strength, even though a collision of them has sometimes brought about riot and murder. The Lutheran Church, if she can solve her problem, will be repaid by a result richly worth all her toil and endurance. Though the descendants of Lutherans have often been lost to the Lutheran Church, she, on the other hand, embraces in her membership thousands not of Lutheran origin ; and though in the nature of the case these gains are far from counterbalancing her losses, they show that the losses have not resulted from want of adaptation to the genius of oar time and of our land. The Lutheran Church, where she is understood, has proved herself a popular Church, a true church of the people. She has a wonderful power of adaptation, and of persist- ence, and of recuperation. Her tendency to unite is so great, that although there have been difficulties which, in churches of a separatistic character, would have originated a dozen of sects, the Lutheran Church in this country still retains her denominational unity. Many of the difficulties of our Church FUTURE OF THE LUTHERAN CHURCH. 161 tvere, in their own nature, inevitable. So extraordinary have they been, that nothing but a vitality of the most positive kind could have saved her. A calm review of her history in this country up to this hour, impresses us with a deeper conviction that she is a daughter of God, and destined, to do much for his glory in this western world. Let her be faith- ful to her faith, in the confession of the lip, the love of the heart, the devotion of the life ; let her soul invest itself with tL'j body of a sound government ; let her ministers and peopie be knit to her, and to one another, with the love which such a church should command from her children, and should infuse into them, one to another, and God helping her, the glory of her second temple shall not be unworthy of the great memories of the first. The signs of the times must be lost on our people if they are not waked up to a more just appreciation of their Church. And though not known by others as she should be, she is better known and wins increasing respect. The Future of importance of the aid she brings in evangelizing the Lutheran this western world is more deeply felt, and before the eyes of those even who would not see her when she sat mourning in the dust, she rises more brightly and beautifully, an acknowledged power in the land. Onr parent tree may shed its foliage, to renew it, or its blossoms may fall off to give way to fruit, parasitic creepers may be torn from it, storms may carry away a dead branch here and there — but there is not strength enough in hell and earth combined to break its massive trunk. Till the new earth comes, that grand old tree, undecaying, will strike its roots deeper in the earth that now is : till the new heavens arch themselves, it will lift itself under these skies, and wave, in tempest and sunshine its glorious boughs. 11 V. THE CONFESSIONAL PRINCIPLE OF THE CONSEEV. ATIVE REFORMATION * IN the statement of fundamental and unchangeable principles of Faith, which the General Council of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America lays as the basis of its Consti- tution, it is declared : I. There must be and abide through all time, one holy Chris- tian Church, which is the assembly of all believers, among whom the Gospel is purely preached, and the Holy Sacraments are administered, as the Gospel demands. To the true unity of the Church, it is sufficient that there be agreement touching the doctrine of the Gospel, that it be preached in one accord, in its pure sense, and that the Sacra- ments be administered conformably to God's word. * Blackburne : The Confessional : Inquiry into the right, etc., of Confessions of Faith, etc Lond. 1770. , Busching: tJb. d. Symbol. Schriften d. Evang. Luther. Kirche. Hamb. 1771. " Wenn und durch wen die Symbol. Schr. ausgel. werd. Berl. 1789. Eberhard : 1st die Augsb. Confess. eineGlaubensvorschr., etc. 1795-97. Hetjsinger: Wiirdigung der S. B. n. d. jetz. Zeitbediirf. Leipz. 1799. Fritzsche : Uber. d. unver'and. Gelt, der Aug. Confess. Leipz. 1830. Martens : Die Symb. Biich. der Ev. Luth. Kirche. Halberst. 1880. Johannsen: Untersuch.derRechtin'assigk. d. Verpfl. a. S. B. Altona. 1833. Hoflinq : De Symbolor. natur. necessit. auctor. atque usu. Erl. 1835. Bretschneider: Die Unzul'assigk. d. Symbolzwanges. Leipz. 1841. Sartorius: Nothwendigk. u. Verbindlichk. d. Kirch. Glaubensbekennta Stuttgart. 1845. (See Review by Dr. J. A. Seiss : Evang. Rev. July, 1852.) Kollner: Die gute Sache d. Luth. Symbole. Gottingen. 1847. 162 FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES OF 1 AITH. 163 II. The true unity of a particular Church, m virtue of which men are truly members of one and the same Church, and by which any Church abides in real identity, Fundamen tai and is entitled to a continuation of her name, principles of faith. is unity in doctrine and faith in the Sacraments, to wit: That she continues to teach and to set forth, and that her true members embrace from the heart, and use, the articles of faith, and the Sacraments as they vvere held and administered when the Church came into distinctive being and received a distinc- tive name. III. The Unity of the Church is witnessed to, and made manifest in, the solemn, public, and official Confessions which are set forth, to wit: The generic Unity of the Christian Church in the general Creeds, and the specific Unity of pure parts of the Christian Church in their specific Creeds ; one chief object of both classes of which Creeds is, that Christians who are in the Unity of faith, may know each other as such, and may have a visible bond of fellowship. IY. That Confessions may be such a testimony of Unity and bond of Union, they must be accepted in every statement of doctrine, in their own true, native, original and only sense. Those who set them forth and subscribe them, must not only agree to use the same words, but must use and understand those words in one and the same sense. V. The Unity of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, as a portion of the holy Christian Church, depends upon her abiding in one and the same faith, in confessing which she obtained her distinctive being and name, her political recognition, and her historv. YI. The Unaltered Augsburg Confession is by pre-eminence the Confession of that faith. The acceptance of its doctrines and the avowal of them without equivocation or mental reser- vation, make, mark, and identify that Church, which alone in the true, original, historical, and honest sense of the term is the Evangelical Lutheran Church. VII. The only Churches, therefore, of any land, which are properly in the Unity of that Communion, and 1 y consequence entitled to its name, Evangelical Lutheran, are those which 164 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. sincerely hold and truthfully confess the doctrines of the Un altered Augsburg Confession. VIII. We accept and acknowledge the doctrines of the Un- altered Augsburg Confession in its original sense as through- out in conformity with the pure truth of which God's Word is the only rule. We accept its statements of truth as in per- fect accordance with the Canonical Scriptures : We reject the errors it condemns, and we believe that all which it commits to the liberty of the Church, of right belongs to that liberty. IX. In thus formally accepting and acknowledging the Un- altered Augsburg Confession, we declare our conviction, that the other Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, inasmuch as they set forth none other than its system of doc- trine, and articles of faith, are of necessity pure and scriptural. Pre-eminent among such accordant, pure, and scriptural state- ments of doctrine, by their intrinsic excellence, by the great and necessary ends for which they were prepared, by their his- torical position, and by the general judgment of the Church, are these : The Apology of the Augsburg Confession, the Smalcald Articles, the Catechisms of Luther, and the Formula of Concord, all of which are, with the Unaltered Augsburg Confession, in the perfect harmony of one and the same scrip- tural faith. In accordance with these principles every Professor elect of the Theological Seminary of the Evangelical Lutheran Church at Philadelphia, in the act of investiture and before entering on the performance of the duties of his office, makes the following affirmation : 4 1 believe that the Canonical Books of the Old and New Testaments are given by inspiration of God, and are the per- fect and only Rule of Faith ; and I believe that the three Gen- eral Creeds, the Apostles', the Mcene, and the Athanasian, exhibit the faith of the Church universal, in accordance with this Pule. 1 1 believe that the Unaltered Augsburg Confession is, in all its parts, in harmony wuth the Pule of Faith, and is a correct exhibition of doctrine ; and I believe that the Apology, the two Catechisms of Luther, the Smalcald Articles, and the THE RULE OF FAITH. 165 Formula of Concord, are a faithful development and defence of the doctrines of the Word of God, and the Augsburg Con- fession. 'I solemnly promise before Almighty God that all my teach- ings shall be in conformity with His AVord, and with the afore- mentioned Confessions.' The thetical statements of the Council and the declaration which follows, exhibit, as we believe, the relation of the Rule of Faith and the Confessions, in accordance with the principles of the Conservative Reformation. Accepting those principles, we stand upon the everlasting foundation — the AVord of God : believing that the Canonical Books of the Old and ^ T ew Tes- tament are in their original tongues, and in a pure text, the perfect and only rule of faith. All these books are in harmony, each with itself, and all with each other, and yield to the honest searcher, under the ordinary guidance of the Holy Spirit, a clear statement of doctrine, and produce a firm assur- ance of faith. Not any word of man, no creed, commentary, theological system, nor decision of Fathers or of councils, no doctrine of Churches, or of the whole Church, no results or judgments of reason, however strong, matured, and well informed, no one of these, and not all of these Tlle !> ule of together, but God's word alone is the rule of faith. F,ith - No apocryphal books, but the canonical books alone, are the rule of faith. No translations, as such, but the original Hebrew and Chaldee of the Old Testament, and the Greek of the New, are the letter of the rule of faith. No vitiation of the designing, nor error of the careless, but the incorrupt text as it came from the hands of the men of God, who wrote under the motions of the Holy Spirit, is the rule of faith. To this rule of faith we are to bring our minds ; by this rule we are humbly to try to form our faith, and in accordance with it, God helping us, to teach others — teaching them the evi- dences of its inspiration, the true mode of its interpretation, the ground of its authority, and the mode of settling its text. The student of theology is to be taught the Biblical languages, to make him an independent investigator of the word of the Holy Spirit, as the organ through which that Spirit reveals 166 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. His mind. First of all, as the greatest of all, as the ground- work of all, as the end of all else, we are to teach God's pure word, its faith for faith, its life for life ; in its integrity, in its marvellous adaptation, in its divine, its justifying, its sancti- fying, and glorifying power. We are to lay, as that without which all else would be laid in vain, the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets — Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone. Standing really upon the everlasting foundation of this Rule of Faith, we stand of necessity on the faith, of which it is the rule. It is not the truth as it lies, silent and unread, in the Word, but the truth as it enters from that Word into the human heart, with the applying presence of the Holy Ghost, which makes men believers. Faith makes men Christians ; confession of but Confession alone marks them as Christians. Faith. The Rule of Faith is God's voice to us ; faith is the hearing of that voice, and the Confession, our reply of assent to it. By our faith, we are known to the Lord as his ; by our Confession, we are known to each other as His chil- dren. Confession of faith, in some form, is imperative. To confess Christ, is to confess what is our faith in him. As the Creed is not, and cannot be the Rule of Faith, but is its Con- fession merely, so the Bible, because it is the Rule of Faith, is of necessity not its Confession. The Bible can no more be any man's Creed, than the stars can be any man's astronomy. The stars furnish the rule of the astronomer's faith : the Principia of Newton may be the Confession of his faith. If a man were examined as a candidate for the chair of astronomy in a university, and were asked, " What is your astronomical sys- tem?" and were to answer, "I accept the teaching of the stars," the reply would be, "You may think you do — so does the man who is sure that the stars move round the world, and that they are not orbs, but ' gimlet-holes to let the glory through.' We wish to know what you hold the teachings of the stars to be? Do you receive, as in harmony with them, the results reached by Copernicus, by Galileo, by Kepler, by Newton, La Place, and Herschel, or do you think the world one great flat, and the sun and moon mere pendants to it ? " WHAT SHALL BE OUR CONFESSION? 167 " Gentlemen," replies the independent investigator, " the theories of those astronomers are human systems — man-made theories. I go out every night on the hills, and look at the stars, as God made them, through a hole in my blanket, with my own good eyes, not with a man-made telescope, or fettered by a man-made theory ; and I believe in the stars and in what they teach me : but if I were to say, or write what they teach, that would be a human creed — and I am opposed to all creeds." "Very well," reply the examiners, " we wish you joy in the possession of a good pair of eyes, and feel it unne- cessary to go any further. If you are unwilling to confess your faith, we will not tax your conscience with the inconsist- ency of teaching that faith, nor tax our own with the hazard of authorizing you to set forth in the name of the stars your own ignorant assumptions about them." What is more clear than that, as the Rule of Faith is first, it must, by necessity of its being, when rightly used, generate a true faith ? But the man who has true faith desires to have it known, and is bound to confess his faith. The Rule cannot really generate two conflicting beliefs ; yet men who alike pro- fess to accept the Rule, do have conflicting beliefs ; and when beliefs conflict, if the one is formed by the Rule, the other mast be formed in the face of it. Fidelity to the Rule of Faith, therefore, fidelity to the faith it teaches, demands that there shall be a Confession of the faith. The firmest friend of the Word is the firmest friend of the Creed. First, the Rule of Faith, next the Faith of the Rule, and then the Confession of Faith. What shall be our Confession ? Are we originating a Church, and must we utter our testimony to a world, in which our faith is a novelty ? The reply is easy. As we What shall be are not the first who have used, with honest hearts our confession ? and fervent prayers, the Rule, so are we not the first who have been guided by the Holy Ghost in it to its faith. As men long ago reached its faith, so long ago they confessed it. They con- fessed it from the beginning. The first adult baptism was based upon a " human creed," that is, upon a confession of faith, which was the utterance of a belief which was based 168 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. upon a human interpretation of divine words. The faith has been confessed from the beginning. It has been embodied in a creed, the origin of whose present shape no man knows, which indeed cannot be fixed ; for it rose from the words of our Saviour's Baptismaf Commission, and was not manufactured, but grew. Of the Apostles' Creed, as of Him to whom its heart is given, it may be affirmed that it was " begotten, not made." The Confession has been renewed and enlarged to meet new and widening error. The ripest, and purest, and most widely used of the old Confessions have been adopted by our Church as her own, not because they are old and widely received, but because they are true. She has added her testimony as it was needed. Here is the body of her Confession. Is her Confes- sion ours ? If it be, we are of her in heart ; if it be not, we are only of her in name. It is ours — ours in our deepest convic- tion, reached through conflicts outward and inward, reached upon our knees, and traced with our tears — ours in our inmost hearts. Therefore, we consecrate ourselves to living, teaching, and de- fending the faith of God's word, which is the confessed faith of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. Fidelity to the whole truth of God's word requires this. We dare not be satisfied simply with recognition as Christians over against the Jew, because we confess that the Rule of Faith, of which the New Testa- ment is a part, has taught us faith in Jesus Christ : we dare not be satisfied simply with recognition as holding the Catholic Faith as embodied in the three General Creeds, over against here- sies of various forms and shades. Christian believers holding the faith Catholic we are — but we are, besides, Protestant, rejecting the authority of the Papacy ; Evangelical, glorying Distinctive con- in the grace of the Gospel ; and Lutheran, holding fession necessary. the doctrines of that Church, of which the Re- formation is the child — not only those in which all Christen- dom or a large part of it coincides with her, but the most dis- tinctive of her distinctive doctrines, though in the maintenance of them she stood alone. As the acceptance of the Word of God as a Rule of Faith separates us from the Mohammedan, as the reception of the New Testament sunders us from the Jew, as the hearty acquiescence in the Apostles', Nicene, and FIDELITY TO THE COXFESSIOXS. 169 Athanasian Creeds shows us, in the face of all errorists of the earlier ages, to be in the faith of the Church Catholic, so does our unreserved acceptance of the Augsburg Confession mark us as Lutherans ; and the acceptance of the Apology, the Catechisms of Luther, the Schmalcald Articles, and the Formula of Concord, continues the work of marking our separation from all errorists of every shade whose doctrines are in con- flict with the true sense of the Rule of Faith — that Rule whose teachings are rightly interpreted and faithfully embo- died in the Confessions afore-mentioned. Therefore, God help- ing us, we will teach the whole faith of His word, which faith our Church sets forth, explaius, and defends in her Symbols. We do not interpret God's word by the Creed, neither do we interpret the Creed by God's word, but interpreting both inde- pendently, by the laws of language, and finding that they teach one and the same truth, we heartily acknowledge the Confession as a true exhibition of the faith of the Rule — a true witness to the one, pure, and unchanging faith of the Christian Church, and freely make it our own Confession, as truly as if it had been now first uttered by our lips, or had now first gone forth from our hands. In freely and heartily accepting the faith of our Church, as our own faith, and her Scriptural Confession of that faith, as our own Confession, we do not surrender for our- Fidelity to the selves, any more than we take from others, the confessions not -, -..,. ,, • i , p • , • n , inconsistent with sacred and inalienable right or private judgment. the right of pri . It is not by giving up the right of private judg- ™te judgment. ment, but by the prayerful exercise of it, not by relinquishing a just independence of investigation, but by thoroughly em- ploying it, that we have reached that faith which we glory in confessing. Could the dav ever come, in which we imagined that the Evangelical Lutheran Church had abused her right of private judgment, so as to reach error, and not truth by it, we should, as honest men, cease to bear her name, or to con- nive at what we would, in the case supposed, believe to be error. On the other hand, should the Evangelical Lutheran Church ever have evidence, that we have abused our right of private judgment into the wrong of private misjuclgment, sc 170 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. as to have reached error, and not truth by it, then, as a faithful Church, after due admonition, and opportunity for repentance have been given us in vain, she is bound to cast us forth, to purify her own communion, and to make it impossible for us, in her name, to injure others. As the individual, in exercising the right of private judgment, is in peril of abusing it, the Church has the right, and is bound by the duty, of self-defence against that abuse. The right of private judgment is not the right of Church-membership, not the right of public teach- ing, not the right of putting others into an equivocal attitude to what they regard as truth. A free Protestant Church is a Church, whose ministry and membership, accepting the same rule of faith, have, in the exercise of their private judgment upon it, reached the same results as to all truths which they deem it needful to unite in confessing. After all the intricacies into which the question of, What are fundamentals ? has run, there can be no practical solution better than this, that they are such truths, as in the judgment of the Church, it is neces- sary clearly to confess ; truths, the toleration of the errors opposing which, she believes to be inconsistent with her fidelity to the Gospel doctrine, to her own internal harmony and high- est efficiency. The members and ministry of such a Church must have " one faith," as they have one Lord, one Baptism, and one God. Apart from the " unity of the faith," and the " unity of the knowledge of the Son of God," every striving to reach " unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ," will be vain ; thus only can Christian men " henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive." A great deal is claimed under the right of private judg- ment, which is a most impudent infringement of that right. A man is a Socinian, a Pelagian, a Romanist. Very well. We maintain, that no civil penalties should restrain him, and no ecclesiastical inquisition fetter him. Give him, in its fullest swing, the exercise of his right of private judgment. But your Socinian insists on such a recognition by Trinitarians as logically implies, that they either agree with him in his SUBSCRIPTION TO A CONFESSION. 171 error, or that it is of no importance. What is this but to ask thousands or millions to give up or imperil the results of their well-used right of private judgment, at the call of one man, who abuses his ? Could impudence go further ? ' Go/ they may rightly say, ' with your right of private * _ , , , Use and abuse judgment, go where you belong, and cease to at- of t he right cf tempt the shallow jugglery, by which one man's P rivate J ud s- freedom means his autocracy, and every other man's slavery. If your right of private judgment has made you an Atheist, don't call yourself a Believer ; if it has made you a Jew, don't pretend to be a Christian ; if it nas made you a Papist, don't pretend to be a Protestant ; if it has made you a Friend, don't call yourself a Churchman.' When we confess, that, in the exercise of our right of pri- vate judgment, our Bible has made us Lutherans, we neither pretend to claim that other men shall be made Lutherans by force, nor that their private judgment shall, or will, of neces- sity, reach the results of ours. We only contend, that, if their private judgment of the Bible does not make them Lutherans, they shall not pretend that it does. We do not say, that any man shall believe that the Confession of our Church is Scrip- tural. We only contend, that he should neither say nor seem to say so, if he does not believe it. The subscrip- Meaning of tion to a Confession is simply a just and easy mode subscription to a n , . ' r • t it •! i« Confession. oi testifying to those who have a right to ask it of us, that we are what we claim and profess to be. So to sign a Confession as to imply that we are what we are not, or to leave it an open question what we are, is not the just result of the right of private judgment, or of any right whatever, but is utterly wrong. Por it is a first element of truth, with which no right, private or public, can conflict, that names shall honestly represent things. What immorality is more patent than the pretence that the right of private judgment is something which authorizes a man to make his whole life a falsehood ; is something which fills the world with names, which no longer represent things, fills it with black things, that are called white, with bitter things, that are called sweet, and with lies, that are called truths, with monarchists, 172 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. who are called republicans, with Socinians, who are called Trinitarians, with Arminians, who are called Calvinists, with Romanists, Rationalists, fanatics, or sectarians, who are called Lutherans ? We concede to every man the absolute right of private judgment as to the faith of the Lutheran Church, but if he have abandoned the faith of that Church, he may not use her name as his shelter in attacking the thing she cherishes, and in maintaining which she obtained her being and her name. It is not enough that you say to me, that such a thing is clear to your private judgment. You must show to my pri- vate judgment, that God's word teaches it, before I dare recog- nize you as in the unity of the faith. If you cannot, we have not the same faith, and ought not to be of the same communion ; for the communion is properly one of persons of the same faith. In other words, your private judgment is not to be my interpreter, nor is mine to be yours. If you think me in error, I have no right to force myself on your fellow- ship. If I think you in error, you have no right to force yourself on mine. You have the civil right and the moral right to form your impressions in regard to truth, but there the right stops. You have not the right to enter or remain in any Christian communion, except as its terms of member- ship give you that right. So easy is this distinction, and so clearly a part, not of speculation, but of practical morals, that the law of the land recognizes it. If certain men, under the style and title of a Church, which imply that it is Calvinistic, call an Arminian preacher, the law takes that Church from an Arminian majority which calls itself Calvinistic, and gives it to a Calvinistic minority which is what it calls itself. Does this mean that the majority must sacrifice their right of pri- vate judgment, that the law wishes to force them to be Cal- vinists ? Not at all. It simply means, that the right of pri- vate judgment is not the right to call yourself what you are not, and to keep what does not belong to you. Put your Arminians under their true colors, though in minority, and your Calvinists under false colors, though in majority, and you THE ABUSE OF PRIVATE JUDGMENT. 173 will soon see how easily the principle of this law of morals and of this law of the land adjusts itself. Before the plain distinctions we have nrged, in regard to private judgment, go down all the evasions by The abuse of which Rationalism has sought to defend itself from pirate judgment the imputation of dishonor, when it pretended to strained by per bear the Lutheran name, as if Lutheranism were 8ecution - not a positive and well-defined system of truth, but a mere assertion of the right of private judgment. It is the doctrine of the Reformation, not that there should be no checks upon the abuse of private judgment, but that those checks should be moral alone. The Romanists and un-Lutheran elements in the Reformation were agreed, that the truth must be main- tained and heresy extirpated hj the sword of government. Error is in affinity with the spirit of persecution. The first blood shed within the Christian Church, for opinion's sake, was shed by the deniers of the divinity of Jesus Christ, the Arians. So strong was the feeling in the primitive Church against violence toward errorists, that not a solitary instance occurs of capital punishment for heresy in its earlier era. The Bishops of Gaul, who ordered the execution of the Priscillian- ists, though the lives of these errorists were as immoral as their teachings were abominable, were excluded from the com- munion of the Church. As the "Western Church grew cor- rupt, it grew more and more a persecuting Church, till it became drunken with the blood of the saints. The maxims and spirit of persecution went over to every part of the Churches of the Reformation, except the Lutheran Church. Zwingle countenanced the penalty of death for heresy. AVhat was the precise share of Calvin in the burning of Servetus is greatly mooted ; but two fac ts are indisputable. One is, that, before the unhappy errorist took his fatal journey, Calvin wrote, that, if Servetus came to Geneva, he should not leave it alive, if his authority availed anything ; the other is, that, after the burning of Servetus, Calvin wrote his dissertation defending the right of the magistrate to put heretics to death (1554.) The Romish and Calvinistic writers stand as one man for the night and duty of magistrates to punish heresy with death, 174 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. over against Luther and the entire hody of our theologians, who maintain, without an exception, that heresy is never to be punished with death. The Reformed portion of Protest- antism has put to death, at different times and in different ways, not only Romanists and Anabaptists, but its terrible energies have been turned into civil strife, and Episcopalians, Presbyterians, and Independents put each other to death, espe- cially in the great civil wars of England, whose origin was largely religious. Strange as it may sound, Socinians them- selves have been persecutors, and yet more strange is the ground on which they persecuted. The original Socinians not only ac- knowledged that Jesus Christ was to be worshipped, and char- acterized those who denied it as half Jews, but, when Francis David, one of the greatest of their original co-workers, denied it, the old man was cast into prison, and kept there till he died. The Lutheran Church alone, of all the great Churches that have had the power to persecute, has not upon her skirts one drop of blood shed for opinion's sake. The glorious words of Lu- ther were : " The pen, not the fire, is to put down heretics. The hangmen are not doctors of theology. This is not the place for force. Not the sword, but the word, fits But by denial ± i i of church recog- for this battle. If the word does not put down error, error would stand, though the world were drenched with blood." By these just views, centuries in ad- vance of the prevalent views, the Lutheran Church has stood, and will stand forever. But she is none the less earnest in just modes of shielding herself and her children from the teachings of error, which takes cover under the pretence of pri- vate judgment. She would not burn Servetus, nor, for opinion's sake, touch a hair of his head ; neither, however, would she permit him to bear her name, to " preach another Jesus " in her pulpits, to teach error in her Universities, or to approach with her children the table of their Lord, whom he denied. Her name, her confessions, her history, her very being protest against the supposition of such " fellowship with the works of darkness," such sympathy with heresy, such levity in regard to the faith. She never practised thus. She never can do it. Those who imagine that the right of private judgment is the DENIAL OF CHRISTIAN RECOGNITION. 175 right of men, within the Lutheran Church, and bearing her hallowed name, to teach what they please in the face of her testimony, know not the nature of the right they claim, noi of the Church, whose very life involves her refusal to have fellow- ship with them in their error. It is not the right of private judgment which makes or marks a man Lutheran. A man may have the right to judge, and be a simpleton, as he may have the right to get rich, yet may remain a beggar. It is the judgment he reaches in exercising that right which deter- mines what he is. By his abuse of the " inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," a man may make himself a miserable slave. The right of property belongs as much to the man who makes himself a beggar as to the man who has become a millionaire. Eights, in themselves, give nothing, and cannot change the nature of things. The right to gather, gathers nothing : and if, under this right, the man gathers wood, hay, stubble, neither the right nor its exercise makes them into gold, silver, and precious stones. The Church will not put any violence upon him who chooses to gather what will not endure the fire ; but she will not accept them as jewels, nor permit her children to be cheated with them. The right of private judgment and the right of Church discipline are co-ordinate and harmonious rights, essential to the prevention, each of the abuse of the other. To uphold either intelligently, is to uphold both. In maintaining, therefore, as Protestants, the right and duty of men, in the exercise of private judgment, to form their own convictions, unfettered by civil penalties in the State, or by inquisitorial powers in the Church, we main- tain, also, the right and duty of the Church to shield herself from corruption in doctrine by setting forth the truth in her Confession, by faithfully controverting heresy, by personal warning to those that err, and, finally, with the contumacious, by rejecting them from her communion, till, through grace, they are led to see and renounce the falsehood, for which they claimed the name of truth. The faith of the Church, drawn from the rule by the just exercise of private judgment, illumined by the Holy Ghost, has been tester] and developed in three ways : First, by science; 176 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. next, by history ; and thirdly, in the practical life of the Church. Science has shown, in the glorious edifice of our doctrinal theology, that our faith has the grand deiityto^hecon" criterion of truth, the capacity of arrangement in rontons an essen- a self-harmonizing system. Order is Heaven's first oiogicai training. law. As the law of the physical universe is mathe- matical, the law of the spiritual universe is logical. That which has no place in system, is not of God, is not truth. All his works reflect his unity and self-consistency. To fit for their whole work, men, whom God shall call, through his Church, to teach the Gospel and administer the Sacraments, involves, in its most perfect form, that they shall understand, in its own tongues, the Holy Book, to the teachings of whose truths they are to devote themselves, that they should see those truths in their relations, as well as in their isolation, should thoroughly comprehend the faith of the Church, which is built upon them, and should be able to defend the truth, and the faith, which is its inspiration. The student of theology must be taught the history of the Church, in order to comprehend prophecy, in order to test all things, and hold fast to the good, and in order to comprehend the force and value of the dec sions, on disputed points, which the Church maintains over against all errorists. He must know the history of the past in order to live in the life of to-day, which is the outflowing of the life of yesterday, and in order to reach beyond the hour into that solemn to-morrow of the future, which is to be the outflowing of the life of to-day. For all these and for many other reasons, the student of theology must master the great facts in the history of the Church of all time ; but most of all, the history of our own Church, the richest, the most suggestive, the most heart-inspiring of the whole. Looking forward to the position of a Bishop in the Church, and of a Counsellor in the Synod, the student of theology needs to be master of the great principles of Church govern- ment, a sphere specially important to our Church amid the radicalism and anarchical tendencies of the hour. The Chris- dan Pastor of the future should be master of the principles MINISTERIAL EFFICIENCY. Ill which are to guide him in his vocation as guardian of the flock ; the Preacher of the future should understand the theory, and be practically trained in the power of that simple but mighty eloquence, which becomes the preaching of the cross ; the Catechist of the future should be trained for the great work oj feeding the lambs ; the future Mirdstrants at the altars of the Most High should be shaped in the tender, trusting, and all- prevailing* spirit of worship, which God, the Holy Ghost, kindles in his saints, the devotion, whose flame trembles upward to its source, in the humble confessions, in the holy songs, and in the fervent prayers of the Church, all hallowed by the memories of ages of yearning and aspiration.. If we are to have men " mighty in the Scriptures," " able and faith- ful ministers of the JSTew Testament," they must be, " not novices," but men who " know how they ought to behave themselves in the house of God," " perfect, thoroughly fur nished unto all good works," " holding fast the faithful word as they have been taught, that they may be able, by sound doctrine, both to exhort and to convince gainsayers," " in doc- trine showing incorruptness." In the true Christian minister, the priesthood, which he holds in common with all believers, intensifies , T . . . . . , ' Ministerial ef- itself by his representative character. He is a fluency depend- priest, whose lips keep knowledge, at whose mouth they should seek the law, for he is the " messenger of the Lord of hosts." We want men apt to teach, in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves. We want men of decision, ready to confront those " whose mouths must be stopped ; who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucre's sake." We want men, who will " hold fast the form of sound words ; who will take heed unto themselves and the doctrine, and continue in them, know- ing, that, in doing this," and alone in doing this, " they shall both save themselves and them that hear them;" men, who shall " stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel," " earnestly contending for the faitL once delivered to the saints;" men, " like-minded one toward another, speaking the same thing, with no divisions 12 178 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. among them, but perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment." But, with all, and in all, and above all, we wish to send forth men, who shall be living illustrations of the power of the gospel they preach ; men, who shall show the oneness and stability of a true faith, ready to yield preferences to secure principles, to make the sacrifices of, love to the consciences of the weak in things indifferent, and to stand as the anvil to the beater under the strokes of obloquy and misrepresentation. We wish men, who will have the mind of Jesus Christ, thrill- ing in every pulse with love to souls ; men that will seek the lowliest of the lowly, men filled with the spirit of missions, men of self-renunciation ; men open as the day, men that abhor deceit, who use great plainness of speech, who speak the truth in love ; men who are first pure, then peaceable, " gentle to all men," not self-willed, not soon angry, yet in conflict with the " many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, rebuk- ing them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith ; " men so glowing with love of the gospel, so clear in their judgment as to its doctrines, so persuaded that life and death, heaven and hell, hang upon its pure proclamation, that they shall be ready to say: "Though we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel unto you, let him be accursed," and again, in the very power of the apostle's iteration : "As I said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed." It is in the simple Biblical faith, in the incorrupt, profound, and self- harmonizing system of doctrine, in the historical caution and thoroughness, in the heart -felt piety, in the reverential spirit of worship, in the holy activity which reaches every want of the souls and bodies of men, in fidelity in the pulpit and pastoral life, in uncompromising maintenance of sound government, in all these, which belong to our Church, it is in these the men of the future should be shaped. We would have them grounded in a thorough knowledge, an ardent love, a practical exhibition of all that belongs to the true idea of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, of the Evangelical Lutheran Christian, and of the Evangelical Lutheran pastor. But to be worthy of the Church REASONS FOE CONFESSIONAL BASIS. 17& of Christian purity and of Christian freedom to which they belong, the Church of Luther and Melanchthon, of Arndt and Gerhard, of Spener and Francke, of Schwartz and Oberlin, of Muhlenberg and Harms, and of departed worthies, whose voices yet linger in our ears, they need a faith whose Confes- sion shall be as articulate, as its convictions are deep. This, then, is a summary of the result we reach : The basis of the Evangelical Lutheran Church is the Word of God, as the perfect and absolute Rule of Faith, and because this is her basis, she rests of necessity on the faith of which that Word is the Rule, and therefore on the Confessions which purely set forth that faith. She has the right rule, she reaches the right results by the rule, and rightly confesses them. This Confes- sion then is her immediate basis, her essential char- N , !un ary of acteristic, with which she stands or falls. The result - Unaltered Augsburg Confession and its Apology, the Cate- chisms and Schmalcald Articles, and the Formula of Concord,, have been formally declared by an immense majority of the Lutheran Church as their Confession of Faith. The portion of the Church, with few and inconsiderable exceptions, which has not received them formally, has received them virtually. They are closely cohering and internally consistent statements and developments of one and the same system, so that a man who heartily and intelligently receives any one of the distinc- tively Lutheran Symbols, has no difficulty in accepting the doctrine of the whole. They fairly represent the Reasons fol . tlie faith of the Church, and simply and solely as so confessional Ba- representing it are they named in the statement of the basis of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. The real question, then, is this : Ought the Church to rest unreservedly and unchangeably on this faith as her doctrinal basis ? To this question, which is but the first repeated in a new shape, we reply, as we replied to the first, She ought. I. She ought to rest on that basis, because that Faith of our Church, in all and each of its parts, is founded on LItiH founde ,j the Word of God, which she will not permit to be on God ' s AVord - overruled, either by the speculations of corrupt reason, or by the tradition of a corrupted Church, but which Word she 180 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. interprets under the ordinary, promised guidance of the Holy Spirit, as a Word in itself absolutely perfect for its ends, giving law to reason, and excluding tradition as any part, direct or indirect, of the Rule of Faith. II. The proposition we have just advanced, no Lutheran, in the historical sense of the word, can deny ; for the man who 2 it beionos wou ld deny it, would, in virtue of that denial, to historical Lu- prove that he is not in the historical sense Luther- an ; for he, and he only, is such who believes that the doctrine of the gospel is rightly taught in the Augsburg Confession. We do not enter into the question, whether, in some sense, or in what sense, a man who denies this may be some kind of a Lutheran. We only affirm that he is not such in the historical sense of the word ; that he is not what was meant by the name when it was first distinctively used — that is, not a Lutheran whom Luther, or the Lutheran Church for three centuries, would have recognized as such, nor such as the vast majority of the uncorrupted portions of our Church would now recognize. III. That many of the Articles of Faith set forth by our Church are pure and Scriptural, is acknowledged by all nominal Christendom ; that an immense proportion of them is such, is confessed by all nominal Protestants. Zwingle declared that 3 commended there were no men on earth whose fellowship he so i. y other Com- desired as that of the Wittenbergers. Calvin sub- scribed the unaltered Augsburg Confession, and acted as a Lutheran minister under it. " IsTor do I repudiate the Augs- burg Confession (which I long ago willingly and gladly sub- scribed) as its author has interpreted it." So wrote Calvin, in 1557, to Schalling. Two mistakes are often made as to his meaning, in these much-quoted words. First : The Confession he subscribed was not the Yariata. Calvin subscribed at Stras- burg, in 1539. The Yariata did not appear till 1540. Second: He does not mean nor say that he then subscribed it as its author had explained it. There was no word of its author then, which even seemed in conflict with its original sense. Calvin means : Nor do I now repudiate it, as its author has interpreted it. The great Reformed divines have acknowledged that it has ESSENTIAL UNION IN FUNDAMENTALS. 181 not a fundamental error in it. The only error they charge on it, they repeatedly declare to be non-fundamental. Testing all Churches by the concessions of their adversaries, there is not so safe and pure a Church in existence as our own. But not only in the Articles conceded by adversaries, but in those which are most strictly distinctive of our Church, and which have been the object of fiercest assault, is she pure and Scriptural, as, for example, in regard to the Person of Christ and the Sacraments. IY. To true unity of the Church, is required hearty and honest consent in the fundamental doctrine of the gospel, or, in other words, in the Articles of Faith. It may surprise some, that we qualify the word doctrine by the word "fun- 4 Essential t0 damental;" for that word, in the history of the nnion iu funda - Church, has been so bandied about, so miserably perverted, so monopolized for certaiu ends, so twisted by arti- fices of interpretation, as if a man could use it to mean any- thing he pleased, and might fairly insist that its meaning could only be settled by reference to his own mental reservation at the time he used it, that at length men have grown afraid of it, have looked upon its use as a mark of lubricity, and have almost imagined that it conveyed an idea unknown to our Church in her purer days. Nevertheless, it conveys a good old- fashioned Biblical and Lutheran idea — an idea set forth in the Confession of the Church, constantly presented hy our old Theo- logians, and by no means dangerous when honestly and intelli- gently used. Thus the Apology says : " The Church retains the pure gospel, and, as Paul says, {1 Cor. iii. 12,) the founda- tion, (fundamentum,) that is, the true knowledge of Christ and faith. Although in this Church there are many who are weak, who ' build upon this foundation, wood, hay, stubble,' who, nevertheless, do not overthrow the foundation, they are still Christians."* It is utterly false that Evangelical Lutherans are sticklers for non-fundamentals, that they are intolerant toward those who err in regard to non-fundamentals ; on the contrary, no Church, apart from the fundamentals of the gospel in which her unity and very life are involved, is so mild, so mediating, * Apology, (Muller,) p. 156. 182 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATIO 1ST. so thoroughly tolerant -as our own. Over against the unity of Rome under a universal Head, the unity of High-Churchism under the rule of Bishops, the unities which turn upon like rites or usages as in themselves necessary, or which build up the mere subtleties of human speculation into articles of faith, over against these the Lutheran Church was the first to stand forth, declaring that the unity of the Church turns upon nothing that is of man. "Where the one pure gospel of Christ is preached, where the one foundation of doctrine is laid, where the " one faith " is confessed, and the alone divine Sac- raments administered aright, there is the one Church ; this is her unity. As the Augsburg Confession * declares : " The Church, properly so called, hath her notes and marks, to wit: the pure and sound doctrine of the gospel, and the right use of the Sacraments. And, for the true unity of the Church, it is sufficient to agree upon the doctrine of the gospel, and the administration of the Sacraments." Our fathers clearly saw and sharply drew the distinction between God's foundation and man's superstructure, between the essential and the accidental, between faith and opinion, between religion and speculative theology, and, with all these distinctions before them, declared, that consent in the doctrine of the gospel and the right administration of the Sacraments is the only basis of the unity of the Church. This basis, the Lutheran Church has defined and rests on it, to abide there, we trust, by God's grace, to the end of time. In this basis of unity is implied, first of all, that, in a really united Church, there shall be agreement as to what subjects of the gospel teaching are to be considered its doctrine, or articles of faith, or fundamentals, (for all these terms are here practically synonymous,) and not either mere matters of opin- ion, or of secondary importance. It is no evidence that two men or two parts of a Church are really in unity because they say a certain creed is right on fun- damentals, if it be not certain that they agree as to what sub- jects of the gospel teaching are fundamental. The Socinian and Trinitarian are in unity of faith, and could alike accept the * Art. VII. ESSENTIAL UNION IN FUNDAMENTALS. 183 Augsburg Confession as their creed, if it be granted that the Trinity is no doctrine of the gospel, no article of faith, no fun- damental, but a mere nicety of theological speculation, or some thing, which the Scripture, if it sets it forth at all, sets forth in no vital relation to its essential truths. Before a Socinian aud Trinitarian, therefore, can honestly test their unity by a formula, which declares that they agree in fundamentals, they must settle what are fundamentals. Otherwise the whole thing is a farce. Any formula of agreement on " funda- mentals," which leaves it an open question what are funda- mentals, is delusive and dishonest, and will ultimately breed dissension and tend to the destruction of the Church. We protest, therefore, alike against the basis which does not pro- pose the fundamental doctrine of the gospel as essential to unity, and the basis, which, professing to accept the gospel fundamentals as its constituent element, is, in any degree whatever, dubious, or evasive, as to what subjects of gospel- teaching are fundamental, or which, pretending to define them, throws among non-fundamentals what the Word of God and the judgment of His Church have fixed as Articles of Faith. On such a point there should be no evasion. Divine Truth is the end of the Church; it is also her means. She lives for it, and she lives by it. What the Evangelical Lutheran Church regards as fundamental to gospel doctrine, that is, what her existence, her history, her Confessions declare or justly imply to be her articles of faith, these ought to be accepted as such by all honorable men, who bear her name. But it is sometimes said, by very good men, as a summary answer to the whole argument for Confessions of Faith, that the very words of Scripture are a better Creed, than any we can substitute for them ; better, not only, asof course they are, on the supposition that our words are incorrect, but better even if our words are correct ; for our best words are man's words, but its words are the words of the Holy Ghost. But this ar- gument, although it looks specious, is sophistical to the core. The very words of Scripture are not simply a better Rule of Faith than any that can be substituted for them, but they are the absolute and only Rule of Faith, for which nothing can 184 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. be substituted. But the object of a Creed is not to find out what God teaches, (we go to the Bible for that,) but to show what we believe. Hence the moment I set forth even the very Fidelity to the words of the Bible as my Creed, the question is no ? n !^ "°I longer what does the Holy Ghost mean by those with the six- words, but what do I mean by them. You ask of^e^roT a Unitarian, What do you believe about Christ. Faith. He replies: " I believe that he is the Son of God." These are the very words of the Bible; but the point is not at all now, what do they mean in the Bible ? but what do they mean as a Unitarian creed ? In the Rule of Faith, they mean that Jesus Christ is the second person of the Trin- ity incarnate ; in the Unitarian Creed, they mean that there is no Trinity, and that our Lord is a mere man. All heretics, if you probe them with the very words of the Bible, admit that these words are the truth. The Universalists for example, concede, that the "wicked go away into everlasting punish- ment." Now I know that in the Bible, the Rale of Faith, these words mean, a punishment without end; and I know just as well, that these identical words as a Universalist creed, mean, no future punishment at all, or one that does end. Yet with the fallacy of which we speak, do men evade the argument, for a clear, well-defined, and unmistakable creed. The truth is that correct human explanations of Scripture doc- trine are Scripture doctrine, for they are simply the statement of the same truth in different words. These words are not in themselves as clear and as good as the Scripture terms, but as those who use them can absolutely fix the sense of their own phraseology by a direct and infallible testimony, the human words may more perfectly exclude heresy than the divine words do. The term " Trinity," for example, does not, in itself, as clearly and as well express the doctrine of Scripture as the terms of the Word of God do ; but it correctly and compen- diously states that doctrine, and the trifler who pretends to re- ceive the Bible, and yet rejects its doctrine of the Trinity, can- not pretend that he receives what the Church means by the word Trinity. While the Apostles lived the Word was both a rule of faith, and in a certain sense, a confession of it ; when FIDELITY TO THE CONFESSIONS. 185 by direct inspiration a holy man utters certain words, they are to him both a rale of faith, and a confession of faith — they at once express both what he is to believe and what he does believe ; but when the Canon was complete, when its authors were gone, when the living teacher was no longer at hand to correct the errorist who distorted his word, the Church entered on her normal and abiding relation to the Word and the Creed which is involved in these words : the Bible is the rule of faith, but not the confession of it ; the Creed is not the rule of faith, but is the confession of it. A Lutheran is a Christian whose rule of faith is the Bible, and whose creed is the Augsburg Confession. To what end then is the poor sophism constantly iterated, that the Confession is a " human explanation of divine doc- trine"? So is the faith of every man — all that he deduces from the Bible. There is no personal Christianity in the world which is not the result of a human explanation of the Bible as really as the Confession of our Church is. It is human be- cause it is in human minds, and human hearts, — it is not a source to which we can finally and absolutely appeal as we can to God's word. But in exact proportion as the word of God opened to the soul by the illumination of the Holy Spirit, is truly and correctly apprehended, just in that proportion is the " human explanation " coincident with the divine truth. I ex- plain God's truth, and if I explain it correctly, my explanation is God's truth, and to reject the one in unbelief, is to reject the other. " Our Father who art in heaven," is a human ex- planation by certain English scholars of certain words used by our Lord ; but they are correct explanations, and as such are as really divine as those sounds in Aramaic or Greek which fell from the lips of our Lord. The difference is this : His w^ords are absolutely final ; they are themselves the source of truth, beyond which we cannot rise. Our English words are to be tested by his — and when we believe they truly represent his, we receive them as his. For the essence of the word is not its sound, but its sense. Our English translation of the Bible is a human explanation of a certain humanly transcribed, humanly printed text, the 186 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. original ; which original alone, just as the sacred penman left it, is absolutely in every jot and tittle God's Word; but just in. proportion as our translation is based upon a pure text of the Hebrew and Greek, and correctly explains the meaning of such an original, it too, is God's Word. Our sermons are human explanations of God's Word, but so far as they explain it cor- rectly, they do set forth God's Word, and he who hears us, hears our Lord. Our Confession is a human explanation of God's Word, but so far as it correctly explains it, it sets forth God's Word. The man who regards it as a correct explana- tion, or as " a summary and just exhibition " of the doctrines of which it treats, is consistently a Lutheran. ~No other man is. If any man can define Lutheran consistency in any better way, we should be glad to have him do it ; and if he thinks human explanations are something antagonistic to scriptural doctrine, we wish to know, if he be a clergyman or a Sunday- school teacher, or a father, why he spends so many Sundays in the year in setting forth his " human explanation " to his people or his class or his children, instead of teaching them Hebrew and Greek. If he says that he believes that the " human explanations " of the authorized version he reads, and of the sermons he preaches to his people, or the instructions he gives to his pupils or his children, are scriptural, because they agree with Scripture, we ask him to believe that his church in her faith, that the " human explanations" of her Confession (framed in earnest, prayerful study of the Holy Scriptures, and in the promised light of the Holy Spirit) are correct and scrip- tural, may have as much to justify her as he has in his con- fidence in his own sermons, or his own lessons. We do not claim that our Confessors were infallible. We do not say they could not fail. We only claim that they did not fail. Those who smile at the utterance of a devout Father of the Fidelity to the Church : ' I belie ve it, because it is impossible ' — Confessions, not sm il e because they do not understand him; yet Romanizing. .. , . , .. there would seem to be no solution but that given in the absurdest sense of his words, for an objection sometimes made to a hearty acceptance of the Lutheran Confession — to wit, that such an acceptance is Romanizing. Yet there are FIDELITY TO THE CONFESSIONS. 187 those who affect to believe that men who maintain the duty of an honorable consistency with the Confessions of our Church, are cherishing a Romish tendency. If this meant that the doc- trines of our Church really have this tendency, then it would be the duty of all sound Protestants to disavow those doctrines, and with them the name of the church with which they are inseparably connected. While men call themselves Lutherans, that fact will go further before the unthinking world in favor of the Lutheran Confessions, than all their protestations will go against them. If the Lutheran Church be a Romanizing Church, we ought neither to bear the stigma of her name, nor promote her work of mischief by giving her such aid as may be derived from our own. But if the charge meant that those stigmatized have this Romish tendency, because they are not true to the Confessions of our Church, the thing really implied is, that they are not Lutheran enough — in other words, that the danger of apostasy is connected, not with fidelity to the Confession, but with want of fidelity. If this were the point which it is meant to press, we would heartily agree with those who press it ; and we would help them with every energy, to detect and expose those who would cloak their Romanism under a perversion of our Confession, as others defend their fanaticism and heresies, under the pretence that the Confession is in error. As o-enuine Lutheranism is most Biblical anions; systems which professedly ground themselves on the supreme authority of God's word ; as it is most evangelical among the systems that magnify our Saviour's grace, so is our Church at once most truly Catholic among all churches which acknowl- edge that the faith of God's people is one, and most truly Prot- estant among all bodies claiming to be Protestant. She is the mother of all true Protestantism. Her Confession at Augs- burg, is the first official statement of Scriptural doctrine and usage ever issued against Romish heresy and corruption. Her confessions are a wall of adamant against Romanism. The names of Luther and her heroes who are among the dead, still hold the first place among those of the opponents of Rome. The doctrines of our Church have proved themselves the most mighty of all doctrines in winning men from Rome, and 188 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. strongest of all doctrines in fixing the hearts of men, as a bul- wark against all her efforts to regain the ground she had lost, The anathemas of the Council of Trent are almost all levelled at our Church ; her soldiers have poured forth their blood on the battle-field, and the spirits of her martyrs have taken flight from the scaffold and the stake, in preserving, amid Romish conspiracies and persecution, the truth she gave them. Without our Church, there would be, so far as human sight may pierce, no Protestantism on the face of the earth at this hour, and without her Confession she would have perished from among men. It cannot be that loyalty to the Protest- antism she made and saved, can demand treachery to that by which she made and saved it. It cannot be that fidelity to the truth which overthrew Romanism, can involve connivance with Romanism itself. But there are others who, acknowledging for themselves the force of all that can be urged for the Confessions, and not un- willing for themselves to adopt them, look with desponding eye on the facts which seem to them to show that there can be no large general acceptance in this country, so unchurchly and unhistoric as it is, of these Confessions. Were we to grant the gloomiest supposition possible, that would not affect our duty. Suppose it were true, that the arguments for the pure doctrine of the Confessions seem to have little weight with men, shall we cease to urge them? After Nineteen Centuries of struggle, Christianity is in minority in the world. After the evidences of Christianity have been urged for some three cen- turies, there are many deists, more open and avowed even than at the Reformation. After centuries of argument for the Trinity, there are, perhaps, more Socinians than ever. After three centuries, in which the pure doctrine of justification has been urged, millions in the Romish Church and very many nominal Protestants reject it. With all the arguments for in- fant baptism, with the proofs urged so long and so ably for the validity of other modes of Baptism than immersion, how many millions of Baptists there are ! With the clear testimony of Scripture and History for the perpetual obligation of the two Sacraments, how many Friends there are (and their number is WIDE CREEDS. 189 increasing in Great Britain,) who deny it altogether ! How little headway a pnre and consistent faith in the gospel makes, after so many centuries ! But what have we to do with all this ? Our business is to hold and urge the truth in all its purity, whether men will hear, or whether they will forbear. Truth will, at length, reach its aim and do its work. The faithful defence of the most bitterly contested doctrines has, for centuries, helped to keep millions sound in the faith, and has reclaimed many that had wandered. This very time of ours has seen the revival of the faith of our Church from all the thraldom of rationalism. In the masses of the people, and among the greatest theologians of the age, intense faith has been reproduced in the very doctrines of the Confession, which find the greatest obstacles in the weakness of human nature or in the pride of the heart of man. But if we must have a Creed, it is sometimes urged, why have one less comprehensive than Christianity in its widest sense ? Why have a Creed which will exclude from a particular church, any man whom we acknowledge possibly to be a Christian ? Why exclude from the Church mili- J m Wide Creeds. tant, or from our part of it, the man we expect to meet in the glories of the Church triumphant ? Does not such a course set up a claim for the particular Church, as if it were the Church universal ? Does it not substitute a sectarian orthodoxy for a Christian one ? This theory, which logically runs into the assertion that no particular church should exclude from its communion any but those who, it is prepared to assert, will certainly be lost, is, if fairly put, hardly specious, and in the adroitness of the many ways in which it actually meets us is merely specious. It goes upon a body of false assump- tions. The Church is not merely designed, as this theory assumes, to bring into outward association, men who are to get to heaven, but its object is to shed upon the race every kind of blessing in the present life. The Church is bound to have regard in her whole work, and in her whole sphere, to her entire mission — even though it should require the exclusion of a man whose imbecility, ignorance, and erratic perverseness God may forgive, but which would ruin the Church. L90 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. What is Christianity in its " widest " sense ? How " wide ' must it be? Is Mohammedanism a corrupt Christianity? Is every Unitarian, every Pelagian, every Swedenborgian, lost? Has a " wide " Christianity, Baptism, and the Lord's Supper? If it has, it excludes Elizabeth Fry, and Joseph John Gurney, because they were Friends. If it has not, it tramples on our Lord's commands. Can a particular Church which holds that Immersion is not a necessary mode, be the home of a man who teaches that it is ? As long as there is a man in the world who wishes to make Christianity " wider" than you do, you must yield, unless you feel sure that the man must be lost. "What ! will you have your Church so narrow, that he who is to get to heaven shall not be of it ? Never, if you wish to be consistent. The moment you do it, you have your Church militant which excludes a part of the Church triumphant. But the theory assumes another great fallacy — which is, that there is some fixed standard of responsibility, some ascer- Faiiaciesofthe tainable minimum of what is necessary to salva- argument. tion, in the case of each man. But there is no such standard : the responsibility has a wide range, for it embraces, except in the extremest cases of ignorance and weakness, far more than is necessary for the salvation of every man. Much is required from him to whom much is given. He only has merely the responsibility which belongs to every man, who has no more than that which is given to every man. He who has all the opportunity of knowing God's whole truth, and God's whole will, will not be saved on the standard of the Caffre or the Digger. To make that which is essential to every man the standard, to put it at the minimum at which any creature could be saved, would be to encourage the lowering of the faith and life of millions, to reach at best a few cases. But even in this minimum, particular Churches would differ — and still some would exclude from the Church militant, those whom others regarded as possibly part of the Church tri- umphant. There is another fallacy involved in this theory. The Creed does not, as this theory assumes, exclude from membership those who merely have a defective faith — it is only those who teach EXCOMMUNICATION— FORCE AND EXTENT. 191 against a part of the faith or deny it publicly whom it shuts out. Ignorance and mental imbecility may prevent many from com- prehending certain parts of a system, but no particular church, however rigid, designs to exclude such from its Communion. The theory ignores the fact that the Church should make the standard of faith, and morals, the highest possible, not the lowest. She should lead men, not to the least faith, the least holiness which makes salvation possible, but to the very high- est — she should not encourage the religion whose root is a selfish fear of hell, a selfish craving of heaven, but she should plant that religion to which pure truth is dear for its own sake, which longs for the fullest illumination, which desires not the easy road, but the sure one. This theory, too, in asserting that there is a false assump- tion of catholicity in such exclusions as it condemns, forgets that the only discipline in the Church Universal is that now exercised by the particular Churches. A pure particular Church is not a sect, but is of the Church Catholic. The par- ticular Church must meet its own responsibility — it claims no more than the right to exclude from its own com- „ ,.„ o , _ munion — and does not pretend to force any other tentofexteommu- particular Church to respect its discipline. If we exclude a man for what we believe to be heresy, that does not prevent his union with another part of the Church which regards his view as orthodox. The worship of what we be- lieve to be a wafer, may exclude a man from our Communion, but it will prepare for him a welcome to the Church of Home, which believes that wafer to be incarnate God. There such a man belongs. His exclusion does not deny that a man may believe in Transubstautiation and yet be saved. ISTor let it be forgotten that no excommunication is valid unless it be author- ized of God. All the fulminations of all the particular Churches on earth combined cannot drive out of God's kingdom the man he is pleased to keep in it. If the excommunication be righteous, no man dare object to it ; if it be unrighteous, the man has not been excluded by it from the Church militant. No man can be really kept or forced out of the Church mili- tant except by God's act or his own. 192 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. Let us now test the principle by a particular case. The doc- trine of the Lord's Supper is the one which in the whole com- pass of Lutheran doctrine has been most objected to on the ground just stated. The objector to specific Creeds asks, whether the Lutheran doctrine of the Sacrament is a part of Christian orthodoxy, or only of Lutheran orthodoxy? We* reply, that it is a part of both. Lutheran orthodoxy, if it be really orthodoxy, is, of necessity, Christian orthodoxy, for there is no other. The Lutheran doctrinal system, if it be orthodox, is, of necessity, Scriptural and Christian. If we admit that the doctrine of the Sacrament taught by our Church is taught also in the New Testament, the error to which it is opposed is, of course, inconsistent with the New Testament, and, therefore, with Christianity. Either the Lutheran doc- trine on the Sacrament is Christian, or it is not. If it be not Christian, then it is not orthodoxy ; if it be Christian, then the opposite of it is, of necessity, not Christian'. As we under- stand the questioner to reason with us on our own ground, and to grant our supposition, for argument's sake, we regard his question as really answering itself, as we cannot suppose that he maintains, that two conflicting systems can both be sound, two irreconcilable statements both truthful, two doc- trines, destructive of each other, both orthodox. But, inasmuch as this exact construction of the drift of the question makes the answer to it so obvious, we are inclined to think that its point is somewhat different, and that what is meant, is, Whether it be necessary to a man's being a Christian in general, or only to his being a Lutheran Christian, that he should be sound in this doctrine ? To this we reply that, to vvi.om ma ^he perfect ideal of a Christian in general, it is we recognize as essential that he should embrace the whole faith of the gospel, and that defective or false faith in regard to the sacraments, so far mars, as defective faith on any point will, the perfect ideal. All other things being equal, the Christian, who does not hold the New Testament doctrine of the Sacrament, is by so much, short of the perfect ideal reached, on this point, by the man who does hold that doc- trine ; or, supposing, as we do suppose, that this doctrine is CHRISTIANS IK THE CHURCH OF R J M E. 193 purely held by our Church, by so much does the non-Lutheran Christian fall short of the full life of faith of the Lutheran Christian. It is in the " unity of the faith " that we are to " come to the fulness of the stature of perfect men in Christ Jesus." But the question still seems so easy of solution, that we apprehend another point may be : Can a man be a Chris- tian, who does not receive what, on our supposition, as a Lutheran, is the New Testament orthodoxy in regard to the Sacrament ? If this be the point, we unhesitatingly reply, that a man may here be in unconscious error, and be a Chris- tian. A man, who sees that the New Testament teaches a doctrine, and yet rejects it, is not a Christian. The man who never has thoroughly examined the New Testament evidence on the subject, and this is the position of many, is so far lack- ing in honesty. The man who grossly misrepresents the doc- trine, and coarsely vilifies it, is guilty of a great crime. Here the decision involves no difficulty, and yet it is one of the hardest practical questions to determine, what amount of incon- sistency with the demands of Christianity is necessary to prove a man to be no Christian ; and this difficult question pertains not alone to the faith of the Christian, but to his life ; it is both doctrinal and practical. Certainly, there are many points of a self-consistent New Testament morality, in which men come fearfully short, whom we yet think we are bound to con- sider as Christians — weak, inconsistent, and in great peril, yet still Christians. It is hazardous, indeed, to provide for any degree of aberration in Christian morals or in Christian faith. Our Church is a liberal Church, in the true sense ; she is liberal with what belongs to her, but not liberal in giving away her Master's goods, contrary to His order. The truth, in its minutest part, she does not trifle with. For herself and her children, she must hold it with uncompromising fidelity. But she heartily believes, that, even where some portion of the truth is lost or obscured, God may, through what is left, per- petuate a Christian life. She believes that God has His own blessed ones, kept through His almighty grace, through all Christendom. She believes, that, in the Romish Church, Pas- cal and Fenelon, and many of the obscure and unknown, were 13 the Church of Rome. 194 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. true followers of Jesus ; she believes that Christ may preserve many of His own there now. Even in considering the Pope as in his claims and assumptions an Antichrist, she does not exclude him as a person from the possibility of salvation ; but she dares not let go her truthful testimony against Romish christians in errors - She dare not let her children think that it is a matter of indifference, whether they hold to justification by faith, or justification by works, or, as regards the Sacrament, hold to the opus operation, Tran- substantiation, and the Mass, or to the pure doctrine she con- fesses. And here we throw back upon such an objector his own question. He acknowledges that Luther was a Christian before he left the Church of Rome, and that God has His own saints, even under the corrupt system of that Church. Are his own views, then, against the opus operation, against Tran- substantiation and the Mass, a part of Christian orthodoxy, or only of Protestant orthodoxy ? Shall our Protestant creeds exclude a man from our Protestant Churches and Pulpits, because he is a Romanist, who, we yet acknowledge, may be God's child, and an heir of heaven ? As to the great Communions, whose distinctive life originated in the Era of the Reformation, the case is no less clear. We need hardly say how heartily we acknowledge, that, in the Evangelical Protestant Churches, in their ministry and people, there are noble exemplifications of Christian grace. Nevertheless, we do not believe that there is a Christian living, who would not be more perfect as a Chris- tian, in a pure New Testament faith in regard to the Sacra- ments, than he can be in human error regarding them, and we believe that pure New Testament faith to be the faith which is confessed by our Church. At the same time, we freely acknowledge, that, as Channing, though a Unitarian, was more lovely morally than many a Trinitarian, so, much more, may some particular Christians, who are in error on the matter of the Sacraments, far surpass in Christian grace some individuals, who belong to a Church, whose sacramental faith is pure. Some men are on the level of their systems, some rise above them, some fall below them. Christians in the Protestant Churche.-;. COURSE OF ERROR IN THE CHURCH. 195 A human body may not only live, but be healthy, in which one lobe of the lungs is gone ; another may be sickly and die, in which the lungs are perfect. Nevertheless, the complete lungs are an essential part of a perfect human body. We still truly call a man a man, though he may have lost arms and legs ; we still call a hand a hand, though it may have lost a finger, or be distorted. While, therefore, we freely call systems and men Christian, though they lack a sound sacramental doc- trine, we none the less consider that doctrine essential to a complete Christian system, and to the perfect faith of a Chris- tian man. The man who has lost an arm, we love none the less. If he has lost it by carelessness, we pity his misfortune, yet we do not hold him free from censure. But, when he in- sists, that, to have two arms, is a blemish, and proposes to cut off one of ours, then we resist him. Somewhere on earth , if the gates of hell have not prevailed against the Church, there is a Communion whose fellowship involves no departure from a solitary article of Christian faith — and no man should be will- ing to be united with any other Communion. The man who is sure there is no such Communion is bound to put forth the effort to originate it. He who knows of no Creed which is true to the Rule of Faith, in all its articles, should at once pre- pare one that is. Every Christian is bound either to find a Church on Earth, pure in its whole faith, or to make one. On the other hand, he who says that the Church is wrong, con- fesses in that very assertion, that if the Church be right, he is an errorist ; and that in asking to share her communion while he yet denies her doctrine, he asks her to adopt the principle that error is to be admitted to her bosom, for as an errorist and only as an errorist can she admit him. But the practical result of this principle is one on which there is no need of speculating; it works in one ConrseofEnor unvarying way. When error is admitted into the In the church. Church, it will be found that the stages of its progress are always three. It begins by asking toleration. Its friends say to the majority: You need not be afraid of us; we are few, and weak ; only let us alone ; we shall not disturb the faith of others. The Church has her standards of doctrine: ~f course 196 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. we shall never interfere with them ; we only ask for ourselvei to be spared interference with our private opinions. Indulged in this for a time, error goes on to assert equal rights. Truth and error are two balancing forces. The Church shall do nothing which looks like deciding between them ; that would be partiality. It is bigotry to assert any superior right for the truth. We are to agree to differ, and any favoring of the truth, because it is truth, is partisanship. What the friends of truth and error hold in common is fundamental. Anything on which they differ is ipso facto non-essential. Anybody who makes account of such a thing is a disturber of the peace of the church. Truth and error are two co-ordinate powers, and the great secret of church-statesmanship is to pre- serve the balance between them. From this point error soon goes on to its natural end, which is to assert supremacy. Truth started with tolerating; it comes to be merely tolerated, and that only for a time. Error claims a preference for its judg- ments on all disputed points. It puts men into positions, not as at first in spite of their departure from the Church's faith, but in consequence of it. Their recommendation is that they re- pudiate that faith, and position is given them to teach others to repudiate it, and to make them skilful in combating it. So necessary, so irresistible are these facts, and the principles they throw into light, that we find in history the name of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, from the hour of its first dis- tinctive use, linked for centuries with one unvarying feature everywhere. Divided among nationalities, speaking diverse tongues, developing different internal tendencies within certain of the li mi ^ s ? an d without absolute identity as to the Lutheran church universal recognition of certaiu books as standards o £ doctrine, we f[ u( \ one unchanging element ; the Evangelical Lutheran Church accepted the Augsburg Con- fession as scriptural throughout. Such a phenomenon as an Evangelical Lutheran claiming the right of assailing a doctrine taught in the Augsburg Confession was unknown. When Spener, Francke, and the original Pietistic school sought to develop the spiritual life of the Church, they did it by enforcing the doctrines of the Church in their living power CHARACTER OF RATIONALISM, 197 They accomplished their work by holding more firmly and exhibiting more completely in all their aspects the doctrines of the Eeformation, confessed at Angsburg. The position of them all was that the doctrines of our Church are the doctrines of God's Word, that no changes were needed, or could be allowed in them ; that in doctrine her Reformation was complete, and that her sole need was by sound discipline to maintain, and by holy activity to exhibit, practically, her pure faith. These men of God and the great theologians they influenced, and the noble missionaries they sent forth, held the doctrines of the Church firmly. They wrought those great works, the praises of which are in all Christendom, through these very doctrines. They did not mince them, nor draw subtle distinctions by which to evade or practically ignore them, but, alike upon the most severely controverted, as upon the more generally recog- nized, doctrines of our Church, they were thoroughly Lutheran. They held the Sacramental doctrines of our Church tenaciously, and defended the faith of the Church in regard to Baptism and the Lord's Supper, as they did all her other doctrines. It was Semler and Bahrdt, Gabler, Wegscheider and Bretschnei- der, and men of their class, who first invented, or acted on, the theory that men could be Lutherans, and assail the doctrines of the Church. Better men than those whose names we have mentioned were influenced and perverted in different degrees by the rationalistic spirit of the time. They did not assail the doctrines of the Church, but they either passed them by in silence, or defended them with a reservedness practically equiv- alent to a betrayal. It looked as if the edifice of our fathers' faith might be utterly overthrown. As Deism was eating away the spiritual life of the Episcopal Church of England and of the Presbyterian Church of Scotland ; as Socinianism was laying waste the Independent Churches of the same lands, as at a later period it rolled over ]S"ew England ; as Atheism swept away Romanism in France; so did Rationalism rear itself in the Lutheran Church. Established Rationalism. as our Church was on God's Word, what could move her but to take from her that Word, or to lead her to some new and false mode of interpreting it? This was the 1^8 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. work of Rationalism — to pretend to hold the Word, hut to corrupt its sense, so that the Confession and the Word should no longer seem to correspond. The mischief seemed to be incurable ; but God did not forsake his own work. The evil brought its own cure. The mischief wrought until it was found that the idea of men calling themselves by the name of a Church, and yet claiming the right to assail its doctrines, was the idea of Infidelity in the bud — it was Belial allowed to take shelter under the hem of the garment of Christ. Any man who will read thoughtfully the history of Eationalism in Europe, and of the Unionism which is now too often its stronghold, will not wonder at the earnestness of true Lutber- anism in Germany, and of Synods which are in affinity with it, in maintaining a pure Confession. He will, have no difficulty in comprehending their indisposition to tolerate indifferentism, rationalism, and heresy, under the pretence of union. They cannot call bitter sweet, while their lips are yet wet with the wormwood which was forced upon them. The history of Rationalism in our Church will show certain phases, of which we will offer a hint : I. In the first place, the doctrine of the Church was con- ceded to be true, but its relative importance was detracted uistorvof Ra- fr° m - It was argued that doctrinal theories should tionaiism. "be thrown into the background, and that directly practical and experimental truths, separated from their true connections in the profounder doctrines, should be exclusively urged. (Pseudo-Pietism and Fanaticism.) II. From an impaired conviction of the value of these con- ceded doctrines, grew a disposition to ignore the doctrines which divided the Lutheran and Reformed Communions. The Divine Word was not to be pressed in cases in which there was a reluctance to accept its teachings. From this arose Unionistic efforts on the basis of a general Protestant orthodoxy, and an •assimilation on the part of the Lutheran Church to the Re- formed basis, tendency, and doctrine. III. From the disposition to under value and ignore these doctrines, arose the feeling that if they could be entirely set aside^ there would be a great gain to the cause of unity. Why HISTORY OF RATIONALISM. 199 agree to differ, when, by a free criticism, the very causes of differences could be thrown out of the way? These distinctive doctrines originated in too strict a conception of the inspira- tion and weight of the Bible language. Wby not liberalize its interpretation ? Thus arose the earlier and more moderate rationalism of Semler and of his School. IV. Then came the beginning of the end. Men, still in the outward communion of the Church, claimed the right to sub- mit all its doctrines to their critical processes. Refined and Vulgar Rationalism, mainly distinguished by their degrees of candor, divided the ministry, carried away the Reformed Church, and, to a large extent, even the Romish, with our own, broke up the liturgical, catechetical, and hymnological life, and destroyed the souls of the people. Unblushing infidelity took on it the livery of the Church. Men had rejected the Faith of the Rule, and were still good Lutherans. Why not reject the Rule of Faith, and be good Lutherans? The Faith of those men of the olden time, men who were, by more than two cen- turies, wiser than their fathers, had proved to be mere human speculation. Why might not the Rule be? They soon settled that question, and the Bible was flung after the Confession, and men were allowed to be anything they pleased to be, and to bear any name they chose. The less Lutheran they were in the old sense of the word, the more were they Lutherans in the new sense. They not only insisted on being called Lutherans, but insisted they were the only genuine Lutherans. Had not Luther disenthralled the human mind? Was not the Reformation simply an assertion of the powers of human reason, and of the right of private judgment? Was it not an error of Luther's dark day, that, when he overthrew the fear of the Pope, he left the fear of God — which simply substitutes an impalpable Papacy for a visible one ? Would not Luther, if he had only been so happy as to have lived to read their writings, certain!} have been brought over to the fullest liberty ? Who could doubt it ? So out of the wbole work of the Reformer, the only posi- tive result which they regarded him as having reached was embraced in the well-known lines, wbich there is, indeed, no evidence that he wrote, but which are so far in advance of 200 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. everything in his indubitably genuine works, as to be, in their eyes, supra -canonical, to wit: Wer nicht liebt Wein, Weib und Gesang, Der bleibt ein Narr sein Leben lang. This is all they have left as fundamental in the Reformer's creed. Such is the Genesis, and such the Revelation of the European History of the sort of Lutheranism which claims the right to mutilate and assail the faith of the Church. Ought we not to tremble at it and take heed how we make a single step toward its terrible fallacy and its fearful results? In the great mercy of God a reaction and revival in the true sense is taking; place. It goes on in the Old World. Restoration of & r ° the church It goes on in the New. The work is going on, and will go on, until the old ways have been found — till the old banner again floats on every breeze, and the old faith, believed, felt, and lived, shall restore the Church to her primal glory and holy strength. God speed the day ! For our Church's name, her history, her sorrows, and her triumphs, her glory in what has been, her power for the good yet to be, all are bound up with the principle that purity in the faith is first of all, such a first, that without it there can be no true second. VI. THE CONFESSIONS OF THE CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. THE PRIMARY CONFESSION. THE CONFESSION OF AUGSBURG.* IT is with a solemn and holy delight we have learned to traverse the venerable edifice, which the hands of our fathers erected in the sixteenth century. There is none of the glitter which catches and fascinates the childish eye, but Spirit of tIie all possesses that solid grandeur which fills the Reformation. soul. Every part harmonizes with the whole, and conspires in * The Bibliography we propose to give, in the notes to this dissertation, is not a general one, but is confined to the works which are in the hands of the writer, and, with a few exceptions, in his library. It will be found, however, to embrace all that are of the highest importance, so far as the diligence of the collector, stretching itself over years, has been able to bring them together. We give in this note only the Bibliography of the Bibliography of the Confession. I. Notices in works of a general character. Buddei Isagoge (1730)426, 437. — Noesselt, J. A.: Anweisung (3d ed. 1818) ii. 272.— Planck, G. J. : Einleitung (1795) ii. 592.— Danz: Encyclopsedie (1832) 415. — Walch: Bibliotheca Theologica (1757) i. 327-362, iv. 1099. — Niemeyer: Prediger Bibliothek (1784) iii. 63-69. —Noesselt: Kenntniss Biicher (1790) \ 507, 508.— Fuhrmann: Handbuch der Theolog. Literat. (1819) ii. a. 500, 507.— Ersch: Literatur der Theologie. (1822) 119. — Danz: Universal Worterbuch. (1843) 96, 186, 921. Supplem. 22.— Winer: Handbuch. (3d ed. 1838) i. 323,572. ii. 316. Supplem. (1842) 53. — Kaysers : Index Librorum, Confession, etc. II. Special notices of its Literature. Pfaff, C. M. : Introd. in Histor. Theolog. Liter. Tubing. 1726. iii. 385-416.— Jo. Alb. Fabricivs Centifolium Lutheranum (Hamb. 1728-30. ii. 8) i. 104-144, 201 202 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. the proof that their work was not to pull down, bat to erect The spirit of the Reformation was no destroying angel, who sat and scowled with a malignant joy over the desolation which spread around. It was overshadowed by the wings of that Spirit who brooded indeed on the waste of waters and the wilderness of chaos, but only that he might unfold the germs of life that lay hidden there, and bring forth light and order from the darkness of the yet formless and void creation. It is vastly more important, then, to know what the Reformation retained than what it overthrew ; for the overthrow of error, though often an indispensable prerequisite to the establishment of truth, is not truth itself; it may clear the foundation, sim- ply to substitute one error for another, perhaps a greater for a less. Profoundly important, indeed, is the history of that which the Reformation accomplished against the errors of Romanism, yet it is as nothing to the history of that which it accomplished for itself. The overthrow of Romanism was not ii. 583-606. — Bibliotheca Retmanniana (1731) p. 403. — Walchii, J. G. : Intro- iuctio in Libr. Symbol. Jena, 1732. 196-257. — Walchii, J. G. : Religions- streitigkeiten der Evang. Luth. Kirche. Jena, 2d ed. 1733-1739. i. 35. iv. 4. — Walch, J. G. : Chr. Concordienb. Jena. 1750. p. 21. — Baumgartes, S. J.: Er- lauterungen der Symb Schriften. Halle, 1761. p. 54-60. — Walchii, C. G. F. : Breviar. Theolog. Symb. Eccl. Luth. Gottingen, 1765. p. 69-75. — Baumgarten, S. J. : Geschichte der Religions-partheyen. Halle, 1866. p. 1150-1153. — J. W. Feuerlen: Bibliotheca Symbolica — edid. J. Barth. Riederer (Norimb. 1768.) 8. p 70 seq. — Koecher: Bibliotheca theologiae symbolicae et catecheticse item- que liturgica. Guelferb. 1751. 114-137. — H. W. Rotermund: Geschichte, etc., (1829) p. 192-203. — Semleri: Apparatus ad Libr. Symbol. Eccl. Luth. Halae Mag. 1775. pp. 39, 42. — Beck, C. D. : Commentar. histor. decret. relig. chr. et formulae Lutheriae. Leipz., 1801. p 148, 794. — Tittmann, J. A. H. : Instit. Symbolic, ad Sentent. Eccles. Evang. Lipsiae, 1811. p. 92. — Ukert : Luther'a Leben. (Jctha, 1817. i. 227-293. — Fuhrmann: Handworterbuch der Christ. Relig. u. Kirchengesch. Halle, 1826. i. 537. — Yelin : Versuch einer histor- liter. Darst. der Symbol. Schriften. Nurnberg, 1829 p. 67. — Pfaff, K. : Ge- schichte des Reichst. zu Augsburg. Stuitg., 1830. p. v.-x. — Bretschneider: Sys-' temat. Entwickelung. Leipz.. (1804). 4th ed. 1841 81-86. — C A. Hase : Libr. Symb. Lips., 1827 (1845) proleg. iii.— J. T. L. Danz : Die Augsb Confess., etc. (1829) 1-4. — Kollner : Symb. der Luther. Kirche. Hamburg, 1837. p. 150- 152. — Guereke, H. E. F.: Symbolik (1839), 3d Aufl. Leipz., 1861. 104-110.— Muller, J. T. : Symb. Bucher. Stuttg., 1848. xv. xvii. — Matthes, K. : Compar. Symbolik. Leipz., 1854. p. 76. — Herzog: Real Encyclop. Hamb., 1864. i. 234. — Hcfmann: Rud. Symbolik. Leipz., 1857. p. 234. — Corpus Reformats i.-uu, (1857), vol. xxvi. Pars Prior. 101-111. 201-204. SPIRIT OF THE REFORMATION. 203 its primary object ; in a certain sense it was not its object at all. Its object was to establish truth, no matter what might rise or fall in the effort. Had the Reformation assumed the form which some who have since borne the name of Protest- ants would have given it, it would not even have been a splen- did failure ; the movement which has shaken and regenerated a world would have ended in few miserable squabbles, a few autos da fe; and the record of a history, which daily makes the hearts of thousands burn within them, would have been exchanged for some such brief notice as this : that an irascible monk, named Luder, or Luther, and a few insane coadjutors, having foolishly attempted to overthrow the holy Roman See, and remaining obstinate in their pernicious and detestable heresies, were burned alive, to the glory of God and the Virgin Mary, and to the inexpressible satisfaction of all the faithful. The mightiest weapon which the Reformation employed against Rome was, not Rome's errors, but Rome's truths. It professed to make no discoveries, to find no unheard-of interpretations ; but taking the Scriptures in that very sense to which the greatest of her writers had assented, uncovering the law and the gospel of God which she retained, applying them as her most distinguished and most honored teachers had applied them, though she had made them of none effect by her tradi- tions, the Reformation took into its heart the life-stream of six- teen centuries, and came forth in the stature and strength of a Christianity, grown from the infancy of primitive ages, to the ripened manhood of that maturer period. There was no fear of truth, simply because Rome held it, and no disposition to embrace error, because it might be employed with advantage to Rome's injury. While it established broadly and deeply the right of private judgment, it did not make that abuse of it which has since been so common. From the position, that the essential truths of the word of God are clear to any Chris- tian mind that examines them properly, it did not leap to the conclusion, that a thousand generations or a thousand exam- iners were as likely, or more likely, to be wrong than one. They allowed no authority save to the word of God, but they listened respectfully to the witness of believers of all time. 204 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. The lone which is imparted to the mind and heart, by the theology oi the Reformation, is just what we now most need. But where are we to commence, it may be asked, in the infinite importance of variety of works that have been written about the the cordons. Reformation and its theology? "Art is long and life is fleeting." And how is the clergyman to find the books, or buy them when found, or read them when bought, destitute, as he is too wont to be, alike of money and time ? We reply, that an immense treasure lies in a narrow compass, and within the reach of every minister in our land. By a careful study of the symbolical books of our Church, commencing with the Augsburg Confession and its Apology, a more thorough under- standing of the history, difficulties, true genius, and triumphs of the Reformation will be attained, than by reading every- thing that can be got, or that has ever been written about that memorable movement. It is, indeed, too much the fashion now to read about things, to the neglect of the great original sources themselves. In general literature much is written and read about Homer and Shakspeare, until these great poets attract less attention than their critics. In theology it is the prevailing practice to have students read introductions to the Bible, and essays on various features of it, to such a degree that the Bible itself, except in an indirect form, is hardly studied at all, and the student, though often introduced to it, never fairly makes its acquaintance. All these illustrative works, if well executed, have their value ; but that value presupposes such a general acquaintance with the books to which they serve as a guide, as is formed by every man for himself who carefully examines them. The greatest value of every work of the human mind, after all, generally lies in that which needs no guide, no critic, no commentator. Their labors may display more clearly, and thus enhance, this value, and are not to be despised ; but their subject is greater than themselves, and they are useful only when they lead to an accurate and critical knowledge of that with which a general acquaintance has been formed by personal examination. It is now conceded, for example, that in the order of nature the general knowledge of language must precede an accurate, grammatical acquaint- RELATIONS TO THE REFORMATION. 205 ance with it. They may "he formed indeed together, part pre- ceding part, but if they must be separated, the general is bet- ter than the scientific. If, in a library, there were two cases, one containing all the Latin grammars and the other all the Latin classics, and one boy was kept six years to the classics and another six years to the grammars, the first would under- stand the language practically, the second would understand nothing, not even the grammar. And this principle it is easy to apply as regards its bearings on those great masterly treatises which form our o it it i mi p 7 t» /■ Relations to bymboheaJ books. 1 hey are 'parts of the He j or ma- the Reformation. Hon itself: not merely witnesses in the loose sense in which histories are, but the actual results, the quintessence of the excited theological and moral elements of the time. In them you are brought into immediate contact with that sub- lime convulsion itself. Its strength and its weakness, its fears and its hopes, the truths it exalted, the errors and abuses it threw down, are here presented in the most solemn and strongly authenticated form in which they gave them to pos- terity. They are nerves running from the central seat of thought of that ancient, glorious, and immortal time, to us, who form the extremities. To see the force of every word, the power of every allusion, requires an intimate acquaintance with the era and the men, in forming which the student will be led delightfully into a thorough communion and profound sympathy with that second greatest period in human history. The child of our Church will find occasion to exult, not only in those brighter parts of our history and of our doctrines, whose lustre fills every eye, but even in those particulars on which ignorance, envy, and jealousy have based their power- less attacks; — will find, when he reaches a thorough under- standing of them, new occasion to utter, with a heart swelling with an honorable pride, " I, too, am a Lutheran." We are not such gross idolaters, nor so ignorant of the declarations of these great men themselves, as to imagine that they left nothing for their posterity to do. Whether their posterity has done it, and done it well, is, however, a very distinct question. To assume that, merely because we follow them in order of time, 206 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. we have gone farther than they in truth, is to lay the founda- tion of a principle more absurd and pernicious than the worst doctrine of the Church of Rome, and is as foolish as to say, that the child of to-day, four years of age, is a greater astronomer than Newton, because he lives in the century after him. But while we concede that we may and ought to advance, we wish explicitly to say, that we mean by advance, progress in the same direction. We are aware of no particular in which advance demands, or is even compatible with a desertion of the fundamental principles of our fathers. They may have Nature of true made mistakes, and nothing but mistakes; they progress. ffl.fl^ have known nothing, and we may know every thing ; but we have seen no evidence that such is the case, and until it be brought before us, we must beg indulgence for our skepticism. This much we can safely assert, that those who understand best the theology of the Reformation, have most confidence in it, and the strongest affection for it ; to them it seems still to stand in its original glory, firm as the eternal mountains. That which strikes them painfully, as they grow more and more familiar with that stout heart, whose life- blood is warming us, is that we have not advanced as we should ; that though we have the shoulders of these giants of a former world, from which, alas ! a flood of infidelity and theological frivolity seems to separate us, on which to stand, there are so many things in which we do not see as far as they. It is because slothfulness or ignorance prevents us from occupy- ing that position to which they would lift us, because taking a poor and narrow view of their labors, and measuring them by some contemptible little standard, sometimes one set up by their enemies, and yet oftener by those who are more injurious than their enemies, their superficial and injudicious professed friends, we permit our minds to be prejudiced against them. A simple heart is of more value than mere science in the apprehension of religious truth ; and never has there been wit- nessed such a union of gigantic powers, with such a child-like spirit, as among the theologians of the sixteenth century. In vain do we increase the facilities for the attainment of knowl- edge, if wo do not cor respon Singly strengthen the temper of 6Jt>lRlT OF OUR TIME. 207 mind and heart essential to its acquisition. It by no means, therefore, follows, that even minds of the same order in our own da} 7 , would go beyond the point to which the Reforma- tion was carried ; because circumstances more embarrassing than those of the sixteenth century may now lie around the pathway of theological truth. Flattery is a more dangerous thing than bodily peril ; a vain and superficial tendency will do more mischief than even an excess of the supernatural ele- ment, and the spirit of the Romish Church, and the g irit of cur prejudices insensibly imbibed in her communion, time adverse to . . . . P .-, thoroughness. are not more pernicious as a preparation tor the examination of divine truth, than is a cold, self-confident, and rationalizing mind. If we do not contemptuously reject all aid in search after truth, to whom can we go with more confi- dence than to the great authors of the Reformation? We know them at least to be sincere ; no hireling scribblers, writ- ing to tickle the fancy of the time ; we know them to be the thorough masters of their subjects, conscious that every word would be examined and every argument fiercely assailed by their foes. Every doctrine they established by the word of God, and confirmed by the witness of his Church. Every objection which is now urged, was then brought to bear upon the truth. Controversy has added nothing to its stores; they knew perfectly those superficial, miscalled reasous which make men now so confident in saying, that had the Reformers only lived in our time, they would have abandoned much to which the}' held. They knew them, but they lived and died unchang- ing in their adherence to what they had taught as truth. It is a cheap and popular way of getting rid of anything in the theology of the Reformation which is not palatable, by pre- tending that it is a remnant of Popery, as Rationalists evade the force of Scripture declarations, by saying they are accom- modations to Jewish prejudices. Among these remnants of Popery, have for instance been enumerated the doctrines of the Trinity, and the deity of Christ, of the Atonement, of eternal punishment, in short, of every thing which is distinc- tive of Evangelical Christianity. Iso position could be more violent in regard to all the doctrines of our Confession. They 208 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION not only can be demonstrated from Scripture, but can be shown to have been fully received in the Church before Popery had a name or a being. It would be far more natural to suppose, that in the fierce and imbittered strife with that gigantic sys- tem of Error, a part of the Protestant party would be driven to deny some truths, by whose abuse the Church of Rome strove to maintain her power. The insinuation of Romish influence is a sword with a double edge, and is almost sure to wound those who handle it ; it is, in fact, ordinarily but the refuge of a sectarian spirit, which tries to accomplish by exciting odium, what it failed to do by argument. But are those Confessions, after all, of any value to the American and American Lutheran preacher? it may be asked. German. We cannot conceal our sorrow, that that term, " American," should be made so emphatic, dear and hallowed though it be to our heart. Why should we break or weaken the golden chain which unites us to the high and holy associ- ations of our history as a Church, by thrusting into a false position a word which makes a national appeal ? Is there a conflict between the two, when carried to their Yery farthest limits ? Must Lutheranism be shorn of its glory to adapt it to our times or our land ? No ! Our land is great, and wide, and glorious, and destined, we trust, under the sunlight of her free institutions, long to endure ; but our faith is wider, and greater, and is eternal. The world owes more to the Reforma- tion than to America ; America owes more to it than to her- self. The names of our Country and of our Church should excite no conflict, but blend harmoniously together. We are placed here in the midst of sectarianism, and it becomes us, not lightly to consent to swell that destructive torrent of separ- atism which threatens the welfare of pure Christianity on our shores more than all other causes combined. "We are sur- rounded by the children of those Churches, which claim an origin in the Reformation. We sincerely respect and love them ; we fervently pray that they may be increased in every labor of love, and may be won more and more to add to that precious truth, which they set forth with such power, those no Less precious doctrines which, in the midst of so wide an aban- AMERICAN AND GERMAN 209 donment of the faith once delivered to the saints, God has, in our Confession, preserved to us. But how shall we make our- selves worthy of their respect, and lift ourselves out of the sphere of that pitiful little sectarianism which is crawling con- tinually over all that is churchly and stable? AVe must begin by knowing ourselves, and being true to that knowledge. Let us not, with our rich coffers, play the part of beggars, and ask favors where we have every ability to impart them. !No Church can maintain her self-respect or inspire respect in others, which is afraid or ashamed of her own history, and which rears a dubious fabric on the ignorance of her ministry and of her members. Whatever flickerings of success may play around her, she will yet sink to rise no more, and, worse than this, no honest man will lament her fall ; for however such a moral dishonesty may be smoothed over, every reflect- ing man sees that such a Church is an organized lie, with a ministry, congregations, churches, and societies united to sus- tain a lie. From this feeling a gracious Providence has almost wholly preserved our Church in this country. To whatever extent want of information or the pressure of surrounding denominations may have produced the practical departure of individuals from some of the principles of our Church, our common origin and our glorious annals have formed a bond of sympathy. Struggling against difficulties which would have crushed a church with less vitality, the Lutheran Communion in this country has always preserved some honorable feeling of her own dignity and proper value. The salt which has pre- served her is Germanic. On these shores she has yet, properly, little history, comparatively ; when she looks toward the realm of her might and glory, she must cast her eye over the Atlantic wave, and roll back her thoughts over the lapse of two cen- turies. She has been, and is yet, passing through a period of transition from one language and one national bond to another. The question of language has interest only so far as it concerns the question of Church life, and in its bearings on this should be watched with a tender and trembling interest. N"o doubt there were cases in which the opposition of the earlier Lu- therans in this country, to the introduction of the English 14 210 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. language in our Church, arose from narrow views and feelings simply as Germans, but in yet more instances did it spring from fears, which our subsequent history has shown not to be wholly groundless, that Lutheranism itself — our life, our doc- trines, our usages — so dear to their hearts, might be endan- gered by the change. Whatever, then, may be our sentiments as to the judgment they displayed, let us do honor, at least, to their motives. They saw that the language of our land contained no Lutheran literature, no history just to the claims of our Church, no spirit which, on the whole, could be said fully to meet the genius of our Church. They feared that, under these circumstances, Lu- theranism would melt away, or become the mere creature of the influences with which it was surrounded. They clung to their language, therefore, as a rampart which could shut out for a time the flood which was breaking upon them each day with increasing force. For what, then, do we blame them ? Not for their intense love to the Church, or their ardent desire to preserve it in its purity, nor for that sensitive apprehension which is always the offspring of affection ; not, in a word, that they were Lutherans indeed. If we blame these venerable men at all, it is that they were not Lutheran enough ; that is, that, with all their devotion to the Church, they had not that inspiring confidence which they should have had in the power of her principles, to triumph eventually over every ob- stacle. Would that they could have realized what we believe most firmly, (though part of it yet lies in the future,) that, after all the changes of national existence, and of language, all press- ure from the churches and the people around us, our holy faith shall come forth in all her purity and power, eventually to per- form, in the great drama in our western realm, a part as im- portant as that which she bore in her original glory in the history of the world. And having spoken thus freely in regard to a misapprehen- sion on one side of this question, we shall be equally candid in speaking the truth upon the other. It is evident that our American fathers clung to the German language from no idea that there was any connection between ACQUAINTANCE WITH THE CHURCH 211 Lutheranism and that language as such — some mysterious coherence between its sounds and inflections, and the truths of our Church ; so that, in the very nature of the case, and by an essential necessity, the English language and Lutheranism could not harmonize together. It is fanaticism to attempt to narrow our great Church into an English sect or a German one. The Lutheran Church is neither English nor German ; and though both should cease to be the tongues of living men, she cannot pass away. The greatest works of her original literature, some of her symbols, part of her Church service and hymns, were in the Latin language ; and surely if she can live in a dead language, she can live in any living one. She has achieved some of her most glorious victories where other lan- guages are spoken. She sought at an early period to diffuse her principles among the Oriental Churches, and we will add, that she is destined, on these shores, in a language which her fathers knew not, to illustrate more gloriously, because in a more unfettered form, her true life and spirit, than she has done since the Reformation. If the question may be mooted, How far shall we adopt the principles of the Reformation, and of our earlier Importance ot Church? — this admits of no discussion : Whether an acquaintance . ■ with the Church. we should make ourselves thoroughly acquainted with those principles ; — for the rejection even of error, unless it result from an enlightened judgment, and a mature intel ligent conviction, has no value whatever — nay, is in itself a worse error than any which it can possibly reject, for it rests on the foundation on which almost all moral falsehood has arisen. Let our ministry enter upon a profound study of the history and of the principles of our Church, and if the re- sult of a ripe judgment shall be any other than an increased devotion to the first, and an ardent embracing of the second, we shall feel ourselves bound to re-examine the grounds on which such an examination has led us to repose with the con- fidence of a child on that maternal bosom, where so many, whose names are bright on earth and in heaven, have rested their dying heads, and have experienced that what she taught 212 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. them was sufficient, not only to overcome every trial of life, but every terror of the grave. First in place, and first in importance among those great documentary testimonies of the Church which came forth The Au sbur • m * ,ne Reformation, is the Augsburg Confession. Confession.* The man of the world should feel a deep interest in a document which bears to the whole cause of freedom as close a relation as the " Declaration of Independence " does * Works connected with the history of the Augsburg Confession, chronologi- cally arranged. 1530, (and the works of contemporaries.) 1. Luther: Werke (Walch.) xvi. 734-2145. Leipz. xx. 1-293. — Briefe : De Wette.iv. 1-180. vi. 112-128. — 2. Melanchthon : Epistolae etc. (Corp. Reform.) ii. 1-462. — 3. Nurenberg envoys: Briefe: Strobels Miscellan. lit. inhalt. ii, 3-48. iii. 193-220. cf. Fikenscher. — 4. Pro. Relig. Christ, res gestae in Comit. Augustae Vind. hab. 1530. in Cyprian, Beylage vii. Written by a Roman Cath- olic during the Diet, and published with the Imperial privilege. — 5. Bruck : (Pontanus, Heinse) Verzeichniss der Handlung. herausgeg. von Foerstemann. Archiv. Halle 1831. (Apologia MS.), in refutation of the work just mentioned. — 6. Osiandri, Philippi Hassiae : Senat. Noremberg. Literae in Camerarii Vit. Melanchthonis, ed. Strobel. 407-414. — 7. Spalatin : Berichte, in Luther's Werke, Leipz. xx. 202-212. — 8. Spalatin : Annales Reformationis, published by Cyprian. Leipz. 1718. 131-289. — 9. Myconius : Historia Reformationis, from 1517-1542, published by Cyprian, 1718, p. 91, very brief. — 10. Camerarius : Vita Melanch- thonis (156G) Strobel. Noesselt, Halae 1777. 119-134. — 1555. Sleidan : The Gen- eral History of the Reformation, Englished and continued by Bohun. London, 1689. Fol. 127-140. — 1574. Wigand : Histor. de Augustana Confessione. Regi- omont. 1574, in Cyprian Beylag. x. — 1576. Chytraeus : Histor. der Aug. Conf. Rost. 1576. Frankfort 1580. — 1578. Do. Latin. Frcf. ad Moen. — 1582. Do. His- toire de la Conf. d'Auxpourg. mise en Francois par le Cop. Anvers. — 1576. Coelestinus : Historia Comitiorum. Frankf. on the Oder, 1576-77. — (Kirchner, Selnecker, and Chemnitz) : Solida ac vera Confess. August. Historia (against Wolf] translat. \ er Godfried. Lipsiae, 1685, 4to. — 1620 Sarpi: Histor. Concil. Tri- dent. London, 1620. 40-45. — 1630. Bakiu8,R. : Confessio Augustana triumphans •> das istdie trefflich-schone Geschicht der Wahr. Ungeend. Augsburg Confession. Magdeb. 1630. —1631. Saubert : Miracula Aug. Conf. Norimb. 4to. — 1646. Calo- vius : Criticus sacer vel Commentar. sup. August. Conf. Lips. 1646, 4to. p 19-45. — 1654. Goebel: Predigten, 1-119. — 1665. Carpzov : Isagoge. 2d ed. 1675. 90- 107. — 1369. Arnold : Unparth. Kirchen u. Ketzer Historien. Schaffhausen, 1740. 3 vols. Folio, i. 809. 1230. — 1681. Maimbourg: Historie der Lutheranisme. Paris, 1680. 178-209. —1686. Du Pin : Bibliotheque. A new Ecclesiastical History of the sixteenth century. London, 1720. Fol. ch. xxii. — Seckendorf : Commen- tarius de Lutheranismo, 1686. Franc, and Lips. 1692 p. 150-209. iibers. Frick. — 1714. Do. Reformations Geschichte von Roos, 1781. — 1705. Mulleri, J. J.: His- toria von. . . Protestation ... wie auch Augspurgische Confession, 1705, 4to. — THE AUGSBURG CONFESSION. 213 to our own as Americans. The philosopher should examine what has formed the opinions and affected the destinies of millions of our race. To the Christian it presents itself as the greatest work, regarded in its historical relations, in which pure religion has "been sustained hy human hands. The theo- logian will find it a key to a whole era of fervent, yet profound thought, and the Lutheran, to whom an argument on its value, to him, must he presented, is beyond the reach of argument. — 1706 Junker: Ehrengedachtniss Lutheri. Lipsiae, 1706, 8vo. g 30. — 1708. Loescher: Historia Motuum. 2d ed. 1723, 3 vols. 4to. i. 158-180. —1715. Hil- debrand : Historia Conciliorum. Helmstadii, 1715,311-314. — 1716. Flecters Historisclier Katecliismus. 3d ed. 1718. 339-365. — 1719. Cyprian : HilariaEvan- gelica. Gotha, 1719. Nachricht, von der Augspurg Confession, p. 551-555. — 1727. Buudeus : De Colloq. Charitat. Secul. xvi. (Miscellan. Sacra) 1727. — 1730. Cyprian: Historia der Augsb. Conf. aus den Original- Acten — mit Beylagen. Gotha, 1730, 4to. Racknitz : Flores in Aug. Conf. 1730. — Pfaff: Lib. Symb. Inrrod. Histor. cap. iii. — Hoffmann,C G. : Summar. Betrachtung. der auf Augsp. Reichstage, 1530. Actorum Religionis, 1730. — Salig : Vollst'andige Historie der Aug. Conf. 3 vols. Halle, 1730, 4to. — Do. Geschichte der Aug. Conf. aus Sleidan, Spalatin, Coelestinus, Chytraeus, Hortleder, Seckendorff u. Mailer. 1730. In the form of a dialogue. — 1732. Walch, J. G. : Introd. in L. S. Jena, 1732. 157-482. — Hane: Historia Crit. A. C. — 1740. Moreri: Le Grand Dictionaire Historique, 1740. 8 vols. Folio. Art. Confession d'Augsburg, and Diete — 1745. Weismann : Introduc. in memorab. eccles. Histor. Sacr. Halae, 1745. i. 1498-1504. — 1751- Boerneri: Institut. Theolog. Symbolicae. 23-55. — 1761. Baumgarten : Erleu terungen. 45. — 1765. Walchii, G. F. : Breviarium Theolog. Symb. Ec. Luth. Gotting. 1765.57-75. — 1775. Semleri : Apparatus ad Libr. Symb 36. — 1781. Planck: Gesch. Protestant. Lehrbegriffs. Leipz. 1781. 8 vols. 8vo. iii. 1. 1-178. — 1791. Henke: Geschichte der Chr. Kirche. 4th ed. 1806. iii. 139-143. ix. (Vater) 94-97.— 1782. Weber : Kritische Gesch. d. Aug. Conf. Franf. 1782. 2 vols. 8vo. —1801. Schrockh: Kirchengesch. seit der Reformat. Leipz. 1804. i. 442-482. — 1811. Tittmann: Instit. Symbol. 80-90. — 1826. Schopff : Symb, Buck, i. 24.-1827. Hase: Libr. Symb. Lips. 1827. Prolegom iii-cxiv. — 1829. Rotermund: Geschichte des. . zu Augsb. ubergeb. Glaubensbek. nebst. . Lebens- nachrichten. Hannover, 1829. 8vo. — Cunow : Augsb. Confession, 1829. — Haan : Darstellung, 1829. — Danz : Die Augspurg. Conf. nach ihrer Geschichte. etc. Jena, 1829, 8vo. — Yelin : Versuch, 55-60. Hammerschmidt : Gesch. d. Augsb. Con- fess. 1829. von Ammon: Jubelfestbuch, 1829. — 1830. Schiebler: Reichstag zu Augsburg, 1830. — Spieker: Confessio Fidei, etc. Loeber. Faceus. — Pfaff: Geschichte des Reichst. zu Augs. u. des Augsb. Glaubensbek. Stuttg. 1830. — Tittmann : Aug. Conf. — Fikenscher : Geschichte des Reichst. zu Augsp. Numb. 1830, 8vo. — Martens: Ueber die Symb. Biicher. Halberstadt. 1830. 8vo. 63-80. — 1831. Tittmann: Die Evangelische Kirche im 1530 und 1830. Leipz. 1831.— Marheineke: (1831.) — 1833-1835 Foerstemann : Urkundenbuch. 2 vols. — 214 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. It is our shield and our sword, our ensign and our arming, tha constitution of our state, the life of our body, the germ of our being. It is the bond of our union throughout the world, and by it, and with it, our Church, as a distinct organization, must stand or fall. Her life began, indeed, before it, as the vital point of the embryo exists before the heart and brain are formed, but having ouce evoked the Confession into which her own life flowed — they live or perish together, as that embryo grows or dies, as the vital organs expand in life or shrink in death. In the Symbolical books of the Lutheran Church, the first place, indeed, is justly held by those general Confessions, in which the pure Church has united, in every age since their formation, and in which, throughout the world, it now con- curs. These are the Apostles', the Nicseno-Constantinopolitan, and Athanasian creeds. She thus vindicates her true catho licity and antiquity, and declares that the name of Lutheran does mot define her essence, but simply refers to one grand fact 1835. Bretschneider : Annales vitae Melanchthonis. a. 1530. (2d vol. of Corpus Reform.) — Cox: Life of Melanchthon. Boston, 1835. Ch. viii. — 1837. Kollner : •Symb. d. Luth. Kirche. 150-226. — D'Aubigne : Reformation (1837.) — 1838. Audin : Histoire de la vie, etc., de Martin Luther. Paris, 1845. Chap. xxiv. xxv. Translated from the French. Philadelphia, 1841. Chap, xlvii. xlviii. Trans- lated by Turnbull. London, 1854. Vol. ii. 319-353. — 1839. Stang: M. Luther : Sein Leben u. Wirken. Stuttg. 1839. 600-687. — Ranke : Reformation (1839.) — 1840. Wessenberg : Kirchenversammlungen des 15ten und 16ten Jahrhun- derts. iii. 115. — 1841. Rudelbach : Histor. kritisch. Einleitung in die Augsb. Conf. Dresden, 1841. — 1842. Stebbing : History of the Church from the Diet of Augsburg, etc. London, 1842. i. 9-56. — Neudecker: Die Hauptversuche zur Pacification der Ev. Prot. Kirche Deutschlands, von der Reformation bis auf unsere Tage. Leipz. 1846.57-62. — 1846. Michelet: Luther; translated by Smith. New York, 1846. p. 147. — 1847. Francke : Lib. Symb. xiii-xx. — 1848. Muller : Symb. Biich. liv. Translated: The Book of Concord ; New Market, 1851. xxxiii-xxxviii. 2d ed. 1854. 37-43. — 1849. Zimmermann : Luther's Leben (Ref. Schr. iv.) 471-481. — 1853. Sartorius : Beitr'age. 2d ed. 1-21. "The Glory of the Augsburg Confession." — 1854. Herzog's Real Encyclop. Hamb. 1854. i. 603-610. — Matthes: Comparat, Symbolik. 61-67. — 1855. Ledderhose: Life of Melanchthon, translated by Krotel. Philadelphia, 1855. Chap. xi. — 1857. Hof- mann : Rud. Symbolik. 229-231. — Bindseil,H. E. : Corpus Reformatorum. xxvi. Pars. Prior. — 1866. Guerike : Handb. der Kirchen-Gesch. iii. § 176. (9th ed.) 1866 —Winer: Darstellung. 3d ed. ii. 1866. — 1868. Kurtz: Lehrbuch d. K. C. 2 132. 6. .7. ROMANISM AND ITS CREED. 215 in her history, her restoration in the great Reformation. The most splendid phase of that portion of her annals is to be found in the Diet of Augsburg, and the " Good Confession " which she then " witnessed " before the mighty of the world. The city of Augsburg has not been wanting in historical associa- tions of high interest, but they are dim before its chief glory. Its ancient spires, on which the soft light of many a sinking sun had rested, were then illumined by a milder radiance, which shall never set. It slopes towards two considerable rivers, between which it lies embosomed, but never had that " river which makes glad the city of God," so poured through it its stream of life, as on that eventful day. Thrice since that period the thunder of artillery and the clash of arms have sounded around and within it — but it is our heroes whose glory still keeps its name fresh in the memories of men, and shall keep it when its palaces have crumbled into dust. An age of darkness is a creedless age ; corruption in doctrine works best when it is unfettered by an explicit Romanism and statement of that doctrine. Between the Athana- ltsCreed - sian Creed (probably about A. D. 434) and the sixteenth cen- tury, there is no new General Creed. Error loves ambiguities. In the contest with Rome the Reformers complained bitterly that she refused to make an explicit official statement of her doctrine. " Our opponents," says the Apology,* " do not be- stow the labor, that there may be among the people some cer- tain statement of the chief points of the ecclesiastical doc- trines." Just in proportion to the blind devotion of men to Popery were they reluctant to have its doctrines stated in an authorized form, and only under the compulsion of a public sentiment which was wrought by the Reformation, did the Church of Rome at length convene the Council of Trent. Its decisions were not completed and set forth until seventeen ye irs after Luther's death, and thirty-three years after the Augsburg Confession. The proper date of the distinctive life of a partic- ular Church is furnished by her Creed. Tested by the General Creeds, the Evangelical Lutheran Church has the same cla^m as the Romish Church to be considered in unity with the es rlv * 231, 43. 216 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. Church, — but as a particular Church, with a distinctive bond and token of doctrinal union, she is more than thirty years older than the Komish Church. Our Church has the oldest distinctive Creed now in use in any large division of Christen- dom. That Creed is the Confession of Augsburg. Could the Church have set forth and maintained such a Confession as that of Augsburg before the time over which the Dark Ages extended, those Dark Ages could not have come. There would have been no Reformation, for none would have been needed. The mighty agitations caused by the restoration of divine truth by Luther and his great co-workers, had led The Augsburg J , & . '. confession : Pre- to attempts at harmonizing the conflicting eJe- limimriestopre- ments especially by action at the Diets of the Em- paration of.* . 1 l . pire. At the Diet of Worms (1521) Luther refuses to retract, and the Edict goes forth commanding his seizure * I. Official writings which prepared the way for the Augsburg Confession. 1. The visitational articles : the Saxon visitation articles. a. The Latin Articles by Melanchthon, 1527. These are extremely rare, and are found in none of the older editions of Melanchthon or Luther, (riven in the Corpus Reformatorum. Vol. xxvi. (1857.) 7. b. Melanchthon's Articles of Visitation in German, with Luther's Preface and some changes by him. 1528. (Last Edition 1538.) Given in Melanchthon's Werke (von Koethe) i. 83-130. Corpus Reformatorum xxvi. 49 — in Luther's Werke. Jena iv. 341. Leipzig, xix. 622. Walch. x. 1902. Erlangen xxiii. 3. These ar- ticles are not to be confounded with the Saxon visitation articles of 1592, which are given as an Appendix in various editions of the Symbolical Books (Muller, p. 845.) 2. The fifteen articles of Marburg. (October 3d, 1529.) cf. Feuerlin 42. These articles are given in Luther's Werke, Jena iv. 469. Leipzig xix, 530. Walch. xvii. 2357. Erlangen 65, 88. Reformatorische Schriften von Zimmermann (1847) iii. 420. In all these editions the fourteenth article (on Infant Baptism) has been omitted, so that they make only fourteen articles. Walch, however, (xxiii. 35.) gives the fourteenth article among the omissions supplied (compare do. Pref. p. 6.) — In the Corpus Reformatorum. xxvi. 121-128. xiv.article given. — Zwingle's Werke (Schuler u. Schulthess) ii. iii. 44-58. xiv. article given. — Chytraei His- toria. 355. The fourteenth article omitted. — Miiller J. J. Historie. p. 305-309. Fourteenth article given. — Rudelbach. Reformation Lutherthum und Union (Leipzig, 1839) Appendix 665-668. from Muller, of course with fourteenth ar- ticle. — They have been translated into Latin: Solida ac vera Confess. August. Histor. p. 128-131. — Zwinglii Opera (Schuler et Schulthess) iv : ii. 181. cf. Seck- endorf ii. 138. — In French in Le Cop's Chytrfeus 463-466. — Into English by Dr. lAntner. Missionary, 1857. (Without the fourteenth article.) PRELIMINARIES TO PREPARATION. 217 and the burning of his books ; at the Diet of Nuremberg (1522) Cheregati, the Papal Nuncio, demands the fulfilment of the Edict of Worms, and the assistance of all faithful friends of the Church against Luther. The first Diet at Spires (1526) had virtually annulled the Edict of Worms, by leaving its 3. The xvii. articles of Schwabach, 1529, (miscalled frequently the Torgau articles.) For the special Bibliography of these articles, cf. Walch. Bib. Theo- log. Select, i. 330, and Introd. in L. S. 163. — Feuerlin 78, cf. Layritii : DeArti- culis Suobacens. Wittenb. 1719. 4to. — Weber, Kritisch. Gesch. i. 13. K. PfafF. i. 94. Evangelical Review, i. 246-249 (which presents the confused view of Walch. Introd. in L. S., and of the older writers.) *• In June 1528, the first convention was held in Schwabach. The xxiii. articles of that convention are not to be confounded, as they have been, with the xvii. ar- ticles of the second convention. 2 - The second convention at Schwabach was fixed for October 16th, 1529. a. At this convention the xvii. articles were presented. They are given in Luther's Werke, Jena v. 14. Leipzig xx. 1-3. Walch xxi. 681, 778. Erlangen xxiv. 322. — Corpus Reformatorum xxvi. 151-160. — Chy- traeus, 22-26, Miiller, Historie 442-448. Cyprian, Beylag. 159, most critically iD Weber, Krit. Geschicht. Beylagen i. and Corp. Reform. They have been translated into Latin: Coelestinus i. 25. Pfaff, Lib. Symb. Adpend. 3. — French: Le Cop's Chytraeus, p. 19. — English: Evangelical Re- view, ii. 78-84. (With the old title, " Articles of Torgau.") b. Reply of Wimpina, Mensing, etc., to these articles, 1530. This is given in Luther's Werke, Jena v. 16. Leipz. xx. 3-8. Walch. xvi. 766. Cf Seckendorf, lib. ii. 152. Cyprian 52. Evangelical Review, ii. 83. c. Luther's answer to the outcry of the Papists on the xvii. articles, given in Luther's Werke, Leipz. xx. 8. "■ " Walch, xvi. 778. " Erlangen, 24, 319. Cyprian, Beyl. 159. 4. The Articles of Torgau, 1530. (confounded frequently with the articles of Schwabach.} — Cf. Seckendorf, ii. 151. Miiller 441. Cyprian 52, who suppose what we have called the "Articles of Swabach" to be in fact the articles sent to Torgau — Cf. Salig: i. 158. Walch: Luther's Werke xvi. 681, who suppose the articles of Schwabach to have been somewhat changed and sent to Torgau. — Of. Weber: Krit. Gesch. i. 16-19. Foerstemann: Urkundenbuch i. 40-41. — Koll- ner: Symbolik. i. 156-168. — Corpus Reformator. xxvi. 161-170, who prove the Articles of Swabach and those of Torgau to be totally distinct. The Articles of Torgau, truly entitled to that name, bear, in a large degree, to the second part of the Augsburg Confession, the relation which the Schwabach Articles bear to the first part. — The Articles of Torgau were discovered by Foerstemann (1833) and given to the world by him, in his Urkundenbuch, i. 66-84. — Given also in Corpus Reformatorum, xxvi. 171-200. 218 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION execution to the unforced action of the different Estates, and it promised the speedy convocation of a General Coun- cil, or at least of a National Assembly. The second Diet at Spires (1529) quenched the hopes inspired by this earlier action. It decreed that the Edict of Worms should be strictly enforced where it had already been received ; the celebration of the Romish Mass protected, and the preach- ers bound to confine themselves to the doctrine of the Eomish Church in their teachings. The Protest of the Evangelical Princes against this decision, originated the name Protestants. The Protestant Princes made their appeal to a free General Council. Charles V., after vainly endeavoring to obtain the consent of the Pope to the convocation of a General Council, summoned the Diet at Augsburg, promising to appear in per- son, and to give a gracious hearing to the whole question, so that the " one only Christian truth might be maintained, that all might be subjects and soldiers of the one Christ, and live in the fellowship and unity of one Church." To this end the Emperor directed the friends of the Evangelical faith to prepare, for presentation to the Diet, a statement on the points of division. In consequence of this order of the Emperor, the Elector of Saxony, who was the leader of the Evangelical Princes, directed Luther, in conjunction with the other theologians at Witten- berg, to draw up a summary of doctrine, and a statement of the abuses to be corrected. The statement drawn up in conse- quence of this, had, as its groundwork, Articles which were already prepared ; and as the Augsburg Confession is the ripest result of a series of labors, in which this was one, and as much confusion of statement exists on the relations of these labors, it may be useful to give the main points in chronological order. 1. 1529. October 1, 2, 3. The Conference at Marburg took place between Luther and the Saxon divines upon the one side, and Zwingle and the Swiss divines on the other. Luther, in conjunction with others of our great theologians, prepared the XV. Marburg Articles, October, 1529. These Articles were PRELIMINARIES TO PREPARATION. 219 meant to show on what points the Lutherans and Zwinglians agreed, and also to state the point on which they did not agree, and as a fair statement of the points, disputed and undisputed, were signed by all the theologians of both parties. 2. 1529. Oct. 16. On the basis of these XV. Articles were prepared, by Luther, with the advice and assistance of the other theologians, the XVII. Articles of Schwabach, so called from the place at which they were presented. 3. 1529. Nov. 29. From the presentation of these XVII. Articles at Smalcald, they are sometimes called the Smalcald Articles. 4. 1530. March 20. These XVII. Articles of Luther re- vised were sent to Torgau, and were long called the Torgau Articles, though they are in fact the revised Articles of Schwa- bach. These Articles are mainly doctrinal. 5. March 20. In addition to these, a special writing, of which Luther was the chief author, in conjunction with Me- lanchthon, Jonas, and Bugenhagen, was prepared by direction of the Elector, and sent to Torgau. These articles are on the abuses,* and are the Torgau Articles proper. 6. The XVII. doctrinal articles of Schwabach formed the basis of the doctrinal articles of the Augsburg Confession ; the Ar- ticles of Torgau are the basis of its articles on abuses, and both these are mainly from the hand of Luther. In six instances, the very numbers of the Schwabach Ar- ticles correspond with those of the Augsburg Confession. They coincide throughout, not only in doctrine, but in a vast number of cases word for word, the Augsburg Confession being a mere transcript, in these cases, of the Schwabach Articles. The differences are either merely stylistic, or are made neces- sary by the larger object and compass of the Augsburg Con- fession ; but so thoroughly do the Schwabach Articles condi tion and shape every part of it, as to give it even the peculiarity of phraseology characteristic of Luther. To a large extent, therefore, Melanchthon's work is but an elaboration of Luther's, and to a large extent it is not an * For the latest and amplest results of historical investigation of these points, see Corpus Reformat., vol. xxvi. (1858,) cols. 97-199. 220 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. elaboration, but a reproduction- To Luther belong the doc- trinal power of the Confession, its inmost life and sph.it, and to Melanchthon its matchless form. Both are in some sense its authors, but the most essential elements of it are due to Luther, who is by pre-eminence its author, as Melanchthon is its com- poser. If the authorship of the Confession should be claimed for Melanchthon to the exclusion of Luther, it would open the second great Reformer to the charge of the most unscrupulous its Authorship: plagiarism. Even had Luther, however, had no Luther's relations direct share in the Augsburg Confession, the asser- tion would be too sweeping that he was in no sense its author. ISFot only as great leading minds are in some sense the authors of all works that have germinated directly from their thoughts, but in a peculiar sense Luther was the author of Melanchthon's theological life ; he was, as Melanchthon loved to call him, " his most dear father." All the earliest and purest theology of Melanchthon is largely but a repetition, in his own graceful way, of Luther's thoughts ; and the Augs- * Collected works, having an importance in the Interpretation and History of the Augsburg Confession. Luther. Opera Omnia (Latin) (1556-58.) Jena 1579-83. 4 Tom. Folio. — In primum Librum Mose Enarrationes. 1555. Fol. — Schriften und Werke (Boerner u. Pfeiffer.) Leipz. 1729-34. 22 vols. Folio. Greiff's Register. 1740. Fol. — Sammtliche Werke. (Walch) Halle 1740-52. 24 vols 4to. — Sammtliche Werke. (Amnion, Erlsperger, Irmescher, Plochmann) Erlangen, 1826-1857. 65 vols. (German) and 2 vols. Register. Invaluable for critical purposes. — Geist, oder Concordanz der Ansichten, etc. Darmstadt, 1827-31. 4 vols. — Briefe, Sendschrei- ben u. Bedenken (De Wette), Berlin, 1826-56. 6 vols. (The last edited by Seide- mann.) — Reformatorische Schriften, in Chronologischer Folge. (Zimmermann) Darmstadt, 1846-49. 4 vols. 8vo. — (Lutherus Redivivus, oder des fiirnehmsten Lehrers der Augspurg. Confess. D. M. Luther's hinterlassene Schriftliche Erklar- ungen . . . was der Augspurg. Confess, eigentliche Meinung u. Verstandt in alien Articuln allezeit gewesen. (Seidel) Halle 1697.) — Melanchthon. Opera Omnia (Peucer.) Wittenb. 1562-64. 4 vols. Fol. — Opera quae supersunt omnia. (Bret- 8chneider) Halle 1834-1856. 28 vols. 4to. Indispensable to the student of the Augsburg Confession, or of the Reformation in general. The Loci Theologici especially, are edited with a completeness unparalleled in the Bibliography of Dogmatics. — Melanchthon. Corpus Doctrinae Christianae, dasist, Gantze Summa der rechten Christlichen Lehre, etc. Leipzig, 1560. Fol. — Corpus Doctrinae Christianae quae est summa orthodoxi et Catholici Dogmatis. Lipsiae, 1563. Folio. — Zwinglii Huldr. Opera, Completa Editio prima cur. Schulero et Schul* thessio. Zurich 1829-1842. 8 vols. 8vo. ABSENCE OF LUTHER FROM AUGSBURG. 221 burg Confession is in its inmost texture the theology of the New Testament as Luther believed it. Melanchthon had no creativeness of mind, and but for Luther, his name would hardly have taken a place among great theologians. He was a sculptor who cut with matchless grace after the model of the master. For the absence of Luther from Augsburg, the reasons con- stantly assigned in history are obviously the real ones. Luther was not only under the Papal excommunication, AbsenceofLu . hut he was an outlaw under the imperial ban. In ther from Au gs - the rescript of the Emperor he was styled " the burg ' evil fiend in human form," " the fool," and " the blasphemer." His person would have been legally subject to seizure. The Diet at Spires (1529) had repeated the Decree of Worms. The Elector would have looked like a plotter of treason had Luther been thrust by him before the Emperor, and with the intense hatred cherished by the Papistical party toward Luther, he would not have been permitted to leave Augsburg alive. The Elector was so thoroughly anxious to have Luther with him, that at first he allowed his wishes to obscure his judgment, — he attached such importance to the mild language of Charles V., that he allowed himself to hope, yet, as his letter of March 14th shows, rather feebly, that even Luther might be permit- ted to appear. Luther left Wittenberg on the assumption that he perhaps might be permitted to come to Augsburg. But a safe-conduct was denied him. Had it been desired by the Elector to have Luther out of the way, it would have been far easier to the Elector, and pleasanter to Luther, to have kept him at "Wittenberg. That Luther came to Coburg, is proof of the ardent desire to have his counsel and co-operation ; that he stopped there, shows the greatness of the peril that would have attended his going farther. But Luther's safety was not merely provided for by his deteution here, but by placing him in the old castle of the Duke of Coburg, which occupies a commanding height, more than five hundred feet above the town, and which is so well fortified by nature and art, that during the Thirty Years' War, Wallenstein besieged it in vain. The arrangements 222 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. were planned by loving friends for his safety : Luther perfectly understood the character and object of the arrangements, before they were made, while they were in progress, and after all was over. Thus, April 2d, writing before his journey, he says : "I am going with the Prince, as far as Coburg, and Melanchthon and Jonas with us, until it is known what will be attempted at Augsburg." In another letter of same date: "I am not summoned to go to Augsburg, but for certain reasons, I only accompany the Prince on his journey through his own domin- ions." June 1, he writes: "I am waiting on the borders of Saxony, midway between Wittenberg and Augsburg, for it was not safe to take me to Augsburg." The expressions of impatience which we find in his letters during his stay at Coburg, only show that in the ardor of his great soul, in moments of intense excitement, the reasons for his detention at the castle, which had commended themselves to his cooler judgment, seemed reasons no longer — death seemed nothing — he would gladly face it as he had faced it before, only to be in body where he was already in heart. " I burn," he says, " to come, though uncommanded and unin- vited." His seeming impatience, his agony, his desire to hear often, his refusal for the moment to listen to any excuses, were all inevitable with such a spirit as Luther's under the cir- cumstances ; yet for places some days' journey apart, in those troublous times, of imperfect communication, with special couriers carrying all the letters, there was an extraordinary amount of correspondence. We have about seventy letters of Luther written to Augsburg during the Diet, and we know of thirty-two written by Melanchthon to Luther, and of thirty- nine written by Luther to Melanchthon in the five months of correspondence, during the Diet, or connected with it in the time preceding.* Luther and Melanchthon went in company to Coburg, and at Coburg; the " Exordium " of the Confession was Correspondence * -n/riii i • with Luther. Me- written. At Augsburg, Melanchthon, as was his iTf sty h 4th Le " erS wont > elaborated it to a yet higher finish. May 4, he writes to Luther : " I have made the exor * Luther's Letters, De Wette's ed., iii. iv. THE ELECTOR'S LETTERS. 223 tfiuin of our Apology somewhat more finished in style (reto- rikoteron) than I wrote it at Coburg." Speaking of his work he says : "In a short time, I myself will bring it, or if the Prince will not permit me to come, I will send it." By the Apology or Defence is meant the Confession, which was originally designed to be in the main a defence of the Evangelical (Lutheran) Confessors, especially in regard to their practical application of their principles in the correction of abuses. The second part was the one which at the time of the preparation of the Confession was regarded as the more difficult, and for the immediate objects contemplated, the more import- ant. The articles of faith were designed as a preparation for the second part, and the judgment of Foerstemann and others that by the " Exordium," Melanchthon meant not the Preface, which there seems to be evidence was written in German by Bruck, and translated into Latin by Jonas, " but the whole first part of the Confession, is not without much to render it probable." If we take Melanchthon's language, in his letter of May 5, grammatically, it seems to settle it, that the Exordium was the whole first part, for it is inconceivable that he would desire to come all the way to Coburg to show Luther merely the Pre- face, more especially as we know that the Confession itself was nearly finished at the time. In a letter of the same date, (May 4th,) to Yiet Dietrich, who was with Luther, he says : " I will shortly run over to you, that I may bring to the Doctor (Luther) the Apology which is to be offered to the Emperor, that he (Luther) may examine it." For very obvious reasons, Melanchthon could not be spared from Augsburg at this time even for an hour, to The Elector , b say nothing of the hazards which might have been Letters of May incurred by the journey, which his great anxiety for a personal conference with Luther inclined him to make. But on May 11th, the Elector sent to Luther the Confession, with a letter, in which he speaks of it as meant to be a careful revision of those very articles of which Luther was the main author. He says to Luther (Augsburg, May 11th) : " As you 224 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION and our other theologians at Wittenberg, have brought into summary statement the articles of religion about which there is dispute, it is our wish to let you know that Melanchthon has further revised the same, and reduced them to a form, which we hereby send you." " And it is our desire that you would further revise the same, and give them a thorough examination, and at the same time (daneben) you would also write how you like it, or what you think proper to add about it or to it, and in order that, on his Majesty's arrival, which is looked for in a short time, we may be ready, send back the same carefully secured and sealed, without delay, to this place, by the letter- carrier who takes this." Luther had been the chief laborer in the articles of which the Elector declared the Confession to be but a revision and re- ducing to shape — there could be little room for large changes, and as the Emperor was expected speedily, the time was too pressing to allow of elaborate discussions, which were indeed unneeded where all were so absolute a unit in faith as our Con- fessors were. That margin would have been narrow, and that time short, indeed, on which and in which Luther could not have written enough to kill any Confession which tampered with the truth. The Elector's whole letter expressly assigns the natural and cogent reason, that Luther's judgment might be needed at once, in consequence of the expected advent of the Emperor, a point which Melanchthon's letter of the same date also urges. The haste is evidence of the anxiety to have Luther's opinion and approval, as a sine qua non. The Diet had been summoned for April 8th. It was soon after postponed to the 1st of May, and at this later date, had it not been for the delay of the Emperor in appearing, the arti- cles of Luther, on which the Confession was afterwards based, would themselves have been offered. As it was, it was need- ful to be ready at any hour for the approach of Charles. The letter of the Elector implies that the original of the Confession was sent to Luther. Great care was taken to prevent copies from being multiplied, as the enemies were eager to see it. Even on June 25th, the day of its presentation, the Latin Con MELANCHTHON'S LETTER. 225 fession, in Melanchthon's own handwriting, was given to the Emperor. With this letter of the Elector was sent a letter from Melanchthon addressed "to Martin Lather, his Me i anC htbon'B most dear father." In it he says: u Our Apology fitter of May is sent to you, although it is more properly a Con- fession, for the Emperor will have no time for protracted dis- cussion. Nevertheless, I have said those things which I thought most profitable or fitting. With this design I have embraced nearly all the articles of faith, for Eck has put forth the most diabolical slanders against us, to which I wished to oppose a remedy. I request you, in accordance with your own spirit, to decide concerning the whole writing (Pro tuo spiritu de toto scripto statues.) A question is referred to you, to which I greatly desire an answer from you. What if the Emperor . . should prohibit our ministers from preaching at Augsburg ? I have answered that we should yield to the wish of the Em- peror, in whose city we are guests. But our old man is diffi- cult to soften." (The " old man " is either the Elector John, so called to distinguish him from his son, John Frederick, or the old Chancellor Bruck.) " Whatever therefore you think, I beg that you will write it in German on separate paper." What Luther was to write was his judgment both as to the Confession and the question about preaching, and the " sepa rate paper," on which he was particularly requested to write, must mean separate from that which held the Confession. One probable reason why Luther was so particularly requested not, as was very much his wont, to write upon the margin, was, that this original draft of the Confession might have been needed for presentation to the Emperor. The original of Lu- ther's replies to the Elector on both points (for to the Elector and not to Melanchthon they were to be made, and were made,) still remains. Both are together — -neither is on the margin of anything, but both are written just as Melanchthon specially requested, " in German," and on " separate paper." * It shows * Coelestinus, i., p. 40. Luther's Epistol. supplem. Buddei, 93. Salig. Hist, d Aug. Conf., i. 169. Cyprian, Beylage xiv. Ex Autographo. Luther's Briefer Be Wette (Lett. 1213) himself compared the original in the Weimar Archives. 15 226 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. the intensest desire to have the assurance doubly sure of Lu- ther's concurrence, that under all the pressure of haste, the original of the Confession was sent him. That the highest importance was attached to Luther's judg- ment on this form of the Confession, is furthermore proved by the fact that after the Confession was despatched, (May 11,) everything was suspended at Augsburg, till he should be heard from. "On the 16th of May, the Elector indicated to the other States, that the Confession was ready, but was not entirely closed up, but had been sent to Luther for examination." Shortly after, Luther's reply of May 15, heartily indorsing the Confession, without the change of a word, was received at Augsburg.* It is called "form of Confession," in the Elector's letter to Luther, because the mutter of the Confession had been prepared by Luther himself. Melanchthon's work was but to revise that matter, and give it " form," which revised form was to be sub- jected to the examination of all the Lutheran authorities and divines at Augsburg, and especially to Luther. As to the articles of faith, and the abuses to be corrected, the matter of the Confession was already finished and furnished — much of it direct from Luther's hand, and all of it with his co-operation and approval. It was only as to the " form," the selection among various abuses, the greater or less amplitude of treatment, that all the questions lay. The "form of Con- fession " sent on May 11th was the Augsburg Confession, sub- stantially identical with it as a whole, and, in all that is really essential to it, verbally identical. We have copies of it so nearly at the stage at which it then was as to know that this is the case. Melanchthon's letter expressly declares that nearly all the articles of faith had been treated, and the Augsburg Confession, in its most finished shape, only professes to give " about the sum of the doctrines held by us." But we need hot rest in inferences, however strong, in regard to this matter. We have direct evidence from Melanchthon himself, which will be produced, that Luther did decide, before its presentation, upon what, in Melanchthon's judgment, was * Corpus Beform., No. 700. Kollner, pp. 171, 175. MELANCHTHON'S LETTER. 227 the Augsburg Confession itself. His words prove that the changes which Luther did not see were purely those of niceties of style, or of a more ample elaboration of a very few points, mainly on the abuses ; in fact, that Luther's approval had been given to the Confession, and that without it the Confession never would have been presented. The Elector's letter of May 11th was answered by Luther, who heartily indorsed the Confession sent him, without the change of a word. IsTothing was taken out, nothing was added, nothing was altered. He speaks admiringly, not reprovingly, of the moderation of its style, and confesses that it had a gen- tleness of manner of which he was not master. As the Emperor still lingered, Melanchthon used the time to improve, here and there, the external form of the Confession. He loved the most exquisite accuracy and delicacy of phrase, and never ceased filing on his work. What topics should be handled under the head of abuses, was in the main perfectly understood, and agreed upon between him and Luther. The draft of the discussion of them was largely from Luther's hand, and all of it was indorsed by him. The main matters were entirely settled, the principles were fixed, and the questions which arose were those of style, of selection of topics, of the mode of treating them, or of expedi- ency, in which the faith was not involved. In regard to this, Luther speedily hears again from his son in the Gospel. May 22d, Melanchthon wrote to Luther:* " In the Apol- ogy, we daily change many things ; the article on Vows, as it was more meagre than it should be, I have re- Meianchthon-a moved, and supplied its place with a discussion a Letter of May 22. little more full, on the same point. I am now treating of the power of the keys also. I wish you would run over the Articles of Faith ; if you think there is no defect in them, we will treat of the other points as we best may (utcunque.) For they are to be changed from time to time, and adapted to the circumstances." In the same letter he begs Luther to write to Q-eorge, Duke of Saxony, because his letter would carry deci- sive weight with him : " there is need of your letters." * Corpus Reformatorum, ii. Epist., No. 680. 228 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. This letter shows : 1. That Melanchthon desired Luther to know all that he was doing. 2. That the Articles of Faith were finished, and that the changes were confined to the Articles on Abuses. 3. That in the discussions on Abuses, there were many ques- tions which would have to be decided as the occasions, in the providence of God, would determine them. From three to four days seems to have been the ordinary time of the letter-carrier between Augsburg and Coburg. The Elector sent the Confession May 11th. Luther replied May 15th, probably the very day he received it ; his reply probably reached Augsburg May 20th, and two days after, Melanchthon sends him the Articles of Faith, with the elaboration which had taken place in the interval, and informs him of what he had been doing, and designs to do. In part, on the assumption that Luther was not permitted to receive this letter, a theory was built by RUckert, a Ration- alistic writer of Germany, that the Augsburg Confession was meant to be a compromise with Rome, and that it was feared that if Luther were not kept in the dark he would spoil the scheme. But even if Luther did not receive Melanchthon's letter and the Articles of May 2 2d, we deny that the rational solution would be that they were fraudulently held back by the friends of the Confession at Augsburg. Grant that Lu- ther never received them. What then ? The retention of them would have been an act of flagrant immorality ; it was need- less, and foolish, and hazardous ; it is in conflict with the per- sonal character of the great princes and leaders, political and theological, who were as little disposed as Luther, to compro- mise any principle with Rome. The Elector and Briick were on some points less disposed to be yielding than Luther. The theory is contradicted by the great body of facts, which show that Luther, though absent in body, was the controlling spirit at Augsburg. It is contradicted by the Confession itself, which is a presentation, calm in manner, bat mighty in the matter, in which it overthrows Popery from the very founda- tion. It is contradicted by the fierce replies of the Papists in MELANCHTHON'S LETTER. 229 the Council, by the assaults of Popery upon it through all time, by the decrees of the Council of Trent, whose main polemical reference is to it. It is contradicted by the enthusiastic admi- ration which Luther felt, and expressed- again and again, for the Confession. The millions of our purified churches have justly regarded it for ages as the great bulwark against Rome, and the judg- ment of the whole Protestant world has been a unit as to its fundamentally Evangelical and Scriptural character over against Rome. Its greatest defenders have been the most able assailants of Popery. It might as well be assumed that the Bible is a compromise with the Devil, and that the Holy Ghost was excluded from aiding in its production, lest he should embarrass the proceed- ings, as that the Augsburg Confession is, or was meant to be, a compromise with Popery, and that Luther was consequently prevented from having a share in producing it. If the letter really never reached Luther, the theory that it was fraudulently kept at Augsburg by the friends of the Con- fession, that the whole thing was one of the meanest, and at the same time, most useless crimes ever committed, is so ex- treme, involves such base wickedness on the part of its perpe- trators, that nothing but the strongest evidences or the most overwhelming presumptions justify a man in thinking such an explanation possible. If this letter, or others, never reached Luther, it is to be attributed either to the imperfect mode of transmission, in which letters were lost, miscarried, or destroyed by careless or fraudulent carriers, of which bitter complaints constantly occur in the letters of Luther and others at that time, or if there were any steps taken to prevent Luther's letters reaching him, these steps would be taken by the Romanists, who were now gathering in increasing force at Augsburg. The difficulty in the wajr of communicating with Luther increased, as his being at Coburg was kept secret from his enemies, and at his request, in a letter which we shall quote, was kept secret in June even from the body of his friends. So much for the theory, granting its fact for argument's sake. 230 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. But the fact is that Luther did receive Melanchthon's letter of the 22d. The letter was not lost, but appears in all the editions of Melanchthon's letters, entire,* and in the earliest histories of the Augsburg Confession, without a hint, from the beginning up to Riickert's time, that it had not been received. "When we turn to Luther's letters, complaining of the silence of his friends, we find no evidence that Melanchthon's letter had not been received. They create, on the contrary, the strongest presumption that it had been received. As it was sent at once, (Melanchthon says that he had hired a letter-car- rier before he began the letter,) it would reach Luther about May 25th. Luther's letter of June 1st to Jacob Probst, in Bremen ,f shows that he had intelligence of the most recent date from Augsburg, that he was sharing in the cares and responsibilities of what was then passing : " Here, also, I am occupied with business for God, and the burden of the whole empire rests upon us." He then uses, in part, the very language of Melanch- thon's letter of May 22d, as to the time when the Emperor would be at Augsburg4 He quotes from that letter Melanch- thon's very words in regard to Mercurinus :■ § " He would have nothing to do with violent councils — that it had appeared at "Worms what violent councils would do. He desired the affairs of the Church to be peacefully arranged." He closes his account of things at Augsburg by saying : " You have an account of matters now as they are to-day at Augsburg " (hodie habet.) Luther did receive Melanchthon's letter of the 22d, and on June 1st quotes largely from it. Up to this time, too, there is no complaint of suspension of *In the original Latin, in Corpus Reform., ii., No. 698. In German, in Walch's Luther's Werke, xvi., No. 927. f De Wette's Briefe, No. 1217. Buddeus, Suppl., No. 123. J Melanchthon : vix ante Pentecosten. Luther : forte ad Pentecosten. \ Melanc. : Nolle se violentis consiliis interesse. Luth. : Se nolle interesse violentis consiliis. Mel. : Wormatise apparuisse, quam nihil proficiant violenta consilia. Luth. : Wormatiae vidisset, quid efficerent violenta consilia. Mel. : Vir summus Mercurinus. Luth. ; Summus Mercurinus. Mel. : Res ecclesias- ticae rite constituerentur. Luth. : Ecclesiae res cum pace constitui. MELANCHTHON'S LETTER. 231 communication with Augsburg, but, on the contrary, he re- ports up to the day on which he writes. On June 2d, Luther writes to Melanchthon.* There is no word of complaint in this letter of any silence on the part of Melanchthon, or of others at Augsburg. He complains that he is so overrun with visitors as to be compelled to leave Co- burg for a day, to create the impression that he is no longer there. " I beg of you, and the others with you, in future to speak and write so that no one will seek me here any longer ; for I wish to remain concealed, and to have you, at the same time, to keep me concealed, both in your words and letters." He then speaks of the report that the Emperor would not come to Augsburg at all, and of his deep anxiety. This letter shows what was the subject of Luther's intense solicitude on the fol- lowing days. A thousand alarming rumors reached him, and he was anxious to hear, by every possible opportunity, from Augsburg ; at the same time, wishing to be concealed, he had requested Melanchthon and his other friends to avoid sending letters in a way that would make it known that he was at Co- burg. These two facts help to solve Luther's great solicitude to hear news, and also, in part, as we have said, to account for the irregularity in his receiving letters, as they would, in accordance with his direction of June 2d, be sent with secrecy. In Luther's letter of June 5th, he complains not that there had been a long delay, but that they did not write by every opportunity. These were sometimes quite frequent. In some cases more than one opportunity occurred in a day. None of Luther's anxiety is about the Confession. In Luther's letter to Melanchthou, of June 7th, he complains of the silence of his friends at Augsburg, but in a playful tone. In his letter of June 19th, to Cordatus,f he says: "We have no news from Augsburg. Our friends at Augsburg w T rite us none." In his letter to Gabriel Zwilling4 June 19th, he says : " You will, perhaps, get the news from Bernhard, for our friends have not * De Wette, Briefe, No. 1219. Buddeus, No. 124. In German, Walch xvi., p. 2826. f De Wette,Briefe, No. 1229. Buddeus, No. 125. Walch xvi. 2833. % De Wette, No. 1230. Buddeus, No. 126. Walch xvi. 2836. 232 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. answered our letters through the whole month," (June.) Lu- ther's letter of June 2Qth, to Justus Jonas,* gives direct evi- dence how long the interruption of correspondence continued: " Your letters have come at last, my Jonas, after we were well fretted for three whole weeks with your silence." The period, therefore, does not embrace May 22d, but only the first three weeks in June. There is no reason whatever, therefore, for doubting that Luther received Melanchthon's letter, and the Articles of Faith of May 22d. On June 1st, the Elector, John, sent Luther secret advices of an important proposition which he had received from the Emperor. If, therefore, there were any furtive and dishonorable course pursued toward Luther, the causes and results of it must, in some special manner, be found between the Elector's secret advices of June 1st and the letter to Luther from Augsburg, June 15th ; but there is nothing in the course of events to suggest any such reason, even if there were a fact which seemed to require something ot the sort — bat there is no such fact. On the contrary, we shall produce a fact which will sweep away all necessity for any fur- ther discussion of this point. We have seen, 1st, that the Confession was sent by the Elector, May 11th, to Luther, at Coburg, for his written judg- ment upon it, in its first form. 2d. That it was sent again, on the 22d of the same month, by Melanchthon, and was received by Luther, in its second form. 3d. We shall now show that it was sent as nearly as possible in its complete shape to Luther, for a third time, before it was delivered, and was approved by him in what may probably be called its final form. The evidence to which we shall appeal is that of Melanch- thon himself. It is first found in the Preface to his Body of Christian Doctrine, (Corpus Doctrinse,) 1560, and also in the Preface to the first volume of the Wittenberg edition of his works in folio. It is reprinted in the Corpus Reformatorum, vol. ix.,No. 6932. He there says, in giving a history of the Augsburg Confession : * De Wette No.' 1282. Buddeus, No. 127. MELANCHTHON'S LETTER. 233 1. " I brought together the principal points of the Confes- sion, embracing pretty nearly the sum of the doctrine of our Churches." II. "I assumed nothing to myself, for in the presence of the Princes and other officials, and of the preachers, it was discussed and determined upon in regular course, sentence by sentence." III. " The complete form of the Confession was subsequently {delude) sent to Luther, who wrote to the Princes that he had read the Confession and approved it. That these things were so done, the Princes, and other honest and learned men, yet living, well remember." IV. " After this (postea,) before the Emperor Charles, in a great assemblage of the Princes, this Confession was read." This extract shows, 1, that this complete Confession — the tota forma — the Articles on Doctrines and Abuses, as con- trasted with any earlier and imperfect form of the Confession, was submitted to Luther. 2. This is wholly distinct from Luther's indorsement of the Confession as sent May 11th, for that was not the " tota forma" but relatively unfinished ; that had not been discussed before Princes, officials, and preachers, for they were not yet at Augs- burg. Nor was it then meant that the Confession should be made in the name of all the Evangelical States. It was to be limited to Saxony. Luther's reply to the letter of May 11th was not to the Princes, but to John alone. Up to May 11th, the Elector (with his suite) was the only one of the Princes at Augsburg. On the 12th, the Landgrave of Hesse came ; on the loth the Nurembergers. Not until after May 22d did that conference and discussion take place, of which Melanch- thon speaks. After the whole form of the Confession had been decided upon, it was sent to Luther, received his final indorse- ment, and was presented to Charles. This complete form was identical in matter with the Confession as exhibited, although verbal changes were made by Melanchthon up to the very time of its delivery. On Luther's opinion of the Augsburg Confession, we propose to let Luther speak for himself. 1. 1530, May 15. In Luther's reply to the Elector, he says; 234 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. " I have read the Apology (Confession,) of Philip, from Degm ning to end ; it pleases me exceedingly well, and I know of nothing by which I could better it, or change it, nor would I Luther's opin- ^ e fitted to do it, for I cannot move so moderately ion oftheAngs- and gently. May Christ our Lord help, that it may bring forth much and great fruit, as we hope and pray. Amen."* These words of admiration for Melanchthon's great gifts, came from Luther's inmost heart. Less than six months before he had written to Jonas : f " All the Jeromes, Hillary s, and Macariuses together, are not worthy to unloose the thong of Philip's sandal. What have the whole of them together done which can be compared with one year of Philip's teaching, or to his one book of Common Places ? " Had Luther been at Augsburg, he would have allowed the work of finishing " the form of the Confession" to be given to no other hands than Melanchthon's. " I prefer," he says, " Melanchthon's books to my own, and would rather have them circulated than mine. I was born to battle with conspirators and devils, therefore my books are more vehement and warlike. It is my work to tear up the stumps and dead roots, to cut away the thorns, to fill up the marshes. I am the rough forester and pioneer. But Melanchthon moves gently and calmly along, with his rich gifts from Grod's own hand, building and planting, sowing and watering. "J 2. Between June 8th and 25th, we have Melanchthon's dec- laration,cited in our former extracts, as to Luther's approval of the Confession in the form it took after the discussion. 3. June 3d. Luther to Melanchthon : " I yesterday re-read your Apology entire, with care (diligenter,) and it pleases me exceedingly." § 4. July 6th, to Hausman : || he speaks lovingly of " our Con- fession which our Philip hath prepared." * Luther's Briefe, De Wette, 1213, Walch xvi, 785. In Latin : Coelestinus i, 40, Buddeus 93. In French: (Le Cop's) Chytraeus. p. 29. ■j- Buddeus, No. 100. % Pref. to Melanchthon on Colossians. I In Latin : De Wette, No. 1243. Buddeus, No. 137. German : Walch xvi 1082. |1 De Wette, No. 1245. LUTHER'S OPINION: 235 5. July 6, to Cordatus: * " The Confession of ours was read before the whole empire. I am glad exceedingly to have lived to this hour, in which Christ through his so great Confessors, in so great an Assembly, has been preached in so glorious a Confession, and that word has been fulfilled : ' I will speak of thy testimonies in the presence of kings,' and this also has been fulfilled : ' and shall not be ashamed,' for c him who confesseth me before men ' (it is the word of him who cannot lie,) ' I also will confess before my Father who is in heaven.' ' 6. July 6, to the Cardinal Albert, Archbishop of Mentz, Primate of Germany : f " Your Highness, as well as the other orders of the empire, has doubtless read the Confession, deliv- ered by ours, which I am persuaded is so composed, that with joyous lips it may say with Christ : ' If I have spoken evil, bear witness of the evil; but if well, why smitest thou me?' It shuns not the light, and can sing with the Psalmist : ' I will speak of thy testimonies before kings, and will not be ashamed.' But I can well conceive that our adversaries will by no means accept the doctrine, but much less are they able to confute it. I have no hope whatever that we can agree in doctrine ; for their cause cannot bear the light. Such is their bitterness, with such hatred are they kindled, that they would endure hell itself rather than yield to us, and relinquish their new wis- dom. I know that this our doctrine is true, and grounded in the holy Scriptures. By this Confession we clearly testify and demonstrate that we have not taught wrongly or falsely." 7. July 9, to Duke John, Elector of Saxony : J. <; Our adver- saries thought they had gained a great point in having the preaching interdicted by the Emperor, but the infatuated men did not see that by this written Confession, which was offered to the Emperor, this doctrine was more preached, and more widely propagated, than ten preachers could have done it. It was a fine point that our preachers were silenced, but in their stead came forth the Elector of Saxony and other princes and lords, with the written Confession, and preached freely in sight * De Wette, 1246. Walch xvi, 1083. f De Wette, No. 1247. Walch xvi, 1085. In Latin : Buddeus, No. 139. X De Wette, No. 1050. Walch xvi, 969. Latin : Buddeus, No. 142. 236 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. of all, before the Emperor and the whole empire. Christ surely was not silenced at the Diet, and mad as they were, they were compelled to hear more from the Confession, than they would have heard from the preachers in a year. Paul's declaration was fulfilled : ' The word of God is not bound : ' silenced in the pulpit, it was heard in the palace ; the poor preachers were not allowed to open their lips — but great princes and lords spoke it forth." 8. July 9, to Jonas:* "There will never be agreement concerning doctrine " (between the Evangelical and Romish Churches,) "for how can Christ and Belial be in concord? But the first thing, and that the greatest at this Council has been, that Christ has been proclaimed in a public and glorious Confession ; he has been confessed in the light and to their face, so that they cannot boast that we fied, or that we feared, or concealed our faith. My only unfulfilled desire about it is that I was not present at this noble Confession. I have been like the generals who could take no part in defending Vienna from the Turks. But it is my joy aud solace that meanwhile my Vienna was defended by others." 9. July 15. Luther addresses a letter to his " most dear brother in Christ, Spalatine, steadfast Confessor of Christ at Augsburg ;"f and again, July 20th, " to Spalatine, faithful servant and Confessor of Christ at Augsburg. "J 10. July 20, to Melanchthon: " It was a great affliction to me that I could not be present with you in the body at that most beautiful and holy Confession of Christ " § (pulcherrima et sanctis- sirna.) August 3d, he sends a letter to Melanchthon, "his most dear brother in Christ, and Confessor of the Lord at Augsburg." 11. But perhaps nowhere has Luther's enthusiastic admira- tion for the Augsburg Confession blazed up more brightly than in his eloquent summary of what our Confessors had done at the Diet. It is in the last letter he wrote to Melanchthon, before they again met at Coburg (September 15th):" You have confessed Christ, you have offered peace, you have obeyed the Emperor, you have endured injuries, you have been drenched * De Wette, No. 1251. Walch xvi, 1098. % Buddeus, No. 154. ) Buddeus, No. 150. \ Buddeus, .No. 155. LUTHER'S OPINIOM 237 in their revilings, you have not returned evil for evil. In "brief, you have worthily done God's holy work as becometh saints. Be glad then in the Lord, and exult, ye righteous. Long have ye borne witness in the world, look up and lift up your heads, for your redemption draweth nigh. I will canonize you as faithful members of Christ, and what greater glory can ye have than to have yielded Christ faithful service, and shown yourself a member worthy of him ? " 12. In his Table Talk Luther said: "Such is the efficacy and power of God's word, that the more it is persecuted, the more it nourishes and spreads. Call to mind the Diet at Augs- burg, where the last trumpet before the judgment-day sounded. How the whole world then raged against our doctrine! Our doctrine and faith were brought forth to light in our Confes- sion. Our doctrines fell into the souls of many of the noblest- men, and ran like sparks in tinder. They were kindled, and kindled others. Thus our Confession and Defence came forth in the highest glory."* 13. In the year 1533, f Luther united in demanding of can- didates as a pre-requisite to entering the ministry, the declara- tion, " that they embraced the uncorrupted doctrine of the Gospel, and so understood it, as it is set forth in the Apostles', Xicene, and Athanasian Creeds, and as it is repeated in the Confession, which our Churches offered to the Emperor at the Diet of Augsburg, 1530, and the promise that with God's help they will remain steadfast in that conviction to the end, and will faithfully perform their duty in the Church." It is not wonderful that Melanchthon himself considered the Confession as rather Luther's than his own, and called it " the Confession of the revered Doctor Luther." \ This, then, is the result of the whole: The Holy Ghost in His ordinary illumination through the Word, is the true source and original of the Augsburg Confession ; its secondary source is the whole Evangelical Church of 1530, the main organ * Leipz., xx, 200. Tischreden (Fcerstemann,) iv, 351. f Buddeus, No. 178. % Melanchthon Orat. (1553.) Pref. to Confessio Doctrinae, 1551, in Corp Rek lib. zii, No. 5349 238 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. of whose utterance was, as to the matter and the substance of the form, Luther ; as to the finish and grace of the form, Melanchthon : both acting with the advice, co-labor, and full approval of the clerical and lay representatives of the Church. Just as we accept this or that point of view, we may say that the Augsburg Confession is the work of the Evangelical Church, or of the theologians and laymen at Augsburg, or of Melanchthon, or of Luther. " The Confession of ours," " our Confession which our Philip prepared," "your Confession," " my Confession," are all terms employed by Luther. All these statements are true, and perfectly harmonious — just as we may say that the Declaration of Independence was the work of the Thirteen Colonies, or of the Continental Congress, or of its Committee, or of Thomas Jefferson. Melanchthon, then, was by pre-eminence the composer of the Confession, not as a private individual, but as chief of a body of advisers, without whose concurrence nothing was fixed, *' Luther, by pre-emi- nence, as the divinely called representative of the Church, its author. Hence all candid writers have most heartily in- dorsed Luther's own declaration, in which he not only claims the Augsburg Confession as in one sense his own, but ranks it among his most precious works : f " The Catechism, the Expo- sition of the Ten Commandments, and the Augsburg Confession are mine." This claim he puts in, in no sense which conflicts with the public character of the document, or of Melanchthon's great merit, as in part the compiler, and as in part the com- poser of the Confession. Koellner adds : " And he had the right to say so." Weber J says: "As to its matter, Luther was the author of the Confession, not indeed the only one, but the pri- mary one." " Melanchthon," says Danz, § " was the composer, the editor, not the author, (Redacteur, nicht Urheber.) " But are there not a few words of Luther in regard to the Confession, which are in conflict with this enthusiastic ap- proval ? We reply, there is not one word of the kind. The * Melanchthon, June 26. "I would have changed more things if my coun- sellors would have permitted it." f Werke (Walch,) xxii, 4532. Koellner 181 (45.) X L. S. prol. ad C. A. p. viii. \ A. C. \ 3. LUTHER'S OBJECTIONS. 239 passages which have been cited to show that Luther was not satisfied with the Confession, in some respects, are the following : 1. June 29,* (to Melanchthon.) " On my side more than enough has been yielded in that Apology, which if they refuse, I see nothing more which I can yield, unless they furnish clearer reasons and Scripture proofs than I have yet seen them furnish." In this citation it is manifest that Luther does not mean that any concessions have been made, by Luther > 8 a n e ged others, for him. It is his own concessions of objections to the . 1 Confession. which he speaks, concessions not ot doctrine or of principle, but of preferences, very dear to him, which might be renounced if the truth itself were not periled. " Day and night " he adds, " I am occupied with the matter, thinking over it, revolving it in my mind, arguing, searching the entire Scriptures, and there grows upon me constantly that fullness of assurance, in this our doctrine, and I am more and more confirmed in the purpose, that I will yield nothing more, come what may." "I am offended at your writing, that in this cause, you follow my authority. I will not be, nor be called, author in this cause. If it is not equally your cause, it shall not be said that it was mine, and was imposed on you. If it be my cause alone, I will manage it alone." "If we be not the Church, or a part of the Church, where is the Church ? If we have not the Word of God, who has it ? " "As I have always written, so I now write, I am ready to concede to them everything, provided only, that the Gospel be left free to us. But what conflicts with the Gospel I cannot concede." This shows thiit Luther felt that no concession in conflict with the Gospel had been made in the Confession. 2. The letter of July 3d,f to Melanchthon, is one which Riickert, with the prosiness characteristic of the Rationalistic mind, is completely puzzled with, but he can make nothing of * In Latin: Epistol. Mar. Luth. Buddeus, 113. Coelestin. i. 198. De Wette, No. 1236. German: Jena (ed.1566) 40. Leipz. xx. 185. French: Chytrseus (Le Cop) 131. f Latin : Ep. M. L. Budd. 127. Coelestinus, 204. German : Walch xvi. 1082. De Wette,No. 1243. 240 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. it, if it be not meant to censure the Confession. It must be granted, that it opens in an extraordinary manner for a letter of censure : " Yesterday, I read again carefully your Apology, and it pleases me vehemently." Now come the supposed words of stricture : " But it errs and sins in one thing, that it act3 contrary to the Holy Scripture, where Christ says of himself, 4 We will not have this man to reign over us ' ; and falls upon that reproof ' the stone which the builders rejected.' But where there is so great blindness and obstinacy, what can you expect but to be rejected. For they do not grant us the name of builders, a name which they arrogate to themselves, and with justice ; but we ought to glory in the name of destroyers, scatterers, and disturbers ; we should glory in being counted with the wicked, as that stone itself was counted with thieves and condemned with them.'"' To one familiar with Luther's style and vein of thought, it is at once apparent that these words are ironical : they burlesque, and hardly burlesque, the absurd arguments and use of texts of which some of the Romish Controversialists of that day were guilty. Luther begins by playfully personating such an objector. The Confession will have Christ to reign over us, but the objector urges this is contrary to Scripture, which says : ' We will not have t is man to reign over us.' The Confession moreover is reproved by Scripture for making a corner-stone of the very thing which the builders rejected. We are the builders, and you reform- ers are the pullers down. The humor of the passage consists in making the opponents represent that as approval which the Scripture condemns, that as reproach which the Scripture ap- proves, and in throwing upon them their own claims to be build- ers. You are the builders, no doubt, the builders who rejected the stone which has become the head-stone of the corner, in the Confession, 3. The letter of July 21,* to Justus Jonas, speaking of the question which had been put, 4 Whether the Confession had more articles to present,' says : " Satan still lives, and has observed that your Apology, treading softly, has passed over * Latin: Budd. 169. Coelestinus, 233. German: Walch xvi. 2843. De Wette. No. 1266. LUTHER'S OBJECTION'S. 241 the Article of Purgatory, of the Worship of the Saints, and most of all of the Pope as Antichrist. Unhappy Emperor, if he proposes to give up the Diet to listening to confutations of Luther, as if the present Apology did not give them enough to answer." This means that although the Confession, by not making a lougar enumeration of abuses, had led to this demand, yet that it had quite enough. The words moreover, in the most unfa- vorable sense, would only show that Luther wished that among the Articles of Abuses there should have been a decla- ration that the Pope is Antichrist, and a full handling of the doctrine of Saint- Worship and Purgatory. But the Confession, as a conjoint public document, could only discuss what a ma- jority of those who were to unite in it thought best to present. Melanchthon himself was overruled in regard to matters he desired to introduce. The Augsburg Confession was no pri- vate document, but in the labors of both Luther and Melanch- thon in connection with it, both were the organs of the whole Church, and were compelled to sacrifice their mere private preferences to the common judgment. Every sentence, every word of the Augsburg Confession as it stands, embodies the faith of Luther, and received his unqualified, repeated, and en- thusiastic assent. If, in the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson, in preparing his statement of the political abuses which justified our separation from Great Britain, had wished to specify one or two more than the Committee thought necessary, and which were consequently not inserted, it would not weaken his claim to the authorship of that document. Nor would the fact, that he continued to think that it would have improved it to have specified the one or two additional abuses, affect the conscien- tious heartiness with which he indorsed that document, nor impair the value of his testimony. But even the preference of Luther, to which this is a fair parallel, was but transient, and he came to see clearly what the whole world has since seen, that in its silence, the Augsburg Confession is a model of exquisite judgment, as in its utterances it is a masterpiece of style. The occasion of the Augsburg Confession was the command 16 242 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. of the Emperor, — not that he demanded such a Confession, but that under the leadings of God's providence it grew out object of the °f h^ 8 summons. The last was destined to become Augsburg con- first, and the first last. The Confessors them- selves did not at first realize the full value of the opening which had been made for the proclamation of the truth, hut when it dawned upon them they showed themselves worthy of their great position. They at first meant but an Apology. The faith they cherished, and the usages they prac- tised, they simply wished to defend from the current libels. This object they did not lose sight of, but it became secondary. Their distinctive object soon became the setting forth the great points in the whole system of heavenly truth, and the showing how, in its light, they had endeavored cautiously, and gently, yet firmly, to remove the abuses which had arisen in the Church of the West. The Apology was transfigured into a Confession. It was not only not meant to be a compromise with Popery, but it clearly showed, and was designed to show, that such a compromise is impossible. Our Reformers had indeed cherished a noble hope, which bitter experience was constantly rendering feebler, that the whole Church of the West, re- deemed from the thrall of the Pope, might return to her ancient Scriptural faith, and, abjuring Roman Catholicism, attain once more to Christian Catholicity, and become a Communion of saints. If such a return had been possible, the Augsburg Con- fession, alike in the simplicity and purity of its statement of doctrine, the conservatism of its whole tone, its firmness and its gentleness, would have helped to facilitate it ; but the bridge it made was not meant to open the way back to error, but to aid men to come over to the pure faith. The Confession, in Latin and German, was presented to the The resenta- ^ ie ^ on Saturday, June 25th, 1530. Both texts tion of the con- are originals ; neither text is properly a translation anT° n German of the other ; both present precisely the same doc- T«ct* trines, but with verbal differences, which make the * Manuscripts of the Augsburg Confession in the Archives. Cf. Kollner, 321 -sao. A. Latin manuscripts. Kollner 328-329. Corpus Reformatorum, xxvi, 213-22b. THE PRESENTATION OF THE CONFESSION 243 one an indispensable guide in the full understanding of the other; both texts have, consequently, the same authority. The German copy was the one selected, on national grounds, to be read aloud. Both copies were taken by the Emperor, who handed the German to the Elector of Mentz, and retained the Latin. It is not now known where either of the originals is, nor with certainty that either is in existence. In addition to seven unauthorized editions in the year 1530, the Confession was printed, under Melancht lion's own direction, both in Latin and German, while the Diet was still sitting. Authorized edi- tions of this year, both in Latin and German, are in the hands of the writer, and have been examined in preparing this work. The Confession began to be multiplied at once. Innumerable editions of the originals, and translations into the chief lan- guages of Europe appeared. Its enemies have helped its friends to circulate it, and to preserve the re-issues of these originals from any change involving more than questions of purely lite- rary interest. "When Melanchthon, in 1540, issued a varied Edition of the Latin, though he declared that the changes were but verbal, and that he designed only to state more clearly the precise doctrine of the Confession in its original shape, the changes were marked by foe and friend. In Melanchthon's Edition 1. The Weimar MS: (Vin. Weim.) cf. Corp. Reform. 1. c. 223. Kollner 323. Foerstemann, Urkundenb. i. 444. Weber i. 79—81. The variations are given in Weber, Foerstemann, Hase, Miiller, Corp. Reformat. — 2. The Anspaeh: (Onolcl. Ansb.)ut supra. — 3. The Hannoverian. Kollner 324. Weber i. 84.. — 4. Hessian I. Kollner 325 ; Foerstemann i. 442, gives the variations. — 5. Hessian ii. Foerste- mann i. 444, gives the variations. — 6. Dessau (Anhalt.) Cf. Weber i. 87, who gives the variations;. — 7. The Nuremberg. Kollner 336 ; Weber i. 94, gives the variations. — 8. The Ratisbon. Kollner 327; Foerstemann 446, gives the variations (Reg.) — 9. The Wtirzburger, Kollner 329; Foerstemann (i. 446) gives the variations. B. German Manuscripts. 1. The Mentz copy in the Protocoll of the Empire. This was long regarded as the original, and as such found a place in the Book of Concord (1580.) Cf. Weber i. 165; Kollner 306. —2. Spalatin's (Weimar i.) — 3. Weimar (ii.) —4. The first Anspaeh (i.) — 5. The second Anspaeh (ii.) — 6. The third Anspaeh (iii.) — 7. The Hannoverian. — 8. The Nuremberg. —9. The Hessian. — 10. The Munich [Miinch.] — 11. Nordlingen. — 12. Augsburg. Of all these Kollner, Foerstemann and Weber give full descriptions, and the two latter the variations ; so also Miiller, under the text of the Editio Prineeps. 244 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. of 1531, trifling changes of a verbal nature had been made, but in antithesis to both this Edition and the Original of 1530, that of 1540 is called the Variata. because it has The Augsburg . confessioD ai- elaborated anew some of the articles, and has made important changes. The first articles so treated is the Article on Original Sin, (II) in which the changes are these as given in brackets : " The j also teach that after Adam's fall all men propagated after the common course of nature [the natural mode] are born with sin [being born have sin of origin] that is without fear of God, without trust toward God. [But by sin of origin, we understand, what the Holy Fathers so call, and all the orthodox and piously instructed in the Church, to wit, liability (reatum) by which those born, are on account of (propter) Adam's fall, liable to (rei) the wrath of God and eternal death, as also, the corruption itself, of human nature, which (corruption) is pro* pagated from Adam,] and with concupiscence. [And the cor- ruption of human nature, defect of the original righteousness, or integrity, or obedience, embraces concupiscence.] * Melanchthon's varied edition of the Latin Confession of three kinds. I. 1531, 8vo. II. 1540. 4to. Ill 1542, 8vo. Weber ii. 32-116. I. Edition of 1531, 8vo. The variations slight. It has never been pretended that they affect the meaning. Weber ii. 82-102. Corpus Reformat, xxvi. 337. — Lutheri Opera, Jena (1583) iv, 191-203. — Melanchthon's Opera, Wittenb. 1562, p. 27-38. — Corpus doctrinse, Leipz. 1563, given with that of 1542. — This edi- tion has often been confounded with the edition of 1530, 4to. (1. a.,) and was actually introduced by Selnecker into the first Latin edition of the Book of Con cord. Cf. Weber ii. 102 ; Kollner 348. The variations are given in Hase : Pro- legomena xv. Confess. Variat.Varietas, and are marked (A.) II. Edition of the Latin Confession, 1540, 4to. The variata. Weber ii. 103-107. — Corpus Reformat, xxvi, 339. — It is given in Corpus Reformatorum xxvi, 351- 416, with the various readings. (Edit, of 1535, 1538. — The variations are given in Hase: Prolegomena xv-lxxiv and are marked (B.) — It is translated in ♦'An Harmony of Confessions," &c, Cambridge, 1586. It is there called the " first edition." Cf. Weber ii. 103, Kollner 349. III. Latin Confession of 1542, 8vo. The variata varied. — Weber ii. 108-116, Corpus Reformat, xxvi, 345. — Given in Corpus Doctrinae, Lipsiae, 1563. 1-56. — Fabricii Harmonia 1573. — Melanchthonis Opera (Peucer) Witt. 1562. i. 39-58. This has been frequently reprinted, and is sometimes confounded with the Vari- ata of 1540. — The variations are given in Hase, and are marked (C.) and in Corp. Reform, (ed. 4.) Cf. Weber ii. 108; Kollner 349. It is translated in "an Harmony," &c. It is there called " the second edition." THE AUGSBURG CONFESSION ALTERED. 245 "And that this disease or vice of origin [And this defect is a horrible blindness and non-obedience, to- wit, to lack that light and knowledge of God which would have been in nature, in integrity ; likewise to lack that rectitude, that is perpetual obedience, the true, pure and highest love of God, and like gifts of nature in integrity. Wherefore these defects and con- cupiscence, are things condemned, and in their own nature worthy death ; and the vice of origin] is truly sin . . . [They condemn the Pelagians who deny the sin of origin, and think that those defects, or concupiscence, are things indifferent or penalties only, not things to be condemned in their own nature, and who dream that man can satisfy the law of God, and can on account of this obedience of his own be pronounced just before God.] " The Fourth Article (on Justification) is greatly enlarged, and the treatment of the topic is very fine. The Fifth on the Means of Grace asserts more distinctly than the original Con- fession the universality of the offer of Remission in the Gospel, and is thus more positively Anti-Cal vinistic in its expression on this point. The Sixth amplifies the doctrine of Holiness, in its relations to Justification. In the Mnth it is said : Baptism is necessary to salvation [as a ceremony instituted by Christ.] Infants through Baptism, being [committed] to God, are re- ceived into God's favor, [and become children of God, as Christ testifieth, saying of the little ones in the Church, Matt, xviii, 4 It is not the will of your Father in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish'.] They condemn the Anabaptists who affirm that infants are saved without Baptism [and out- side of the Church of Christ.] This is yet more decidedly than the original Article incapable of a Calvinistic construction. The Articles on Free Will (xviii,) the Defence of Justification by Faith (xx,) the Worship of Saints (xxi,) are all ably amplified. The Articles on Abuses are recast and re-arranged. It is not to be disputed that in various respects, as a statement of doctrine, the Variata has great beauty and great value, and that where it indisputably is in perfect harmony with the original Confes- sion, it furnishes an important aid in its interpretation. Had Melanchthon put forth the new matter purely as a private 246 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION writing, most of it would have received the unquestioning ad- miration to which it was well entitled. But he made the fatal mistake of treating a great official document as if it were his private property, yet preserving the old title, the old form in gen- eral, and the old signatures. How would Jefferson have been regarded if in 1786, ten years after the Declaration, he had sent forth what he called the Declaration of Independence, enlarged here, abridged there, with new topics and new treatment, and with what seemed at least a concession to the power from whom we had separated, had added to this the names of the Committee and the vouchers of the Continental Congress, that this was its act and deed for the nation ? Melanchthon did worse than this. The Declaration of Independence was the mere form of an act consummated. The Augsburg Confession was a document of permanent force, and of continuous use. To alter any of its doctrines, was to acknowledge that so far the Confessors had erred, and to excite the suspicion that they might have erred in more ; and to alter the phrases, no matter what explanation might be given, would be construed as involv- ing alteration of doctrine. Nor were the adversaries of our faith slow in taking advantage of Melanchthon's great mis- take. The first public notice of the change came from the Roman Catholic side. Melanchthon brought the Variata with him to the Colloquy at Worms, at the beginning of 1541.* The Augsburg Confession was by the request of the Protestants (Lutherans) to be the basis of the discussion. Eck brought to the Colloquy, from the Imperial Archives of Mentz, the German Original, which had been read at the Diet in 1530, and had been given to the Emperor. He opened with these words: " Before all else I would prefer one thing . . Those of the other part have offered to us a copy of the Confession and Apology, not at all (minus) in conformity with the Hagenau Recess, in virtue of which the Confession itself, as it was given (exhibita) to his Imperial majesty, and the Princes, ought to have been given to us also, nakedly and truly . . . waiving that point how- ever, with a protest, we turn to the matter in hand." To this * Corpus Keformator. iv. No. 2132. P. Melanchthon. Leb. u. ausgewahlt. Werke, you Dr. Carl Schmidt. Elberfeld. 1861. 379. THE AUGSBURG CONFESSION ALTERED. 247 Melanchthon replied, " As to the dissimilarity of copies, I an- swer that the meaning of the things is the same (rerum eandem esse sententiam,) although some things here and there, in the later edition, are more freed from harshness, (mitigata) or are more explicit." To this Eck replied : " As to the variation of copies, I could easily overthrow his reply, and show by ocu- lar inspection, that not only in words, but in the things them- selves, these copies depart from the Augsburg Confession. For brevity's sake I defer what I have to say, to the Articles as they come up in the colloquy, when I will make clear what I have alleged, as in the Tenth Article, etc." To this Melanch- thon said : " We can reply more fitly elsewhere to what has been urged in regard to copies — and let there be some modera- tion to charges of this sort." To this Eck said : " As to the change of copies, I now purposely pass it by." If Melanch- thon consciously made a change of meaning in the Confession, it is impossible to defend him from the charge of direct falsehood. For ourselves we do not hesitate for a moment. With all the mistakes into which Melanchthon fell through his great love of peace, we regard him as above all suspicion in any point involving Christian character. If the doctrine of the Variata differs from that of the Confession, the change was not designed by Melanchthon. We go further and say, that to accept it as a Canon, that the interpretation of the Variata is to be conditioned by a belief that Melanchthon designed no changes, will involve the interpreter in no absurd- ity. The Variata can be so interpreted as to be in sufficient harmony with the Unaltered Confession, to leave Melanch- thon's statement credible. Of the changes in the Tenth Ar- ticle (the Lord's Supper) we shall speak in another place. The Calvinists and Crypto-Calvinists acted as if they did not be- lieve Melanchthon's statement that no alteration of doctrine had been intended. In the Lutheran Church different views were taken of the matter. Those who believed Melanchthon's declaration that the changes were purely verbal, the better to express the very doctrine set forth at Augsburg, either passed them over without disapproval, or were comparatively lenient in their censure. Every instance of the seeming toleration of 248 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. them in the Lutheran Church was connected with the suppo- sition that the Altered Confession in no respect whatever dif- fered from the doctrine of the Unaltered. There never was any part of the Lutheran Church which imagined that Me- lanchthon had any right to alter the meaning of the Confession in a single particular. Melanchthon himself repeatedly, after the appearance of the Variata, acknowledged the Unaltered Augsburg Confession as a statement of his own unchanged faith, as for example, at the Diet of Ratisbon in 1541. In 1557, at the Colloquy at Worms, he not only acknowledged as his Creed, the Unaltered Augsburg Confession, the Apol- ogy, and the Smalcald Articles, but by name, and in writing, condemned the Zwinglian doctrine. But a few days before his #eath (1560), he said : " I confess no other doctrine than that which Luther propounded, and in this will abide to the end of my life." Any man who professes to accept the Altered Confession, therefore, though he rejects the Unaltered, either is dishonest, or assumes that Melanchthon was, and shows himself willing to take advantage of his moral weakness. The history of the Altered Confession demonstrates that not only is it no gain to the peace of the Church, but produces a yet more grievous disturbance of it, when the effort is made to harmonize men by an agreement in ambiguous phraseology, the adoption of terms which are to be accepted in one sense by one set of men, and in another sense by another. The Current Edition of the Augsburg Confession in Latin, the one which is found in the Book of Concord, is Editions oTthe ^ ne re P r i n t of Melanchthon's own first Edition of Angsb.ng Con- 1530. The Current Edition of the Confession in German^ 1 " and C-erman, however, which is the one found in the Book of Concord, is not a reprint of Melanch- thon's first Edition, and this fact requires some explanation. * Editions and Translations of the Augsburg Confession. For the Literature see Fabricius : Centifol. 109, 585-589. Feuerltn : Bibl. Symb. [1st ed. 44-69] p. 40 seq. Masch : Beytr'age zur Geschichte merkwiirdig. Biicher, [1769] i. 159. — Salig : i. 695-737. Koecher: Bibliotheca theol. Symbol. 145-149. Weber : Kritisch. Geschichte. Vol. ii. — Kollner : Symbol. Luth. Kirch. 226-237. 344-353. — Corpus Reformatum xxvi. 201-264. 337-350. On the trans* lations, cf. Weber ii. 4. FeuerlU* 00-64 [66-69.] Rotermund, 184. Danz. 38 THE CONFESSION— CURRENT EDITIONS. 249 The original German was, as we have seen, deposited in the imperial archives at Mentz. The Emperor had forbidden the Confession to be printed without his permission ; nevertheless, it appeared surreptitiously several times in the year, printed The work of Weber, which is classic in the department of the criticism of the text of the Confession, arranges the different editions according to the order of their publication thus: A. The unauthorized editions of the Augsburg Confession in 1530. These were issued contrary to the order of the Emperor, and without the knowledge of the Protestant Princes. Weber i. 353-408. Danz. 35-40. There were seven edi- tions of this kind. I. Latin: There was one Latin edition. This is described by Weber : i. 405- 408, and the variations (Ed. Ant.) from Melanchthon's are given by him in the Beylagen to the second part of the Krit. Gesch. cf. Corpus Reformatorum xxvi. 231-234. II. German. 1. Described by Weber i. 357-366, and the various readings (Ae. Ex. 1.) given. Beylag. z. Erst. Theil. iii. — 2. Described by Weber: i. 367-372, more correct than the former. — 3. Described by Webeb : i. 372-375, closely conformed to No. 1. — 4. Described by Weber: i. 376-381, closely follows No. 1. cf. Reimmani Catalog. 403. Feuerlin 41. — 5. Described by Weber: i. 381-387. cf. Salig. i. 711. Feuerlin 41. — 6. Given by Zeidler in the supplemental volume of Luther's Werke. Halle 1702, p. 346-363. Described by Weber : i. 387-400, who gives the variations (Ae. Ex. 2.) Compare in addition. Kollner Symbolik 228-231. The whole of these, Weber has shown (400) are probably based on but one MS. B. Melanchthonian Editions : cf. Kollner, 231, 345. Melanchthon's Prsefatio. Salig. i. 471. Weber ii. 6. I. The first of these, the Editio Princeps, is the 4to edition, Latin and Ger- man. Wittenberg, 1530 (1531.) Copies of the Confession in this edition came to Augsburg while the Diet was still in session. Weber i. 356. ii. 11. Hase Pro- leg, v. 3, Kollner 234, cf. Feuerlin No. 253 (205) and above all, Corpus Re- formator. xxvi, 234-258. 1. The Latin, accurately reprinted, with various readings, in Weber's Kritisch. Gesch. ii. Beylage i. Nothwend. Vertheidig. 1629. 24-223. The Latin of the ed. princeps is also the Textus receptus of the Symbol. Books. Reinecii Concord. Lips. 1708. Do. Lips. 1730. (A. C. Germ, et Latina cum vers. Graeca.) Pfapf : Lib. Syinb. Tubing. 1730 first critical edition. Walch. Christlich. Concordienb. Jena 1750. Rechenberg: Concordia Lips. 1732 (1677.) — Twesten: 1816. Winer: 1825. Hase: Libr. Symb. (1827) with various readings. — Francke : Lib. Symb. 1846, with various readings, and compared with the German : Muller : Die Symb. Biicher, 1848. — Tittmann : Confessio Fidei &c, ex prima Melanchthonis edi- tione, Dresden 1830; 8vo. with notes. Weber, 1830, with notes — Foerstemann : Urkundenbuch i. 470-559, with various readings. — Corpus Reformatorum: xxvi. 263-336, with various readings. From this edition we have the doc- trinal articles in Schmucker's Pop. Theolog., 1834. Appendix i. Do. Luth- eran Manual, 1855 Translation s. It has been translated into French: 250 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. in no case from a copy of the original, but from copies of the Confession made before it had reached the perfect form in which it was actually presented to the Diet. These editions of the Confession not only being unauthorized, but not pre- Histoire de la Conf. d'Auxpourg (Chytraeus) mise en Francois par Luc le Cop. Anvers, 1582,72-106; cf. Weber ii. 212-216. Fabricius, Cent. Luth. 588. —In English : An harmony of Confessions, &c. Cambridge 1586. — S. S. Schmucker, D. D., Popular Theology, 1834. In the doctrinal articles the condemnatory clauses are omitted, except in Art. xii, xiii, xvi, xvii. — E. Hazelius, D. D., dis- cipline, etc., 1841. 5-56. The doctrinal articles only, but with the condemna- tory clauses. — C. P. Krauth: Augsburg Confession with notes. Philada. 1868. On the translations of the Augs. Confess, into English, cf. Weber ii. 216-218. Under the direction of Thomas Cromwell, " who died a Lutheran" (Burnet) the Augsburg Confession and Apology were translated by Richard Taverner into English, and were printed in London, 1586. 2. The German of the Editio princeps {not the Text, recept. of the Symbol. Books) cf. Weber ii. 16-54; Kollner 346 (Cyprian Cap. x.) Given in Luther's Werke, Jena vi, 387. Leipzig, xx, 9. — Twesten : 1816. — Tittmann : Die Augs- burg Confess, nach den Original Ausgab. Melanchthon's. Dresden 1830, with notes. — MUller : Symb. Biicher, 1848. Abdrticke von Melanchthon's erster Ausgabe der Augsb. Confess. 861-904, with various readings. The variations from the German Text, recept., as given in Baumgarten's Concord. (Rh, from Rhaw — the printer of the original edition,)and in Walch : Concordienbuch (Wit- tenberg i.) Weber i. Beylag.iii. II. Melanchthon's " improved " edition of the German Confession, 1533, 8vo. Cf. Weber K. G. ii. 55-81. Feuerlin, 44, 45 (48,) Kollner 347. Given in Corpus Doctrinse. Leipz. 1560. i-xlii. — Weber : Augspurg. Confession nach der Ur- schrift im Reich's Archiv, nebst einer Ehrenrettung Melanchthon's, Weimar.1781. 8vo. The mistake of Weber, which led to the issue of this edition, is one of the curiosities of Theological Literature, (cf. Kollner Symb. 294.) It became the occa- sion of the preparation of his masterly work : The Critical History of the Augs- burg Confession. C. The Augsburg Confession (German) from a collation of the copy in the Im- perial Archives (The received German text of the Book of Concord.) Kollner 349; Weber ii. 117-192. — Given in Chytraeus: Histor. der Augspurg. Confess. (1576)1580. 59-94. —Ccelestinus : Historia Comit. August. 1577. ii. 151-167. — Concordia. Dresden 1580. Fol. 3-20. Nothw. Vertheidig. 1629. 24-223. MUller, Historia 595-649. Reineccius 1730. Cyprian, Historia 1730. — Weber's Krit. Gesch. 1783, i. Beylage iii, with various readings. Schott 1829, and in most of the histories of the Augsburg Confession. — It is to be found in all the German, and German-Latin editions of the Symbols. With various readings in Reineccius 1708. Baumgarten 1747. Walch 1750. Twesten 1816. Ammon 1829. MUller 1848. Schmucker : Lutheran Manual, 1855. 325-339, gives the doctrinal articles and the Epilogue. Translations : The abridged translation of the ar- ticles on abuses in Dr. Schmucker's Popular Theology, p. 337, is from this edition. In the Lutheran Manual, 283-309, a complete translation is given of the articles SHE CONFESSION— CURRENT EDITIONS. 251 Benting it in the shape in which it had actually been delivered, Melanchthon issued the Confession both in German and Latin. The German was printed from his own manuscript, from which the copy had been taken to be laid before the Diet. It reached Augsburg, and was read and circulated there, while the Diet was still in session. Melanchthon issued it expressly in view of the fact that the unauthorized editions were not accurate. The first authorized edition, the Editio Princeps, coming from the hand of its composer, and presenting not only in the nature of the case the highest guarantee for strict accuracy, but surrounded by jealous and watchful enemies, in the very Diet yet sitting, before which it was read, surrounded by men eager to mark and to exaggerate the slightest appearance of discrepance, was received by Luther and the whole Lutheran Church. Luther knew no other Augsburg Confession in the German than this. It was received into the Bodies of Doc- trine of the whole Church. It appears in the Jena edition of Luther's works, an edition which originated in the purpose of having his writings in a perfectly unchanged form, and was on abuses, also from this edition. The Unalt. Aug. Conf. New York, 1847, do. 1848. Phila. 1855, for the Lutheran Board of Publication. — The Christian Book of Concord. New Market, 1851. Second edition revised, 1854. The Con- fession was translated by Revs. A. and S. Henkel, for the first edition, and re- vised by C. Philip Krauth, D. D., for the second. D. Combined editions. Cf. Weber ii. 193-206. Kollner 351. I. Latin. Fabricii Leodii : Harmonia Aug. Conf. Colon. 1573, Fol. It contains 1. A text claiming to be the original. 2. The variata of 1542. 3. Various read- ings from the 4to edition of 1530, and the 8vo of 1531. Cf. Corpus Reformat, xxvi, 225-229. — Corpus Doctrinae, Lips. 1563. 1. The Confess, of 1542. 2. The 8vo of 1531. Translation: An Harmony of Confessions, Cambridge, 1586. II. German. Chytreeus : Historia (1580.) 1. The received text from the archives. 2. The text of the Editio Princeps where it differs from the other. III. German and Latin. Nothwendige Vertheidigung des Aug. Apffels. Leipz. 1619. 24-223. Editio princeps of Latin, Textus recep. of the German. Reineccius 1708. Do. 1730. Walch 1750. Miiller 1848. Do. Tittmann 1830, Editio princeps of both. Twesten 1816. 1. ed. princ. of Latin and German. 2. German of the ordinary edition. IV. Greek, Latin and German (Dolscii) ed. Reineccius, 1730. E. Versified. — Augspurgisches Lehr-lied. The Doctrinal articles only. In Greek and Latin verse (Rhodomann) 1730. There is also an English versifica- tion of the Doctrinal Articles in the oldest Moravian Hymn Books. 252 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. there given as the authentic Confession in antithesis to a.! the editions of it in which there were variations large or smaL. In the Convention of the Evangelical (Lutheran) Princes at ISTaumberg in 1561, among whom were two of the original signers, this edition was declared to be authentic, and was again solemnly subscribed, and the seals of the signers appended. Nothing could seem to be more certainly fixed than that this original edition of Melanchthon presented the Confession in its most perfect form, just as it was actually delivered in the Diet. But unhappy causes, connected largely with Melanchthon's later attempts to produce unity by skilful phrases and skilful concealments, led to a most groundless suspicion, that even in the original edition there might be variations from the very letter of the Confession as actually delivered. That there were any changes in meaning was not even in those times of morbid jealousy pretended, but a strong anxiety was felt to secure a copy of the Confession perfectly corresponding in words, in letters, and in points, with the original. The original of the Latin had been taken by Charles with him, but the German original was still supposed to be in the archives at Mentz. Joachim II. , in 1566, directed Coelestinus and Zochius to make a copy from the Mentz original. Their copy was inserted in the Brandenburg Body of Doctrine in 1572. In 1576, Augustus of Saxony* obtained from the Elector of Mentz a copy of the same document, and from this the Augs- burg Confession as it appears in the Book of Concord was printed. Wherever the Book of Concord was received, Me- lanchthon's original edition of the German was displaced, though the corresponding edition of the Latin has been retained. Thus, half a century after its universal recognition, the first edition of the Augsburg Confession in German gave way to what was believed to be a true transcript of the original. Two hundred years after the delivery of the Confession, a discovery was communicated to the theological world by Pfaff, which has reinstated Melanchthon's original edition. Pfaff discovered that the document in the archives at Mentz was DIVISIONS OF TiIE CONFESSION. 253 tiot the original, but a copy merely, and the labors of Weber have demonstrated that this copy has no claim to be regarded as made from the original, but is a transcript from one of the less-finished copies of the Confession, made before it had assumed, under Melanchthon's hand, the exact shape in which it was actually presented. "While, therefore, the ordinary edi- tion of the Augsburg Confession, the one found in the Book of Concord, and from which the current translations of the Confession have been made, does not differ in meaning at all from the original edition of Melanchthon, it is, nevertheless, not so perfect in style, and where they differ, not so clear. The highest critical authority, then, both German and Latin, is that of Melanchthon's own original editions.* The current edition of the German, and the earlier edition of Melanchthon, are verbally identical in the larger part of the articles, both of doctrine and of abuses. The only differ- ence is, that Melanchthon's edition is occasionally somewhat fuller, especially on the abuses, is more perfectly parallel with the Latin at a few points, and occasionally more finished in style. When the question between them has a practical inter- est, it is simply because Melanchthon's edition expresses in terms, or with greater clearness, what is simply implied, or less explicitly stated in the other. The structure of the Augsburg Confession bears traces of the mode of its growth out of the Articles which formed its groundwork. It contains, as its two fundamental parts, a positive assertion of the most necessary Divi ™ c ns Ur of the truths, and a negation of the most serious abuses. Augsburg con- It comprises : I. The Preface ; II. Twenty-one Principal Articles of Faith; III. An Epilogue-Prologue, which unites the first part with the second, and makes a grace- ful transition from the one to the other ; IV. The Second great Division, embracing Seven Articles on Abuses ; V. The Epi- logue, followed by the Subscriptions. The Articles are not arranged as a whole with reference to a system. They may be classified thus : * For the facts here presented, compare Weber Krit. Geschichte : Hase, Lib. Symb., Francke do. Kollner Symb., Luther. Kirch., 342. 254 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. I. The Confessedly Catholic, or Universal Christian Art- icles, — those which Christendom, Greek and Roman, have confessed, especially in the Apostles' and^icene Creed. These were the doctrines of the Trinity (I), the Incarnation (III), the Second Coming of Christ, the General Resurrection, the Eter- nity of Rewards and Punishment (XVII), the Validity of Ad- ministration by Unworthy Ministers (VIII), the Offer of Grace in Baptism, and the Right of Children to it (IX), Church Gov ernment (XIV), Civil Government (XVI), Free Will (XVIII), and the Cause of Sin (XIX). II. The Protestant Articles, — those opposed to the errors in doctrine, and the abuses in usage, of the Papal part of the Church of the West. To this the Confession, in its whole argument, based upon the Holy Scriptures as a supreme rule of faith, was opposed. But more particularly to the Pelagian- ism of Rome, in the doctrine of Original Sin (Art. II) : its cor- ruption of the doctrine of Justification (Art. IV) : its doctrine of Merit in Works (Art. VI, XX), of the Ministerial Office, as an Order of Priests (Art. V), of Transubstantiation (Art. X), of Auricular Confession (Art. XI), of Repentance (Art. XII), of the Opus Operatum in Sacraments (Art. XIII), of Church Order (Art. XX), of the true nature of the Christian Church (Art. VII), and of the Worship of Saints (Art. XXI). The entire second part was devoted to the argument against the Abuses in the Church of Rome, especially in regard to Com- munion in One Kind (Abus., Art. I), Celibacy of the Priest- hood (Art. II), the Mass (Art. Ill), Confession (IV), Human Traditions (V), Monastic Vows (VI), Church Power, and espe- cially the Jurisdiction of the Bishops (VII). III. The Evangelical Articles, or parts of Articles, — those articles which especially assert the doctrines which are con- nected most directly with the Gospel in its essential character as tidings of redemption to lost man, — the great doctrines of grace. These articles are specially those which teach the fall of man, the radical corruption of his nature, his exposure to eternal death, and the absolute necessity of regeneration (Art. II) ; the atonement of Christ, and the saving work of the Holy Spirit (Art. Ill); justification by faith alone (IV), the true TEE AUGSBURG CONFESSION— ITS VALUE. 255 character of repentance, or conversion (XII) ; and the impo- tence of man's own will to effect it (XVIII). IV. The Conservative Articles, the Articles which set forth distinctive Biblical doctrines which the Lutheran Church holds in peculiar purity, over against the corruptions of Ro- manism, the extravagance of Radicalism, the perversions of Rationalism, or the imperfect development of theology. Such are the doctrines of the proper inseparability of the two natures of Christ, both as to time and space (Art. Ill), the objective force of the "Word and Sacraments (Art. Y), the reality of the presence of both the heavenly and earthly elements in the Lord's Supper (Art. X), the true value of Private, that is, of individual Absolution (Art. XI), the genuine character of Sac- ramental grace (Art. XIII), the true medium in regard to the rites of the Church (Art. XV), the freedom of the will (XYIII), and the proper doctrine concerning the Cause of Sin (XIX). On all these points the Augsburg Confession presents views which, either in matter or measure, are opposed to ex- tremes, which claim to be Protestant and Evangelical. Pela- gianizing, Rationalistic, Fatalistic, Fanatical, unhistorical ten- dencies, which, more or less unconsciously, have revealed them- selves, both in Romanism and in various types of nominally Evangelical Protestantism, are all met and condemned by the letter, tenor, or spirit of these articles. Through the whole flows a spirit of earnest faith and of pure devotion. The body of the Confession shows the hand of con- summate theologians, the soul reveals the inmost life of humble, earnest Christians. The Augsburg Confession has incalculable value as an abid- ing witness against the Errors of the Roman Cath- The Augsburg olic Church. The old true Catholic Church was confession : its almost lost in pride, avarice, and superstition. The protest ag aiu B t great labor of the body of the clergy was to defend Romanism - * Interpretation of the Augsburg Confession, in Commentaries, Notes and Sermons. Histoire de la Confess. d'Auxpourg (Chytraeus) par le Cop. Anvers 1582. p. 107-114. The notes are occupied with the citations, and historical allusions of the Confession. An Harmony of the Confessions, etc. "There are added in the ende veri« 256 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. the errors by which they were enriched. Two false doctrines were of especial value to this end : The first, that the Church tradition is part of the Rule of Faith ; the second, that good works can merit of God. With both the formal and material short notes in which both the obscure things are made plaine, etc." Cambridge, 1586. p. 593, ad fin. Mentzer : Exegesis Augustanae Confessionis (1613) Frankfort, 1690. Still retains its position as a work of the highest value. — Calovius : Criticus Sacer vel Commentar. in August. Confess. Lips. 1646. 4to. pp. 920. Do. Theologia sec. tenorem August. Confess., etc. 4to. pp. 1900. These two works only get as far as the first article of the Confession. — Alting H. : Exegesis Logica et Theologiea August. Confess. Amstelod. 1647. 5-114. — Goebel : Augustana Fidei Confess. das ist die xxi Artikel. . erkl'aret. Frankf. a. M. 1654, Fol pp. 1400. Under the title of Sermons, an elaborate Commentary on the Confession. — Calovius : Syn- opsis Controversiarum etc. secund. seriem Articul. August. Confess. Wittenberg, 1685, 4to. pp. 1104. Lutherus Redivivus. Halle 1697. — Hoffman G. : Commen- tarius in August. Confessionem. Tubing. 1717. 4to. pp. 400. A work of great value. The portions of the other symbols parallel with the different articles of the Augs. Confess, are brought together ; the Wirtemberg Confession is also brought into the harmony. — Cyprian : Historia der Augspurg. Confession. Gotha, 1730. p. 208-227. Specimens of a commentary on the i. xiii. xxii. xxviii. articles. — Von Seelen : Stromata Lutherana sive var. Script, ad. . . Augustan. Confess. On the v. and vi. art. on abuses, xii. On the citations of the Fathers, xvi. — Carpzovii : Isagoge in L. Eccl. Luth. Symb. Lips. 1675. 95-763. After the lapse of nearly two centuries, still the best of the eclectic works on the symbols. The Confession and Apology are treated together, cf. Fabricii Histor. Bibliofch. iv. 264. — Pfaff : Eccles. Evang. Libri Symb. Loca difficilia explanavit et vindi- cavit. Tubing. 1730. p. 28-86. The notes are very brief, and very valuable. — Walch : Introductio in L. S. . . observat. histor. et theolog. illus. 1732. 157-408. Classic, among the older works. — Reinecii : Concordia — adjectis, locis, etc. notisque aliis. Lips. 1735. 7-74. The notes mostly critical, or connected with the scriptural and patristic quotations in the Confession. — Boerneri: Institu- tiones Theologiae Symbolicae. Lipsiae, 1751. — Baumgarten : Erleuterungen. 2d. ed. 1761. Compendious and rich. — Walchii : Breviarium (1765,) p. 75-116. — Semleri: Apparatus (1775,) p. 42-127. Tittmann : Institut. Symbol. (1811) p. 91-134. — Tittmann: Die Augsburg Confession: Confessio Fidei. Dresden 1830 Winer (1825.) — Schopff: Die S. B. mit historischen Einleit. kurz. An- merk. u. ausfiihrlichern Erorterungen. Dresden, 1826. 24-103. — Yelin: Ver- such (1829) p. 70-77. — Schott C. H. : Die Augsb. Conf. mit historisch. Einleit. u. erl'auter. Anmerkungen. Leipz. 1829. The Unaltered Augsburg Confession. To which is prefixed a historical Introduction to the same, by C. H. Schott. New York, 1848. — Weber: Conf. August, animadversionibus, historicis, exegeticis, dogmaticis et criticis. Halis 1830, 4to. — Spieker : Confessio fidei. . . varii gen- eris animadversionibus instruxit. Berolini 1830. — Tittmann : De summ. prin- cip. A. Conf. 1830. — Lochman G., A. M. The History, Doctrine, etc., of the Evang. Luth. Church. Part II, the Augsburg Confession, with explanatory notaa ITS POLITICAL VALUE. 257 principles of the Church corrupted, what could result but the wreck of much that is most precious in Christianity ? The protest needed then is needed still. The Roman Church has indeed formally abrogated some of the worst abuses which found their justification in her false doctrines ; the pressure of Protestant thinking forces, or the light of Protestant science, wins her children to a Christianity better than her theories ; but the root of the old evil remains — the old errors are not given up, and cannot be. Rome once committed, is committed beyond redemption. It needs but propitious circumstances to bring up any of her errors in all their ancient force. The fun- damental principle of infallibility, the pride of consistency, the power which these doctrines give her, make it certain that they will not be abandoned. Against all of Rome's many errors, and pre-eminently against those doctrines which are in some way related to them all, the Augsburg Confession must continue to hold up the pure light of the sole Rule of Faith, and of its great central doctrine of justification by faith.* The Augsburg Confession had, and has great value, in view of the sound political principles it asserted and guaran- teed. Signed by the princes and free cities, it was a sovereign ratification, and guarantee of the rights of the 2d. its political Church and of the individual Christian in the v:ill,e - State. It asserted the independence on the State of the Church, as a Church, the distinctness of the spheres of the Church and State, the rights of the State over the Chris- tian, as a subject, the Christian's duty to the State, as a and remarks. Harrisburg, 1818. — Schmucker S. S., D. D. Elements of Popular Theology, with special reference to the doctrines of the Reformation, as avowed before the Diet at Augsburg in 1530. Andover, 1831. Do. Lutheran Manual, or the Augsburg Confession illustrated and sustained. Philadelphia, 1855. — Haz- elius E. L. : The Doctrinal Articles of the Augsburg Confession, with notes ; in the Discipline etc. of the Evangelical Lutheran Synod of South Carolina. Balti- more, 1841. — Beck: Sammlung Symbol. Bucher — Evangelisch. Reform. Kirohe. 2d ed. Neustadt, 1845. ii. 353-406. — Francke: Libri Symb. Eccles. Lutherans Lipsiae 1847, 9-50. — The Unaltered Augsburg Confession. Philada. 1855. (for Luth. Board.) A few valuable notes by Prof. Schaeffer. — Sermons by Bakiua, Goebel, Tholuck, Schleiermacher, Harms, and Sartorius. * Fikenscher. Gesch. d. R. z. Augsb. 208. Kollner ii. 395. 17 258 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. Bubject, and the supremacy of God's law and of the demands of conscience over all unrighteous enactments of man. It defined in brief, yet ample statements, the entire relation of ecclesiastical and civil power.* It overthrew the conception of the Church as a great world-dominating power — taught the obligation of legitimate civil ordinances, the lawfulness of Christians bearing civil office, the right of the State to demand oaths, to enact penalties, and to wage "just wars," and the obligation of the Christian citizen to bear part in them. It asserts that " God's command is to be more regarded than all usage — that custom introduced contrary to God's command is not to be approved." "Christians should render obedience to magistrates and their laws in all things," " save only those when they command any sin, for then they must rather obey God than men." It overthrew monasticism and enforced celibacy, those weaknesses of the State ; curbed the insolence of Pope, Bishop and Clergy, and restored the normal and divine relations of man to man, of subject to ruler, of Church to State, of God's law to human law, of loyalty to the rights of conscience. The Lutheran Church gives to every State into which she enters, her great voucher of fidelity to' the principles on which alone free governments can stand. The Augsburg Confession was exquisitely adapted to all its 3 its value as objects, as a confession of faith, and a defence of a confession and it. In it the very heart of the Gospel beat again. It gave organic being to what had hitherto been but a tendency, and knit together great nationalities in the holiest bond by which men can be held in association. It en- abled the Evangelical princes, as a body, to throw their moral weight for truth into the empire. These were the starting points of its great work and glory among men. To it, under God, more than to any other cause, the whole Protestant world owes civil and religious freedom. Under it, as a banner, the pride of Rome was broken, and her armies destroyed. It is the symbol of pure Protestantism, as the three General Creeds are symbols of that developing Catholicity to which genuine Protestantism is related, as the maturing fruit is * Art. vii., xvi., xxviii. ITS VALUE AS A GUIDE TO CHRIST. 259 related to the blossom. To it the eyes of all deep thinkers have been turned, as to a star of hope amid the internal strifes of nominal Protestantism. Gieseler, the great Reformed Church historiau, says:* "If the question be, Which, among all Protestant Confessions, is best adapted for forming the founda- tion of a union among Protestant Churches, we declare our- selves unreservedly for the Augsburg Confession." But no genuine union can ever be formed upon the basis of the Augs- burg Confession, except by a hearty consent in its whole faith, an honest reception of all its statements of doctrine in the sense which the statements bear in the Confession itself. If there be those who would forgive Rome her unrepented sins, they must do it in the face of the Augsburg Confession. If there be those who would consent to a truce at least with Rationalism or Fanaticism, they must begin their work by making men forget the great Confession,which refused its covert to them from the beginning. With the Augsburg Confession begins the clearly 4 Its value as recognized life of the Evangelical Protestant Church, a centre nf ? reat the purified Church of the West, on which her enemies fixed the name Lutheran. With this Confession her most self-sacrificing struggles and greatest achievements are connected. It is hallowed by the prayers of Luther, among the most ardent that ever burst from the human heart ; it is made sacred by the tears of Melanchthon, among the tenderest which ever fell from the eye of man. It is embalmed in the living, dying, and undying devotion of the long line of the heroes of our faith, who, through the world which was not worthy of them, passed to their eternal rest. The greatest masters in the realm of intellect have defended it with their labors ; the greatest princes have protected it from the sword, by the sword ; and the blood of its martyrs, speaking better things than vengeance, pleads for ever, with the blood of Him whose all-availing love, whose sole and all-atoning sacrifice, is the beginning, middle, and end of its witness. But not alone on the grand field of historical 5 Its value M events has its power been shown. It led to God's a guide to Christ. * Theolog. Stud. u. Kritik, 1833, ii, 1142. Schenkel takes the same view. 260 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. Word millions, who have lived and died unknown to the great world. In the humhlest homes and humblest hearts it has opened, through ages, the spring of heavenly influence. It proclaimed the all-sufficiency of Christ's merits, the justifying power of faith in Him ; and this shed heavenly light, peace and joy, on the darkest problems of the burdened heart. " It remains forever," says Gieseler, " a light to guide in the right path those who are struggling in error." It opened the way to the true unity of the Church of Christ ; and if it has seemed to divide, for a little time, it has divided only to con- solidate, at length, the whole Church under Christ's sole rule, and in the one pure faith. Its history, in its full connections, is the history of the cen- 6. its value for turies midway in the fourth of which we stand, the future. and the f uture f t j ie Church, which is the future of the race, can unfold itself from the present, only in the power of the life which germinates from the great principles which the Augsburg Confession planted in the world. Can we honorably bear the name of Evangelical Lutherans, The Augsburg honestly profess to receive the Augsburg Confession confession as a a s our Creed, and honestly claim to be part of the Creed : what is _ involved in a right Church ot our fathers, while we reject, or leave reception of it?* p en t rejection, parts of the doctrine whose recep- * Works on Dogmatics, and the history of Dogmatics, of value in the interpretation or defence of the Augsburg Confession, or in illustration of the theology based upon or deviating from it. Melanchthonis : Opera Dogmatica in the Corpus Reform at orum, vol. xxi.- xxiii. a. Loci Theologici (1521). b. Examen ordinandorum. c. Catechesis puerilis. d Explicatio Symboli Niceni. e. Repetitio Augustanae Confessionis sive Confessio doctrinae Saxonicarum ecclesiarum. — Cf. Galle: Melanchthon (1840) and Augusti's, Edit, of the Loci (1821), for Melanchthon's changes in doc- trine. — Flaccii: a. Catalogus Testium veritatis (155G). b. Centurise Magdebur- genses. c. Clavis. d. Scholia in N. Test. — Chemnitz : a. de vera et substantial prsesentia. b. de duabus naturis. c. Loci Theologici. d. Examen Concil. Trident. e. Theologiae Jesuitic, praecipua capit. — Hutter : Compendium Locor. Theo- logic (1610) ed. Schutze 1772. — OsianderL: Enchiridion Controvers. (1614.) — Hbnnius N: Epitome Credendorum (1625). — Gerhard J : a. Loci Theologici (1610) (Cotta). b. Confessio Catholica (1633). —Calovius: a. Apodixis (1684) b. Synopsis Controversiarum (1653). c. Mataeologia papistica (1647). d. Biblia Illustrata. — Koenig : Theologia positiva (1664). — Quenstedt: Theo- logia didactico-polemica (1685). — Bechmann : Adnotationes in Compendium THE AUGSBURG CONFESSION AS A CREED. 261 tion gave our Church, her separate being and distinctive name, and led to the formation of her Confession, and which are embodied in its articles, and guarded in their condemnatory clauses, and which our whole Church, for centuries, in every official act, maintained as principal and fundamental ? This is the real question. All others are side issues. This question, once agitated, can never be laid till it is fairly settled ; and to it, every conscientious man, every lover of our Church, should bend his prayerful thoughts. A testimony bearing upon the great question, a testimony of the highest importance, and entitled to be heard first of all, is the Confession itself, about whose claims so much is now said. In what light is the Augsburg Confession regarded in the Augsburg Confession itself ? This is a primary question for an honest man who thinks of subscribing it : for if the Con- fession itself, in its origin, its history, its letter, protests against certain ideas, it would seem that its witness against them is of more value than any other. Look, then, at a few facts : I. The Confession exhibited the one, undivided faith of the entire Lutheran Church in the Empire. It was not the work of men without authority to represent the Church ; but was Hutteri (1690). — Buddeus: a. Theologia Dogmatica (1723). b. De veritate religionis evangelicae (1729). c Religions-Streitigkeitenl724. d. Isagoge (1727). — Schmid J. A.: Breviarium theolog. polemic. (1710). — Lange : Oeconomiasalutis (1728). — Reinhard L. Theologia Dogmat. (1733). — Walch J. G. a. Dogmatische Gottesgelahr. (1749). b. Polemische (1752). c. Religions-Streitigkeiten (1724). — Carpov. (1737). — Baumgarten S. J. a. Evangelische Glaubenslehre (1759). b Theologisch. Streitigkeiten. (1762) c. Religions-Parteyen (1766). — Mosheim : a. Streit-Theologie (1763). b. Theolog. Dogmat. (1758). — Carpzov J. B. Jr. Liber doctrinalis (1767). — Walch C. W. F. a. Geschichte der Lutherischen Re- ligion (1753). b. Bibliotheca Symbolica (1770). — Semler : Institutio (1774). — Doederlein (1780). — Seiler: a. Theolog. dogmat. polemica (1780). b. Doctrin. Christian. Compend. (1779). — Morus : a. Epitome Theol. Christianae (1789). b. Commentarius in Epitom. (1797). — Beck: (1801). — Storr & Flatt : Dog- matik (1803). — Reinhard F. V. (1801). — Schott (1811). — Bretschneider: a. Dogmatik (1814). b. Entwickelung (1804). — Wegscheider : Institutiones (1815). — Twesten (1826). — Knapp (1827). — Nitzsch (1829). — (Schuman) : Melanchthon Redivivus, 1837. — Hase : a. Dogmatik (1826). b. Hutterus Red- ivivus (1829-1868). —Klein : (1822) Ed. Lange (1835). — Schmtd H. Dogmatik d. Evang. Luth. Kirche, (1843-1863). — Martensen (1855). —Sartorius (1861). — Thomasius (1863).— Philippi (1863). — Hofman (1860). — Kahnis (1868).— Luthardt (1868). 262 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. the voice of all the Churches. Its groundwork was laid by Luther ; materials were brought together by the great theo- logians of the whole Lutheran Church — by Brentius, Jonas, Spalatin, and others, who carefully examined and tested each other's work. The matchless hand of Melanchthon was em- ployed in giving the most perfect form, the most absolutely finished statement of the faith ; the Confession was subjected to the careful examination of Luther, by whom it was heartily approved. Melanchthon 's own account is : "I brought to- gether the heads of the Confession, embracing almost the sum of the doctrine of our Churches. I took nothing on myself. In the presence of the Princes and the officials, every topic was discussed by our preachers, sentence by sentence. A copy of the entire Confession was then sent to Luther, who wrote to the Princes that he had read, and that he approved the Confes- sion." Every position of the Confession had been pondered again and again, had been tried in the crucible of the Word, had been experienced in its practical power in the life, and had been maintained against sharp attacks, by our great Confessors, as well as by thousands of humble and earnest private Chris- tians. For the immediate work of its preparation, there were at least four months. It was on the 11th of May the Confes- sion was first sent by the Elector to Luther, and it was not read in Diet till the 25th of June ; so that six weeks elapsed between the time of its substantial completeness and of its presentation. Every touch after that time was the result of striving after absolute finish of style and perfection of handling. Never was a Confession more thoroughly prepared, more carefully and prayerfully weighed, more heartily accepted. II. As various kingdoms, states, and cities embraced the faith of God's word, as our Church had unfolded it, they accepted this Confession as their own, and were known as Evangelical Lutherans because they so accepted it. The Church was known as the Church of the Augsburg Confession, and that great document became a part of the defining terms of the Church. The Lutheran Church was that which unreservedly held the Unaltered Augsburg Confession in its historical sense. III. The arguments on which men rely now to shake the THE AUGSBURG CONFESSION AS A CREED. 263 faith of the Church, had all been used before the Confession was prepared. In fact, the Rationalistic argument had been brought out with far more vigor and plausibility than usually attend it now, and those who renew the unsuccessful attempts of the original opponents of our faith, might with advantage to their cause study those old errorists. Nothing has been added to the argument of that day in the great substantial points on either side. After the learning and insinuating statement of (Ecolampadius, whose work, Erasmus said, " might, if possi- ble, deceive the very elect," and which Melanchthon considered worthy of a reply — after the unflinching audacity of Carlstadt, and the plausible argument of Zwingle, which was so shallow, and therefore seemed so clear, it is not probable that the feeble echo of their arguments, which is now alone heard in the main- tenance of their views, would shake our fathers were they liv- ing. The Scripture argument stands now where it stood then, and the Word, which was too strong for Luther's human doubts then, would prove too strong for them now. It is not the argument which has changed : it is as overwhelming now as then ; but the singleness of faith, the simple-hearted trust — these have too often yielded to the Rationalizing spirit of a vain and self-trusting generation. If our fathers, with their old spirit, were living now, we would have to stand with them on their confession, or be obliged to stand alone. Luther would sing now, as he sung then : "The Word they shall permit remain, And not a thank have for it." IV. The very name of Augsburg, which tells us where our Confession was uttered, reminds us of the nature of the obli- gations of those who profess to receive it. Two other Con- fessions were brought to that city : the Confession of Zwingle, and the Tetrapolitan Confession : the former openly opposed to the faith of our Church, especially in regard to the Sacra- ments ; the latter ambiguous and evasive on some of the vital points of the same doctrine. These two Confessions are now remembered only because of the historical glory shed by ours over everything which came into any relation to it. But 264 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. can it be, that the doctrine which arrayed itself against the Augsburg Confession at Augsburg can be the doctrine of that Confession, or capable of harmonizing with it anywhere else ; that what was not Lutheranism there is Lutheranism here ; that what was Lutheranism then is not Lutheranism now ; that Zwingle or Hedio of Strasburg could, without a change of views, honestly subscribe the Confession against which they had arrayed themselves, that very Confession, the main drift of some of whose most important Articles was to teach the truth these men denied, and to condemn the errors these men fostered, or that men, who hold now what they held then, can now honestly do what they would not and could not do then ? What could not be done then, cannot be done now. A prin- ciple is as little aifected by the lapse of three hundred years as of one year. It cannot be, that, consistently with the prin- ciples of our fathers, consistently with Church unity with them, consistently with the Church name which their prin- ciples and their faith denned, men holding Eomish, or Ration- alistic, or Zwinglian error, should pretend to receive the Con- fession as their own. Such a course effaces all the lines of historical identity, and of moral consistency, and opens the way to error of every kind. V. The language of the Confession, when it speaks of itself, is well worthy of attention. 1. It calls itself a Confession, not a rule. The Bible is the only rule of faith, and this document confesses the faith of which the Bible is the rule. 2. It calls itself a Confession of faith ; of faith, not of men's opinions or views, but of that divine conviction of saving truth, which the Holy Ghost works through the Word. It speaks of that with which it has to do as " the holy faith and Chris- tian religion," " the one only and true religion," " our holy religion and Christian faith." The title of the doctrinal por- tion of the Confession is, " Principal Articles of Faith." 3. The Confessors speak of this Confession of faith as " the Confession of their preachers, and their own Confession," " the doctrine which their preachers have presented and taught in the Churches, in their lands, principalities, and cities." The THE AUGSBURG C ONFE SSION AS A CREED. 265 Preface closes with the words : " This is the Confession of our- selves and of ours, as now distinctly follows, Article by Article." They separate their faith alike from the errors of Rome and of the fanatical and rationalizing tendencies of the day. 4. The Confession declares that : " The Churches among us teach " the doctrines set forth in the Articles. It is not simply great princes, nor great theologians ; it is the Churches which teach these doctrines. The private opinions of the greatest of men are here nothing. It is the faith of the Churches which is set forth, and those who acted for them spoke as their rep- resentatives, knowing the common faith, and not mingling with it any mere private sentiments or peculiar views of their own, however important they might regard them. It is a great mistake to suppose that our Evangelical Prot- estant Church is bound by consistency to hold a view simply because Luther held it. Her faith is not to be brought to the touchstone of Luther's private opinion, but his private opinion is to be tested by her confessed faith, when the question is, What is genuinely Lutheran? The name Lutheran, as our Church tolerates it, means no more than that she heartily accepts that JSTew Testament faith in its integrity, in whose restoration Luther was so glorious a leader. Allien, at the conferences at Augsburg, Eck produced certain passages from Luther's writings, Brentius and Schnepf replied : " We are not here to defend Luther's writings, but to maintain our Confes- sion." In showing that the Augsburg Confession is the Sym- bol of our time, the Formula of Concord rests its authority on its being "the unanimous consent and declaration of our faith." The private opinions of individuals, however influential, can in no sense establish or remove one word of the Creed of the Church. Any man who, on any pretence, gives ecclesiastical authority to private opinions, is robbing the Church of her freedom. She is to be held responsible for no doctrines which she has not officially declared to be her own. 5. The Confessors say, at the end of the doctrinal Articles : " This is almost the main portion (summa : chief points, principal matters) of the doctrine which is preached and taught in our Churches, in order to the true Christian instruction and 266 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. comfort of the conscience, as also for the edification of believ- ers." It calls the things it sets forth " the one, simple truth," and styles them " the chief," or fundamental, " Articles" (Hauptartikeln.) The Confessors style and characterize the Confession as " our Confession," as " the chief -points of the doctrine taught in our Churches," as " the main (or fundamental) Articles," as "the Articles of faith." They say: " Those things only have been recited which seemed necessary to be said, that it might he understood, that, in doctrine and ceremonies, nothing is received by us contrary to Scripture ; " and they declare, at the close of their work, that it was meant as " a sum of doc- trine," or statement of its chief points, " for the making known of our Confession, and of the doctrine of those who teach among us."* 6. The Confessors say of this statement of the main points of doctrine : "In it may be seen, that there is nothing which de- parts from the Scriptures ;" " it is clearly founded in the holy Scriptures," f " in conformity with the pure, Divine word and Christian truth." They declare, that, in these " main" or fundamental " Articles, no falsity or deficiency is to be found, and that this their Confession is godly and Christian (gottlich und Christlich)." They open the Articles on Abuses by reit- erating that their Confession is evidence, that, " in the Articles of faith, nothing is taught in our Churches contrary to the Holy Scripture,";): and the Confessors close with the declara- tion, that, if there be points on which the Confession has not touched, they are prepared to furnish ample information, " in accordance with the Scriptures," " on the ground of holy Divine writ." 7. The Confessors say that in the Confession : " There is nothing which departs from the Church Catholic, the Universal Christian Church." % 8. The Confessors moreover declare, that they set forth * Epilogue, 69, 5. f Epilogue, 70, 6. % Nihil inesse, quod discrepat a Scripturis — in heiliger Schrift klar gegriindet. \ Ab Ecclesia Catholica — gemeine, Christlich er Kirchen. THE AUGSBURG CONFESSION AS A CREED. 267 their Confession that they may " not put their soul and con- science in the very highest and greatest peril before God by abuse of the Divine name or word." 9. They declare, moreover, that it is their grand design in the Confession, to avoid the " transmission as a heritage to their children and descendants of another doctrine, a doctrine not in conformity with the pure Divine word and Christian truth." Our fathers knew well that human opinions fluctuate, that men desert the truth, that convictions cannot be made heredi- tary ; but they knew this also, that when men assume a name, they assume the obligations of the name, that they may not honestly subscribe Confessions unless they believe their con- tents ; and they knew that after this, their great Confession, men could not long keep up the pretence of being of them who were anti-Trinitarian, Pelagian, Romish, Rationalistic, or Fanatical. They could transmit the heritage of their faith to their children, trusting in God that these children would not, for the brassy glitter of Rationalism, or the scarlet rags of Rome, part with this birthright, more precious than gold. Our fathers believed, with St. Paul, that the true faith is " one faith," and therefore never changes. It is the same from age to age. The witness of a true faith is a witness to the end of time. When, therefore, Briick, the Chancellor of Saxony, presented the Confession, he said : " By the help of God and our Lord Jesus Christ, this Confession shall remain invincible against the gates of hell, to Eternity." VII. THE SECONDARY CONFESSIONS OF THE CON- SERVATIVE REFORMATION. THE BOOK OF CONCORD. IN" the Symbolical Books of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, the Augsburg Confession is followed by five other statements of doctrine : the Apology ; the Schmalcald Articles ; the two Catechisms ; the Formula of Concord, in epitome, and ampler declaration, with an appendix of testimonies : the six, in conjunction with the three general Creeds, forrn- Contents and ° & 7 bulk of the Book ing the Book of Concord. The Augsburg Confes- sion, the Smaller Catechism, and the Epitome, may be regarded as the texts, respectively, on which the Apology, the Larger Catechism, and the Declaration are Commentaries. The whole of these books can be embodied in a fair type in an ordinary duodecimo volume. When we think of the space which a minister covers with the words in which during a single year he states the sacred doctrines — when we look at the many volumes in which particular authors have presented the results of their labors on Scripture, the folios which have been devoted to single topics, it hardly seems an excessive demand on the part of the Church that she should ask min- isters to study one small volume to reach the official expression of her judgment on the greatest questions, which pertain to pure doctrine, sound government, and holy life. Yet the Book of Concord has been denounced apart from the character of its contents on the ground that it contains so much. Be it right 268 BOOK OF CONCORD— CONTENTS AND BULK. 269 or wrong, be its teachings truth or falsehood, its bulk is suf- ficient to condemn it. The very right of the Book to a hearing, at least as regards its last five parts, has been further denied on the ground, that a Church having once announced its Creed has no authority to change it by adding to it — and that to change by adding, in- volves the same fallacy as to change by subtraction ; that conse- quently those who at one extreme accept the whole Book of Concord, and those who reject the Augsburg Confession in whole or part, at the other, are alike illogical. — In reply to this these facts might be urged : I. The use of the word " Creed," in the objection is open to misapprehension. If, by it, is meant what a pure church be- lieves, the faith and doctrine of a pure church, it is true that these cannot be changed. What a pure church May a church believes is Scriptural, for a pure church means a f c^eT^^S church whose faith is Scriptural. If it be Scrip- is believed. tural, then to change it, is to abandon the truth, and to cease to be a pure church. Moreover, the faith of any church is her identifying point — losing that, she loses her spiritual identity. If the Catholic Church had abandoned her faith in the Trinity, she would have ceased to be the Catholic Church, and would have become the Arian sect. If the Protestant Episcopal Church were carried over into the Romish faith, she would cease to be the Protestant Episcopal Church, and would be a part of the Romish apostasy. If the Evangelical Churches were to abandon the Evangelical faith, they would become Socinian or Universalist bodies, and if the Lutheran Church were to change her faith, she would cease to be the Lutheran Church, and would become either a new sect, or a part of this, that, or other of the old sects. It is a contradiction in terms to talk of a pure Church, as such, changing her faith. II. But if by " Creed," be meant an official statement of the faith held, it is a great mistake to assert that there can be no Church authority to add to it. As the Rule of 2 Creed Faith, the written revelation of God, has been en- statement of b©- larged by successive additions from the early records which form the opening of Genesis, on through the Old and 270 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. "New Testaments, until the finished temple stands before us in the Bible ; so may the Church, as God shall show her her need, enlarge her Confession, utter more fully her testimony, and thus " change her Creed," to express more amply her one unchanging faith. If the Rule of an unchanging faith can be added to, the Confession of an unchanging faith can also be added to. The identity of the Church faith resembles not the same- ness of a rock, but rather the living identity of a man. The babe and the adult are identical. They are tbe same being in different stages of maturity : that which constitutes the indi- vidual does not change. The child does not grow to adult maturity by any change in personal identity — but retaining that identity grows by its attraction to itself, of what is con- sonant with its own unchanged nature. Adult perfection is reached not by amputations and ingraftings, but by growth, in which the identifying energy conforms everything to its own nature. The faith of the Church now is identical with what it was in the Apostolic time, but the relation of identity does not preclude growth — it only excludes change of identity. That faith must always be its essential self — whether as a babe receiving milk, or as a man enjoying strong meat. In a word, the advances are wrought, not by change in the Church faith, but by the perpetual activity of that faith, a faith which because it is incapable of change itself, assimilates more and more to it the consciousness of the Church, her system of doc- trine, her language, and her life. To subtract from a pure faith differs as largely from a healthy development of that faith in enlarged statements, as the cutting off of an arm differs from the expansion of its muscles, by healthful exercise. The whole history of the Church illustrates the truth of this principle. The creeds recorded in the New Testament were generally confined to one point. The Apostles' Creed, in the earliest form Growth of the known to us, is a change of these primal creeds, Creed * in so far that it adds to their statements to make the faith itself more secure. The Apostles' Creed, as we have it now, is a change of the earliest form, adding to its GROWTH OF CREED. 271 words to secure more perfectly its things. The Kicene Creed, in its earliest shape was a change in the same way from the Apostles'. The Meene Creed, (Mceno-Constantinopolitan) in the Greek, is a change of the earliest Mcene, by addition. The Mcene Creed of the Churches of the West (both Roman and Protestant) adds the " filioque " to the Mcene of the East. The Athanasian Creed, though but the expansion of two main points, is about six times as long as the Apostles' Creed. Then through ages the Church lay fallow ; the soil resting and accreting richness for the time of a new breaking up, and of a glorious harvest. The first great undeniable token that the warm rains from above were responsive to the toils of the husbandman below, in the field of the Lord, was the up- springing of the blade of the New Confession. The JSTew Con- fession in its opening Word shows that it germinates from the old seed : " The Churches among us, with great accord, teach that the decree of the Nicene Council is true, and, without any doubting, to be believed." (A.C.I.) "Christ shall return again, as saith the Apostles' Creed." (A. C. III.) The other Confessions mark the same connection with the ancient Creeds : " Shall sanctify believers — as teach the Apostles' and Nicene Creed." (Ap. III.) "As the Apostles and Athanasian Creeds teach." (Smal. Art. II, 4.). "Since immediately after the time of the Apostles, nay, while they were yet on earth, false teachers and heretics arose, against whom, in the primitive Church, were composed Sym- bols, that is brief and categorical Confessions, which embraced the unanimous consent of the Catholic Christian faith, and the Confession of Orthodox believers and of the true Church, to wit : the Apostles', Mcene, and Athanasian Creeds ; we profess publicly that we embrace them, and reject all heresies, and all doctrines which have ever been brought into the Church of God, contrary to them." (Formul. Concord. 517, 3.) — " Those three Catholic and General Creeds are of the highest authority — brief, but most holy Confessions, solidly founded in God's word, most glorious Confessions." (Do. 569, 4.) The Augsburg Confession, itself, was a " change of creed, by addition," inasmuch as it more amply confessed all the points 272 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. of the Apostles', Mcene, and Athanasian Creeds, and added a confession on manifold points, held, indeed, potentially and implicitly in the faith of the pure Church, but never before formally confessed by her. But, furthermore, the Augsburg Confession, even as a Luth- eran document, is an abiding witness of the right and duty of Christian men, and a portion of the Christian Church to amplify the confession of the faith, according to the leadings of God's providence. For the Augsburg Confession is really not first, but fourth in the Genesis of our Church's first official statement of her distinctive faith. For first were the XV Marburg Articles, in which the great representatives of our Church made a statement of points of faith ; then the XYII Articles of Swabach, then the Articles of Torgau, and as the outgrowth of the whole, and their noble consummation, last of all, the Augsburg Confession. The Augsburg Confession, itself, grew from its earliest shape, at the beginning of the Conference at Augsburg, up to the day of its delivery to the Emperor. The one faith which it confessed in its infant form, shaped its phrases, added to its enumerations, guarded against misapprehensions more per- fectly, until it reached its maturity. III. The right to " change a creed," " by addition" is, if it be fallacy at all, not a common fallacy, with the assumption of a right to " change by subtraction." The mistake here involved is in using the word " change" ambiguously, and in making it falsely emphatic. We deny the right of a pure Church to change the faith : we hold that her creed should not be changed ; but we maintain, first, that to cut out articles of faith bodily from her creed, and to mangle and change the meaning of what remains, is to change her creed ; and secondly, that to leave her earlier creed untouched and unvaried, to cling to it heart and soul, in its original and proper sense, and in order to the maintenance of the faith it treasures, to witness again, in ampler form, by adding clear and Scriptural statements of doctrine, is not to change the creed, but is the act of wisdom to prevent its change. If a clergyman, on one Lord's Day, should succinctly set forth the To define is not to change. GENERAL JUDGMENT OF TEE CHURCH. 273 doctrine of justification by faith, and should find, that owing to the brevity of his statement, the uncultured had misunder- stood it, or the malicious had taken occasion to pervert it, he might very properly, on the next Lord's Day, amplify his statement, and thus " change his creed by addition," for every sermon is a minister's creed. If his doing so is a fallacy, it is surely not a common fallacy with his retractation, denial or evasion on the second Lord's Day, of what he taught on the first; not a common fallacy, even if his second statement were needlessly extended, and though it introduced many statements on other closely associated doctrines. IV. We object also to all unnecessary multiplication of the number or extension of the bulk of creeds. So does the Luth- eran Church, as a whole. For nearly three centuries, no addition has been made to her Symbolical Books ; and although it is quite possible that, for local reasons, parts of our Church may enunciate more largely particular elements of Qeneral jud(r her faith, we do not think it likely that the Luth- ment of the Church as to de- eran Church, as a whole, will ever add to her arabieness of Symbols, not merely anything which can have such ample definition relations to them as the Augsburg Confession has (which would be impossible), but not even such as the Formula of Concord has. But this does not settle the question now before us. We think we have shown, that to have creeds additional to the Augsburg Confession, is not in itself inconsistent or wrong. ]STow to the point : Is it necessary or desirable that there should be any such additional statements? To this question, our whole Church, without a solitary exception, which we can recall, certainly with no important exception, has returned the same reply, to wit : that it is desirable and necessary. For while it is a fact, that no creed, exclusively hers, except the Augsburg Confession, has been formally accepted in every part of the Lutheran Church, it is equally true that there is no impor- tant part of that Church which has not had, in addition, some other Creed. ~No national, or great Lutheran Church, from the begin- ning of her full organization, to this hour, has had nothing but the Augsburg Confession as a statement of her faith. For not 18 274 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. to speak of the three General Creeds to which the Lutheran Church pays higher reverence than to the Augsburg Confession itself, many of the Lutheran Churches before the preparation of the Book of Concord, had their Bodies of Doctrine, as bulky as the collection which has been so much decried for its vast extent, and sometimes more bulky. There lies before the writer, for example, the first of these, the Corpus Doctrine, the Symbolical Books of Saxony and Misnia, printed in 1560, edited by Melanchthon, which, in addition to the General Creeds and the Augsburg Confession, has the Apology, and four other extensive statements of doctrine, forming a folio of more than a thousand pages. Every one of the seven ponder, ous Corpora Doctrinae has additions to the Augsburg Con- fession, as, for example, the Apology, both the Catechisms of Luther, and the Schmalcald Articles, in fact, everything now in the Book of Concord which had appeared up to the time of their issue. The Church Orders and Liturgies of the Sixteenth Century embraced Creeds. We have examined nearly all of them in the originals, or in Bichter's Collection. We have not noticed one which has the Augsburg Confession alone. It is an historical fact easily demonstrated, that the Book of Concord diminished both the number of doctrinal The Bookof concord repressed statements and the bulk of the books containing the multiplier them, in the various Lutheran Churches. It not tion of Creeds. . only removed the Corpora Doctrinae, but the yet more objectionable multiplied Confessions prepared by various local Reformers, and pastors, of which not only lands, but cities and towns had their own. So far from the Book of Con- cord introducing the idea of addition to the Augsburg Confes- sion, it, in fact, put that idea under the wisest restrictions. But, not to dwell on this point further, it is certain that the Lu- theran Church, with a positive, almost absolute unanimity, decided, both before and after the Book of Concord, that it is desirable to have more than the Augsburg Confession as a statement of doctrine. The Lutheran Church in America is no exception to this rule. Her founders confessed to the whole body of the Sym- bols. The General Synod recognizes, in addition to the Augs- BOOK OF CONCORD— CONTENTS OF. 275 burg Confession, the Smaller Catechism for the people, and in its Theological Seminary, originally, both Catechisms were men- tioned in the Professor's oath. In its present form the Smaller Catechism is retained. But if the Smaller Catechism be adopted, and an ampler statement of doctrine be an unlawful change, that Catechism alone must be adopted, and the Augsburg Confession which appeared a year later, be thrown out. The Book of Concord may be divided generically into two. parts : the first part selected, the second part original. The first is formed by our Church Creeds, which it simply collected. The second is the Formula of Concord, in two Book of con- parts, Epitome and Declaratio, which it first set cord ' Contents of " forth. Every part of both these divisions, except the first part of the first, would be rejected on the principle we now discuss ; in fact, if the principle were pressed through, logically, not only would the Augsburg Confession, but the Apostles' Creed itself be sacrificed to it. The Church would have to recover the earliest form of the Creed, or be creedless altogether. First of all, then, let it be remembered, that five-sevenths of what now forms the Book of Concord, were accepted in the Lutheran Church before that Book was compiled : secondly, that the directly confessional part of the Formula (the Epitome) is very little larger than the Augsburg Confession, the u Solid Declaration" being simply an exegesis and defence of the Epitome. Let us for the present look at these earlier parts of the Book of Concord. Taking then, one by one, the Symbols which follow the Augsburg Confession in the Book of Concord, let us ask whether it be wrong, to acknowledge officially, that they set forth the faith of our Church 1 To begin with the first of these, — IS IT WRONG TO ACKNOWLEDGE THE APOLOGY AS A SYMBOL OP the Lutheran Church ? This question we will answer by a few facts. I. It will not be denied that it presents one and the same system of faith with the Augsburg Confession. It is in its first sketch the Answer from the hand of the great Melanch- thon, with the advice and co-labor of the other theologians, 276 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. to the Soman Catholic Reply to the Augsburg Confession. Pre- pared under the direction of the same authority that had origi- The Apology, nated the Confession, it was designed to present it to the Emperor in the same way. Happily, the Emperor refused to allow its presentation: for that refusal has substi- tuted for Melanchthon's sketch the Apology as we now have it. Melanchthon, on receiving the Papal Confutation, at once gave himself to the work of answering it in full. On the journey from Augsburg to Wittenberg, he labored on it. At Altenburg, in Spalatin's house, he was engaged upon it on Sunday, till Luther took the pen from his hand, telling him that " on this day he should rest from such labor. We can serve God, not only by labor, but by rest ; therefore he has given us the third Commandment and ordained the Sabbath."* ~Eo longer amid the confusion and disadvantages of a strange place, but at home, Melanchthon prepares this defence, expan- sion and explanation of the Confession. What can be more obvious than the Providence which reveals itself in the occasion and character of the Apology ? II. Kollner, confessedly a most able writer, but not Luth- eran in doctrine, says of the Apology : " It had from the very beginning, and has had without dispute up to the recent times, the validity of a Symbol." Winer, that princely scholar, whose laxity of doctrinal views gives more value to his testi- mony on this point, says : " Beyond dispute, with reference to the matter it contains, this work takes the first rank among the Symbols of the Lutheran Church." We might multiply cita- tions like these, but it is not necessary. III. The Apology has been regarded indeed in our Church as one of her noblest jewels. In making it one of her Symbols, she confessed her profound love for it. In reply to one of the fiercest assaults made upon her by the Jesuits, the Apology without note or comment, was reprinted, as in itself an ample reply to all the falsehoods that Romish malignity could invent against our Church. IY. In modern times, the attacks upon it have come first * Salig : Hist. d. Augsp. Conf. I, 375. Ledderhose's Melanchthon. Trans) by Dr. Krotel, 115. THE APOLOGY. 277 from the covert infidels who crept into the Church under the pretentious name of rationalists, and secondly from unionistic tneologians. Over against this, the unvarying witness of the Lutheran Church has been given to the pure teaching, the great importance, and the symbolic validity of the Apology. Let a few facts illustrate this. 1. The Lutheran States whose names are subscribed to the Augsburg Confession, offered the Apology to the Diet, and the sole reason why it did not take its place at once, symboli- cally co-ordinate in every respect with the Confession, was that Romish bigotry refused it a hearing. The fierce intolerance of the hour anticipated the objection to hearing anything further in the way of explanation or vindication of the Confession. Was it a fallacy of the same sort, for the Lutheran States to prepare the Apology, as it would have been for them to hav^ come back to the Diet, having taken out everything in the Confession, which Eck and his co-workers did not relish ? Prepared by the author of the Augsburg Confession, and adopted by its signers, is it probable that the Apology was in any respect out of harmony with the work it defended ? 2. In 1532, the Evangelical Lutheran States presented it at the Schweinfurth Convention as their Confession of Faith. 3. In 1533, Luther, in a consolatory, printed, public and official letter, refers the Christians who were driven out of Leipzig, to the Confession and its Apology, as setting forth his faith and that of the Church. Both are incorporated in all the old editions of Luther's works, as so thoroughly an exhibition of his faith, of his thoughts and even of his phrase- ology, as really in an important sense to be considered his. In the letter to the persecuted Lutherans at Leipzig,* Luther says : " At Augsburg, our general (allgemeine) Confession sounded in the ears of the Emperor and of the whole realm ; and then, by the press, in all the world . . Why should I say more? There are my writings and public Confessions — our Confession and Apology: in the Churches, our usages are before men's eyes ; wherein we superabundantly show what we believe and hold as certain, not r ^ne in these Articles con- *Werke: Leipz. xxi. 20 *h; x. 2228. 278 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. cerning the Sacrament, but in all parts of the faith . . There- fore, Dear Friends, be firm, let no one mislead you, give ear to no empty talk (Geschwatze), even though it should come from our own side : but hold fast to our Confession and Apology . . . Hold fast to the Gospel, and to St. Paul's doctrine, to which also our Apology and our Church usage hold fast." 4. In 1537, at Schmalcald, the Apology, at the request of the Princes, was thoroughly compared with the Augsburg Confes- sion by the theologians, and then, as consonant with the Holy Scriptures and the Confession, formally subscribed by them with the declaration, that they " believed and taught in their Churches in accordance with the Articles of the Confession and Apology."* 5. In 1539, in Denmark, it was prescribed as a doctrinal guide to the Lutheran pastors. 6. In 1540, it was delivered to the Conference at Worms, as a statement of Lutheran doctrine, and as a basis of discussions. 7. In 1541, it was solemnly confirmed by the "Evangelical Prmces," " the Allied Estates of the Augsburg Confession," *' the Protestant Princes and States," who say to the Emperor: " And that no man may doubt what kind of doctrine is set forth in our Churches, we again testify, that we adhere to the Con- fession which was presented to your Majesty at Augsburg, and to the Apology which has been added to it, nor do we doubt that this doctrine is truly the Consent of the Catholic Church, which has been delivered in the writings of the Prophets and the Apostles, and has firm testimonies of tb*> Apostolic Church, and of the learned fathers — and in this faith and acknowledgment of Christ we shall ever call upon God and show forth His praise, with His Catholic Church." f 8. It was incorporated in all the " Bodies of Doctrine," the " Corpora Doctrinse " proper, of the various parts of our Church, without exception; and 9. In 1580, it took its due place in the Book of Concord. * In all the editions of the Symbolical Books at the end of the Schmaicald Articles. fMelanchthon's Opera. Witeberg. iv. 752. Corp. Reformat, iv. col. 483. In German: Walch : xvii. 865. (Bucers translation) Corp. Ref. iv. 493,494. (Melanch* thon's Original.) VALUE OF THE APOLOGY. 279 V. It deserves the place our Church has given it. On the merits of the Apology Kollner * says : " In considei ing its value for its immediate purpose, it is difficult to praise this work enough, alike as to its form and the entire composition of it, and its doctrinal matter. It is written with an inimitable value of the clearness, distinctness and simplicity, which must A v° l0 ^- carry conviction alike to the learned and the unlearned. Its moderation and modesty are worthy of the good cause it vin- dicated. The mild and pious character of Melanchthon so sheds its lustre on the whole, as to force the conviction that the noblest views and purest piety, with no particle of un- worthy aim, here struggle in behalf of religion. As to its matter, it is undeniable, that it presents the truth in the clearest light, and successfully maintains the Evangeli- cal doctrine over against the Romish system. Its effectiveness for the interests of the Gospel in its own era, is beyond description (unbeschreiblich.) Historically considered, therefore, the Apology may claim in the formation and confirmation of the Evangelical Church an infinitely high (unendlich hoher) value. To the Apology belongs an eternal value. If the Church should make to herself new symbols, she will take over her funda- mental doctrines from this symbol, and to it will be due a holy reverence to the end of time." The same distinguished writer says in another work : f " JSTot only for the immediate aim of its own time, but as absolutely now as in the era of the Reformation, the Apology has its value and importance for religious truth, inasmuch as it wrought all that (indescribable effect), alone by the deepest and weightiest truths of the Gospel, as the Augsburg Confession witnesses to them, and the Apology more amply unfolds and establishes them. The Augsburg Confession was an erudite State-paper, composed with equal diplomatic foresight and caution, and Evangelical simplicity, and for this very reason needed a fuller exposition . . Hence it was and is of inexpressible importance, that the illus- trious man, to whom, to say the least, the superintendence of the preparation of the Augsburg Confession had been given, * Symbol, d. Luth. Kirch. 436. fDie gute Sache d. Luther. Symbol, geg. ihre Anklag. Gottingen. 1847. p. 153. 280 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. should himself set in a yet clearer light its brief proposition?, in this second jewel of Evangelical Lutheran testimony ; that he should explain and establish them from the entire complex of Evangelical Biblical truth. The fundamental and essential doctrine of the Evangelical Church, in its separation from the human additions of the Romish priestly caste, consists in this, that we are justified, not by the righteousness of works, but by regeneration in the faith of the Gospel. And as this was the centre from which the heroes of the faith in the Reforma- tion fought out their triumphs, so is it now, not only pro- foundest truth, but is the chief doctrine of Christianity itself, a doctrine which insures to Christianity and to the Evangelical Church with it, a perpetual endurance — for it is the very truth eternal itself. This doctrine in which is the ground and essence of all Christianity, is established by Melanchthon in the Apology with a greater accuracy than anywhere else." "To its importance testimony is borne in the attacks of its enemies, who felt deeply the injury to their cause, connected with the clear, luminous, and Scriptural argument, the dialectic skill, the combination of repose and thoroughness, with a beneficent warmth which characterize this writing. In the grand thing, the doctrine, it is as pure as the Confession to whose vindica- tion it is consecrated." * The next great Confession in the Book of Concord is the Schmalcald Articles. The very existence of these Articles is a proof that neither the Lutheran authorities, who caused them to be written, nor Martin Luther, who is their author, The schmaicaid nor the great theologians who advised in their pre- paration, nor Melanchthon, Jonas, Bugenhagen. Creutziger, Amsdorf, Spalatin, Brentius, and the other great theologians and pastors of our churches who subscribed them, imagined that to confess the Church's faith more fully involves a fallacy. The Articles were occasioned by the expectation that a free General Council, so ardently desired from the beginning by the Reformers, and so often promised, was at length about to be convened. The Pope convened a Council, to be opened at * Miiller lxxix . THE SCHMALCALD ARTICLES. 281 Mantua, on the 2Sd of May, 1537. To this Council the Evan- gelical (Lutheran) States were invited to come ; and until it became manifest that it was not to be a free Council, they showed a strong desire to be represented in it. In consequence of the expectation that the truth would have a hearing, the Elector desired to have a new statement of the great doctrinal principles of our Church, touching those ques- tions which would arise at the Council as matters of discussion between Lutherans and Romanists. This desire now they orig- led him to commit to Luther the composition of mated * new Articles as a basis of Conference. The Articles thus pre- pared were taken to the Convention of the Evangelical States, held at Schmalcald, in February, 1537. There they were thor- oughly examined by our great theologians, and by them sub- scribed, and, from the place where they were signed, came t& be called the Schmalcald Articles. The question at once suggests itself, Why was a new Con- fession prepared? Why was not the Augsburg Confession con- sidered sufficient, in itself, or as sufficient in conjunction with the Apology? Was our Church giving way, or Whytheywere changing her ground, or dissatisfied with her first necessary. great Confession ? Far from it. The reasons were these : — I. The Augsburg Confession had too much, in some respects, for the object in view. The object in view, in 1537. v/as to com- pare the points of coutroversy between the Lutherans and the Romanists. The Augsburg Confession is in large measure a Confession of the whole faith of the Church universal, and hence embraces much about which there is no controversy between oar Church and the Romish ; as, for example, the doc- trine concerning God and the Son of God. It was as much an object of the Augsburg Confession to show wherein our Church agreed with the Roman Church in so much of the faith as that Church had purely preserved, as to show wherein, in conse- quence of her apostasy from parts of the truth, our Church departed from her. The Augsburg Confession had done its great work in correcting misrepresentations of our Church on the former points. It was now desirable that omitting the discussion of what was settled, she should the more clearly ex 282 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION press herself on the points of difference. This was the more needful, because in the efforts to come to an agreement at Augsburg, which followed the 25th of June, Melanchthon, in his great gentleness, had made concessions, whose real point the Romanists perverted, so as to find a warrant in them for false interpretations of the Confession in its distinctive doc- trines. They understood well the two counter-tricks of pole- mics : the one, to exaggerate differences until innocence looks like crime ; the other to diminish differences until truth seems nearly identical with error. The Church wished the deck cleared for action, that the truth disputed might put forth its whole strength, and the truth obscured reveal its whole char- acter. But II. The Augsburg Confession has too little for a perfect exhi- bition of the full position of our Church as to the errors of Rome. In 1530, our fathers rightly avoided an unnecessary opening of points of difference ; for there was yet hope that many in the Church of Rome would be drawn by the gentler power of the truth, and that the fierceness of the conflict might be allayed. But the providence of Cod had made it impera- tive that the Church should more amply set forth now what she had succinctly confessed in 1530. III. The Augsburg Confession was not in the right key for the work now to be done. That Confession was the Church's em- bodiment of the Spirit of her Lord, when he is tender with the erring. Now the time had come when she was to embody the Spirit of that same Lord, when he speaks intones of judg- ment to the wilful and perverse. Through the Augsburg Confession, even in the night of con- flict which seemed to be gathering, the Church sang, " Peace on earth," but in the Schmalcald Articles, the very Prince of Peace seemed to declare that He had come to bring a sword — the double-edged sword of truth — the edge exquisitely keen, and the scabbard thrown away. Therefore, wise and heaven- onided, the Church which had committed the olive branch to Melanchthon, gave the sword to Luther. The motion of the Augsburg Confession was to the flute, the Schmalcald Articles moved to the peals of the clarion, and the Their value THE SCHMALCALD ARTICLES— THEIR VALUE. 283 roll of the kettle-drum. In the Augsburg Confession Truth makes her overtures of peace, in the Schmalcald Articles she lays down her ultimatum in a declaration of war. That which was secondary in the Augsburg Confession is primary in the Schmalcald Articles. At Augsburg our Church stood up for the Truth, that error might die by the life of Truth ; at Schmalcald she stood up against the error, that Truth might live by the death of error. To utter her new tes- timony, to take her new vantage ground, was to use conquests made, as a basis for conquests yet to be made. The Jesuits, indeed, set up the cry, that the Schmalcald Articles are in conflict with the Augsburg Confession. Our Church, by an overwhelming majority, has answered the false- hood, by placing them among her crown jewels. And there they deserve to be. " Not only were the doctrines of the Church presented clearly, but they were stated so thoroughly in Luther's style, might and spirit, that the era which he moved so profoundly, could not but recog- nize in them, alike a faithful image of the Truth, and a new point of support for it. In these Articles Luther presentfe directly the principles of the Evangelical (Lutheran) Church, and of the Romish See, in their conflict. In the name of the Evangelical Church he has spoken against the whole Papacy a bold and manly word, the word of refutation, with nothing to weaken its force. And this fact is decisive in establishing their high value for our own time. The impossibility of unit- ing the Evangelical (Lutheran) Church's pure life with Rome's worldly aims, is set in so clear a light, that the Evangelical Church will ever look upon this Symbol with the greatest rev- erence, and cling to it with true devotion. Melanchthon's Appendix to the Articles is classic alike in form and matter. For our Church these writings must ever remain very weighty, and the more because outside of them there is nowhere else in the Symbols so ample a statement about the Papacy, and what is to be noted well, so ample a statement against it." (Kb'llner.) " They form," says Miiller,* " with the earlier Symbols a complete whole, yet have, for the reasons given, an indepen- * Die Symb. Blicher, lxxxii. 284 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. dent value, because in them the Lutherans for the first time, expressly and at large, define their relations to the Pope and the Papacy. We may say, that in and with them the Reformation closes, and the final separation from Rome is pronounced." The compassion which moved our Lord when He saw the multitudes, fainting and scattering abroad, as sheep having no shepherd, was breathed by Him into the heart chismsfthei/oc- of Luther, and originated the Catechisms. The casion and char- vearn i n g to provide for the religious wants of the neglected people, early showed itself in Luther's labors,* and during the visitation in the Electorate of Saxony, 1527-1529, matured in the decision to prepare the Catechisms : "This Catechism, or Christian instruction, in its brief, plain, simple shape, I have been constrained and forced to prepare by the pitiful need of which I have had fresh experience in my recent work of visitation." In its general idea, Catechizing, the oral instruction, of the young especially, in the elements of divine truth, is as old as religion itself, and has always been in the Church ; but to Luther belongs the glory of fixing the idea of the Catechism, as the term is now used. He is the father of Catechetics proper, and the most ancient Catechism now used in the world is Luther's Shorter Catechism of 1529. In the Catechisms he retained what the Ancient Church had used as the basis of the elementary instruction, to wit : the Decalogue, the Creed, and the Lord's Prayer : only adding the explanation of the Two Sacraments. " In this he showed far more Catechetical, Churchly-Didactic tact, than all the authors, whose thread is that of a system, be this system what it may. There is in the Catechisms a genuine conservatism, a holding fast and development of that which already had its home as the Christian Confession in the heart of the people. In the explanations which follow his questions, What does this mean ? How does this take place? he has retained, almost word for * See Luther's Catechetical Writings, beginning with the Exposition of the Lord's Prayer for the simple laity, 1518. Werke: Leipz. xxii. Walch x. Er- langen xxi-xxiii. Luther's Catechisms. By John G. Morris, D. D. Evang. Rev. fply, 1849. CONFESSIONAL AUTHORITY. 285 word, language found in Kero (the Monk of St. Gall, A. D. 750), in his exposition of the Lord's Prayer, in fact, found yet earlier, in the Sacramentary of G-elasius (Pope 492-496.) ll shows .he self-renunciation, with which Luther held aloof from the for- mulary manner of Dogmatics and from Polemics ; it reveals the art of saying much in little, yet with all its pregnant richness never becomes obscure, heavy, unfit for the people. These qualities, in conjunction with that warm, hearty tone, in virtue of which Lbhe " (who simply repeats an expression of Luther himself) " says the Catechism can be prayed, these — despite the barbarism of times and tendencies, whose nature it has been to have the least comprehension of the highest beauty — have preserved to this little book its exalted place of honor." * The love of the Church anticipated the orders of Consistories in the universal introduction of Luther's Catechisms, and au- thority could come in only to sanction what was already fixed. So truly did the Shorter Catechism embody the simple Christian faith, as to become by the spontaneous acclamation of millions, a Confession. It was a private writing, and yet beyond all tha Confessions, the direct pulsation of the Church's whole heart is felt in it. It was written in the rapture of the purest Cath- olicity, and nothing from Luther's pen presents him more per- fectly, simply as the Christian, not as the prince of theolo- gians, but as a lowly believer among believers. In the Preface to the Book of Concord the " Electors, Princes, and Orders of the Empire, who adhere to the Augs- burg Confession," declare in conclusion : " We propose in this Book of Concord to make no new thing, nor in any Ccmfessional respect to depart from the truth of the heavenly authority. doctrine, as it has been acknowledged by our pious fathers and ourselves. By this divine doctrine we mean that which is derived from the writings of the Prophets and Apostles, and embraced in the three Ancient Creeds ; the Augsburg Confession, delivered in 1530 to the Emperor Charles V. ; the Apology which followed it ; the Schmalcald Articles, and the Cate- chisms of Dr. Luther. Wherefore, it is our purpose in nothing "* Palmer in Herzog's : R. E. viii. 618. Do : Evang. Katechetik. Stuttg. 5. ed. 1864. 286 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. to depart from these in things or words, but by the grace of the Holy Spirit, with one accord, to abide in this pious Consent, and to regulate all decisions in controversies on religion, in accordance therewith."* " And because this matter of reli- gion pertains also to the laity, as they call them, and bears upon their eternal salvation," says the Formula of Concord, " we publicly profess that we also embrace the Smaller and Larger Catechisms of Luther, regarding them as a sort of Bible of the laity, wherein all those things are briefly comprehended which in the Holy Scripture are more largely treated, and the knowl- edge of which is of need to a Christian man unto his salvation." " These Catechisms have been received and approved by all the churches of the Augsburg Confession, and are everywhere used in the churches and schools publicly, and in private houses — and in them the Christian doctrine, taken from God's Word, is set forth with the utmost clearness and simplicity for the use of the unlearned and of the laity." f In chronological order, as writings, the Catechisms, which appeared in 1529, would have preceded the Augsburg Confes- sion, and this is the order in the Thuringian Corpus of 1561 : but the chronology, so far as the Book of Concord preserves it in its arrangement, is that of acceptance as Confessions. It would seem as if by preeminent necessity the Catechism of a Church should have an unmistakable indorsement as opinions of official and confessional. It is the Catechism by men, in which her future ministers and her people are trained in the faith, in early life. If the Church puts into the hands of her children statements of doctrine in any respect false, she is the betrayer of their souls, not their guardian. A Catechism which embodies the pure faith in the form best adapted to preserve and diffuse it among the people is of inestimable value. Such a Catechism, if we may accept the judgment of the wisest and best men, our Church possesses. " It may be bought for sixpence," said Jonas, " but six thou- sand worlds would not pay for it." " Luther," says Polycarp Lyser, \ " has written a short Catechism, more precious than *Muller. 21 : 299 : 518.5. t Do. 570.8. I In the Dedication of Chemnitzii Loci. eminent regard to OPINIONS OF EMINENT MEN. 287 gold and gems. In it the purity of the Church doctrine, drawn from prophets and apostles, is so compacted into one entire body of doctrine, and set forth in such luminous words, as not unworthily to be esteemed a Canon, as that which is drawn entire from the Canonical Scriptures. I can affirm with truth, that in this one little book are embraced so many and so great things, that if all faithful preachers, throughout their lives, should confine themselves in their sermons to the hidden wis- dom of God shut up in these few words, explaining them rightly to the people, and opening them at large from the Holy Scriptures, they could never exhaust that boundless abyss." "If," says Matthesius, * " Luther, in his whole course, had done nothing more than to introduce these Catechisms into the family, the school, and the pulpit, and to restore to the home the blessings at meat, and the prayers for morning and night, the world could never thank him enough, or repay him." " Such," says Seckendorf, f " is the union of pure doctrine and of spirituality in the Lesser Catechism, that in its kind it has no equal . . Above all is its explanation of the Apostles' Creed admirable." " Is there an eloquence which is sufficient — not to do full justice to the theme — but in some degree to vindi- cate the value of the book ? As I look upon the Churches everywhere, in the enjoyment of the blessing it brings, I confess that it surpasses all the range of my thought. If I must make the effort to express my regard for it, I acknowledge that I have received more consolation, and a firmer foundation of my salvation from Luther's Little Catechism, than from the huge volumes of all the Latin and Greek Church writers together. And although excellent theologians, not without success, have imitated Luther and written Catechisms, Luther's Cate- chism in the judgment of all good men deserves the palm.";); Matthes, § who urges various objections to the Catechisms, nevertheless adds : " The little Catechism of Luther, with its explanations, brief, adapted to the people, childlike, and at the same time profound, meeting the wants of the mind and of the * Sermons on the Life of Luther. f Historia Lutheranismi. i. \ 51. \ Heshusius, quoted in Fabricii : Centif. Luther, ad Cap. lxxxii. \ Comparative Symbolik all. Christl. Confession. 1854 288 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. heart, is still the Catechism which impresses itself most readily on the memory of children, and more than any other produces the spirit and life of religion in them. If this be still the case, who can measure the blessing it brought in the era of the Reformation, when a new epoch of the religious nurture of the people and of their children began with it ? " " There are as mauy things in it as there are words, as many uses as there are points." * " It is a true jewel of our Church, a veritable masterpiece." f "It is impossible to estimate," says Kb'll- ner,f " the value of these Catechisms for their time. Luther gave in them not only a brief sketch of the fundamental truths of the Gospel, but restored to life the actual Catechizing, the primary instruction in religion. The form of the Catechism was as fitting as its matter. Luther was a man of the people ; like Paul he had the gift of speaking to the masses, as no one else could, so that the simplest understood him, and heart and soul were alike touched. And this language of the heart, sus- tained by Luther's whole mode of thinking as a theologian, is the key-note of his Catechisms. They bear the true impress of his joyous assurance, of the earnest heartiness in which he was unique, and of all that true piety which here presents in conjunction the light and kindling which illumine the mind and revive the affections." Ranke's words] may fitly close these eulogies: "The Catechism which Luther published in 1529, and of which he says that, old a Doctor as he was, he himself used it as his prayer, is as childlike as it is profound, as easy of grasp as it is unfathomable, as simple as it is sublime. Llappy he who nourishes his soul with it, who cling& fast to it ! For every moment he possesses a changeless consolation — he has under a thin shell that kernel of truth which is enough for the wisest of the wise." We now approach the part of the Book of Concord, with the acceptance or rejection of which, the Book as a whole is Formula of likely to stand or fall. If the Book of Concord did concord. not conta i n t ] ie Formula of Concord, it is very cer- * Dr. I. F. Mayer. f Baumgarten. J Die gute Sache, 157. jj Deutsche Gesch. im Zeitalt. d. Reformat. Berl. 1839. ii. 445. FIRST DIVISION— PRELIMINARIES. 289 tain that the most decided and persistent opposition it has experienced would never have been raised. There is no in- stance on record in which any State, city, or individual, accept- ing the Formula of Concord, rejected or objected to any other of the Symbols. To decide upon acknowledging it, is to decide really upon the acknowledgment of the whole. Was it needed ? "Was it a restorer of concord, or a promoter of discord ? Is it a pure witness of the one unchanging faith ? Has it been stamped by the Church as an authoritative witness of her faith, and is it as such of force and value still ? On these questions it is impossible to form an intelligent Divisions of its opinion without recalling the main facts in the his- h,stGry - tory of this great document. This History may be divided into four parts. First : The events which rendered necessary the preparation of a new Confession. Second : The events terminating in the preparation of the Torgau Formula. Third : The development of the Torgau Formula into the Bergen Book, which in its revised form appeared as the Formula of Concord, in the Book of Concord, Dresden, 1580. Fcttrth : The subsequent reception of the Book of Concord. * First : Among the necessitating causes and preliminaries of the preparation of the Formula, may be mentioned : I. Melanchthon's vacillations, real and seeming. These were due to his timidity and gentleness of character, tinged as it was with melancholy ; his aversion to controversy ; his philo- sophical, humanistic, and classical cast of thought, and his extreme delicacy in matter of style ; his excessive reverence for the testimony of the Church, and of her ancient writers ; his anxiety that the whole Communion of the West East division. should be restored to harmony ; or that, if this were Prell,muarlL ' s - impossible, the Protestant elements, at least, should be at peace. The coworking of these, in different proportions at different eras, produced inconsistencies of the most extraordinary kind, and, when Luther was gone and the intellectual headship of the Beformation devolved upon Melanchthon, the lack of self-con- sistence and firmness, which had been his misfortune as a man, assumed the character of a public calamity. The whole work * C. G. F. Walch: Breviarium L. S. E. L. 198-219. 19 290 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. of the Reformation, as represented in Melanchthon, seemed destined to fall into chaos. Everywhere, his works in their various editions, were in the hands of the friends and foes of the Conservative Reformation. The friends of that Reformation were embarrassed and confounded, and its enemies delighted and encouraged, by perceiving endless diversities of statement in the editions of books, rapidly succeeding each other, books which, in their first form, Luther had endorsed as of Canonical purity and worthy of immortality. The very Confessions of the Church, determined by her authorities, and signed by her representatives, were emended, enlarged here, abridged there, changed in structure and in statement, as the restless spirit of refining in thought or style moved Melanchthon. All his works show the tinge of his mind at the time of their issue, whether affected by his hopes that Rome would be softened, or roused by the elusive prospect of real union with the less radical part of the Zwinglians. Melanchthon fell into a hal- lucination by which his own peace of mind was wrecked, his Christian consistency seriously compromised, the spirit of partisanship developed, the Church distracted and well nigh lost. This was the hallucination that peace could be restored by ambiguous formulas, accepted indeed by both parties, but understood in different senses. It is a plan which has often been tried and which never succeeds, where men are in earnest. It not only does not bind men more closely, but leaves them more widely alienated, more full of bitter mistrust. Men must be honest in their difference, if they are ever to be honest in their agreement. The three works of Melanchthon in which the changes were most noted and most mischievous, are 1 : the Augsburg Con- fession ; 2 : the Apology ; and 3 : the Loci Communes. II. Connected closely with Melanchthon's vacillations, vari- ous Controversies rose among the theologians of the Augsburg Confession, which may be stated as generically the conflict be- tween the Philippists, or adherents of Melanchthon, and the more consistent Lutherans. The great name of Melanchthon was used to shield much which there is no reason to believe he would have approved. Much that he wrote could be taken MELANCHTHON. 291 in two senses. The Lutheran-Philippists, who took the more charitable view, put the best construction on them, and were reluctant to abandon one to whom the Church owed so much, and whom Luther had loved so dearly. The Reformed put upon Melanchth on's words the construction most favorable to themselves. The Crypto-Calvinists made them their covert. The enemies of the Reformation appealed to them as proof that the first principles and doctrines of the Reformers had been abandoned. Whatever may be the meaning of Melanch- thon's words in the disputed cases, this much is certain, that they practically operated as if the worse sense were the real one, and their mischievousness was not diminished but aggravated by their obscurity and double meaning. They did the work of avowed error, and yet could not be reached as candid error might. We have twenty-eight large volumes of Melanch- thon's writings — and at this hour, impartial and learned men are not agreed as to what were his views on some of the pro- foundest questions of Church doctrine, on which Melanchthoi* was writing all his life. III. 1560. A great centre of this controversy was furnished m the Philippic Corpus Doctrine, 1560, to which the Phil- ippists, especially in the Electorate of Saxony, desired to give Confessional authority, an effort which was resisted by the consistent Lutherans on the ground that it contained very serious errors. It was in the unionistic part of our Church, not the consistent part, that the tendency first appeared to put forth bulky Confessions, and the necessity for the Book of Concord was largely generated by the greatly larger Bodies of doctrine which were set forth by the Philippists. The Philippic or Meissen German Corpus of 1560, contained. 1. The three General Creeds ; 2. The Augsburg Confession from the Wittenberg ed. 1553, enlarged and altered ; 3. The Apology ; 4. The Repetition of the Augsburg Confession, writ- ten in 1551, to be sent to the Council of Trent; 5. The Loci Theologici ; 6. The Examen Ordinandorum ; 7. The Answer to the idolatrous Articles of Bavaria ; and 8. A Confutation of the Mahometan Error of Servetus. The corresponding Latin Corpus of the same date, contains all the writings em- 292 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. braced in the German: the Augsburg Confession is the Va- riata varied of 1542 ; and there is added to the whole Me- lanchthon's Reply to Stancar. As this Corpus became the special rival of the Book of Con- cord, and the controversy so largely clustered around the ques- tion, Which should be preferred, this Corpus, or that Book? — it may be well to note : 1. That the Corpus is greatly more bulky than the Book of Concord. 2. With the exception of the General Creeds it is entirely composed of Melanchthon's writings. Not a line exclusively Luther's is in it. The Catechisms are not there ; not even the Schmalcald Articles are there. It was a silent dishonor put upon Luther, and his faith and work, apparently in the name of the Lutheran Church, by the men who afterwards clamored that Melanchthon was not treated with due respect in the Book, which yet gives the place of honor to Melanchthon's greatest confessional works, the Augsburg Confession and the Apology, and contains also his Tractate on the power of the Pope. 3. It is largely composed of private writings on which no official action of the Church was taken. 4. The texts of its most important parts are changed greatly, and corrupted. 5. There is much in it cumbrous, and wholly unsuited to form a Confession. 6. It is ambiguous on some vital points, and unsound on others. 7. A treachery and double-dealing unworthy of our holy faith, and especially condemned by the frank directness, char- acteristic of Lutheran Christianity, underlies the whole concep- tion of the issue of such a Corpus. IV. The earlier Saxon Ckypto-Calvinism, which the Wit- tenberg theologians embodied in various publications. Confes- sing one system of faith, it held and furtively promoted the doctrines of another, or ignored the truths it did not openly assail. Many were involved in its meshes, who imperfectly understood its nature, and were slow to believe the worst of it. This greatly complicated the difficulties, and embittered the FIRST PERIOD. 293 controversies of this century. Again and again it circum- vented and deceived the very men who were engaged in the effort to expose and overthrow it. Y. 1569. The alarming state of things led to various consul- tations on the part of our theologians, who heartily desired to save the Church from being choked with the upspringing of error, or from being trodden down and torn to pieces in the effort to root it out. Chief among them were James Andrew, of Tubingen, who at an early stage of his efforts made a jour- ney into Lower Saxony, 1569, Martin Chemnitz, David Chy- traeus, and Nicholas Selneccer, all of them great theo- logians, moderate in spirit, earnest Christians, and intensely devoted to the purity and peace of the Church. YI. 1570. A Convention was convened at Zerbst, by the Electors of Saxony and Brandenburg, and by Julius, Duke of Brunswick, for the promotion of concord among the theologi- ans, 1570. Andrese was satisfied with the results of the Con- vention, but they did not correspond fully with the expecta tion of others. Heshus wrote against the Convention and against Andrese. So much had men in fact come to distrust what was most specious, that Andrese was suspected by some of secret connivance with the errors, to the casting out of which he was devoting his life. YIL 1573. Two Books, designed to promote peace, were pre pared by Andrese and sent to the theologians of Lower Saxony for subscription : 1. Six sermons on the divisions which had arisen between 1548 and 1573 ; 2. An exposition of the exist- ing controversies. The first was sent in print. The second, prepared by advice of Chemnitz, remained in manuscript. VIII. 1571. The Elector al-Torgau Articles were written by the Saxon divines, by order of the Elector Augustus, 1574. These Articles were suspected, perhaps not without reason, of making concessions to Calvinistic errors. And yet upon the surface no charge seemed more groundless. He who reads them, supposing them to have been written in good faith, will be apt to see in them a thorough rejection and confutation of the Calvinistic Sacramentarianism. So perfect is the deception, if it be one, that Selneccer, on a first reading, was delighted 294 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. with them, and congratulated the Church of God, that at Tor- gau, so pure and sincere a Lutheran Confession had been set forth. He who reads them now, is more likely to be surprised at Selneceer's change from this opinion, than at his having formed it. The Calvinists themselves complained bitterly of the severity of these Articles against them. Their leaders are named, their views stated and refuted. Beza, who was named in them more than once, wrote an answer to them. Hospinian regards them as the basis of the Formula of Concord. Even Hutter * says that " the something of the Calvinistic jugglings latent in them is found in very few places," and attributes their defects either to the writers' want of full information about the points at issue, or to a charity which hoped by soft- ness of style to win the enemies of truth to accept it. In a time in which sad experience had found no reason for jealous care, these Torgau Articles would probably have been regarded by all as Selneccer first regarded them. A long succession of causes of distrust can alone account for their being suspected. IX. 1575. The Suabian-Saxon Formula of Concord, mainly the work of Chemnitz and Chytraeus, appeared in 1575. This is not to be confounded with the Confession of the Churches of Lower Saxony, prepared by the same hands, 1571. The " Exposition " of Andrese was well received by the Wtir- temberg theologians, but the Doctors of Lower Saxony, dissat- isfied with it, desired Chemnitz and Chytraeus to elaborate on it as a basis the Suabian-Saxon Formula, which was sent back after careful revision by the representatives of the churches to "Wurtemberg. This Formula became a general ground-work of the Formula of Concord. The Second Period of the history of the Book of Concord follows the preparation of the Suabian-Saxon For- mula (1575) and ends with the completion of the Torgau Formula. The most important points embraced in it, are these : I. 1576. Feb. The Convention at Lichtenberg. Augustus, Elector of Saxony, saw that though the work of uniting the Church was begun, it was very far from completion. Under * Concordia Concor. ch. v. SECOND PERIOD. 295 the influence of this feeling, (Nov. 21, 1575) he sent to his Privy Council, in his own hand- writing, a paper, worthy of a Christian prince. It took just views of the peril of the time and of its source, and so wisely marked out the principles, after- wards acted on, on which alone peace could he restored, that it may he regarded as having laid "the first foundation-stone of the Work of Concord." " We are to look," said he, " more to the glory of God, than to that of dead men." " Unity among us who claim to receive the Augsburg Confession, is impos- sible, while every land has a separate Corpus Doctrinae. In this way many are misled: the theologians are embittered against each other, and the breach is constantly widened. If the evil be not cured, there is reason to fear that by this em- bittering and confusion on the part of the theologians, we, and our posterity, will be utterly carried away from the pure doctrine. My plan is that we who confess the Augsburg Con- fession, shall unite and compare views in a friendly way ; that three or four peace-loving theologians, and an equal number of Civil Counsellors nominated by the heads of the States, meet together, bringing with them the different Corpora Doctrinae ; that they take the Augsburg Confession as their rule (Richt- schnur) ; that they compare the Corpora, and take counsel together how, out of the whole, to make one Corpus, which shall be the common Confession of us all." This paper led to the assembling, (Feb. 1576,) of the Convention at Lichtenberg, composed of theologians marked by that love of peace on which the noble Elector justly laid so much stress. These twelve theologians, among whom were Paul Crell of Wittenberg, and Selneccei, determined upon three things as essential to the establishment of concord : 1. All private self-seeking and ambition, all personal griefs and contentions, all suspicions of injury and desire of revenge, all the controversies and controversial writings between brethren, in the past, were to be given to eternal oblivion — were to be " as if they had never been." 2. The Philippic Corpus Doctrinae was confessed to have been the occasion of misunderstanding. " That useful and good book, written by the sainted Philip, had been commended 22Q CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. by us, and introduced into the churches and schools ; some had styled it a Norm of doctrine and Confession. This had been understood as designed to take the useful and admirable spiritual writings of Luther, of precious memory, out of the hands of pastors and people. Certain points in the Corpus, as Free Will, Definition of the Gospel, the Lord's Supper, want of sufficient explicitness toward the Sacramentarians, had been understood in a sense, or distorted to it, of which our Churches have known, and now know, nothing." While they therefore regard it as " an admirable, good and useful book," they re- nounce it as a " Symbol, Norm, or Rule." " The Norm of our doctrine and Confession is this, We set and name, first of all, and unconditionally, the Writings of the Prophets and Apostles, the three (Ecumenical Creeds, and then the Augsburg Confes- sion, the first, Unaltered, its Apology, the Catechisms of Lu- ther and the Schmalcald Articles. If any one, because of the doctrine of justification, desires to add Luther on the Epistle to the Galatians, we would heartily agree with him." They then speak with severity of Crypto-Calvinistic hooks which had been furtively prepared and circulated, and advise the re- pression of them. 3. They proposed that a Commission of theologians loving truth and peace, taking the Augsburg Confession as a rule and following its order, should prepare a clear statement in re- gard to the doctrines involved in controversy. They expressed their approval of the great divines who had already done so much in this direction, Chytrseus, Chemnitz, and Andrew, and added the name of Marbach. II. 1575. Nov. 14. The Saxon, Henneberg and Wurtemberg union of action. Though the earlier steps of this concerted action preceded the Lichtenberg Convention, it yet, because of its close connection with the Maulbrunn Formula, is more naturally placed here. 1. It was said by an old French Chronicler, that the English are sad even in their mirth. It might be said of our pious Princes of the Sixteenth Century that they were religious even at their amusements. The Elector Augustus met George Ernest, the old Count of Henneberg, at the hunt, and in a con- SECOND PERIOD. 297 versation on the troubles of the time, said that he would gladly correct the evils, especially those charged upon the Wittenberg theologians, if he could be furnished with a dis- tinct statement both of the false doctrines charged, and of the truths opposed to them. The Count promised to have a paper, of the kind desired, drawn up. 2. The Count of Henneberg (Nov. 1575,) met Louis Duke of Wurtemberg, at the nuptials of the Duke to the daughter of Charles, Margrave of Baden. When the festivities were over and the other priuces had departed, the Count, the Duke, and the Margrave, agreed to commit to Luke Osiander and Bidem- bach the preparation of such a writing as the Count had promised. 3. These divines laid as the groundwork of their paper the Suabian-Saxon Formula (see Divis. First viii.), compressing it and adding proof passages from Scripture, and citations from Luther. Their work was finished Nov. 14, 1575. III. 1576. Jan. 19. The Maulbrunn Formula. 1. The document thus prepared was submitted to a number of theologians, delegates of the princes. They tested and approved it in the Convention at the Cloister of Maulbrunn (Jan. 19, 1576.) 2. The Maulbrunn Formula was sent, Feb. 9, 1576, by the Count of Henneberg to the Elector of Saxony. The Elector had meanwhile obtained (Jan. 17, 1576) a copy of the Suabian- Saxon Formula (Div. First, viii.) from Duke Julius. The Elector now placed both the Formulas, the Maulbrunn and Suabian-Saxon, in the hands of Andrese, for his advice. 3. Andiese pursued a course in the matter worthy of his venerable name, and of the confidence reposed in him at the great crisis. Though the Suabian-Saxon Formula was built so largely upon his own labors, he confessed that it was unfitted for its end by the irregularities of its style, its copious use of Latin words, and its difiuseness, while its indeterminateness toward Melanchthon's writings might give rise to new contro- versies. The Maulbrunn Formula, on the other hand, which was in some sense an abridgment of the Suabian-Saxon, was too brief. His counsel, therefore, was that the two should be 298 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION made the basis of a third Formula, which, combining the virtues of both, should avoid their faults. 4. This counsel of Andrese was thoroughly approved of by the Elector. As the great function of the Formula of the future was to guard the true doctrine of the Augsburg Con- fession, and to this end it was necessary to fix and preserve its uncorrupted text, the first movement of the Elector was toward the securing of the copy of the Augsburg Confession, in German, made by Spalatin during the Diet, in 1530. IV. 1576, May. The Convention at Torgau. The Elector did not delay the now promising movement toward unity. He made the arrangements for a convention of theologians, of different lands, at Torgau. Eighteen, out of twenty invited, appeared. Eleven of the twelve delegates at Lichtenberg were of the number, of whom Selneccer was the most distinguished. The other names of greatest renown are Andrew, Chytraeus, Chemnitz, Musculus, and Corner. The deliberations were held at the Castle of Hartenfels, the Rock of Hardness, a name of happy suggestion for confessors of the truth in troublous times. The inspection of the two Formulas, the Suabian- Saxon and the Maulbrunn, produced at once a oncurrence in Andreae's opinion, that the one was too diffuse, the other too brief, and an adoption of his advice to fuse both into a new Formula. They laid as the basis of the new, the Saabian- Saxon Formula, departing occasionally from its arrangement, pursuing, as nearly as possible, the order of Articles in the Augsburg Confession, and inserting an Article on the Descent into Hell. V. Thus originated the Book or Formula of Torgau, (1576)> after the toils and anxieties of seven years. The Lichtenberg Convention had determined the general principle on which the Concord should be established ; the Suabian-Saxon Formula had furnished its basis ; the Maulbrunn Formula had aided in the superstructure ; the necessary combinations, additions and emendations, had been happily made at Torgau. Varied as had been the difficulties, and wide as had been the gulf which once yawned as if it would swallow up the Church, the accord of spirit had now been such, that in ton days the work of FORMULA— HISTORY OF THIRD PERIOD. 299 Torgau was finished. The theologians who met May 29, were ready with the Torgau Opinion (Bedenken) June 7th, 1576. All the theologians had borne an active part in its preparation, but Andrese and Chemnitz are justly regarded as its authors. The Tiiird Period of the history of the Formula of Concord opens with the sending forth of the Torgau Form- Formula# His . ula for examination by the Churches, (1576), tor y °f Third and ends with the publication of the Book of Concord, 1580. I. The Elector Augustus, (June 7, 1576), having carefully examined the Torgau Formula, and having laid it before his counsellors, submitted it to the Evangelical orders of the Em- pire, in order that it might be thoroughly tested in every part. II. The work was everywhere received with interest. Twenty conventions of theologians were held in the course of three months. The Formula was scrutinized in every part. The work found little favor with the Calvinists, whether secret or avowed. The Reformed held a Conference at Frankfurt, Sept., 1577, to avert what they considered a con- demnation of their party. Delegates were there from other countries. Elizabeth, Queen of England, sent ambassadors to several of the Evangelical States, and especially to the Elector Augustus, to avert the imaginary condemnation. The Elector, in a courteous but firm letter, assured the Queen, through the King of Denmark, that the object of the Formula was to correct and prevent errors within the Churches of the Augs- burg Confession, not to pass condemnation on other Churches. Some of the friends of Melanchthon thought that the Formula failed in not recognizing his merits. On the part of a few theologians, there was a scarce suppressed ill-humor that they had not been consulted in the preparation of the Formula. But the great mass of the twenty-five responses testified to a general approval of the Formula, and showed that the pure faith still lived. Many opinions of great value were expressed involving no change in doctrine, but suggesting various addi- tions, omissions, and alterations of language. It was clear that the book had not yet reached the shape in which it could fully meet the wants of the Church. 300 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. III. As soon as the answers were received, the Elector Augustus, with the concurrence of Brunswick and Wurteuiberg, called together the three greatest of the co-workers, Chemnitz, of Brunswick, Andrese, of Tubingen, and Selneccer, of Leipzig, to revise the Torgau Formula in the light of the expressed judgments of the Churches. They met, with the cordial consent of the Abbot Ulner, at the Cloister of Bergen, near Magdeburg. 1. Here the Torgau Formula was submitted to its^r^ revision, March 1 -14, 1577. The work was done very conscientiously. Every suggestion was carefully weighed, and estimated at its real value, the treatment was made more compact, and an Epitome of the Solid Declaration was prepared. The theory, that a second revision was made in April, at Bergen, has little to sustain it. 2. The second and final revision of the Torgau Formula took place at Bergen, May 19-28, 1577. To the " first Trium- virate" Brandenburg added Corner, and Musculus, of Frank- fort on the Oder, and Mecklenburg, at the special request of Augustus, sent Chytrseus of Rostock. Though they passed over the Formula with minute care, they found little to change. IV. The last touches were put to the work. At this stage, (May 28, 1577,) we know it as the Bergen Formula. It was to be known in history as the Formula of Concord, for this it was. Between this time and its publication in 1580, no change was made in it. There waited in it a silent might which the magic touch of the press was to liberate, to its great mission in the world. V. But wonderful as had been the work done, much yet remained to be done. When the Church first saw clearly the way in which peace was to be won, she saw that it involved four problems : 1. The determination what writings were to be her standard of teaching ; where was to be found a state- ment of doctrine which the Lutheran Church could accept un- reservedly as her Confession. 2. The preparation of a Confession which should apply the doctrines of holy Scripture, and of the earlier standards of teaching, to the new issues which con- vulsed the Church, and should protect the older standards THIRD PERIOD. 301 from corruption and false interpretations. 3. The securing for both classes of Confession, the subscriptions of the teachers of the Church, as representatives of its faith, and 4. The solemn sanction of the norm of teaching by the Political Estates, which would shield it against violence.* Two of these problems had now been happily solved : The Augsburg Confession ; its Apology : the Schmalcald Articles ind the Catechisms had been fixed upon as the standard of teaching ; and the Bergen Formula had determined the new questions, in accordance with that standard. Two problems remained. It was first contemplated to settle them by holding a General Convention, a plan, wisely abandoned. The plan adopted was, to submit the book for signature to the represen- tatives of the Church in the various lands. In far the larger part of the Lutheran States and Cities, the subscription was promptly made. It was throughout voluntary. A free expres- sion of opinion was invited. Force was put upon no man. !Not even the enemies of the Formula pretended that such was the case. The Apostates from it, at a later period, did not pre- tend that they had acted under constraint in signing it. It was signed by three Electors, twenty-one Princes, twenty-two Counts, twenty-four Free Cities, and by eight thousand of the teachers of the Church. VI. It was impossible, nevertheless, in the nature of the case that there should be no dissenting voices. Few and feeble as they were when contracted with the joyous response of a major part of the Church, they were listened to with respect, and no effort was spared to unite the whole Church. But as one class of objections was often of the pettiest and most pitiful nature, for the most part the merest effusions of the ill nature of men who were too little to lead, and too vain to follow, and as another class, though of a more dignified nature, were drawn from mere motives of political jealousy, or State interest, the gentleness and patience failed of their object. Those who loved the Church best had hoped rather than expected, that all the Estates would accept the bond of union. This holy hope was not indeed consummated, but great beyond all expectation * Anton: Gesch. d. Cone, formel. I. 214. 302 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. were the results, nevertheless. If the Church's vote was not absolutely unanimous, it was that of an immense majority. A Church threatened with destruction, from the insidious work- ing of error, had risen out of the chaos created by heresy which pretended to be orthodox. The darkness in which no man could tell friend from foe had been swept away. Deliverance had come from a state of pitiful strife and alienation, over which the enemies of God were already exulting as hopeless, and which would have ended in the overthrow of the Reforma- tion. But for the Formula of Concord it may be questioned whether Protestantism could have been saved to the world. It staunched the wounds at which Lutheranism w^as bleeding to death, and crises were at hand in history, in which Luther- anism was essential to the salvation of the whole Reformatory interest in Europe. The Thirty Years' War, the war of mar- tyrs, which saved our modern world, lay indeed in the future of another century, yet it was fought and settled in the Cloister of Bergen. Bat for the pen of the peaceful triumvirates, the sword of Gustavus had not been drawn. Intestine treachery and division in the Church of the Reformation would have done what the arts and arms of Rome failed to do. But the miracle of restoration was wrought. From being the most dis- tracted Church on earth, the Lutheran Church had become the most stable. The blossom put forth at Augsburg, despite the storm, the mildew and the worm, had ripened into the full round fruit of the amplest and clearest Confession, in which the Christian Church has ever embodied her faith. The Fourth Division of the History of the Formula of Con- cord embraces the events which followed its publication. Among them may be enumerated, as most important, the following: I. A number of Estates, not embraced in the first subscrip- tion, 1580, added their signatures, in 1582. There was now a grand total of eighty-six Evangelical States of the Empire united in the Formula of Concord. II. As regards its reception, out of Germany, may be noted these facts : 1. The Princes and theologians by whom the Formula of Concord had been given to the world, had made no effort to FOURTH PERIOD. 303 procure the subscription and cooperation of the Churches out- side of the German Empire. The reasons for this course were various. First, To have invited the co-working of other na- tionalities, would have complicated, to the degree of impracti- cability, what was already so tangled. Second, The ..,,° . , Fourth Period. difficulties which originated the necessity for the Formula of Concord were comparatively little felt outside of Germany. The whole doctrinal Reformation, outside of Ger- many, was in a certain sense secondary. Germany was the battle-ground of the great struggle, and others waited, know- ing that the decision there would be a decision for all. Third, Political barriers existed. In some lands where the Lutheran Church had strength, the rulers were Reformed or Roman Catholic. One of the Reformed monarchs indeed, King Henry of Navarre, desired to form an alliance with the Evangelical States against the Roman Catholics, but the States, setting the pure faith before all political considerations, declined the alli- ance, except on the basis of the Formula of Concord. 2. Denmark was the solitary exception to the rule in regard to foreign lands, an exception due, probably, to the fact that the wife of Augustus of Saxony was the sister of the King, Frederick the Second. The feeling of Frederick II. was prob- ably a mingling of aversion, inspired by some of his theologians who were Crypto-Calvinistic or Philippistic, and of dread, lest the Formula of Concord should introduce into his land the controversies from which it had hitherto been free. How blind and irrational the feeling of Frederick was, is shown by the fact, greatly disputed but apparently well established, that without reading it, or submitting it to his theologians, he threw into the fire the superbly bound copy sent him by his sister, the Electress. On July 24th, 1580, he sent forth an order forbid- ding the bringing of a copy of the Book into Denmark, under penalty of the confiscation of all the property of the offender, and of his execution. Ministers and teachers, if convicted of having a copy in their houses, were to be deposed. In spite of this fierce opposition, the Formula came to be regarded in Denmark with the highest reverence, and in fact, if not in form, became a Symbol of the Danish Church. 304 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. 3. In Holstein, it was speedily introduced and greatly prized, and, in 1647, was formally accepted as a Symbol. 4. In Sweden, John II. (1568-1592) was on the throne. To the cruel murder of his insane brother Eric, he added the crime of persistent efforts to force Romanism on his people. There of course, for the present, the Formula could not hope for a hearing. But in 1593, the year after his death, the Coun- cil of Upsala determined upon its subscription, and its author- ity as a Symbol was still further fixed by later solemn acts of official sanction. 5. In Pomerania, Livonia and Hungary (1573-1597), it was accepted as a Symbol. III. It is worthy of note that some of the nominally Lu- theran Princes and States either 1, never accepted the Formula as their Confession, or 2, having accepted it, subsequently with- drew. 1. The city of Zweibriicken which had not received the For- mula, went over, in 1588, to the Reformed Church. Anhalt, about the same time, the Wetterau, in 1596, and Hesse, in 1604, made the same change. 2. In the Electoral Palatinate, Louis had been a devoted friend of the work of Concord. On his death, 1583, John Casi- mir introduced the Reformed faith. In Brandenburg, in 1614, under John Sigismund, an Electoral Resolution was set forth, full of coarse abuse of the Formula and of its authors. The Formula, nevertheless, continued to be loved and reverenced in Brandenburg. In part of Brunswick, the Corpus Julium took the place of the Book of Concord. It embraced everything in the Book of Concord except the Formula, and had in addition a work on doctrines by Chemnitz, and another by Urban Regius. In the part of Brunswick which had had the Corpus Wilhelminum, the Book of Concord and the Corpus were both received as symbolical. The Corpus had all the matter of the Book except the Formula. IY. As might be anticipated, appearing in so controversial an age and involving all the greatest questions of the time, the Formula of Concord was assailed by the Reformed and the Roman Catholics, and by a few nominal Lutherans. Most FORMULA — MERITS AND VALUE. 305 renowned among these earlier assaults were the " Christian Ad- monition " by Ursinus, 1581, the Anhalt Opinion, 1581, the Reply of the Bremen Preachers, 1581, Irenseus' Examen, 1581, and Ambrose "Wolff's History of the Augsburg Confession, 1580. To these bitter libels, for they were little else, the three great divines, Kirchner, Selneccer, and Chemnitz, by order of the three Electors, of the Palatinate, Saxony, and Brandenburg, replied. In 1599, appeared the Staffort Book (named from the place of its publication,) in which the Margrave of Baden assigned his reasons for rejecting the Formula of Concord. They were so convincing to his own mind that he persecuted his Lutheran subjects for not seeing the force of them. The Book was answered by the Wiirtemberg and Electoral-Saxon theologians, in 1600-1602. Several Roman Catholic writers also assailed the Formula. The most renowned of these was Cardinal Bellarmin in his " Judgment on the Book of Concord," Cologne, 1589. It now forms the Fourth Part of his work on the Controversies of his time, the master-piece of the Romish Polemic of the Sixteenth Century. It was answered by Hoe of Hoenegg (1605) and others. In forming an estimate of the merits and value of the Formula oe Concord, for which we have been prepared by the glance taken at its history, the following facts may be worthy of consideration : I. The controversies which the Formula of Concord was meant to settle, had produced incalculable mischief in the Church, and absolutely needed settlement, if the Fornmla of Church Vv3re to be saved. concord, its 1. The time was one of mighty agitations and of strong convictions. Every question involving doctrine was re- garded with an intensity of feeling, which a cold and skeptical age is unable to understand. God's least word was something for which men would spend their years in battle, would take joyfully the spoiling of their goods, would abandon their homes for exile, and would ascend the scaffold. They resisted unto blood on the division of a hair, if they believed the hair to belong to the head of Truth. 20 306 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. 2. The age was one of vast upheaval, and of rapid recon struction. The superstitions of centuries had been overthrown and the temple of a pure Scriptural faith was to be reared upon their ruins. Every man was a polemic and a builder, eager to bear part in the wonderful work of the time. It was an age of feverish excitement, and many passed through the delirium of weak mind overwrought, and fancied their rav- ings, inspirations. It was the age of antitheses, in which extravagances, by a law of reaction, rose in hostile pairs. Two errors faced each other, and in their conflict trampled down the faith which lay prostrate between them. Extremists treated truth as if it were habitable only at one pole, and the proof that the one pole was untenable at once involved to them the necessity of going to the other. 3. The controversies which followed Luther's death, arrested the internal development of the Church, and brought the processes of its more perfect constitutional organizing almost to a close. The great living doctrines, which made the Reformation, were in danger of losing all their practical power in the absorp- tion of men's minds in controversies. War, as a necessary evil to avoid a greater, just war, as the preliminary to a pure peace, is to be defended ; but war, made a trade, treated as a good, pursued for its own sake, and interminable, is the curse uf curses, and much of the controversy of the second half of the Sixteenth Century was making a rapid transition to this type of strife. The Church was threatened with schisms. Her glory was obscured. Her enemies mocked at her. Her children were confounded and saddened. Weak ones were turned from her communion, sometimes to Zurich, or Geneva, sometimes to Rome. Crafty men crept in to make the Lutheran Church the protector of heresy. There was danger that the age which the Conservative Reformation had glorified, should see that grand work lost in the endless dissensions of embittered factions. Hence it is that the peculiar characteristic of the Formula, on which its necessity and value depend, goes so far in solving — what might otherwise seem mysterious — that while the larger part of the Lutheran Church received it with enthusiasm, some did not accept it. The reason is: that while FORMULA OF CONCORD. 307 the Confessions set forth the faith of our Church, in her an- tagonism to the errors outside of her, the Formula, if not ex- clusively, yet in the main, is occupied in stating the truth, and defending it, over against the errors which had crept into her, and corrupted some of her children. Romanism, with its arti- fices, had misled some. Fanaticism, sectarianism, and heresy, had lured others ; and the ardor of controversy against the wrong, had led others, as, for example, the noble and great Flaccius, to extravagance and over-statement, which needed to be corrected. The Lutheran Church was assailed by open war and direct persecution, by intrigue, Jesuitical device, and conspiracy. Romanism was active on the one hand, and secta- rianism on the other. False brethren, pseudo-unionists, en- deavored by tricks of false interpretation to harmonize the language of the Augsburg Confession, and of the earlier Con- fessions, with their errors. The mighty spirit of Luther had gone to its rest. Melanchthon's gentleness sometimes degene- rated into utter feebleness of purpose, and alike to the Roman ists and the sectarians he was induced to yield vital points. Not yet compacted in her organism, living only by her faith, and centred in it, as her sole bond of union, the Lutheran Church, iii Germany especially, which was the great battle- ground, was called to meet an awful crisis. ~No man who knows the facts, will deny that something worthy of the responsibility involved in such great and cogent issues had to be done. About the means there may be dispute, about the end there can be none. The world is very much divided between men who do things, and men who show that they could have been done better, but the latter class, at least admit that they had to be done. II. The Church in this time of trial used the best means for the needed end. She availed herself of the labors of the best men, who proposed and carried out the best means for the prep- aration of the Formula of Concord. 1. First and greatest among these men, was the Elector Augustus, of Saxony, (1533-1588,) son of Duke Henry, the Pious. In 1548 he married Anna, daughter of Christian III. of Denmark, who was universally beloved for her devoted adhe- 308 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATIO*. rence to Lutheranism, and for her domestic virtues. Augustus assisted in bringing about the religious peace of Augsburg, in 1555, by which the Protestants (Lutherans) obtained important rights in common with the Roman Catholics. The fact that these benefits were confined to the " adherents to the Augs- burg Confession," was one dangerous source of temptation to the Reformed. It led men to pretend to adhere to that Con- fession, simply to secure the civil benefits connected with it. The Elector was in advance of his time in the principles of constitutional sovereignty. In an arbitrary age he governed by law. He consulted his parliament on all great questions, and raised no money by taxation without their advice. His edicts were so just that he has been called the Saxon Justinian. His subjects regarded him with peculiar love and reverence. By his skilful internal administration, he raised his country far above the rest of Germany, introducing valuable reforms both in jurisprudence and finance, and giving a decided im- pulse to education, agriculture, and manufactures. The Dres- den Library owes to him its origin, as do also most of its galleries of arts and science. Augustus bore a part in the Formula of Concord worthy of him. To meet the necessary expenses connected with the Form- ula, the Elector himself paid a hundred thousand dollars in gold. His gifts and efforts were unceasing till the great end was attained. Noble and unsuspicious, he had been slow to believe In the possibility of the treachery of the false teachers, whose mischievous devices he at length reluctantly came to under- stand. The troubles they brought upon the Church whitened untimely the Elector's head, but so much the more did he toil and pray till the relief from the evil was wrought. While the theologians were engaged in conferences, the Elector and his noble wife were often on their knees, fervently praying that God would enlighten His servants with His Holy Spirit. In large measure, to the piety, sound judgment, and indefatigable patience of this great prince, the Church owes the Formula of Concord.* 2. Next to the name of Augustus, is to be placed that of * Hutter : Cone. Cone. eh. xi. Anton : i. 147, 148. Kollner: 533. FORMULA OF CONCORD. 309 Jacob Axdre^, (1528-1590,) Professor and Chancellor of the University at Tubingen, and Provost of the Church of St. George. He was the pupil, friend, and colleague of Brentius. " He was,'*'* says one who had no reason to tempt him to ex- travagance of eulogy, " a man of excellent genius, of large soul, of rare eloquence, of finished skill — a man whose judg- ments carried the greatest authority with them.'** At the age of eighteen he was Dean at Stul tgart — and wheu, on the capture of that city by the Spaniards, the Protestant preachers were driven out, Andrese remained, and exercised an influ- ence in moderati g the victors. He resigned, at the age of twenty, his earliest place as a clergyman, rather than accept the Interim, with its concessions to Romanism. His labors as a Reformer, both in doctrine and discipline, and afterward as a Conservator of the Reformation, were unwearied. He was " in journeyings oft," and all his journeyings were directed to the good of the Church, and the glory of God. The estimate which Planck makes of Andrese, is confessedly an unkind and unjust one, yet he says : " Andrese belongs not merely to the learned, but to the liberal-minded theologians of his era ... It was not in his nature to hate any man merely because that man was not orthodox ... It was not only possible for him to be just, at least at the beginning, toward those who were in error, but he felt a something to which it is not easy to give a name, which attracted him to those that erred." "His writings," says Hartmann, u over one hundred and fifty in number, are among the most interesting memorials of the characteristics of the theological effort of the era. He was a man of rich erudition, and of unflagging diligence. His eloquence bore his hearers resistlessly with it. As a preacher, he was full of fire and life. His sermons were pre-eminently practical, [n negotiations, he was skilful and captivating." 3. Worthy of association with the venerable names of Augus- tus and Andrese, is that of Chemnitz, (1522-1586,) Melanch- thon's greatest pupil. At the age of fourteen, already reveal- ing " a peculiar genius," he was sent to school at Wittenberg. * Weismann : H. S. N. T. i. 1455. See Andrese, in Herzog's R. E. i. 310, By Hartmann. Planck : Gesch. d. Protest. Theol. vi. 372. 310 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. There he received his first deep impressions of Luther, whom he often heard in the pulpit, in the fullest glory of his power. When, nine years later, Chemnitz came to Wittenberg as a University student, Luther was living, but the young scholar had not yet decided on the theological studies with which his renown was to be identified. To these Melanchthon drew him. The learning of Chemnitz was something colossal, but it had no tinge of pedantry. His judgment was of the highest order. His modesty and simplicity, his clearness of thought, and his luminous style, his firmness in principle, and his gentleness in tone, the richness of his learning and the vigor of his thinkings have revealed themselves in such measure in his Loci, his Books on the Two Natures of our Lord, and on the True Pres- ence, in his Examen of the Council of Trent, his Defence of +he Formula of Concord, and his Harmony of the Gospels, aa to render each a classic in its kind, and to mark their authoi as the greatest theologian of his time — one of the greatest theo- logians of all time. 4. The third man in the great theological " triumvirate," as its enemies were pleased to call it, was Nicholas Selneccer (1530-1592). He too was one of Melanchthon *s pupils (1549). In 1557 he became Court preacher at Dresden. He was a great favorite with the Elector Augustus. His simple, earnest Lutheranism led him to defend Hoffman against the persecu- tions of the Melanchthonian-Calvinistic party. So little did Augustus at that time understand the real character of the furtive error against which, in after time, he was to direct the most terrible blows, that Selneccer was allowed to resign his place, (1561). The exile sought refuge in Jena. There the Flaccian troubles met him, and led to his deposition, but Augustus recalled him (1568) to a position as Professor at Leip- zig, in which he labored on, in stillness, not unobservant, how- ever, of the mischiefs connected with the Crypfo-Calvinistic movements in Saxony. Finally the Elector, with his aid, had his eyes opened to these evils, and the movements began which terminated in the Formula of Concord. In all these move- ments, Selneccer was very active and useful. To him we owe the Latin translation of the Formula. Like all who bore part FORMULA OF CONCORD. 31i in that noble work, he was very fiercely assailed. When the Reformed party came into power, at the death of Augustus, Selneccer was deposed, and not even allowed to remain in Leipzig as a private citizen. His family was harassed by Crell, and Selneccer himself was reduced to poverty. But such a man could not long be crushed. He was called to the super- intendency in Hildesheim. Lying upon the bed of sickness, in 1592, he was summoned to Leipzig, as its Superintendent. Crell had been overthrown. Selneccer was borne back, dying but vindicated, and breathed his last, in Leipzig, May 24, 1592. The Church will sing his precious hymns, some of them set to his own melodies, to the end of time, and his memory will be treasured as that of one of her great defenders in the time of darkness.* 5. iN"or were the three men who were associated with Andrese, Chemnitz, and Selneccer, unworthy to bear part with these three chiefs in their great work. Chytraeus (1530-1600), of "Wiirtemberg, was one of Melanchthon's favorite pupils. Professor at Rostock, and Superintendent, renowned for his solid judgment, his large culture, his moderation, his deep insight into the needs of his time, his desire for the peace of the Church, his fame was great in his own communion, but was not confined to it. His history of the Augsburg Confes sion is classic in its kind. He was a " great and renowned teacher, who had few equals, "f Andrew Musculus (1514- 1581) was of Saxony. In 1538, he was among the devoted young men of the Reformation who surrounded Luther Xone were more devoted to the great leader than Musculus. He says of Luther : " Since the Apostles' time, no greater man nas lived upon earth. God has poured oat all His gifts on this one man. Between the old teachers (even Hilary and Augustine) and Luther, there is as wide a difference as between the shining of the moon and the light of the sun." He was an earnest defender of the faith, a fearless and powerful preacher, unsparing of wrong, and active in all the works of love. Christopher Corner (1518-1594) was of Franconia. He was a Doctor and Professor of theology, at Frankfort on * Herzog's R. : xiv, 226. (Hollenberg). f AVeismann: H. E. i. 1457. 312 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. the Oder, and General Superintendent of the Electorate of Brandenburg, and author of a number of learned works. He was styled the " Eye of the University."* 6. With these chief laborers were associated, at various stages, a number of others. In some shape, the whole learning and judgment of the Lutheran Church of that era had an opportunity of making itself felt in the Formula of Concord. 7. The plan on which the work was carried through, was of the best kind. The plan involved careful preparation of the proper documents by the ablest hands, repeated revision, com- parison of views, both in writing and by colloquy, the free ex- pression of opinion by the various parts of the Church, the concurrence of the laity and ministry, and the holding of a large number of conventions. So carefully and slowly was the work carried on, that in the ten years between its opening and its close, the gifts and contrasts of the great men engaged in it were brought to the most perfect exercise. Never was a work of this kind so thoroughly done. The objections made to the plan and its working are of the weakest kind. A General Synod of all the Lutheran Churches was impossible, and if it could have been convened, could not have sat long enough for the needed discussions. The General Consent, which is the only thing of value which a General Synod could have given, was reached in a far better way. The Formula, though pre- pared by a committee of great divines, was the act and deed of the Lutheran Church, in its major part. The Formula of Concord brought peace and blessing wherever it was honestly received. The evil that remained uncorrected by it, remained because of the factious opposition to it, All good in this evil world is but proximate. Even the divine blessing which descends direct upon the world from the hand of God, is marred by the passions of bad men, and the infirmities of the good. The divine rule of faith does not force upon the unwilling a perfect faith, nor should we expect a Confession of faith, how- ever pure, to compel the unwilling to a consistent confession. IV. The doctrinal result reached in the Formula of Con- cord is in conformity with the pure truth of the divine Word. * Jocher: Gelehrten Lexic. Vol. i: col. 2106 FORMULA OF CONCORD. 313 The doctrines which the Formula was meant to settle, were settled aright. As preliminary to the whole discussion proper, the Formula 1. Lays down, more sharply and clearly than had yet been done, the principle, that Holy Scripture is the only and perfect rule of faith. The Rale sets forth the credenda — the things that are to be believed. 2. It defines the proper functions of the pure Creed as the Church's testimony and Confession of the truth derived from the rule. The Creed sets forth the credita — the things that are believed. In consonance with this Rule, and by necessity in consonance with the pure Creeds of the past, the Formula determines over against the errors of the time : L In regard to original sin, that it is not the essence, or sub- stance, or nature of man, (Flaccius,) but a corruption of that nature. ii. Of free will, that there are not three efficient causes of con- version, of which one is man's will, (Philippistic,) but two only, the Holy Spirit, and, as His instrument, the "Word. in. Of justification, that Christ is our righteousness, not merely according to his divine nature, (Andrew Osiander,) nor merely according to his human nature, (Stancar,) but accord- ing to both natures : and that justification is not an infused righteousness, (Osiander,) but a pardon of our sins — is not physical, but forensic. iv. Of good works. Here are rejected the phrases : that good works are necessary to salvation, (Major,) and that good works are injurious to salvation, (Amsdorf,) and the truth is taught First, that good works most surely follow true faith, as the good fruit of a good tree ; that it is the necessary duty of regen- erate men to do good works, and that he who sins knowingly loses the Holy Spirit ; but that, nevertheless, men are neither justified nor saved by their good works, but by " grace through faith." In a word, justification and its consequent salvation are necessary to good works, not the converse. They precede, the good works follow. Second : " We reject and condemn the naked phrase, ' that good works are inj urious to salvation, 314 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. as scandalous and destructive of Christian discipline. That the works of a man who trusts in them are pernicious, is not the fault of the works themselves, hut of his own vain trust, which, contrary to the express Word of God, he puts in them. Good works in "believers are the indications of eternal salvation. It is God's will and express command that helievers should do goor] works. These the Holy Spirit works in them. These works for Christ's sake are pleasing to God, and to them He hath promised a glorious reward in the life that now is, and in that which is to come. In these last times it is no less neces- sary that men should he exhorted to holy living, should he re- minded how necessary it is that they should exercise them- selves in good works to show forth their faith and gratitude toward God, than it is necessary to "beware lest they mingle good works in the matter of justification. For "by an Epicu- rean persuasion about faith, no less than by a Papistical and Pharisaic trust in their own works and merits, can men come under condemnation."* v. Of the Law and the Gospel. When the word Gospel is taken in its general and widest sense, as embracing the entire teaching of Christ and of His Apostles, it may be rightly said that it is a preaching of repentance and remission of sins. But when the word Gospel is used in its specific and proper sense, so that Moses as the teacher of the Law, and Christ the teacher of the Gospel are contrasted, the Gospel is not a preaching of penitence, and of reproof of sins, but none other than a most joyful message, full of consolation, a precious setting forth of the grace and favor of God obtained through the merits of Christ. vi. Of the third use of the Law. The Law of God has not only & first use, to-wit, to preserve external discipline, and a secona use, to lead men to the knowledge of their sins, but has also a third use, to wit, that it be diligently taught unto regenerate men, to all of whom much of the flesh still clings, that they may have a sure rule by which their entire life is to be shaped and governed. vii. Of the Ljord's Supper. This was by pre-eminence tho * Epitome 588-591. Solid. Declarat : 699-708. FORMULA OF CONCOEV. 315 question which led to the preparation of the Formula, and it is answered with peculiar di tinctness and fulness. The state- ments in which it embraces the pure doctrine of the Lord's Supper, are these : The true body and true blood of our Lord Jesus Christ are truly and substantially * present in the Holy Supper, and are truly imparted with the bread and wine : " They are truly received orally with the bread and wine, but not in the manner imagined by the men of Capernaum, (John vi. 52,) but in a supernatural and heavenly manner, by reason of the Sacramental union, a manner which human sense and reason cannot understand. "We use the word ' Spiritual ' in order to exclude and reject that gross, fleshly manner of presence which the Sacramentarians feign that our Churches hold. In this sense of the word spiritual, we also say that the body and blood of Christ, in the Holy Supper, are spiritually received. . . For though that participation be oral, the manner of it is spiritual:" They are received by all those who use the Sacrament : by the worthy and believing, to consolation and life ; by the unbe- lieving, to judgment. Hence the Formula rejects and condemns : -The Popish Transubstantiation ; the Sacrifice of the Mass ; the Communion in one kind ; the adoration of the external elements of bread and wine in the Supper : The errors of the Zwinglians and Calvinists, such as these: that the words of the Testament are not to be taken as they sound ; that only bread and wine are orally received ; that the body of Cnrist is received merely spiritually, meaning by this merely by our faith ; that the bread and wine are only tokens by which Christians acknowledge each other ; or that they are figures, types, and similitudes of an absent body ; that in the Supper, only the virtue, operation, and merit of the absent body and blood of Christ are dispensed ; that the body of Christ is in such sense shut up in heaven, that it can in no manner whatever be on earth when the Holy Supper is observed : "All language of a gross, carnal, Capernaitish kind, in regard to the supernatural and heavenly mystery : * German : wesentlich. Latin : substantialiter. 316 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. " That Capernaitisli eating of the body of Christ, as if it were rent with the teeth and concocted as other food, which the Sacramentarians, against the witness of their consciences, after so many protestations on our part, maliciously feign, that they may bring our doctrine into odium." * viii. The Person of Christ The handling of this great theme connects itself closely with the Lord's Supper. The doctrine of the person of Christ presented in the Formula rests upon the sublimest series of inductions in the history of Christian doctrine. In all Confessional history there is nothing to be compared with it in the combination of exact exegesis, of dog- matic skill, and of fidelity to historical development. Fifteen centuries of Christian thought culminate in it. The doctrine of the " Communicatio Idiomatum" is indeed but the repetition which Christian science in its last maturity presents, of the truth that " the Word was made flesh." The Apostle's Creed already has it, when it says that God's " only Son, our Lord, was conceived, born, suffered, was crucified, dead, buried, descended into hell, ascended to the heavens, and sitteth at the right hand of the Father Almighty." The " idiomata" are in- separable from the natura, the attributes are inseparable from the nature, and if there be a " communicatio" of natures, there must be a " communicatio " of these attributes ; that is, the nature personally assumed must, in that assumption, be par- ticipant of the attributes of that nature to whose person it is assumed. If an Eternal Being was actually conceived and born, if the impassible actually suffered, if the infinite was actually fastened to the cross, if the immortal was dead, if He whom heaven, and the heaven of heavens, cannot contain, was hidden in a grave, — if all this be not a riddle, but a clear direct statement of doctrine — to accept the Apostles' Creed is to accept the presupposition which necessitates the reception of the doctrine of the Communicatio Idiomatum. If the Apostles' Creed does not mean that Jesus Christ is one person in whom there is an inseparable connection of the natures, so that the one person really does all that is done, whether through one nature or through both, and the * Epitome, 597-604. Solid. Declaratio. 724-760. FORMULA OF CONCORD. 317 one person really suffers all that is suffered, though it can suffer only through the sole nature which is passible — if it means that God's only Son did not die, but that another and human person died ; if it means that He who was born, and suffered, and died, does not sit at the right hand of God, and is not the judge of the quick and the dead, but that only another and divine person so sits and shall so judge ; if, in a word, the Apostles' Creed means that Jesus Christ was not God's only Son, but that one of His natures was God's Son, and the other nature was not God's Son, and that Jesus Christ is not in fact one person in two natures, but two persons, then does the Apostles' Creed persistently say what it does not mean, and the faith Catholic is a chaos of contradictions. The ISTicene Creed asserts the same great doctrine at an advanced point of scien- tific ripeness. The only begotten, the Eternal Son, Maker of all things, descends from heaven, is made man, is crucified (though infinite), suffers, (though impassible). He is one person, to whom is referred all the glory that is divine, and all the shame aud pain that are human. The Athanasian Creed witnesses still further : " Though he be God and man, He is not two, but one Christ — one, not by the conversion of Divinity into flesh, but by the assumption of humanity to God ; one altogether, not by confusion of substance, but by unity of person. For as the rational soul and flesh is one man, so God and man is one Christ, who " (God and man, one Christ,) " suffered for our salvation, descended into hed, rose the third day." The Augs- burg Confession takes up this thread of witness : " God the Son became man, so that there be two natures, the divine and human, in unity of person inseparably conjoined, one Christ, truly God and truly man, who was born, truly suffered, was crucified, dead and buried." The Scripture faith represented in these witnesses, the Formula sets forth at large in these propositions : 1. The divine and the human nature are personally united in Christ. These natures are not commingled into one sub- stance, nor is one changed into the other, but each nature retains its essential properties, which can never become the properties of the other nature. 318 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. 2. The properties of trie divine nature are, to be essentially, naturally, and of itself omnipotent, eternal, infinite, every- where' present. These neither are, nor can he, the attributes of the human nature. The attributes of the human nature neither are, nor can be, the attributes of the divine nature. 3. Those things which are proper to the one nature only, are attributed to the other nature not as separate, but to the whole person. The divine nature does not suffer, but that person who is God, suffers in His humanity. All works and all sufferings are attributed not to the nature, but to the person. Each nature acts, with the communion of the other, what is proper to it. 4. The human nature in Christ, because it is personally united with the divine nature, beside and above its natural, essential, and permanent human properties, has received peculiar, supernatural, unsearchable, unspeakable prerogatives of maj- esty, glory, and power. 5. This impartation is not made by any essential or natural outpouring of the attributes of the divine nature upon the human nature, as if the humanity of Christ could have them per se and separated from the divine essence, or as if through that communication the human nature of Christ had laid aside its natural and essential properties, and was either con- verted into the divine nature, or was made equal in itself, or per se, to the divine nature by these communicated attri- butes, or that the natural and essential properties of each are the same, or at least equal. 6. Inasmuch as the whole fulness of the Godhead dwells in Christ, not as in holy men and angels, but bodily, that is, as in its own proper body, that Godhead, with all its majesty, virtue, glory, and operation, where and as Christ will, shines forth in that human nature; and in it, with it, and through it, reveals and exercises its divine virtue, majesty, and efficacy. 7. Thus there is and abides in Christ one only divine omnipo- tence, virtue, majesty, and glory, which is proper to the divine nature alone; but this same, which is one only, shines forth and fully, yet voluntarily, exerts its power in, and with, and through the assumed humanity in Christ.* * Formul. Concor. Epit. et Sol. Declarat. art. viii. FORMULA OF CONCORD. 319 8. To make more clear the train of reasoning which results in the doctrine of the Communion of properties, certain logi- cal presuppositions, and certain definitions should be held in mind. In the incarnation it is not two persons, to wit, a divine person and a human person, which assume each other, as if there were two co-ordinates, which equally took each other ; nor does one person, to wit, the divine, take another person, to wit, a human person, so that there are two persons in the union, the divine person assuming, and the human per- son assumed : but one person, having the divine nature, assumes a human nature, so that there results a person in which two natures are constituent, but indifferent ways — the divine nature absolutely and independently personal, and the human nature secondarily and dependently personal ; the divine nature still has, as it ever had, its own intrinsic personality ; the human nature is assumed to the divine nature, and neither had, nor has any other personality than the one divine personality, which it has in virtue of the union. The human nature of Christ does not subsist per se, as does the humanity of every other one of our race, but subsists in the person of the Son of God. Hence, though the natures be distinct, the person is in- separable. This complex divine-human person did not exist before the union, and cannot exist except in and by the union ; and the second nature in the complex person has not ex- isted as a nature before or separate from this union, and never had, nor has, nor can have, personality apart from that union. The Communicatio idiomatum is therefore no giving away, so that the giver ceases to have, and the receiver retains for itself apart henceforth from the giver, but is the fellowship of attributes, which the two natures possess in the one person, the divine nature having these attributes intrinsically, and the human nature having them in and because of its personal iden tification with the divine nature. In this relation the word " communicate " employed actively, means to " confer a joint possession,'' that is, the divine nature confers on the human a joint possession of attributes in the person. The word " com municate," used as a neuter verb, means to " have something in common with another;" the human nature has the attri- 320 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. butes in common with the divine nature, but derivatively only in and through its personal union with the divine. The " Communication, or Communion of properties " is therefore the participation of these properties by the two natures in common in the one person, the divine nature having the attri- butes intrinsically, the human nature having them through the divine and dependently. Though the Logos unincarnate was a proper person before he took a human nature, the per- sonality of the Logos incarnate involves the two natures. That person which is not both human and divine is not Christ's person, and that act or presence which is not both human and divine is not Christ's act, nor Christ's presence. The Errors rejected by the Formula are, on the one hand, all that involve a confusion or transmutation of the natures; the presence of Christ's human nature in the same way as deity, as an infinite essence, or by its essential properties ; all equalizing of its essential properties with those of God, and all ideas of its local extension in all places. The Errors, on the other hand, are, that the human nature of Christ was alone in the redernptory suffering and work, with no fellowship with it on the part of the Son of God ; that the presence of Christ with us on earth is only according to His divinity, and that his human nature has no part whatever in it ; that the assumed human nature in Christ has, in very deed and reality, no com- munication nor fellowship with, or participation in the divine virtue, wisdom, power, majesty and glory, but that it has fellowship with the divinity in bare title and name. IX. Of the Descent of Christ into Hell. The treatment of this difficult point is a model of comprehensiveness, brevity, simplicity, and modesty. The doctrine may be arranged as a reply to these questions : 1. Who descended ? Christ, Son of God, our Lord, therefore divine ; who was crucified, dead and buried, therefore human ; consequently, not the body alone, nor the soul alone, nor the divinity alone, but Christ, the whole person, God and man. This is the precise affirmation of the Apostles' Creed : " God's only Son, our Lord, who was conceived of the Virgin Mary, born, suffered, died, descended into hell." FORMULA OF CONCORD. 321 2. When? Not before his death, (Calvin and Ursinus,) nor at his burial, as identical with it, (Oecolampadius, Beza,) but after his burial. So the order of the Apostles' Creed : " Dead, buried, He de- scended into hell." 3. Whither ? Not into a metaphorical hell, of pains of soul, or of pains like those of the damned, (Calvin, Ursinus,) not into the grave, (Oecolampadius, Beza,) nor the limbus pa- trum, a subterranean place of souls, (Bellarmin, and the Roman- ists generally, with some of the Fathers,) but into hell. 4. Why f To give to our Lord a glorious victory and tri- umph, to overcome Satan, and to overthrow the power of hell for all believers. 5. How f How it was done we may not curiously search, but reserve the knowledge of it for another world , when this and other mysteries shall be uncovered, which in this life sur- pass the power of our blind reason, and are to be received in simple faith. No Antitheses are added to this Article. X. Of Ecclesiastical Ceremonies ; the Adiaphor^e. Usages, which are neither commanded nor forbidden in God's word, are in themselves no part of divine worship proper ; in them the Church may make such changes as are needed, due regard being had to prudence and forbearance ; but such changes may not be made to avoid persecution, nor so as to impair the clearness of the Church's testimony against the Papal religion. No Church should condemn another because of unlikeness of ceremonies, if they agree in doctrine and in all its parts, and in the legitimate use of the sacraments. XI. Of Predestination. " For this article," says Kollner, ki the Lutheran Church owes an eternal debt of gratitude to the authors of the Formula." The doctrine, it is true, had not been the subject of controversy within the Lutheran Church itself, but it was so vitally connected with the whole range of theological truth, that it was wise to set it forth in its Scriptural fulness. The doctrine may be summed up in these theses : 1. " The foreknowledge or prevision of God, is that whereby 21 322 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. he foresees and foreknows all things before they come to pass, and extendeth to all creatures, whether they be good or evil."* 2. " Predestination or election is the purpose of the divine will, and the eternal decree, whereby God out of pure mercy hath chosen in Christ unto eternal life, and hath determined to save all those who truly believe in Christ, and endure in that faith unto the end." 3. " The whole doctrine concerning the purpose, counsel, will and ordination of God (all things, to wit, which pertain to our redemption, calling, justification, and salvation), is to be em- braced together in the mind ... to wit, that God in his counsel and purpose hath decreed these things following : " That the human race should be truly redeemed, and should be reconciled unto God through Christ, who, by his innocence and most perfect obedience, by his passion and most bitter death, hath merited for us that righteousness which avails before God, and life everlasting: " That the merits of Christ and his blessings should, through the Word and Sacraments, be brought, offered, and apportioned unto us : " He hath decreed also, that by His Holy Spirit, through the Word announced, heard, and remembered, he will be effi- cacious in us, to bend our hearts to true repentance, and to preserve us in true faith : " It is His eternal purpose, that all who truly repent, and em- brace Christ in true faith, shall be justified, received into favor, and adopted as sons and heirs of eternal life: u And they that are justified by faith he will sanctify in true love, as the Apostle testifies, (Ephes. i. 4 :) 'According as he hath chosen us in Him, before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: ' " God hath also determined in His eternal counsel, that in their manifold and various weaknesses he will defend them that are justified', against the world, the flesh, and the devil, will lead and direct them in their way, and if they should fall, will uphold them with His hand, that under the cross and in temptation they may receive strong consolation, and may be preserved unto life. * FormuK '\ncordise, 728. FORMVLA OF CONCORD. 323 " It is His eternal decree that He will carry forward and strengthen, and preserve unto the end that good work which He hath begun in them, if only they steadfastly lean upon His Word as their staff, beseech his aid with ardent prayers, con- tinue in God's grace, and well and faithfully employ the gifts they have received of Him : " God hath also decreed that those whom He hath chosen, called and justified, He will, in another and eternal life, save and endow with glory everlasting."* 4. " Many recewe the Word of God in the beginning with great joy, but afterward fall away. The cause thereof is not that God is not willing to give His grace to enable them to be steadfast in whom He hath begun that good work, for this is in conflict with the words of St. Paul, (Phil. i. 6 ;) but the true reason of their falling away, is that they again turn themselves away from God's holy command wilfully, and that they grieve and provoke the Holy Spirit, that they again entangle them- selves in the pollutions of this world, and garnish again the guest-chamber of their heart for Satan. "f 5. " God hath from eternity most exactly and surely foreseen, and knoweth, who of the number of them that are called will or will not believe in Christ, who of them that are converted >vill or will not remain steadfast in the faith, and who of them that have fallen into grievous sins will return, and who of them will perish in their wickedness. . . But because the Lord hath reserved such secret things for his own wisdom alone, nor hath revealed anything of this matter in His Word, much less hath commanded us to occupy our imaginations with these mysteries, but rather hath forbidden us to take them in hand : it doth not become us to give liberty to our imaginations, to establish anything, argue thereon, or wish to search out those most hidden things, but we should rest in his revealed Word to which He hath referred us." J 6. " If any one set forth the doctrine of the eternal predes- tination of God in such manner that distressed minds can derive no consolation from it, but rather occasion of despair is given unto them, or so that impenitent persons are confirmed * Formula Concordise, 802. f Ibid. 809. J Ibid. 812. 324 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION in their security, wickedness and wilfulness, then nothing la more sure than that this article is not taught by him according to the Word and will of God." * 7. u Not only the preaching of repentance, hut the promise of the Gospel is also universal, that is, belongs to all men. •f'or this reason Christ hath commanded ' that repentance and remission of sins should be preached among all nations ; ' 1 God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son ; ' 4 Christ taketh away the sin of the ivorld ; ' 'He gave his flesh for the life of the world ; ' ' His blood is the propitiation for the sins of the whole world ; ' Christ says : l Come unto Me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.' i God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all.' ' The Lord is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.' c The same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon Him.' 1 The righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all, and upon all them that believe.' £ And this is the will of the Father that every one which belie veth on Christ should have everlasting life.' And Christ wisheth that in general unto all to whom repentance is preached, this promise also of the Gospel should be set forth. "f 8. " This calling of God, which he offereth to us through the word of the Gospel is not feigned and pretended, but God by that calling revealeth to us His will, to wit, that in those whom He calls in this way He wisheth to be efficacious through His word, that they may be enlightened, converted and saved." £ 9. " The reason why many are called but few chosen, is not the divine calling, which is made through the Word, as if God's intent were this: 'I indeed call outwardly to a partici- pation in my heavenly kingdom, all to whom that word is set forth : but it is not the thought of my heart that all should be seriously called to salvation, but that a few only should be so called ; for my will is this, that a larger part of those whom I call through the "Word, shall neither be enlightened nor con- verted, although through my Word, by which they are called, I signify my mind unto them otherwise,' for this would be to * Formula Concordise, 728. f Ibid. 804. J Ibid. 805. FORMULA OF CONCORD. 325 impute to God contradictory wills, as if He who is the eternal truth, were divided against Himself, or spake one thing and designed another."* 10. " As God in His eternal counsel hath ordained, that the Holy Spirit shall, through the AVord, call, enlighten, and con- vert the elect, and that He will justify and eternally save all those who embrace Christ in true faith : so also in that same counsel He hath decreed, that He will harden, reprobate, and consign to eternal damnation those who being called through the "\Yord put it away from them, and resist the Holy Spirit, (who wisheth through the ^Word efficaciously to work and to be efficacious in them,) and obstinately remain steadfast in that rebellion."! 11. " The cause of this despising of the TTord is not the fore- knowledge or predestination of God, but the perverse will of man, which refuses or wrests that mean and instrument of thy Holy Spirit which God offers to man in that He calls him, and which resists the Holy Ghost . . as Christ sayeth : ' How often would I have gathered together and ye would not.' " X Finally, r . The Formula treats of various factions, heresies and sects, which have never embraced the Augsburg Confession, The Errors enumerated and rejected are those of the Anabap- tists, " who are divided into a number of sects, of whom some defend more, some fewer Errors ; " of Schwenkfeldians ; of the Xew Arians ; and of the Xew Antitrinitarians, who, as here characterized, are either Tritheists, or Subordinationists. Such is the doctrine, such are the antitheses of the Formula of Concord. They are in every part consonant with Holy Scripture, with the General Creeds, and with the earlier Con- fessions of the Lutheran Church. The Formula is but the old doctrine repeated, systematized, applied and defended. The chief charge against the Formula of Concord is that it caused a complete separation between the Lutheran and the Zwinglian- Cahinistic Churches. This is a great mistake. The cause of the separation was the divergent convictions and principles on both sides. The Formula did not originate a single one of the questions it settled. But the Formula of Concord was not * Formula Concordia?, 807. f Ibid, 808. % Ibid, 809. 326 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATIO*. even the occasion of the separation. So far was this from being the case, that after the controversies which necessarily attended the first appearance of the .Formula of Concord, a far healthier and kindlier feeling prevailed between the two Communions. Before the Formula, many things existed in their relations which tended to demoralize the Reformed Church, as much as it did to disorganize and distress the Lutheran Church. Truthful separation is far better than dishonest union, and two Churches are happier, and more kindly in their mutual rela- tions, when their differences are frankly confessed, than when they are clouding with ambiguities and double meanings the real divergencies. And even if two Communions are in down- right conflict, it is better that the battles should be on the sides of clearly marked lines, or well understood issues — should be the struggles of nationalities, under the laws of war rather than the savage, ill-defined warfare of the border, and of the bush. That the open transitions to the Reformed side of a few nominally Lutheran States were really occasioned by the For- mula, is not true. Most of these movements were those of po- litical force, in the face of the bitter regrets of the people. ~No State which honestly held the Augsburg Confession went over to the Reformed. If the Formula uncovered and shamed out of the pretence of Lutheranism any who were making a mere cloak of the Augsburg Confession, it is something to love it for. It is charged upon the Formula of Concord that it repressed the Melanchthonian tendency in our Church, and substituted the fossilization of the letter and of the dogma for the freedom of the spirit and of the Word. This again is not true. It is not true that the spirit within our Church which the Formula en- countered, was that of genuine freedom. It was rather the spirit which was making a real bondage under the pretences of lib- erty, a spirit which was tolerant only to vagueness and laxity, not to well-defined doctrinal conviction. It was a spirit which softened and relaxed the Church when she needed her utmost vigor and firmness. It was a spirit of false deference to anti- quity and human authority over against the Word. It yielded now to a false philosophizing, now to the Reformed, now to Rome. It tried to adjust some of the most vital doctrines to FORMULA OF CONCORD. 327 the demands of Rationalism on the one side, of Romanism on the other. In the " Interims," it came near sacrificing all that had been gained in the struggle with the Papacy. It confessed in effect, that the principle of the Reformation could reach no defiDite result, that the better path it claimed to open, led for- ever toward something which could never be reached. So far as Melanchthon's great gifts were purely and wisely used, the Formula fixed these results in the Church. It did not over- throw the Confessional works in which Melanchthon's greatest glory is involved. It established the Confession and Apology forever as the Confession of the Church as a whole. The Book of Concord treats Melanchthon as the Bible treats Solomon It opens wide the view of his wisdom and glory, and draws the veil over the record of his sadder days. Melanchthon's tern perament was more exacting than Luther's. He made his personal gentleness a dogmatism and demanded impossibilities. The time of the deluge had come, — a world had to be purified ; and it was useless to send out the dove till the waters had passed jiway. The era of the Reformation could not be an era of Melanchthonian mildness. To ask this, is to ask that war shall be peace, that battles shall be fought with feathers, and that armies shall move to the waving of olive branches. The war of the Formula was an internal defensive war ; yet, like all civil wars, it left behind it inevitable wounds which did not at once heal up. The struggle in Churches or States, which ends in a triumph over the schism of their owu children, cannot for generations command the universal sym- pathy, with which the overthrow of a common foe is regarded. All England is exultant in the victories over France, but even yet there are Englishmen, to whom Charles is a martyr, and Crom- well a devil. The war of the Formula was fought for great principles : it was bravely and uncompromisingly fought ; but it was fought magnanimously under the old banner of the Cross. It was crowned with victory, and that victory brought peace. Most surely will time bring all that love our Church to feel, that without the second war and the second peace, the war and peace of Conservation, the richest results of the fir^t, the 328 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. war of Reformation, would have been lost. Hopeless division, anarchy, ruin and absorption, were the perils from which the Formula of Concord saved our Church. The loss of Germany would have been the loss of Lutheranism throughout the world, and with it the loss of Protestantism itself. Feeling the responsibility of their position, not without con- sciousness of the greatness of the work they had done, the authors of the Formula of Concord humbly, yet joyously, closed it with these solemn words : " Wherefore, in the presence of Almighty God, and of Christ's whole Church, both of the living, and of the generations which shall follow us, it has been our purpose to testify, that of the Articles in Contro- versy, the Declaration we have now made, and none other, is in very deed our doctrine, faith and Confession. In this Con- fession, by God's grace, we are ready with fearless hearts to appear and render an account before the judgment-seat of Jesus Christ. Against this Declaration we will speak nothing, and write nothing, openly or secretly, but, the Lord helping us, will remain steadfast in it to the end. In testimony thereof, with mature deliberation, in the fear of God, and calling upon His name, we have with our own hands set our names to this Declaration .." VIII. 60ME MISTAKES IN EEGAKD TO THE HISTORY AND DOCTRINES OF THE EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CHURCH. A REVIEW OF DR. SHEDD'S HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE .* IT cannot be claimed for Dr. Shedd's book that it is the pro- foundest and most exhaustive history of Christian doctrine, but it may be asserted with justice that it is eminently pleasant and readable. But if it be not as profound as is conceivable, it is as profound as its general aim permits it to be, and if it does not always exhaust its subjects, it never exhausts its readers. We cannot concede to Dr. Shedd all that he seems to claim, and we are sure with perfect sincerity, in regard to the originality, or even the self-origination of his method. It varies so little from that of some of the German works to which he confesses his obligations, that without presupposing their plan, we can hardly conceive that he would have fallen upon his. He investigates " each of the principal subjects by itself, starting from the first beginnings of scien- DrShedd'sHia- tine reflection upon it, and going down to the tory of Doctrine. latest forms of statement." Dr. Shedd accepts, at the very out-start, the idea of doctrinal development, and one of the best features of his book and of its plan is, that he so clearly and satisfactorily exhibits the processes and results of this development. Revelation is unchanging, but the science * History of Christian Doctrine. By William G. T. Shedd, D. D. In two Volumes. New York: Charles Scribner. 329 330 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. which classifies, and adjusts in their due relations to each other its doctrines, which sees each in the light of all, and under whose guidance, to use the vigorous words of Dr. Shedd, " the objections of the heretic or latitudinarian only elicit a more exhaustive, and, at the same time, more guarded statement, which carries the Church still nearer to the sub- stance of revelation and the heart of the mystery," this science, in its own nature, must have growth. The man who takes up the Bible now, without reference to what the minds of genera- tions have done towards its elucidation, is exactly as foolish as the man who would effect to take up any great branch of science without regard to what has been done before. The botanist's Rule of faith was Eve's carpet and canopy, but not until Linnaeus was the botanist's Confession of faith set forth. Dr. Shedd has well stated and well guarded the doctrine of development. He shows that development is not creation, nor improvement. Botany neither creates the plants, nor improves upon the facts connected with them; but it develops into a more perfect knowledge of them, and out of that higher knowledge into a more perfect science. The plants themselves furnish the Eule of the botanist's faith, but the Systema Plantarum is its creed. The science develops, but it develops toward the absolute truth, not away from it ; and the more perfect the doctrinal develop- ment is, the nearer has it come to the ideal of God's mind, which has its ima^e in His word. Much of Dr. Shedd 's mode of thinking is certainly not the outgrowth of anything characteristic of New England. The attitude of the original extreme Puritanism to the history of the ancient Church, was very different from his. Puritanism, as separatism, had no history for it, and hence it repudiated history. It has lived long enough to have a history, to recede from its extreme positions, and to receive new elements of life ; and Dr. Shedd's book is one among many evidences that Puritanism seeks a history, and begins to appreciate its value — the value not only of its own history, but ot the history of the whole Church. After all the diversities and terrible internal strifes of the nominally Christian Church, there is not any great part of it that can safely ignore absolutely any DR. SHEDD'S HISTORY OF DOCTRINE. 331 other great part. Puritanism cannot say, even to Romanism, " I have no need of thee," still less can it say so to the grand portions of evangelical Protestantism. Dr. Shedd's book shows that he has escaped from many of the narrownesses which ob- scured the genuine glory of Puritanism, for genuine glory it has, and a great deal of it. No book of which we know, ema- nating from a New England mind, shows as much acquaint- ance as this book does with the character and weight )f Lutheran theology. Nevertheless, one of the greatest weaknesses of the book is its lack of a thorough and independent knowledge of our Church. Dr. Shedd, especially in his exhibitions ot the Patristic and English views, shows independent research ; but in the treatment of the Lutheran theology he gives unmistak- able evidence that his reading has been comparatively slight among the masters, especially the old masters of our Church. He has trusted too much to manuals, and yet has hardly used them enough. He exhibits views as characteristic of Calvin- istic divines, or of the Calvinistic symbols, which are mere resonances of the Lutheran theology, whose glory it is, first to have brought into the distinct sphere of science the great Biblical truths of which we speak. The scientific development of the doctrine of the redemptory character of the active obe- dience of Christ, is due to the Lutheran theologians. The true and profound views of the person of Christ, which Dr. Shedd presents in the language of Hooker and Hopkins, though in- volved in the Athanasian Creed, received their full scientific shape from the Christological labors and Controversies of the Lutheran Church in the Sixteenth Century. The Lutheran Church has been the ultimate spring of almost all the profound theological thought of modern times. Even Calvinism, without it, would not have been. Calvin was saved, we might almost say created, by being first Lutheranized. It is refreshing to find in Dr. Shedd's book so much that is sound, and deep, and old ; but which will, to the mass of think- ers in New England, seem like novelty. Nothing, indeed, is so novel in New England as the old theology, in some of its aspects. How, for example, must the doctrine of the true sac- 332 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. ramental presence mystify them ? Dr. Shedd, perhaps wisely, has spared them this. There are, indeed, great departments of the history of doctrine on which he does not enter. He gives us, for example, nothing direct on the doctrines of the Church, of Baptism and of the Lord's Supper ; yet these in- volve many of the most vital questions of the hour. On the other hand, he has gone, we think, beyond the bound, in devo- ting a whole book to the history of Apologetics, and another to an account of Symbols. He has done it so well, however, that we not only forgive him, but thank him for it. One very interesting feature of the book is its presenta- tion of many of the Calvinistic doctrines in their coinci- dence with the Lutheran ; as, for instance, in the paragraphs on the " Lutheran-Calvinistic Theory of Original Sin," " The Lutheran -Calvinistic Theory of Regeneration ; " and on other points. Dr. Shedd seems to fear that " the chief criticism that may be made upon the work is, that it betokens subjective qualities unduly for an historical production." On the con- trary, we think, that so far as is consistent with fidelity to conviction, his book is remarkably free from the offensive obtrusion of merely personal opinions. There is not a page in it whose tone is unworthy of the refined candor of a Christian gentleman. We are struck, indeed, as we have said, with what we regard as mistakes in reference to the Lutheran Church, but the statements of Dr. Shedd are made in a tone which re- lieves them of all asperity ; and he knows so much more about our Church than most writers of English who have attempted to describe it, that we feel that his mistakes are involuntary. They are fewer than might have been anticipated. Dr. Shedd speaks of the Augsburg Confession as " the symbol which was to consolidate the new evangelical Church into one external unity, in opposition to that of Rome." " But the doctrines of sin and redemption had been misstated by the Papal mind at Trent ; and hence the principal part of the new and original work of the Lutheran divines was connected with these." This collocation might mislead the reader, who forgets that the Augsburg Confession was prepared fifteen years before the first convention of the Council of Trent. Dr. Shedd speaks of the ORIGIN OF THE AUGSBURG CONFESSION. 333 Augsburg Confession as " the first in time " among our sym- bols. Twelve pages after, he corrects himself by mentioning that the Two Catechisms were published in 1529, a year before the Augsburg Confession. Dr. Shedd says appreciatively : " The general tone and spirit of the first creed of the Reforma- tion is a union of firmness and mildness. The characteristics of Luther and Melanchthon, the two minds most concerned in its formation, are harmoniously blended in it." In Dr. Shedd's interesting volumes, we naturally look with most interest for that which hears upon our own Church- His remarks upon the origin, character and supposed imperfections of the Augsburg Confession, may require some examination. Dr. Shedd speaks of the Augsburg Confession as a The origin of public and received Confession of the common the Augsburg faith of the Protestant Church. Takins; the word " Protestant " in its original and strictly historical sense, this is true, hut it is not, nor was it ever the received Confession of all whom we now call "Protestants." Two counter Con- fessions, Zwingli and the Tetrapolitan, were prepared for the Diet of Augsburg. There are some defects too in Dr. Shedd's statement of the origin of the Confession. He says : " The process began with a commission from John, Prince of Saxony, given in March, 1530, to his favorite theologians Luther, Justus Jonas, Bugenhagen, and Melanchthon, to pre- pare a series of succinct and comprehensive articles to be dis- cussed and defended as the Protestant form of doctrine." Dr. Shedd's statement in this sentence is defective, for it does not furnish the reason of this commission, and it seems inaccurate in making this commission the beginning of the process which was completed in the laying of the Confession before the Diet of Augsburg. The ultimate ground-work of the Augsburg Confession is the Fifteen Articles of Marburg, which were the result of the conference between the Zwinglians and Lutherans, October, 1529. These are more closely related to the Seventeen Articles of Schwabach than the Schwabach Articles are to the Augsburg Confession. The real immediate beginning of the process was in the summons of the Diet by the Emperor Charles V., dated January, 1530, in which he stated as one of 334 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. the objects of the Diet, the comparison and harmonizing of tne conflicting views which were dividing the Church, and to this end required of the evangelical princes a statement of their doctrine. The Elector of Saxony, the leader of the Evangelical States, foresaw that for any such comparison a clear and judi- cious statement in writing, both as to doctrines and abuses, would be necessary on the part of the Protestants, (Lutherans,) and gave the command to the four theologians, to prepare the needed statement, and present it to him in eight days at Tor- gau. The shortness of the time allotted is the solution of the fact, that " these theologians joined upon the work that had already been performed by one of their number," though it is not strictly accurate to say that the work had been performed by one of their number, as Luther says, in so many words, in his Preface to these Articles, that they were not his exclusive work.* His co-laborers in preparing them were Melanchthon, Jonas, Osiander, Brentias and Agricola. " In the preceding year, (1529,) Luther, at a Convention of Protestants, at Schwa- bach, had prepared seventeen Articles, to be adopted as the doctrinal bond of union. These Articles, this body of Com- missioners appointed by Prince John adopted, and, having added to their number some new ones that had respect to cer- tain ecclesiastical abuses, presented the whole to the Crown Prince, in Torgau, in March, 1530. Hence, they are sometimes denominated the c Articles of Torgau.'' ' The reader must not suppose, as he might, that " Prince John" was one person, and " the Crown Prince " another. We do not know why Dr. Shedd prefers the title " Prince " to the more definite and his- torical term Elector, unless as a resident of New York, there is special music to his ear in the style and title of that old time pet of the Empire State, " Prince John " Yan Buren. And why does he style the Elector the " Crown Prince ? " In the nomenclature of the best recent writers on the history of the Augsburg Confession, the title " Schwabach Articles " is confined to those of the 27th of October, 1529, and the name of " Torgau Articles " is restricted to the Articles prepared by * Sie sind nit von mir allein gestellet. The whole are given in Cyprian's Hi«- toria, (Gotha, 1730,) Beilage, p. 159. Corpus Reformatorum, xxvi. 138. ORIGIN OF THE AUGSBURG CONFESSION. 335 the four theologians at Wittenberg, March, 1530, and pre- sented at Torgau. Dr. Shedd goes on to say : " This draft of a Confession was then brought before the Imperial Diet, at Augsburg, for examination and adoption. Here it received revision, and some slight modifications, under the leadership of Melanchthon, who was present at the discussion before the Diet, and was aided during the progress of the debate, by the advice and concurrence of Luther, then at Coburg, in a free and full correspondence. The Symbol having been formed in this manner, was subscribed by the princes and authorities of the Protestant interest, and in their name publicly read in German, before the imperial assembly, and a copy, in both German and Latin, presented to the Emperor. The Augsburg Confession thus became the authorized doctrinal basis of Pro- testantism in Germany." In this account we are compelled to say there is more than one mistake. Neither this draft of a Confession, nor any other draft, was ever brought before the Imperial Diet, either for examination and adoption, or for any other purpose. Of course, therefore, it received no revision there, or modification. None of the processes connected with the formation of the Confession, took place in the presence of the Diet. The Diet knew nothing of its contents up to the time of the reading of it. After the Elector had received, at Torgau, the Schwabach, and the Torgau Articles proper, he started for Augsburg, leaving, for prudential reasons, Luther at Coburg, with the understanding that nothing final should be done without consulting him. The Elector and his retinue entered Augsburg, May 2nd, and remained there. During the rest of the month, and for the first half of June, the secular and ecclesiastical dignitaries were gathering for the Diet. In this interval, from May 26th to June 20th, the Emperor not having arrived, and no sessions of the Diet having taken place, Melanchthon, with the aid and advice of the other theologians, and of all the representatives of the Evangelical interest, given in, sentence by sentence, did the work of composing the Con fession which was to be submitted to the Diet, laying, as the ground-work, the Articles of Schwabach and Torgau, but doing far more than would be generally understood in Dr. Shedd's 336 CONSERVATIVE REFOEMATIONl statement, that these Articles " received revision and some slight modifications." This Confession, when finished, was sent by the Elector to Luther, by whom, without a solitary change, or suggestion of a change, it was approved, May 15th, one month previous to the entrance of the Emperor into Augs- burg. The first session of the Diet was held June 20th, and it was determined that the religious questions should be taken up first. On the 23d of June, the Protestant Princes signed the Con- fession. On the 24th they received permission to present the Confession on the following day. The material labor on the Augsburg Confession was finished and approved by Luther more than a month before the Diet met. In the intervening weeks, Melanchthon elaborated the style, and gave higher finish to the form of the Confession, and before the Diet met, the Confession was finished. It was then no draft, but the perfect Confession, which was in the hands of the Confessors, when the Diet met ; but neither draft nor Confession was ever submitted for adoption to the Diet. It received, and could in the nature of the case receive, no revision or " slight modifica- tion before the Diet." Melanchthon was not present at the discussion before the Diet, not only, although this would seem to be enough, because there was no such discussion, but he was not, in fact, present in the Diet at any discussions of any sort. Melanchthon did not hear the Augsburg Confession read. Justus Jonas was the only evangelical theologian who heard the Confession read, an honor which may have been thought due to his juristic skill, or to his official position. There was no discussion of the Articles of the Confession before the Diet, and no debate in regard to them to make any progress, to be shared in by Melanchthon, or to require the aid of Luther. The Symbol was not formed in this manner, as we have seen, but was finished before the Diet began. Equally mistaken is the statement, that Melanchthon entered upon a detailed refu- tation of the Romish Confutation, " so far as he could recon- struct the document from his own recollection on hearing it read," as he did not hear it read, and was at first entirely de- pendent on " notes that had been taken by others who were TEE CONFESSION NOT ROMANIZING. 33*/ present at the reading." Dr. Shedd has evidently either been following very inaccurate guides, or, for some reason, has mis- understood his authorities on these points. His bibliography of the literature of the History of Symbols does not, indeed, seem to indicate that he has made it a matter of very thorough study ; for there is no mention made in it of works of the very highest rank, as for example, of Carpzov, Baumgarten, Boehmer, and Sender, among the older writers ; of Plank, Marheineke, Tittmann and Marsh, in the first quarter of the present century ; of Mohler and Kollner, whose merits are of the most distinguished order ; or of Matthes and Rudolph Hoffman, and others, who, as good writers of the most recent date, deserve mention. The selectest bibliography ought to embrace all of these. The truth is, however, that the separate History of Symbols is not more properly in place in a history of Doctrines, than a history of Polemics, of Patristics, or of Biblical Interpretations would be, for all these are, incidentally, sources of illustration of the History of Doctrine. Each of them is, moreover, comprehensive enough for a distinct treat- ment. Dr. Shedd has made his plan too comprehensive, and necessarily renders it relatively weaker at certain points. The plan which Dr. Holmes has rendered so renowned, of making the weakest point as strong as the rest, is exquisite in theory, but difficult in practical realization. " The Augsburg Confession," says Dr. Shedd, " is divided into two parts : the one, positive and didactic in The Augsburg its contents ; the other, negative and polemic." Romanizing! The Augsburg Confession, as it is usually and was consubstautia- most anciently divided, consists of the Preface, Chief of the LutherL Articles of Faith, The Articles on Abuses, and the Church - Epilogue. Kollner makes a fifth part of the Epilogal Prologue, which separates and unites the Ar ticl es on Abuses. Nevertheless, Dr. Shedd very properly divides it, in a general way, into two parts. The first of the chief parts, however, in addition to its positive statements of doctrine, has negative antitheses on the doctrines of the Trinity, Original Sin, the Efficacy of the Min- istry, Baptism, the Lord's Supper, Repentance, the Use of Sacraments, of Civil matters, the Second Coming of Christ, 22 338 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. and Free Will. On a number of the points, arguments are urged, Scripture is quoted and Patristic authorities appealed to, and in the Article on Good Works, the prevailing character is entirely Apologetic. The Doctrine of Good Works had been stated in the sixth article, the twentieth is devoted to the defence of it. Dr. Shedd exhibits the thoroughly catholic and evangelical character of the Augsburg Confession in regard to the Trinity, Sin, Salvation, and the Last Things. He goes on, however, to make some strictures on certain points, and says : " Though decidedly Protestant upon the cardinal points, the Augsburg Confession contains some remnants of that unscriptural system, against which it was such a powerful and earnest protest." He admits, that upon the cardinal doctrines, the Augsburg Confession is Protestant and sound. He maintains, however, that the same Confession contains some remnants of Romanism. We feel at this point no little surprise in regard to Dr. Shedd's admissions. He speaks of matters as of little moment, which we could have supposed he, as a Calvinist, would esteem as highly important. Is Dr. Shedd safe, for example, in con- ceding that the doctrines concerning the Eucharistic presence and Absolution are not cardinal ; for if the doctrines are not cardinal, the errors in regard to them, cannot be ; on his premises, then, Transubstantiation itself is not a cardinal error, and the Romish doctrine of priestly absolution is not a cardinal error. We, as Evangelical Lutherans, hold that, as error on these points is cardinal, so must the truth, in regard to them, be cardinal. Fundamental errors are the antitheses of fundamental truths only, and we Evangel ical Lutherans actually cherish, on Dr. Shedd's own showing, a stronger, and, as he would perhaps regard it, an extremer opposition to the Romish errors on these points, than he does — we do regard the Romish errors on these doctrines as cardinal, but it seems he does not. He will find in our divines, through centuries, this stern opposition to these very errors as cardinal, and among no men, at this hour, is this feeling deeper, than among the most tenacious adherents to the Augsburg Confes- sion. How does he account for it then, that under the nurture of this very Confession, which he supposes to be sym- THE CONFESSION NOT ROMANIZING. 339 pathetic with Romanism at some points, there has been nursed a deeper and more radical anti-Romish feeling on these very doctrines, than his own ? Dr. Shedd goes on to say : " These Popish elements are found in those portions particularly, which treat of the sacraments ; and more particularly in that article which defines the Sacra- ment of the Supper. In Article XIII, the Augsburg Confes- sion is careful to condemn the Papal theory, that the sacraments are efficacious, ex opere operato, that is by their intrinsic efficacy, without regard to faith in the recipient, or to the operation of the Holy Spirit ; but when, in Article X, it treats of the Lord's Supper, it teaches that ' the body and blood of Christ are truly present, and are distributed to those who partake of the Supper.' This doctrine of Consubstantiation, according to which there are two factors, viz. : the material bread and wine, and the immaterial or spiritual body of Christ united or con- substantiated in the consecrated sacramental symbols, does not differ in kind from the Popish doctrine of Transubstantiation, according to which there is, indeed, but one element in the consecrated symbols, but that is the very body and blood of Christ into which the bread and wine have been transmuted." Nothing is more difficult, than for a thinker or believer of oue school, fairly to represent the opinions and faith of thinkers and believers of another school. On the points on which Dr. Shedd here dwells, his Puritanical tone of mind renders it so difficult for him to enter into the very heart of the historical faith of the Church, that we can hardly blame him, that if it were his duty to attempt to present, in his own language, the views of the Lutheran Church, he has not done it very success- fully. From the moment he abandons the Lutheran sense of terms, and reads into them a Puritan construction, from that moment he wanders from the facts, and unconsciously mis- represents. In noticing Dr. Shedd's critique on this alleged feature of Romanism, we would say in passing, that the Augsburg Con- fession does not teach the doctrine of Consubstantiation. From first to last, the Lutheran Church has rejected the name of Consubstantiation and everything which that name properly 340 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION implies. Bold and uncompromising as our Confessors and Theologians have been, if the word Consubstantiation (which is not a more human term than Trinity and Original Sin are human terms,) had expressed correctly their doctrine, they would not have hesitated to use it. It is not used in any Con- fession of our Church, and we have never seen it used in any standard dogmatician of our communion, except to condemn the term, and to repudiate the idea that our Church held the doctrine it involves. We might adduce many of the leading evidences on this point ; but for the present, we will refer to but a few. Bucer, in his Letter to Comander, confesses that " he had done injustice to Luther, in imputing to him the doctrine of Impanation," and became a defender of the doctrine he had once rejected. Gerhard, that monarch among our theologians, says : " To meet the calumnies of opponents, we would remark, that we neither believe in Impanation nor Con- substantiation, nor in any physical or local presence whatsoever. Nor do we believe in that consubstantiative presence which some define to be the inclusion of one substance in another. Far from us be that figment. The heavenly thing and the earthly thing, iu the Holy Supper, in the physical and natural sense, are not present with one another." Baier, among our older divines, has written a dissertation expressly to refute this calumny, and to show, as Cotta expresses it, u that our theo- logians are entirely free from it (penitus abhor r 'ere.)" Cotta, in his note on Gerhard, says : "The word Consubstantiation may be understood in different senses. Sometimes it denotes a local conjunction of two bodies, sometimes a commingling of them, as, for example, when it is alleged that the bread coalesces with the body, and the wine with the blood, into one substance. But in neither sense can that monstrous doctrine of Consub- stantiation be attributed to our Church, since Lutherans do not believe either in that local conjunction of two bodies, nor in any commingling of bread and of Christ's body, of wine and of His blood." To pass from great theologians to a man of the highest eminence in the philosophical and scientific world, Leibnitz, in his Discourse on the Conformity of Reason with Faith, says : " Evangelical (Lutherans) do not approve of the fHE CONFESSION NOT ROMANIZING. 341 doctrine of Consubstantiation or of Impanation, and no one could impute it to them, unless he had failed to make himself properly acquainted with their views." To return again to theologians, Reinhard says : iC Our Church has never taught that the emblems become one substance with the body and blood of Jesus, an opinion commonly denominated Consub- stantiation." Mosheim says : " Those err who say that we believe in Impanation. Nor are those more correct who charge us with believing Subpanation. Equally groundless is the charge of Consubstantiation. All these opinions differ very far from the doctrine of our Church." The insinuations of Rationalism against this doctrine of our Church only strengthen the affirmations of her great divines. If all the great Congregational authorities of New England, of the past century and the present, were quite agreed that a certain doctrine was not taught in the Saybrook Platform, and the " liberal" gentlemen of the Theodore Parker school were very zealous in showing that it was taught there, would not Dr. Shedd consider the affirmation as sealing the negation ? "Would he not think that, if it were possible to make a mistake in believing the great divines, there could be no mistake possible in disbelieving the " liberal" polemics ? We beg him therefore, as he desires to do, as he would be clone by, not to think that our Lutheran Church, historically the mother of pure Churches, in some sense even of his own Church among them, has ever believed in the doctrine of Consubstantiation. One word more on the allegation of Dr. Shedd, that there are Romanizing elements in our Confession. Nothing is more easy, and few things are more perilous, than for Protestants to insist that some peculiarity of this, or that part of a denomi- national system of doctrine, is a relic of Romanism. Dr. Shedd makes this the solvent of our doctrine of the Lord's Supper, just as the Baptist makes it the solvent of Dr. Shedd's doc- trine of infant baptism, and as the Socinian makes it the sol- vent of Dr. Shedd's doctrine of the Trinity, of the divinity of Christ, and of his propitiatory sacrifice. Not everything we learn from Rome is Romish. Not only so, but, as earnest Evangelical Protestants, we may admit, that deep and vital as 342 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. are the points in which we differ from Romanists, they are not so vital as those in which we agree with them, and that Evan- gelical Protestants are not so remote from Romanists as they are from false and heretical Protestants. Dr. Shedd (we use Romanizing ^ s Dame simply as giving concreteness to ortho- eiements. d x 15 ew England Congregationalism,) agrees with the Romanists as to the sole ohject of supreme worship, but he does not so agree with his Socinian New England contempo- raries, Protestant, par excellence, as these Socinians assume to be. Hence he is generically of the same religion with the Ro- manists, and would concede a fraternal affinity with Pascal, or Fenelon, which he could not with any Unitarian, however lovely in his personal character. We are not so much alarmed therefore, as some men pretend to be with mere coincidence with elements existing in the Romish Church. If anything in our Protestant doctrines or usages be, indeed, a perpetuation of what is unscriptural in the Romish system, it should be weeded out ; but it does not follow, that because a thing is in Rome, it is of Rome. Once a pure Church of Christ, the Church of Rome never lost all of her original endowments. We feel that Dr. Shedd is altogether too conscientious and noble a man to attempt to excite this kind of anti-Romish odium as a cheap way of dispensing with argument. Never- theless, so far as the authority of his name will carry weight with it, he has helped, by the sentences he has written, to in- crease the weight of unjust reproach which has been heaped upon our Church for centuries, for no other reason than for un- swerving fidelity to what she is persuaded is the truth of God. Our Church does hold, as Dr. Shedd also does, without change, the great Trinitarian and Christological doctrines which were preserved in their purity in the Church of Rome, but our Church does not hold a view of the Lord's Supper coincident with that of Rome, derived from it, or sustained by the same kind of evidence, or open to the same invincible objections, scriptural, historical and practical. Dr. Shedd says: "This doctrine of Consubstantiation does not differ in kind from the Popish doctrine of Transubstantiation." We need not stop here to repeat that our Church does not hold, and never did ROMANIZING ELEMENTS. 343 hold the doctrine of " Consubstantiation." Be that as it may, and waiving any further consideration of it for the present, we cannot agree with Dr. Shedd, that in the sense in which he seems to employ the words, our doctrine " does not differ in kind from, the Popish doctrine of Transubstantiation." So far we concede that there is an agreement in kind, that over against a merely ideal presence of Christ, wrought by the hu- man mind in its memory, or by its faith, our Church in common with both the Roman and Greek Churches, does hold to a true presence of the whole Christ, the factor of which is not our mind, but his own divine person. We do not think him into the Supper, but he is verily and indeed there. Faith does not put him there, but finds him there. So profoundly was Luther impressed with the importance of holding to a presence which did not play and fluctuate with the emotions and infirmities of man, but which rested on the all-sufficiency of the person of Christ, on which hangs the all-sufficiency of his work and promise — that deeply as he felt, and triumphantly as he com- bated the Romish error of Transubstantiation, he nevertheless declared that this error was not so radical as that of Zwinarli (whose view Calvin himself stigmatized as profane,) and said, that if he must be driven to one extreme or the other, he would rather, with the Pope, have Christ's true body without the bread, than with Zwingli have the true bread without the true body. Surely, that is a glorious error, if error it be, which springs from trusting too far, too implicitly, in too child-like a way in the simple words of our adorable Lord I If the world divides on his utterances, we will err, if we err, with those who, fettered by the word, bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. It was not the power of education, not the influence of Romanistic leaven, but the might of the Word of God, interpreted in regard to the Lord's Supper by the very laws by which Luther was controlled in reaching the doctrine of justification by faith, and every other cardinal doctrine, it was this, and this only, which fixed his conviction. After the lapse of centuries, whose thoughts in this sphere we have striven to weigh, whether for, or against, the doctrine of our Church, with everything in the character of our times and of 344 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. our land unfavorable to a community in the faith of our fathers^ after a conscientious, prayerful examination of the whole ground, we confess, and if need were, through shame and suf- fering, God helping us, would continue to confess, our profound conviction that this doctrine which Dr. Shedd considers a relic of .Romanism is Scriptural to its core, and that no process can dislodge it, which will not, carried logically through, bring the whole temple of Evangelical truth to the ground. Eo man can defend the doctrine of the Trinity, and assail the Lutheran doctrine of the Eucharist on the same principles of interpreta- tion. ^Nevertheless, he who is persuaded that the Romish doctrine of Trau substantiation is unscriptural, is not thereby in the re- motest degree logically arrayed against the Scriptural character of the doctrine of our Church. They are not, in such sense, of one kind as to warrant this species of suspicion. They are the results of greatly different modes of interpreting Scripture, Romanism and Zwinglianism, being of one kind in this, that they depart from the letter of God's Word, interpreted by just rules of language. The Lutheran and Romish views differ most vitally in their internal character and position, the one taking its harmonious place in Evangelical doctrine, the other marring its grace and moral consistency ; Romanism and Zwinglianism being of one kind in this, that both, in different ways, exhibit dogmatic superficiality and inconsequence. The Lutheran and Romish views are differently related to the doc- trinal history of the Church, the one having its witnesses in the earliest and purest ages, the other being unknown to the ancient Church and generated in its decline ; Romanism and Zwinglianism here being of one kind, in that both are unhis- torical. The Lutheran and Romish views differ in their devo- tional and practical working ; Romanism and Zwinglianism here being of one kind, in that both generate the common result of a feeble faith — the one, indeed, by reaction, the other by development. Nothing could be more remote from a just representation of the fact than the charge that, in any unde- sirable sense, the Romish and Lutheran views of the Lord's Supper are one in kind. THE CONFESSIONS OF THE CHURCHES. 345 Dr. Shedd, after leaving the Augsburg Confession and its Apology, enumerates the " series of symbolical writings," " which constitute a part of Lutheran Symbolism," and men- tions — 1. The Confessio Saxonica ; and, 2. The Confessio Wurtemberyica. Neither of these Confes- of the Lutheran sions can be regarded as a proper part of the sym- an,i of the Re " ° r r a J formed Churches bolical books of our Church. They were for tem- porary ends, and were confined in their official recognition to a very small part of the Church. If Dr. Shedd is correct in sup- posing that the altered Confession of Melanchthon of 1540 is Pelagianizino; in regard to Regeneration, and more or less Cal- vinistic in regard to the Sacraments, it is not very likely that the Saxon Confession of 1551, from the same hand, would be received by the Lutheran Church without suspicion ; and neither the claim made for it in its title, nor Dr. Shedd's en- dorsement of that claim, would completely overcome the innate improbability of its being without reservation " a repetition of the Augsburg Confession." The Wurtemberg Confession of Brentius, which was written before Melanchthon's, is sound enough, but never has obtained any general recognition. There are several writings which could have been classed among our symbols with more propriety than those mentioned by Dr. Shedd, as, for example, Luther's Confession of Faith, (1523 ;) the Articles of Visitation, (1592,) which are still authoritative in Saxony — often confounded in this country with the earlier Saxon Articles of Visitation, (1527 ;) and the Consensus Bepetitus of 1664. Not one of them, however, belongs to the Confessional writings of the Evan- gelical Lutheran Church. Dr. Shedd's account of the Formula Concordise strikes us as peculiarly unfortunate. No hint is given of the occasion for the Confession, of the urgent necessities out of which it arose, of the earnest desire for peace and unity which prompted its formation, of the patient labors running over many years, in which its foundations were laid, and of its masterly completion and the enthusiastic spontaneousness of its reception. The reader might imagine from Dr. Shedd's statements that this book was an effect without any just cause. He says : " It was 346 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. drawn up by Andreas and others in 1577." The truth is, that the labors of 1577, in which Chemnitz was a greater worker than Andreas, were merely the finishing labors of years — labors whose results were embodied in the Torgau Book. The work of 1577 was, in reality, that of thorough revision. Dr. Shedd says the Formula Concordia was " presented to the Im- perial Diet." We are at a loss to guess out of what miscon- ception this statement could have originated. Not only is there no historical voucher for any such statement, but the thing itself, to any one who will recall the history of the times, will be seen at once to be absolutely impossible ; and yet, Dr. Shedd, as if to show that there are degrees in the absolute, adds that this Imperial Diet " sought to secure its adoption by the Lutheran Church." All this is purely aerial. There was no such Diet, no such presentation, and no such recommenda- tion. Dr. Shedd's pen is the magician's wand which has con jured up the whole. This is a serious charge to bring against so eminent a scholar ; but, feeling the full responsibility involved in it, truth compels us to make it. Dr. Shedd, still in his aerial movement, says of this empirical Imperial Diet : "In this they were unsuccessful." Dropping any consideration of the lack of success of this hypothetical Reception of Diet, i n its phantasmagorial Decrees, we might say the Formula con- that no official effort from any source has ever been made to secure the adoption of the Formula Con- cordiaa by the entire Lutheran Church. The great German princes and theologians to whom the Formula owed its exist- ence made no effort to bring it to the attention of the Lutheran Church in other lands, with the solitary exception of Denmark. Nevertheless, by its own internal merits this Formula secured from the first a reception by an immense majority of the Lu- theran Churches, won its way against the deadliest opposition, was finally received, almost without exception, where it was at first rejected, has been acknowledged virtually in the few cases in which it has not been acknowledged officially, and is received now in almost every part of the Lutheran Church, in which her proper doctrinal life has not been disturbed by rationalistic or pseudo-unionistic principles. It was originally signed by RECEPTION OF TEE FORMULA CONCORDIA. 347 three Electors, three Dukes and Princes, twenty-four Counts four Barons, thirty-five imperial cities, in all by eighty-six States of the Empire, and by eight thousand ministers of the Gospel. In Denmark, where it was received by the King with brutal violence, and its introduction prohibited under penalty of death, it has long since been accepted, in fact, if not in form, as a Symbol.* In Holstein it was formally adopted in 1647. In Sweden, because of the powerful influences tending to the restoration of Popery under the king, it could not at first secure an entrance ; but in 1593, at the Council of Upsala, the States determined upon its subscription, and its authority as a Symbol was confirmed by later solemn acts. In Pomerania and Livonia it obtained symbolical authority. In Hungary it was approved in 1593, and formally adopted in 1597. In France, Henry of Navarre desired to form a league with the Lutherans against the Catholics, but the acceptance of the Formula of Concord was made a condition on the part of the Evangelical States, and the negotiations were broken oft*. " The symbolical authority of the Formula of Concord for the Lutheran Church, as such," says Kbllner, " can hardly be doubted. By far the larger part of those who regarded them- selves as belonging to the Lutheran Church received it as their Symbol. And as, to use the words of the Elector Augustus, we have no Pope among us, can there be any other mode of sanctioning a Symbol than by a majority? To this is to be added, and should be especially noted, that a larger part of those who did not receive it, objected to doing so, not on doctrinal grounds, but partly for political reasons, freely or compulsorily, as the case might be, partly out of attachment to Melanchthon, partly out of a morbid vanity, because they had not been in- vited early enough to take part in framing the Concordia, and had consequently not participated in it — and partly because, in one land, those who had the most influence were Calvinistic- ally inclined, although a large majority of the clergy approved of the doctrines of the Formula. The inference, therefore, is by no means to be made that there was a deviation in doctrine, because there was not an acceptance of the Formula/' * Kollner, p. 575. 348 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. It will be seen from this that Dr. Shedd hardly does justice to the historical dignity of this great Confession, when its character ne sa J s : " ^ was a polemic document, constructed and contents. "by that portion of the Lutheran Church that was hostile to the Calvinistic theory of the Sacraments." Cer- tainly, although the Formula is polemic in meeting error, its main end is irenical, and its general tone exceedingly moder- ate. When Dr. Shedd leaves the reader to imagine that this Confession was not only, as it would seem from his representa- tion mainly, but was exclusively directed against the Calvin- istic theory of the Sacraments, he does injustice to the Form- ula and to the reader. Of the twelve Articles, but one is de- voted to either of the Sacraments, and in the others there is much in which true Calvinists would feel a deep sympathy — much that nobly defends great points of doctrine common to the whole Evangelical faith. In the first Article, which, treats of Original Sin — in the second, of the Freedom of the Will — in the third, of Justification — in the fourth, of Good Works — in the fifth, of the Law and the Gospel — in the sixth, of the third use of the Law, the most rigid Calvinist would be forced to confess that there is a noble and Scriptural presentation of those great doctrines. They defend what all pure Christendom is interested in defending. In many of the antitheses of the twelfth Article a Calvinist would heartily join, as he would in the masterly discussion of the adiaphora in Article tenth. In Article eleventh, of the eternal foreknowledge and election of God, the Calvinist would find the distinctive doctrine of Calvin rejected, but he could not but be pleased with the profound reverence and exquisite skill with which the doctrine is dis- cussed, and by which it is redeemed from the extreme of Cal- vinism without running into the opposite and far more danger- ous one of Pelagianism, or of low Arminianism. In the Articles, seventh and eighth, a Calvinist might discover much in regard to the Lord's Supper and the Person of Christ, in which, he might not concur ; and in Article ninth, on the Descent of Christ into Hell, he would find a view very different from Calvin's, which Calvinists themselves now almost universally reject. Nevertheless, he would discover in such a perusal, aa TEE DOCTRINE OF UBIQUITY. 349 he certainly would not from Dr. Shedd's account, that this supposed polemic document, originating in opposition to the Calvinistic theory of the Sacraments, really defends much more than it attacks that which Calvinists love. Dr. Shedd says : " It carries out the doctrine of Consubstan- tiation" (which our Church never held) " into a technical state- ment," (every part of which had long before been The Doctrinn made.) " Teaching the ubiquity of Christ's body," of Equity. says Dr. Shedd, though the Formula itself never speaks of the "ubiquity" of Christ's body. "Ubiquity" was a term in- vented by those who wished to fix upon our Church the impu- tation of teaching a local omnipresence or infinite extension of the body of Christ — errors which the Formula, and our whole Church with it, reject in the strongest terms. The doctrine of the Formula is that the body of Christ has no in- trinsic or essential omnipresence as the divinity has ; that after its own intrinsic manner, and in virtue of its own essential qualities, it has a determinate presence, and in that mode of presence is not upon earth ; but that, after another mode, supernatural, illocal, incomprehensible, and yet real, it is rendered present, " where Christ will," through the divine nature, which has received it into personal union. If the question were asked : How is God omnipresent ? How can the undivided totality of His substance be in each part of the universe ? How can it be all in heaven and all on earth, and all on earth without ceasing in any measure to be all in heaven, and without motion or extension, without multiplication of presences, and so that there is no more of God in the whole universe than there is in each point of it ? If such a question were asked Dr. Shedd, we presume that, bowing before the inscrutable mystery, he would reply : God is present after the manner of an infinite Spirit — a manner most real, but utterly incomprehensible to us. Grant, then, that this infinite Spirit has taken to itself a human nature, as an in- separable element of its person, the result is inevitable. "Where the divine is, the human must be. The primary and very lowest element of a personal union is the co-presence of the parts. To say that the divine nature of Christ is per- 350 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. sonally present without his humanity, is to deny that this humanity is a part of that personality, and the doctrine of the incarnation falls to the dust : Christ becomes no more than the organ of a special revelation of Deity : His humanity is no more properly one person with God than the burning bush was one person with Jehovah. Accepting the doctrine of a real incar- nation, the omnipresence of the human nature of Christ, not in itself, in which respect its presence is determinate, but through the divine, is a necessary result and involves no new mystery. If that whole Godhead which dwells in Christ's body can, without motion, without leaving heaven, or extending itself, be present with us on earth, then can it render present with us, without motion or extension, that other nature which is one person with it. What the divine nature of Christ has of itself, his human nature has through the divine, which has taken it to be one person with itself. This is one result of that doctrine of the Communicatio idiomatum, of which, as we shall see in a moment, Dr. Shedd offers so extremely inaccurate a definition. If the Evangelical Lutheran is asked, how can Christ's human nature be present with us? he can reply: After the manner in which an infinite Spirit renders present a human nature, which it has taken to be an inseparable constituent of its own person, a manner most real, but utterly incomprehen- sible to us. This is the doctrine at which Dr. Shedd levels, as has often been done before him, the term Ubiquity. It was the whole Christ — the man as well as the God — who said: " Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." It was the whole -Christ who said : " Lo 1 I am with you always, even unto the end of the world." And what the whole Christ promised, the whole Christ will perform. On any other theory, the Christian on earth has no more a personal Christ with him than the Patri- archs had ; the New Dispensation has made no advance on the Old ; the divine nature, the second person of the Trinity, was just as much on earth then as he is now ; and all the light, peace and joy, which a sense of the actual nearness, tender guardianship, and personal sympathy of an incarnate Christ sheds upon the soul, vanish in a haze of hyperboles, a miserable THE DOCTRINE OF UBIQUITY. 351 twilight of figures of speech, and the vigorous and soul-sus- taining objectivity of Faith faints into a mere sentimentalism. Cold speculation has taken our Lord out of the world he redeemed, and has made heaven, not his throne, but a great sepulchre, with a stone rolled against its portal. Dr. Shedd says, moreover, in his extremely compact state- ment of the doctrinal essence of the Formula, of which our readers, with the close of this sentence, will have every word, that it teaches " the communicatio idiomatum. or the presence of the divine nature of Christ in the sacramental elements." We cannot refrain from expressing our amazement that the writer of a History of Christian Doctrine should give such a defini- tion of so familiar a term. We are forced almost to the conclu- sion — and it is the mildest one we can make for Dr. Shedd — that he has ventured to give a statement of the doctrine of our Formula, without having read it with sufficient care to form a correct judgment as to the meaning of its most important terms. The Doctor closes this paragraph with these words, which certainly exhibit no very deep insight into the internal history of our Church : " The Lutheran Church is still divided upon this Symbol. The so-called High Lutherans insist that the Formula Concordise is the scientific completion of the preced- ing Lutheran Symbolism," (Dr. Shedd seems to us constantly to use the word " Symbolism " inaccurately ;) " while the mod- erate party are content to stand by the Augsburg Confession, the Apology, and the Smalcald Articles." We can assure Dr. Shedd, if we know anything of the Lutheran Church, that it is not to be classified in this way. A man may hold very firmly, that the Formula is the scientific completion of the system of the earlier Symbols, and may reject it and them, or receive them with a reservation; on the other hand, a man may be satisfied with the Augsburg Confession alone, but receiving it in good faith, will be as high a Lutheran as Dr. Shedd would like to see. The real point of classification as to the relation of nominal Lutherans to the Confession seems to us to be mainly this : Evangelical Lutherans, who are such in the his- torical sense, heartily receive as Scriptural statements of doc- 352 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. trine, the Confessions of the Church in their proper meaning as reached by the laws of language ; while others who wear the name, claim the right, in varying degrees of practical latitude, to set aside, at their pleasure, part of these doctrines. This is the vital issne, and its character is substantially the same, whether a few of the Symbols or all of them are in question. We might add that, under this latitudinarian claim, there have actually been sheltered in the Lutheran Church such soul- destroying errors as Socinianism and Universalism, and that, where the tendency has not run into the grosser heresies, the pervading characteristic of those who represent its extremes is that of laxity in doctrine, government, and discipline. There is yet a third class, who, largely revealing practically the spirit of a genuine Lutheranism, and more or less sympathizing with its controverted doctrines, yet, without a positive acceptance of them, confess that the logic of the position is with historical Lutheranism, and are never consciously unjust to it. This class are regarded with affection and respect by the thoroughly conservative part of the Church, and are bitterly assailed, or noisily claimed by the fanatical element, as the anger produced by their moderation, or the hope inspired by their apparent neutrality, predominates. Dr. Shedd, after disposing of the Lutheran Confession in what, our readers will have seen, we do not consider a very „ , . . .. n satisfactory manner, next discusses the " Reformed CalvintsticCon- J ' fessions. (Cal vinistic) Confessions." In this whole section he assumes the identity of the Zwinglian and Calvinistic sys- tems, in which we are forced to regard him as mistaken. In the heart of doctrine and tendency, pure Calvinism is often more Lutheranizing than Zwinglianizing, for Zwingli was largely Pelagian. Dr. Shedd seems to recognize nothing of the mediating tendency of the school of Bucer, nor of the Melanch- thonian type of doctrinal statement ; but with a classification which seems too sweeping and inaccurate, considers the Tetra- politan, which was prepared several years before Calvin was known as a theologian, (and which seems to be the first confes- sional statement of that doctrine of the Lord's Supper which now bears Calvin's name,) the Fidel Ratio of Zwingli, the CALVINISTIC CONFESSIONS. 353 Heidelberg Catechism, the Canons of Dort and the Thirty -nine Articles of the Church of England, all as belonging to the same class of Confessions. Certainly, if the words Reformed and Calvinistic are synonyms, as Dr. Shedd makes them,thi."5 group- ing is open to very serious objections. When Dr. Shedd reaches the Heidelberg Catechism, he bestows so little care upon the arrangement of his facts, that the incautious reader might be led into very serious mistakes. He might suppose, for instance, that Frederick the First was a successor of John Casimir. He is told, in express terms, that Louis the Sixth brought the Palatinate under the Formula Concordise in 15 76, (four years before it was published,) and if he is not on his guard, will be sure to imagine that the troubles which followed the mutations of 1576, and the subsequent ones under John Casimir, (1583-1592,) led to the formation of the Heidelberg Catechism in 1562. Dr. Shedd continues to call the Electors (we know not why) " Crown Princes," and in general seems to stumble from the moment he gets on German ground. What will intelligent preachers and laymen in the German Eeformed Church think, for instance, of this eulogy with which the notice of the Heidelberg Catechism closes : " In doctrine, it teaches justification with the Lutheran glow and vitality, pre- destination and election with Calvinistic firmness and self-con- sistency, and the Zwinglian theory of the Sacraments with de- cision, .... and is regarded with great favor by the High Lutheran party of the present day." We will not un- dertake to speak for our German Reformed friends, except to say, that this is not the sort of thing they talked, at their Ter- centenary, and put into their handsome volume. As to " the High Lutherans of the present day," if we are of them, as w€ are sometimes charged with beins;, Dr. Shedd is rio-ht : the Heidelberg Catechism is regarded by them with great favor — all except its doctrines. It is a neat thing — a very neat thing —the mildest, most winning piece of Calvinism of which we know. One-half of it is Lutheran, and this we like very much, and the solitary improvement we would suggest in it would be to make the other half of it Lutheran, too. With this slight reservation, on this very delicate point, the High Lutherans 23 354 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. are rather fond of it than otherwise, to the best of their knowl edge and belief. We have not proposed to ourselves a general review of Dr. Shedd's book, but simply to look at it with reference to its statements in regard to our own Church. Nevertheless, we cannot avoid an allusion to what strikes us an extreme state- ment in apparent conflict with sound Theology. It is in his declaration that " sin is in the strictest sense a creature." " The •sin not a crea- original act of self-will is strictly creative from ture< nothing." Dr. Shedd here seems to labor to show that he is not speaking in a popular and rhetorical way, but that over against such a style of language, he wishes to be understood rigidly — sin is a creature — but God is not its creator. Man is as really and as strictly a creator as God is — and sin is his creature. Such language, if pressed, seems in- consistent with the nature of God, of man, of sin, and of creature. It denies that God is the alone Creator of all things ; it maintains, almost after a Manichean style, that evil is a primal principle and that a man is the Ahriman of it ; it makes sin an objective reality, not the condition or act of a subject, and elevates the mutilation and disease of the creature to a rank in being with the creature itself. No more than the surgeon creates by cutting off the leg of a man, does man create sin by a self-originated destruction of his original righteousness, on which follows that inordinate state of the natural reason and appetites which theologians call concupiscence. The impulse to theft, to lying, to impurity, is not a substance, not a creature, but is the result of inordinate desire in which self-love now unchecked by original righteousness and kindled by the fomes of the self-corrupted will, reveals itself. It is not a creature, but a moral phenomenon of the creature — desire and purpose are not creatures, but exercises of the faculties of the creature. If sin be strictly a creature, it must be the creature of God, and this part of Dr. Shedd's theory really would make God the author of sin, an inference, which, we are sure, no one could more earnestly resist than himself. The finite will can corrupt the creatures, but it cannot add to them. IX. THE SPECIFIC DOCTRINES OF THE CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION ORIGINAL SIN. (AUGSBURG CONFESSION, AllT. II.) THE foundation of the second Article of the Augsburg Confession, which treats of Original Sin, was laid in the Articles of the Colloquy at Marburg. This colloquy took place October 3d, 1529, and was designed to bring about, if possible, an agreement between Luther and Zwingli, Documentary and their adherents. Fifteen Articles were drawn ^^Articieof up by Luther. Fourteen of these were adopted theA.confession. entire by both parties, and the fifteenth was received with the exception of one point, to which the Zwinglians objected. In these fifteen Articles are the roots of the Augs- j Artic]es of burg Confession. The fourth Article was on Orig- the colloquy at inal Sin, and is as follows : " In the fourth place, we believe that original sin is from Adam, inborn and inherited to us, and is a sin of such kind that it condemns all men, and if Jesus Christ had not come to our help, by his death and life, we must have died therein eternally, and could not have come to God's kingdom and blessedness." * * J. J. Mliller's Historie, 306. Corpus. Reform, xxvi. 123. Compared with Hospinian His. Sacr. ii. 77. On the whole Colloquy, cf. : Corp. Eeform. i. Nos. 631-642. Seckendorf. Hist. Luth. ii. 139. Luther's Werke : Walch xvii. 2361, 2374, xxiii. 6, 35. Jena : iv. 469. Leipz. xix. 530 Erlangen : lxv. 88. Zimmer- mann : Ref. Schr. M. L. iii. 426. Luther's Briefe (De Wette, iii. 508.) Zwingli'a Werke (Zurich, 1830.) : Germ. Vol. ii. P. iii. 44-58. Lat. iv. 173-204. Historia v. d. Augsburg Confess. (Chemnitz, Selneccer, Kirchner) Leipz. 1584. Fol. 92-107. Do. Lat. 1585. 113-133. Sculteti Annal. ad ann. 1529. 199. Chytrsei : Histor 355 356 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION In an ampler form the same doctrine presents itself in the Schwabach Articles. These seventeen Articles are also from the hand of Luther. They are largely an elaboration of the Marburg Articles, and are the direct groundwork of the doctri- ii. The schwa- na l articles of the Augsburg Confession. The fourth bach Articles. Article runs thus : " That original sin is a true, real sin, and not merely a weakness or defect, but such a sin as would condemn all men who spring from Adam, and would separate us from God forever, if Jesus Christ had not interceded for us, and taken upon himself this sin, with all other sins which follow therefrom, and by his suffering made satisfaction therefor, and thus utterly taken them away, and blotted them out in himself, as in Psalm li. and Rom. v. is clearly written of this sin." * in. The Article j n foe Latin and German texts of the earliest in the Augsburg .___.. Confession. authorized Edition of each, we have as follows, the Article on Original Sin. Literal Translation of the Latin. \ II. Also they teach, that after Adam's fall, all men begotten after the common course of nature are born with sin ; that is without the fear of God, without trust in God, and with Literal Translation of the German. X The Second. Further is taught, (I) that after the fall of Adam, (II) all men who are born naturally, are conceived and born in sins, that is, that they all from the mother s womb, are full of evil Ebrard : d. A.. C. 159. Lat. 643-646. Rudelbach : Ref. L. u. Un. 665-61 Abendmahl, 345-347. * Corpus Reformat, xxvi. 153. Compared with the Latin in Pfalf. L. «. .at. pendix 4. Luther's Werke Walch : xx. 1-3. Chytraei : Hist. (1576)19; Do, Lat. (1578)21; J. J. Muller's Histor. 442. Coelestinus : i. 25. Scultetus : Annal. -j- For the Latin here translated, the writer has before him the original Witten- berg Edition of 1530-1531. He has compared it word for word with the text of the Book of Concord (Muller's ed.), and finds that they do not differ in a word or a Utter. | For the German we have translated from the original Editio Princeps of Melanchthon,the Wittenberg 4to. 1530, 1531. TEE ARTICLE IN THE A. CONFESSION. 357 fleshly appetite, and that this disease or original fault is truly sin, condemning and bringing now also eternal death upon all that are not born again by baptism and the Holy Spirit. They condemn the Pelagians, and others, who deny this orig- inal fault to be sin indeed : and who, so as to lessen the glory of the merits and benefits of Christ, argue that a man may by the strength of his own reason be justified before God. desire and inclination, and can have by nature, no true fear of God, no true love of God, (VII) no true faith in God. That also the same inborn plague and hereditary sin is truly Sin, and condemns all those under God's wrath, who are not born (IY) again (III) through baptism and the Holy Ghost. Here (V) are rejected the Pelagians, and others, who do not hold (YI) original sin to be sin, in order that they may show that nature is holy, by natural power, to the reproach of the sufferings and merit of Christ. As the text of the German Ed. Princ. of Melanchthon, and that in the Book of Concord, are not critically identical, and as the distinction of the two texts will be alluded to occasionally in these dissertations, and is sometimes misunderstood, it may be well at this point to illustrate more particularly the nature of the differences. The causes which led to the substitution of the Formula text for the Melauchthonian have been given elsewhere.* Taking the Second Article, we present a * p. 248-253. 358 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION-. Tabular View of the Critical Differences between the Melanchthonian and the Formula Texts. I. 1 : is taught 2 : adds : among us, 3: adds: and preached in our churches. Weim. 1. Mentz. Nurem. Nordl. Ansp. 2. II. 1 : fall of Adam. 2: Adam's fall. Weim. 1. Mentz. Nurem. Ansp. 2, 3. in. 1 : wieder. 2: widerum. Weim. 1. Mentz. Nurem. Ansp. 2. Ed. ant. 5. IV. 1 : geborn. 2: neu geborn. 3: von neuem geborn. Weim. 1. Mentz. Nurem. Nordl. Aug. Ansp. 1, 2, 3. Ed. ant. 1,2, 3, 4, 5,6. V. 1: Hie. 2: Hieneben. 3: Daneben. Yl. Weim. 1. Mentz. Hie, Ansp. 2. Corrected. Hie (neben). Ansp. 2. First so written: a line drawn over neben. 1: halten. 2 : haben. Mentz. Ed. ant. 6. VII. 1: KeinewahreGottes- lieb. 2: Omit: All theMSS. Ed. ant. 1, 6. In this tabular view, the Nos. I, II, III, IY, V, VI, VII, refer to the parts of the Article similarly marked. The reading marked 1, is that of Melanchthon's Edit. Princeps ; the reading marked 2, that of the text in the Book of Concord ; 3, a read- ing different from both. When the readings of the MSS. and the editions surreptitiously printed before Melanchthon's Ed. Princeps differ from Melanchthon's, they are given in this table. For Melanchthon's readings are all the rest, in each case. The complete list of the Codices in alphabetical order is as follows: Codices : 1, Aug(sburg) ; 2, Cass(el) ; 3, Dresd(en) ; 4, Han- ov(er) ; 5, Mentz; 6, Mun(ich); 7, Nurem(berg) ; 8, Nord(lin gen) ; 9, Ansp(ach) ; 10, Ansp. 2 ; 11, Ansp. 3 ; 12, Weim(ar) 1; 13, Weim. 2. Printed Ante-Melanchtbonian editions, (Edit, antiq.) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, of 1530. THE ARTICLE IN THE A. CONFESSION. 359 To give an example of the mode of using the Table, under various readings: I, all the codices and editions sustain Melanchthon's reading, except Meotz, jSTur., Nordl., Ansp. 2, and Weim. 1 ; under II, all but Weim. 1, Mentz, Nur., Ansp. 2, 3 ; under III, all but Weim. 1, Mentz, Nur., Ansp. 2., Ed. ant. 5. The most remarkable is VII. It is found alone in the Editio Princeps, and Melanchthon's editions of the German. Taking the aggregate of the testimony of Codices and.Edb tions, it is about in the ratio of more than two for Melanchthon's Editio Princeps, to one for the text of the Book of Concord, and this too includes the readings of the earliest, and, con- sequently, immaturest of the Codices. The Codices we have given in alphabetical order, have been arranged chronologically, thus : 1, Weim. 1 (Spalatin's autograph) ; 2, Ansp. 1 ; 3, Hannov. ; 4, Mentz, (long believed to be the original, and, as such, was taken for the text of the Book of Concord) ; 5, Weim. 2 ; 6, Dresd. ; 7, Ansp. 2 ; 8, Ansp. 3 ; 9, Cass. ; 10, Mun. ; 11, ISTur. ; 12, Nord. ; 13, Augs. These Codices are copies of the Confession made during its preparation, and, cceteris paribus, the later the time at which the copy was made, the greater the probability of its exact conformity with the text actu- ally handed in. An important mark of maturity is the addition of the subscriptions. The first three are incom- plete, the first six are without the subscription. Beginning with 7, Ansp. 2, the rest have the subscription except Mun., which is a fragment terminating; in the Articles on the Mass. The facts we have presented demonstrate four things : First, that the question of the two German texts which have had Confessional authority in our Church, is purely critical. For all doctrinal and practical ends the two texts are one. Any principle which would really unsettle the text of the Con- fession of Faith, as a Confession, would much more unsettle the text of the Eule of Faith, as a Rule. The two texts of the German Confession differ much less than the texts of the Textus Receptus of the Greek, and of Tischendorf's Eighth Edition It does not disturb our faith that we have criti- cally diverse texts of the Rule, for they teach the same faith, nor will it disturb oar confession that we have slightly 360 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. diverse, critical texts of the German form of the Creed, for they confess the same faith. Second : The differences, even of a critical kind, are of a very trifling character. Third: The Editio Princeps of Melanchthon is the highest critical author- ity. Fourth : While the text of the Book of Concord has the highest Confessional authentication, and ought not to he changed, except by authority of the Church, it is perfectly consistent with this, that the Editio Princeps be used as an aid in interpreting it. Identical as the two texts are, for the most part, in their very words, absolutely identical in doctrine, we may thank God that we have in the two the historical evi dence of the untiring conscientiousness of effort on the part of our Fathers, to give the most perfect form of sound words to the one faith, and that the two texts, so far from disturbing, fix more absolutely that one sense of the Confession, the percep- tion of which is essential to real unity on the part of those who profess to accept it. The Papal Confutation was read before the Emperor, Aug. 3d. The second Article was approved so far as, 1: "they confessed with the Catholic Church, that the fault of origin is truly sin- iv. The Papal condemning and bringing eternal death to those confutation. w ^o are not \ >0Yn a g a i n f Baptism and the Holy Ghost ; as also in their condemnation of the Pelagians, ancient and modern, whom the Church had already condemned." 2. " But the declaration of the Article, that original sin is this, that men are born without the fear of God, without trust toward God, is to be entirely rejected, since it is manifest to every Christian that to be without the fear of God, and trust in Him, is rather the actual offence of the adult, than the fault of a new-born babe, which is not yet able to exercise reason, as the Lord saith unto Moses, (Deut. i. 39:) 'Your little ones, which in that day had no knowledge between good and evil.' ' 3. " But that declaration is also rejected in which they call the fault of origin, fleshly appetite (concupiscentia), if by this they mean that fleshly appetite is sin, which also remains sin in a child after Baptism." • 4. " For long ago the Apostolic See condemned two Arti- cles of Martin Luther, the second and third, concerning sin A COMMISSION OF FOURTEEN PERSONS. 361 remaining in a child after Baptism, and in regard to the incen- tive (fomes) which prevents the soul from entering heaven." 5. " But if, as St. Augustine uses the term, they assert that the fault of origin is carnal appetite, which in Baptism ceases to be sin, their doctrine is to be received, since St. Paul also teacheth, Eph. ii. 3, we are all born the children of wrath, and, Rom. v. 12, in Adam we have all sinned."' * Seven persons on each side were appointed to compare the views of the Protestants (Lutherans) and Romanists. On each side the commission consisted of two princes, two „ , x V. A commis- jurists, and three theologians. The Romish theo- sion of fourteen logians were Eck, Wimpina and Cochleus : the persons - Protestant theologians were Melanchthon, Schnepf and Bren- tius. Spalatin was added to the commission as notary. 1. Before this commission, the Lutheran Confessors pre- sented the following explanation of the part of the second Article which had been objected to : " When it is said in the second Article, in the Latin, that man is born by nature with- out trust in God, and without fear of God, the language is to be understood not alone of children who are too young to have these emotions, but it means that when they are grown they cannot, by their natural powers, have the fear of God, and trust in Him. And to be born thus, without this power and gift, is a defect of that righteousness which ought to have been derived to us from Adam (had he not fallen). In the German this Article is so clearly stated, that it cannot be impugned, for it is there said that ' We are not by nature able to fear God, and trust in Him, in which words adults are also em- braced.' "In regard to the natural inclinations, we maintain, that the nature of sin remains, but the condemnation is removed by baptism." t 2. In regard to the second Article, Dr. Eck remarked that, in the main part, it was in conformity with the teaching of the Christian Church, but was defective in the definition, and in calling fleshly appetite original sin, and in maintaining * Latin in Hase's L. S. Proleg. lxxviii. German in Chytrseus, H. A. C. 236, b. f Miiller's Hist. Protestat. 746. Latin : Coelestinus, iii. 55. 362 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. that it remained sin before and after baptism ; though, if the terms were employed as St. Augustine used them, there would be a logomachy, rather than an actual diversity between the parties. Melanchthon, in reply, begged leave to make an explanation in regard to two points — first, as to the words " without fear and trust ; " and second, as to the incitement (fomes) to sin. His explanation was, that he had wished to avoid the scholastic phraseology, in which original sin is styled, the defect of original righteousness (carentia rectitudinis originalis), which he had expressed in the words, " without fear and trust," but the sense was the same. Dr. Eck replied, that Melanchthon 's form and mode of ex- pression were new, otherwise they would already have agreed on the Article; but as there had been only an avoidance of the ordinary term, the views of the two parties might be consid- ered as harmonized. On the second point, Dr. Eck acknowl- edged that the material of sin remains. The two parties were considered therefore as having agreed upon this Article.* The statement of the result in this point, made by the Komish portion of the commission to the Emperor (August 23d), is as follows : — "In this Article they agree with us, and rightly con- demn the Pelagians and others, as, for example, the Zwing- lians and Anabaptists, who deny original sin. But in the defi- nition of original sin they did not agree with us. The Lutherans, finally agreeing with our opinions, say, that original sin is a want of original righteousness, that the condemnation of this sin is removed in baptism, but that the incitement (fomes), or fleshly appetite, remains in men even after baptism." An ample and admirable vindication of the Article against the Romish Church, the Church which canonizes and deserts Augustine, and reprobates and follows Pelagius, is found in the Apology of the Confession. In beginning the analysis of the Second Article of the Augsburg Confession, its relations to the Articles between which it is placed are worthy of notice. The First Article * From Spalatin's Protocol, in Muller's Hist., 748. RELATION OF SECOND ARTICLE TO FIRST. 363 treats of God in His essence, and in His creation or creative work. The Third Article treats of Christ, and of His redemp- tory work. These two Articles are naturally, and Relationoft he indeed necessarily, connected by the Second Article, second Article to which shows how the creature of God, formed Third. TheAnai. originally in the moral likeness of God, comes to ysi8, need a Redeemer. This Article of the Confession, if analyzed, will be found to present either in so many words, or by just inference, the fol- lowing points : I. The doctrine of original sin is taught with great unanim- ity by our Churches. II. The true doctrine of sin presupposes a right anthropology, a true doctrine of man. III. The time of the operation of original sin is the whole time subsequent to the fall of Adam. IY. The persons affected by it are all human beings bori in the course of nature. V. The mode of the perpetuation of original sin is that of the natural extension of our race. VI. The great fact asserted in this doctrine is this, that all human beings are conceived in and born with sin. VII. This sin results or reveals its working in these respects : 1. That all human beings are born without the fear of God. 2. That they are born without trust and love toward God. 3. That they are born with concupiscence, i. e., that from their birth they are full of evil desire and evil propensity. 4. That ihey can have by nature no true fear, nor love of God, nor faith in God. VIII. The essence of original sin involves that this disease or vice of origin is truly sin. IX. The natural consequence of this original sin is this, that it condemns and brings now also eternal death. X. The natural consequence is actually incurred by all who are not born again. XL When the new birth takes place it is invariably wrought by the Holy Spirit. 364 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. XII. This new birth by the Holy Spirit has baptism as an ORDINARY MEAN. XIII. Baptism is the only ordinary mean of universal application. XIV. Our Church condemns : 1. The Pelagians. 2. All others who deny that the vice of origin is sin. 3. All who contend that man by his own strength as a rational being can be justified before God. 4. Who thus diminish the glory of the merit of Christ, and of his benefits. In enlarging upon this analysis of the Second Article, it i« to be noticed then, I. It affirms the unity of the Evangelical Church in the unity of the doctrine of Original Sin. The first words of the cimrch in the First Article are understood before all the articles, nai sin. to wit : " The Churches among us teach, with great accord" (magno consensu). " It is taught and held with unanimity." The Augsburg Confession avoided all minor matters, and all statements of doctrine, in regard to which there was any difference among those who presented it, who were the author- ized representatives of their Churches. It embraces only the leading fundamental articles of the Evangelical system, and the minimum of detail in regard to these. A Lutheran, historically and honestly such, cannot therefore hold less than the Augsburg Confession ; hence it is as true now, as it was when the Confession was given, that our Lutheran Churches hold, confess, and teach the same doctrine of Original Sin, among themselves, to wit, the very doctrine confessed by our Fathers at Augsburg. If men like Wegscheider, Bretschneider, and other Rational ists, or if Arminians, or Pelagians, or Semi-Pelagians, or for the matter of that Demi-semi-pelagians, who choose to call them- selves Lutherans, reject the doctrine, it only proves that they are willing to bear a name to which they have no just claim whatever. It is the distinctive position of the Reformation with which, over against Rome, it stands or falls, that that ANTHROPOLOGY. 365 which properly constitutes, defines, and perpetuates in unity a Church, is its doctrine, not its name or organization. While a Church retains its proper identity it retains of necessity its proper doctrine. Deserting its doctrine it loses its identity. The Church is not a "body which bears its name like England, or America, which remain equally England and America, whether savage or civilized, Pagan or Christian, Monarchical or Eepublican. Its name is one which properly indicates its faith — and the faith changing, the Church loses its identity. Pagans may become Mohammedans, but then they are no longer Pagans — they are Mohammedans. Jews may become Chris- tians, but then they are no longer Jews in religion. A Mani- chean man, or Manichean Church, might become Catholic, but then they would be Manichean no more. A Romish Church is Romish ; a Pelagian Church is Pelagian ; a Socinian Church is Socinian, though they call themselves Protestant, Evangel- ical, or Trinitarian. If the whole nominally Lutheran Church on earth should repudiate the Lutheran doctrine, that doctrine would remain as really Lutheran as it ever was. A man, or body of men, may cease to be Lutherans, but a doctrine which is Lutheran once, is Lutheran forever. Hence, now, as from the first, that is not a Lutheran Church, in the proper and histor- ical sense, which cannot ex animo declare that it shares in the accord and unanimity with which each of the Doctrines of the Augsburg Confession was set forth. II. The doctrine of the Second Article rests upon the pre- suppositions of a sound general Anthropology. 1. It presupposes a sound view of man as the proper subject of redemption, capable of it and needing it. This is implied in the very location of the Doctrine. Man is the subject of redemp- tion, and hence appears, not as the angels do, simplv , /* -. ' , .,, . J P ., . \f Anthropology. as a creature 01 G-od, and within theology in its strictest sense (as the doctrine concerning God), but in a place, which is bounded upon the one side by Theology, on the other by Soteriology. Man, in his two states of integrity and cor- ruption, touches the Theology which goes before, the sote- riology which follows after. He stands in the Augsburg Confession where he now stands in nature, in history, and 366 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. in grace, between God the Creator, and Christ the Re- deemer. 2. It presupposes a sound definition of man, as God's last and highest earthly creature, consisting of body and soul, having personality, freedom, moral accountability, and immortality. It rests upon the old idea of man expressed in the definition of Hollazius : "Man is an animal, consisting of a rational soul and an organic body, formed by God, endowed with his image, in the first creation, that he might unfeignedly worship his Creator, might live in holiness, and attain eternal blessedness." 3. It presupposes that the Biblical History of man's creation is literally true, that the first pair were the direct imme- diate creation of God, and that all mankind have sprung from this one pair. All the dignity and possibilities of humanity rest upon its derivation in an extraordinary manner from God. The creation of the first man is narrated in general, in Gen. i. 26 seq., and more fully delineated in Gen. ii. 7 seq. The seeming diversities of the account arise from the difference of their objects. The derivation of all mankind from a single pair, is distinctly taught in the Holy Scriptures, and we find nothing whatever in the facts of natural science to render it doubt- ful. Science establishes the fact, that the whole human race is of one species. It of course cannot say whether the race has sprung from one pair or not, but science demonstrates that the race might have sprung from one pair, inasmuch as they all belong to one species ; what science shows to be possible, reve- lation distinctly teaches. Science moreover exhibits the fol- lowing facts : i. That nature is economical in its resources ; that there is no waste of means, and as one pair is sufficient to have originated the population of the globe, the scientific presumption is strong, that there was but one pair. ii. Natural science shows, that only animals of the same species produce a permanently fertile offspring. Where animals, though not of the same species, are sufficiently near in species to have offspring, that offspring is invariably either absolutely ster- ile, or the power of propagation runs out speedily. Thus, to take a familiar example, the mule is the offspring of the horse and ANTHROPOLOGY. 367 the a3S, and the mule is barren. But the children resulting from the union of the most widely diverse human races are permanently fertile ; their posterity is extended from generation to generation, so that in all countries, where there is a ming- ling of races, extreme in their diversity, there are terms indi- cative of near, and of increasingly remote relations. Such terms, for example, are : Mulatto, Quadroon, Octoroon, Mes- tizo, and many others. iii. The traditions of the races largely point to a common origin. The history of man accounts for some of the most dif- ficult facts, in regard to the distribution of mankind from one centre, and overthrows the very hypotheses which seem to have the largest amount of a priori probability. iv. The languages of mankind contribute a great deal of evi- dence as to the original unity of the races, which have become widely sundered. We ourselves cannot speak a sentence of our native tongue, be it German or English, without giving evidence that the whole of the Germanic race, of which the Eng- lish is a part, are of East Indian origin. The population of this New Continent, and the demonstrably oldest race of the Old Continent, speak languages which had a common origin. Both drew their language from that primitive tongue, of which the Sanscrit is the oldest existing remnant. The doctrine of the " Unity of the Human Race" is impor- tant in its bearing on the recognition of the equality and fra- ternity of all mankind. It is essentially connected with just views of original sin, and the true view of the nature of redemption. Although modern science has sometimes been perverted to the weakening of man's faith in this great doc- trine, yet the most eminent men of science, whether Christian or not, have united in the judgment, that science does not weaken, by any of its facts, the Scripture witness to the unity of the human race. The hypotheses which are opposed to the Scripture doctrine of the Unity of the Human Race, are in general these : The theory of the Coadamites r i. e. of the creation of several original races. The theory of the Preadamites, of men before Adam, Thia 368 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. was specially developed by Isaac Peyrerius, in his work, Free- adamitce, Amsterdam, 1655. He took the ground that in Gen. i. 26 is narrated the creation of the first man, and in Gen. ii. is narrated the later creation of Adam, from whom the Jews spring. The theory of Autochthons, which is the prevalent view of skeptical naturalists, is that the race came from the earth, in its original condition, by what is called " generatio equivoca:" or that man is the result of the development of a lower organization into a higher. 4. This Second Article presupposes that subsequent to the first creation of man, which was immediate, all human beings are the mediate creatures of God, and that consequently neither the body nor soul of children results from an immediate creation by God, but that both are mediated in the divine order of nature, through the parents. As the first of our race were the immediate creation of God, so the Bible teaches that their descendants are the mediate creation of God. Ps. exxxix. 13 ; Acts xvii. 26 ; Heb. xii. 9. The derivation of man from God, now, may therefore be de- scribed as a mediate creation, through omnipotence exercised ordi- narily, while the creation of Adam was immediate, by omnipo- tence in its absoluteness. The propagation, or origination of the human soul, has The propaga- been explained by three theories, viz : Preex- Hon of the soui. ^ s f ence . Creationism : Traducianism. The theory of Preexistence was maintained by Plato, who dwelt upon a seemingly dim recollection of a former condition, anamneesis. It went over from Plato through Philo, to Origen, but never met with general acceptance in the Church, and was expressly condemned in the Council of Constantinople in 543. In recent times, it has been defended by Kant, who thinks, in his work " Religion within the bounds of Pure Reason," that to the explanation of the radical evil in man is required the intelligible fact of a decision made by him at some former time. Schelling has maintained the same view in his "Philo- sophical Investigation, in regard to the Essence of Freedom," 1809. It has also been most ably defended by Julius Mueller, in his PROPAGATION OF THE SOUL. 36tf great work "On Sin " (4th Ed., 1858), (translated into English, Clark's For. Libr.,) who employs it to solve the problem of Original Sin. Nowhere, however, has the theory been put more beautifully, than in the lines of one of .our great English poets, Wordsworth, in his " Intimations of Immortality, from the Rec- ollections of Childhood." In that poem he makes this noble statement of the Platonic theory : " Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting; The soul that rises with us, our life's star, Hath had elsewhere its setting, And cometh from afar. Not in entire forgetfulness, And not in utter nakedness, But, trailing clouds of glory, do we come, From Heaven, which is our home." But beautiful as is this theory, and not without speciousness, it will not bear the test of logic, nor of the witness of Scrip- ture. It only cuts the knot ; it simply throws back the question, puts it out of sight, and does not answer it. It is an obvious subterfuge to get rid of a perplexity, and is like the Hopeless cosmography of the Hindoos, except that it stops at the elephant. It is opposed to the great fact of our human experience, as to the similarity between the soul of the parent and child, and is contradicted by the general drift of Scripture, and specially by Gen. iii. and the whole argument in Rom. v. 12, seq. It in truth involves simply an undeveloped metempsychosis, a transmigration of the soul. Its latest defender is an American, Dr. Edward Beecher, who lays this theory as part of the basis of what he claims to be the solution of the ' ' Conflict of Ages. "(1854.) The theory of Preexistence in another form asserts simply that all souls were created at the beginning, by the word of God, and are united, at conception, with the human organism. Immediate Creationism maintains that there is a direct creation of the soul by God, and that about the fortieth day after conception it is united with the embryo. The passages of Scripture which have been appealed to sustain this view are Jer. xxxviii. 16; Isa. Ivii. 16; Zach. xii. 1; Acts xvii. 28 ; Ps. cxix. 73 ; Job x. 12 ; Do. xxxiii. 4 ; Numb. xvi. 22 ; 24 370 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. Do. xxvii. 16 ; Heb. xii. 9, and in the Apocryphal books, 2 Mace. vii. 22. Jerome asserts that this was the view of the Church, but this is an over-statement of the fact, although it certainly was the view of a number of the Fathers. Clemens Alexandrinus says : " Our soul is sent from Heaven." Lactantius says: "Soul cannot be born of souls." It is the predominant view of the Roman Church. Most of the Reformed (Calvin- istic) theologians maintain it, and usually with the theory that by the union of the soul with the body the soul becomes sinful. But this theory is really untenable. The strongest of the Scripture passages quoted to sustain it, imply no more than that the spirit of man has higher attributes than his body, is pre- eminent as God's work, and the chief seat of his image, with- out at all implying that His creation of the soul is a direct one. It would be quite as easy, not only to show from other pas- sages, but to show from a number of these, that the body of man is the direct creation of God, which, nevertheless, no one will maintain. To Pelagians, and the Pelagianizing Romanists, this theory indeed is not encumbered with the great moral difficulty arising from the acknowledgment of Original Sin, but to all others, this view involves, at its root, unconscious Gnosticism. It aiakes matter capable of sin and of imparting sinfulness. It "epresents the parents of a child as really but the parents of a mere material organism, within which the nobler part, all that elevates it, all that loves and is loved, is in no respect really their child. On this theory, no man could call his child really his own. He has no more relation, as a parent, to its soul, which is the child, than any other man in the world, and is as really the father of that which constitutes a human being, to every other person's children as he is to his own. Moreover, with all the explanations and ingenious resorts which have been found necessary in retaining this theory, there is no escaping the inference, that it makes God the author of Sin. According to this theory, God creates a perfect, spotless, holy soul, and then places it in a polluted body; that is, He takes what is absolutely innocent, and places it, where it inev- itably, not by choice, but of necessity, is tainted with sin, STATUS INTEGRITATIS. 3M justly subject to damnation, and in a great majority of eases actually reaches eternal damnation. "We do not hesitate to say, that though the doctrine has been held by good men, who have guarded with great care against obvious abuse, it could be pressed until it would assume almost the character of a " Doctrine of Devils." The third view is that of Traducianism, or mediate Ore- ationism : the theory that both body and soul are derived from the parents. This theory corresponds with the prevailing and clear statements of the Holy Scriptures, as, e. g. Gen. v. 3 ; Acts xvii. 24-26. It is a doctrine absolutely demanded by the exist- ence of original sin, and the doctrine that God is not the author of sin. This view is defended, among the Fathers, especially by Tertullian, Athanasius, Gregory of Nissen, and many others. Augustine remained undecided, confessing his ignorance, yet leaning strongly to the Traducian View. The Lutheran Divines, with very few exceptions, are Traducian. The ex- pressions in the Symbolical Books, such as in the Catechism, " I believe that God has created me," and in the Formula of Concord, " God has created our souls and bodies after the fall," are meant of the mediate creation, not of the direct. The true theory of Traducianism is, that it is a creation by God, of which the 'parents are the divinely ordained organ. The soul of the child is related mysteriously, yet as closely, to the soul of the parent as its body is to theirs, and the inscrutable mys- tery of the eternal generation of God's Son from the absolute Spirit, mirrors itself in the origin of the human soul. 5. This Article presupposes, antecedent to all human sin, a state of integi ity. God said, Gen. i. 26, " Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. ,, This image of God in man Status integri . is something which is not absolutely lost, but is tatis, or the stat« fearfully marred. See 1 Cor. xi. 7 ; James iii. 9 ; of integrity ' Eph. iv. 24 ; and Col. iii. 10. The traditions of the race pre- serve the memory of a golden age, a time of innocence and happiness ; the Confession implies that the race has fallen from a condition of glory and bliss. Man was created with an ability not to sin, which, had he been faithful, would have been merged into a condition, in which he could not sin : the u posse 372 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. non peccare " would have become a " non posse peccare" and the- " posse non mori "would have been merged into " non posse mori." The abode of unfallen man was the Garden of Eden, or Paradise. " The state of integrity was that happy condition of man in which he was conformed to the image of God. The * image of God ' is natural perfection, consisting, in conformity with God the prototype, in wisdom, righteousness, purity, im- mortality, and majesty. It was concreate in the parents of our race, so that they rightly knew and worshipped our Crea- tor, and lived in holiness, and would have obtained a yet more glorious blessedness."* " In the widest conception of the image of God, there per- tains to it everything which marks man as a rational being. In this general sense, the image of God is not lost entirely, though obscured. In its more specific sense, it embraces the religious element in man, and its chief part is original righteous- ness. This involves the conformity of the understanding with the knowledge and wisdom of God ; conformity of the will with the holiness of God, and with freedom ; conformity of the affec- tions with the purity of God. The secondary conformity consisted, partly, in the conformity within man, and partly, in that which was without man. The body of man unfallen was an image of the immortality of God. It was free from suffering and from calam- ity. It imaged the eternity of God by its immortality, its free- dom from necessity of dying. Rom. v. 12 ; vi. 23. The perfec- tion without man, which belongs to the image of God, was con- formity of his outward dominion, with the power and majesty of the Creator. He was Lord of the world, in which he had been placed ; all the creatures of the world, in which he had been placed, were under his dominion. Gen. i. 26, ib. ii. 19." f Over against just and Scriptural views of the image of God are arrayed first the views which suppose it to have been one of corporeal likeness. This was the view of the Anthropomor- phites. Next the Socinians and many Arminians, conceding that it was in conjunction with immortality, yet restricted it to the dominion over the animal world. The Pelagians and * Hollazius. f Quenstedt. See Hutterus Rediv. (Hase) g 80, and Luthardt Komp. d. Dogm. \ 41 THE STATE OF CORRUPTION. 373 Rationalists suppose the image of God in its religious aspect to have been little, if at all, injured. The Romish theology has a Pelagianizing tendency. The Fathers of the Greek Church distinguish between the image of God and his likeness, referring the one to the rational nature of man, and the othef to the spiritual nature of man. The Reformation found a deep corruption in this, as in other doctrines. Low views of justification prevailed because men had low views of sin. Over against the spurious theology of the Church of Rome, the Apology says: " Original righteousness was not only a just blendiug of the qualities of the body, but, moreover, these gifts, the assured knowledge and fear of God, trust in God, and the power of rectitude/' The Formula Con- cordiae :* " Original righteousness is the concreate image of God, according to which, man in the beginning was created in truth, holiness, and righteousness." Hoilazius sa} 7 s, " The principal perfections constituting the image of God, are excellence ot understanding, perfect holiness, and freedom of will, purity of desires, and a most sweet consent of the affections, with the dictates of the understanding, and the government of the will, all in conformity with the wisdom, holiness, and purity of God. The less principal perfections of this image were : freedom from every taint of sin in the body, immunity from corrupting passions in the body, its immortality, and the full power of ruling all earthly creatures." 6. To a correct conception of original sin it presupposes cor rect views of sin in general, as having its proper cause in the finite will, not in the infinite will, and as embracing the condi- tion of the finite will, as well as its overt acts. The need of redemption rests upon the fall from God througn sin. Sin is the transgression of the law, or rather, it is that which is not consonant with the law.it is the anti- „,, . ,, . " The state ot legal, the unlegal, and the non-legal ; John iii. 4, corruption, avo ( aia. Melanchthon defines sin to be : " a defect, or inclination, or action, conflicting with the law of God." Calovius defines it still more compactly, but with the same sense, as : " Illegal- ity, or deformity from the law: that is, the opposite to oonform- * "Solida DeclaraHo," p. dO. 374 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. hv with tlie law." Deformity, as here used, means a " want of conformity." Mailer, in his great work on "The Christian Doctrine of Sin," defines it to be a turning away from the love of God to selfishness. In the Holy Scriptures, sin is considered as enmity against God ; the carnal mind is enmity against God, Kom. viii. 7. By the general consciousness of sin is derived the general consciousness of the need of redemption. Gal. iii. 22. It pertains to the very essence of religion, that sin, which is the opposite of religion, takes its origin not from the Creator, but from the creature ; and however systems may have tended logi- cally, actually to make God the author of sin, no system has unre- servedly admitted such a conclusion. St. James says : " Let no man, when he is tempted, say, 'I am tempted of God,' for God is incapable of being tempted of evil, and he truly tempts no one ; but every man is tempted, when he is drawn away by the desire, which is his own, that is, by his own lust." The argu- ment of St. James is, that God's incapacity of being himself tempted to sin, is evidence that he abhors it, and no being vol- untarily causes that which he abhors. If God could be the cause of sin in others, he would necessarily be the cause of it in himself ; in fact, to be the cause of sin in others is to be sinful ourselves. If God be the cause of sin, he would himself be a sinner; but as it is conceded that God is himself free from sin, he cannot be its cause. Hence, the Augsburg Confession, Art. XIX., says: "Although God creates and preserves na- ture, yet the cause of sin is the will of the evil, i. e. of the Devil and of wicked men, which, God not assisting, turns itself from God ; as Christ says, John viii. 44, when he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of himself." When the Confession says " non adjuvante Deo" it does not mean that God does not assist in the repression of this sin, and that consequently it takes place, but means that God in no sense assists to the production of sin ; that proceeds from the will of the evil in its independent self-moving power. The German expression parallel with this is, that " the cause of sin is the will of the Devil and of all the godless, which, so soon as God has taken away his hand, turns itself from God to the evil." But, by " the hand of God ,; here is not meant the moral power by which he sways the will THE STATE OF CORRUPTION. 375 to good, but simply his repressive external power, and the meaning is, that the sinful will consummates itself in sinful act, wherever it is not repressed by the Providence of God. Quenstedt embodies the faith of our Church, when he says emphatically : " God is in no respect whatever the efficient cause of sin as such, neither in part, nor in the whole ; neither directly, nor indirectly ; neither per se, nor by accident ; neither in the species of Adam's fall, nor in the genus of sin of any kind. In no respect is God the cause or author of sin, or can be called such. See Ps. v. 5, ib. xlv. 12, Zach. viii. 17, 1 John i. 5, James i. 13-17. But, whatever there is of want of conformity with the law, uv^ia, that is to be ascribed to the free will of the creature itself, acting of its own accord. See further, Hosea xiii. 9, Matt, xxiii. 37." In regard to these passages, which speak of a hardening on the part of God, such asExod. vii. 3, Johnvii. 10, Rom. ix. 18, Hollazius says : " God does not harden men causally, or effec- tively, by sending hardness into the hearts of men, but [judi* cialiter^) judicially, permissively, and desertively." The standing sophism against just views of original sin la that nothing is sin except it be voluntary ; and that nothing is voluntary, unless it be done with a distinct consciousness and purpose of the will. But, over against this, the Scriptures and sound logic teach, that to a true conception of what is vol- untary, i. e. is of, or pertains to the will, belongs the state of the will previous to any act. Before there can be a voluntary act, there must be a state of the will which conditions that act. Original sin, therefore, is voluntary sin on this broader and more Scriptural conception of what is voluntary. The ^Tew England theology, in our country, has laid special stress upon the false conception of what is voluntary. The Apol- ogy of the Augsburg Confession says: "The adversaries (i. e. Pelagianizing Romanists,) contend that nothing is sin ex- cept it be voluntary. These expressions may hold good among philosophers, in judging of civil morals, but they have nothing to do with the judgment of God." Hollazius says: " The element of the voluntary does not enter into a definition of sin, generically considered. A sin is said to be voluntary, 376 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. either subjectively, as it inheres in the will, or efficiently, as it results from the deliberate will. In this last respect, not all sin is voluntary. This is held over against the Papists and So- cinians, who define sin exclusively as the voluntary transgres- sion of the law." 7. It presupposes that from the original state of integrity there was a Fall of Man into a state of sin. The original Fall of man from God resulted, according to The Fan of Gen. iii-> from external temptation and inward Man desire, leading to doubt of the Divine goodness, and transgression of the Divine command. The consequences of this Fall were : terror before the presence of G-od, not filial reverence, but servile fear ; the expulsion from Paradise ; the troubles of earthly life — temporal death only prevented by the mercy of God — from passing into eternal death. The Fall of man is, throughout, presupposed as a fact, in the whole Biblical teaching in regard to original sin. Ration- alism and Pseudophilosophism have treated it as a fable ; an allegorical delineation of the passing away of the golden age, a myth of the transition from instinct to moral free- dom, or of the pernicious result of longing after a higher condition. " Without the Fall," says Hegel, " Paradise would have been but a park for beasts." The literal historical sense of the narrative of the Fall is, nevertheless, the only one consistent with the obvious intent of the Holy Scriptures. There is nothing in the narrative unworthy of God, or out of keeping with the laws of the human soul. God gave the commandment, allowed the temptation, that, by it, man's natural holiness might be strengthened, if he would, by his free will. The serpent was but the organ of the Devil ; the essence of the divine command lay in its setting forth love to God, and acquiescence to His will, as that which should be supreme in man. The transgression was an apostasy from this. The sim- pler the test, the clearer was its issue, the sublimer its moral mean- ing. The more insignificant the outward act, the more certain it is that the grandeur of the principle will not be confounded with the grandeur of the circumstances. The principle of the neces- sity of the absolute acquiescence of the will of the creatures in THE FALL OF MAN. 377 the will of the Creator has none of the splendor of drapery in Paradise that it has in the revolt of the angels in heaven, and it stands out, for this reason, more nakedly, sharply, and legibly in the history of the Fall of Adam, than in that of the fall of Satan. The littleness of the spirit of sin may readily be for- gotten in the dazzling array of its raiments, or in the baleful dignity of its mischievous results. Hollazius defines the first sin thus : — " The first sin of man, or Fall, is the transgression of the law of Paradise, in which our first parents violated the divine interdict which for- bade them to eat the fruit of the ' tree of knowledge of good and evil,' being persuaded thereto by the Devil, and abusing the freedom of will, and thus brought on them- selves, and on their posterity, born of them in the order of nature, the loss of the divine image, grievous fault (culpam), and liability (reatum) to temporal and eternal punishment. The cause of the first sin is not God, but the Devil, who persuaded, and man who transgressed the Divine law, being overcome by the persuasion of the Devil, and abusing the freedom of the will. Our first parents, in the Fall, directly violated a positive law, but indirectly and virtually, by their disobedience, broke through the restraints of the whole moral law. The Fall of Adam was not necessary to manifest the justice and mercy of God." " This deflection," says Quenstedt, " embraces in its course certain distinct acts of sin, which may be classed as follows: i. Incredulity, — not having faith in the word of God. ii. Af- fectation of the likeness of God. iii. A purpose springing from this transgression of the law. iv. A carrying out of this pur- pose into action^ In the Fall of our first parents began original sin. " It is called," says Quenstedt, " original sin, not because it existed either from the beginning or origin of the world, or of man, but partly, because it takes its origin in man, with the origin of each man ; partly, because it is the fount and origin of all actual sin." Tertullian probably first introduced the term. A distinction is drawn between " peccatum originate origi- nals," and " peccatum originate originatum." The latter is by preeminence styled " original sin." Thus " original sin," if not by imputation, yet by some form of association, passed over to 378 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION all the posterity of Adam and Eve. The Formula Concordim says : " The hereditary evil is that fault (culpa) or liability (rea tus) whereby it comes that we all, because of (propter) the dis- obedience of Adam and Eve, are under God's abhorrence, and are by nature children of wrath." * The Apology f says: " Some dispute that original sin is not a vice or corruption in the nature of man, but only a servitude or condition of mortality, which they, who are propagated from Adam, without vice of their own, but on account of another's fault, inherit. We, that we may show that this doctrine displeases us, make mention of concu- piscence, and declare that a corrupt nature is born." "Whatever, therefore, may be the relation of imputation to original sin, our Church holds it to be an impious opinion, that our misery and liability are merely the results of imputation. The pri mary point is, that we do actually participate, in our nature, in the corruption wrought by the Fall. i( Original sin is that vitiation of human nature arising from the fall of our first parents, accidental, (in the theological sense,) propagated by human conception, proper and real in all men, whereby they are destitute of the power of rightly knowing and worshipping God, and are constantly impelled to sin, and exposed to ettvnal death." TIL The Second Article of the Confession sets forth i lie r i 'me Time. °f the operation of original sin, to wit, that oj the ivhole period commencing with the Fall of Ada n. This implies : — 1. That man was created holy. He had original righteousness Gen. i. 26, " Let us make man in our image, after our like- ness." In these words image is not one thing, and likeness another, but the word likeness defines the word image. An image may be like that of a mirror, a mere reflection ; but this image is one which makes real likeness or similitude. The grand element of the image of God in man, as created originally, is that which conforms him to what is most essen- tially Godlike in God ; that is, to His moral perfection, His holiness, purity, and truth. In a certain sense, the spirituality of man's nature, his immortality, his noble endowments of * Page 639. p. 9. fP. 51. p. 9. TIME. 379 intellect, affection, and active power, and his place m creation, as lord and ruler of the world, are associated with and bound up with his bearing the image of God ; hence, in Gen. i. 26, im- mediately after the words " Let us make man," we have the words, "Let him have dominion" where " dominion" is not iden- tified with the " image," as some expositors would make it, but is dependent on the image and likeness, and is conditioned by it, for the ground of man's rule over the world is not his merely intellectual gifts, in which probably the devils, certainly the angels, surpass him, but the presumption and desire, on God's part, of his ruling it in righteousness and holiness. His in- tellectual powers are but the means by which his moral powers carry out their ends. The image of God is, preeminently, then, man's original holiness ; the conformity of his mind to the mind of God ; of his will to the will of God ; in short, whatever is most com- pletely and sharply antithetical to original sin. Just what he lost by sin, is preeminently what he possessed most completely in the image of God, and in the original righteousness, which was its vital part. That man's moral nature is that which has suffered most in the Fall, that his intellectual abilities, and his power of outward rule over nature, are left in comparative strength, is evidence that it was in his moral nature he stood nearest to God. The more glorious the image, the com- pleter was its wreck. That this judgment as to the image of God is correct, is shown by various passages of Scripture ; as, Eccl. vii. 29 ; 2 Cor. iii. 18 ; Eph. iv. 24 ; Col. iii. 10. 2. That he lost this righteousness. From the exalted posi- tion nearest to God, he descended to the degradation of misery and sin. In short, as original righteousness made him like God in that which is most Godlike, so the Fall plunged him into that which, in its essence, is most remote from God. Now nothing is so completely in antagonism to God as sin. Ignorance is the counterpart to divine knowledge and wisdom ; weakness to divine omnipotence ; but sin is set against the very heart and moral glory of God. The ignorant and the weak may be children of God, and bear his image, but the sinful are sundered from Him by an impassable gulf; though 380 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. they had the knowledge of an archangel, and a might as near that of God as the creature's might can be, yet with sin, their image is that of the Devil, and not that of God. 3. That with this loss, originated human sin. 4. That man's nature thereby became a sinful one. Adam remained in the state to which the original or primary sin reduced him. All human nature at the time of the Fall was embraced in Adam and Eve ; they were then the human race ; they actually formed all human creatures ; therefore of neces- sity, when Adam and Eve fell, all human nature, then existing, fell ; all human creatures, actually existing, fell then as com- pletely as if there had been millions instead of two ; hence the human race and human nature fell. 5. Lastly, under this thesis is asserted that original sin has continued in the world from that hour to the present. It is worthy of note that the Confession speaks of the Fall of Adam only ; Eve is not mentioned, though she was first in the transgression. Why at least is not the phrase, " Fall of our why is Adam fi rs ^ parents? " In this the Confession strictly fol- aione mentioned? lows the line of Scripture representation: "By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin ; and so death passed over upon all men." Rom. v. 12. In the Apostle's sense, sin did not enter into the world in Eve's trans- gression ; nor did death enter into the world by her sin ; at most, sin and death entered her. While she was yet alone in the transgression, sin had not yet entered the world, nor death by sin "What had been possible for Adam, even as to the res- toration of Eve, at this point, belongs perhaps to a sphere of speculation into which it is not wise to enter, but it is certain that the race yet stood in Adam. It was yet in his power to save mankind. The prohibition of the fruit of the tree ol knowledge was given directly only to Adam, and took place before the creation of Eve, (Gen. ii. 17-21.) It bound the woman, not because God repeated it to her, but because she was, in the nature of the case, under the same law with her husband. After the Fall, God says to Adam : " Hast thou eaten of the tree whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldst not eat ?" — but to Eve, while His words imply her great guilt, WHY IS ADAM ALONE MENTIONED? 381 He speaks of no such direct command. Eve was not co-ordi- nate with Adam, but represented in him. She sinned, per- sonally, in her own personal act, but, in the full sense, she fell only when Adam fell. Adam's body was first formed — the entrance of the breath of God made man, body and soul. Eve was taken from Adam, but this was no new inbreathing from God. She was the emanation, so to speak, of the whole man — the effluence of his body and soul, and the life of the whole race is that one united life. Eve is called the mother of all living ; but Adam is the source of all living, including Eve. There is then but one human life in the world — perpetuated and extended through the generations — the emanation of the first life — that of Adam. Hence the race has not fallen in Eve as well as in Adam — because her life also was derivative. The one primal life derived from Adam brings with it the impress of Adam's fallen nature. Our nature is his very nature in emanation, as our life of body and soul is his life in emanation — and as the very life and nature are transmitted, so are the Fall and its penalty transmitted. Adam's life and nature is the sine qua non of our life and nature — Adam's sin the sine qua non of our sin. IV. The Confession teaches that the persons affected by original sin are all human beings born in the course of nature. This implies that, without exception, all the children of oui race, alike all the children of the most holy and of the most godless, have original sin. The character of the parent may, within a certain limit, benefit or injure the innate tendencies to character in the child ; but character is not nature. All human beings have the same nature. In this nature original sin inheres, and all alike inherit it. With reference to this inher ited character, it is sometimes called hereditary sin. In German its usual title is " Erbsiinde." In the doctrine that all men (omnes homines), born in the course of nature, have this sin, is implied the falseness of the Eomish figment, in regard to the sinlessness of the mother of our Lord. It rejects the idea of the immaculate conception of Mary, which has been established in our own time as a 382 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION doctrine of the Romish Church. The doctrine of the immacu- late conception, to wit : that the Virgin Mary was conceived and born without sin, had been for centuries maintained by the Fran- ciscans, and denied by the Dominicans, but was set forth au- thoritatively by Pius IX. in 1854, as a doctrine of the Catholic Church.* The birth of Mary was a human birth, and hence, hers was a nature with the taint of original sin. In this thesis, moreover, is implied the freedom of our Lord from original sin, for his birth was not in the course of nature. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit (Apostles' Creed, Art. II.) ; He was incarnate by the Holy Spirit, of the Virgin Mary (Nicene Creed, Art. III.) ; and his birth was divine and super- natural. And here, it is impossible not to be struck with the beautiiuL, Scripture -like reticence of our Confession, for while it most clearly either states or implies that original sin has been in the world since Adam's Fall ; that without that Fall it would not have been ; that our natural descent from him actually is accom- panied, in every case, by the inheritance of the moral nature, into which, so to speak, he fell, it does not define how, theo- Betically, the sin of Adam is related to us ; does not touch the question of imputation at all. The Augsburg Confession 6ets forth the chief Articles of Faith, the Faith of the Church universal, that is of the true Catholic Church, but the doctrine of imputation, as a theory, belongs to scientific theology. The Augsburg Confession presents the whole question, only in its great practical elements, as these in some form or other are grasped by faith, and take part in the general belief of the Church. "We cannot recall a single passage, in any of our Confessions, in which the imputation of Adam's sin is alluded to, even in passing, as an Article of Faith. The Confessions say no more than that our fallen condition was " through the disobedience of Adam" or " on account of it" and expressly reject the idea that " original sin is derived to us by imputation only."f "We * See Preuss on the " Immaculate Conception, " which has been translated into English, and Pusey's Irenicon. •j- Formula Concordiae, 575 WHY IS ADAM ALONE MENTIONED? 383 reject," says the Formula, " and condemn that doctrine which asserts that original sin is only a liability and debt derived to us, by the fault of another, without any cor- ruption of our own nature." These expressions, however, do not exclude the doctrine of imputation in every shape. It is a question of theology, as distinguished from the sphere of faith proper, and to that it should be referred. That all men are embraced in the operation of original sin, is clearly taught in the Holy Scriptures. 1. It is taught in direct and positive assertion of the univer- sality of original sin. Rom. v. 12, " Wherefore, as by one man, sin entered into the world, and death by sin ; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." Mark in the passage the sphere of original sin ; the word " men," and the word "all," i. e. " all men." Death itself is declared to be the token and evidence, that all have sinned. The dominion of sin is as wide as the dominion of death, that is, it is universal. It shows that the operation is not limited to adults ; and that there may be no mistake in regard to this, as if men might suppose that infants were regarded as exceptions, it says in verse 14, " death reigned . . . even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression," i. e. over infants, who had not sinned by conscious acts of transgression, as Adam and Eve did ; but, if infants come under it, a fortiori all others must. It adds in verse 15, "for if through the offence of one the many be dead," (Greek,) and in verse 18, " as by the offence of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation," and in verse 19, "as by one man's dis- obedience, (the) many were made sinners." 2. In the specification of the classes embraced in this universal operation of original sin. Eph. ii. 3: " We all were by nature children of wrath, even as others." By "we all," is meant the Jewish Christians. " We Jews ' even as others,' " i. e. Gentiles. Jews and Gentiles embrace mankind, and if even the members of God's elect race are subject to this law, d fortiori the Gentiles would be, if there were any distinction. 3. In the Scriptural negation of any limitation of the uni- 384 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. versality of original sin. Job xiv. 4, " "Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean ? not one." 4. In the exceptional character of Jesns Christ, as alone free from original, as well as actual sin, in which is implied that all but He are born in sin. "He knew no sin," 2 Cor. v. 21, was "without sin," Heb. iv. 15. " He was holy, harmless, un- dented, and separate from sinners," ib. vii. 26. In all this is implied more than our Saviours freedom from acts of sin. To our Lord, and to Him alone belongs, among men, an untainted nature ; to every other child of Adam pertains the curse of original sin. To the freedom of our Lord's nature from orig- inal sin, it was essential that his conception should be of the Holy Ghost, and his birth out of the course of nature. They who are not thus conceived and born must have the taint of orig- inal sin, that is, as the Confession affirms: The whole race, whose conception and birth are in the sphere of nature, are con- ceived and born in sin. V. The next thesis of the Confession pertains to the mode of perpetuation of original sin. It connects this with the natural extension of our race. Not , , only are human beings born with it, but it originates Mode. m J & . & with their natural life, and before their natural birth ; and hence, with reference to each human being, it comes to be called "original sin." It is the sin which is so mysteriously original with man. Its origin, and our origin, are simultaneous. It is originated when man is originated, and be- cause he is originated, and by his origination. Hence, the term original, which has been objected to in the statement of the doctrine, is more expressive and accurate than any that could be substituted for it. The great point in this thesis, is that sin passes into the life of the race, not by imitation, as the Pela- gians contend, but by hereditary congenital transmission, and that this propagation is its natural source. Over against the doctrine of Calvin and other speculators, who maintain that : " the progeny of Adam do not derive their corruption naturally from him, but that corruption de- pends upon the ordination of God," (see Calvin, on Gen. iii. 6,) the Augsburg Confession distinctly connects original sin with FA CT. 385 the natural process of descent, " secundum naturam," i. e. with natural propagation, and natural birth ; and such is the clear teaching of the Holy Scriptures. Ps. li. 5, "Behold! I was shapen in iniquity." See Gen. v. 1 & 3 : in the first verse we have, " in the likeness of God made he him ; " and in the third verse this antithesis, " and Adam begat a son, after his image." So our Lord Jesus says, (John iii. 6,) " That which is horn of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit." Eph. ii. 3, " We all were by nature children of wrath," thatis,asTyndale, Cranmer, and others say, " were natural chil- dren of wrath." The sin of Adam is so related to the condition of the race, that by and because of our natural descent from him, sin and its penalty passes over to us. Rom. v. 12, " By one man sin entered the world." VI. Next the great fact is asserted, That all human beings are conceived and born in sin and with sin, — " !Na- scantur cum peccato," u In Sunden empfangen und geboren werden." This fact can be mentally separated from the particular theory upon which it rests. Even Pagans have acknowledged the fact. And those whose theory seemed irreconcilable with it, and those who have even denied it in downright terms, have been forced virtually to concede it. All the refinement in terms, in philosophy, in the mode of statement or of argument, has not been able to conceal the fact, that in, with, and under our human nature, there lies something evil ; foreign to the original condition of man ; foreign to the divine ideal, and to man's own better ideal; something derived from parent to child, producing misery, death, and despair ; something that is the power of all sinful results, and the seed of all sinful growths. The Scripture testimony to this great fact is very explicit. Gen. viii. 21, " The imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth," i. e. inclusively in his youth and ever after. Gen. vi. 5, " God saw that the wickedness of man," etc., " was only evil continually." (Heb. lit. " evil all the day ; " margin — " The whole imagination.") The Hebrew word signifies not only the imag ination, but also the purposes and desires. The actual condition of the race is depicted in the 14th Ps., 25 386 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION: vs. 1, 2, 3, " They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good," (an absolute negation.) " The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God. They are all gone aside, they are altogether become filthy, there is none that doeth good, no not one." St. Paul quotes these words as of universal application, covering Jews as well as Gentiles, and although the Psalmist makes exception of God's people, yet the exceptions are made by grace, and do but confirm the rule. So in Job xv. 14, " What is man that he should be clean ? and he which is born of a woman, that he should be righteous." So Jer. xvii. 9, " The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked ; who can know it ? " .An absolute identity of result in all men in fact implies the existence of a common cause of that result. If a!l men, always from earliest infancy to extremest old age, everywhere, under all diversities of race, education, and outward circumstances, in short, of everything in which they can differ, are sinful, then must the root of sin be, not in any one thing, nor in all things in which they differ, but in the thing or things which they have in common. But the sole things which men have in common, are their human nature, and their common original inborn moral condition. In one of these must lie the spring of universal sinfulness ; but it cannot lie in their nature as such ; for nature as such is the work of God, and cannot there- fore be sinful. Sin is the perversion of nature, the uncreating, as it were, of what God has created, a marring of His work. It must lie then in man's moral condition, as fallen and inheriting original sin. The great acknowledged facts in the case then are logically and necessarily connected with the theory of original sin which is maintained in the Confession. VII. The results or revelations of the workings of this orig- inal sin are, first, privative or negative, and second, positive. seventh Thesis. l: Privative or negative showing itself in what we The results. have lost ; we are without fear, without trust, " sine metu, sine fiducia." ii : Positive in what we have, " cum concu- piscentia, with concupiscence." i : 1. Privatively. or negatively original sin shows itself, first SEVENTH THESIS. THE RESULTS. 387 in this, that all human beings are horn without the fear of God. Conf. "Sine metu Dei;" " Keine wahre Gottesfurcht hahen." This means not only that an infant does not and cannot con- sciously fear God, but that there is in it a lack of anything which can potentially, or through any process of self-develop- ment or of natural education, exercise such a fear of God as He demands of the creature. We can by nature have a false fear, or an instinctive fear of God, but not a true fear, hence the emphasis of the German of the Confession, " Keine wahre" " no true fear." 2. A second element of the privative result is, that they are born without trust in God, without faith in Him or love for Him. In the fear of God there is a just contemplation of His natural attributes, and that reverential awe which inspires the spirit of obedience. In trust, faith, and love, there is a contemplation of His moral attributes, drawing the heart to Him. Neither our just fears, nor our just hopes toward God, are left un- touched by original sin. Conf., "Sine fiducia erga Deum ; " " Keinen wahren Glauben an Gott, keine wahre Gottesliebe." There is innate in a child, before conscious exercise, a poten- tial, true trust, faith, and love, toward its mother, and that trust unfolds itself out of the potential into the actual. Before a child's first act of love toward its mother, there must be a power of loving, and that power of loving must exercise itself. There must be something in a child that can love before it does love, and that something is born with the child. In other words, a child may be said, with reference to this innate power, to be born with trust toward its mother. But it lacks in its nature that which would enable it to exercise a true trust in God, such as He demands. Man may by nature have a false trust in God, or an intellectual and natural trust, but no1 that higher and true trust which is in perfect keeping with God's nature and His holy law. In order to this, grace must impart something with which we are not born. The Roman Catholic theologians, in their confutation of the Augsburg Confession, say that the statement in this article in regard to original sin is to be utterly rejected, since it is mani- fest to every Christian that to be without the fear of God, and 388 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. without trust toward God, is rather the actual fault of the adult than the fault of a new-born infant, which is destitute of the use of reason, as the Lord says to Moses, Deut. i. 39, " Your children, which in that day had no knowledge between good and evil." Melanchthon, in the Apology, replied by referring to the German form of the Confession, which brings out more clearly than does the Latin, that it is not the act, but the power of fearing God and trusting in Him, which is referred to, or as Melanchthon expresses it, not the act only, but the gift and power of doing these things. The Apology is the best commentary on the disputed parts of the Augsburg Confession, as well as an able defence of them. ii. The positive result is that they are born with concupis- cence, that is, that from their birth they are all full of evil de- sire and evil propensity. The Confession says, " Et cum concu- piscentia." German: " Dass sie alle von Mutterleibe an voller boser Lust und Neigung sind." The term concupiscence is a New Test, term, Rom. vii. 7, 8, " I had not known lust (margin, ' or concupiscence')" etc., " wrought in me all manner of concupis- cence." So Col. iii. 5, " Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth ; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affec- tion, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry." 1. Thess. iv. 5, " Not in the lust of concupiscence." The Greek word which it translates, and which is used in a number of places where it is not translated concupiscence, has the general meaning of earnest and intense desire. Thus our Saviour, Luke xxii. 15, says, " With desire (epithumia) I have desired (epithumeo) to eat this passover with you before I suffer." St. Paul says, (Phil. i. 23,) " Having a desire (epithumia) to de- part ; " 1 Thess. ii. 17, " Endeavoured with great desire." These are the only cases, three out of thirty-seven, in which the w r ord epithumia is used without implying something inordinate and sinful. The natural epithumia of an unsanctified nature is always inordinate, carnal, sensual, impure: it is desire, lust, concupiscence. The word is also applied by metonymy to ob- jects which kindle such desires. Every epithumia except that of our Lord, and of the natures conformed to His nature, is represented as sinful. In the passage in Romans vii. 7, 8, con- SEVENTH THESIS. THE RESULTS. 380 cupiscence is represented as the motive power in covetonsness. In Col. iii. 5, it is distinguished from inordinate affection and covetousness, to which it is related as the root to the tree, or as the trunk to the branches. In 1 Thess. iv. 5, the " lust of con- cupiscence" is mentioned, that is, the lust or positive desire gen- erated by the evil propensity inherent in our own nature ; that is, the actual evil desire by the original evil desire, or concupis- cence ; sin by sin ; sin the offspring by sin the parent, the actual sin of our character being related to the original sin of our nature, as child to mother. The Pelagianizing Romanist says, Lust, or concupiscence, brings forth sin, therefore it cannot be sin, be- cause the mother cannot be the child. "We reply, Concupis- cence brings forth sin, therefore it must be sin, because child and mother must have the same nature. The grand sophism of Pelagianism is the assumption that sin is confined to acts, that guilty acts can be the product of innocent condition, that the effect can be sinful, yet the cause free from sin — that the un- clean can be brought forth from the clean. The word concupiscence, therefore, as the representative of epithumia in its evil sense, very properly designates that moral condition which is antecedent to positive and conscious moral acts. It is the first phenomenon of personality in morals, and no better practical definition can be given of it, than the simple one of our Confession. It is " evil desire" and "evil propen- sity," " bose Lust und IS"eigung." The grand idea here lies in this, that sin is in us potentially before it comes to the act ; that the moral nature of the infant is born loith it, and does not originate in, nor date its origin from, any conscious movement of the infant's will, any purpose of its heart, any act of its hands ; but that, on the contrary, tho general character of that movement, purpose, and act of will, heart, and hand, apart from Divine grace, is inevitably con ditioned as actually sinful, and that this actual sinfulness is merely on the one side the result and token of a defect, and on the other the positive exhibition of an evil tendency already in being, from the time of the origin of the human nature of the child. Hence, in a new sense, this sin may be called orig- inal. It is that in which all other sins in some sense take their 390 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. origin. It throws its life into them ; without it they might not be ; it is not only original, it is also the originating sin, or that sin which gives the original to all others. Negatively, then, original sin is the lack of original right- eousness, that is, of the righteousness which man originally had as God's creature, bearing His image, and is the perpet nation morally of original unrighteousness, that is, of the non- righteousness which fallen man, as fallen, originally had. Positively, original sin is evil desire and propensity, first exist- ing potentially and seminally, so to speak, the power of all sinful results, and the seed of all sinful growths ; and then re- vealing itself invariably and necessarily in conscious and actual sin, if not checked by the Spirit of God. iii. As we have by nature no true fear of God, no true love of God, no true faith in God, so neither can we get them by nature. Conf., " Keinen von Natur haben konnen." Original sin is not only retrospective, looking back to the origin of our race, but it is prospective, covering the future as it covers the past, a pall upon the face of the nations. In the sphere of nature it renders our condition utterly hopeless. A man may by nature have a weak body, a feeble constitution, an imperfection of speech, but in nature he may find relief for them all. Strength may come by natural exercise, flu- ency by repeated efforts, but there is no power in man, in his reason or in his will, none in education, none in the whole store of the visible, or intellectual, or moral world, which can repair this fatal defect, and render him God's reverent, loving, and trusting child. There is no surf-beaten shore on which man may go forth and train himself amid its thunders and its whispers, to speak in true faith and love into the ear of God words which may remove His righteous disapproval of our sinful and sinning nature. In other words, in the sphere of nature, original sin leaves us in utter and hopeless ruin. Without faith it is impossible to please God ; without holiness no man shall see the Lord ; and by nature we are destitute of faith and holiness potentially. In our conscious, moral life there can be no development of them actually. We neither have, nor can have them, unless something not of us, nor of ON THE NAMES DESIGNATING ORIGINAL SIN. 391 nature, supervenes. " The natural man receiveth not tlie thi nga of the Spirit of God ; for they are foolishness unto Him : neither can he know them, because they are spiritually dis- cerned." 1 Cor. ii. 14. VIII. The essence of original sin involves that this disease or vice of origin is truly sin. Conf. Latin: " Quod- Eighth Tuesis . que hie morbus seu vitium originis vere sit pecca- original sin is turn." German : " Dass auch dieselbige angeborene Seuche und Erbsiinde wahrhaftiglich Siinde sei." The application of a particular name to a thing raises the question, first, whether that name has more than 0n the na , ne3 one sense, and secondly, if it have, in what sense l> ? which ovi ^- , -, -■ nal sin is desig- lt is applied in the particular case under con- nated in the con- sideration. Is the name to be taken literally or lession - figuratively ? The following names are applied to original sin in the Augs- burg Confession : In the Latin, " vitium, morbus, peccatum" ; in the German, " Seuche " and " Siinde" As these names have been most carefully employed, we must weigh them to realize their full force, and to reach with precision the doctrine which they are designed to convey. These terms may be classified thus : 1. The terms that are used metaphorically, or by adapta- tion. 2. The terms used literally. To the first of these belong " vitium," and " morbus," and " Seuche" ; to the second, " pec- catum" and " Siinde." I. Morbus. The word " morbus" is nowhere used in the Vulgate. The word used where we might anticipate " morbus" is usually ''languor," and sometimes "segritudo." Morbus is defined by lexicographers as a " sickness, disease, evil affec- tion of body contrary to nature." Original Sin as " morbus " is, in general, sickness in spirit, analogous to disease in body. The metaphorical transfer is very easy and obvious. The Confession does not at all mean that original sin is literally a sickness or morbus. The Apology,* with just severity, char- acterizes the scholastic absurdities : " Of the fomenting incli- uation (fomes) — they maintain that it is a quality of body, * 79, 7. «*92 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. and inquire whether it came by contagion of the apple, or from the breath of the serpent? and whether medicines make it worse ? " II. Vitium. The word vitium is used in the Vulgate five times. It has the sense, " fault" of a bodily kind, even in animals ; " moral fault, vice," as in Job xx. 11 : " Sin of his youth." Vulgate, " vices of his youth." Gal. v. 24: " The flesh with the affections (margin ' or passions ') and lusts." Rheims' transl. of Vulg., " vices and concupiscences." With the Vulgate agrees in general the classic usage of the word vitium. III. The distinction between morbus and vitium. The use of these two words in the Confession is not tautological, but in the highest degree delicate and discriminating. They are not synonyms, but are used not only to convey a different idea, but with a certain degree of antithesis. Cicero, in the Tusculan Questions, Book 4, says, " Morbus is the corruption of the whole body, such as is fever for example ; vitium is when the parts of the body are at variance among themselves, from which results pravity of the members, distortion, deform- ity." So Nonius says, " Vitium is an abiding impediment of the body, such as blindness, lameness, unsoundness." Morbus in German would be " Krankheit." Vitium would be " Fehler." The one term may be said to be derived from medicine, the other from surgery. Morbus, in a theological sense, is moral sickness, disease, or plague ; vitium is moral vice, fault, or defect, maiming, muti- lation, or distortion. IV. There is a correspondence therefore between the two names vitium and morbus, and the two parts of the definition of original sin : a. Vitium corresponds with the negative part of the definition. Original sin as a defect of original righteousness, the mutilation of the moral man, the lack of something essential to his moral perfection, is vitium. b. Mor- bus corresponds with the positive part of the definition. Orig- inal sin as the presence of a corrupting element infecting the moral man, the indwelling of a pervading and positive evil added to his constitution, is morbus. In a word, the vitium takes away the good, the morbus ON TEE NAMES DESIGNATING ORIGINAL SIN. 393 Dringrs in the bad. The vitium is the lack of the true fear and trust, the morbus is the concupiscence. V. Seuche. The word Seuche does not translate either morbus or vitium. Its Latin equivalent would be " lues," and it is one of the most generic words in German to express sick- ness. Its proper English equivalent is plague, and it is related to pestilence and to disease as genus is related to species. Luther uses the word " Seuche" thirteen times in the New Testament. Once he translates by it the word noseema, in John v. 4, the only p.ace at which it occurs. In the twelve other cases he uses it to translate " nosos," which is the syn- onym of " noseema," and is translated in the authorized version by the word " sickness" five times, " disease" six times, " infirmity" once. In the New Testament the word " nosos " is used literally for bodily disease, except, perhaps, in Matt, viii. 17, u He bare our sicknesses," where it has been taken, though without necessity, metaphorically for pain, sorrow, evil of a spiritual kind. In the Old Testament, Luther uses " Seuche," first, to translate " Madveh," in the only two places in which that word occurs, Deut. vii. 15, and xxviii. 60, where it means literally " disease," and in the first of which the Septua- gint renders it " nosos." Secondly, Luther uses it to translate " Quehtev," Psalm cli. 6. Authorized Version, " the destruction which wasteth at noon-day," but Coverdale, Cranmer, and tho Liturgy Version of the Church of England, following Luther, translate it " sickness," and the Genevan, and, among recent translators, Noyes, "plague," and Ainsworth, "stinging plague." The metaphorical idea of sickness is found in the Old Testa- ment, as Hosea, v. 13, " Ephraim saw his sickness," i. e. his polit- ical weakness and wretchedness. Psalm ciii. 3, " Who healeth all thy diseases," seems to be used metaphorically for spiritual disorders in accordance with the parallelism of the first part, " Who forgiveth all thine iniquities." So Psalm xli. 4, " Heal my soul ; for I have sinned against thee." There sin is represented as the disease of the soul, God as a physician, grace as healing. The word " holiness" is only another way of pronouncing the word " wholeness." So Isa. vi. 10, " And 394 CONSERVATIVE REFORM ATI ON. convert and be healed," that is, be healed of sin, which is the disease of the soul. The Chaldee Paraphrase and the Syriac render: " and he forgiven." The metaphorical transfer of the idea of disease and fault to express moral condition is so obvious, that we fiud it in all cultivated languages. Cicero says, " As in the body there is disease, sickness, and fault, so is there in the soul." We have this triple parallel therefore : body, health, sickness, mind, sanity, insanity, spirit, holiness, sin. The analogies between morbus, disease and sin are very many. Analogies be- !• Morbus is in conflict with the original per- tween Morbus and fection of body with which man was created, the original rightness or wholeness of body. 2. Morbus is a potency before it is revealed as a fact. 3. Morbus in its tendency is toward death. The slightest morbus developed to the last degree would destroy the body. There is no morbus so slight that it has not brought death. Strike out two letters, and morbus, " disease," becomes mors, "death." 4 Morbus is common to the whole race. Cicero, in the Tus- culan Questions, 325, translates from Euripides this sentence, " Mortalis nemo est quern non attingit dolor morbusque," " There is not one of our race untouched by pain and disease." 5. Morbus is the spring of pain, grief, and misery to the body. 6. Morbus rests on an inborn tendency of the body. It could not touch the body of a sinless being without his per- mission. Our Lord Jesus Christ could only endure it by the act of His own will. 7. Morbus is primarily in the world, not because we sinned, but because Adam sinned ; he is the spring of original morbus, as he is of original peccatum. 8. Morbus depraves and corrupts the substance of the body, but is not itself substance ; it is not a creature of God, but a defect in, and vitiation of, that which He created. The body is His work, morbus the result of sin. ANALOGIES BETWEEN MORBUS AND SIN. 395 9. Morbus is negatively the antithesis to health, the absence of health ; and secondly, in consequence of that lack, that which was originally useful and pleasant becomes morbid and works misery. Take, for example, a healthy tooth ; everything in it is meant for use, and is promotive of comfort. Take away its healthy state, and although no new thing is created, there is misery and uselessness in place of its former healthy condition ; there is positive pain there. 10. Morbus is real morbus, vere morbus, before it comes to symptom. A man is sick before he shoics himself sick, and he shows himself sick because he is sick. He may be sick for a time, and neither he nor others be aware of it. The symptom is not the morbus, nor the cause of it, but the result, the effect, the revelation of the morbus. The fever is before the fever- heat ; the small-pox before the pustule ; the obstruction of the pores before the cough ; there is morbus originis in the body before there is morbus manifestos in it. 11. Morbus may be wholly independent of any act of ours. We may have morbus because our neighbor has it. A child may have it because the father has it, or the father may con- tract it from the child. One has typhoid-fever or small-pox, and another takes it from him. There is endemic morbus, epi- demic morbus, contagious morbus, infectious morbus. With the mystery of disease staring us in the face in the physical world, it becomes us to 1 e humble and reverent in regard to God's teachings in reference to the mystery of His permission of hereditary sin in the moral w T orld. 12. Morbus, not only as a generic tendency, but in specific shape, may be hereditary. There is an Erb-seuche as well as an Erbsiinde. When the skeptic shall thoroughly sound the mystery of that arrangement of Providence by which the child of consumptive parents may be born not only with a tendency to consumption, but with actual consumption, then may he with more show of reason ask us to sound for him the fathom- less depths of the Divine permission of hereditary sin in our world. 13. Morbus in some forms defies all the curative powers of nature and of art. Men will be so sick as to die, despite all 3% CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. original energies of the constitution, all medicines, and all physicians. 14. Whatever be the philosophy of morbus, the great facts are indisputable. Men may wrangle as to how and why it is, but they cannot deny that it is. The} may believe that they relieve difficulties by abandoning the old phraseology and coin- ing new ; bnt all the resources of language leave the facts and the difficulties substantially where they were. The medical theorists have new names, new theories, new medicines, but men have continued to die, and will continue to die. The theo- logical charlatan may try a new nomenclature, and assail with sugar- and rose-water what the old doctors treated with the most potent medicines, but sin will reveal itsolf in the world with the old signs of virulence, and, trifled Avith, will work death. 15. He who has false views of morbus, is not likely to obtain a thorough cure of it. His determination to call a plague- boil a pimple, will not make it a pimple ; tubercular consump- tion is not a trifling cough, nor a cancer a corn, because men may think them such. We can neither think facts out of being, nor into being. 16. Morbus is ordinarily relieved by means. Sickness can- not heal itself, nor is it ordinarily healed by miracle. 17. The wrong remedy will not cure morbus, however sin- cere the misguided physician may be in recommending it, and the deluded patient in using it. It is the dream of a Ration- alism close upon Deism, that error is practically as good as truth, if a man heartily believes it to be the truth ; that you can substitute arsenic for salt with safety, if you believe it to be salt. The kingdom of nature and of grace are both under law. Things will be done after God's ordinance, or they will not be done at all. Anaio es be- ^ ne analogies between Vitium and Original tween Yitium and Sin are also many and obvious. 1. Yitium is universal. Every body has some defect. Thrasea (Pliny's Epistles 8, 22,) was wont to say, "Qui vitia doit, homines odit," "Who hates faults, hates all mankind." ANALOGIES BETWEEN VITIUM AND SIN. 397 2. Vitium in some of its forms is, as Nonius says, " perpetua et insanabilis atque irrevocabilis causa," " a cause which works always, beyond healing and beyond revoke." 3, and last. Vitium is privative, yet the privation is pro- ductive of positive misery. Blindness is not a thing, bat the want of a thing. When the first blindness took place, there was no creation of blindness, but the mere privation of that light which was given in the first creation : The absence of an arm is not a thing, but the defect of a thing ; God did not create blindness or armlessness, nor does a man become a creator by making himself or his child armless or sightless. These condi- tions are in themselves but negations, yet what positive ill results ■from these negations. The ignorance of the blind, the helpless- ness of the maimed, result from these privative vitia. Though blindness be, per se, not something, but nothing, though the want of an arm be nothing, the deep grief is that where some- thing should be there is nothing. The sophistry, therefore, that mere negation, mere defect, is inoperative, is exposed even by nature, for lack of operation is often the greatest of ills, and to say that because original sin is not substance or essence there can be no result from it, is in the last degree shallow and false. This point has been felicitously stated by Melanchthon : " It is useful to mark clearly the difference between the things created by God, and sin, which is the disturbance or confusion of the divine order: hence it is rightly said, Sin is a defect or pri- vation. . . And here lies the answer to the sophistical question, Inasmuch as a defect is nothing, that is, is not a positive thing, how can God be angry at nothing ? The answer is, there is a broad distinction between nothing privative and nothing negative. For nothing taken in the privative sense requires a subject, and is a certain destruction in that subject, on account of which that subject is rejected, as the ruins of an edifice are a destruc- tion or scattering of parts in the mass. Thus Original Sin is a defilement and confusion of the parts of man, and God hates it, and on account of it is angered at the subject. In disease nothing has the sense of privation, inasmuch as the subject re- mains, and disease is a certain disturbance in the subject. The wounded man looks upon his wound sorrowfully, and knows 398 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. that the wound is not nothing negatively, but that the parts are torn. Thus Paul grieved when he saw the crimes of Nero, for he knew that they were not nothing negatively, but the awful ruins of the work of God." * The Thesis on the introductory terms to which we have been dwelling, asserts that this disease or fault of origin, this inborn plague and hereditary sin is truly and really sin. The vere and wahrhaftiglich are opposed : 1. To the false, incorrect, or fictitious ; 2. To the verbal. To the 1st they are opposed, as the true ; to the 2d, as the real. When we affirm that original sin is truly and really sin, we affirm the doctrine of the Church : 1. Against those who deny that human nature is in any respect different from the condition in which it was at its origin ; who deny that original sin exists. 2. Over against those who concede that there is a real defect in human nature since the Fall, but who deny that this defect is sin. 3. Over against those who concede that original sin is, in some sense, sin, but who, either in terms, or virtually, deny that it is truly and really sin. Over against these is affirmed : 1. The true and real existence of original sin. 2. The true and real sinfulness of its character. The- doctrine is asserted against its deniers, and defined against its corrupters. Of original sin we say : 1. It is ; 2. It is sin ; 3. It is truly and really sin. In these words lies a grand distinctive feature of the doctrine of the Church, as opposed to the Pelagians or Pelagianizing tendencies of a large part of the Roman communion, and of Zwingli, as well as by anticipation of mere recent heresies. In these words is the very heart of just views of original sin : We argue that original sin is truly sin : 1. Because it has the relations and connections of sin. *Loc. Theolog. ed. 1545. Opera. Witteburg. 1580. Fol. vol. i. 1G3. Chemnitii- Log. Theol. 1653. Fol. i. 128. Corp. Reformator. xxi, 646. This striking dis- tinction is not drawn in any of the earlier editions of the Loci. THE RELATIONS AND CONNECTIONS. ^id work in our members to of «n. bring forth fruit unto death."' Rom. vii. 5. " 0, wretched man that I am 1 who shall deliver me from the body of this death f " Rom. vii. 24. " God . . condemned sin in the flesh." Rom. viii. 3. " To be carnally minded is death." Rom. viii. 6. " By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin ; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." Rom. v. 12. " Death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression." Rom. v. 14. " Through the offence of one, many (oi polloi, ' the many,' that is c mankind') be dead." Rom. v. 15. " The judgment was by one to condemna- tion." Rom. v. 16. " By one man's offence death reigned by one." Rom. v. 17. " Judgment came upon all men to condem- nation." Rom. v. 18. " They that are in the flesh cannot please God." Rom. viii. 8. " We all were by nature the children of wrath, even as others." Eph. ii. 3. In these passages original sin comes before us in three aspects as to penalty : 1. As punished by the penalty which comes upon the sins of act, which original sin originates. The stroke which is aimed at them, of necessity, strikes it also. 2. As punished together with the sin of act. Each is aimed at, and each is smitten simultaneously. 3. As subject to punishment in itself antecedent to and sep- arate from all sin in act. It bears the penalty which comes by the sin of act ; it bears the penalty which it meets in con- junction with the sin of act, and it is subject to punishment in itself considered. The range of penalty in which it is involved, is, in one respect, larger than that of actual sin ; for while, in THE REMEDY. 405 no case, can the penalty fall on actual sin without involving original sin, there is one case, the third, in which it could fall upon original sin, where there was as yet no sin of act. If penalty then can mark its character, original sin is truty sin. 7. We argue that original sin is truly sin, because it needs the remedy of sin. " Create in me a clean heart, God ! " Psalm li. 12. " Who shall deliver me from the body of this death ? I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord." 7 - Th ™ ed r Rom. vii. 24. This remedy is needed. 1, As to its essence; 2, as to its author; and 3, as to its means. " Putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ." Col. ii. 11. " Except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God." " Except a man be born of water, and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." " That which is born of the flesh is flesh ; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." John iii. 3, 5, 6. " Christ loved the Church, and gave Himself for it ; that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word." Eph. v. 25, 26. 1. The texts we have cited show who need the remedy of sin ; to wit, all human beings. " Except a man" that is, a human being — every human being, old or young. Furthermore, all that is born of the flesh, to wit, every human being, old or young. Furthermore, in regard to Eph. v. 25, " Christ loved the Church," etc., it may be said : Children are either a part of the Church, or they are not. If they are not of the Church, they are not loved approvingly, and have no interest in Christ's work, nor application of it. But this no one will maintain. Then they are in the Church ; but if in the Church they are, according to St. Paul, in common with others, sanctified, and of course regenerate, washed with water, and reached by the word. But as the word cannot reach an infant didactically, it must reach it sacramentally. Infants then need, and receive the remedy of sin, and as they have original sin only, it must need the remedy of sin. 2. These passages show that, as to the essence of the remedy 406 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. of sin, it is needed by original sin ; to wit : The putting off the body of the sins of the flesh ; the being born again ; the being sanctified and cleansed. 3. These passages show that original sin needs the remedy of sin as to its author — He who acquires it, Christ; He who applies it, — the Holy Spirit ; in general, God. 4. These passages show that original sin needs the remedy of sin as to its means. a. The circumcision of Christ, i. e. Christian circumcision ; to wit, that which in the Christian system answers to, and fulfils what was shadowed by circumcision under the Jewish system, to wit, Holy Baptism, which is the washing of water con- joined with the Word and the Holy Ghost, in the absence of any one of which three elements there is no baptism. b. The Word of God: didactically, that is, by preaching, teaching, reading, meditation ; and the same word set forth and sealed by the sacraments. Without these things, to wit, Baptism and the Word, the body of the sins of the flesh cannot be put off; but the body of the sins involves original sin. 8. We argue, finally, that original sin is truly sin, because it is conformed to a true definition of sin. When the inspired s The defini- writers call the moral taint of our nature sin, they tion - give evidence in this, that as they define the term, it is applicable to that taint. Their idea of sin is of something which man has ; something which dwells in him ; something which is separate in ideal from his consciousness not only of his own essence, but from the consciousness of his truer nature, his more real self. This sin is something inborn, which is first to be pardoned, then controlled, and finally annihilated by a new birth, by the grace of God, by the work of the Holy Spirit, by the entrance on the glory of heaven, by the mighty power by which a risen Saviour is to raise these vile bodies and make them like His own body. These ideas underlie or rise upon every New Tes- tament doctrine, duty, and hope. Rationalism has made it a reproach that the doctrine of original sin lies at the foundation of the evangelical system. We accept the reproach as in fact a concession that the THE DEFINITION. 407 evangelical system grounds itself, where alone a just system in regard to human restoration can be grounded ; for the first question, when disease is to be cured, is, What is that dis- ease ? Is it so trifling as to need no physician ? Can a man heal it himself? Will it heal itself simply by the general energy of the system? or is it radical true disease, mortal in its tendency? Does it require for its treatment a physician of the highest order, and remedies of the most exquisite adaptation and potency ? To all of these questions, with characteristic simplicity and practical force, our great Confession replies, when it says : " Original sin is truly sin." If it be asked, in what sense did our confessors use the word sin ? we reply, in what we have seen and shown to be its scriptural sense. Is it asked what did they, and what do we, regard as its scriptural sense ? we reply, the language of the Confession tells us most explicitly what they meant by true sin, and by that Confession in firm faith we abide. Yet it may not be useless to give, as a further illustration of its meaning, the definition of sin by Melanchthon, not only because of his relation to the Confession as its composer, but yet more because in his purest and happiest period, his definitions were as sound in their substance as they were discriminating and felicitous in their form. It may be doubted whether, before Melanchthon, in his Loci of 1535, any successful attempt had been made to define sin generically. The definitions of the fathers are either of specific sin, original or actual, or are too vague for the pur- poses of science. Pelagius tried to show, from some of Augus- tine's definitions of sin, that original sin is not really sin. What Augustine had said of sins of act, Pelagius applied to sin of nature. Melanchthon, in his Loci of the Second Era,* (1535- 1541), says : " Sin in Holy Scripture does not merely mean something done (factum aliquod), but it signifies also a perpet- uated fault (perpetuum vitium), that is a corruption of nature conflicting with the law of God. Sin therefore, generically taken, is a perpetuated fault, or act, conflicting with the law of God. Sin is divided into original and actual." In the Loci of the Third Era (1543-1559), he says that in Scripture the * Corpus Reformatorum. xxi. 284, 378. In German : Do. xxii. 159. 408 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION name " sin properly signifies any thing liable (ream\ and con- demned by God, unless remission be made. This general description suits both original and actual sin. But as the definition only embraces what is relative, to wit, liability (reatus), the mind naturally seeks for that on account of which man is liable (reus)." Melanchthon then gives what may be con- sidered the standard definition of sin in the Lutheran Theology. It is almost verbally the definition which, first endorsed by Luther's hearty approbation, and by our divines in general, had been presented in opposition to Eck at the Colloquy at Worms in 1541, and runs thus: " Sin is either a defect (defec- tus, want, lack, failure,) or inclination, or act conflicting with the law of God, offending God, condemned by God, and mak- ing us liable (faciens nos reos) to eternal wrath and eternal punishments, had not remission been made." " In this definition," adds Melanchthon, in the Loci, " the ' defect ' and ' inclination' correspond with original sin ; the ' act ' em- braces all actual sin, internal and external."* In his Defini- tions^ he repeats the same idea a little more compactly. " Sin is whatever conflicts with the law of God — a defect, or inclination, or act conflicting with the law of God, and making the creature liable (ream) to eternal wrath, unless remission be made for the Mediator's sake." In the Examen OrdinandorumJ the definition is in substance the same ; the most remarkable difference is in the closing words : " And fully meriting (com- merens) eternal wrath, unless remission were made for the Son, the Mediator's sake." If this definition of sin be a just one, then original sin is truly sin, for it is, as we have shown, a defect, and an inclina- tion in conflict with the law of God, offending God, and con- demned by God. IX. The natural consequence of this original sin is this, that it " condemns and brine's now also eternal Ninth Thesis. ° The natural con- death ; " damnans et afferens nunc quoque seter- sequence of orig- nam mor t em » u un( j verdamme . . unter ewigen tnal sin. ' Gottes Zorn." 1. The best key to the meaning of this declaration is found * Corpus Reformator. xxi. 667. f Corp. Ref. xxi. 1077. J Corp. Ref.xxiii. 12, TRUTH OF THESIS— SCRIPTURE EVIDENCE. 409 in the XYII. Swabach Articles of Luther. In the fourth of these articles of Luther, are these words : " Original sin is a true real sin, and not merely a fault or a blemish, but a sin of such kind as would condemn, and separate eternally Some histori . from God, all men who spring from Adam, had not cai illustrations . 7 -I • of this Thesis. Jesus Christ appeared as our substitute, and taken upon Himself this sin, together with all sins which result from it, and by His sufferings made satisfaction therefor, and thus utterly removed, and blotted them out in Himself, as in Ps. 1L, aud Rom. v. 5. is clearly written of this sin." 2. The fourth Article of the Swabach series is evidently based upon the fourth of the Articles prepared at the Marburg Colloquy. That Article says : In the fourth place, we believe that original sin is inborn, and inherited by us from Adam, and had not Jesus Christ come to our aid by his death and life, we must have died therein eternally, and could not have come to God's kingdom and blessedness.* 3. In Melauchthon"s edition of the Confession in German, published in 1533, the part of the Second Article now under consideration, reads thus : " This inborn and original sin is truly sin, and condemns under God's eternal wrath all who are not born again through Baptism and faith in Christ, through the Gospel and Holy Spirit, "f 4. In Melanchthon's Latin edition of the varied Confession of 1540 and 1542, occur at this point these expressions : " Con- demned to the wrath of God and eternal death." "Those defects and that concupiscence are a thing criminal, in its own nature worthy of death. "^ 1. The great proposition that original sin condemns and brings now also eternal death, i. e. that, left to its The scripture natural consequences, unchecked in any way by ^^7^ Tile- God, this condemnation and death would be the sis - result, is already involved in the previous Thesis. The present Thesis was meant by the confessors to be the practical infer- ence from that, and that Thesis was mainly set forth in order to this, and the emphasis of the connection is this, that origi- * Rucjelback's Ref. Luth. u. Union, p. 626. f See Weber's ed. Weimar, 1781. J Hase, L. S., p. 15. 410 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. nal sin is so truly sin as to bring its last and most fearftu result, the wrath and condemnation of God, and eternal death. If original sin be truly sin, then, unchecked, it of necessity involves men in the final results of sin. If in itself, in its own essence and nature, it be sin, then is it in itself criminal, and in its own nature deserving of condemnation, and if condemned at all, it must, apart from God's grace, be condemned forever, for nature h:;s in it no power of moral self-recuperation. The guilt of original sin would expose men to wrath, and its help- lessness would prevent them forever from rising from that wrath. It is said that this sin " now also " (nunc quoque) "brings eternal death." This is true as over against the idea that original sin brought death only to Adam, not to all his posterity ; or, that its effect was confined to the Old Dispensa- tion, so that Christ's redemptory work per se, and without the application of its benefits by the Holy Spirit through the appointed means, releases the whole race from the liability per- taining to original sin ; or, that children, because they are born in Christendom, or of Christian parents, are ipso facto free from the penalty. " Now also" as when Adam sinned ; " now also " in the New Dispensation, as under the Old ; " now also" though Christ has " been made a propitiation, not only for original, but for all the actual sins of men " (C. A. iii. 3) ; "now also " that there is a Christendom — original sin " brings eternal death " to all that are not born again. 2. With this general presumption the language of Scripture strictly agrees: " The wages of sin is death." Rom. vi. 23. The Apostle, in these words, is speaking not only inclusively, but by preeminence, of the inherent sin of our nature. He uses them in logical connection with the proposition, "by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." Eom. v. 12. There is no break in the argument, and no change in the sense of the words. It is confessed that the sin of the first man reduced all the race to the condition of his fallen nature. It follows, then, that without some Divine arrest of natural conse- quence, the penalty which attended that condition in him would attend it in us. In his case the penalty was death, so TRUTH OF THESIS— SCRIPTURE EVIDENCE. 411 then must it be in ours. Death is so tenaciously allied to sin that only God can separate them. 3. Nor is the moral mystery of this fact so deep relatively as it is often regarded. Death, even eternal death, as the endurance of suffering, is not essentially so fearful a thing as sin. It would he more in keeping with divine holiness to per- mit suffering in the highest degree than to permit sin in the least degree. Suffering is the removal of a lesser good than that which sin removes, and the bringing in of a lesser evil than that which sin brings in. Those, therefore, who admit that the natural consequence of Adam's sin was, that sin entered the world, and fixed itself there by God's permission, admit a far greater mystery even than would be involved in the doctrine that God would allow suffering to enter an unfalleD world. It would not so sorely test our a priori antici- pation in regard to God to know that He allowed suffering in an innocent world, as to know that He allows a race to lose its moral innocence. If we had been told that in one of the stars above us the people are innocent, but that suffering is there ; and that in another, sin came in (by God's permission) to destroy the inno- cence of its people, the former statement would not shock our moral sense, or create the same difficulty of harmonizing the fact with God's spotless holiness and love of what is best as the latter would. But the case is even stronger, vastly stronger, than this supposition would imply, for the difficulty that presses us is not that suffering exists apart from sin, but that God, having allowed sin to enter the world, allowed the pen- alty of dea^h to follow that sin. Furthermore, if it were a doctrine of the Bible that the race is actually lost forever because of original sin, the mystery of the loss would be a less mystery than that of the permission of sin. Those who admit the existence and perpetuation of original sin, admit therefore a mystery greater than the doc- trine of the absolute loss of this sinful race in consequence of original sin would be. Here, as in all other mysteries of Reve- lation, Rationalism, touching with its plausible, but weak hand, the less mystery is compelled to acknowledge the greater. 412 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. 4. But the doctrine of the Confession is not that this loss o* the race actually takes place, but that original sin, unchecked by God, tends to this, and that such, apart from the provisions of his grace in Christ and the Holy Spirit, would be the result. This is made very clear by the historical citations with which our discussion of this Thesis opens. 5. If it be argued that it is impossible before any moral act, or moral choice, a human creature should have an element which, unchecked in its results, would produce death, we reply, that it would much more seem impossible that before any moral act, or moral choice, a human creature should have an element which, not only unchecked, but with the mightiest checks, actually results in conscious sin, and is itself sin. But the latter is admitted by all who acknowledge the existence of original sin. Much more then should they admit the former. If we have sin without an act of our will, much more may we have death, the result of that sin, without an act of our will. 6. We see, furthermore, that all the visible results of Adam's cin to Adam are perpetuated to us his descendants, and this creates a powerful presumption that the invisible results of that hin are also perpetuated to us. The sorrows of Eve are the sorrows of her daughters ; the sorrows of Adam are the sorrows of his sons ; the curse of the ground, the curse of temporal death, the exclusion from Paradise, all are perpetuated to us. But the prin- ciple on which God allows the perpetuation of a fellowship in these visible results of Adam's fall is the principle on which He would also allow the natural tendency of our sin to run out into the invisible results of the Fall, that is, into eternal death. If God had no right to allow the one tendency, He had no right to allow the other. If He has no right to allow Adam's sin to bring upon us, apart from His grace, Adam's spiritual curse, He ha3 no right to allow Adam's sin to bring upon us Adam's tempo- ral curse. But confessedly, He does the latter, and has the right to do it ; equally therefore has He the right to do the former, and if he does not, it is on another ground than that of abstract justice. It is not anything I did which places me in a sorrowful world, with a frail body, a clouded mind, a sad heart, and TRUTH OF THESIS— SCRIPTURE EVIDENCE 413 under subjection to death ; it is not what I did, but what lam, that subjects me to these, and I am what I am because I spring from Adam, and because he fell. And on that same mys- terious, but indubitable principle, that what we are, as well as what we do, determines our destiny, God might, in keeping with the justice which nature reveals, actually subject the race to the eternal destiny which was the result of sin, apart from the Divine arrest of its tendency, to Adam. Xo human logic, which acknowledges the Providence of God in nature, could overthrow the proposition, even were it absolute, that original sin brings eternal death to the race. 7. Nor is the language too strong, that original sin is, in its own nature, worthy of death. The word of God teaches that there are but two states possible, one of life, the other of death. Death is always the result of what is due. Life is always the result of grace. Death is the wages of sin. Eternal life is the gift of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Death is the natural due then of every human creature as a creature of sin, and eternal life can only come to man as a gracious and free gift. Mature, as well as voluntary character, is regarded as properly subject to penalty. " We were by nature children of wrath, even as others," Eph. iii. 3, that is, we who are Jews by nature, by our natural descent ; we who are born Jews are, by our natural birth, just as the Gentiles are, sub- ject to wrath, because in both cases men are born with a sinful nature. Death is the due of sin. 8. That infants are included is not only necessary, logically, and involved in the words of Paul just quoted, but is expressly taught. " Death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's trans- gression." 9. The results of Adam's fall, and of Christ's mediation, are represented as entirely parallel in the range of their subjects ; the one embraces exactly the same persons as the other. " If Christ died for all, then were all dead." "As in Adam all died, so in Christ shall all be made alive," (in the resurrection). " Our Lord Jesus Christ, by the grace of God, tasted death for every man." " By the offence of one, judgment came upon all 414 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. men to condemnation ; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. For as by one man's disobedience many (oi polloi, ; the many,' mankind,) were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many, (' the many,' mankind,) be made righteous." 10. The reply might be made, however, that not all men are actually justified through Christ, and that hence the parallel is to be restricted, and that not all men are necessarily actually involved in the death of sin. But in fact this limitation only makes the parallel more perfect. Not all embraced in the ideal of Christ's work are actually saved, because the work is arrested in its tendency either negatively by lack of the means appointed for its application, or positively by the natural will of those who have the means, but resist their power. So, on the other hand, not all embraced in the ideal of sin's work are actually lost, because that work is arrested on God's side by the means appointed as its antidote, and on man's side by the divinely enlightened will of those who, having these means, do not resist their power. Nature, so to speak, undoes Christ's work in the one case, as grace undoes sin's work in the other. God's work in grace in the one case, if unarrested, is ample for the salvation of every human creature, as sin's work, in the other case, if unarrested, is ample for the loss of every human creature. Thus the all-embracing work of love on the one hand, freely giving life, and the all-pervading power of sin on the other, meriting death, rest in the same generic mode of Divine dealing. Take away Christ, and every human creature dies in Adam ; take away Adam, and every human creature lives in Christ. But though the range of Adam's work and of Christ's work be the same, the power of Christ's work tran- scends that of Adam's. God's love in Christ outweighs all. " JSTot as the offence, so also is the free gift." (The Apostle takes a new point of view : he had shown wherein the offence is as the free gift, to wit, in its range ; now he looks at a point in which the free gift transcends the offence.) "For if through the offence of one, many (' the many,' man- kind,) be dead, muck more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded TENTH THESIS. 415 nnto many." " Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound." Tlius the cloud of death which hang upon the horizon of our world in its morning parts before the beaming of the Sun of Righteousness, and then, transfigured by His ray, billows around His rising, purpling in His glory. Nothing can mag- nify His brightness, but this cloud diffuses it. That cloud lifts itself more and more with the ascending Sun, and at His full noon shall have melted away forever. X. This natural consequence of original sin, to wit, condem- nation and eternal death, is actually incurred by Tenth Thesis, all who are not bom again. Conf., "His qui non the^ewbirth for renascantur." " Alle die so nicht wiederum neu the pardon and removal of origi- geboren werden." naisin. 1. If the natural tendency and consequence of original sin be death, one of two results is inevitable. Either sin actually goes on and results in death, or its natural tendency is in some way arrested. Our tenth Thesis affirms that the only way in which it can be arrested is for its subject to be born again. By nature we are born to sin, and through sin to eternal death. By grace we are born again to a renewed heart, and through a renewed heart to eternal life. 2. The relative innocence of any human being cannot in itself save him. The innocence of any human being can only be relative. There is a great difference in the character of unregenerate persons relatively to each other, but there is no difference whatever in their nature. A thousand things mould and modify character, but the corrupt heart is untouched by them all. The phenomena of a corrupt heart are infinitely diversified, not only in their number, but in their intensity. The young man whom Jesus loved, and Judas who betrayed his Lord, were diverse in their character. The one was lovely, the other as odious as it was possible for unregenerated charac- ter to be. But they had alike an unchanged heart — their nature was the same. The innocence of the young man, rela- tively to Judas, could not save him. The so-called innocence of the best man falls infinitely more short of absolute inno- cence than it rises above the deepest absolute criminality 416 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. relatively. Every man is more guilty absolutely than lie is innocent relatively. 3. There is a relative innocence in the infant as contrasted with the adult ; this the Scriptures freely allow: " In malice be ye children." 1 Cor. xiv. 20. Even the first budding of sin seems only to lend the charm of vivacity to the little crea- ture. The baleful passion which, in the matured Cain, darkens all time with its deed of murder, may have made his father and mother smile as it flushed and sparkled in the miniature lines of anger traced on his face in childhood. But the nature of Cain was the same in the first glow of anger as in the last, and the nature which was in the first glow of anger was in Cain before that anger arose. That anger did not make his moral nature, but was made by it. The great need of the human creature is indeed to be saved from that moral nature, and this can only be done by giving him a new heart. The moral nature of the new-born infant is as truly a sinful one as that of the grey-haired old reprobate, even as the physical nature and mental nature of that babe are as really a human nature, its body as really a human body, its soul as really a human soul, as those of the ripe adult. God can no more save sin in nature than he can save it in character, and hence a new nature is as absolutely needed by an infant as by an adult. To deny that an infant is capable of regeneration is to deny that it is capable of salvation. The tree is known by its fruit, not made by it. While the tree is corrupt, the fruit must be corrupt. If the tree be made good, the fruit will be good. Our proposition, then, clothing it in the guise of our Saviour's figure, would be this : That the outgrowth and fruit of this tree of our human nature must inevitably be deadly, unless the nature of the tree itself be changed. The osik-nature is the same in the acorn as in the monarch of the forest who has cast his shade for centuries. If the acorn grow, it inevitably grows to the oak. 4. For the same great reason the relative innocence which arises from ignorance cannot save men. There are some in nominal Christendom whose privileges are so few that their accountability is relatively diminished. The millions of Jews TENTH THESIS. 411 Mohammedans, and Pagans are relatively innocent in charac- ter, as compared with the nn regenerate who have the full light of the Gospel. Yet, however few and light, relatively, their stripes may he, as they knew not their Master's will, it is evi- dent that they too can never reach heaven with an unchanged nature. Their disqualification is none the less real because it is relatively less voluntary than that of others. Man is horn with a moral nature, which unfits him for heaven. More than this, the moral nature has in it something which God abhors and condemns. Unless in some way another moral nature is given him, he not only must negatively he excluded from heaven, hut must, positively, come under God's wrath. It is said, " As many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law ; " but it is nowhere said, " As many as have been holy without law, shall be saved without law." On the con- trary, the Apostle's whole argument is designed to prove " all the world " " guilty before God." 5. If the relative innocence, either of adults or of infants, could save them from death and take them to heaven, their natures being still under the power of inborn sin, heaven itself would simply be, in one respect, earth renewed ; it would be the abode of sinful beings. In another respect it would be worse than earth, for its sinful beings, unrestrained by the fear of death, would yield themselves without check to the thoughts and desires of their corrupt natures. Going to heaven would, in the case supposed, make no more change in the heart than going to church. A bad heart may have its worst thoughts in the best places. If sin could be self-generated in heaven, as in the case of angels once holy but now fallen, much more might and would it, already existing, reveal itself there. If angels kept not their first estate in heaven, much more would man there reveal his last and fallen estate ; and it might as well be said that to put Lucifer back in heaven unchanged is to be thought of, as that our human nature unchanged is to be placed there. 6. Hence the testimony of Scripture is of the most explicit kind as to the absolute necessity of the new birth to every hitman creature. Our Lord Jesus says : " Except a man (that is any 27 418 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. one and every one) be born again, be cannot see tbe kingdom of God." If our blessed Lord bad, however, anticipated that tbere might be an effort to evade the all-compreliending force of his words, he could not more completely have made that effort hopeless tban by adding, as he did : " That which is born of the flesh is flesh," that is, every human being born naturally into our world is fleshly, and needs a new birth. 7. There is one absolute characteristic of all God's children : " They were born not of blood, nor of the will of flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God," that is, no human creature, in and by his natural birth, is God's child, bat must, in order to this, be born of Him. The " new creature " alone avails. " 'Every one that doeth righteousness is born of Him." 8. Before these invincible necessities of the case, and this irresistible witness of God's Word, goes down the delusive idea that the work of Christ covers the case either of Pagans or of infants, without their being born again. Semi-Pelagianism and Arminianism, acknowledging some sort of original sin, and some sort of a need of a remedy, have said that for Christ's sake infants, having no conscious sin, are forgiven, and with- out anything further being needed, pass at death into heaven. There are many who imagine that this view gives relief to the great difficulty of the subject, that it avoids the doctrine that infants may be lost, and yet concedes that they all are so far sinners as to need a Saviour ; that it proposes something that shall be done for them, and yet escapes the obnoxious theory of the possibility and necessity of infant regeneration. This view has been mainly devised indeed to evade the last-mentioned doctrine. But it is far from escaping the pressure of the diffi- culty. That difficulty is, that the nature of the child is a sin- ful nature. To forgive absolutely that sin of nature simply for Christ's sake, would be to remove the penalty, while the guilty thing itself is untouched. It would be to suppose that the child is removed from the penal curse of sin, yet left fully under the power of sin itself. It involves the justification of an unrenewed nature. It supposes Christ's work to operate apart from the applying power of the Holy Spirit, and on this theory an unregenerate human creature, forgiven for Christ's TENTH THESIS. 419 Bake, in its untouched sin, would pass into heaven still unre- generate. The theory errs utterly either hy excess or by lack. If a child has not a sinful nature, it needs no Saviour. If its sin is not a proper subject of condemnation, it needs no forgive- ness. But if it has a sinful nature, it needs not only a Saviour from penalty, but a renewing power to save it from the in- dwelling of sin ; if it is subject to condemnation, it not only needs forgiveness, but the exercise of a gracious power which will ultimately remove what is condemnable. In other words, it needs to be born again. 9. Nothing but downright Pelagianism of the extremest kind can save any man logically from the conclusion we are urging. Original sin must be counteracted in its natural tendency to death, first, by a power which removes its penalty, and secondly, by a power which ultimately removes the sin itself. The power which removes the penalty is in our Lord Jesus Christ, who made atonement for original sin, as well as for the actual sins of men ; the power which can remove the sin itself is in the new birth. The former, to use the old theological terminology, is necessary to remove the reatus of original sin, that is, its present guilt and immediate liability ; the latter is necessary to remove its/omes, the inciting foment- ing power itself, or, as it is sometimes called, the materiale, or essence of sin, which would, left to itself, ever renew the guilt and its curse. It is as impossible to separate the justification of an infant from its regeneration, as it would be to justify an adult while his heart is unchanged. These two things, justifi- cation and regeneration, may be separated mentally, and are really distinut, but they are never separated in fact. Unless there be regeneration, there will be no forgiveness. A regen- erated man is always justified, a justified man is always regen- erated; and unless a man be both, he is neither. A justified infant, unregenerate, is inconceivable in the kingdom of God ; such justification would belong to the kingdom of darkness. Alike then to the attainment of both forgiveness and sanctifi- cation, or of either, there is a necessity which is most abso- lute ; no human being has been, or can be, saved from eternal death unless he be born again. 420 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. 10. On this point, all sound theology of every part of our common Christianity is a unit. It is not distinctively a Lu- theran doctrine. The Romish and Greek Churches recognize the impossibility of the salvation of any human creature with- out a change from that condition into which he is born. The Calvinistic theory (including that of the Calvin istic Baptists,) involves the doctrine that infants need regeneration to fit them for heaven ; that they are capable of regeneration, that it actu- ally takes place in the case of elect infants, and that it takes place in this life. Calvin : * " How, say they (the Anabaptists), are infants regenerated, who have neither the knowledge of good or evil ? We answer, that it does not follow that there is no work of God, because we are incapable of grasping it, for it is clear that infants who are to be saved (as certainly some of that age are saved) are previously regenerated (ante . . regenerari), by the Lord." That milder school of Calvinism, which merci- fully, and perhaps illogically, departs from the rigor of the older and more self- consistent Calvinism, and believes that none but elect infants die in infancy, does not, nevertheless, depart from the old and true view, that the saved infant is regenerate, and can only as regenerate be saved. This great fact must not be forgotten, that on the main difficulty of this part of the doctrine of original sin, all but Pelagians are in unity of faith with our Church. The testi- mony of the Church through all ages is most explicit on this point : That no unregenerate human being, infant or adult, Pagan or nominal Christian, can be saved. Without holiness, no man shall see the Lord — but no man can be holy with his natural heart unchanged. Except we have the Spirit of Christ we are none of His ; but this Spirit is given to us in and by the new birth alone. -XL We have seen the absolute necessity of the new birth to Eleventh The- eyer J human creature, and we now affirm as our sis. The Holy Eleventh Thesis : That as the new birth is abso- Spirit the sole . .. _ . _ _ author of the luteiy essential to the salvation ot every one 01 our new birth. race, so the Holy Spirit is absolutely essential to the new birth. " Durch heiligen Geist," " Per spiritum sanctum." * Instit. (IV, xvi. 17.) ELEVENTH THESIS. 421 When the new birth takes place, it is invariably wrought by the Holy Spirit. This proposition sounds like a truism. Theoret- ically, all Christians, with any pretensions to the name Evan- gelical, would accept it, and yet, practically, it is constantly ignored. Let our faith rest on this, that whether with means or without means, the Holy Spirit is the author of regenera- tion, simply and absolutely ; that the human being can accom- plish no part of it whatever. It is not man's own work, it is not the work of his mind, of his heart, of his will, but it is God's work in his mind, in his heart, in his will. The power of an adult human being in the matter of his regeneration is absolutely negative. He can resist, he can thwart, he can harden himself, but in and of himself he cannot yield, or con- sent, or make his heart tender. The adult is as helpless positively, in the power of producing his own regeneration, as the infant is. The adult can, indeed, go, and must go to the preached word, and can and must go to the Bible : he can use the means, and with them conjoin fer vent prayer ; but it is the Spirit of God who regenerates the man through the means, not the man who regenerates him- self, either through the means or apart from them. The adult, indeed, with the means, may either resist the Holy Spirit or cease to resist. He may refuse to let Him work, or he may suffer Him to work. The difference in the course pursued here makes the difference of result between two adults, one of whom becomes regenerate, and the other does not. It is not that the one regenerates himself, and the other refuses to regen- erate himself. It is, that one suffers the Holy Spirit to regen- erate him through the Word, and the other refuses to permit Him. But even this negative power is derived from the pres- ence of grace and of its means, for a man to whom the Word is set forth is ipso facto not in a condition of pure nature. Even in the low realm of mere nature there are not wanting analo- gies to this spiritual fact. Man has, for example, physically no self- nourishing power. The nutritive property of food exerts itself on him. The food itself is the medium or means of nutrition. Man receives the food outwardly, and the mys- terious power of nutrition exerts itself tl rough the food thus 422 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. received. One man lives, the other starves ; not that the first has any power of self-nutrition, but that he received the out- ward thing through which the power of nutrition is exercised, and did not counteract its effect ; the other did not receive the food, and consequently failed to receive the nutritive energy, or receiving the food outwardly, like the first, presented some- thing in his system which resisted the working of its nutri tive power. The dependence of the adult on nutriment is the same as that of the infant. The adult can, indeed, ask for nutriment, an asking which is prayer, and the infant can- not. The adult, with reflective consciousness, craves, and with reflective consciousness receives nutriment, which the infant cannot do ; but the life of neither is self-sustained. Both must be nourished of God by means of food. The mystery of regen- eration lies in this central mystery, that the new man is a crea- ture, not a manufacture ; he is born, not self-made ; his moral condition is the result, primarily, essentially, and positively, of the divine will, not of his own — he is the child of God: " Which were born, not of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." With God all things are possible. " God is able of the very stones to raise up children unto Abra- ham ; " and if of the hard rock we tread upon, He could make tender and faithful hearts, who shall attempt to limit His energy in regard to any of our race, to whom his promises are given ? If God could, from inanimate Nature's hardest shapes, raise up faithful children to faithful Abraham, much more can He raise them up from infants, the children of His people — the children of the covenant. The internal processes of regen- eration are hidden from us. " The wind bloweth where it listeth (the Spirit breathes where He will), and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth. So is every one that is born of the Spirit." God claims for Himself the whole work of our regeneration. u Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, by the washing of regen- eration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost." Tit as iii. 5. The absolute essential in regeneration, and the only absolute essential in the way of an agent, is the Holy Spirit. JSTot even COVENANT PRIVILEGES. 42*> the means belong to this absolute essential, but merely to the ordinary essentials. The only previous condition in the human soul positively necessary when the Holy Spirit approaches it, is that it shall not resist His work. Before the „,. . , , Ihe absolute true doctrine of the supreme and sole necessity of Essential. the Holy Spirit's work, as the author of regeneration, the great mystery of infant regeneration and of infant salvation passes away. The Holy Spirit can renew the infant because it does not resist His work. If, therefore, the Holy Spirit wishes to regenerate an infant, He can regenerate that infant. Who will dispute this proposition ? We do not here affirm that He will regenerate, or wishes to regenerate one of the many millions who die in infancy. We simply ask now for toleration to this proposition, that the Holy Spirit, if He wishes, can renew the nature of a child. Admit this, and there is nothing more to settle but the question of fact, and the decision of that ques- tion rests, not on speculation, but on the witness of the Word of God. If the Holy Spirit alone can produce this new birth, then it is evident, 1. That the ivork of Christ cannot produce that new birth in itself, separate from the applying power of the Holy Spirit. It is the gracious Spirit who " takes of the things that are Christ's, and makes them ours." 2. The relation to Christian parents can, in itself, have no regenerating power. The child of the holiest of Christian Pa _ our race has the same nature as the child of the reuts - most godless, and needs the same work of the Holy Spirit. 8. IsTor can birth, in the midst of covenant privileges, have m itself a regenerating power. The child whose Covenailt Priv _ parents are Christians, or who has one Christian ile ? es - parent, is indeed " holy " (ayios), that is, is separated by the fact of such birth from heathendom. The children of Christendom are, in virtue of that fact, generically Christian ; not indeed members of the Christian Church, as separated from the world, as some imagine, and receiving in their baptism merely a recognition of a relation existing apart from that baptism, but members of the Christian world, considered as separated 424 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. from the Pagan or Jewish world. The child of Christian parents, or of a Christian parent, is, so to speak, constructively and provisionally, and by a natural anticipation, to be consid- ered Christian, but is not actually such until it is baptized. Thus a resident foreigner in our land is, constructively and provisionally, an American citizen, but not actually such until he is naturalized. This is the true force of the passage to which we are allud- ing (1 Cor. vii. 14), and which is mainly relied on by those who think that infants are born of the flesh into the earthly kingdom of God — the Church. This is apparent on a careful examination of the text. The question before the Apostle was this : If one of a married couple became Christian, the other remaining Pagan, would this diversity of religion necessitate a divorce ? The Apostle replies it would not. " If any brother hath a wife that believeth not, and she be pleased to dwell with him, let him not put her away. And the woman which hath an husband that believeth not, and if he be pleased to dwell with her, let her not leave him. For the unbelieving husband is sanctified (v;/ia -r» • what sense neces- that it is necessary to be born again of Baptism 6ary ' and of the Holy Spirit. It is evident from this that it draws a distinction between the two. It implies that we may have the outward part of Baptism performed, and not be born again ; but confessedly we cannot have the saving energy of the Holy Ghost exercised upon us without being born again, whether ordinarily in Baptism, or extraordinarily without Baptism. The very order of the words is significant, for the confessors do not say, and would not say, " born of the Holy Spirit and Baptism : " but the order is the very reverse, " of Baptism and of the Holy Spirit." Hence, while the doctrine of the Confession is that the new birth itself is absolutely essen- tial to salvation, and that the energy of the Holy Spirit is absolutely essential to the new birth, it is not its doctrine that * Praelect. Academic, in August. Confess. Ed. Tert. Jena. 1659. p. 818. IS BAPTISM ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY? 431 tlio outward part of Baptism is essential absolutely, nor that regeneration necessarily attends it. The necessity of the out- ward part of Baptism is not the absolute one of the Holy Spirit, who Himself works regeneration, but is the ordinary necessity of the precept, and of the means. It is necessary because God has enjoined it, and voluntary neglect to do what God has enjoined destroys man. It is necessary because God has connected a promise with it, and he who voluntarily neglects to seek God's promises in God's connections will look for them in vain elsewhere. It is necessary because God makes it one of the ordinary channels of His grace, and he who vol- untarily turns from the ordinary channel to seek grace else- where, will seek it in vain. It is so necessary on our part that we may not, we dare not, neglect it. But on God's part it is not so necessary that He may not, in an extraordinary case, reach, in an extraordinary way, what Baptism is His ordinary mode of accomplishing. Food is ordinarily necessary to human life ; so that the father who voluntarily withholds food from his child is at heart its murderer. Yet food is not so abso- lutely essential to human life that God may not sustain life without it. God's own appointments limit us, but do not limit Him. Man does live by food alone on the side of God's ordi- nary appointment ; yet he no less lives, when God so wills, not by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. 5. Hence, of necessity, goes to the ground the assumption that the Augsburg Confession teaches that unbap- , . „ ° i . * Is Bsvptism ab- tized infants are lost, or that any man deprived, soiuteiy nec*s- without any fault of his own, of Baptism is lost. sary? When we say absolute, we mean that which allows of no excep- tions. The absolute necessity of Baptism, in this sense, has been continually denied in our Church. The language of Luther is very explicit on this point.* In his " Christliches Bedenken " (1542), in reply to anxious Christian mothers, he (1) refutes and forbids the practice of the Romish Church, of baptizing a child not fully born, a practice based upon the idea of the absolute necessity of Bap- * Leipzig ed. of Luther's Works, Vol. xxii. pp. 400-422. 432 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION.' tism to the salvation of a child. (2) He directs that those who are present should hold firmly to Christ's words, " unless a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God," and shall kneel down and pray that our Lord God may make this child partaker in His suffe rings and death, and shall then not doubt that He knows full well how, in his divine grace and pity, to fulfil that prayer. Wherefore, since that little child has, by our earnest prayer, been brought to Christ, and the prayer has been uttered in faith, what we beg is estab- lished with God, and heard of Him, and he gladly receiveth it, as He Himself says (Mark x. 14) : " Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not ; for of such is the kingdom of God." Then should we hold that the little child, though it has not obtained Baptism, is not, on that account, lost ? " Dan das Kindlein, ob es wohl die rechte Taufe nicht erlanget, da- von nicht verloren ist." This " Bedenken " of Luther was accompanied by an expo- sition of the 27th Psalm, by Bugenhagen, which Bugenhagen. \ J & & ' Luther endorsed. The mam object of Bugenhagen in this treatise is to give consolation in regard to unbaptized chil- dren, over against what he calls the shameful error, drawn not from God's "Word, but from man's dreams, that such children are lost. Bugenhagen, after teaching parents to commit to God in prayer their child which cannot be baptized, adds : " Then shall we assuredly believe that God accepts the child, and we should not commit it to the secret judgment of God. To commit it to the secret judgment of God, is to throw to the wind, and despise the promises of God in regard to little chil- dren," (pp. 400-422). Both Luther and Bugenhagen discuss at large the argument for, and objections against, the doctrine of the salvation of unbaptized little children, and demonstrate that it is no part of the faith of our Church, that Baptism is absolutely necessary : that is, that there are no exceptions or limitations to the proposition that, unless a man is born again of the Water of Baptism, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. Luther and Bugenhagen condemn those who refuse to unbaptized children the rites of Christian burial, and who IS BAPTISM ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY? 433 object to laying their bodies in consecrated ground, as if they were outside of the Church. " We bury them/' say they, " as Christians, confessing thereby that we believe the strong assur- ances of Christ. The bodies of these unbaptized children have part in the joyous resurrection of life."* Hoffman (Tuebingen, 1727), to whom we owe one of the most admirable of the older expositions of the Confession, says : " It does not follow from these words that all childreu of unbelievers, born out of the Church, are lost. Still less is such an inference true of the unbaptized children of Christians ; for although regeneration is generally wrought in infants by Baptism, yet it may be wrought extraordinarily by an opera- tion of the Holy Spirit without means, which the Augsburg Confession does not deny in these words. It merely desires to teach the absolute necessity of the new birth, or regenera- tion, and the ordinary necessity of Baptism. On the question whether the infants of the heathen nations are lost, most of our theologians prefer to suspend their judgment. To affirm as a certain thing that they are lost, could not be done without rashness." f Feuerlin (Obs. to A. C. p. 10,) says : " In regard to the infants of unbelievers, we are either to suspend our judgment or adopt the milder opinion, in view of the universality of the salvation of Christ, which can be applied to them by some extraordinary mode of regeneration." Carpzov, whose Introduction to our Symbolical Books is a classic in its kind, says : " The Augsburg Confession does not say that unbaptized infants may not be regenerated in an extraordinary mode. The harsh opinion of Augustine, and of other fathers, in regard to this, was based upon a misunder- standing of John iii. 5, for they regarded those words as teaching an absolute necessity of Baptism, when, in fact, that necessity is only ordinary — a necessity which binds us, and will not allow us to despise or neglect Baptism, but does not at all bind God to this mean, as if He could not, or would not, in a case of necessity arising in His own providence, perform that in an extraordinary way, which, in other cases, He per- * P. 418. f Pp. 36, 37. 28 434 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. forms in an ordinary one, through means instituted by Him- self. As, therefore, the texts of Scripture speak of an ordinary necessity, so also of that same sort of necessity, and of no other, do Protestants speak in the Augsburg Confession." It would be very easy to give evidence on the same point from all our most eminent Lutheran writers on the doctrine of our Church, but it is not necessary. No one who has read them will need any citations to establish a fact with which he is so familiar. They who tell the world that it is a doctrine of our Church that Baptism is absolutely essential, and that all unbaptized persons are lost, can only be defended from the charge of malicious falsehood on the plea of ignorance. But ignorance, if it assume the responsibilities of knowledge, is not innocent. 6. The truth is, no system so thoroughly as that of the infant saiva- Lutheran Church places the salvation of infants on tion in the Lu- the very highest, ground. The Pelagian system would save them on the ground of personal innocence, but that ground we have seen to be fallacious. The Calvinistic system places their salva- ge caivmistic ^ on on ^ ne g roun d of divine election, and speaks system. of elect infants, and hence, in its older and more severely logical shape at least, supposed not only that some unbaptized, but also that some baptized infants are lost. 1. In the Westminster Assembly's Confession, chap, vi., it is said: "Our first parents . . sinned. . . The guilt of this sin was imputed, and the same death, in sin and corrupted nature, con- veyed to all their posterity. Every sin, both original and actual, . . doth in its own nature bring guilt upon the sinner, whereby he is bound over to the wrath of God and curse of the law, and so made subject to death, with all miseries, spiritual, temporal, and eternal." The infant, then, Christian or Pagan, is born in " guilt," " bound over to the wrath of God and the curse of the law, and so made subject to eternal death." How does Calvinism relieve it from this condition? The answer to this is given in what follows. 2. The election of God rests upon nothing whatever foreseen in the creature (ch. iii. 5), " as causes or conditions moving THE CALVINISTIC SYSTEM. 435 Him thereunto." The foreseen Christian birth, or early death, of a child can, therefore, in no respect hear upon its election. To assume that all children dying in infancy, even the children of Christians, are elect, and yet that the prevision of their being so born and so dying has no relation to their election, is illogical. 3. " As God hath appointed the elect unto glory, so hath He . . . foreordained all the means thereunto, Wherefore they who are elected . . . are effectually called unto faith in Christ by His Spirit working in due season ; are justified, adopted, sanc- tified, and kept by His power through faith unto salvation. Neither are any other redeemed by Christ, effectually called, justified, adopted, sanctified, and saved, but the elect only" (Westm. Conf. iii. 6.) According to this Article, where the " means thereunto " are not, the election is not. But in the Calviuistic system Baptism is not the means of grace, but only the sign or seal of grace (xxvii. 1). What is the mean whereby " elect infants " are effectually called unto " faith in Christ " ? and do infants have " faith in Christ?" are they "justified, sanctified, kept through faith unto salvation " ? Only those who have the means are among the elect, and only the elect have the effectual means. Then Pagan, Mohammedan, and Jewish adults and infants are of necessity lost. But has even a baptized infant the means of effectual calling, of faith, of justification ? The- Lutheran system says, It has. The Calvinistic system says, It has not. Either, then, the elect infant is saved without means, or there are none elect who die in infancy. But Cal- vinism denies both propositions, and is involved in hopeless contradiction. Either Baptism is properly a means of grace, and not its mere seal, or, according to Calvinism, logically pressed, no one dying in infancy is elect, and all infants are lost 4. "All those whom God hath predestinated unto life, a ad those only, He is pleased effectually to call by His Word and Spirit . . " (x. 1). " This effectual call is not from anything at all foreseen in man " (x. 2). "Elect infants, dying in infancy, are regenerated and saved by Christ through the Spirit, whu worketh when, and where, and how He pleaseth. So also are 136 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. all other elect persons, who are incapable of being outwardly called by the ministry of the Word " (x. 3). " Faith is ordi- narily wrought by the ministry of the Word " (xiv. 1). Here the system comes again into direct self-contradiction. In the face of chap. iii. 6, it is taught that there is an " effectual call," without means, without anything outward, without the ministry of the Word, or Sacraments, utterly out of the ordi- nary channel. " It might be lawful," says Peter Martyr, " to affirm that young children be born again by the Word of God, but yet by the inward Word, that is by the comfortable power of Christ and his Holy Spirit."* But if the Holy Ghost, with- out any means, regenerates some of the elect, why may there not be elect Pagans reached in the same way ? and if it be said that only those born in Christendom are elect, and, of conse- quence, extraordinarily called, is not that an admission that the mere fact of birth in Christendom in some sense influences the election? The Baptist system, which totally withholds Baptism from the infant, and every system which, while it con- fers the outward rite, denies that there is a grace of the Holy Spirit of which Baptism is the ordinary channel, are alike desti- tute, on their theory, of any means actually appointed of God to heal the soul of the infant. The Romish system, too Pelagian to think that original sin could bring the positive pains of eternal death, Romish System. .. n , . and too tenacious ot the external rite to concede that an infant can be saved without that rite, leaves its theolo- gians, outside of this general determination, in a chaos of doubt. Some of them reach the middle theory, that the unbaptized infant is neither in heaven nor hell, but in a dreary limbo. Others consign it to hell. The Council of Trent declares : " If any one shall say that the Sacraments of the !N~ew Law are not necessary to salvation, and that without them, or a desire for them, men obtain . . . the grace of justification . . . ; let him be anathema." "If any one shall say that Baptism . . is not necessary unto salvation, let him be anathema." f The Catechism of the Council of Trent (Quest, xxx) : "Nothing * Common Place. Transl. by Anthonie Marten. 1583. Lond. Fol. iv. 136. f Sess. vii. Can. 4. De Baptism, Can. 5. THE ROMISH SYSTEM. 437 can seem more necessary than that the faithful be taught that this Law of Baptism is prescribed by our Lord to all men, inso- much that they, unless they be regenerated unto God through the grace of Baptism, are begotten by their parents to everlasting misery and destruction, whether their parents be believers or unbelievers." In exposition of the doctrine of Trent, Bellar- min says: "The Church has always believed that if infants depart from this life without Baptism, they perish. The Catholic faith requires us to hold that little ones dying with- out Baptism are condemned to the penalty of eternal death." " Yet are they not punished with the penalty of sense or of sensible fire." "It is probable that those little ones suffer an internal grief (although a most mild one), forasmuch as they understand that they are deprived of blessedness, are sepa- rated from the society of pious brethren and parents, are thrust down into the prison of hell, and are to spend their life in perpetual darkness."* Dominicus a Soto says that " in the (Roman) Church it is a most fixed point that no little one without Baptism can enter into the kingdom of heaven." MiLDONATUsf says "they are condemned, with the goats, to the left hand ; that at once upon their death they descend into hell." Canus^:: "Their souls, with the bodies resumed, are thrust out into darkness." How beautiful and self- harmonious, over against all these, is the view of our Church. Over against the Cal- . . m ° e Lutheran System. vimst, it knows of no non- elect infants, but believes that our children are alike in the eyes of Infinite mercy. Over against the Pelagians it confesses that all chil- dren are sinners by nature, and believes that the Holy Spirit must change those natures. Over against the Anabaptists, and the school which is at heart in sympathy with the Ana- baptist theory, though it retains infant Baptism as a form, our Church believes that God has appointed Baptism as the ordinary channel through which the Holy Spirit works a change in the nature of a child. In the fact that there is an ordinary means appointed, our Church sees the guaranty that * Lib. I. De Bapt. ch. iv. Lib. VI. ch. ii., iv., vi. * On Matt xxv. 23 t Cited in Gerhard Confessio Catholica, 1679. Fal. 1110. 438 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATIO*. God wishes to renew and save children, and what so powerfully as this prompts the blessed assurance that if God fails to reach the child in His ordinary way, Tie will reach it in some other? The Calvinist might have doubts as to the salvation of a dying child, for to him Baptism is not a sure guaranty, and its grace is meant only for the elect ; the Baptist ought logically to have doubts on his system as to whether an infant can be saved, for his system supposes that God has no appointed means for con- ferring grace on it, and as we are confessedly under a system of grace and providence which ordinarily works by means, the presumption is almost irresistible, that where God has no mean to do a thing He does not intend to do it. But the con- servative Protestant cannot doubt on this point of such tender and vital interest. The baptized child, he feels assured, is actually accepted of the Saviour, and under the benignant power of the Holy Ghost. In infant Baptism is the gracious pledge that God means to save little children ; that they have a distinct place in His plan of mercy, and that He has a dis- tinct mode of putting them in that place. When, then, in the mysterious providence of this Lover of these precious little ones, they are cut off from the reception of His grace by its ordinary channel, our Church still cherishes the most blessed assurance, wrought by the very existence of infant Baptism, that in some other way God's wisdom and tenderness will reach and redeem them. Our confidence in the uncovenanted mercy of God is strong in proportion to the tenacity witb which we cling to Baptism as an ordinary mean most neces- sary on our part, if we may possibly have it, or have it given. Because in the green valley, and along the still waters of the visible Church, God has made rich provision for these poor sin -stricken lambs, — because He has a fold into which He gathers them out of the bleak world, therefore do we the more firmly believe that if one of them faint ere the earthly hands which act for Christ can bring it to the fold and pasture, the great Shepherd, in His own blessed person, will bear to it the food and the water necessary to nurture its undying life, and will take it into the fold on high, for which the earthly fold is meant, at best, but as a safeguard for a little while. But the THE L UTHER AN SYSTEM. 459 earthly fold itself, reared in the valley of peace, which lies along that water which ripples with something of a heavenly music, is a sure token of a love which will never fail of its object — a visible pledge that it is not the will of our Father in heaven that one of these little ones should perish. The Augsburg Confession, to sum up, affirms, as we have seen, that there is an absolute necessity that every human being should be born again. Tt affirms, moreover, that the work of the Holy Spirit is absolutely essential to the produc- tion of this change. These points we have endeavored to develop. It affirms or implies, moreover, that Baptism is one of the ordinary means by which the Holy Spirit works the change, and that Baptism is the only ordinary means of uni- versal application, that is, the only means applicable alike to adults and infants. In this is implied: 1. That the Holy Spirit ordinarily works by means. 2. That the Water and Word of Baptism is one of those means. 3. That the Water and Word of Baptism operates not as the proper agent, but as the means of that agent. 4. That the Holy Spirit may, and where He will, does work the new birth in, with, and under the Water and Word of Baptism, so that Baptism, in its completest sense, is the insep- arable complex of Water, Word, and Spirit, bringing heavenly grace. 5. That this grace is offered whenever Baptism is adminis- tered, and is actually conferred by the Holy Spirit, whenever the individual receiving it does not present in himself a con- scious voluntary barrier to its efficacy. This barrier, in the case of an individual personally responsible, is unbelief. In the case of an infant, there is no conscious voluntary barrier, and there is a divinely wrought receptivity of grace. The objector says, the infant cannot voluntarily receive the grace, therefore grace is not given. We reverse the proposition and reply, the infant cannot voluntarily reject grace, therefore .the grace is given. When we speak of a divinely wrought recep- tivity of grace, we imply that whatever God offers in the Word or element bears with the offer the power of being received 440 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. When He says to the man with a withered arm, " Keach forth thine arm ! " that which was impossible by nature is made possible by the very word of command. The Word and Sacraments per se break up the absoluteness of the natural bondage ; they bring an instant possibility of salvation. Grace is in them so far prevenient that he who has them may be saved, and if he be lost, is lost by his own fault alone. Is our Confession warranted by Holy Scripture in presenting these views of Baptism ? We answer, unhesitatingly, It is. The washing of Naaman (1 Kings v. 14) in the Jordan, may be considered as a foreshadowing of the baptismal idea. A promise was given to Naaman, to wit, that his leprosy should be healed. This promise was conditioned upon the presup- posed faith of Naaman, but this faith was not sufficient ; a mean was appointed for the fulfilment of the promise, and faith in the mean was as absolutely prerequisite in Naaman as faith in the promise. Faith in God always involves faith in His means as well as faith in His promises. If Naaman had not believed the promise he would not have gone to the Jordan ; but if Naaman had believed the promise, and had yet refused to go and wash — which was the attitude he actu- ally assumed at first — he would not have been saved from the leprosy. The washing of £Taaman was not an arbitrary association, but was made of God a real and operative mean, so that in, with, and under the water, the divine power wrought which healed his leprosy. Naaman was bound to the means, so that no element but water — no water but that of Jordan — would have availed to cleanse him. His faith would not cleanse him without the water. Abana and Pharpar, and every river that rolled, and every sea that lifted its waves, would have rolled and risen in vain, for the water that was to do such great things was not mere water, but that water which God had enjoined, and with which his promise was bound up (Luther: Smaller Catechism). Yet if Naaman, earnestly striving to reach the Jordan after the promise, had been providentially prevented, we may believe that God would have wrought the cure without the means. THE LUTHERAN SYSTEM. 441 Let us look at the representations of the New Testament. 1. Mark xvi. 16. " He that believeth, and is baptized, shall be saved ; but he that believeth not shall be damned.'' (The Saviour does not repeat the allusion to Baptism in the second part of this sentence, because he that does not be- lieve is already condemned, whether baptized or not.) Here is something mentioned as a mean, to wit, Baptism, and salvation is in some sense conditioned upon it. When men read : " He that believeth, and is not baptized, shall be saved," they separate what God has joined, aud contradict our Lord. But here, doubtless, our Lord draws the distinction in which our Church follows Him : faith is absolutely essential to sal- vation, baptism ordinarily essential only. 2. Acts ii. 38. " Then Peter said unto them, Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sin, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost." Here Baptism is represented as one mean, and for those who could have it, as the indispensable mean, to the remission of sin, and the receiving of the Holy Spirit. 3. Acts xxii. 16. " Arise and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord." 4. Romans vi. 3. " Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ, were baptized into His death ? Therefore we are buried with Him by baptism into death." 5. 1 Cor. xii. 13. u For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body." Here the agency of the Holy Spirit in Bap- tism, and the fact that in Baptism rightly received we are ingrafted into the one body of Christ, are distinctly taught. 6. Gal. ii:. 27. " For as many of you as have been bap- tized into Christ, have put on Christ." Baptism, in its wmole compcss and intent, is not meant to introduce into mere out- ward relations, but bears with it a grace by which he who rightly uses it is invested with the righteousness of Christ. 7. Col. ii. 12. " Buried with Him in Baptism, wherein (i. e. in Baptism) also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God." 8. 1 Peter hi. 20. " The ark .... wherein few, that is, eight souls, were s^ved by water. The like figure whereunto 442 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. even baptism doth also now save us ;" or, more literally, " Which (that is, water) doth now save you also, (that is) the antitype Baptism (doth now save you)." 9. John hi. 5. " Except a man be born of water, and of the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God." It is on this verse preeminently the phraseology of the part of the Con- fession now under consideration is based. It embraces the same class of persons of which our Confession speaks. The Confession speaks of "all men naturally born after Adam;" the Saviour speaks of " that which is born of the flesh," that is, all our race, infant and adult. Our Confession says they have sin ; our Saviour says they are flesh, that is, are corrupt. The Confession says they must be born again, in order to be saved ; our Lord says that unless they are born again, they cannot see the kingdom of God. The Confession attributes the new birth to the Holy Spirit as agent, so does our Lord ; the Confession attributes a part in the new birth to Baptism, so does our Lord. We must be born again of water. Alford, not a Lutheran, does not go too far when he says : " There can be no doubt, on any honest interpretation of the words, that c to be born of water,' refers to the token or Out- wakd sign of Baptism : ' to be born of the Spirit,' to the thing signified, or inward grace of the Holy Spirit. All attempts to get rid of these two plain facts have sprung from doc- trinal prejudices, by which the views of expositors have been warped. Such we have in Calvin, Grotius, Cocceius, Lampe, Tholuck, and others. All the better and deeper expositors have recognized the co-existence of the two — water and ths Spirit. So, for the most part the ancients : So Liicke, in his last edition, De Wette, Neander, Stier, Olshausen. Baptism, complete, with water and the Spirit, is the admission into the kingdom of God. Those who have received the outward sign and the spiritual grace have entered into that kingdom. ... It is observable that here as ordinarily, the outward sign comes first, and then the spiritual grace, vouchsafed in and by means of it, if duly received." 10. Ephes. v. 25-27. " Christ loved the Church, and gave Himself for it, that He might sanctify and cleanse it with THE CALVINISTIC SYSTEM. 443 the washing of water by the Word, that He may present it to Himself a glorious Church." 11. Heb. x. 22. "Let us draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil couscience, and our bodies washed with pure water." On this verse Alford remarks : " There can be no reasonable doubt that this clause refers directly to Christian baptism. The ' washing of water,' Eph. v. 26, and ' the washing of regeneration, ' Titus iii. 5, and the express mention of c our bodies ' here, as distinguished from ' our hearts,' stamps this interpretation with certainty, . . . for ' our bodies ' confines the reference to an outward act. And so Theophylact, Theo- doret, (Ecumenius, etc., Bdhme, Kuinoel, Tholuck, De Wette, Bleek, Liinemann, Delitzsch, and the majority of commenta- tors. Still, in maintaining the externality of the words, as referring, and referring solely to Baptism, we must remember that Baptism itself is not a mere external rite, but at every mention of it carries the thought further, to wit, to that spir- itual washing of which it is itself symbolical and sacramental." According to Delitzsch, " The washing the body with pure water is purely sacramental, the effect of baptism taken in its whole blessed meaning and fulfilment as regards our natural existence. As priests we are sprinkled, as priests we are bathed . . . washed in holy Baptism." 12. 1 John v. 6-8. " This is He that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ ; not by water only, but by water and blood. And there are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, the water, and the blood : and these three agree in one." 13. 1 Cor. vi. 11. " But ye are washed, but ye are sancti- fied, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God." 14. Titus hi. 5. " Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which He shed on us abundantly." Alford says : " Observe that here is no figure : the words are literal : Baptism is taken as in all its completion, the out- 444 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. ward, visible sign accompanied by the inward spiritual grace ; and as thus complete, it not only represents, but is the new birth, so that, as in 1 Pet. iii. 21, it is not the mere outward act or fact of Baptism to which we attach such high and glorious epithets, but that complete Baptism by water and the Holy Ghost, whereof the first cleansing by water is, indeed, the ordinary sign and seal, but whereof the glorious indwell- ing Spirit of God is the only efficient cause and continuous agent. Baptismal regeneration is the distinguishing doc trine of the new covenant (Matt. iii. 11,) but let us take care that we know and bear in mind what ' Baptism ' means : not the mere ecclesiastical act, not the mere fact of reception, by that act, among God's professing people, but that completed by the Divine act, manifested by the operation of the Holy Ghost in the heart and through the life." The words of Calvin on this same passage deserve to be pro- duced : "It ought to be accepted as a principle among good men, that God does not trifle with us by empty figures, but by His own power performs that inwardly which by the external sign he exhibits outwardly. Wherefore Baptism is fitly AND TRULY CALLED THE LAVER OF REGENERATION. He rightly holds the power and use of the Sacraments, who so connects the thing and the sign, that he neither makes the sign empty and inefficacious, nor, on the other hand, for the sake of its honor, detracts from the Holy Spirit what is due to Him." This will suffice to show how amply, by the very text of Holy Scripture, and even by the confession of interpreters who are not of our Church, her Confession is authorized in declar- ing that Baptism is one of the ordinary means of the Holy Spirit in working the new birth. XIII. That Baptism is the only ordinary means of univer- Thirteenth sa, l application will be denied by two classes alone. Thesis. Baptism The first class are those who deny that Baptism is the only ordinary means of nniver- a mean or grace at all, and those erronsts are sai application. a l rea( jy sufficiently answered by the passages we have given from the Word of God. The second class are those who deny that infants should be baptized, and who, con- sequently, maintain that there is no mean of grace provided PELAGIUS. 445 for them. This error, so far as its discussion properly comes under the head of Original Sin, has already been met. The ampler discussion of the question belongs to the Article on Baptism. Here then we reach the close of the positive part of the Arti- cle of the Augsburg Confession on Original Sin : the rest is antithetical. This Article of the Confession, as we have seen, is grounded in every line, and in every word, on God's sure testimony, and proves, in common with the other parts of that matchless Symbol in which it stands, that when our fathers sought in God's "Word for light, sought with earnest prayer, and with the tears of holy ardor, for the guidance of the Holy Spirit into the deep meaning of His Word, they sought not in vain. XIV. In maintaining the true doctrine of Original Sin, our Church, of necessity, condemns: Fourteenth 1. The Pelagians; that is, it condemns them in i8 J ™ 'antithesis their doctrine, not bv anv means in their person, to the scriptural 17 J # r 7 doctrine of Origi- so far as that is separable from their doctrine. nai sin. 2. It condemns, in the same way, all others who deny that the vice of origin is sin ; and 3. It condemns all who contend that man, by his own strength, as a rational being, can be justified before God ; and who thus diminish the glory of the merit of Christ, and of His benefits. Pelagius was a British monk, who flourished under the Emperors Arcadius, Theodosius, and Honorius. About the year 415 he began to teach unscriptural views in regard to the freedom of the human will. Violently opposing the Manichseans, who supposed a corruption in man which involved an essential evil in his very substance, he ran to the opposite extreme. The errors of Pelagius, which our fathers had in view in this solemn rejection of them in the Confession, are not diffi- cult to ascertaiu. Our confessors knew the views of Pelagius mainly from the powerful confutation of them in the works of Augustine, who styled him the enemy of grace, and to these we must go to ascertain what they meant to condemn in con- 446 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. demning Pelagiarrism. This is the more necessary, as there are modern writers who maintain that Pelagius was not the errorist Augustine supposed him to be, and that much of the controversy was really a war of terms. We do not believe this theory to be correct ; we are satisfied that in all the main points, Augustine perfectly understood and fairly represented the position of Pelagius. But be this as it may, it cannot be disputed that, to understand the meaning of our Confession, we must take what was the accepted meaning of terms when it was framed. The characteristics we now give of Pelagian- ism are based mainly upon the statements of Augustine, and, for the most part, are literally translated from his very words. 1. The Pelagians " denied that little children born after Adam contract from their very birth the contagion of the old death." The Augsburg Confession maintains, on the contrary, that " after the fall of Adam, all human beings, born in the order of nature, are conceived and born in sin." 2. " Little children are born without any fetter of original sin." They neither contract nor have it from their parents. 3. " There is, therefore, no necessity that they, by a second or new birth, should be released from this." 4. The Pelagians did not deny the duty of baptizing infants, nor did they dare to go so violently against the consciousness and faith of the entire Church as to deny that Baptism is a mean of regeneration. Those who deny this in our day are more Pelagian than Pelagius himself. The Pelagians con- tended that infants " are baptized, that by regeneration they may be admitted to the kingdom of God, being thereby trans- ferred from what is good to what is better, not that by that renewal they were set free from any evil of the old obligation." 5. " If children were unbaptized, they would have, indeed, a place out of the kingdom of God, yet, nevertheless, a blessed and eternal life," in virtue of their personal innocence. 6. " If Adam had not sinned he would, nevertheless, have died bodily, his death not being the desert of his sin, but arising from the condition of nature." Death is, therefore, not the penalty of sin. These illustrations are extracted from Augustine's Book on Heresies (chap, lxxxviii). THE ANABAPTISTS— ZWIKGLL 447 In the Second Book of Augustine on Perseverance (chap, ii.), he says : " There are three points on which the Church Catho- lic mainly opposes the Pelagians. 7. " One of these doctrines with which she opposes them is, that the grace of God is not given because of our merits. 8. " The second is, that whatever may be the righteousness of a man, no one lives in this corruptible body without sins of some kind. 9. " The third is, that man contracts liability by the sin of the first man, and would come under the fetter of condemna- tion were not the accountability which is contracted by gen- eration dissolved by regeneration." 10. In the same book he attributes to the Pelagians the doc- trine that " Adam's sin injured no one bnt himself." The following statements, drawn from other reliable sources, will further illustrate the characteristics of Pelagianism : 1. Pelagius originally asserted that man without grace can perform all the commands of G-od. Under the pressure of the urgency of his brethren he subsequently admitted that some aid of Divine grace is desirable, but only that we might more easily do God"s commands. 2. That concupiscence or desire, which is in man by nature, is good, and that the whole nature of man, even after the fall, remains entire and incorrupt, so that even in spiritual things he could do good, and fulfil the will of God. 3. That sin is contracted entirely by example and imitation, not at all by propagation. The confessors, in the Antithesis, may have had reference, moreover, to f he Anabaptists, who maintained : n. The Ana 1. " That sin was so taken away by the death of baptist8 ' Christ that infants, under the Xew Testament, are born with- out sin, and are innocent, the servitude of death alone excepted ; 2. "And, therefore, deny that infants are to be baptized, since they are born subject to no sin." It is not a matter of perfect agreement among the writers on our Confession, whether Zwingli is alluded to , . . . _ . _ ° _ . III. Zwingli. in the Antithesis. Our old standard writers are almost unanimous in believing that he was, at least, one of 448 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. those alluded to. Such is the view, for example, of Ment- zer, Gerhard, Hoffmann, Carpzov, Walch, and Baumgarten. Among recent writers Ccelln* devotes a considerable part of a special treatise to the establishing of this point, and places it beyond all reasonable doubt. It is true that Zwingli signed the Articles of the Marburg Colloquy (1529), which were prepared by Luther, the fourth of which treats of Original Sin, but which shows, in common with the others, that Luther designed to make the way to harmony of view as easy as could be consistent with principle. In the Confession which Zwingli prepared to be pre- sented to Charles V. at the Diet of Worms, he says: " "Whether we will, or will not, we are forced to admit that original sin, as it is in the sons of Adam, is not properly sin, as has just been explained. For it is not a deed contrary to the law. It is, therefore, properly a disease and a condition." "Infants have not guilt, but have the punishment and penalty of guilt, to wit, a condition of servitude, and the state of convicts. If, therefore, it is right to call it guilt, because it bears the inflic- tions of guilt, I do not object to the term." That is he did not object to the term, provided it was clearly understood that the term meant nothing. In his book on Baptism, Zwingli says : " There is nothing in the children of believers, even before Baptism, which can properly be called sin." Alting, the distinguished Reformed divine who wrote an Exegesis, Logical and Theological, of the Augsburg Confes- sion, declares that it is a calumny to assert that Zwingli denied that original sin is truly sin, and says that he merely denied that it was actual sin. But if by denying that it is actual, he merely meant that it is not a sin committed by deed, he denied what no one affirms ; but if he meant that it was not a real sin, then he denied the very thing which, according to Alting, it is a calumny to charge upon him, Zwingli was a patriot, and as such we admire him, but he was, as compared with QEcolampadius, not to mention Calvin, an exceedingly poor theologian. Justus Jonas says of him that he occupied himself with letters in the face of the anger of the Muses and of the unwillingness of Minerva — " Iratis Musis et * Confess. Melanchthonis et Zvvinglii, etc., 1880. Z WING LI. 449 mvita Minerva." It is not for their intrinsic value, but for his- torical reasons, that it is important to follow him in his views. He certainly did not hold, thoroughly and consistently, the doc- trine which is coached in the language of our Confession, that " original sin is truly sin." His fallacy is the ordinary one, that the character of sin is in the deed, not in the essence of moral nature, which originates the deed ; that sin cannot be, but must always be done. In other words, he makes a real, not a merely phenomenal difference between sin in us, and sin by us ; the sin we have, and the sin we do. Every such distinction is Pelagian. Zwingli illustrates the condition of the race as that of the children born to one who has been captured in war. " Those born of him are slaves, not by their fault, guilt, or crime, but by the condition which followed a fault, for the parent from whom they are born deserved this by his crime. The children have no guilt." AH this naturally means that our race inherits the penalties of guilt, but not guilt itself. They are innocent, but are treated as guilty. In God's thoughts they are spotless ; in God's acts they are polluted. The provi- dence of God, and the actual course of His administration, are not a reflection of His judgment, but a perversion of it. Zwin- gli's illustration only aggravates the case. He takes one of the most atrocious acts of human cruelty towards enemies in war, and finds in it a parallel to God's dealings with man. His theory leaves the most difficult facts untouched, while it removes the only possible solution of them. Of all modes of looking at the subject, this seems to be the most confused and objectionable. It is simply self-conflicting Pelagianism. Pela- gianism denied both the effect and the cause. Zwingli leaves the effect and denies the cause. In Zwingli's letter to Urban Kbegius (1525), he says: " What could be clearer than that orig- inal sin is not sin, but a disease? What could be weaker and more alien to Scripture than to say that this calamity is alle- viated by the laver of Baptism, and is not merely a disease ? " In the Book on Baptism, written the same year, he says : " We affirm that original sin is only that disease which we derive by inheritance. Therefore, original sin does not merit damnation. How can it be that that which is disease and 29 450 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. contagion merits the name of sin, or is sin in reality (revera) ? " ■ • ■ " < The language of the condemnatory clause also refers to the Pelagianism of the Scholastics, and of many of IV. Other Pela- » ' J gianizing teach- the Komish Church contemporary with the confes- ers ' sors. The Romish Church praises Augustine, and follows Pelagius. It also, hy anticipation, condemns the Pelagianizing ten- dencies of the Council of Trent, and of the theologians who defended its decisions, among whom the Jesuits were pre- eminent. It also, in the same way, condemns the Socinian, Armin- ian, and Rationalistic Theology, and the schools which ap- proximate it. In short, all teaching which denies that the fault of origin is sin — all teaching that favors the idea that man hy his own power of reason can be justified before God — all teaching that tends to diminish the glory of the merit and of the benefit of Christ, is here condemned. In fairly estimating much of the plausible sophistry by which Pelagianism is maintained, it is well to remember that even when actual sin takes place, the condition or state of sin must be antecedent to the act. A being who has ever been holy, must cease to be holy, before he can will or do sin. This is the necessary order of succession and of conception, even if it be granted that these stages are synchronal. Not all real precessions are precessions in time. The doing originates in the willing, the willing presupposes the will as a faculty, the will as a faculty must be in a determinate condition antecedent to a determinate act, and the act takes its being and character from the condition. There can be no moral act without ante- cedent moral condition. The condition of the will may result in four ways : I. It may be concreate, as God establishes it : or, II. It may be affected by influences from without, — it may be tested, tried, or tempted in the nature of things, or by another will : or, III. It may result from a self -determining povier in the will as a faculty : or, OTHER PELAGTANIZING TEACHERS. 451 IV. It may be innate and connate. I. The first condition of the will of angels, and of Adam, was concreate ; it was holy and untempted. II. Its second condition was that of the angels, tested in the nature of things by the essential character of virtue, which, on one side, is the negative of moral evil, the possibility of which evil is implied in the very denial of it, and by moral freedom, which is not continuously possible without choice. It is also the condition of Eve's will affected by the nature of things within and without her, and by the will of the serpent. It is also the condition of Adam's will tested by the nature of things, by the now corrupted will of his wife, and through her by the will of the serpent. So far as the fruit attracted Eve simply as pleasant to eat, and beautiful to look upon, the attraction was purely natural, and morally indifferent. The prohibitory command meant that the natural instincts, even of an unfallen creature, are not sufficient for the evolution of the highest moral character, but that to this character it is essen- tial that there shall be the voluntary and continuous con- formity of the will of the creature to the will of the Creator. Original righteousness is, per se, a condition of the will, and is antecedent to the first act of will. How a will, whose original condition is holy, can come to a sinful condition, as it involves an ultimate principle, cannot be grasped by man, yet, what- ever may furnish the occasion, the cause is the will itself: u The cause of sin is the will of the wicked " (causa peccati est voluntas malorum). " The perverted will (verkehrte Wille) work- eth sin . . . which will has turned itself from God to evil (zum Argen)." These words imply that sin the act, is the result of sin the condition. The condition of the will is the cause of the moral act as moral, and the perverted condition of the will the cause of the moral acts being perverted, that is, sinful. We reach the last point to which the mind of man can go, when we assert that in the self- determining power of a finite holy will lies the possibility of its becoming an unholy will. We may say that the finite is, in the nature of things, liable to the possibility of sin, that the positive good of freedom in the * Aug Conf. Art. xix. 452 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION creature involves the incidental evil of the power of abuse, It is easy to multiply these common-places of the argument. But none of these solutions bear upon the process of the change of condition. They may show that the change is possible, but they do not show how it takes place. ISTor, indeed, is a solution cf the question of the how necessary here. The philosophy of the mode in no way affects the certainty that the moral condition of the will precedes and determines its acts. While a will is holy in condition, it is impossible that it should be unholy in act. The act is what the condition is. The act has no moral character except as it derives it from the condition of the will in which it originated. Things are not moral or immoral, only persons are. The essential sin never comes to being in the thought or act, but is, and must be, in being before there can be a sinful thought or sinful act. The thought or act is not the root of sin, but sin is the root of the thought and act. " Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts " — that is, evil thought is the out- going from an evil heart — act from condition. " Every imagi- nation of the thoughts of his heart was only evil." " Heart " implies will in condition, and to this the "imagination of the thoughts " is secondary and derivative. The act is deter- mined, the Avill is determining, and the self-existent cause of its particular determination, beyond which cause we cannot go, is its condition. Each of the derivative conditions supposes a preexistent one, and when we reach, as we soon must in this retrospection, the first condition, which is the sine qua non of the second, as the second is of the third, we reach a point at which we are forced to acknowledge that all actual sin, in some measure, results from a primary condition of the will. As in the order of nature there must be the process of thinking before the result of thought, and there must be mind before thinking;, and a particular and specific condition of mind before the par- ticular and specific thinking which eventuates in the particu- lar and specific thought, so must there be the process of moral activity before the resulting moral act, and a faculty of will before the process of moral activity, and a particular and spe- cific condition of the faculty of will before the particular and specific willing which reveals itself in the particular moral act. OTHER PELAGIANIZING TEACHERS. 453 When we say that the morality of an act is conditioned by the will, we mean simply that the character of the act is derived from the condition of the will. The sin is really in the condi- tion of the will. The sin done is but phenomenal to the real sin. In this respect all sin is essentially original ; and of the two extremes of statement, it would be more logical to assert that all sin is in its own nature original, and no sin in proper essence actual, than to assume that all sin is actual, and no sin original. Luther : * " Original sin, or sin of nature, sin of person, is the real cardinal sin (Hauptsunde). Did it not exist, no actual sin would exist. It is not a sin which is done, like all other sins, but it is, it lives, and does all sins, and is the essential (wesentliche) sin." If this estimate of the bearing of the condition of will upon the controversy between the Church and Pelagianism be cor- rect, it is evident that the great question at issue is, In which of the four conditions enumerated is the will of man now? I. It is Pelagian to assert that the primary condition of the will of man now is that of concreate holiness, as it was endowed in the beginning by God. " Every man is born in the same perfection wherein Adam was before his fall, save only the per- fection of age." II. It is Pelagian to assert that the primary condition of the will is now made by influences from without. " Adam endam- aged . . his posterity only by his example, so far forth as they imitate him." " There is no original sin, or corruption of human nature." III. It is Pelagian to assert that the primary condition of the will now is, or results from, a self-determining exercise of the will. " Man of himself is able to resist the strongest tempta- tions." " The well-using of free-will and of natural powers is the cause of predestination." IV. It is Pelagian to deny that the present condition of our will is inherited by natural descent : " Adam by his sin en- damaged only himself," or, to assert that though our pres- ent condition of will may be connate, yet that this connate condition is either * Hauss-postilla on the Gospel for New Year. 454 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. 1. Like that of concreate holiness; or, 2. Like that of Adam when his condition was that of tempted holiness, with the natural power of successful resist- ance ; or, 3. That of self-determination, which still freely exercises itself; or, 4. That of non-moral passivity, neutrality, or indifference. Over against these, the Scripture view is : I. That man's will is not in a condition of concreate holiness, but has lost that condition. II. That the positive element which affects its condition is -»ot external, as example, education, or temptation, but internal, corrupt desire, or concupiscence. III. That its condition allows of no self -determining power in the sphere of grace. IV. That this condition is connate, is properly called sin, is really sin, justly liable in its own nature to the penalties of sin ; that without the work of grace wrought, it would have brought eternal death to the whole race, and does now bring death to all to whom that work of grace is not, either ordi- narily or extraordinarily, applied by the Holy Ghost. Faithful to these doctrines, and over against all the tenden- cies which conflict with them, our Confession, both in its Thesis and Antithesis, holds forth the truth' of the exceeding sinful- ness and the utter helplessness of man's nature, the goodness of God, the all - sufficiency of Christ, and the freeness of justification. Looking at original sin as God's Word and our Church teaches us to regard it, we shall See its true character, and deplore the misery it has wrought. We shall go to Christ, the great Physician, to be healed of it, and to the Holy Spirit, who, by His own means, Bap- tism and the Word, applies for Christ the remedy we need; taking of the things that are Christ's, and making them ours. We shall be led to maintain a continual struggle against it ; we shall watch, pray, and strive, knowing that through grace we are already redeemed from its curse ; that by the OTHER PELAGIANIZING TEACHERS. 455 same grace we shall be niore and more redeemed here from its power, and at last be wholly purged from it, and shall form a part of that Church, loved and glorious, which shall show no spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing, but shall stand before her Lord holy and without blemish. And now, in the language in which the incomparable Ger- hard closes his discussion of original sin, let our words be: " To Him that hath died for us, that sin might die in us ; to Him who came that He might destroy the works of the Devil, and might restore to us the blessings lost by the Fall ; to Jesus Christ our Saviour, be praise, honor, and glory, world without eod. Amen ! " X. 1'HE PEESON OF OUR LORD AND HIS SACRAMENTAL PRESENCE. — THE EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN AND THE REFORMED DOCTRINES COMPARED * (AUGSBUBG CONFESSION. ART. III.) IN the January number of the Bibliotheca Sacra, for 1863, the opening article is a very elaborate one, from the pen of i.Dr.Gerbart'8 Rev - E - V - Gerhart, D. D. Its subject is the " Ger- Articie. m an Reformed Church." It was read at the time with special interest, as the Puritanism of New England, which has been supposed to carry out the Reformed principles to their furthest extreme, and the German Reformed Church, in which those principles were more modified and subdued than in any unquestionably Calvinistic Church, were brought * Brentius : De Personali Unione. Tubing. 1561. 4to.; Sent, de Lib. Bullinger Tubing. 1561. 4to.; De Maj estat. Domin. nostri. Frankf. 1562. 4to.; Becogn. proph et Apostol. doctrin. Tubing. 1564. 4to. — Bull: Defens. Fid. Nicsenge. Oxon. 1688 4to. — Calixtus : F. U. Bef. ad Calov. Theses. (De Christo. 67.) Helmst. 1668 4to. — Calovius: Harmonia Calixt. Haeret. (De Christo. 938.) Witteb. 1655. 4to. Colleg. Disput. Controv. (De Christo. 62.) Witteb. 1667. 4to. — Chemnitz: De duab. nat in Christo. Jena. 1570. 8vo. — Dorner : Entw. gesch. d. L. v. Person Christi. 1845-56. 8vo. — Gess : Die L. v. d. Person Christi. 1856. 8vo. — Hun- nius Aeg.: De Persona Christi. Frankf. 1597. 12mo. — Liebner: Christol. 1849. — ■ L , • i j. and Calvinistic not, in our judgment, satisfactorily account, as systems, its Dr. Gerhart supposes, for their divergence in the Source - Reformation. The root of the divergence lies in the very nature of Christianity ; and there can be no satisfactory solu- tion of the differences between the Zwinglio-Calvinistic, and the Lutheran Reformations, and the Churches which were established upon them, except this, that the one accepted the true, the other a mistaken meaning of God's Word, on certain points. That is, and will forever remain, the real question between them. We have no less serious objection to Dr. Gerhart's state- ment of the Lutheran doctrine of the presence of Christ in 458 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. the Lord's Supper. He states a number of important respects, in which he supposes the two Churches to agree touching Christ's sacramental presence. He then goes on to say : " But they differ as to the mode." The inference here might seem to be natural that the Churches as;ree as to a fact, III. Doctrine ° . ' of Christ's Pres- but not as to its philosophy, but this representation is inadequate, for the point of difference is as to the fact, and, indeed, in a very important sense, not at all as to the mode. Our controversy with Socinians is not as to the mode of the Trinity, for we confess that we cannot explain how the Trinal Unity exists, but it is as to the fact, whether there be a true Trinity in Unity, and not a mere ideal distinction. So in regard to the presence of Christ, our dispute is not as to how he is present, which, like the whole doctrine of His person, is an inscrutable mystery, but as to whether there be a true, not an ideal presence. It is the essence of the doctrine, not its form, which divides us from the Reformed. Let them satisfy us that they accept the fact, and we shall have no quarrel as to the philosophy of the mode, so far as the question of mode is separable from that of fact. Let us agree as to the kind of presence, its objective reality ; let us agree that the true body and true blood of Christ are truly present, so that the bread is the communicating medium of the one, the cup of the other, and use these terms in one and the same sense, and we can well submit the mode of the mystery to the Omniscient, to whom alone mode is comprehensible. The next statement of Dr. Gerhart seems to us entirely a iv. The lu- m i s taken one. He says : " The Lutheran Church theran Church * . teaches no Local teaches that the veritable flesh and blood of Christ Christ n< are locally present, being in, with, and under the consecrated bread and wine." On the contrary, the Lutheran Church denies that there is a local presence of Christ's body and blood, and if such a presence be meant, she would deny that there is any presence of them "in, with, and under the consecrated elements." Between us and the Eeformed there never has been, there never can be, a controversy on so simple a point as this. The Lutheran Church maintains that there 16 a true presence of Christ's human nature, which is neither < LOCAL PRESENCE OF CHRIST. 459 local nor determinate. The body of Christ which, in its own nature, is determinate^ in heaven, and is thus present nowhere else, nor will be thus present on earth till His second coming, has also another presence, diverse from the determinate, yet no less true. It is present through that Divine nature into whose personality it has been received, and with which it has formed an inseparable union, whose lowest demand is the co-presence of the two parts. If there be a place where the human nature of Christ is not united with the second person of the Trinity, then there is a place where the second person of the Trinity is not incarnate. If this be granted, then the whole second per- son of the Trinity is unincarnate, for where God is, He is not in part (for He is indivisible), but He is entire. Then the second person of the Trinity is either not incarnate at all, or He is both incarnate and unincarnate ; or there are two second persons of the Trinity, with one of whom the human nature of Christ is one person, the extent of the incarnation being commensurate with that of our Saviour's body in heaven, and the other second person of the Trinity omnipresent, but not incarnate, all of which suppositions are absurd, and yet one or other of them must be accepted, if the Lutheran doctrine be denied. The truth is, that when we admit the personal union of the human nature of Christ with a divine nature, we have already admitted the fact, in which the mystery of Christ's Sacramental presence is absorbed. The whole Divine person of Christ is confessedly present at the Supper, but the human nature has been taken into that personality, and forms one person with it ; hence the one person of Christ, consisting of the two matures, is present, and of necessity the two natures which constitute it are present. As the divine nature, without extension, expansion, ot locality, has a presence which is no less true than the local presence, from which it is wholly diverse, so does it render present the human, which is now in one personality with it, — renders it present without extension, expansion, or locality ; for, as is the presence which the divine has, so must be the presence of the human which it makes. If we are asked what is the kind of the presence of the Divine nature of Christ, we 460 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. reply, it is a true, illocal presence, after the manner of an infinite Spirit, incomprehensible to us : and if we are asked, what is the kind of the presence of the human nature of Christ, we reply, it is a true illocal presence after the manner in which an infinite Spirit renders present a human nature which is one person with it — a manner incomprehensible to us. Nor is the idea at all that the human nature of Christ exercises through anything inherent in it this omnipresence, for it remains, in itself, forever a true human nature, and is omnipresent only through the divine. The physical eye sees through the essential power of the soul, and the soul sees by the eye as its organ. So are the powers of the human Christ conditioned by the essential attributes of the Godhead, and the Godhead works through the Manhood of Christ as its organ. The eye never becomes spirit, and the soul never becomes mat- ter, So in Christ the divine forever is divine, the human forever human, without absorption or confusion, though the human acts through the divine, and the divine acts by the human. The Lutheran Church does not hold to any local presence of the body of Christ in, or any local conjunction of the body of Christ with, or any local administration of the body of Christ under the bread, or of His blood in, with, and under the wine. The sphere of the reality of the sacramental mystery is not of this world. The sphere in which our Lord sacramentally applies His redeeming work is that in which He made it. That sphere was indeed on this earth, but not of it. Our Lord made His propitiatory sacrifice ; it was a true and real sacri- fice, but its truth and reality are not of the nature of this earth, nor comprehensible by any of its modes of apprehension. Judged by the world's standards, the blood of the Lamb of God has no more efficacy than the blood of animal sacrifices. But there is a sphere of reality m which the shedding of Christ's blood was an actual ransom for the sins of the race. The atonement is of the invisible world, and hence incompre- hensible to us, who are of the visible. In the same order of verities is the sacramental presence which applies what the atonement provided. It is a most true presence, but not in the sphere of this life. If presence means location; if sacra- IS SACRAMENTAL COMMUNION ORAL? 461 mental is a convertible term with fleshly, earthly, natural, (as the opposite of spiritual,) then the Lutheran Church would deny that there is a sacramental presence of Christ. But a presence of the whole person of Christ, of the divine by its inherent omnipresence, and of the human through the divine — a presence, not ideal or feigned, but most true ; not fleshly, but spiritual ; not after the manner of this earth, but of the unseen world; not natural, but supernatural — this presence the Lutheran Church maintains, and, God helping her, wil 1 maintain to the end of time. Dr. Gerhart goes on to say that the Lutheran Church holds that " communicants, unbelievers as well as believ- ,, T ' V. Is sacra- ers, partake of the human nature of Christ with mental commu- the mouth ; the one class of persons eating and drinking damnation to themselves, not discerning the Lord's body, and the other class eating and drinking unto sanctifi- cation and everlasting life." We have looked a little into Lutheran theology, and must confess that the expression, " partaking of the human nature of Christ with the mouth," is one which we never met, and which is to us incomprehensible. Iso such phrase occurs in the citations made from our Confes- sions by Dr. Gerhart, and no such phrase, we think, can be found in them. If there be such a phrase in any of our approved theologians, we should have been glad to have Dr. Gerhart quote it. But waiving this, does the Lutheran Church, as a whole, present in her Confession the words " with the mouth," as an essential part of the definition of the sacra- mental reception of the body and blood of Christ? We reply, She does not. The Augsburg Confession, the only distinctive symbol universally recognized in the Lutheran Church, has no such expression, although it was in part prepared to show that our Church was free from the Zwinglian error on this very question of the sacramental presence. The Apology, which amplifies and defends the disputed statements of the Confession, has not these words. The Smaller Catechism has no such words. The Larger Catechism has no such words. The Smalcald Articles have no such words. In Luther's Four- teen Articles drawn up at the Colloquy at Marburg, for the 462 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. express and sole purpose of comparing the conflicting views of Zwinglians and Lutherans, not a word is said of a reception "by the mouth." The same is true of the Wittenberg Con- cord, drawn up with like aims. The fact is, therefore, that the defining term " by the mouth," cannot be demonstrated to be an essential part of the Lutheran Confessional statement. Entire national bodies of Lutherans have existed for centu- ries, and now exist, who have no such expression in their Confessions. It is true that the Formula of Concord, which appeared thirty-four years after Luther's death, does use and defend the term, and that this Formula, not without good reason, has been generally received in the Germanic Churches, and either formally or virtually by an immense majority of all our Churches, and that it is confessedly a just and noble scientific development of the Lutheran faith. But when the Formula and our theologians speak of a reception by the mouth, they speak, as we may, of the reception of the Holy Spirit in, with, and under the preached Word, by the ear, not meaning at all that there is, or can be, a physical grasping of the Holy Spirit by the organ of sense, but that the Word is the medium, through which His presence is operative, and that the Word, and by Divine appointment, the Holy Spirit, in, with, and under the Word, is received by the soul through the ear. Our Gerhard, of whom the Professor of Franklin and Mar- shall College is almost a namesake, defines the words in ques- tion in this way : " The sacramental eating of the body oi Christ is none other than with the mouth to receive the euchar- istic ' bread, which is the communion of the body of Christ,' (1 Cor. x. 16). This sacramental eating is said to be spiritual, because the body of Christ is not eaten naturally, and because the mode of eating, like the presence itself, is neither natural, carnal, physical, nor local, but supernatural, divine, mystical, heavenly, and spiritual. . . The Word of God is the food of the soul, and yet is received by the bodily ear." If, indeed, there be such a thing as a Sacrament, a something distinct from language, as means of grace, it must be received in some other way than by hearing, or sight, or in the mode in which WHO RECEIVE CHRIST SACRAMENTALLY? 463 language addresses itself to them. If Baptism be a sacrament ; if the water, by its conjunction with the "Word, becomes also bearer of the grace which the Holy Spirit in His substantial presence, in, with, and under both water and Word, confers, then is the reception of the Holy Spirit mediated, in some sense, through the body which is touched by the water, as well as through the ear, which hears the Word. If, in the Lord's Supper, the distinctive element is something to -be received by the mouth, then the mouth acts some essential part in the reception of the thing offered in the Supper, be that thing what it may. Any theory which rejects the idea of oral reception in every sense, really denies the whole sacra- mental character of the Lord's Supper. If the bread commu- nicates the body of Christ, and the bread is to be received orally, the result is inevitable that the sacramental eating is with the mouth. 'Eor is this so isolated a marvel. The Holy Ghost is personally and substantially present in, with, and under the Word. When the blind, therefore, as they can and sometimes do, read the Word by pressing the lips, instead of the fingers, to the raised characters, there is, in some sense, an oral reception of the Holy Ghost. As to the doctrine that believers and unbelievers partake sacramentally, though believers alone partake sav- VI Who ingly, it seems to us that any doctrine which con- ceive Christ sac- cedes a responsibility in man, and an impartiality ram- in God, must suppose that the sacrament offers to all who receive it the same thing ; the difference in the result being made by the faith or unbelief of the recipient. Dr. Gerhart, indeed, himself says, that the Reformed Con- fessions deny, " That the objective efficacy of the sacrament depends on the faith, or any frame of mind of the communi- cant." These words, as we understand them, involve the doc- trine that there is a positive object in the sacrament, which exists apart from the faith of the communicant. If the Doctor uses the word " efficacy " in its ordinary acceptation, he must either mean " efficacy " for good, in which case he goes beyond the Lutheran doctrine, and falls into the opus operatum of Rome; or he must mean "efficacy" for evil or judgment, in 464 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. the case of the unbelieving, in which case he practically takes ground with the Lutheran Church on this point. Nor does it seem to us that this doctrine of our Church can he success- fully denied. When the Word of God is preached, the sinner who is melted to penitence, and the sinner who hardens him- self against it, receive precisely the same Gospel. What the ear receives in each case is exactly the same. The Gospel is not made Gospel by our faith, nor made mere sound by our unbelief. Our unbelief cannot make the promise of God cease to be His promise. Faith accepts, and unbelief rejects what is : the one no more unmakes it than the other makes it. The responsibility of the hardened hearer turns upon this very thing, that receiving God's Word he does not discern it, but treats it as if it were man's word ; and so in the Lutheran view the criminality of the unworthy communicant is preeminently this, that partaking of that bread, which is the communion of Christ's body, he does not " discern the body of the Lord." If the words "partake " or " receive " are so used as to imply a salutary acceptance with the heart, then our Church would say that believers alone partake in the Lord's Supper. But faith must have an object, and the object of faith can always, in the nature of things, be an object of unbelief. Our Church maintains that the object on which the faith of the worthy communicant, and the unbelief of the unworthy communicant, rest, is the same. Sacramentally they receive the same thing, which efficaciously the believer alone receives, and the differ- ence at the table of the Lord originates, not in the arrange merit of God, but in the state of the recipient. Bread is bread, although the diseased state of the man who receives it may make it act like a poison. The presence of Christ is an abso- lute verity, and is no more affected in its reality by our unbe- lief, than a wedge of gold ceases to be gold because it may be neglected or spurned as if it were brass. A man may throw away the wedge of gold, but it is no less gold, and has none the less truly been placed in his hand. Dr. Gerhart then goes on to say, contrasting the doctrines of the two communions : " The Reformed Church, on the con* trary, teaches that the divine-human Saviour is present, not DOCTRINES OF THE LORD'S SUPPER. 465 locally, nor -carnally, but spiritually." To this we reply that it is not on the contrary. The Lutheran Church repeatedly and unequivocally has denied all local or carnal presence of Christ's body, and has affirmed that, as antagonistic to any such conceptions, His presence is ".spiritual." When the word " spiritual," however, is used as the opposite vn . Ih8 . Ee . of "true," and means that His presence is one which formed and Lu " 1 J - # m theran doctrines rests on our intellectual operation, or on our faith, of the Lord's sup- and not on the nature of His own person, then our per ' Church denies that it is "spiritual." Dr. Gerhart, however, defines the words differently from either of these meanings. He says : " Not locally, nor carnally, hut spiritually ; that is, by the Holy Ghost." The Reformed Church maintains that Christ's sacramental presence is mediated by the Holy Spirit. The Lutheran Church, on the contrary, maintains that it is through the divine nature in Christ's own person, and that Christ is present, not because the Holy Spirit enables Him to be present to faith, though absent in reality, but because, in His own inseparable person, the Godhead is of itself present, and the humanity is rendered present through the Godhead. The Trinity is indeed indivisible, and the Holy Spirit is pres- ent at the Supper. But the persons of the Trinity have their distinctive work. It is the work of the Holy Spirit to illu- mine the mind and kindle the heart to the reception of the great gift which the glorious Saviour, present in His own per- son, offers to the soul. The whole Christ is truly present after the incomprehensible manner of that world of mystery and of verity in which He reigns. He applies, to faith, at His table, the redemption which he wrought upon the cross. Through His body and blood He purchased our salvation — truly and supernaturally ; through His body and blood He applies salvation — truly and supernaturally. In Christ's Sup- per, as in His person, the human and natural is the organ of the divine and supernatural which glorifies it. As is the redemption, so is its sacrament. The foundation of both is the same, and lies forever inapproachable by man, in the lowest depth of the eternal mind. In the redemption, nature furnished the outward organ of the divine, in the frail body and the 466 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. flowing blood of our crucified Lord. Through this organ an infinite ransom was accomplished. In the Supper, the organ of the redemption becomes the organ of its application. With an artlessness which heightens its grandeur, this redemption, which forever centres in Christ's sacred and undivided person, veils its supernatural powers under the simplest elements which sustain and revive our natural life. But faith none the less clearly sees that the bread which we break is the communion of Christ's body, and that the cup of blessing which we bless is the communion of His blood. In illustrating and defending the doctrine of God's Word, we shall quote with some fulness from Chemnitz as illustrative of the Lutheran doctrine of the person of Christ, as bearing on His presence in the Lord's Supper, and with reference to various misapprehensions of it. We desire to present the views of Chemnitz, the greatest of the dogmatic theologians of the Chemnitz on Sixteenth Century, not because of the weight which the personal pres- fog name bears, nor merely because of the exquisite ence of Christ. , . , . n -i • i , i • , • combination of sound judgment, erudition, pro- found thought and clear reasoning, with great mildness, and a simple and scriptural piety which characterized him, but mainly for two reasons. First, because he bore so distinguished a part in the preparation of the Formula of Concord, and in the subsequent master^ defence of it ; and secondly, because he was of the school which, in order to narrow the ground of contro- versy, had preferred waiving the question of a general omnipres- ence of Christ in His human nature, and confining attention mainly to that presence in which His people are most directly interested, His presence with His Church — everywhere and at all times, and especially at His Supper. " The words in the History of the Ascension are rightly i. on the a b - taken in their simple, literal, and natural significa- ^nsion and Re- ^ on . £ or wnen Christ ascended, according to the turn of Christ. . -^ . , . ., , i. The Ascension description of the Evangelists, He was, by a visible strictly Literal. mo ^ on ^ lifted up on high, in a circumscribed form and location of the body, so that, by a visible interval, He departed further and further from the presence of the Apos- CHRIST'S ASCENSION. 467 ties. For such is the force of the words ' to go up,' c to be taken up,' ' to be parted from them,' ' to be received up,' which are employed in describing His ascension." " That visible, manifest, bodily, or sensible intercourse or sojourning, therefore, which, in a circumscribed & The Ascen- and visible form He had hitherto had with His TelpeTt renTo^Tng disciples on earth, He has by His ascension with- Christ from us - drawn from us who are on earth, so that in that form, and in thai mode of presence, He does not now have intercourse with us in the world." " But (in the form and mode of presence just de- scribed) thus He appears in heaven to the angels and saints " (Rev. xiv. 1). " In that form also in which the Apostles saw Him ascend, He shall descend from heaven, in glory, to the judg bient (Acts i. 2 ; iv. 16), in a visible and circumscribed form." " So far, (that is, on all the points above specified,) as I con- ueive, ave (Beza and Chemnitz) agree, but the point 3< Puiuts of i.o be decided is this : Whether from what is true Agreement and . . , . of Disagreement in a certain respect [secundum quid), an inference wit h the Re- may be drawn which involves every respect — formed, state of . the question ae whether from the admission of a fact m one and a regards the reia- certain sense, an inference may be drawn as to the tlon of Chr1 ^. 8 *> Ascension to His same fact in another and a different .sense— whether personal pres- because Christ, in a visible form, and a mode of pres- ence * ence perceptible by human senses, does not in His body, locally, have intercourse with His Church on earth, we are, therefore, to infer that in no mode is He present with His Church on earth according to the human nature He has assumed — whether Christ neither knows, nor can have any other than that local, visible, and sensible mode by which He can perform what the words of His testament declare." These words show clearly why the famous expression of Beza, " that the body of Christ is as remote from the Supper as the highest heaven is from earth," gave such offence. It was not that our theologians denied it, in a certain respect (secundum quid), but that Beza denied it absolutely in every respect (simpliciter). Hence the Formula Concordise (672), commenting on this language, ex- presses the offensive point of it thus : " That Christ is, in such manner (ita, als) received in heaven, as to be circumscribed and 468 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION shut up in it, so that in no mode whatever (nullo prorsus modo — keinerlei Weise) He can or will be present with us on earth in His human nature." " I cannot see the connection between the premises and the 4. The sophism conclusion, when, though Christ says He w r ill be involved in the present in the use of His Supper, it is argued, that Denial of Christ's , , . , , . . _. personal Pres- because tins cannot he in any way 01 this world, eiide, because of /y or i n tfc s m0L { e Christ has left the world, AND IS NO His ascension. longer in the world) therefore He is present there in no other mode, though the words declare He is." "A com- parison of the parts in John xvi. will show in w T hat sense Christ has left the world, for He says (18) : ' I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world, 5 not that He had left the Father, for He says (ch. viii. 29) : ' He that sent me is with me : the Father hath not left me alone,' or as if the Father, who fills heaven and earth, were not in this world, but because He had humbled Himself, though He w T as in the form of God. From the antithesis, therefore, we may rightfully gather what Christ means when he says : ' Again I leave the world and go to the Father,' to wit, that after His work was finished, His humiliation removed, all infirmity and sorrow T laid aside, He would be exalted to the highest glory and power of the Father, and would be transferred from the mode of this world's life to a heavenly mode of existence with the Father. This explana tion John himself gives (ch. xiii. 1-3), for when he tells us : 1 Jesus knew that His hour was come that He should depart out of this world unto the Father,' he subjoins this explana- tion : c Knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He was come from God, and went to God.' Nay, Christ Himself gives us the explanation of these declara- tions of His. For when by His Resurrection He had passed into another mode of existence, though He offered Himself then present to be seen and touched by the Apostles, yet He says (Luke xxiv. 44), ' These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you.' He shows, therefore, that the sayings were already fulfilled, (' Yet a little while I am with you/ ' I am no more in the world,' 'I leave the world/*) and that they are to be understood, not of an absence in every TEE PRESENCE OF CHRIST. 469 sense (omni modo), but of another mode of life, of intercourse, and of presence." "Though., therefore, this presence he not in any way of this world, which we can understand or comprehend, 5 Geueralcon . yet He can fulfil (the sacramental promise) in elusion. another mode, though it be incomprehensible to us. 'Christ . is united and conjoined with us who are yet on earth, not indeed in any gross mode of this life, a mode which would make Him an object of touch {cutting entice), but in a supernatural and heavenly mode, yet truly.' 4 The Article of the Ascen- sion, therefore, not only does not overthrow the simple and genuine sense of the institution (of the Lord's Supper;, but, on the contrary, rightly explained, confirms the verity of it.' " " We believe and confess that the JSon of God assumed the true and entire substance of a human nature, with IL The Body those essential properties which naturally accom- of Christ. pany and follow the substance of human nature. . . That sub- stance, with its essential properties, He retained also after His Resurrection, though its infirmities were laid aside, which also, though He is in glory, we believe He retains true and entire. And according to those natural or essential properties, and on account of the natural mode of a true body, we have such say- ings in Scripture as these : ' I was not there,' ; He is not here, but is risen.' According also to those properties, and agreeably to the mode of a true body, Luther, w T ith Augustine and the Scholastics, believes that the body of Christ is now in glory, in that circumscribed form in which He showed Him- self to Paul and Stephen, in which also He shall return to judgment, and in which He is seen in heaven by angels arvl saints." " When Christ says : l Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of m The Pres . them,' w r e rightly understand the promise of the fcnce of Chri ' * TTj- ,> tj i- The p™ mi athole Christ, or oj His entire person, ior He says f Christ that He, in whose name we are gathered, is present. ence - But no one will dare to say that the name of Christ is His divine nature alone.- It is His whole person, in each nature, and according to each nature, and, indeed : n His office of Christ. omise s pres*- 470 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION". Mediator and Saviour, for it is admitted that when the Scrip ture says a thing is done in the name of Christ, it denotes that this pertains to the person according to each nature." " In regard to that presence of the whole Christ in the Church, there are special promises in the Word of God. For (Matt, xxviii.) when Jesus, after His Resurrection, had appeared upon a mountain in Galilee to more than five hundred of His disciples at once, when He was before them, not in His divinity alone, but whole and entire, in both natures, so that by that very presence on that mountain He gave the demonstration and the confirmation of the fact that He had risen in His true body, so that His disciples, when they saw Him, worshipped him, and when some doubted, as if there were a spirit, or a spectre appearing in an outward and visible form, Jesus approached and spake to them — all which, beyond contro- versy, pertains to the human nature which Christ assumed. And when He gave the command to His disciples to gather a Church throughout the whole world, He added the promise, 4 Lo ! I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.' That promise, therefore, is rightly understood of the whole Christ, God and man, according to both natures ; for He who was then and there before them, promised His presence with His Church through all time — but He was then present, not in His Divinity alone, but showing that even after His Resurrection, in glory, he had and retained the verity of His human nature. And He who was then entire in each nature, by a sure word and peculiar promise, says : ' I am present with you ' (wherever, to wit, my Church shall be, throughout the whole world). And there is no reason whatever, in that most sweet promise of the presence of Christ in His Church, why we should sepa- rate and exclude that nature which was assumed by Him in which He is our kinsman and brother, and by which we ' are members of His body, of His fiesh, and of His bones,' (Eph. v. 30,) since He, in giving the promise, marks and describes, by many circumstances, the nature he assumed, as we have shown from the text." With similar conclusiveness does Chemnitz reason in regard to other passages, as, for instance, Mark xvi. 19, 20. " ■ The CHRIST'S PRESENCE. 471 Lord . . sat on the right hand of God, and they went forth and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word with signs following.' They preached everywhere, the Lord working with them : therefore the Lord Jesus worked with them everywhere" So, also, in regard to the words : " The Son of man which is in heaven " (Johniii. 13). " That Christ, according to His divine nature, is present with His Church, and with all other creatures, is not 7 m .... 2. The Point of questioned. The divine essence is infinite, immeas- Agreement as to urable, illimitable, uncompounded : the operation encl. 1 NatureTf of God proceeds from His power. . . Wherefore Divine omnipres- it is usual and right to say that God is everywhere, or in all things essentially, or by essence, presence, and power, without mingling, circumscription, distraction, or mutation of Himself. Because the divine nature is incapable of parti- tion, not having part separate from part, it is total totally, wherever it exists ; nor is there part in part, but it is total in all, total in each, and total above all, as Damascenus says. And the old writers say : The divine essence is within all, yet is not included — it is out of all, yet not excluded." Luther, in a passage so closely parallel with the one we have just quoted from Chemnitz, that we cannot forbear placing the two side by side, says : " God is not a Being with extension, of whom we can say, He is so high, so broad, so thick ; but He is a super- natural, unsearchable Being, who is total and entire in every granule, and yet in, and over, and apart from all creatures. . . Nothing is so small that God is not smaller, nothing so great that God is not greater. . . He is, in a word, an ineffable Being, over and apart from all that we can speak or think." u Since, however, in the person of Christ, there subsists not only the divine, but the human nature, the 3. The mooted question at present concerns the latter, to wit, cTriTtCpri- where and how the person of Christ, according to ence - both natures, or in His assumed human nature, is present — or wills, and is able to be present ? " After dwelling on Christ's presence at the Supper, Chemnitz says : " But not alone in that place — not at that time alone when 472 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. the Supper of the Lord is observed in the public assembly of the Church, is the whole Christ, in both His natures^ present with the Church militant on earth, as if when that celebration was over He withdrew His presence, and the members of His Church, apart from that public assembly, were, while in their vocations, their trials, and temptations, deprived of that most sweet presence of Christ, their High Priest and King, their Head and their Brother. On the contrary, there is in the observance of the Lord's Supper a public, solemn, and peculiar attestation and sealing of the truth, that Christ, our Mediator and Saviour, wishes mercifully to be present with His Church, which is war- ring in the world, to be present, not with the half, or with one 'part of Himself only, to wit, His divinity alone, but whole and entire, that is, in that nature also which He has assumed, in which He is of like nature with us, our Kinsman and our Brother — that nature in which He was tempted, so that He might have compassion on us in our griefs — that nature in which, by His sufferings and death, He finished the work of our redemption, so that thus we may be rendered members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones (Eph. v. 30). And because our reason cannot grasp or comprehend this, St. Paul adds : c This is a great mystery : but I speak concerning Christ and the Church.'" "The humanity which Christ assumed was not, by that iv Modes of un i° n with Deity, converted or transmuted into an presence. i. The infinite or immense essence, but has and retains in its 'own nlture ^ na, t vei 7 union, and after it, the verity of a human local - nature, and its physical or essential properties, by which a true human body consists in a certain, finite, and cir- cumscribed symmetry (dimension) of members, and which, consisting in a local or finite situation and position of mem- bers, has one part distinct from another in a certain order. The body of Christ, therefore, with the property of its own nature, is essentially or naturally finite, that is, according to its natural properties, which it has and retains even in that union, it locally and circumscriptively occupies a certain place."* *De duab. Nat. 174 MODES OF PRESENCE REJECTED. 473 " That mode of visible converse, and that circumscribed and local form of the presence of His body, according to the con- dition and mode of this earthly life, according to the flesh, He has by His ascension taken from us who are on earth. And this is what He means when He says : ' Again 2 And as to its I leave the world, — me ye have not always.' These locality is no , , -. n •■ '.onsjer on earth. words, theretore, speak of a mode of presence, ac- cording to the respect and condition of this world, A mode VISIBLE, SENSIBLE, LOCAL, AND CIRCUMSCRIBED, according to which mode of presence Christ is now no longer ordinarily PRESENT WITH IIlS CHURCH ON EARTH." * " Since the body of Christ, neither in the (personal) union, nor in glory, is transmuted into an infinite or , 3. Is not pres- immense substance, therefore through itself (per se), ent through the and of itself (ex se), even in glory, it is finite in P ro P erties of a v m n glorified body, the property of its nature, and by the mode of i>nt in that mode glorified bodies is somewhere (alicubi), the pre- lsmheaven - rogative of the personal union, as I have said, being excepted. And in this visible form or condition of glorified bodies, Christ, in His body, is not present to us in this life, in the Church militant on earth, but is in the heavens, whence He shall return to judgment, in that form in which He now offers Himself to be seen by the souls of the blessed, and by angels, "f "According to the natural properties of a true body, or by any essential attribute, the body of Christ (which i.Modesofpres- is by the property of its nature finite) is not pres- pnce ejected. ent in all places where the Supper is administered, either by local circumscription, or by any visible, sensible, or natural mode, respect, or condition of this world. This mode has been taken from the world." " Xor is the presence such as that of glorified bodies : in that form He will not appear till the final judgment." " We by no means teach that the body of Christ, as a bound- less mass, is expanded, distributed, diffused, drawn out, or * De duab. Nat. 175. The limitation which Chemnitz designs to make by the word " ordinarily," has reference to such cases as the appearing of Christ to Saul on the way to Damascus, to Stephen, etc., as he shows at large. Do. 176, 177. + Do. 176. Cf. 177. 474 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. extended through all places (or as Damascenus expresses it, that the flesh of Christ is corporeally co-extended with the Deity assuming it,) so that in this way it is present." " E"or by multiplication, or replication — as the image of one body in many pieces of a broken mirror. The body of Christ is one, not many." " By no means, also, do we think that the body of Christ, either in (the personal) union, or in glory, its substance being lost, and its essential properties abolished, is converted or transmuted into a spiritual substance, infinite, immense, and now in its essential property uncircumscribed, so that by reason of its essential, infinite immensity, it is in all places, and fills all things, as divinity in this mode, and in this respect is pres- ent everywhere ; for the substance of the natures and their essential properties remain in Christ unaffected, in that very union and glory." " Nor that the divine nature alone, and not the human also is present." " Nor that it agrees with the words of the institution, that we should understand the presence of the merit, virtue, and efficacy merely of the body of Christ, the substance of it being excluded and separated."* " Christ, according to His human nature, wills to be present in His Church, where His Supper is celebrated on 5. The mode of 1 L r presence af- earth , and through the humanity He has assumed, firnud * as by an organ connate with us, as the ancients express it, wishes to apply, confirm, and seal to us His benefits, and thus to execute in the Church His office of life-giving, according to both natures, through His life-giving flesh. "f The premise which is conceded is that " in a physical respect, e The premise m a natural mode and condition of this world, one which is con- body, according to its essential or natural proper- i^ferencT which ties, is not at the same time in different places, nor is denied. \ Q there an essential or natural property in the body of Christ of being in different places, nor is it by any essential or natural attribute of Christ's body that it is present at the same time in all those places where the Supper of the Lord is * De duab. natur. 173. f Do. 178. THE LUTHERAN VIEW NOT EUTYCHIAN. 475 celebrated, as in divinity it is the essential attribute of infinite immensity to be everywhere. All these things we concede." The inference which is denied is this : " But it by no mean* follows from this that the divine power of the Son of God cannot effect that, in another mode than that which is nat- ural and according to the physical properties of a body, or in the sensible manner of this world, with His body remain- ing safe in its substance, and its essential properties abiding He should be present wheresoever He wills, in a mode which is supernatural, divine, or heavenly, incomprehensi- BLE TO US." " Nor is there a contradiction involved when the same body is said to be in one place, in the natural mode, according to its essential properties, and if it is maintained that beyond its physical attributes, through the will and power of God, it is present not in one, but in many places, in a supernatural, heavenly, or divine mode ; for there is no contradiction when what is contrary is attributed to the same thing in different respects and modes. And Justin rightly says : We commit th( things of nature to nature, the things of art to art, and the things of God to God ; but Him all things obey." These extracts, as they throw light upon the SacramentaV questions discussed by Dr. Gerhart, may also be useful in illus- trating yet more directly the point next raised. After finish- ing his parallel between the doctrines of the two Churches on the Lord's Supper, He takes up the " Reformed (and he might have added, the Lutheran,) Doctrine of the Person God manifest of Christ." On this great point, according to Dr. m the flesh. The Gerhart, u the Lutheran view is in the line of the tr " ne of the Per" ancient Eutychian, and the Reformed in the line sonofchnst. of the ancient Nestorian method of thought, though it would be unjust to charge either Confession with holding the corre- sponding ancient heresy." We shall not attempt to question the Doctor's position as to the !Nestorianizing element in the Reformed view, but we think that the idea that the Lutheran view not Euty- view of the person of Christ is in the " line of the chian ' ancient Eutychian," proceeds from a wholly incorrect judgment 476 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. of what the Lutheran view is. On the contrary, the statements of Lutheran doctrine, beyond every other, are guarded with extraordinary care against the Eutychian tendency. We main- tain, further, that no system is more thoroughly antagonistic to Eutychianism than the Lutheran system, properly under- stood. Even the Reformed doctrine itself has a point of apparent contact with it, which Lutheranism has not. Euty- ches taught that Christ has but one nature. The Lutheran Church holds " that the two natures, divine and human, are inseparably conjoined in unity of person, one Christ, true God and true man."* Eutyches taught that the body of Christ was not of the same substance as ours. The Lutheran Church teaches that " Jesus Christ is man, of the substance of His mother, born into the world, perfect man, of a rational soul and human flesh subsisting. One Christ, not by the conver- sion of divinity into flesh, but by the assumption of humanity to God ; one, indeed, not by confusion of substances, but by unity of person, for as the rational soul and flesh is one man, so God and man is one Christ, "f The doctrine of Eutyches is, moreover, expressly rejected in several passages of the Formula Concordia?. But is not the Reformed doctrine, that Christ's personal presence at the Lord's Supper is only in one nature, a concession logically so far to Eutyches, that it seems to admit that sometimes, and somewhere, nay, rather always, almost everywhere, Christ has but one nature? Alike removed from Nestorianism and Eutychianism, the illustration of doctrine of the Evangelical Lutheran Church may the Lutheran p e thus illustrated : The essential properties of each nature of our Lord are undisturbed by their union in Him, but as these two natures form one inseparable person, the whole person is involved in the acts of each part of it. Everything that the Saviour did and suffered is both divine and human, that is, it is personal. He did, and suffered all, and He is both human and divine. Every act, indeed, is done, every suffering endured, through or by the one or the other nature, but not without the personal presence of the other. Jesus Christ wrought miracles through the divine * Augsburg Confession, Art. III. f Athanasian Creed, 29-35. ILLUSTRATION OF THE LUTE. DOCTRINE. 477 nature, but they were wrought by the human nature. Through His divine omnipotence sight was given to the blind, but His divine omnipotence wrought it by His human touch. Jesus Christ died according to His human nature, but His death was the death of a divine person. Through His human infir- mity He was crucified, but that human weakness wrought by His divine majesty an infinite sacrifice. Godhead cannot bleed, but the Church is purchased by the blood of God ; for He who bleeds is in one inseparable person, God as well as man, and His blood has efficacy, not because of the properties of the nature according to which He bleeds, but because of the attri- butes of His whole person, which is divine. Had not He who bled been personally God as well as man, His blood would not have availed. Jesus Christ is essentially and necessarily omni- present according to the divine nature, but His human nature not of its own essence, or by a necessity resulting from its own attributes, but because the divine has taken it into personal union with itself, is rendered present through the divine. The divine neither loses nor imparts any essential attribute, nor does the human lose any essential attribute of its own, nor receive any essential attribute of the divine ; but the divine, omnipresent of itself, renders present the human which has been taken into its own person. The doctrine on which this rests is known in theological technology as the " Communicatio idiomatum" that is, the common participation of properties, the doctrine that the properties of the divine and human natures are actually the properties of the whole person of Christ, and actually exercised by Him in the unity of His person. We Lutherans affirm that there is a real common participation of the whole person in the properties of both natures. The Eeformed deny it, and say that there is no real common partici pation, but that each nature is isolated from the other in its attributes, and that the person of Christ has only the common participation in the names of the two sets of attributes, the human and divine. In other words, the question which divides us is between a communicatio idiomatum, and a commit- nicatio nominum, the question whether the two natures enjoy a common participation of properties in the one person, or merely 478 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. a r omrnon participation of names. To Lutherans, the view we reject seems logically to run out into a denial of the unity of Christ's person, and of the reality of the incarnation. It may tend to give a clearer view of the doctrine to present Four points in four points in it, in the order in which they stand the doctrine. in tlie Formula of Concord. 1. The Lutheran Church holds that from a personal union of the divine and human, it follows that there are not two Christs, outwardly conjoined, one of whom is God, and the other a man, but one Christ, who is both God and man in one person. 2. These two natures are not fused into one substance, nor is the one absorbed by, or transmuted into the other, but each nature retains its essential properties, neither losing its own, nor receiving those of the other. 3. Dr. Gerhart, in defining the true doctrine as he regards it, says: "The Reformed predicated the essential attributes of divinity of the divine nature only." So do we. Dr. Ger- hart is entirely mistaken in imagining that the doctrine of our Church is in conflict with this position. In the very state- ment of our doctrine over against its opposite, the Formula Concordise says :* " The attributes of the divine nature are, to be omnipotent, eternal, infinite, and of itself, according to the attribute of its nature and of its own natural essence, to be present everywhere, and to be omniscient. All these attributes neither are, nor ever can become, the attributes of the human nature." 4. Nor is Dr. Gerhart more happy in stating a point of dif- ference between the doctrine of our Church and his own, when he says : " The Reformed predicated the essential attributes of humanity of (Christ's) human nature only." So do we. The paragraph of the Formula of Concord next to the one we have quoted, says : " The properties of human nature are : To be a corporeal creature, to consist of flesh and blood, to be finite and circumscribed, to suffer, die, ascend, descend, to move from place to place, to hunger, thirst, grow cold, suffer from heat, and such like. These never are, nor can become the attributes of the divine nature." *Page 606. SUMMARY OF THE VIEW OF OUR CHURCH. 479 Our Confessions teach that the essential attributes of Christ's human nature belong to it forever. He remains a true man, with every essential property of the nature of a true man. The divine nature loses no essential attributes of deity, and the human nature receives none. To be essentially. u Summary of or by virtue of its own nature, everywhere present, the view of our omnipotent, and omniscient, is something divine ; Church - and hence the Lutheran Church holds that the Godhead alone is essentially, and by virtue of its own nature, everywhere pres- ent, allwise, and almighty. So also to be essentially, or by virtue of its own nature limited, in presence, in power, and in wisdom, pertains to the human nature, and hence the Lutheran Church holds that the humanity of Christ is neither omnipres- ent, omniscient, nor omnipotent, essentially or by virtue of its own nature. The humanity of Christ has all the essential (by no means, however, all the accidental) properties of ours, and in and of itself is finite. God became man, but Godhead does not become humanity. A man is God — but humanity does not become Deity. In this aspect the Lutheran Church draws a distinction, total and all-comprehending, between the pres- ence of the Godhead of Christ and the presence of His human- ity. Omnipresence is the essential attribute of the divine, and hence His Godhead is necessarily, in and of itself, in virtue of its own nature, present. But the essential attribute of the human is to have a determinate presence, and hence the human nature of Christ has such a determinate presence, nor in and of itself would the human nature have any other presence ; but as it is in one person with the divine, it is in that one person rendered present with and through the divine. In other words, what the divine has in its essence and of itself, the human has and exercises through the divine, in consequence of its per- sonal union with it. We might imitate one of our Lord's own deep expressions in characterizing it, and might suppose Him to say : " As my divine nature hath omnipresence in itself, so hath it given to my human nature to have omnipresence in itself." From what has been said, our readers will be prepared to answer for themselves the most specious objection which is 480 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION brought against the doctrine of our Church. That objection is this : That to be omnipresent is an essential attribute of Godhead, and, therefore, the humanity of Christ cannot be omnipresent ; for that would he to suppose humanity to have Answer to the an essential attribute of divinity. The reply is leading objection mi, • l. j? m jj? • • ± r •, to the Lutheran eas y : J- ° be omnipresent of itself, in virtue of its doctrine. own essence, is an attribute of the divine, and, there- fore, the humanity of Christ is not, and cannot be omnipresent of itself, in virtue of its own essence ; but the Godhead can render it present through, the divine, with which it is one person. The one humanity of Christ can be present in two modes : one, finite and independent, in which mode it is present of itself by virtue of its own essence ; the other, infinite and dependent, in which it is not present of itself \ in virtue of its own essence, for that, we admit, would be to claim for it a divine attribute, but is ren- dered present by the divine. In other words, the Godhead, which of itself is present, makes present the human, which is one person with it. So, to be conscious in its own essence, or of its own nature, is an essential property of soul, not of matter ; therefore, the human eye, in its own essence or nature, has no power of being conscious of light ; hut when the eye is united as a part of the body, in one person with the soul, the eye has a real sight through the soul, as the soul has its sight by the eye ; but there are not two consciousnesses. The soul does not give up its consciousness, nor does the eye receive it. Beth retain their essential attributes. The eye does not become spirit, nor the soul become matter ; nor has the soul one con- sciousness, nor the eye another ; but the whole person has its one consciousness, through the soul and by the eye. There is a common participation of the two natures in the act of the one person ; and not verbally, but really, the man sees through his soul and by his eye ; the eye itself really receiving a dis- tinct set of powers, from its union with the soul, and the soul exercising its own essential power, under a wholly new set of conditions, in consequence of its union with the eye. But if some minute philosopher persists in saying: You then attribute to matter the consciousness which alone pertains to mind, we reply : An independent, self-originating consciousness belongs DOCTRINES OF THE PERSON OF CHRIST 481 to mind ; but a dependent, soul-originated consciousness be- longs to matter. There is no transfer of properties ; but there is a common participation in them. And so, in some sense, and yet with the infinite difference made by the nature of- the subjects in this case, we reply to the sophism against the doc- trine of our Church: The divine in Christ is forever divine ; the human forever human ; but as they can never be con- founded, so can they never be separated ; and the one person participates in both, and each has a personal communication with the attributes of the other. " Great is the mystery of Godliness: God was manifest in the flesh." In Dr. Gerhart's further development of the doctrine of the German Reformed Church, especially as related to The Reformed that of the Lutheran Church, he goes on to say, in doctrines^/the immediate connection with the words on which we Person of Christ. have already dwelt: " The Reformed . . thus emphasizing especially the difference of the two natures, though affirming them to be inseparably and eternally united in one person." The German Reformed Church certainly does not affirm more emphatically than the Lutheran that the two natures are dif- ferent, although it may exaggerate the difference until it obscures the doctrine of the unity. But when Dr. Gerhart says that his Church affirms the two natures to " be insepara- bly and eternally united in the one person," he strikes the very rock which is fatal to the logical consistency of the whole un-Lutheran view of this great subject. For at the Lord's Supper he admits that the divine nature of Christ is present. Now, either the human nature of Christ is united with the divine there, or it is not. If it be there united with it, it must be there present with it, for personal union implies not only presence, but the most intimate species of presence. If it be not united with it there, it is separated from it there, and consequently not inseparably .united. Except in the locality in which the human nature of Christ is confined, on the Reformed theory, the human is separated from the divine and the divine from the human. So far then from the union, on this theory, being inseparable, there is but a solitary point at which the two natures are not separated. As is infinity to a 31 482 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. Bpace of a few feet, so is the separateness of the two natures of Christ to their unity on the Reformed theory. And this shows that the divergence of the Reformed and Lutheran views on the Lord's Supper originates in a radical diversity on one point of doctrine, of the highest importance, in regard to the person of Christ. When the Augsburg Confession * says that the two natures are " in unitate personae inseperabilite? conjunct^," (in unity of person inseparably conjoined,) it asserts what in its sense the Reformed doctrine denies. The connection of the two doctrines of the inseparableness of Christ's person, and the co-presence of them in the Supper, is no afterthought of the stricter Lutheran theology, but was distinctly before Melanchthon's mind in the whole era of the composition of the Confession. Thus, January 30, 1529, Melanchthon wrote : " It is not to be imagined that the divinity of Christ is anywhere where His humanity is not ; for what is this but to separate Christ ? "f And a little later, April, 1529 : " Why should there be these contentions in regard to the Lord's Supper ? As all confess that Christ is present in tfie communion (synaxi), according to His divine nature, to what purpose is it to separate the humanity from the divinity?" % In a similar strain he writes to (Ecolampadius, April 8, 1529 : "I look at Christ's promises of this kind, ' Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world I ' where there is no need to tear away the divinity from the humanity. Hence (proinde) I believe that this sacrament is the testimony of a true presence. . . It is a sentiment unworthy of Christians, that Christ in such a way occupies a part of heaven — that He sits in it as if shut up in prison. . . We are to form our judgment of heavenly things not from geometry, bat from the Word of God." § These extracts show that Me- lanchthon meant by an "inseparable" union, one which ex- cluded the separation in space as well as in time, and that the doctrine of the Formula of Concord on the personal co-presence *Art. III. l. f Corp. Reform. I. No. 585. Non est fingendum, alicubi esse divinitatem Christi, ubi non sit humanitas. Quid hoc est aliud, quam seperare Christum ? % Corp. Ref. I. No. 596. Quid attinet discerpere humanitatem a divinitate ? I Corp. Ref. I. No. 598. OUR SAVIOUR'S PRESENCE IN HEAVEN. 483 of both natures of Christ is but the doctrine of the Augsburg Confession amplified. Dr. Gerhart goes on to state very fairly the doctrines which are necessarily involved in the view of his Church. d Our Saviour's He says: "Before the Ascension, the human w T as presence on located on earth." With this proposition as a carth ' positive one, we agree ; but if it means that even when ou earth the human nature of our Lord had no capacity of a higher presence through the divine in the one person, our Church would deny it. Our Lord speaks of Himself to Mco- demus as " He that came down from heaven, even the Son of mail which is in heaven." The difference between our Lord on earth and in glory was not in what He had intrinsically, nor in what He had the ability to do, but in what lie volun- tarily exercised, or chose to forego. His humiliation consisted in the ordinary abnegation of the use of the powers which abode in Him intrinsically ; but at times He chose, even on earth, to reveal that glory. He allowed the form of God to manifest itself in His transfiguration, and in His miracles, but His equality with God was none the more positive then than when His sweat, mingling with His blood, fell to the ground in Gethsemane. He moved on earth in the ordinary voluntary suspension of the exercise of His great prerogatives. While our Church, therefore, holds most firmly that His human nature was on earth locally, she denies that it had no other power of presence than the local, and that in every sense, necessarily and unchangeably, it was on earth only. But Dr. Gerhart states still more fully, and with even moie transparent fairness, the doctrine of his Church our saviour's thus: "After the ascension it (the human) was hlaven^Theii^ located at the right hand of God, and nowhere else, fonned theor - y - being excluded from the earth, and limited to the place of exal- tation in heaven." The symbolical orthodoxy of this position he proves by a citation from the Genevan Catechism, which is all very well, if the German Reformed Church is in the whole unity of the Calvinistic faith ; but is not so satisfactory, if that Church, as we understand some of its ablest divines now tc contend, is not Calvinistic. 184 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION Id Dr. Gerhart's statement, if it be analyzed, are tbe follow- ing propositions : 1. Tbat tbe human nature of Christ is local- ized. 2. That its locality is at the right hand of God. 3. That by necessary consequence the right hand of God is a locality. 4. That the human nature of Christ is nowhere else ; but is, 5. Excluded from the earth ; and, 6. Limited to the place of exaltation in heaven. On every one of these points the Lutheran Cburch differs from The Lutheran ^he Reformed, if Dr. Gerhart presents the Reformed Antithesis. view correctly, as we think, in the main, he does. 1. The generally received view in our Church is that even the finite presence of our Saviour's human nature is not local, but definitive, that is, that its mode of presence is more closely analogous to that in which a created spirit is present, than to that of unglorified matter. St. Paul declares that the resurrec- tion body " is a spiritual body," that is, a body analogous in its properties to spirit, and, as the antithesis to " natural," a body with supernatural properties. That our Saviour at His resurrection entered on the plenary use of the powers whose exercise He had foregone in His humiliation, is so well known as the doctrine of our Church, that we need cite no passages to prove it. But we might cite many passages from Calvinistic writers to show that not all of them sympathize with the dis- position to narrow the power of our Saviour's humanity. We will give a single extract from one of the most finished and thoughtful Calvinistic writers of our day, the late Dr. James Hamilton. It will be found in his delightful little volume, "A Morning beside the Lake of Galilee," which 1. The Saviour's . . < , . resurrection-iife dwells upon one scene in our haviour s resurrection- Hamilton jy? e on eart k jj e sa ys: ''Christ came in the morn- ing. So at first we are apt to say ; but it would be putting it more correctly, if we said that Christ, who had been present all the night, allowed Himself to be seen in the morning. He was now risen from the dead, and had put on that glorious body which evades our grosser sense, and needs an act of will to make it visible.* In His ubiquitous Godhead everywhere * After His resurrection, Christ's body was only visible by a distinct act of His Will. — Chrysostom, quoted by Trench. THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD. 485 present, at any moment, or in any place, He could emerge to view and reappear in corporeal guise, so that former intimacy was able to exclaim, ' It is the Lord,' and so that He Himself was able to say, ' Reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side ;' and as soon as the purpose was fulfilled, without necessarily quitting the spot, the glorified body ceased to be Been. In its escape from the sepulchre, more entirely trans- figured than it had been on the Holy Mount, it was only when the Lord Jesus so willed, that in flesh and blood, as of old, that body stood revealed ; and when the design was accom- plished, it again retired into the super-sensual sphere of its habitual invisibleness. It was ' on this wise that Jesus showed Himself,' when, at any period after His resurrection, He was seen at all. It was not by entering an apartment, or by arriving from a journey, but by coming forth from the impalpable and viewless, that, whether to longing disciples or to the startled persecutor, He stood disclosed ; no phantom, no mere vision, courting severest scrutiny : ' Handle me and see,' — and into that materialism, re embodied by His own divine volition, the normal state of His glorified humanity was such as mortal sense cannot grasp ; and just as when the body was ' earthy,' the thing super- natural was for His ' face to shine as the sun,' so now that it was c heavenly,' the thing supernatural was for that body to come out appreciable by untransfigured organs — perceptible to eyes and ears which were not yet immortal like itself." If such was the nature of the manifestations of Christ's spiritual body in what we might style the provisional inter- vals, what might we expect when it entered upon all the pleni- tude of its glory at the right hand of God ? 2. For to us the right hand of God is not a place, nor is the ascension to His right hand the rising to a place. If the right hand of God means a place, we might well ask, Where is His left hand ? To sit at the right hand of God is to be associated in His sovereign rule, and to share in His sovereign power. The right hand of God, if you relate it to presence, is everywhere ; if you take it in its Scriptural use, it either means the omnipotence of God, or His regal majesty, and has no reference to space at all. AVhen we teach that 2. The right hand of God. 486 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. Christ sitteth at the right hand of God, we mean that He rules in co-sovereignty with the Father, in a potency which, as it is exercised on all things, must he in all places, a potency which, as it is inseparable from the substance of His whole person, in which it inheres, implies the presence of that whole person, and, therefore, of His humanity, which is an essential and inseparable consti tuent of that person. 3. Hence the Lutheran Church, while it firmly believes that the presence which the human nature of Christ has in and of itself is determinate and limited, believes that there is a pres- ence of that human nature no less real, in and through the divine nature with which it is one person, and that in this mode of presence it is as really on earth as in heaven. God has given Him the uttermost parts of the earth for His posses- sion ; His mediatorial dominion is from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth. God has said : " I will set His hand in the sea, and His right hand in the rivers," and we devoutly rest in the faith that our Saviour rules not by vicars, but in His own glorious and all-sufficient person, true God and true man inseparably. When we remember that the 3 s irit and on ty absolute essence is Spirit, that all matter is matter. thought into being by the infinite Spirit, rests on that essence for its continued existence, derives all its attri- butes from, owes all its properties to, the will which gave and continues its being ; when we remember that the body of our Lord is in personal union with the absolute essence which creates all things, we can easily draw the inference not only that any properties which it was possible for God to will that His body should have, should belong to it, but that it would have an adaptation as a personal organ of the divine nature, and properties necessary for that adaptation which would infinitely transcend the sublimest forms of all other matter. If such subtle matter, as the etherial medium which undulates into light, be the mere raiment of God, what may bethe exqui- site subtlety of that matter which is assumed into His very person? Science detects a form of matter whose undulations, in forming one color, are seven hundred and twenty-seven mil- lions of millions in a second, and it is within the power of God THE HEIDELBERG CATECHISM. 487 to give to matter properties which transcend those of light, infinitely more than the properties of light transcend those of lead or clay. When we think of matter with this amazing range of qualities, taken as the very organ of incarnate Deity, we may realize that the demands of the " spiritual body " of our Lord, on faith, pertain to the highest mysteries and sub- limest trust with which it called to justify its work of bring- ing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. Dr. Gerhart goes on to illustrate his position : " The Heidel- berg Catechism," he says, " inquires in the forty- The Heide i berg seventh Question : ' Is not then Christ with us, as Catechism. He has promised, unto the end of the world ? ' : It seems as if it were felt that the Reformed position was open to the sus- picion of seeming to empty Christ's promise of its fulness. Nor does the answer of the Catechism relieve this suspicion. Its answer is : " Christ is true man and true God. According to His human nature, He is not now upon earth ; but accord- ing to His Godhead, majesty, grace, and Spirit, He at no time departs from us." The reply wears to us the air of a certain evasiveness, as if it parried the question rather than answered it. It seems to answer a certain question, but really answers another ; or rather, it seems to answer affirmatively, but actually answers negatively. If Christ be true man and true God, then humanity and divinity are inseparable elements of His essence ; where either is wanting, Christ is wanting. If the question be, Is the divine nature of Christ present? the Heidelberg Catechism answers it, affirming that it is. If the question be, Is the human nature of Christ present ? the Heidelberg Cate- chism answers, and says it is not. But if the question be, as it is, Is Christ present ? the Heidelberg Catechism does not answer it, for it leaves the very heart of the query untouched : Can Christ, in the absence of an integral part of His person, really be said to be present ? As far as the Heidelberg Cate- chism implies an answer to this question, that answer seems to us to be, Christ is not present. Ursinus, in His explanation of the Catechism, is compelled virtually to concede this, for on the thirty-sixth Question, in reply to the objection, that en His theory, as " the divinity is but half Christ, therefore only 488 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. half Christ is present with the Church," he replies : " If by half Christ they understand one nature which is united to the other in the same person, the whole reason may be granted : namely, that not both, but one nature only of Christ, though united to the other, that is, His Godhead, is present with us." Leydecker, in commenting on this Question, says : " The absence of the human nature does not take away the presence of the Deity." Ileppe (himself Reformed) indeed declares that it is the Reformed doctrine that " the humanity of Christ is not a part of His person," and quotes to sustain this position, Polanus, Heidegger, Zanchius, and Cocceius, but it does not strike us that Dr. Heppe has understood his authorities, or the natural force of his own terms. Eor does the Heidelberg Catechism relieve the grand diffi- culty of its theory by its next question and answer, which Dr. Gerhart also quotes. " Question forty-eight : But if His human nature is not present wherever His Godhead is, are not the two natures in Christ separated from one another ? By no means ; for since the Godhead is incomprehensible and everywhere pres- ent, it must follow that the same is both beyond the limits of the human nature He assumed, and yet none the less in it, and remains personally united to it." This reply, as we understand it, runs out logically into this : The Godhead is inseparably connected with the humanity, but the humanity is not insep- arably connected with the Godhead ; that is, one part of the person is inseparably connected with the other, but the other is not inseparably connected with that one part : the whole second person of the Trinity is one person with the humanity in one point of space, but everywhere else it is not one person with it. There is, in fact, apparently no personal union what- ever, but a mere local connection — not a dwelling of the ful- ness of the Godhead bodily, but simply an operative mani- festation ; two persons separable and in every place but one separated, not one inseparable person — inseparable in space as well as in time. As God dwells in His substantial presence everywhere, as He has a special and gracious presence in the bodies and souls of believers, as He so dwelt in inspired men as to make them miraculous organs of truth and of supernatu- THE HEIDELBERG CATECHISM. 489 ral powers, it is exceedingly difficult to prevent this low view from running out into Socinianism, as, indeed, it actually has run in Calvinistic lands, so that it became a proverb, often met with in the older theological writers — "A young Calvinist, an old Socinian." This peril is confessed and mourned over by great Calvinistic divines. New England is an illustration of it on an immense scale, in our own land. Even the Socin- ianism of other parts of the Protestant world illustrates the same tendency, for these communions have either developed out of Calvinistic Churches, as, for example, the Arminians, or have first gone over, practically, to the Reformed basis, and on it have built their later Rationalism, as in the apostate portions of the Lutheran Church. Just those portions of the Reformed Churches which have been most free from Socinian- ism, are those which have been characteristically Lutheraniz- ing, as the German Reformed and the Church of England. And it seems to us that the most dangerous consequences might be logically deduced from tbe Reformed theory. The divine nature is a totality and an absolute unit, in which there can be no fractions. It does not exist, and is not present, by parts, but as a whole. It is present not by extension nor locality, but after another manner, wholly incomprehensible to us, not less real, but if there may be degrees of reality, more real than the local. If the divine nature is present at all with- out the human nature of Christ, the whole of it is present without that human nature. If the whole divine nature of Christ be present on earth without His human nature, then the whole divine nature is unincarnate here. If it be unincar- nate here, then it could take to itself another human nature on earth, or, for the matter of that, an infinite number of human natures, each of them as really one person with it apparently, on this theory, as the human nature of Christ now is. If, moreover, such a conjunction as this theory asserts is really a unity of person, then this infinitude of human natures being one person in the divine, would be one person with each other also. Nor is this supposition of the evolution of such a theory from these premises purely imaginary. Dr. Brew- ster, in his Defence of the Theory of the Plurality of Worlds, 490 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. has actually tried to solve certain difficulties by suggesting the idea of multiplied cotemporaneous incarnations of the Son of God in different worlds. "May not the divine nature," he says, " which can neither suffer nor die, and which in our planet, once only, clothed itself in humanity, resume else- where a physical form, and expiate the guilt of unnumbered worlds ? "* This is giving us Hindoo mythology for divine theology, and substituting Vishnu for Christ. This, then, is the result which our Church, guided by God's Spirit in His Word, has reached : That a unity which does not imply the co-presence of its con- stituent parts cannot be called a personal unity, that unity which is so perfect that the very identity of the subject of it centres in it. With this result our faith reverently coincides, and our reason is in harmony with our faith. To us there seems no real incarnation possible, logically, on any other theory; but if logic allowed it, the Word of God would not. Dr. Gerhart goes on to say : " The question arises logically : The Lord's sup- Since the humanity of Christ is limited to the right and" LutheTan nan d of God, and believers on earth commune, in views. the Lord's Supper, with the flesh and blood of Christ, no less than with His Spirit, how is the communion established and maintained ? " As a voucher for the doctrine which underlies the question, Dr. Gerhart gives, in a note, a sentence from Calvin's Confession of Faith, concerning the Eucharist, 1537, which, literally translated, runs thus : " When, therefore, we speak of the communion which believers have with Christ, we mean that they commune not less with His flesh and blood than with His Spirit, so that they thus possess the whole Christ." Dr. Gerhart goes on to say, in answer to the question given above: "In opposition to the Ubiquitarian theory of the Lutherans, the Reformed theologians replied: By the mysterious agency of the Holy Spirit, elevating the hearts of believers to Christ in heaven, who feeds and nour- ishes them with the life-giving power of His flesh and blood." If we analyze these sentences, we find that they express or imply the following propositions : *More Worlds than One. N. Y. 1854. p. 148. FIRST AND SECOND PROPOSITIONS. 4itt 1. " The humanity of Christ is limited to the right hand of God." We have tried to show that the right First Proposl hand of God is not limited, but, on the contrary, «<>»»• involves omnipresent and omnipotent rule. Whatever effect, therefore, being at the right hand of God may have on the humanity of Christ, it certainly does not limit it. 2. " Believers, on earth, commune, in the Lord's Supper, with the flesh and blood of Christ." If by this Second Prop(> is meant that none but those who receive the sition - Lord's Supper in faith share in its blessings, the statement is entirely Scriptural and Lutheran. The Augsburg Confession expressly rejects the idea of those who teach that " the Sacra- ments justify by the outward work wrought, (ex opere operato,) and who do not teach that faith is required in the use of the Sacraments." But as the communion is not based upon something ideal, but on a supernatural verity, upon a presence spiritual, heav- enly, and incomprehensible in its manner, yet most true, a presence of the human nature of Christ, as the mystery of this presence has its heart not in us, but in the Incarnate Mediator, we believe that alike to those who receive the Supper in faith, and to those who receive it in unbelief, the object sacramen tally received is the same. The believer embraces it in faith, to his soul's health ; and the unbeliever, " not discerning the Lord's body," but treating that which he receives as if it were mere bread, " eateth and drinketh damnation to himself," but it is the same thing which is salutary to the one and judicial to the other. When a Paine, or a Voltaire, takes a Bible into his hand to turn its life-giving nourishment to poison in his owl soul, the Bible is no less the Bible, no less really the organ of the Holy Gho^t, than when an Arndt or an Edwards bends ( rev it in the deepest devotion. When the great Kohinoor diamond shone in the head of the Hindoo idol, or when it was in the hand of the soldier who stole it, it was no less a diamond than it is now, lying amid the jewels of a great empire. When the Ark of the Lord sat in Dagon's temple, it was no less the Ark than when it was enshrined in the Holy of Holies ; and the judgment which went forth from it against 492 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. the fishy idol, equally with the joyous light which gladdened the High Priest when he went within the veil, attested it to be the earthly throne of the Most High. It might as well he said, that because the Romanist does not discern the bread in the Supper, he receives no bread, as that the unbeliever, because he does not discern the body of our Lord, does not commune with it sacramentally. Here is a grand distinctive element in the Lutheran view, that, apart from all qualities in the recipient, the presence of Christ's humanity in the Lord's Supper is a positive reality. The Sacramental communion rests on His person, not on our ideas. To a sick man, the food he receives may be as poison, but it is none the less food, with all the powers of nutriment which inhere in food. The reason that it does not nourish is in him, not in it. So the bread of life, whether offered in the Word or in the Sacrament, is the same intrinsically, and in its proper virtue, though unbelief converts that heavenly food to its own poison — changing, indeed, its effect, but leaving its substance unchanged. 3. The communion, according to Dr. Gerhart, with the flesh Third proposi- and blood of Christ, takes place in the Lord's Sup- tion - per. But why, we may ask, limit such a commu- nion as he defines by the Lord's Supper ? The bread and wine are not the medium of it — and, as mere reminders of it, they have not the power which the Word has. On the Reformed view, the Sacramental elements have a function limited by their didactic or suggestive power over us ; for, up to this point, the Zwinglian and Calvinistic views are coincident. If it be answered, that the whole transaction of the Supper, the Word, and outward signs and special prayers, has extraordi- nary power, still it is the same in kind with the other means of grace, however much it may differ from them in degree. Such a communion, in a word, as the believer has with Christ, in the Holy Supper, through the Holy Spirit, he can have, and does have, on this theory, elsewhere. If the Lord's Supper has no special organ of communion, (and if it has the Holy Spirit only, it has no special organ, for He is the general organ of all grace,) then it has no special character. If the bread and wine are acknowledged as special organs, the external FOURTH PROPOSITION. 493 appointed media of the distinctive blessings of the commu- nion, then you accept the Lutheran doctrine that Sacramental communion is oral, for by oral communion is meant no more than this — that that which is the organic medium of the communion is received by the mouth, that through the natu- ral we reach the supernatural. Our theologians, when they speak of a reception by the mouth, mean no more than this — that he that receives the bread and wine by the mouth natu- rally, thereby, as by an organ, receives the humanity of Christ sacramentally and supernaturally, just as when faith cometh by hearing, the ear receives the outward word naturally, and thereby organically receives the Holy Spirit, mediately and supernaturally, who conveys Himself in, with, and under that word. 4. Dr. Gerhart says that the view of his Church is that the communion " in the Lord's Supper " is " with the Fourth Prop(> flesh and blood of Christ no less than with His 8ition - Spirit." Here there seems to be a great advance on the Zwin- glian view. A communion involves communication on the one part, and reception on the other. It is the Reformed doc- trine apparently that the flesh and blood of Christ are commu- nicated and received no less than His Spirit. The Reformed have insisted that to the question, What is communicated and received in the Lord's Supper? their answer is identical with ours. Christ's body and blood are given and received. This, Dr. Gerhart says, " was not at issue in the sixteenth century. On this point, Reformed and Lutherans were agreed." Even Zwingli, in his letter to the German princes, says : " We have never denied that the body of Christ is in the Supper." Far more strongly, Calvin, in his Institutes, says: "We are fed with the flesh and blood of Christ. Christ refreshes us with the eating of His flesh and the drinking of His blood. There is a true and substantial communication of the body and blood of our Lord." " This mystery is in its own nature incomprehen- sible, . . The body of our Lord was once offered for us that we may now eat it (nunc eo vescamur), and by eating, may experience in us the efficacy of that one only sacrifice. . . Thus sound the words of promise. . . We are commanded, therefore, 494 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. to take and eat that body which was once offered foi our sal. vation : that while we see ourselves participants of this, we may trust that the virtue of His life-giving death is strong within us."* " There are those who say that to eat Christ's flesh and drink His blood is nothing else than believing in caivin on the Christ Himself. But to me it seems that Christ Lord's supper. mean t to teach something clearer and sublimer than this. . . He meant to teach us that we have life given us by true participation of Himself. . . By true communication of Himself His life passes over into us and becomes ours, . . . if so great a mystery can be embraced in words — a mystery which I cannot even grasp in thought. . . I confess this lest any should mete its sublimity with the measure of my infancy. . . . Though the mind can reach what the tongue cannot express, yet here the mind itself is overcome and overwhelmed with the greatness of the thing. . . The mystery of the Holy Supper consists of two things : the Bodily signs . . and the spiritual verity, which, through those symbols, is at the same time figured and imparted (exhibetur). . . I say, therefore, that in the mystery of the Supper, through (per) the symbols of bread and wine, Christ is truly imparted (exhiberi) to us, even His body and blood, in which he fulfilled all obedience to obtain our justification: by which, to wit, we first are united into one body with Him, then being made partakers of His substance, we experience a virtue in the communication of all good things. . . Those absurdities " (of inclusion, cir- cumscription, and immensity,) " being set aside, I willingly receive whatever it is possible to frame (facere potest) to express a true and substantial communication of the body and blood of Christ, which, under the sacred symbols of the Sup- per, is imparted (exhibetur) to believers. . . If any one ask me in regard to the mode, I am not ashamed to confess that the secret is too high to be grasped by my mind, or to be set forth in words. . . I experience rather than understand it. . . In His Holy Supper He commands me, under (sub) the symbols of bread and wine, to take, eat and drink His body and blood. ♦Institut. Lib. IV. ch. xviii. g 1. Ed. 1543. seq. Corp. Reformat, xxix. 199. Ed. Amstel. ix. 364. "THE UBIQUITARIAN THEORY." 495 I doubt not but that He truly offers them, and I receive them."* We could continue to fill pages with citations, of equal force, from Calvinistic writers. Whatever interpretation we put upon them, they at least make it clear that a large part of the phraseology which our Church uses is accepted as sound and Scriptural by those who do not receive her doctrine. Those who shrink back from the terms of our Church, as car- nal, will find that her antagonists are compelled to use terms just as open to misconstruction. It is just as Calvinistic, on the showing of Calvinistic standards, to speak of eating the body and drinking the blood of Christ, in the Eucharist, as it is Lutheran. The question then lies fairly before the Chris tian — Which view, Calvinistic or Lutheran, more honestly accepts the natural meaning of the premises, which is in more logical harmony with their necessary issues, and which more frankly stands by the obvious meaning of the terms chosen by itself to embody its faith ? As both parties start with the same form of words as to the premises, the first question here is, Do both accept "The ubiqui them in the same sense? On one point we admit t!Uian theory '" that both do — that is, that by the "flesh and blood of Christ," both mean His true human body and blood — the body which hung upon the cross, and which still maintains its identity, though glorified in heaven. But when the question arises, Do both mean the same thing when they speak of communing with this body and blood of Christ, the reply is, They do not. Here the Reformed Ch urch seems to us to take away with one set of terms all that it had conceded with another. But although it differs from us, we cannot accept all of Dr. Gerhart's phraseol- ogy in regard to our Church as accurately marking the differ- ence. He characterizes our doctrine as the u Ubiquitarian theory of the Lutherans." We can conceive no reason why Dr. Gerhart applies the word "Ubiquitarian," unless it is that he imagines that there is some ground for the reproach against our doctrine, which was originally couched under this word, which is, indeed, *Institut. ch. xviii. 19, 22, 30. Corp. Ref. vol. xxix. 1 003-1010. Ed. Am- Btelod. 1667. ix. 370. seq. 496 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. a barbarous and unnecessary one, and was devised by the enemies of our Church to injure it. "When our Church is charged with the doctrine of the " Ubiquity " of Christ's human nature, it is usually meant, either, 1 : that the human nature in Christ is everywhere present, in the same way as the divinity, as an infinite essence, or by some essential virtue or property of its own nature ; or, 2 : that the human nature has been made equal to the divine, in its substance, essence, or essential prop- erties ; or, 3 : that the humanity of Christ is locally expanded in all places of heaven and earth — one and all of which Hir Church rejects in the most unqualified terms. The Godhead alone has an essential omnipresence. The human nature has a per- sonal omnipresence — that is, a presence not in or of itself, but through the divine, in virtue of its personal union with it. It is present not by extension or locality. The Godhead itself is not present by extension or locality ; neither does it render the human thus present. The divine nature is present after the manner of an infinite Spirit, incomprehensible to us ; and the human is present after the manner in which an infinite Spirit renders present a human nature which is one person with it — a manner not less, nor more, incomprehensible to us than the other. The true designation of the Lutheran doc- trine, on this point, would be, " The personal omnipresence of the human nature of Christ." In opposition to the Lutheran theory, Dr. Gerhart says : " The Reformed theologians (in answer to the The Reformed . . . . . Theory. Some question : How is this coiumumon with the flesh objections to it. an( j blood of Christ established and maintained?) replied : By the mysterious agency of the Holy Spirit, elevat ino- the hearts of believers to Christ in heaven, who feeds and nourishes them with the life-giving power of His flesh and blood." To this view, thus placed in antithesis to that of oui Church by Dr. Gerhart, we have many objections, some of which, because of the antagonism in which he has placed the two views, we feel it our duty to state. The Reformed view acknowledges a mystery — " the mysterious agency " it says — and so far concedes that, a priori, it has no advantage over against the Lutheran view, on the general ground that our view THE REFORMED THEORY. 49? involves mystery. Risiug, as it seems to us, in an unconscious rationalism, it yet concedes that it cannot bring the question into the sphere of reason ; it simply takes it out of one part of the realm of mystery to lay it down in another. We suppose the mystery of the Supper to be that of the per- son of Christ ; the Reformed view supposes its mystery to be that of the work of the Holy Spirit. But we dread lest the rationalizing that fails to take the subject into the sphere of reason may carry the thinker thither, and that the Reformed view, wmich shifts the mystery, will run out into the Arminian or Socinian view, which sets it entirely aside; for wmile the Reformed view acknowledges a mystery, it is evident that it hopes to find its account in the measurable relief of that mys- tery. It is a theory which seems to be reluctant to strain the text, and yet has a bribe for the reason over against the literal construction of that text. It is an uncomfortable thing, for it lays more on the heart than it lifts off the mind. We object to it, furthermore, that it seems to us to confound the distinc- tive work of two persons of the Trinity. It is the distinctive* work of the incarnate Son of God to redeem, and to apply His redemption in His own person. It is the distinctive work of the Holy Spirit to work in us that faith which will savingly use what Christ offers. We, no less than the Reformed, recog- nize the necessity of the work of the Holy Spirit in the Lord's Supper ; not, however, to do Christ's work, but to do His own. The Holy Spirit makes us savingly partakers in what is received by the outward organs of the soul. Christ is intercessor for us with the Father, and so secures for us the possibility of par- taking in the blessings which centre in His person. The Holy Spirit is intercessor for the Father and the Son with us, and thus leads us actually to accept with the heart those most blessed gifts which the Father and Son offer us. In the Lord's Supper, Christ gives to us Himself, and the Holy Spirit, if we do not resist His sacred work, enables us, from the per- son of Christ thus given us, to draw those benefits of which that person is the sole spring. That the sacramental giving of Christ is the work of His own person, and not of the Holy Spirit, is most explicitly taught in the portions of the New 32 498 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. Testament which speak of the Lord's Supper. That it is the work not of the Spirit, but of Christ, to impart to us Christ's body and blood sacramentally, is demonstrated by the fact, that when the Lord's Supper was instituted, the Holy Ghost was not given in any of the distinctive functions allotted to Him under the New Dispensation. These, it is distinctly taught, were not to be exercised till Christ was glorified and had gone to the Father. But whatever the words of the insti- tution mean now, they meant when the Supper was instituted. As they could not mean then that the Holy Ghost mediated Christ's presence, which, if it were done at all, would be in the highest degree a work of the ~New Dispensation, they cannot mean it now. There is not a solitary passage in which the sacramental impartation of Christ's body is associated with the work of the Holy Spirit. For a true presence of Christ on earth the Reformed view substitutes an imaginary presence of the believer in heaven. The view seems to derogate from the personal sufficiency of Christ. It seems to separate properties JbOm the substance in which they inhere, to sunder the efficacy irom the Omnipotent Being who has that efficacy, to segregate the merits of Christ from His undivided person, in which they were wrought out. According to it, Christ's body can be truly eaten without being truly present ; it is rather we who are communicated to Christ than He to us ; the Holy Spirit lifts us to heaven ; the bread which we break is the communion of our spirit to Christ ward, not the communion of the body of Christ to usward. We are the centre of the mystery. Christ's body is at one point on its circumference, and the Holy Spirit its radius ; the Holy Ghost can lift us to the body of Christ, but the divine nature of Christ cannot bring that body to us — our faith, with the aid of the Holy Ghost, can do what incarnate omnipotence cannot do. How tangled is that which promised to be so simple — how vague that which meant to be so sharp and clear. The terminology of the Reformed view is, in the last degree, perplexing, and wears the air of a want of candor. If it be accepted loosely, it runs out into the old Zwinglian theory, which is also the view of a low Arminian- i£m, and of Rationalism. If it be accepted rigidly, it is less ^IMBOBCH'S JUDGMENT OF CALV. DOCTRINE. 499 intelligible, even to reason, than any other, and seems to us, when thoroughly sifted, to have, at some point, all the difficul- ties of all the other views, without their internal harmony. These weaknesses have been noted by others than Lutherans. The great Remonstrant divine, Limborch, whose clearness of thought, learning, and gentleness, are deservedly renowned, and who certainly, as between the two views, is impartial enough, says of the Calvinistic view : "It seems to _. . ,. . , O > «/ Limborch sjulg. have been invented by Bucer, who, in his desire ment of the c.i- jy . -. ,-, , -i . -i , -1x1 vinistic Doctrine. for peace, in order that be might reconcile the Lutherans and the Zwinglians, devised ambiguous expres- sions, which both sides might subscribe, without changing their opinion. But the attempt was a failure. The Lutherans complained of the deceitful dealing of the Reformed, who took back with one hand what they gave with the other. . . The Reformed held that in the Supper there is a communion with the physical substance of Christ's body, which they teach is there truly, though not substantially present. But the doc- trine involves no less an absurdity than that of the Lutherans.* For that communion with the substance of Christ's body is either a communion with the body of Christ as it remains in heaven, or as it is verily present on earth, and in the use of the Supper. If they say the latter, they must admit the ubiquity of the body of Christ, and go over openly to the camp of the Lutherans. If they say the former, they affirm contradictory things ; for how is it possible that the body of Christ, which is in heaven, and nowhere else (as Beza says), should be truly communicated and be food to us who are on earth, and nowhere else? They say: Our conjunction with the body of Christ is made as by a spiritual mouth through faith, by which we can render present to us many things which are absent. We answer : 1. The conjunction, through faith, with Christ, ought to precede the use of the Supper ; otherwise the man is unworthy who celebrates the Supper ; for by the celebration of it he testifies that he already has that communion. 2. That union which takes place through faith they expressly distin- guish from the union which takes place in the Supper, which latter they would have to embrace something more sublime 500 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. and express. 3. The union by faith is not incomprehensible. 4. Nor does faith really render present things which are absent, but only represents them to itself as if they were pres- ent, though they are actually absent, for it is ' the substance of things hoped for.' Heb. xi. 1. Moreover : 5. Our soul can receive no spiritual fruit from communion with the very substance of the physical body and blood of Christ."* Calvinism is forced to admit that its view does not solve the mystery after all, but leaves it in its fathomless depth. It requires Christ's person, the Holy Spirit, and the faith of the believer, — three factors, confusing each other. The first factor is sufficient, and if justice is done it, the other two are not needed for the objective substance of the Sacrament ; they come in at their proper place, not to help Christ to make what He has perfectly made already, but to enable the recipient to receive savingly what he is receiving sacramentally. The Calvinistic view puts too much upon man, who is nothing, because it concedes too little to Christ, who is everything. There is more than wit, there is solemn argument in the illus- tration of a great old divine : " When Christ says, ' Behold. I stand at the door and knock : if any man hear my voice, a*xd open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me,' a Calvinist might answer, Lord, there is no need for you to wait so long at the door. Return to your heaven, and when I wish to sup with you, I will fly up winh my wings of faith, and meet you there."*)* With its great advance upon the rationalism of Zwingli, the doctrine of Cal- vin still bore with it the fatal taint of the very view which he calls " profane." All that he gained in depth, as contrasted with Zwingli, he lost in clearness. He does not as flatly as Zwingli contradict the text, but he does what Zwingli did not, he contradicts himself. But two views will remain in the ulti- mate struggle, the rationalistic, Zwinglian, Arminian, Socinian view, which fully and consistently denies the whole mystery, on the one side, and the Scriptural, Catholic view, which *Theologia Christiana. Ed. Tert. Amstelsed. 1700. Fol. Lib. V. ch. lxxi. ■f Dannkauer : Reformirten Salve, u. Friedens-Gruss, quoted in Scherzer : Collegium Anti-Calvinianum. Lipsise. 1704. 4to. 603. LUTE. DOCTRINE OF THE PERSON OF CHRIST. 501 fully and consistently recognizes it on the other. This is the view of the ohjective reality of the presence held in its purity in the Lutheran Church, and held in the Roman and Greek Churches, though with the rubbish of human addi- tions heaped on it. The advance of either view presses out the Calvinistic — and both views are advancing. In some parta of the Reformed Church, as in the Church of England, the Episcopal Church, and the German Reformed Church, tho Catholic view is more and more in the ascendant. In other parts of the Reformed Churches, the Zwinglian view has long since so completely triumphed over the Calvinistic, that men who imagine themselves defenders of the purest Calvinism, reject contemptuously its fundamental doctrine of the Supper. Calvinism has really at least six points. Its most ardent defenders usually think it enough to maintain five. In their dropping of Calvin's doctrine of the Lord's Supper, if we deny their consistency, we cannot but praise their sagacity. The rigid logic which so wonderfully marks Calvin, in the other parts of his system, seems to fail him here, and it is not sur- prising that the Churches which maintain the views of that masterly thinker on almost every other point, have either posi- tively rejected, or quietly practically ignored his sacramental theories, w T hich were, indeed, but an adaptation of the views of Bucer, which their originator ultimately abandoned for those of the Lutheran Church. They were grafted on Calvin's sys- tem, not grown by it, and they fall away even when the trunk retains its original vigor, or are retained, as the Unionistic theology, though with great changes, now retains them, wmen everything, ordinarily embraced in Calvinism, is utterly abandoned. Our object in this dissertation is by no means to sit in judg- ment on the doctrines of the Reformed Church. The Llltberan We have touched upon them only so far as Dr. doctrine of the _, . . 1 . . Person of Christ Gernart has thought it necessary to bring them a scriptural doc into a disparaging contrast with the faith of our trine- Church — in a word, we have had no desire to attack them, but simply to defend ourselves. We have dwelt upon the two great doctrines of the person of Christ, and of the Lord's Sup- 502 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. per, because these doctrines are of the highest importance, are vitally connected, and have been most frequently misunder- stood. The pure truth in regard to these grand themes, as our Church holds it, is one of her highest glories, and she must be forgiven if she is unwilling that any man should take from her her crown. Dr. Gerhart, in the paragraph which follows the one on which we have been dwelling, goes on to say : " The Lutheran Antithesis, (that is, in regard to the person of Christ,) was developed from the Lutheran theory of the Sacrament." If Dr. Gerhart means no more than that God in His Providence made the discussions in regard to the Lord's Supper the means of bringing more fully and harmoniously into a well-defined consciousness, and into clearer expression the doctrine of the Scriptures in regard to the person of Christ, we do not object to it ; but if he means that the doctrine of our Church on the person of Christ originated in the necessity of defending her doctrine in regard to the Lord's Supper, we think he is wholly mistaken. The doctrine of our Church rests upon the direct testimony of God's Word, and her interpretation of the mean- ing of that Word is not one of her own devising, but had been given ages before her great distinctive Confession, by the Fathers and Councils of the pure Church. We offer to our readers some testimony on both these points. John taught the doctrine of Christ's person which our i. ah things are Church confesses, when he said (John xiii. 3), given to jesus « J esus knowing that the Father had given all according to His ~ ° human nature, things into His hands, and that He was come John xiii. 3. fr()m God ^ and went tQ God . He rigeth fr()m gup _ per . . . and began to wash the disciples' feet." 1. These words teach us what Jesus had: "All things." So in John iii. 35 : " The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into IEis hand." So in Matt. xi. 27, and Luke x. 22 : " All things are delivered unto me of my Father." What a plenitude of possession is here involved, and what supernatural characteristics of person are necessary to their reception. Unlimited possession involves supreme power — and he cannot be omnipotent who is not omnipresent. The ALL THINGS ARE GIVEN TO CHRIST. 503 Lutheran need not fear to attribute too much to his adorable Saviour when God himself gives to Him " all things." 2. In these words of John is implied that Christ, according to his human nature, has all things. The name Jesus is not a name drawn from His divine nature, but was given to Him in His individuality after His incarnation. The text says, more- over, that the Father had given all things into His hand. Now, according to the divine nature of Christ, God can give Him nothing, for that divine nature in its own essence has all things absolutely. Hence, here, and everywhere that God is said to give Christ anything, or Christ is said to receive any- thing, it is given to Him according to His human nature, and received by Him according to His human nature. Christ, then, has received according to the one nature, to wit, the human, what He intrinsically possessed in the other, to wit, in the divine, or, as it has been expressed, Whatever Christ has in the one nature by essence, He partakes of in the other by grace — and this is the doctrine of our Church. 3. The whole point of John's antithesis, indeed, turns upon this view of the person of Christ ; for his vein of thought is evidently this — that Jesus performed this act of touching lowliness, the washing of His disciples' feet, the act of a ser- vant, not in forgetfulness of His glorious majesty, and of the plenitude of His gifts, but fully conscious of them. Though He knew His own supreme glory as the one to whom the Father had given all things, He yet girded Himself, and bent to wash the feet of His loved ones. Now, if He had all things only according to the divine nature, there was no humiliation involved, for according to the nature which had the glory, He did not wash their feet — but as, confessedly, it was according to His human nature, bending His human form, and using His human hands to wash their feet, so must it have been accord- ing to that nature that He here humiliated Himself; and the point is, that though as a man He had given into His hands all things, and was thus as man infinitely glorious, yet as man, and in full consciousness of the glory which He shared as man, He humbled Himself to wash His disciples' feet. That the expressions which attribute the plenary possession 504 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. of all things to Jesus according to His human nature, are not to be deprived of the very fullest significance, becomes yet more clear when we look at the passages which specify in detail what are some of the things, " all " of which the ii. jesns is om- Father has delivered to Him. Our blessed Lord nipotent accord- gayg f Qr examp l e (Matt. XXviii. 18) I " ALL POWER iugto Hishuman . . nature. Matt, is given unto me in heaven and on earth/' Now mark of whom this affirmation is made. It is made of One who stood before them confessedly a true man, coming with the step of man, speaking through the lips of man. with the voice of man, and saying: "All power is given unto me." Surely, if He had meant that His human nature was to be excluded from this personality He would have told His disci- ples so, for nothing could seem more clear than that the undi- vided Christ, the man as well as the God, affirmed this of Him- self. But it is furthermore manifest that what Christ here says, He says by preeminence of the human side of His person, for He says: "All power is given unto me," but to His divine nature, in its essence, nothing could be given. In virtue of that essence, it was necessarily omnipotent. Supreme power, there- fore, was conferred on the Mediator as to His human nature. And yet there could not be two omnipotences in the person of Christ, the one belonging to His divinity, the other to His humanity. The divine did not part with its omnipotence to the human, so that the divine now ceased to be omnipotent, and the human became in its own essence omnipotent. This would involve that the Godhead really ceased to be divine, and the human became essentially divine — both of which are absurd. As the Godhead, therefore, retains its essential omnipotence, and yet the human receives omnipotence as a gift, the result is inevitable. The one omnipotence pertains to the whole per- son — the divine possessing it essentially and of necessity, and in itself; the human having a communion or participation in it, in virtue of its personal union with the divine. Omnip- otence becomes no essential attribute of the human nature of Christ, but inheres forever in the divine, and is exercised by the human only because it is taken into the one person of the divine. JESUS IS OMNIPOTENT. 505 This power which is given to the human nature of Christ is supreme — " all power in heaven and in earth : " it is all-compre- hending, involving every kind of power throughout the uni- verse. It is a true omnipotence. To have all power, implies that the power shall be everywhere — but the power is not separable from presence of some kind. If the Saviour is almighty everywhere, He must exercise that omnipotence directly in His own person, or through a secondary agency — ■ but as His person is a divine one, He needs no secondary agency, the very same person that is mighty to all things is present to be mighty. Yet, as if no conjecture, however direct or irresistible, might be the ground of our hope, He closes His glorious address to His disciples with the words : " Lo ! I am with you always, even unto the end of the world." He who uttered the promise fulfils it, but He who uttered it was man as well as God — and in fulfilling it, He fulfilled it as man as well as God. So irresistible is the necessity for this view, that writers who are not of the Lutheran Church have acknowl- edged it. Alford, for example, commenting on the words, Matt, xxviii. 20: "Lo! I am with you," says, " I," in the fullest sense : " not the divine presence, as distinguished from the human- ity of Christ. His humanity is with us likewise. The pres- ence of the Spirit is the effect of the presence of Christ." But inference is hardly necessary. The power of omnipresence is a part of all power. In Matt. xi. 27, Christ defines the sphere of His possession. He has " all things " without exception ; He indicates the man- ner in which they are derived : " All things are delivered unto me," possessing them from eternity as God, I have received them in time as man ; He marks the person of the recipient : " All things are delivered unto me" the one divine-human per- son, whose natures form one inseparable person ; He draws the inference: "Come," therefore, "unto me" — the inseparably divine and human — " all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and /will give you rest." This one person, inseparably human and divine, calls to Him the sorrowing of every place and of every time, and promises in His own person, man as well as God, everywhere and evermore to give them rest. And there 506 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. is no meaning, and no comfort in an incarnate Christ which does not rest in the conviction that He is approached and approaches both as man and as God. In John xvii. 5, our Lord says : " And now, Father, glorify thou me with thine own self, with the g;lory which The perpetual © «/ identity of I had with Thee before the world was." Christ'* person. In ^is text is implied, 1. That the person of John xvii. 5. . Christ is divine — His glory is a common glory with that of the Father ; " with thine own self," " with thee ;" and like the Father's, it is from eternity, before the world, that is, the creation, either in whole or in part "was." It is implied, 2. That the human nature is taken into the unity of this divine person. For Christ, true man, speaks of a glory which He had with the Father before the world was. The identity of person is involved throughout. The same person who was then incarnate, was once unincarnate ; the same per- son which was simply and unchangeably glorious in its essence, was now humbled according to the nature which it had assumed into its personality. It is implied, 3. That there is a true communion of properties, for we have Christ praying according to His human nature, that the Father may glorify Him according to that nature. According to His divine nature He could not pray, nor have anything given to Him. His prayer, then, means that He desires to be glorified accord- ing to His human nature, as He had been glorified in His divine nature before the world was. And this glory is not declara- tive, but essential, for it is a glory which He had antecedent to the creation with the Father Himself, not with angels, but before the world of men and angels had being. But even if it were declarative glory, all real declarative glory presupposes essential perfection. Our Saviour, then, prays that the plenary- exercise of the attributes, and the plenary enjoyment of the majesty which belonged to Him as God, may be shared in by His human nature. In Colossians ii. 9, it is said : " In Him [Christ] dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily." The " fulness of the God- head " is wholly different from the "fulness of God." The " fulness of God " is that fulness of gifts and graces which THE D DC TRINE IMPLIED. 507 God imparts, and which "believers have from Him. The ful- ness of the Godhead is the plenitude of the divine nature in all its attributes. This is here intensified by the word " all :" hl all the fulness." The Godhead is incarnate through the second person of the Trinity, and the whole second person r . . . ... The Godhead of the Trinity dwells in Christ's humanity, which it dwelling in has united to itself as its own body. All the fulness ° h , rist n bodily ' J m Col. u. 9. of the Godhead cannot personally dwell in Christ and also personally be separate from Christ, for personality implies not simply presence, but far more ; it involves the most absolute union. If all the fulness of the Godhead in the second person of the Trinity dwells in Christ bodily, then there is no fulness of that Godhead where it is not so dwelling in Christ ; and as the human in Christ cannot limit the divine, which is essentially, and of necessity, omnipresent, the divine in Christ must exalt the human. The Goahead of Christ is everywhere present, and wherever present, dwells in the human personally, and, therefore, of necessity renders it present with itself. So thoroughly does this idea of the personal unity underlie the New Testament conception of Christ, that we The Doctrine find it constantly assumed where no formal state- ^pned where , n . . . -, m -, n . , . there is no formal ment of it is made, lwo examples of this may statement. Matt. suffice. xvii - 25 ' xii - 8 - When (Matt. xvii. 25) our Lord claimed, as man, the exemp- tion from the duty of paying the Temple-tax, on the ground that He had the receiving right of royalty, and was exempt from the paying duty of the subject, it implied that His humanity was in such unity with His Godhead, that He could argue from the one to the other. If there were two persons, He must have argued : My Godhead is exempt, but my humanity is bound to the payment. But His argument is the very reverse : I am not bound as God, therefore I am not bound as man ; the logical link, of necessity, being : Because my Godhead has taken my humanity into personal unity with it. But if Christ participates in divine rights according to His humanity, He must participate in the divine attributes which condition those rights. This is the presupposition of that. That is the result of this. 508 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. " The Son of man is Lord even of the Sabbath-day," (Matt, xii. 8 ; Mark ii. 28 : Luke vi. 5,) that is, He has the dispensing power of the Law-giver in regard to the ceremonial law. But this He cannot have as Son of man, unless as Son of man He has a personal identity with the Son of God. These texts are but a little part of the testimony which might be cited. The faith of our Church grounded interpretations upon them had been the faith of the Universal not novel, views Church for as;es. The earliest as;es of the Church of the Fathers. . ° °. are not, indeed, marked by dogmatic precision of language. The sciolist who is not deeply read into their testi- mony is sure to misunderstand it, and in any case it is neces- sary to allow for lax phraseology and defective thinking. No existing system can find a perfect guaranty in the exact terms used by the ancient Church. Its testimony is to be construed on broader principles than those of a mousing verbal criticism. We must read the life of the ancient Church before we can comprehend its letter — and its letter, construed by its life, shows, with ever-increasing clearness, the underlying Christo- logical system which reached its scientific perfection in the theology of the Augsburg Confession, as developed in the Formula of Concord. The Church all along was feeling alter an adequate confession of her faith in regard to the insepara- ble unity of the person of her Lord. Epiphanius had said : " The flesh acquired the glory of Deity, a heavenly honor, glory, and perfection, which it had not from the beginning, but received it in its union with God the Word." Cyril had said : " The Word had made common with its own body the good of its own nature." " As the Word is of God, so is the man of the woman — there is, therefore, of both one Christ, indivisible in Sonship, and in divine majesty."* Theodoret had said : " The nature assumed for us was participant of the same honor with that which assumed it." Damascenes had said : " The divine nature communicates its own excellencies to the flesh. The divine works are wrought through the body * Cyril in Joan. L. II. ch. xlix. Cyril means that the humanity of Christ, " man," is derived from his mother, " woman," as his livine nature, " Word," is begotten of the Father from eternity. VIEWS OF THE FATHERS. 509 as their organ." Athanasius had said : " Whatever the Scrip- ture declares that Christ had received in time, it affirms with reference to His humanity, not with reference to His deity." Basil the Great had said : " When it is declared by our Lord : 4 All power is given unto me,' the words are to be understood of Him in His incarnation, not in His Deity." " As the Son of God has been made participant of liesh and blood, so the human flesh of our Lord has been made participant of Deity."* Ambrose had said : " All things are subject to Him according to His flesh. Christ, according to His humanity, shares the throne of God." u Thoa art everywhere (ubique), and stand- ing in our midst art not perceived by us." " One Christ is every- where (ubique) ; here existing complete (plenus), and there complete. "f Chrysostom had said: "The angels are com- manded to adore Him according to the flesh." "Christ is beyond the heavens, He is beyond the earth, He is wherever He wills to be ; wheresoever He is, He is entire ; wheresoever He is, and wheresoever thou art who seekest Him, thou art in Him whom thou seekest."^: Theophylact had said : "The Father hath given all things into the hand of the Son accord- ing to His humanity." " He fills all things with His rule and working, and this He does in His flesh, for He had filled all things before with His divinity. "§ " The holy body of Christ . . is communicated in the four parts of the world. . . He sanctifies the soul of each with His body, through His flesh, and exists entire and undivided in all everywhere." I (Ecume- nius had said : " He received as man what He had as God. As man it was said to Him : ' Sit at my right hand,' for as God he had an eternal government." " By His divinity He had aforetime filled all things, but being incarnate He descended and ascended, that with His flesh He might fill all things." If Jerome** had said: "The Lamb is everywhere (ubique)." *Basilius in Homil. de Nativ. Christi. f Ambrosius on Luke x. Lib. vii. ch. 47, and on Heb. iv. % Horn, de John Bapt. § Theophylact on Eph. iv. 10. || In cap. xix. John. fl (Ecumenius on Eph. iv. 10. **Adv. Vigilantium. 510 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. Augustine had said : " The humanity itself after the resurrec- tion obtained divine glory." '"The Son of man which is in heaven.' He was on earth, and yet said that He is in heaven — and what is more, that ' the Son of man is in heaven/ that He might demonstrate that there is one person in two natures. . . There are not two Christs, two Sons of God, hut one per- son, one Christ." " Why shouldst thou separate man from God, and make one person of God, another of man, so that there would be, not a Trinity, but a Quaternity — for thou, a man, art soul and body, and as soul and body is one man, so God and man is one Christ ? "* The Church grounds herself, then, in this great doctrine, on the direct testimony of God's Word, accepted in the sense in which it had long been understood by the best interpreters of the Ancient Church. So irresistible, indeed, is the logic of the case, and so strong is the historical testimony by which the argument is sustained, that we find the truth conceded in whole or in part by some of the ablest representatives of the Churches which have most violently opposed the Lutheran doctrine of the person of Christ. Bellarmine, and other Polemics of the Church of Rome, in the blindness of their purpose to stamp our doc- trine with the reproach of heresy, have violently assailed the Lutheran doctrine of the personal omnipresence of Chris c according to both natures. But, in addition to the Fathers, Lutheran doc- men whose names have been held in honor in that trine; i. Admis- q^-qj.^ a t a } a ter period have acknowledged, in Bions of some wri- - 1 - ° ' ters of the church whole or part, what modern Romanists deny, of Rome. HuG0 DE s> y ICT0RB -j- says: "From the nature of its union with divinity, the body of Christ has this dignity, that it is at one time in many places." Biel % says : " Not only can the body of Christ be in diverse places definitively and sacramentally , but. . can by divine power be in many places circumscriptively." Nor have there been entirely wanting, even among modern Romanists, some who have conceded the truth of the Lutheran * Augustine: De verb. Apostol. Serm. xiv.; Do. De Tempore. Serin, cxlvii. •j-Lib. II. de Sacram. Pars viii. ch. xii. % IV. Sent. Dist xi. ADMISSIONS OF CALVIXISTIC WAITERS. 511 doctrine of the fellowship of properties. Faber Stapulensis says : " Wherever Christ is, He is incarnate. But without His body He is not incarnate. That is a great faith which knows that Christ is bodily where He is sacramentally. But that is a greater faith that knows that He is absolutely everywhere bodily." " The body of Christ is wherever the Logos is, for * the Word was made flesh.' The Word is never without the flesh, nor the flesh without the Word."* Paul Kemer affirms: " It is most easy, by many and firm reasons, to prove that Christ is everywhere with His body," and so also Ertlius, Francus, and Barr alius, f Biel held, indeed, in common with many of the scho- lastics, that by divine power any natural body 2. Admissions of could be simultaneously present in many places. Metit P h :>' slcians - ^Nov has this theory lacked supporters of great name in modern times. Among the Calvinistic metaphysicians, the proposition that " the existence of one and the same body in many places is not contradictory," has been maintained by Gisbert Voetius, and defended by his sons, Paul and Daniel. Leibnitz,:): the greatest metaphysician, in many respects, since Aristotle, says that it cannot with reason be affirmed that a real presence of the body of Christ in many places involves a contradiction, inasmuch as no one has yet explained in what the essence of body consists. This theory, maintained, as it has been, by some of the acutest thinkers of our race, shows, at least, that here is a question which cannot be determined by mere speculation. Kor are we destitute of admissions, on the part of. Calvinistic writers, which, in spite of the explanations which ' ' r L 3. Admissions seem meant to take away with one hand what is of calvinistic granted by the other, are virtual concessions of writers - the truth of the Lutheran view. Thus Beza § says : " If yon will, I grant beside, that the humanity of Christ is also pres- ent, but in another respect, that is, not in itself, or by its * Faber Stap. in 1 Cor. xii. f Quoted in Gerhard's Loci (Cotta) iii. 517. J See Letters of Leibnitz and Pelisson, and L.'s Discours d. 1. Conform, de la fois avec la raison, § 18, and Cotta's Note on Gerhard, iv. 548. § Opera. 659. 512 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. own essence, but inasfar as it coheres by personal union with the Logos, which is everywhere." Zanchius * : " The flesh of Christ can be said to be . . omnipotent, . . everywhere present . . not in its own proper essence, . . but in the person which is common to it, with the divine nature." "All the learned and pious grant that the human nature of Christ is personally omnipotent, everywhere present. Not incongruously is it said that the flesh is personally omnipotent and everywhere present, . . for it is such in the person." The Zurich Theologians f say : " Christ, that is, that person who is at the same time true God and true man, is present with all things, governs heaven and earth, and that according to each nature (utramque naturam). For the Son of God, after He assumed human nature, wheresoever He is present and acts, is present and acts as Christ, that is, as a person who is at once God and man." Sohnius : " If the humanity is not wherever the divinity is, to wit, personally, or in personal subsistence, that is, if there be not everywhere one person of the two natures, or if these two natures be not everywhere united, there must, of necessity, be two persons." That these writers are consistent with these premises, in their inferences, we do not pretend ; but this does but the more show how great is the pressure of that truth, which, knowing the difficulty of explaining it away, they are yet obliged to concede. In the great practical question of the undivided adoration worship of of the humanity and Deity of Christ, there is no Christ according cons i s tent position between the Lutheran doctrine to His human *■ nature. and the Socinian. The Calvinistic divines, while they show in various ways that there is great difficulty in har- monizing their view of the person of Christ with the worship of Him in His human nature, are yet, for the most part, happily inconsistent. ~No man can really pray to the undivided Christ without in heart resting on the Lutheran doctrine of His per- son. Either the human nature of Christ is in inseparable unity of person with the divine nature, or it is idolatry to worship Christ according to the human nature. This the Socinian con- troversialists in New England saw at once, and their arguments, *Lib. de Relig. Prsefat. ad Lect. Lib. II. de Incarnat. 201. f Apolog. 108. THE PERSON OF CHRIST. 513 which assumed the Nestorianizmg views of New England as orthodox, and which the Orthodox there defended as Scriptural, were consequently never fairly met. One source of the rapid and deadly triumphs of Socinianism in New England was the unscriptural and lax views which the system claiming to he orthodox held of the person of Christ. From the views which have been presented of the Lutheran doctrine of Christ's person, our readers will under- stand with what reservation they must accept Dr. Chl . is e t; e a rS great Gerhart's statement, which follows the one on which misapprehension 7 corrected. we have dwelt. He says that the Lutheran doc- trine " involved the communicating of divine attributes to the human nature of Christ, in virtue of which His human nature was not limited to heaven, nor to any place at a time, but, like the divine nature, was present in all places at the same time where the Sacrament of the Altar was instituted and adminis- tered." For evidence of the correctness of this proposition, the reader is referred to " Herzog's Encyclopaedia, by Dr. Bom- berger." We would protest against the authority of Herzog's Encyclopaedia on any question involving a distinctive doctrine of Lutheranism. Great as are the merits of that almost indis- pensable work, it is yet an unsafe guide on any question which involves in any way the so-called Evangelical Union. The arti- cle on the Communicatio Idiomatum is written by Dr. Schenkel, who is one of the last men to be selected for such a work. In its whole texture it is Unionistic, and in some of its state- ments, demonstrably incorrect. The article has been very admirably translated by Rev. Dr. Krotel, for the Abridgment of Herzog, edited by Dr. Bomberger. We do not find, how^- ever, in the part of the article cited by Dr. Gerhart, nor indeed in any part of it, a voucher for his definition, especially for the statement that our Church holds that the human nature of Christ is present " like the divine nature." Dr. Schenkel, how- ever anxious he might be to make out a case against our doc- trine, could not have ventured on a statement which is not only inconsistent with the whole theory of our Church, but is contradicted, in express terms, in the Formula of Concord. Here we will say, as we said before, if Dr. Gerhart will show 33 514 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. us a solitary passage in our Confession, or in any approved author of our Church, which says that the human nature of Christ is present " like the divine nature" we will confess that we have too hastily pronounced upon his statements, and will consent to sit at his feet as a learner in the doctrines of our Church. Our Confessions, as we read them, again and again assert the very opposite, and we will undertake, for every line in the Heidelberg Catechism which repudiates the doctrine that the human nature of Christ is present like the divine, to produce twenty from our Confessions which repudiate it with equal strength. As Dr. Gerhart has cited no passage from any Lutheran authority which asserts the doctrine he imputes to us, it might be sufficient for us simply to meet his statement with this lenial, but we will go further, and cite some passages of the Formula of Concord in which it is expressly repudiated. The Formula of Concord, in its Vlllth Article, after assert- ing that the " divine virtue, life, power, and majesty are given to the human nature assumed in Christ," goes on to say : 1. " This declaration, however, is not to be accepted in such sense, as if these were communicated, as the Father has communicated to the Son, according to His divine nature, His own essence, and all divine properties, whence He is of one essence with the Father, and co-equal." 2. " For Christ only according to His divine nature is equal to the Father : according to His human nature He is under God" 3. " From these statements it is manifest that we imagine no confusion, equalizing or abolishing of the natures in Christ. For the power of giving life is not in the flesh of Christ in THE SAME WAY IN WHICH IT IS IN HlS DIVINE NATURE, to wit, as an essential property : this we have never asserted, never imagined." 4. " For that communion of natures, and of properties, is not the result of an essential, or natural effusion of the properties of the divine nature upon the human : as if the humanity of Christ had them subsisting independently and separate from divin ity ; or as if by that communion the human nature of Christ had TEE PERSON OF CHRIST. 515 laid aside its natural properties, and was either converted into the divine nature, or was made equal in itself, and per se to the divine nature by those properties thus communicated ; or that the natural properties and operations of each nature were identical, or even equal. For these and like errors have justly been rejected and condemned by the most ancient and approved councils on Scriptural grounds. For in no respect is there to be made, or admitted, any conversion, or confusion, or equal- izing, either of the natures in Christ, or of their essential properties." 5. " By these words, ' real communication, really to commu- nicate,' we never designed to assert any physical communica- tion, or essential transfusion (by which the natures would be con- founded in their essences, or essential properties), in the sense in which some, craftily and maliciously, doing violence to their conscience, have not hesitated, by a false interpretation, to pervert these words and phrases, only that they may put upon sound doctrine the burden of unjust suspicion. We oppose these words and phrases to a verbal communication, since some feign that the communication of properties is no more than a phrase, a mode of speech, that is, mere words and empty titles. And they have pressed this verbal communica- tion so far that they are not willing to hear a word of any other." 6. " There is in Christ that one only divine omnipotence, virtue, majesty, and glory, which is proper to the divine nature alone. But this shines and exerts its power fully, yet most freely in, and with, the humanity assumed.''* 7. " For it is so as in white-hot iron, — the power of shining and burning is not a twofold nower, as if the fire had one such power, and the iron had another peculiar and separate power of shining and burning, but as that power of shining and bur& ing is the property of the fire, and yet because the fire is united with the iron, and hence exerts that power of burning and shin- ing in and with the iron, and through that white-hot iron, so, indeed, that the glowing iron has from this union the power both to burn and to shine, and yet all this is without the change of the essence or of the natural properties either of the iron or of the fire" 516 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. The reader will please observe that this illustration is neither designed as a. proof of the doctrine, nor as an exhibition of the mode of the union, but simply as an aid in removing a misun- derstanding of the definition of terms. 8. " We believe, teach, and confess that there occurred no su3h effusion of the Majesty of God, and of all His properties, on the human nature of Christ, or that anything was with- drawn from the divine nature, or that anything from it was so bestowed on another, that in this respect it no longer retained it in itself; or that the human nature, in its own substance and essence, received a like majesty, separate from the divine nature and essence." 9. " For neither the human nature in Christ, nor any other creature in heaven or in earth, is capacious of divine omnipo- tence in that way, to wit, that of itself it could have an omnipotent essence, or have the properties of omnipotence in itself and per se" 10. " For in this way the human nature in Christ would be denied and completely changed into divinity, which is repug- nant to our Christian faith, and the teaching of the prophets and apostles." 11. " We reject, therefore, and with one consent, one mouth, one heart, condemn all errors departing from the sound doc- trine we have presented ; errors which conflict with the writ- ings of the apostles and the prophets, with the received and approved Ancient Creeds, and with our cherished Augsburg Confession. These errors we will briefly and summarily recite : " That the human nature of Christ, because of the personal union, is confounded with the divinity, or transmuted into it : " That the human nature in Christ in the same way as divinity, as an infinite essence, and by an essential virtue or property of its own nature, is everywhere present : " That the human nature in Christ has become equal to the divine nature in its substance or essence, and essential properties : "That the humanity of Christ is locally extended in all places of heaven and earth, an affirmation which cannot be made with truth, even of divinity : THE PERSON OF CHRIST. 517 "These errors, and all others in conflict with sound doctrine,, we reject, and we would exhort all devout people not to attempt to scrutinize this deep mystery with the curious search of human reason, but rather with the Apostles of our Lord to exercise a simple faith, closing the eyes of human reason, and bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. But most sweet, most firm consolation, and perpetual joy may they seek in the truth that our flesh is placed so high, even at the right hand of the majesty of God, and of His almighty power. Thus shall they find abiding consolation in every sorrow, and be kept safe from every hurtful error." With these beautiful words our Formula of Concord closes its matchless discussion of the doctrine of our Eedeemer's per- son, and with them we close, imploring the pardon of that ever-present and ever-precious Saviour for our poor utterances on such a theme, and beseeching Him to bless even this unworthy offering to the strengthening of some faint heart in the faith once delivered to the saints. XI. BAPTISM. (AUGSBURG CONFESSION. ART. IX.) THE Lutheran doctrine of Baptism may be stated summarily in the following propositions : I. " We confess one Baptism for the remission of sins."* II. " The vice of origin — the inborn plague and hereditary sin — is truly sin, condemning, and bringing now also eternal death upon all that are not born again by Baptism and the Holy Spirit."t III. " The ministry has been instituted to teach the Gospel and administer the Sacraments ; for by the Word and Sacra- ments, as by instruments, the Holy Spirit is given. "{ IV. " Unto the true unity of the Church it is sufficient to agree concerning the doctrine of the Gospel and the adminis- tration of the Sacraments." V. " It is lawful to use the Sacraments administered by evil men — and the Sacraments and Word are efficacious by reason of the institution and commandment of Christ, though the priests who impart them be not pious. "§ VI. "The churches among us with common consent teach concerning Baptism : "1. That it is necessary to salvation. " 2. That by Baptism the grace of God is offered. " 3. That children are to be baptized. "4. That by Baptism they are offered and committed unto God. * Symb. Nicsenum. f Aug. Conf. ii. 2. % Do. v. 1, 2. \ Do. vii. 2 ; viii. 1, 2. 618 BAPTISM. 519 " 5. And that thus offered by Baptism, they are received into God's favor." 'VII. The churches among us, with one consent, condemn the Anabaptists, who "1. Allow not the Baptism of children, and who teach that it is not right ; " 2. And who affirm that children are saved without Bap- tism."* Our Lord, in the course of His earthly ministry, authorized His disciples to baptize (John iv. 1, 2), and previous to His ascension, commanded them to make disciples of all the nations, by baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost (Matt, xxviii. 19). The rite of Baptism, thus enjoined by our Lord, has been the subject of various disputes in the Christian world. It is the object of this Dissertation to exhibit the faith of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in regard to the points of dispute. Over against all who deny the divine institution and perpetuity of Baptism, our Church maintains that " God has instituted it," and that it is obligatory and necessary through- out all time (Aug. Conf., Art. V.,VII.,VIIL,IX.,XIII.,XIV.), so that without it the Church cannot exist in the world. Serious differences of opinion, however, exist in Christendom, even among those who recognize the perpetuity and obligation of Baptism, as to what are essential to Baptism, even as to its outward part. For, while all are agreed that the use of water, and of the Word, is essential, some parts of the Christian world maintain that the essential mode of Baptism is that of the total immersion of the body, insomuch that this immersion is absolutely necessary, and 'positively demanded by our Lord, and the application of water in any other way whatsoever is no Baptism. The Lutheran Church does not hold that immer- sion is essential to Baptism. That the Augsburg Confession uses the word " Baptism " in its then current sense is indisputable. Baptism was commonly administered in the sixteenth century by pouring, and sprink- ling, as well as by immersion. In the Roman Catholic Agenda (Mentz), 1513, the Rubric says : " He shall pour (fundat) the *Au£. Conf. Art. ix. 620 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. water thrice upon the head of the child, so that it shall reach his head and shoulders." The Augsburg Ritual (1587) directs that the priest, " taking water from the font with his right hand, shall gently pour it (perfundat) over the head and body of the child three times." The Roman Ritual directs, as the normal mode, that the water shall be poured. If immer- sion had been regarded by the confessors as a divine ele- ment of Baptism, they could not but have so stated. They declared that men could not be in Church unity who did not agree as to the administration of the Sacra- ments. That they do not object to the existing ideas of the mode of Baptism shows that they received them. The Augs- burg Confession speaks of the various washings, made in various ways, under the Old Dispensation, as " the Baptisms of the Law."* Melanchthon, in the Instruction to the Vis- itors (1528), says: " Baptism shall be observed as hitherto, "f Luther, in the XVII. Schwabach Articles (1529), designates the prevailing mode, that mode which he had in his own mind in using the word Tauf, as " Begiessen," pouring or sprinkling.:]: These articles are the basis of the doctrinal part of the Augs- burg Confession, and fix the sense of its terms. In Luther's own form of Baptism (1523), which is not to be confounded with his abridgment and translation of the Romish form, he directs that the water shall be poured upon the child. " It was the custom," says Funk,§ " at that time, to pour water all over the child, as Bugenhagen tells us: 'The pouring (Begiessen) in Baptism — the pouring over (ubergiesset) the head and shoulders of the child . . is seen among us over all Germany.' " Attempts have, indeed, been made to show that Luther, at Luther atd the least, held the necessity of immersion, and that the Jewess. Lutheran Church either held it with him, or was inconsistent in rejecting it. We shall show how groundless these statements are. One of the passages most frequently appealed to, in the attempt to implicate Luther, is found in * Augs. Conf. xxvi. 22. " The Baptisms of the Law washed the members, gar- ments, vessels." Luther. Oper. Lat. Jen. 524. i Corp. Ref. xxvi. 64. % Do.do. 156. \ P. 115 LUTHER AND THE JEWESS. 521 Waleh's Edition of his works, X., 2637. In regard to this, the following are the facts : 1. The passage referred to is from a letter of Luther, writ- ten from Coburg, July 9th, 1530, in reply to an Evangelical pastor, Henry G-enesius, who had consulted him in regard to the Baptism of a Jewish girl. It will be noted from the date that the letter was written a few months after the issue of the Catechisms, in which it has been pretended, as we shall sea, that he taught the necessity of immersion. 2. The letter given in Walch, is also in the Leipzig edition of Luther (XXII., 371), and is not in either edition in the original language, but is a translation, and that from a defec- tive copy of the original. The original Latin is given in De Wette's edition of Luther's Briefe (IV., 8), and contains a most important part of a sentence which is not found in the Ger- man translation. The letter in Walch cannot, therefore, be cited in evidence, for it is neither the original, nor a reliable translation of it. 3. The whole letter shows that the main point of inquiry was not as to whether the girl should be baptized in this or that mode, but what precautions decency demanded during the baptism, provided it were done by immersion. 4. Luther says : " It would please me, therefore, that she should . . modestly have the water poured upon her (Mihi placeret, lit, . . verecunde perf under etur), or, if she sit in the water up to her neck, that her head should be immersed with a trine immersion." (Caput ejus trina immersione immergeretur.) 5. An immersionist is one who contends that Baptism must be administered by immersion. The passage quoted is decisive that Luther did not think Baptism must be so administered. He represents it as pleasing to him, best of all, that the girl should have the water applied to her by pouring ; or that, if she were immersed, greater precautions, for the sake of decency, should be observed, than were usual in the Church of Rome. It is demonstrated by this very letter, that Luther was not AN IMMERSIONIST. 6. In suggesting the two modes of Baptism, Luther was simply following the Eitual of the Eomish Church. In the 522 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. Romish Ritual the direction is : " Baptism may be performed either by pouring, immersion, or sprinkling ; but either the first or second mode, which are most in use, shall be retained, according as it has been the usage of the churches to employ the one or the other, so that either the head of the person to be baptized shall have a trine ablution — that is, either the water shall be poured upon it {perfundatum — Luther quotes the very word), or the head shall be immersed (ut trina ablu- tione caput immergatur) — Luther again quotes almost verbatim. In the Roman Ritual, furthermore, for the Baptism of adults, it is said : " But in the churches where Baptism is performed by immersion, either of the entire body, or of the head only, the priest shall baptize by thrice immersing the person, or his head " (ilium vel caput ejus). It is a mistake, as these words demon- strate, to suppose that even if immersion be practised, there must needs be a submergence of the whole body. The Roman Ritual leaves the choice between the immersion of the whole body, and the immersion of the head. The immersion of the head was performed in the case of infants, usually by dipping the back of the head into the font. Thus in the Ambrosial* Ritual : " He shall dip the back of the child's head iter occiput mergit) three times in the water." In the case of adults, the solemn immersion of the head could take place, in the same way, without any sort of immersion of the rest of the body ; or, the person could go into the water up to the neck, and the solemn immersion of the head alone be made by the minister. It is evident that in the second case, equally with the first, the baptismal immersion was of the head only. The submergence to the neck was a mere natural preparation for the other. It is in this second manner that Luther directs, in case the Jewess was immersed at all, that the officiating minister should immerse her head only. She was to seat herself in the bath, and the only religious immersion was not that of her whole body (as Rome permits, and the Baptists, if consistent, would prescribe), but of her head only (ut caput ejus immergere- tur). Luther, so far as he allowed of immersion at all, was not as much of an immersionist as the Ritual of Rome might have made him, for he does not hint at the immersion of the whole LUTHER AND THE JEWESS. 523 body of the Jewess by the minister. An immersionist contends that the whole body must be immerged by the officiating min- ister ; not, indeed, that he is to lift the whole body and plunge it in, but the whole immersion is to be so conducted as to be clearly his official work, the person being led by him into the water, and the immersion completed by his bending the body, and thus bringing beneath the surface what was up to that time uncovered. Luther preferred, if there was to be an immersion, that the head only, not the body, should be immersed by the minister (not ilium sed caput ejus). Even to the extent, therefore, to which he allowed immersion, Luther was no immersionist. l 7. If Luther could be proved, by this letter, to be an immer sionist, it would be demonstrated that he derived his view from the Romish Church, and held it in common with her. In like manner, the Church of England, the Episcopal Churches of Scotland and of the United States, and the Methodist Churches, would be carried over to the ranks of immersionists, for they allow the different modes. But these Churches are confessedly not immersionist ; therefore, Luther was no immersionist. 8. Whatever Luther's personal preferences may have been as to mode, he never even doubted, the validity of Baptism by pouring. But immersionists do not merely doubt it, they abso- lutely deny it ; therefore, Luther was no immersionist. 9. An immersionist is one who makes his particular mode of Baptism a term of Church communion, and an article of faith. Luther was in a Church which did not prescribe immersion as necessary — never made it an article of faith ; therefore, Luther was no immersionist. 10. Finally, the letter of Luther shows that he preferred pouring. He says expressly that it would please him that the water should be poured upon her, and gives this the first place , and his directions in regard to the immersion, are given only in the supposition that that mode might be decided upon — " if she sit, etc., her head shall be immersed," etc., si sedens. Whatever, therefore, may be the difference between the doctrine of the necessity of immersion, and the " doctrine 824 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. of immersion," we feel safe in affirming that Luther held neither. From Luther's Larger Catechism, by confounding the very Luther's Cate- plain distinction between allowance, or even prefer- r.hisms. ence £ a m0( } e5 an( j a belief in its necessity, the evidence has been drawn that our Confessions teach the Bap- tist doctrine of immersion. Yet this very Catechism, in express terms, repudiates any such doctrine, and acknowledges, in the most decisive manner, what the Baptist doctrine denies — the validity of other modes than immersion. Mark these two sentences from the Larger Catechism : " Baptism is not our work, but God's. For thou must distinguish between the Baptism which God gives, and that which the keeper of a bath-house gives. But God's work, to be saving, does not exclude faith, but demands it, for with- out faith it cannot be grasped. For in the mere fact that thou hast had water poured on thee, thou hast not so received Bap- tism as to be useful to thee ; but it profits thee when thou art baptized with the design of obeying God's command and insti- tution, and in God's name of receiving in the water the salva- tion promised. This neither the hand nor the body can effect, but the heart must believe."* In these words there is an express recognition of pouring or sprinkling (for the word used by Luther covers both, but excludes immersion) as modes of Baptism. But there is another passage yet more decisive, if possible : " We must look upon our Baptism, and so use it, as to strengthen and comfort us whenever we are grieved by sins and conscience. We should say: I am baptized, therefore the promise of salvation is given me for soul and body. For to this end these two things are done in Baptism., that the body, which can only receive the water, is wet by pouring, and that, in addition, the word is spoken that the soul may receive it."f Here not only is the recognition of pouring (or sprinkling) * Catech. Maj. Muller, 490, 36, das Wasser iiber dich giessen. The Latin is, " aqua per -fundi." j- Do. 492, 45. German: " Der Leib begossen wird." Latin: ''Corpus aqua perfundatur." LUTHER'S CATECHISMS. 525 explicit, but if the words were not compared with other expressions of Luther, it might be argued, that he and our symbols went to the opposite extreme from that charged upon them, and, instead of teaching that immersion is necessary, denied its validity. So far, then, is the charge from being verified, that we are authorized to make directly the opposite statement. Luther and our Confessions repudiate utterly the Baptist doctrine of the necessity of immersion. In the original of the Smaller Catechism there is not a word about immersion in a passage sometimes referred to. It is simply, " What signifies this Water-Baptism f " (Wasser Tauf- fen.) " Immersion " is but a translation of a translation. The same is the case with the Smalcald Articles. The original reads : " Baptism is none other thing than God's Word in the water (im Wasser)." There is not a word about immersion. We do not rule these translations out because they at all sustain the allegation built on them. Fairly interpreted, they do not ; but we acknowledge the obvious rule accepted in such cases — that the originals of documents, and not translations of them, are the proper subjects of appeal. A translation can carry no authority, except as it correctly exhibits the sense of the origi- nal. Even the general endorsement of a translation as correct, by the author of the original, is not decisive on a minute point which he may have overlooked, or have thought a matter of very little importance. A clergyman of our country translates the commentary of an eminent German theologian, and receives from him a warm letter of thanks, strongly endorsing the accu- racy of the translation. Yet, not only in a possible deviation of the translation from the original, but in any matter of doubt, however slight, the original alone would be the source of appeal. As the Lutheran Church accepts Luther's version of the Bible, subject to correction by the original, so does she accept any translation of her symbols, however excellent, sub ject to correction by the original. But, even if the principle were not otherwise clear, the facts connected with the translation of the different parts of the Symbolical Books would be decisive on this point. The trans- lation of the Smalcald Articles, made in 1541, by Generanus, a 526 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. young Danish student of theology, at Wittenberg, and who was an intimate friend of Luther, was confessedly admirable, pithy, and Luther-like. The translation which Selneccer pre pared, or selected, for the Book of Concord, 1580, was an entirely new one, very inferior to the old,* and this, after undergoing two sets of changes, is the one now ordinarily found in the Latin editions of the Symbol. This is one of the translations to which appeal is made, in the face of the original, and lan- guage is used which leaves the reader under the impression that these articles were translated under Luther's eye, and the translation approved by him. The German translation of the Apology, found in the JEditio Princeps of the German Concordia, and in most other editions, adds some things which are not in the Latin, and omits some things which are there. Which is the authority, Melanchthon's Latin, or Jonas' German, if a dispute arise as to the meaning of the Apology ? 3. The Larger Catechism was first translated by Lonicer, faithfully, and into good Latin. The second translation was made by Opsopseus, and this was changed in various respects by Selneccer, and thus changed, was introduced into the Book of Concord. 4. The Smaller Catechism was first rendered into Latin by an unknown hand, then by Sauermann. " This translation seems to have been introduced into the Concordien-buch, but ivith changes" says Kollner. The principle involved, which no honest scholar would try to weaken, is well stated by Walch, in these words : f "It is by all means proper to know what was the original language of each of our Symbolical Books, since it is manifest that from that, not from translations, we are to judge of the genuine and true meaning of any book. What they teach we ought to see, not in versions, but in the original language itself, especially where the matter or meaning seems involved in some doubt. Versions do not always agree entirely with the writings as * " Diffuse and feeble." F. Francke : L. S. Eccl. Luth. Pars Sec. xi. '' Luther's ideas are often inundated in it." — Hase. f Introd. in Lib., Symbol, 61. LUTHER'S CATECHISMS. 527 their authors composed them ; as the facts themselves show is the case in our Symbolical Books also." The allusions of Luther to the outward mode are never found in his definition of Baptism. His allusions to immersion come, in every case, long after he has defined Baptism. His definition of Baptism, in the Smalcald Articles, is : " Baptism is none other thing than the Word of God in the water, enjoined by his institution." His definition of Baptism in the Larger Catechism, is thus : " Learn thou, when asked, What is Baptism ? to reply, It is not mere water, but water em- braced in God's word and command. It is a mere illusion of the Devil when our New Spirits of the day ask, How can a handful of water help the soul?" And then comes his powerful vindication of this " handful of water " in its con- nection with the Word. In the Smaller Catechism, to the question, " What is Baptism ? " the reply is : " Baptism is not mere water, but that water which is comprehended in God's command, and bound up with God's Word." Nowhere does any Symbol of our Church say that Baptism is immersion, or even allude to immersion when it speaks of that which consti- tutes Baptism. That the word " begiessen," by which Luther indicates one of the modes of Baptism, can only indicate pouring or sprink- ling, and by no possibility immersion, every one even moder- ately acquainted with German very well knows. The proper meaning of begiessen, as given by Adelung, is, " Durch Giessen nass machen" i. the nations, Matt, xxviii. 19, and connects with it the prom^e : " He that believeth, and is baptized, shall be saved ; " and adds : " but he that believeth not shall be damned," Mark xvi. 16. These words should be pondered. We are not to separate what God hath joined together. Who shall be saved? First, He only that believeth. That is decisive against the idea that Sacraments operate apart from the spiritual state of the recipi- ent. It is a death-blow to formalism — a death-blow to Rome and to Oxford. We are justified by faith ; that is written with a sunbeam in the words : " He that believeth . . shall be saved." But is that all the Saviour said? No! He adds. " and is baptized, shall be saved." Who dares read a " not " in the words, and make our Saviour say, " He that believeth, and is not baptized, shall be saved " ? But the man who says, " Baptism is in no sense necessary to salvation," does contradict the words of our Lord. But if it be granted that in any sense our Lord teaches that Baptism is necessary to salvation, then it makes it highly probable that the same doctrine is asserted in John iii. 5. The reader will please notice that we are not now attempting to settle the precise meaning of either the words in John or the parallels. Our question now simply is, What is the subject when our Saviour speaks of water and the Spirit ? 7. In the minds of the Apostles, the doctrines of our Lord, of the necessity in some sense (we are not inquiring now in what sense or with what limitations,) of Baptism to salvation, was ever present. When the multitudes said to Peter, and to the rest of the Apostles, " Men and brethren, what shall we do?" then Peter said unto them, "Repent, and be baptized, every one oi you, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, for 554 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost." Now, mark — first, that Baptism and the Holy Spirit are separately spoken of, as in John iii. 5 ; second, that Bap- tism is represented as a means or condition of receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost ; third, that besides repentance Bap- tism is enjoined as necessary ; fourth, that it is clearly set forth as in some sense essential to the remission of sins. 8 The Apostles and other ministers of the Lord Jesus bap- tized all persons : " When they believed Philip preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God, they were baptized,' Acts viii. 12. "When Philip preached Jesus to the eunuch, he said : " What doth hinder me to be baptized ? " And Philip said, " If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest ; " not, as some would say now, " If thou believest with all thine heart, there is no need of being baptized." Thus, Lydia and her household ; the jailer and his household. No matter where or when the Spirit of God wrought His work in men, they were baptized, as if for some reason, and in some sense it was felt that this was necessary to an entrance on the kingdom of God. 9. Auanias said to Saul, after announcing to him the com- mission which God gave him : " And now, why tarriest thou ? Arise and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord," Acts xxii. 16. Here Baptism is represented as necessary, in some sense, even to a converted man, as a means, in some sense, of washing away sins. 10. As resonances of the wonderful words of our Lord, we have the Apostle's declaration : " So many of us as were bap- tized into Jesus Christ, were baptized into His death, there- fore, we are buried with Him, by Baptism, into death. By one Spirit are we all baptized into one body. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ." Thus comparing God's Word with itself do we reach a surt ground. Context, text, and parallel, the great sources of a sound interpretation of the living oracles, all point to one result, in determining what our Lord spoke of when he said ■ " Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." RESORTS OF INTERPRETER S— HENDIADYS. 555 The form of speech to which recourse has most frequently been had here to put a figure into the words, is that which is called " Hendiadys ; " that is, the phrase in which one, (hen) is presented by (dia) two (dys). That is to 4 The resort8 say, two nouns are used where one noun would of interpreters. answer, if the idea of the other were presented in an adjective form. Thus Yirgil says : "We offered drink in bowls and gold;" that is, in golden howls, or bowl-shaped gold. By this hendiadys, the Saviour is said here to have meant " spiritual water," or " the water-like Spirit." Now let us look at this " hendiadys " by which it is pro posed to set aside the natural meaning of our Saviour's words. We remark : 1. That after a careful search, we cannot find a solitary instance (leaving this out of question for a moment) in which it is supposed that the Saviour used the form of speech known as hendiadys. It was not characteristic of him. 2. Neither is it characteristic of John the Evangelist, whose style is closely formed upon that class of our Lord's discourses which he records in his Gospel. 3. Nor is it characteristic of the style of any of the New Testament writers. But three instances of it are cited in the entire New Testament by Glass in his Sacred Philology, and in every one of those three, the language is more easily inter- preted without the hendiadys than with it. Winer, the high- est authority on such a point, says, in regard to hendiadys in the New Testament : " The list of examples alleged does not, when strictly examined, furnish one that is unquestionable."* 4. The passage in Matt. iii. 11 : " He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire," is the only one in which it is pretended that a parallel is found with the one before us ; but we have shown in a former part of this Dissertation, that there is no hendiadys here ; the fire and the Holy Ghost are distinct subjects. The persons addressed were neither to be baptized exclusively with the Holy Spirit-like fire, or the fire-like Holy Spirit, but just as our Lord says, with both ; with the Holy * Gramm. of N. T. Diction. Trausl. by Masson. Smith, English & Co. 1859. p. 652. Seventh Ed. by Liinemann. (Thayer.) Andover. Draper. 1869. p. 630 556 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. Spirit and with fire — the former, in His personality, separating them as the breath of the purifier's fan, and the latter con Burning them as the purifier's flame. 5. But we have a little more to say in regard to this hen- diadys ; and that is, that if we even concede that it is used here, it does not help the figurative interpretation at all. For look at its real character a moment. Hendiadys does not affect at all the question of the literalness or figurativeness of the terms embraced in it ; it does not change their meaning, but simply their form. Take, for example, the illustration we gave from Yirgil : " bowls " and " gold " are both literal ; and to have " golden bowls," you must have literal gold as well as literal bowls ; not gold analogous to a bowl, or a bowl like to gold. So Lucan says of a horse : " He champed the brass and the bit ; " that is, the brass-formed bit ; but the brass was real, and the bit was real ; it does not mean the brass-like bit, or the bit-like brass. So, in Acts xiv. 13, it is said that the expression " oxen and garlands," is a hendiadys, and means "garlanded oxen." We are not sure that it does; but if it does, it means there were literally garlands and literally oxen. Oxen is not figurative, meaning strength, of which the ox is a symbol ; nor does " garlands " mean " honored," though gar- lands are an image of honor. It does not mean that they brought honored strength, or strong honor, to the gates ; but hendiadys or no hendiadys, it involves equally that there were oxen and garlands. So here, even supposing a hendiadys, we must none the less have literally water, and literally the Spirit. The only thing hendiadys proves, is, that the things it involves are not separated; and if we suppose a hendiadys here, it leaves both the water and the Spirit as literal terms, and only involves this, that they are conjoined in the one birth. In other words, hendiadys only makes a slight bend in the route, and brings us after all to the same result as the most direct and artless interpretation, to wit, that our Saviour referred to Baptism in His words to Mcodemus.. Another resort, more extreme than the one we have just disposed of, is that of the Epexegesis, that is to suppose that the " and " gives the words this force : " Born if water, that IS BAPTISM NECESSARY TO SALVATION? 5&7 IS to say, of the Spirit." It is contended that it is parallel to euch an expression as this : " God and our Father," which means: " God, that is to say, our Father." In the epexegesis, one thing is spoken of in more than one aspect, and, hence, under more than one term. For instance, in the Epexegesis. phrase we have quoted : " God and our Father " means: That Being who is God, as to his nature, and Father, as to his relation to lis, God essentially, and Father relatively ; in a word, both God and Father. It does not make the term God metaphorical, and the term Father the literal substitute for it. If an epexegesis, therefore, were supposable in John iii. 5, the phrase could only mean: Born of that which is water, as to its outer part, and Spirit, as to its internal agent, that is, both water and Spirit. It is, therefore, of no avail to resort to the epexegesis here, even if it were allowable. But it is not allow- able. There is not an instance, so far as we know, in human language, in which a noun used metaphorically is conjoined by a simple " and " with a term which is literal and is meant to explain it. In a word, the resorts of a false interpretation, which are sometimes very specious, utterly fail in this case. Our Lord has fixed the sense of his words so surely, that the unprejudiced who weigh them calmly cannot be at a loss as to their meaning. The Augsburg Confession (Art. IX. 1) declares that Baptism "is necessary to salvation." Is it justified in so Ig B;ipti8m doing ? Can we accept a statement apparently so necessary to sai- sweeping? Is it a Scripture statement? In order properly to answer these questions, it is necessary to determine what the Confessors meant. In all human writ- ings, and in the Book of God, occur propositions apparently universal, which are, nevertheless, in the mind of the writer, limited in various ways. What is the meaning of the propo- sition of our Confession ? Is it absolute, and without excep- tions, and if it meant to allow exceptions, what are they? The first question we naturally ask, in settling the meaning of our Confession, is, What is Baptism ? The Platform, in defining what Baptism it supposes the Church to connect with salvation, designates it as " such 558 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. water Baptism." But what our Church affirms of the bless- ings of Baptism, she does not affirm of " water Baptism,'' that is, of the application of water per se. The total efficacy of the Sacraments is denned in the Augsburg Confession (Art. 1. what is Bap- V. 2), thus, that through them and the word, " as tism? instruments, or means, God gives His Holy Spirit, who worketh faith." It would at once remove much of the grossest prejudice against the doctrine of our Church, if it were known and remembered that the Baptism of whose bless- ings she makes her affirmation, embraces not merely the exter- nal element, but yet more, and pre-eminently, the word and the Holy Spirit. She regards it as just as absurd to refer any blessings to Baptism, as her enemies define it, as it would be to attribute to swords and guns the power of fighting battles without soldiers to wield them. Her first lesson on the subject is : " Baptism is not mere water," (Cat. Min., 361, 2). " Wherefore," says Luther (Cat. Maj., 487, 15), "it is pure knavery and Satanic scoffing, that now-a-days these new spirits, in order to revile Baptism, sepa- rate from it the Word and institution of God, and look upon it as if it were mere water from the well, and then, with their childish drivelling, ask, l What good can a handful of water do the soul ? ? Yes, good friend, who does not know that when you separate the parts of Baptism, water is water? " " Bap- tism cannot be sole and simple water (do. 26), mere water can not have that power." " Not by virtue of the water" (do. 29). " Not that the water (of Baptism) is in itself better than any other water," (do. 14.) So in the Smalcald Articles : " We do not hold with Thomas and the Dominican friars, who, forget- ful of the word and the institution of God, say, That God has conferred a spiritual power on water, which washes away sin through the water " (320, 2). " Baptism," says Gerhard,* " is the washing of water in the Word, by which washing the whole adorable Trinity purifieth from sin him who is baptized, not by the work wrought (ex opere operato) but by the effectual working of the Holy Ghost comivg upon him, and by his own faith" Such is the tenor of all the * Loci (Cotta) ix. 318. REGENERATION - NOT PRECEDED BY BAPTISM. 559 definitions our Church gives of Baptism, from the simple ele mentary statements of the Catechism up to the elaborate defini tions of the great doctrinal systems. The assumption, then, that what the Church says of Bap- tism, she affirms of mere water Baptism, rests on a fundamen- tal misapprehension. Whatever is wrought in Baptism, is wrought by the Holy Ghost, through the Word, with the water, in the believing soul. " That some adults, by actual impenitence, hypocrisy, and obstinacy, deprive themselves of the salutary efii- 2. Baptism is cacy of Baptism, we freely admit." Gerhard (IX. ° ot f^ :ays fol * •f r 7 J ^ lowed by regen- lfO). • eration. Regen- Just as clear as they are in their judgment that "^8°™ preceded Baptism is not necessarily followed by regeneration, b >' B »P tism - are our Church and her great divines in the judgment that regeneration is not necessarily preceded by Baptism, or at- tended by it. The Augsburg Confession (Art. V.) declares the gospel (as well as the Sacraments) to be the means whereby the Holy Ghost works and confers faith, and (Art. VII.) presents the gospel purely preached (as well as the Sacraments) as that whereby the true Church is marked out and made. " As we come alone through the Word of God to God, and are justi- fied, and no man can embrace the Word but by faith, it fol- lows that by faith we are justified." Apol. 99, 68. "The natural man is, and remains, an enemy of God, until, by the power of the Holy Ghost, through the Word preached and heard, he is converted, endowed with faith, regenerated and renewed." Form. Concord, 589, 5. " We cannot obey the law unless we are born again through the gospel." Apol. Conf. 140, 190. " Faith alone brings us to a new birth." Do. 119, 61. "This faith alone justifies and regenerates." Do. 138, 171. " Regeneration is wrought by faith in repentance." Do. 253. "When, therefore," says Gerhard,* "they are bap- tized, who have already been regenerated through the Word, as a spiritual seed, they have no need of regeneration through Baptism, but in them Baptism is a confirmation and sealing of regeneration." *Loc. viii. 325. 56u CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. When Nicodemus asked, " How can a man be born when he is old?" Jesus replied, " Of water and of the Spirit," and extends the proposition to all " that which is born of the flesh ; " that is, to " all men after the fall of Adam, who are 3. Men may be ^orn m tne course of nature." (A. C, Art. II.) unbaptized and The necessity of the new birth He clearly predi- cates upon the fact that the flesh, which is such by virtue of fleshly birth, requires this change. That in John iii. 5, water means Baptism, the Platform concedes : " The language of the Saviour, doubtless, refers also to Baptism." But even critics who deny this, concede that in John iii. 6, man is contemplated as the subject of original sin. Those who concede this (and this all concede), and who concede that " water " means Baptism (and this the Platform concedes), concede that, not only in the phraseology, but in the connec- tion, application, and argument of that phraseology, the Augs- burg Confession is perfectly justified by the Saviour's language, when it says (Art. II.) " this original sin " (" that which is born of the flesh is flesh ") "brings now also eternal death " (" cannot see the kingdom of God ") " to those who are not born again of Baptism (' water ') and of the Holy Ghost." If the case is made out from these words, against the Confession of the Church, it is also made out against the Saviour, to whose words it so closely adheres. The dilemma, then, is irresistible, either that both teach it, or that neither does. As regards the effectual overthrow of their own position, it matters little which horn the objectors take. If they take the one, then, on their own concession, the Saviour teaches Baptismal regenera- tion ; if they take the other, on their own concession, the Con- fession does not teach Baptismal regeneration. Is, then, the inference warranted, that our Saviour, in His words, and our Confession, in its use of them, mean to affirm an absolute and unconditional necessity, that a man shall be born of water, before he can enter into the kingdom of God ? We reply, that neither the Saviour nor the Confession meant to affirm this, but simply an ordinary necessity. " The necessity of Baptism is not absolute, hut ordinary." (Gerhard IX. 383.) Bellarmine had argued from John iii. 5, for the Romish doctrine, that ARE IJNBAPTIZED IXFAXTS SAVED? 561 unbaptized infants are lost. Gerhard (IX. 287) replied : " 1. The warning of Christ bears not upon the privation of the Sacrament, but the contempt of it. 2. He describes the ordi- nary rule, from which cases of necessity are excepted. We are bound to the use of the means, but God may show Ilis grace in extraordinary ways." How touchingly and consolingly Luther wrote upon this topic is known to all admirers of his writings. 4 Are unb Bugenhagen, in the admirable Treatise already tized infanta referred to, which is incorporated in Luther's "Works, and was issued with a Preface by him, shows at large that neither to infants nor adults is the necessity of Baptism absolute. " Rather should we believe that the prayers of pious parents, or of the Church, are graciously heard, and that these children are received by God into His favor and eternal life." On the whole dark question of the relation of the heathen world to salvation, the early writers of our Church generally observe a wise caution. Yet even in the school of the most rigid orthodoxy we find the breathings of tender hope. " It is false," says Mentzer,* " that original sin in infants out of the Church is an adequate cause of reprobation ; for men are never said in Scripture to be reprobated on that account solely. But as faith alone justifies and saves, so also, as Luther says, unbelief alone condemns." ^Egidius Hunnius, whom Gerhard pronounced the most admirable of the theologians of his period, and of whom another great writer affirms, that by universal consent he holds the third place of merit after Luther, says:f "I would not dare to affirm that the little children of heathen, without distinction, are lost, for God desireth not the death of any — Christ died for them also," etc. Our Church, then, does not teach that Baptism " is neces sarily and unavoidably attended by spiritual regeneration,' but holds that a man may be baptized, and remain then and forever in the gall of bitterness, and in the bonds of iniquity, * Oper. I. 959, quoted in Gerhard. Cotta. f In Quaest. in Cap. VII. Gen., quoted in Gerhard IX. 284. 36 562 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. and therefore holds as heartily and fully as the Platform,* " that Baptism in adults does not necessarily effect or secure their regeneration." In the next place, our Church regards Baptism not as 5. Baptism not " essential " in its proper sense, hut as " necessary." essential. That which is properly " essential," allows of no degree of limitation ; hut that which is " necessary," may he so in various degrees with manifold limitations. It is " es- sential " to our redemption that Christ should die for us ; therefore, without limits of any kind, we affirm that no human heing could be saved without His atoning work. It is " necessary " that we should hear the gospel, for it is the power of God unto salvation ; hut the necessity of hearing is limited in various ways. It does not comprehend both infants and adults, as that which is essential does. The Augsburg Confession (Art. IX.) says, not that Baptism e But neces- ^- s essential, but simply that it is necessary — to sary. which the Latin, not to show the degree of neces- sity, but merely its object , adds " to salvation." In later editions of the Confession, Melanchthon, to remove the possibility of misconstruction, added a few words to the first part of the Ninth Article, so that it reads : " Of Baptism, they teach that it is necessary to salvation, as a ceremony insti- tuted of Christ." So far, at least, we think all could go in affirming its necessity. And with such mild expressions, even those who were most remote from the Melanchthouian spirit were satisfied. " Among all orthodox Lutherans, Hutter is among the most orthodox ; no one has remained more thoroughly within the bounds of the theology authorized and made normative by the Church than he — no one has adhered with more fidelity, not merely to the spirit, but to the very letter of the Symbols, especially of the Form of Concord, "f Yet Hutter exhausts, in the following answer, the question : " Is Baptism necessary to salvation ? " " It is ; and that because of God's command. For whatever God has instituted and commanded, is to be done, is precious, useful, and necessary, though as to its out- * P. 29. f Herzog's Encyclop. fuer. Theol. VI. 346. BAPTISM NECESSARY— NOT UNCONDITIONALLY. 503 ward form it be viler than a straw."* So much and no more does this great theologian say of the necessity of Baptism in his Compend. Later, theologians have properly given prominence to its necessity as a mean, but never have ascribed to it a neces- sity per se. For, nnaliy, on this point, the Church never has held, but has ever repudiated the idea that Baptism is 7 . Yet nut un - " unconditionally essential " or necessary " to sal- c0n,liti0Uilll J- vation." She has limited the necessity, first of all, by the " possibility of having it " — has declared that it is not absolutely necessary, and that not the deprivation of Baptism, but the contempt of it condemns a manf — that though God binds us to the means, as the ordinary instruments of His grace, He is not Himself limited by them.J She teaches, moreover, that all the bless- ings of Baptism are conditioned on faith. C. M., 490 : 33 - 36. The " Shorter Catechism " of Luther teaches that what- ever Baptism gives, it gives alone to those " who believe that which the Word and promises of God assure us of." "The water cannot do such a great thing, but it is done by the Word of God, and faith which believes the Word of God, added to the water." We shall not give the reference for this, as even the little children are supposed to know it by heart, nor stultify ourselves or our readers by adducing authorities for the catechetical doctrines of our Church. The Lutheran Church holds that Baptism is necessary to salvation, inasmuch as God has commanded it, and obedience to His commands is necessary to salvation ; and, furthermore, because He hits appointed Baptism, as one ordinary and posi- tive channel of His grace, through which channel we are to seek the grace He offers. But our Church denies that, where the command cannot be carried out, because of a necessity which is of God's creating, the lack of the sacrament involves the loss of the soul. On the more difficult question, whether infants born out of the Church are saved, many of our old divines, of the strictest * Compendium Loc. XX. 3. This answer is taken from Luther's Larg. Cat. | Luther's Werke: Leipz. Edit. XXII. 400-422. % Do. p. 412. gia Cotta, 564 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. school, have maintained, as we have already seen,* that it would be harsh and cruel to give over, absolutely, to condem- nation, the infants of pagans, for the lack of that which it s. our theoio- was impossible for them to have. This view has ns in general, been defended at large, by Dannhauer, Hulsemann, Scherzer, J. A. Osiander, Wagner, Musseus, Spener, and very many others. Some of our best theologians, who have not considered the argument on either side as decisive, have suspended their judgment in the case, as did Gerhard, Calixtus, Meisner, Baldwin, Bechman, and others. Hunnius, whom Ger- hard quotes approvingly, makes the statement of this middle view, in these words : " That the infants of pagans are saved, outside of the Church, is a matter on which the silence of Scripture forbids us to pronounce with assurance on the one side, yet I would not dare to affirm, on the other, that those little ones, without distinction, are lost. "For, 1. Since God desires the death of none, absolutely, it cannot rightly be supposed that he takes pleasure in the death of these little ones. 2. Christ died for them also. 3, They are necessarily excluded from the use of the Sacraments. Nor will God visit the children with eternal death, on account of the impiety of the parents. Ezek. xviii. We commit them, therefore, to the decision of God." Cotta approves of the most hopeful view of their condition, and argues for it — " 1. From the infinite pity of God. 2. The extent of the benefits wrought by Christ. 3. The anal- ogy of faith — no one absolutely reprobated, but actual unbe- lief alone condemns. 4. Not the absence, but the contempt of Baptism condemns. 5. God can operate in an extraordinary v?&y. 6. Though original sin, in itself, merits damnation, and is a sufficient cause of it, yet it is not (because of God's infinite goodness) an adequate cause of the actual infliction of that condemnation." The facts we have dwelt upon dispose of another charge 9. Baptismal against our Church — the charge of teaching an regeneration. unscriptural doctrine in regard to regeneration, and the relation of Baptism to it. * See Dissertation on Original Sin. CONFESSION AND PLATFORM COMPARED. 565 The Definite Platform says of "Baptismal Regeneration: " u By this designation is meant the doctrine that Baptism is necessarily and invariably attended by spiritual regeneration, and that such water Baptism is unconditionally essential to sal- vation." " Regeneration, in its proper sense of the term, con- sists in a radical change in our religious views — in our religious feelings, purposes, habits of action." The Miami Synod, in 1858, set forth what they suppose to be meant by the charge, when " they utterly repudiate and abhor " (as well they may) the following error: "Baptismal regeneration — that is, that Baptism is necessarily connected with, or attended by, an internal spiritual change ex opere operato, or from the mere out- ward performance of the act."* Their definition and that of the Platform are substantially the same, though we do not understand them to charge such a doctrine upon their Church or its Confession. The charge against our Church of teaching " Baptismal Regeneration," as those who make the charge define it, is, as we have seen, utterly ungrounded. It is not true in its general statement nor in its details ; it is utterly without warrant in the whole, or in a single particular. We have presented a few facts in elucidation and defence of the Scripture doctrine of Baptism, as confessed by our Church, and as The counter _ misrepresented and assailed in the Definite Plat- theo >T «f Bap- form. It is always an interesting question, often a very important one, If w T e give up that which is assailed, what shall we have in the place of it ? This question is of great importance in the present case. AVhat equivalent do those propose to the Church, who ask her to give up her most cherished doctrines ? What is the doctrine which th-3 Definite Platform proposes as the true one, in place of that theory of " Baptismal Regeneration" which it denounces ? It 1 Ba tigni of is this, "Baptism in adults is a pledge and condi- wimts. tbo coi- tion of obtaining those blessings purchased by pTaifornT" com 8 Christ, and offered to all who repent, believe in p ;u ' ed - Him, and profess His name by Baptism." Now, is not that which is a condition of obtaining a thing * Luth. Observ. xxvi. 29. 566 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. necessary to it — and is not " salvation " the generic term fo* the " blessings purchased by Christ ? " How, then, can the Platform take offence at the Ninth Article of our Confession ? Just put them side by side : Aug. Conf.: Baptism Def. Plat.: Baptism is necessary | to salvation. is a condition I those blessings purchased. of obtaining j by Christ. Then comes the question of the Baptism of infants. "What 2. Baptism of Bere i s ^e ™ w which is to supersede that anni- 'nfants. hilated theory (if that may be said annihilated which never existed,) " that Baptism is a converting ordinance in infants? " The theory is this (p. 31) : " Baptism, in infants, is the pledge of the bestowment of those blessings purchased by Christ, for all. These blessings are, forgiveness of sins, or exemption from the penal consequences of natural depravity (which would at least be exclusion from heaven) on account of moral disqualification for admission," etc. Look now at this, and compare it with what our Confession says on the Baptism of Infants. (Art. IX.) All that it says on the subject is : 1. " That children are to be baptized." Here the Platform assents fully. 2. " That by this Baptism they are offered and committed to God." Here, too, we apprehend, there will be no disseut, for it is said : " Baptism in infants, is the pledge of reception into the visible Church of Christ, grace to help in every time of need." 3. "Being offered in Baptism to God, they are well-pleasing to God, (that is,) are received into the favor of God," says the Confession, and here it ceases to define the blessings of Bap- tism ; but the Platform goes much further. " Baptism in infants," it says, " is a pledge." The first blessing of which it declares it to be a pledge is " forgiveness of sins," conceding this, that infants have sins ; that they need the forgiveness of sins ; that baptized infants have the pledge of the forgiveness of their sins, and, of necessary consequence, that unbaptized infants BAPTISM OF INFANTS. 567 have no pledge of the forgiveness of their sins ; in other words, that there is no pledge that the sins of unbaptized infants are forgiven ; for if they have the pledge, too, though they have no Baptism, how can Baptism be the pledge of forgiveness ? The words that follow now, are explanatory of the preced- ing ones. " These blessings are forgiveness of sins, or exemp- tion from the penal consequences of natural depravity." For- giveness is defined to be " exemption from penal consequences." Sins are defined to be "natural depravity." Now wherein does this doctrine differ from the old one, that in Baptism the " reatus," or liability of original sin is taken away, although the " materiale " remains ?* except, perhaps, in this, That Luther supposes God graciously to do it by His Holy Spirit through the Baptism, while the Platform may mean, that Baptism is only the pledge that it is done, but it is done either way, and in both Baptism is the proof, at least, that it is done. But we have, furthermore, a statement of what " the penal consequences of natural depravity " are : " Which would, at least, be exclusion from heaven, on account of moral disqualifi- cation for admission." Now, analyze this proposition, and you have the following result : 1. That infants have natural depravity, which is a moral disqualification for heaven. 2. That this natural depravity has penal consequences, that is, is a punishable thing ; that infants, consequently, have moral character, and some sort of moral accountability ; are the subjects of law, as to its obligation, for they have sins to be forgiven ; and of law as to its pains, for they are subject to " penal consequences." 3. That this punishment would be exclusion from Leaven. But this statement is qualified in a very remarkable way — ■ "would, at least, be exclusion from heaven," — tbat is the minimum. The words " at least," seem to mark this train of thought : " They w T ould, at least, be excluded from heaven, e^en if they w T ere not sent to hell." Now this style oi thinking as * Apolog. Confess., 83, 35. 56S CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. it has in it, unconsciously to its author, we trust and believe — as it has in it a tinge of Pelagianism — so it trembles, logi- cally, upon the very border of that figment to which the Pela- gianism of the Church of Rome, combined with her strong sacramenta. ism, leads her — the doctrine of a limbus infantum. She was too sacramental to admit that the original sin of a child could be removed without Baptism ; too Pelagian to con- cede that original sin must, in its own nature, apart from God's grace, bring death eternal. Her sacramentalism, therefore, kept the unbaptized child out of heaven ; her Pelagianism kept it out of hell, and the conjunction of the two generated a tertium quid — the fancy of a." limbus infantum" or place which, without being hell, was yet one of exclusion from heaven, a mild per- dition, whereby infants not wholly saved were, nevertheless, not totally lost. And the shadow of this very tendency shows itself in the words we have quoted from the Platform. Connecting the three propositions now, with what has pre- ceded them, we reach, then, furthermore, 4. That God grants forgiveness of the sins of the baptized infant, forgives its natural depravity, exempts it, of course, from the penal consequences thereof, and thus, if it is not saved from a liability to eternal death, it is, " at least" saved from exclusion from heaven. If the Platform means that the sin of an infant, unforgiven, would bring eternal death to it, then it goes as far as the extremest views of the nature of original sin can go, and vindicates the very strongest expressions of the Con- fession on this point ; and if it means that original sin would exclude it from heaven without consigning it to despair, it has virtually the doctrine of the limbus infantum. 5. And finally, Baptism in infants is the pledge of all this — they have the pledge — and, of consequence, unbaptized infants have not. In other words, there is an assurance that every baptized child has this great thing, "forgiveness of sins." It is not surprising that, after all this, the Platform closes its discussion on this point with these words (p. 31) : " It is proper to remark that the greater part of the passages in the former Symbols, relating to this subject, are, and doubtless BAPTISM OF INFANTS. 569 may be, explained by many, to signify no more than we above inculcate." We understand the author in this to concede, not simply that they are so explained, but that they are, in fact, susceptible of this explanation, and that this may be really their meaning. It is our sincere belief, that if the energy which has been expended in assailing as doctrines taught by our Confessions what they do not teach, had been devoted to ascertaining what is their real meaning, these years of sad controversy would have been years of building up, and of closer union, not years of conflict, years in which our ministry and members have had their minds poisoned against the truth of God as held by our Church. But, while there are apparent points of identity with the Church doctrine in that of the Platform, there is one chasm in its theory which nothing can bridge over, a contradiction of the most palpable and fatal character. That vital defect is this, that while this theory secures the forgiveness of an infant's sins, it makes no provision whatever for the change of its sinful nature. While it provides for its exemption from 'penalty, it leaves utterly out of sight the correction of its depravity, which is a more fearful thing than the penalty which follows it ; for in the pure judgment of sanctified reason, it would be better to be holy and yet bear the penalty of sin, than to be sinful and have the immunities of holiness ; better to be sinless, although in hell, than to be polluted and in heaven. The the- ory concedes that there is in " infants a moral disqualification for heaven." It absolutely needs, therefore, before an infant can have a pledge in Baptism of its salvation, that there shall be a pledge provided for its moral qualification for heaven, and this moral qualification must be regeneration. But the theory not only does not provide for this, but as far as it is stated in the Platform, absolutely excludes it. It says, u Baptism in infants is a pledge of the forgiveness of sins," but it says not a word of the removal of sins in whole or in part. The cardinal defect, therefore, is, that it provides a pledge that the blessings which follow regeneration shall be given, but provides none that the regeneration itself shall be 570 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. given — it provides that the child shall he saved from the pen- alty of sin without being saved, in whole or in part, from the sin itself; saved, in fact, in its sins, not from them. To what end would a child enter heaven if its nature were unchanged. Forgiving a sin in no sense changes its character. And where in the Word of God is there the shadow of that baleful doc- trine, that the sins of an unregenerate person are forgiven ; where the shadow of that deadly error, that God has provided a Church, into which, by His own ordinance, and at His com- mand, millions are brought, without any change in a nature whose moral evil is such as would condemn them forever to exclusion from heaven — where is the shadow of that fatal delusion, that the curse of sin can be removed while the sin itself remains dominant ? But if a refuge is sought in saying that infants are regen- erated, but that Baptism, in all its parts, element, Word and Spirit, is not the ordinary channel of this grace, this is to accept a theory which has every difficulty which carnal reason urges against the doctrine of the Church, but which has noth- ing that even looks like a warrant for it in God's Word, and which, run out logically, would destroy the whole character of Christianity as a system of wonderful means to beneficent ends. Dr. Heppe, in his Dogmatik of the Evangelical Reformed Church (1861), presents the doctrines of the Cal- Calvinistic and ...>>,, \ t mi i • • i Lutheran views vmistic Churches, and illustrates ins text with of Baptism com- Stations from their standard theologians. The doc- pared. ° trine of the Lutheran Church, in regard to Bap- tism, is often very severely spoken of by Calvinists — it is, indeed, one of the main points of attack. Perhaps it may not be without some interest to compare the Lutheran and Cal- vinistic views in regard to this important subject. The definitions of Baptism which Heppe gives as purely Cal- vinistic and Reformed, are' as follows: ''Baptism is a sacra- ment, in which those to whom the covenant of grace pertains, are washed with water in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, that is, that to those who are baptized, it is signified and sealed^ihsit they are received into the communion of the covenant CALVINISTIC AND LUTH. VIEWS OF BAPTISM. 571 of grace, are inserted into Christ and His mystic body, the Church, are justified by God, for the sake of Christ's blood shed for us, and regenerated by Christ's Spirit." This definition he gives from Polanus. Another and shorter one he furnishes from Wollebius, as follows : " Baptism is the first sacrament of the new covenant, in which to the elect received into the family of God, by the outward application of water, the remission of sins and regeneration by the blood of Christ, and by the Holy Spirit, are sealed." He gives only one other, which is from Heidegger, thus : " Baptism is the sacrament of regeneration, in which to each and to every one embraced in the covenant of God, the inward wash- ing from sins through the blood and Spirit of Christ, is declared and sealed." The doctrine thus stated, and correctly stated, for it is the doctrine of all genuine Calvinists, involves several things, which the detractors of our Church may do well to ponder. First, It draws a line between baptized infants as well as between baptized adults, representing some as belonging to the elect, some to the non-elect, some as belonging to the class to whom the covenant of grace pertains, others as not of that class. Shall we prefer this part of the doctrine to that which teaches that God is the Father of all, and Christ the Saviour of all, heartily loving all and desiring to save them ? Can a mother believe it possible that between her two beloved little children prattling at her knee, there may be, in God's love, will, and purpose, a chasm cleft back into eternity, and running down to the bottom of hell ? Can she believe this when her con- science tells her that the slightest partiality on her part, for the one or the other, would be a crime? Can she believe that God's absolute sovereignty elects absolutely one of her children to eternal glory, and passes by the other, when that passing by necessarily involves its ruin forever ? Can it be wondered at that High Calvinism has, in so many cases, been the mother of Universalism — that men who start with the premise, that the absolute sovereignty of God determines the eternal estate of men, should draw the inference, not that He elects some to life, aud leaves the mass to go to perdition, but that He elects all ? Shall we give up this part of the baptismal doctrine of 572 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. the Church ? And yet if we surrender it — if we say the doc- trine of Baptism is not a fundamental one in our system, men may teach among us on this point what they please. What is to prevent these views from being preached in our pulpits and taught in our houses ? A second feature of the Calvinistic view of Baptism is, that to those perfectly alike in all personal respects, Baptism comes with entirely different functions. To one infant it signs and seals communion in the covenant, insertion into Christ, jus- tification and regeneration ; to another, perfectly alike in all personal respects, it signifies and seals nothing. No parent knows what his child receives in Baptism, whether it be a mere handful of water on its hair, .or the seal of blessings, infinite like God, and irrevocable to all eternity. The minis- ter does not know what he has done ; whether he has sealed the everlasting covenant of God with an immortal soul, or thrown away time and breath in uttering mocking words, to that little being which smiles and prattles, in utter uncon- sciousness that it is abandoned to a destiny of endless pain, of unspeakable horror. Can we give up the baptismal doctrine of our Church for this? Our Church tells us that Baptism makes the offer of the same blessing to every human creature who receives it ; that a difference in the result of Baptism depends upon no lack of the divine grace, on no secret counsel of God, but upon the voluntary differences of adults — and that as there are no such differences in infants, there is no dif- ference in the effects of Baptism to them. Surely Lutherans should stand shoulder to shoulder in this, that whatever be the blessing of Baptism, be it little or great, vague or well-defined, it is offered alike to all, and conferred alike upon all who do not present in themselves the vol untary barrier to its reception. Yet if we say the doctrine of Baptism is non-fundamental, these very errors may be set forth in our theological chairs, taught in our Catechisms, and set forth in our pulpits. A third element of the Calvinistic doctrine of Baptism is, that to those for whom any of the blessings of Baptism are designed, it supposes the sealing of as great blessings, as on the strongest sacramental theory, even that of the Church of CALVINISTIC AND LUTH. VIEWS OF BAPTISM. 573 Rome herself, is conferred by Baptism ; it seals to the elect, to whom alone its blessings belong, reception into the " commu- nion, that is the fellowship in, the participation in, the cove- nant of grace," "insertioD into Christ and His mystic body," " justification," " regeneration," and " the inward washing of sin." Two infant brothers, twins, we wull say, are offered for Baptism ; whatsoever is to come to pass has been unchangea- bly ordained by God from eternity in regard to them ; one of the twins may be " elect" may have been predestinated unto everlasting life ; the other is non-elect, is foreordained to ever- lasting death, particularly and unchangeably. The twins die in infancy, the elect one, by the terms of the theory, is regen- erated, the non-elect is unregenerate ; the one is saved, the other is lost ; the grace of Baptism belongeth to the elect infant according to the counsel of God's own will, and there- fore " baptismal grace," — that is a Calvinistic idea, too, — there- fore baptismal grace is " not only offered, but really conferred on that infant" To an elect infant dying soon after its Baptism, the Calvinistic theory seems to give as much as the highest theory of "baptismal regeneration." Let Lutherans remem- ber that it is here conceded that the highest blessings which oar Church teaches us are connected alone with a worthy entrance into the baptismal covenant, and a faithful continu- ance therein, are acknowledged by Calvinists to be actually sealed therein — that is, that God sets his hand to it, by the act of baptizing, that the elect do then have, or shall yet have, if they have not then, justification, regeneration, and inward washing from sin. Shall we take offence at the doctrine of our Church, which asks us to receive as an article of faith, in regard to the efiacacy of Baptism, no more than is summed up in the words of our Confession, that "through Baptism the grace of God is offered, that children are to be baptized, and being through Baptism offered to God, are received into His favor?" Here, then, we rest the case. The doctrine of Baptism held and confessed by the Evangelical Lutheran Church is, as we believe all her doctrines are, absolutely accordant in every part with the Word of God. To abide by her Confession, is 574 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. to abide by the Word, and there she and her true children will rest. If we destroy the historical life of our Church, and abandon her Confession, whither can we go ? What system can we accept which will meet so fully our wants ? If we destroy or rend the Lutheran Church, or allow as normal and final just as much deviation as the individual may wish from all to which she has been pledged in her history, from all that is involved in her very name, from all that gave her distinctive being, what may we hope to establish in her place to justify so fearful an experiment, and to indemnify the world for so great a loss ? The final proposition of the Confession is antithetical, and The Antithesis arranges itself into three parts : of the confession. } u Q n this account the Anabaptists are con- demned." " Derhalben werden die Wiedertaufer verworfen." " Damnant Anabaptistas." 2. " Who disapprove of the Baptism of children and teach that it is not right." " Welche lehren dass die Kindertauf nicht recht sei." " Qui improbant baptismum puerorum." 3. " And affirm that children are saved without Baptism." ' ; Et affirmant pueros sine baptismo salvos fieri." I. The Anabaptists took their name from their repetition of The Anahap- Baptism in the case of those who had been bap- tists - tized in infancy. (Ana in composition indicates repetition.) They have also been called Katabaptists from their opposition to the Baptism of children. The early Ana- baptists with whom our Reformers had to contend, made their main opposition to infant Baptism, and although they immersed, they certainly gave little prominence (if they gave any) to the question of mode, as compared with modern Baptists. The sect of Anabaptists made their appearance in history soon after the beginning of the Reformation, and excited dis- turbances in Saxony in 1522. The roots of the Anabaptist movement, especially on its political side, strike deep into the Middle Ages. The Reformation was not its cause, although Anabaptism often made the Reformation its occasion. Fanati- cism always strives to corrupt the purity of faith in one direc- tion, as Formalism strives to stifie it in the other. A pure ARGUMENTS OF TEE ANABAPTISTS. 575 Church stands in living antagonism to the formalism of Rome, and to the fanaticism of all pseudo-Protestantism. It has the body, but disavows the flesh ; it has spirituality, but carefully guards it against running into spiritualism. The most renowned of the Anabaptists in history was Thomas Muenzer, who was originally preacher in Muenzer. Allstaedt. He was deposed on account of his fanaticism, and uniting himself with the Anabaptists, became their leader. He published a bitter attack upon the Baptism of children. Leaving Saxony, he passed through a large por- tion of Germany with his associates, everywhere finding, among a population degraded by the current Romanism, abundance of adherents. Returning to Saxony, he established himself at Muehlhus, wmere he aroused the peasantry, claimed princely authority, gathered an army, abolished the magis- tracy, proclaimed that in future Christ alone was to be king, and made war in 1525 upon the princes themselves. The rebel bands were defeated at Franckenhus, and Muenzer was put to death. Prominent also among the Anabaptists were those who were led by John of Leyden, so called , " JohnofLeydeu. from his having seized upon that city, where he overthrew the magistracy, assumed the government with the title of king, made laws to suit himself and his followers, and practised great cruelties toward those who did not yield them- selves to him. The city was besieged in 1526 ; an immense number of his adherents were slain, and he himself was put to death. It is evident that the Anabaptist movement was political as well as religious, and was largely a reaction, blind and ignorant, against gross abuses. The Anabaptists are con- demned in the Confession, not in their persons, but in their errors ; the man was not condemned — the errorist, or more strictly the error in the errorist, was condemned. II. The second point is : " Who disapprove of the Baptism of children, and teach that it is not right." It is natural here to look at the grounds on which the Ana- baptists object to Infant Baptism, and say that it Arguments of is not right. The most plausible arguments which the Anabaptists, they urge against it, have been in a large part anticipated in 576 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. our discussion, but we shall, nevertheless, notice the three strongest, the only ones which seem to carry any weight with them. Much of the earlier Anabaptist argument has been abandoned, as, for example, that as our Saviour was baptized in 1he thirtieth year of his age, infants ought not to be bap- tized. The three arguments which have been urged with most plausibility are : 1. That there is no express command for infant Baptism. To this we reply : a. That there is an express command. Our Lord commands his Apostles to make disciples of all nations by baptizing them. The word " nations " embraces infants. " God hath made of one blood all nations of men." (Acts xvii. 26.) The redemption is as wide as the creation, and the power of application as wide as the redemption. The " nations," therefore, which God has made, redeemed, and de- sires to gather into His Church, are nations of children as well as :£ adults. "It is most certain," says the Apology,* "that ths promise of salvation pertains also to little children. But the promises do not pertain to those who are out of the Church of Christ, for the kingdom of Christ cannot exist without the Word and Sacraments. Therefore it is necessary to baptize little children, that the promise of salvation may be applied to them, according to Christ's command (Matt, xxviii. 19), ' Bap- tize all nations,' in which words as salvation is offered to all, so Baptism is offered to all — to men, to women, to children, to infants. It clearly follows, therefore, that infants are to be baptized, inasmuch as salvation is offered in Baptism — in and with Baptism the common grace and treasure of the Gospel is offered to them." b. When Jesus says : " That which is born of the flesh is flesh," and " Except a man be born again of water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God," He teaches that infants, inasmuch as they are flesh, must be born again of water and of the Spirit, that is, must be baptized and become regenerate. c. If the express term were necessary, men and women equally with infants would be excluded from Baptism, because * 163, 52. ARGUMENTS OF THE ANABAPTISTS. 577 none of them are specifically mentioned in the baptismal com- mission ; in other words, there is a generic express command to baptize infants on the one hand, and there is no specific express command on the other either as regards sex or age. d. Infant membership, sealed by a sacramental rite, was established under the Old Testament. If it had been designed to abolish infant membership under the New Dispensation, it would have been necessary to do it in so many words. The ques- tion fairly put, then, is not, " Where is infant Baptism enjoined in the New Testament ? " but, " Where is it forbidden ? " e. Infant Baptism was practised by the Jews in New Testa- ment times. Lightfoot, the greatest of the old rabbinical schol- ars, says, in his Harmony on John : * " The baptizing of infants was a thing as commonly known and as commonly used before John's coming, and at the time of his coming, and subsequently, as anything holy that was used among the Jews, and they were as familiarly acquainted with infant Baptism as they were with infant circumcision." And this he proves by abundant citations from the Talmud and the old rabbinical writers. It is inconceivable, therefore, that in such a state of things the Apostles should not have forbidden infant Baptism, if it were not meant that it should be administered. /. The argument, a fortiori : If in the Old Testament, com- paratively restricted as its range was, infants were embraced in the covenant, much more in the New Testament, broader and more gracious than the Old as it is, would they be em- braced. But infants are embraced in the Old, much more than in the New. g. That is as really Scriptural which is by just and necessary consequence deduced from Scripture, as that which is stated in it in so many words. When the Bible says : " There is but one God," it means just as much that the gods of the heathen are false, as if it were said in so many words. 2. It is urged that a covenant requires consciousness and intelligence on the part of those whom it embraces ; but infants can have no consciousness of a covenant, therefore they cannot be embraced in one. * Opera, 1686. Vol. I. p. 390. 37 678 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. We reply to this : a. Divine covenants do not require con* seiousness and intelligence on the part of all whom they embrace. On the contrary, they embrace not only infants, but prospectively generations unborn, as, for example, the cove- nant with Abraham and his seed after him, sealed by the sac- rament of circumcision. b. Human covenants do not necessarily require consciousness and intelligence on the part of all embraced in them, but rest on the right of the adult generation to represent, and act for their children and posterity. We are bound by the constitu- tional compact made by our fathers — bound by the covenants and treaties with foreign nations made before we were born. c. The baptismal covenant is sl voluntary covenant in one sense, that is to say, the child's will is presumed in the case. If the child cannot consciously accept the covenant, neither can it, nor does it, reject it. In another sense, however, the baptis- mal covenant is not voluntary. All human creatures are bound to be children of God, and have not the right to say whether they will or will not be His children. If my child has not the right of self-decision as to whether it shall honor me as its parent, but is absolutely bound so to do, though it never was consulted, much more is that same child bound to honor God, and I usurp no right pertaining to it, when, as its representa- tive, I bind it by covenant to that to which it is bound with- out covenant. 3. It is urged that sacraments do not benefit without faith ; but the infant has no faith, therefore Baptism can do it no good. We reply to this : a. If infants demonstrably have no faith, it would still be possible that in their Baptism there is a treas- ure of blessing, the full understanding and use of which is reserved for them when they can have faith, even as a father provides for his babe, or bequeaths to it many things which ifc cannot use till it reaches adult life, though they belong to it from the beginning. 6. But infants do have receptive faith. " When we say that infants believe or have faith, it is not meant that they under- stand, or have consciousness of faith, but the error is rejected FAITH OF INFANTS. 579 that baptized infants are pleasing to God, and are saved, with- out any action of the Holy Spirit in them. This is certain, that the Holy Spirit is efficacious in them, so that they can receive the grace of God and the remission of sins. The Holy Spirit operates in them in His own way, which it is not in our power to explain. That operation of the Spirit in infants we call faith, and we affirm that they believe. For that mean, or organ, by which the kingdom of God, offered in the Word and Sacraments, is received, the Scripture calls faith, and declares that believers receive the kingdom of God. And Christ affirms, Mark x. 15, that adults receive the kingdom of God in the same way that a little child receives it ; and, Matt, xviii. 6, He speaks of the little ones which believe in Him." These are the words of Chemnitz,* and they mark the distinction we make in the term receptive faith. Faith as an act, like sin as an act, pre- supposes a condition of mind, which condition is the essential thing in both cases, to which the act is merely phenomenal. The act is intermittent, the condition is continuous. The worst- of men does not cease to be a sinner merely because the act of sinning ceases. He may be in stupor, or in sleep, or his present thoughts may be absorbed in something morally indif- ferent, and yet he is a sinner through the whole. He is not always sinning, but he is always sinful, because the essence of character lies in the condition of the soul. The believer may be in stupor, or sleep, or his present thoughts be entirely ab- sorbed in the necessary cares, or duties, or innocent enjoyments of life, but he is a believer through the whole. He is not always consciously exercising faith, but he is a believer always, because the essence of character is the condition of the soul. In the case of the infant, both on the side of nature and of grace, there must be, and is, a stronger and more protracted separation between the essential condition of sin and faith, and the phenomenon of conscious sin and of conscious faith, than in the case of the adult, but the condition is as real. By nature the infant is as really a sinner, and by grace as really a believer, as the adult is, though it can neither do sin nor exercise faith. [t has sin by nature, and has faith by grace. Working out * Examen. Cone. Trid. II. ii. x. 14. 580 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. under the law of the first condition, it will inevitably do sin, aa under the law of the second it will exercise faith. Faith justifies by its receptivity alone. There is no justifying merit in faith as an act, nor is there any in the acts it originates. In the adult it is divinely wrought : it is " not of ourselves, it is the gift of God." In the infant there is wrought by God, through the Holy Ghost, by means of the water and the Word, that recep- tivity of condition which it has not by nature. The Holy Ghost offers grace, and so changes the moral nature of the child that this nature becomes receptive of the grace offered. This divinely wrought condition we call receptive faith, and though its phenomena are suspended, it is really faith, and as really involves what is essential to justification, as does the faith of the adult. The hand of an infant may as really grasp a diamond as if the infant knew the value of the treasure it held, and if the natural hand can be the minister of acts whose force it comprehends not, how much more may the supernatu- ral hand? To accept the doctrine of original sin, and deny the doctrine of a divine counterwork — the doctrine "that where sin abounded, grace did much more abound" — is to make nature potent, and grace weak — it is an aggravation of Mani- cheism, and gives us a Devil mightier than God. Many of the Calvinistic divines have felt the difficulty under which their system labors, and have modified it in various degrees, so as to approximate the Lutheran view. Calvin acknowledges " a seed of faith in infants." Ursinus* says they have an " incli- natory faith, or inclination to faith." Voetius says " there is in them a root, faculty, supernatural principle, seed, or nursery, from whence, in its own time, faith rises up. It is related to faith as seed is to the tree, the egg to the bird, the bulb to the flower." Feter Martyr says that faith in infants is " incipient, is in its principle and root, inasmuch as they have the Holy Spirit, whence faith and all virtues flow forth. . . The age of infancy is capable of the motions of faith, and Jeremiah and John are witnesses that this age can be graced by the Holy Ghost, "f Nor was this great truth unknown in the Ancient Church. * In Cateckes. Q. 57. f Quoted in Quenstedt. Theologia. II. 1142, 1145. ARGUMENTS OF THE ANABAPTISTS. 581 * Thou must number baptized infants among believers," says Augustine* to a Pelagian: " thou darest not judge in any other way, if thou art not willing to be a manifest heretic." " In baptized infants, the Holy Spirit dwells, though they know it not. So know they not their own mind, — they know not their own reason, which lies dormant, as a feeble glimmer, which is to be aroused with the advance of years, "f c. Over against the proposition that nothing benefits with- out faith, we put the complementary proposition that nothing condemns but unbelief; but infants who by nature are con- demned, because of the unbelief of nature, though they are not conscious of it, are by grace received into covenant, because by grace they have faith, though they are unconscious of it. If infants can be regenerated and have remission of sins, then can they have faith, which is an element in regeneration, and neces- sary to remission. d. The Word does not profit, without faith, in the adult, and yet it is the Word through which the Holy Ghost excites the faith which secures the benefit. So is it in Baptism. It offers the faith which receives, and offers to that faith the grace of God ; as the word of our Lord to the man with the withered hand bore the power which made obedience to the command possible. If Baptism offers grace to a child, then may we be well assured that God, who does not mock us, gives to that child what by nature it cannot have — a receptive faith. All divine commands bear with them the power of their fulfilment under the law of grace. e. The Apostles in their original ignorance reasoned about children somewhat as the Anabaptists do. But Jesus said: " Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me, for of such is the kingdom of heaven." But the kingdom of God is not a kingdom of unbelievers, or of unregenerate per- sons. All the tares in that kingdom are sown by the Devil. . III. The third and last point in the antithesis is that the Anabaptists " affirm that children are saved without Baptism," M et affirmant pueros sine baptismo salvos fieri." * De Verb. Apostol. Serm. xiv. Vol. X. 221. f Do. Epist. 57. Op. IV. 180. 582 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. We have seen that our own Confessors did not maintain the absolute necessity of Baptism to salvation, and it may, there- fore, seem surprising that they charge upon the Anabaptists as an error what they themselves appear to concede. But if we see the true force of their language, the difficulty vanishes, for 1. The Anabaptists contended that Baptism was not the ordinary channel of salvation to the child. Our Confessors maintained that it is. 2. The Anabaptists contended that in fact children are not saved by Baptism. Our Confessors maintained that in fact children are saved by it. 3. The Anabaptists contended that no child is saved by Bap- tism. Our Confessors maintained that children are saved by Baptism. 4. Tbe Anabaptists contended that a baptized child who is saved, is saved without respect to its Baptism. Our Confessors maintained that it is saved of God by it as a mean. 5. When our Confessors conceded that an unbaptized child might be saved, they rested its salvation on a wholly different ground from that on which the Anabaptists rested it. The Anabaptists contended, on a Pelagian basis, that the child was saved because of its innocence, and without a change of nature. Our Confessors maintained that it was saved as a sinful being for Christ's sake, and after renewal by the Holy Ghost. Our Confessors, in a word, maintained that children are ordinarily saved by Baptism ; that this is God's ordinary channel of sal- vation to them. The Anabaptists contended that children are in no case saved by Baptism ; that it is not the ordinary chan- nel of salvation ; and this error of theirs is the one condemned in the Confession. The Formula of Concord* makes all these points very clear in its statement of the errors of the Anabap- tists, wbich it enumerates thus : 1. " That unbaptized children are not sinners before God, but are righteous and innocent, who, without Baptism (of which, according to the opinion of the Anabaptists, they have no need,) are saved in their innocence, inasmuch as they have not yet attained to the use of their reason. In this way they reject the entire doctrine of Original *Epitom. 558. 6, 7, 8. Solid. Declarat. 727. 11, 12, 13. ARGUMENTS OF THE ANABAPTISTS. 583 Sin, and the doctrines which are dependent on it, 2. That children are not to be baptized until they attain the use of reason, and can make a profession of faith for themselves. 3. That the children of Christians, because of their birth of Chris- tian and believing parents, are holy, and children of God, with- out Baptism, and previous to it." In summing up the doctrine of Baptism we are to remember: 1. The necessity of a true definition of Baptism. Baptism is not mere water, but embraces also the command of God ; the promise of God ; the effectual work of the Holy Ghost, offering to faith, in connection with the outward part of Bap- tism, the grace of God. "Whatever is wrought in Baptism, is wrought by the Holy Ghost, through the Word, with the water, in the believing soul. 2. That in adults Baptism is not always followed by regen- eration, and that regeneration is not always preceded by Bap- tism ; that men may be baptized and be lost, and may be unbaptized and be saved. 3. That unbaptized infants may be saved, and that the infants of heathen may be saved ; that Baptism, though not absolutely essential in the theological sense, is yet necessary. The whole doctrine of our Church, then, on the question, "What is Baptism, and what are its blessings?" may be summed up in these words : By Christian Baptism our Church understands not " mekb water " (Small. Cat. 361, 2), but the whole divine institution (Larger Cat. 491, 38-40), resting on the command of the Saviour, Matt, xxviii. 19 (Sm. Cat. 361, 2), in which He com- prehends, and in which He offers the promise (Mark xv. 15 ; Sm. Cat. 362, 8), and which is, therefore, ordinarily necessary to salvation (A. C. ii. 2; ib. ix. 1, 3); in which institution, water, whether by immersion (L. C. 495, 65), sprinkling or pouring (L. C. 492, 45), ajDplied by a minister of the Gospel (A. C. v. 1 ; ib. 14), in the name of the Trinity (Sm. Cat. 361, 4), to adults or infants (A. C. ix. 2), is not merely the sign of our profession, or of our actual recognition as Christians, but is rather a sign and testimony of the will of God toward us (A. C. xiii. 1), offering us His grace (A. C. ix.), and not ex opcr* 584 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. operato (A. C. xiii. 3), but in those only who rightly use it, i. ©, who believe from the heart the promises which are offered and shown (A, C. xiii. 2 ; L. C. 49, 33), is one of the instruments by which the Holy Ghost is given (A. C. v. 2), who excites and confirms faith, whereby we are justified before God (A. C. iv.; ib. v. 3), so that they who thus receive or use it, are in God's favor (A. C. ix. 2), have remission of their sins (Nicene Creed, 9), are born again (A. C. ii. 2), and are released from condemnation and eternal death (A. C. ii. 2 ; Sm. C. 361, 6) so long as they are in a state of faith, and bring forth holy works (A. C. xiii. 1-6 ; Sm. C. 362, 11-14) ; while, on the other hand, where there is no faith, a bare and fruitless sign, so far as blessing is concerned, alone remains (L. C. 496, 73), and they who do not use their Baptism aright, and are acting against conscience, and letting sin reign in them, and thus lose the Holy Spirit, are in condemnation, from which they cannot escape, except by true conversion (A. C. xiii.), a renewal of the understanding, will, and heart (L. C. 496, 68, 69 ; F. C. 605, 70). This is the doctrine of our Church, and not one letter of it is destitute of the sure warrant of God's Word. The intelli- gent examiner will soon discover that, while the whole sum and tendency of the Romish and Romanizing doctrine of the Sacraments is to make them a substitute for faith in the justi- fication of man, the doctrine of the Lutheran Church, in con- sonance with the Holy Scriptures, makes them a guard and bulwark of the great central truth that " by grace we are saved, through faith, and that not of ourselves, — it is the gift of God." Her view of the nature of the efficacy of the Word and Sacraments, is the only one which solves the mysterious question how God can be sovereign, and yet man be accounta- ble ; and how the Church can at once avoid the perilous extreme of Pelagianism on the one hand, and of unconditional Election and Reprobation on the other. XII. THE DOCTRINE OF THE LORD'S SUPPER THETICALLY STATED. (AUGSBURG CONFESSION. ART. X.) The lents Eden. IK" approaching one of the highest, if not the very highest, of the mysteries of our faith, it becomes us to prepare ourselves for a most earnest, patient, and candid investigation r ' . & The Lord's Sup- of the Scriptural grounds on which that faith rests, per. i. 01.1 Tea The Lord's Supper has been looked at too much as ;^ s f ore - if it were an isolated thing, with no antecedents, sacraments no presuppositions, no sequences ; as if there were nothing before it, nothing after it, helping to determine its true character ; while, in fact, it links itself with the whole sys- tem of Revelation, with the most vital parts of the Old and "New Testament, so that it cannot be torn from its true con- nections without logically bringing with it the whole system. There is no process by which the doctrine of the Lutheran Church, in regard to the Lord's Supper, can be overthrown, which does not overthrow the entire fabric of the Atonement. No man can deem our distinctive doctrine of the Lord's Sup- per non-fundamental who thoroughly understands it in all its relations. The first thing worthy of note in regard to the sacramental mystery is its antiquity. It meets us at the threshold of the divine history of our race. In Eden we see already the idea of natural and supernatural eating. We have there the natural eating terminating in the natural, in the words : " Of every tree of the Garden thou niayest freely eat." Closely following 585 586 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. upon this we have the idea of supernatural eating, with the natural bodily organ : " Of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat ; for in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." Man did eat of it, and found it a sac- rament of death. In, with, and under that food, as a divine means judicially appointed, was communicated death. That " mortal taste Brought death into the world and all our woe." The great loss of Paradise Lost was that of the Sacrament of Life, of that food, in, with, and under which was given immortality, so objectively, positively, and really that even fallen man would have been made deathless by it : " Now lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever," Gen. iii. 22. The great gain of Paradise Regained is that of the Sacrament of Life. Christ says : " I am the life ; " " The bread that I will give is My flesh, which I will give for the life of the world." The cross of Christ is the tree of life, and He the precious fruit borne by heavenly grace upon it. The cross is the centre of Paradise Regained, as the tree of life was the centre of the first Paradise. Christ's body is the organ of the life purchased by His obedience and death. The Holy Supper is the sacrament of that body, and, through the body, the sacrament of the life which that body brings. But that same body is also a sacrament of death to the unworthy recipient. The whole sacrament on its two sides of death and life is in it united : salvation to the believer, judg- ment to the unworthy. After the creation of man, God's first provision was for the generation and birth of the race, the fore- shadowing of regeneration and of the new birth, for which, il Holy Baptism, the first provision is made in the new creation of the New Testament. The next provision made for man was that of sustenance for the life given, or yet to be given. In the Garden of Eden was a moral miniature of the universe; and with the act of eating were associated the two great realms of the natural and the supernatural ; and with this was connected the idea of the one as a means of entering the other, of the natural as the means of entering into the supernatural. THE SACRAMENTS IN EDEN. 587 There were natural trees, with purely natural properties, whose fruit was eaten naturally, and whose benefits were simply nat- ural ; bodily eating, terminating in a bodily sustenance. But there was also the natural terminating in the supernatural. There were two trees, striking their roots into the same soil, lifting their branches in the same air — natural trees — but bearing, by Heaven's ordinance, in, with, and under their fruitage, supernatural properties. One was the sacramental tree of good. We call it a sacramental tree, because it did not merely symbolize life, or signify it ; but, by God's appoint- ment, so gave life — in, with, and under its fruit — that to receive its fruit was to receive life. The fruit which men there would have eaten was the communion of life. On Gen. iii. 22, the sound old Puritan commentator, Poole, thus para- phrases : " Lest he take also of the tree of life, as he did take of the tree of knowledge, and thereby profane that sacrament of eternal life." With this tree of life was found the tree which was the sac- rament of judgment and of death, and by man's relations to that tree would be tested whether he were good or evil, and by it he would continue to enjoy good or plunge himself into evil. By an eating, whose organs were natural, but whose relations were supernatural, man fell and died. This whole mystery of evil, these pains and sorrows which overwhelm the race, the past, the present, and the future of sin, revolve around a single natural eating, forbidden by God, bringing the offender into the realm of the supernatural for judgment. We learn here what fearful grandeur may be associated in the moral government of God, with a thing in itself so simple as the act of eating. The first record of Revelation is a warning against the plausible superficiality of rationalism. It was the rationalistic insinuation of Satan, as to the meaning of God's Word, which led to the Fall. Abandon faith in the letter of God's Word, said the Devil. Our first parents obeyed the seductive insinuation and died. In the Lord's Supper three great ideas meet us as they met in Paradise. There is in it, 1, Bread, which, as bread, is the natural food of man, and belongs to all men. But there is 588 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. also, 2, The supernatural element of life: " My flesh, which 1 will give for the life of the world." The natural bread, as the sacramental hearer of this heavenly food, is the communion of the body of Christ, that is, the medium by which the body is communicated or imparted. There is also in the Lord's Sup- per, 3, The supernatural element of judgment, and that of judg- ment unto death: " He that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation (or, judgment) unto himself, not discerning the Lord's body." The tree of life, as our theo- logians well observed, was not a memorial, a symbol, a sugges- tive emblem or sign ; but was a supernatural, efficacious, and energetic means of life. " This tree," says Osiander (1589), "by the divine ordination and will, bore fruit which could preserve the bodily vigor of him who partook of it ( c in per- petual youth ') until man, having completed the term of his earthly life, would, without dying, have been translated to his life in heaven." So also the tree of the knowledge of good and evil did not symbolize a result, but brought it. Life was in, with, and under the fruit of the one tree ; death, in, with, and under the fruit of the other. This view is not a modern invention. It is found in Irenreus, St. Chrysostom, and Theodoret. Gregory Nazianzen enlarges upon the idea of " being made immortal by coming to the tree of life." St. Augustine says: "In the other trees there was nourishment ; in this one, a sacrament " (" in isto autem Sacra mentum "). Vatablus (1557), a very judicious Roman Catho- lic expositor, fairly expresses the general sense of the Fathers in stating his own : " The tree of life was a sacrament, by which God would have sealed immortal life to Adam, if he had not departed from His commandment." Delitzsch : " The tree of life had the power of ever renewing and of gradually transfiguring the natural life of man. To have used it after the Fall would have been to perpetuate forever the condition into which he had fallen." Nor is the true view without support from sources whence we might least expect it. Rosenmiiller (Rationalistic) : " This writer means that the weakened powers were to be revived by eating of that tree, and this life was to be preserved forever " FLESH AND BLOOD. 589 Knobel (strongly Rationalistic) : " This passage (Gen. iii. 22) teaches that man, after partaking of the tree of life, would have become immortal." Dr. Bush, both in his earlier and later notes on Genesis (1833, 1852), says : " Adam might frequently have eaten (ed. 1859, ' undoubtedly often ate ') of the tree of life before the Fall — sacramentally, as Christians eat of the Lord's Supper. In regard to the driving from Para- dise, 4 lest he also eat of the tree of life and live forever,' Ire- nseus said : ' God has so ordered it that evil might not be immortal, and punishment might become love to man.' " Dr. Bush, who, had his judgment been in the ratio of his other endowments, would indisputably have taken the first rank among American commentators on the Old Testament, says, Gen. iii. 22, 23 : " The language, it must be acknowledged, seems to imply, that had man tasted of the tree of life, even after his rebellion, he would have lived forever, and that he was expelled from Paradise to prevent such a consequence." The conclusion, however, is so little in keeping with Dr. Bush's theology, that he undertakes to reason it away in a very feeble and rationalistic manner, in the face of what he concedes to be the obvious meaning of the passage. Another hint toward the true view of the sacramental mys- tery is given us in the divine declaration, Gen. ix. 2. riesh and 4 : " But flesh with the life thereof, which is the bluod - blood thereof, shall ye not eat." Literally: "But flesh with its soul (i. e. life), its blood, ye shall not eat." Still more liter- ally: "in its soul." At the root of this prohibition lay a great typical idea, which can be fully understood only in the light of the finished sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ, and in the light of His sacramental Supper, in which we participate in, or have communion with that sacrifice. The command was repeated again and again, and the reason most generally assigned was that the blood is the life of the flesh. But this reason seems itself to require an explanation, and this we find fully given in Leviticus, the book in which there is the amplest display of the typical element of sacrifice. In Lev. xvii. 10-14, we have a full explanation of the meaning of the reservation of the blood. It is especially the 11th verse in which the 590 CONSERVATIVE BE FORMATION. typical force of the prohibition is made manifest. Under the Old Testament they actually ate of the body of the sacrifice, but only drank a symbol of its blood. It is manifest that the reservation of the blood pointed to something yet to be accomplished, and hinted that the perfect communion in the whole sacrifice was reserved for another dispensation. Only in the light of this can we fully appreciate the startling character of our Lord's command, when, for the first time in the history of the chosen race, He gave the command to drink that which He declared to be blood — and solved the mystery by calling it the blood of the New Covenant. "When the three men, Gen. xviii., one of whom is called 3 The super- Jehovah, appeared to Abraham, the patriarch set natural and Nat- before them bread, flesh, butter, and milk, and they did eat ; Yerse 8. Here was the supernatural eat- ing of the natural ; the eating of natural food with the nat- ural organ of an assumed body, and that body of course super- natural. These same three heavenly persons did eat (Gen. xix. 3) of unleavened bread in the house of Lot. Is there a greater mystery in the sacramental eating, in which the supernatural communicates itself by the natural, by the natural bread to the natural mouth, than there is in this true eating, in which the supernatural partakes of the natural? If God can come down and partake of human food by human organs, so that it is affirmed of Jehovah that He did eat, He can lift the human to partake of what is divine by a process which, though supernatural, is yet most real. The relations of sacrifice to covenant in the Old Testament 4 The relations suggest instructive parallels to the Lord's Supper. of covenant to l n Gen. xv. we have the covenant between God and Abraham sealed with sacrifice. In Gen. xxxi. 44-46, is presented the idea of eating as an act of covenant. Laban said to Jacob : " Let us make a covenant," " and they did eat there upon the heap ; " where eating is the crowning act of the covenant. But more than this is presented in this chapter, for in the particulars of the ratification of the cove- nant, we are told (verse 54), " Then Jacob offered sacrifice upon the mount, and called his brethren to eat bread : and they did RELATIONS OF SACRIFICE TO SACRAMENT. 591 ea Dread." Here is the idea, first, of sacrifice as the insepara- ble constituent in the covenant ; then, of joint participation in the sacrifice by eating of it, by the parties partaking in the covenant through it. The idea of sacrifice under the Old Dispensation sheds light upon the nature of the Lord's Supper. " Without 5>ThereIati0M the shedding of blood is no remission." The slay- of sacrifice to sao ing of the victim by shedding its blood, by which alone its death could be effected, was properly the sacrifice. After the sacrifice was made, two things were essential to securing its end: first, that God should receive it; second, that man should participate in it. The burning of the sacrifice by fire from heaven was the means of God's accepting it on the one side; and eating of it, the means of man's partici- pating on the other. The truth is, that the sacrifice of the Old Testament resolves itself into the very elements which we find in the Lord's Supper. The Altar was the Table of the Lord, and the whole conception of sacrifice runs out into this, that it is a covenanting Supper between God and man. The sacrifice, through the portion burnt, is received of God by the element of fire ; the portion reserved is partaken of by men, is communicated to them, and received by them. The eating of one portion of the sacrifice, by the offerer, is as real a part of the whole sacred act as the burning of the other part is. Man offers to God ; this is sacrifice. God gives back to man ; this is sacrament. The oblation, or thing offered, sup- plies both sacrifice and sacrament, but with this difference, that under the Old Dispensation God received part and man received part ; but under the New, God receives all and gives back all: Jesus Christ, in His own divine person, makes that complete which was narrowed under the Old Covenant by the necessary limitations of mere matter. But in both is this common idea, that all who receive or commune in the recep- tion of the oblation, either on the one part as a sacrifice, or on the other as a sacrament, are in covenant ; and in the light of this alone is it, that not on Calvary, where the sacrifice was made, but in the Supper, where the sacrifice is applied, the 592 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. Saviour says : " This is the New Testament (the new covenant' in My blood." The New Testament strikes its roots down into the very heart . , of the Old Dispensation, and to understand either 6. The Passo- r 1 ver i 8 a type of we must study both together. Let us compare, in the supper. ^ e cage Q £ ^e p^ge^ai lamb and paschal supper, the type and the fulfilment, and we shall see how the earlier sheds light upon the later, and how both placed in their true rela- tion illustrate each other. The following are but a part of the points of illustration, but they may be sufficient to lead the attentive student of God's Word to search for himself. 1. The passover was to be a lamb, and Christ is the true Lamb* " They shall take to them every man a lamb" are the words of the institution of the passover; Ex. xii. 3. The key to the typical reference of the lamb is already given in the words of Isaiah (liii.) " He " (the man of sorrows) " is brought as a lamb to the slaughter." But the New Testament unfolds the typical reference in all its clearness. " Behold the Lamb of God " (John i. 29, 36) ; " the blood of Christ, as of a lamb; " 1 Pet. i. 12. It is by this name that Christ is revealed in the glories of the apocalyptic vision : " In the midst of the elders stood a Lamb" u the elders fell down before the Lamb:''' " Worthy is the Lamb that was slain." The title "lamb " is applied to our Lord between thirty and forty times in the New Testament. 2. The paschal lamb was to be typically perfect, and Christ was truly perfect. The typical characteristics of the paschal lamb it is not necessary here to dwell upon. It was to be per- fect and unblemished in every respect to typify Him, who both in body and soul was spotless, " holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners." "Ye were redeemed .... with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and with- out spot;" 1 Pet. i. 12. 3. The paschal lamb was to be slain as a type of redemp- tion, and Christ was to be slain for the verity of redemption. " The whole assembly shall kill it;" Ex. xii. 6. " Who killed the Lord Jesus;" 1 Thes. ii. 15. " Lo, in the midst of the throne stood a Lamb as it had been slain. And they sung a new song, saying, Thou wast slain y and hast redeemed us to THE PASSOVER IS A TYPE OF THE SUPPER. 59& God by Thy blood. Worthy is the Lamb that was slain" Rev. v. 6-12. 4. The Passover was a typical sacrifice in the realm of the natural, and Christ is a true sacrifice in the realm of the super- natural. " It is the sacrifice of the Lord's Passover." Exodus xii. 27. " Christ, our Passover, is sacrificed for us" Christ hath given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God. " When He said : Sacrifice and offering, and burnt-offering, and offering for sin, Thou wouldst not, neither hadst pleasure therein ; which are offered by the law ; then said He, Lo, I come to do Thy will, God ! He taketh away the first, that He may establish the second. By which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all." Psalm xl. 6-8 ; Heb. x. 8-10. " How much more shall the blood of Christ, who, through the Eternal Spirit, offered Him- self without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works?" Heb. ix. 14. 5. The Paschal Supper was a typical, natural eating of the typical, natural lamb ; the Lord's Supper is a true, supernatural eating of the true, supernatural Lamb : " And they shall eat the flesh in that night;" Exod. xii. 8. " The bread that I will give is My flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth My flesh hath eternal life. He that eateth My flesh dwelleth in Me. My flesh is meat indeed ; " John vi. 51-56. " Thus shall ye eat it," said Jehovah ; Exod. xii. 11. " Take, eat," said our Lord. 6. The Paschal Supper was a typical, natural act ; the Lord's Supper is a true, supernatural act. " The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ ? Whosoever shall eat this bread and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord — he that eateth and drinketh unwor thily, eateth and drinketh damnation (or judgment) to himself, NOT DISCERNING THE LORD'S BODY ! " 1 Cor. X. 16 ; xi. 7. The Paschal Supper was a natural communion of the 594 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION. type ; the Lord's Supper is a supernatural communion of the substance. 8. The Paschal Supper was a feast by which the typical was presented in, with, and under the natural ; the Lord's Supper is a feast by which the true is presented in, with, and under the natural. 9. In the Paschal Supper the body of the typical lamb was received, together with the bread, after a natural manner ; in the Lord's Supper the body of the true Lamb is received, together with the bread, after a supernatural manner. 10. The natural eating of the typical Paschal lamb belongs to the sphere of lower reality — that is, of mere earthly and carnal fact ; the supernatural eating of the true Paschal Lamb belongs to the sphere of higher reality — that is, of heavenly and spiritual truth. Thus does the dim twilight of the dawning Old Testament, if rightly used, open to us a purer vision of truth than unwill- ing eyes can find in the sunlight of the New Testament. How does the parallel run out into the minutest particulars between these representative institutions of the two great dispensations ! 11. Of the Paschal festival, Jehovah said : " This day shall be unto you for a memorial; " of the Lord's Supper, the incar- nate Jehovah said: "This do in remembrance of Me." Luke xxii. 19. 12. " The blood shall be to you for a token," says Jehovah. "This is My blood of the New Testament " — " the communion of the blood of Christ" — "is guilty ... of the blood of the Lord." 13. " When I see the blood I will pass over you, and the plague shall not rest upon you," says Jehovah. " This is My blood," says our Lord, " shed for you and for many for the remission of sins " 14. " Ye shall keep it a feast" says Jehovah. " Christ our passover is sacrificed for us, therefore let us keep the feast" 1 Cor. v. 8, or as Luther, bringing out still more clearly this element in words, renders them : " We also have a Paschal lamb, that is Christ, offered for us, wherefore let us keep pass- over." (Oster-lamm, Ostern.) THE PASSOVER IS A TYPE OF THE SUPPER. 595 15. " Ye shall keep it to the Lord . . throughout your gener- ations." " Ye do show the Lord's death till He come;." 1 Cor. xi. 26. 16. " The man that . . forbeareth to keep the passover, even the same soul shall he cut off from among his people." " Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, ye have no life in you" "Whosoever eateth leavened bread, that soul shall be cut off from Israel." " He that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation [or judg- ment] to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep." 1 Cor. xi. 29, 30. 17. "Strike the lintel . . with the blood." "This is My blood which is shed for many." "Ye are come to the blood of sprinkling," — " elect . . through sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ." 18. " In one house shall it be eaten." " Having an high priest over the house of God " — " Christ whose house are we." "Ye come into one place." "The members of that one body, being many, are one body." " The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ ? For we being- many are one bread, and one body : for we are all partakers of that one bread." 19. " Thou shalt not carry forth aught of the flesh abroad out of the house ; " Ex. xii. 46. "We have an altar whereof they have no right to eat who serve the tabernacle ; " Heb. xiii. 10. 20. " When a stranger shall sojourn with thee, and will keep the passover to the Lord, let all his males be circumcised, and then let them come near and keep it ; " Exod. xii. 48. " For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free ; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit ; " 1 Cor. xii. 13. 21. " One law shall be to him that is home-born, and unto the stranger that sojourneth among you ; " Exod. xii. 49. " As many of you as have been baptized into Christ, have pat on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female : for ye are all one in Christ Jesus." 596 CONSERVATIVE REFORMATION 22. u All the congregation of Israel shall keep it," (Hebrew : do it.) Exod. xii. 48. " Drink ye all of this ; this do ye, aa oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of Me ; " Matt. xxvi. 27 ; 1 Cor. xi. 25. Origen :* " Christ our passover is slain, and this feast is to be kept by eating the flesh of the Logos : " " 6V« ro