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LECTURE XXVIII.

IN spite of all the endeavours, so assiduously used by Rome, to shut out the light of the understanding, and to keep men's minds in bondage, in spite of all her affected mysteriousness in religious offices, and even in the lessons she gives publickly from the word of God, by employing a language unknown to the vulgar, in spite of her prohibitions with regard to books, and her inquisitions into heresy, it was impossible for her so to exclude the dawn of truth, now rising on the world, after a long and dreary night of superstition and ignorance, as to prevent the discovery both of the weakness of her empire, and of the badness of the foundation on which it stands. Men were become at length pretty generally disposed to listen to those, who declaimed against their spiritual guides, whose faults they could not now avoid perceiving. They no longer entertained for them the blind veneration, wherewith they had formerly been affected. Nay, they seemed to be running fast into the opposite extreme, that of entertaining for their ecclesiastical superiours an immoderate aversion and contempt. The pride, the avarice, the ambition, the laziness, and the sensuality of the clergy were never-failing topicks of satire every where.

If things had not been in this train, when Luther began his publick declamations against the validity of indulgences, and other powers, which Rome had usurped over the christian people, converting their ignorance and brutishness into useful engines for filling her coffers; that great reformer had never been so successful amongst all ranks and degrees of people, as he evidently proved. But as the knowledge and personal experience of the much greater part of his hearers perfectly

confirmed the severest of his censures, he found no difficulty in fixing their attention, and in exposing, to the conviction of many, the total want of support from scripture, reason, and antiquity, of the arrogant claims to dominion, which had been raised by their spiritual guides. It is indeed manifest, that when Luther first assumed the character of reformer, he had no intention, nor even idea, of proceeding so far as he afterwards found himself under a necessity of going. He first struck only at the abuse, which had proved the immediate handle of examining the papal prerogatives. And though from the beginning he did not ascribe to the pope that omnipotence, which has not very decently been attributed to him by the canonists, he was, on the other hand, far from disputing his primacy, or even his supremacy, in any sense short of absolute despotism.

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It has often been objected to him, and his followers, under which denomination the Romanists are wont to include all protestants, that he himself appealed to the pope from the judgment of his antagonists, that he declared repeatedly, that he would be determined by his judgment; and yet, when his holiness interposed, and gave judgment on the question in debate, he did not depart, in the smallest circumstance, from the doctrine he had maintained in direct contradiction to that judgment. The truth, I believe, is: when Luther declared his submission to Rome, he spoke sincerely, though unadvisedly he flattered himself, that the reasons which had influenced his opinion were exceedingly plain, and could not fail to influence the pontiff's, when examined seriously. I do not question, that he was then willing to impute the scandals and abuses committed in preaching the indulgences, more to the instruments employed than to the employer; and persuaded himself, that when the pope should be informed of the whole, he could not avoid being ashamed of the conduct of his agents, and would justify Luther, so far, at least, as either to recal, or to qualify, the powers which had been given in relation to indulgences, and to pronounce no censure on the principles, which, on this subject, had been maintained by that appellant. Perhaps he even thought that, through the superintendency of providence, (for at that time he seems to have entertained no sentiments hostile to the monarchical form of church government) such a scandal would be prevented, as the publick justification of a doctrine of the most pernicious tendency, disseminated by many of the monks on this

occasion.

But whatever was his opinion in regard to the conduct which would be held by Rome, certain it is, that he was egregiously

disappointed. His doctrine was solemnly anathematized and condemned by the pope as heretical; he himself was commanded, within a limited time, to recant, on pain of incurring all the censures and punishments denounced against obstinate hereticks. Luther then but too plainly perceived, that he had not sufficiently known himself, when he professed such implicit submission to the pope. By his preaching and publications he had involved himself in controversy, and brought a number of adversaries upon him. This set him upon inquiring into the foundations of the received doctrine, and examining the fabrick of ecclesiastick dominion which had been erected. Both these he had, before that time, received as submissively as any the most implicit son of the church. Neither of them could bear a critical examination. Of this, the further he went, he had the fuller evidence,

It was not easy for any man, especially a man of so sanguine a temper, and of so great acuteness, to confine himself entirely to those topicks, which gave rise to the debate. We must be sensible, it would have been the more difficult, when the humour of his antagonists is duly considered. They argued from principles generally received at the time, and which he thought himself under a necessity either to admit or to deny. This led him to inquire into those principles, and the inquiry often terminated in a detection, as he thought, of their falsehood. He was too honest, and too intrepid, not to avow the discovery, and this always engaged him in a new controversy. The scholastick art of disputation then in vogue, which abounded with subtle, but unmeaning, distinctions, might have given him considerable assistance in eluding the address and malice of his enemies, without explicitly declaring himself on several points, which they had very artfully dragged into the dispute. That this should be their method we cannot be surprised. The more articles of the received doctrine they could, by plausible inference, show his principles to be subversive of, the more they exposed him to popu lar odium, and embarrassed him for a reply. The success, however, of his preaching, and of his writings, was so far beyond expectation, that he was not discouraged from going as far into every question as his adversaries could desire.

Nay, now that he was led into the discussion, now that Rome had gone all the lengths which his enemies could desire, now that the rupture was complete, he seemed forward to examine every thing to the bottom. He was no longer desirous of keeping any measures with the ecclesiastical establishment. The whole fabrick appeared ruinous. No soundness in the materials of which it had been raised, Rotten

ness was discernible in every part. In spite of all the arts of his enemies, who to argument were not slow in employing more formidable weapons, in spite of the power, as well as number, of those he had to contend with, his doctrine spread and gained proselytes every day. Among these were some of high rank and consideration, who were able to protect him, and did protect him, against all the dangers with which he was environed. The influence of his doctrine is not to be

judged of barely by the converts which he made. The conversion of so many kingdoms and principalities to his system, though the greatest, was not the only effect of his teaching. It waked men thoroughly out of that profound sleep, in which the understandings of the far greater part lay buried, and roused a spirit of inquiry, that has not been without effect in countries which still continue Roman catholick, in humanizing the spirit, and bringing even their theologians to extenuate, by refined explanations, not dreamt of in former ages, the absurdities of popery itself.

It has been objected to protestants, that Luther preserved no uniformity, or even consistency, of conduct, with regard to Rome: that he professed the utmost submission to what ever sentence she should pronounce, before it was pronounced, and paid no regard to common decency afterwards; allowed himself to be so much transported by passion and resentment, as to give vent to the grossest scurrilities and abuse; nay, that adopting the very spirit of that power against which he declaimed, he, as it were, erected himself into a counter pope, retaliated upon the Roman pontiff, by returning excom munication for excommunication, and burning the pope's bulls and decretals, in return for the burning of his books.

Rational protestants do not hesitate to acknowledge both the inconsistency of his conduct, and the violence of his passion. Their faith standeth not in the wisdom of man, but in the power of God. It pleased God to make men the instruments, of effecting the wonderful revolution, which, in the course of his providence, was to be produced. And doubtless, those men are entitled to some honour, on account of the character which they bore, and the virtues which they displayed, as instruments of providence for promoting our good. They ser ved as monitors from God, for rousing our attention to the dangers wherewith we were surrounded, for bringing us to as sert the rights of men, and of christians, of using the reason which God hath given us, in judging for ourselves, in what concerns our highest interest, for time and for eternity. But then, we say, they were sent, not to command us to receive the doctrine of eternal life implicitly from them, but to ex

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cite us to search the scriptures, to inquire and decide for our selves. Their interposition, in offering their sentiments in contradiction to their superiours, could be defended only on the right of private judgment, and on this fundamental tenet, that God, having given us his written word for our rule, had seen no necessity for empowering any man, or number of men, to serve as an infallible interpreter of his will. A character, therefore, which they had declared unnecessary, and which they found no man or society entitled to assume, they could not consistently arrogate to themselves. And if any of them presumed to do so, or acted in such a manner as implied this sumption, they were entitled to no regard from their hearers. Protestants, so far from asserting the infallibility of the refor mers, do not affirm that they were inspired. They were ad monishers, not dictators. If even of the apostles, who were endowed with the miraculous gifts of the spirit, and often both spoke and wrote by inspiration, much more of the reformers, concerning whom the same things cannot be affirmed, we ought to be followers no further than they were of Christ. They spoke as to wise men-it belonged to the hearers to judge what they said.

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It is admitted also as undeniable, that the reformers, who arose about the same time in different places, differed on several articles in the doctrine which they taught. This was particu larly the case of Luther and Zuinglius, the two earliest. As long as they confined themselves to the abuses which had, from worldly motives, been introduced into the church, there was a wonderful harmony among them all. The sale of indulgences, the celibacy of the clergy enforced by canon, the withholding of the eucharistical cup from the people, the religious service in an unknown tongue, the worship paid to images and relicks, the invocation of saints and angels, the clerical usurpations of secular power, the rendering of church censures subservient to the avarice and ambition of ecclesiasticks, were practical corruptions in worship and discipline, wherein all the reform ers were agreed. In these points, and several others such as these, a majority of the people would, I am persuaded, in most christian countries, have been found to concur.

We ought to consider it as a very strong proof of this, that some of those articles had afforded matter of general com. plaint for a long time before. Thus the permitting of the clergy to marry, the allowing of the cup to the people, the performing of the religious offices in the language of the country, had afforded matter of application to popes and councils for more than a century back. In regard to the corrupt use so flagrantly made of excommunications and indulgences,

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